and
farming community located on Crabbes River on the west coast, St. Fintan's
had its beginnings as Crabbes Station in the early 1900s, when railway
employee Bill Quilty settled. Before the station was built mail and passengers
for Highlands and Crabbes (now St.
David's) were dropped at Quilty's home. Crabbes Station first appears
in the Census in 1911, with a population of 45. In addition to railway
employees, other early settlers included the families of telegraph operators
and surveyors, a few farmers and Joseph Halbot, who moved there 
from
Sandy Point in 1917 to open a general store. Many of these settlers were
Roman Catholic and in 1931 the station became the seat of St. Columcille's
parish and the community was renamed to honour the former Bishop of St.
George's, Michael Fintan Power. From the 1960s the
major source of employment at St. Fintan's was cutting pulpwood. By 1971
the population had increased to 183. In 1994 Cassidy Elementary school
at St. Fintan's, originally established as a Roman Catholic school, served
all denominations in the area, while high school students were bused to
McKay's.
St.
David's is located at the mouth of Crabbes River, on the southeast side
of *St. George's Bay. Crabbes was the most southerly of three river mouths
in the area that were settled in the late 1700s and early 1800s and collectively
known as the Barrisways. One early settler is said to have been John Hulan,
a son of Ann Hulan, whose family settled at Middle or Second Barrisway
(now McKay's) in the 1760s. In 1836 Edward Wix described the three families
at South Barrisway as "most industrious, moral and cleanly people. They
are of Jersey extraction.'' Other early settlers included Thomas Legge
(a native of Milton Abbass, Dorsetshire) and families named Alley, Chaffey,
Gillam, Harvey, Morris, Renouf and Shears.
The first settlers were farmers, who did some fishing and made herring barrels and hoops. By 1874 there were 121 people at Crabbes (including Crabbes East, later Jeffery's***). When Bishop J.B.K. Kelly visited in 1870 he noted that a Church of England church was under construction and that the people had "very fine farms... [and] more sheep and cattle than any other place along the coast.'' This first church was lost into the sea when the bank on which it was built was undermined during a severe storm, and a second was burnt in 1933.
In the late 1800s the importance of the fishery increased, 
as
lobsters became a profitable catch, while a rail connection (through nearby
St. Fintan's) provided a means of transporting produce both to traditional
markets on the southwest coast and later to the pulp and paper towns. A
lobster cannery was established by a Nova Scotia firm at Jeffrey's, and
in about 1900 John Albert Renouf established the first business at St.
David's. From the mid-1920s some of the younger people of St. David's left
farming and the fishery for wage labour in construction of the Corner Brook
paper mill, while others continued to live in the community but were employed
in lumber camps. The traditional industries also lost ground to employment
at Harmon Field in Stephenville after 1941. Since the 1960s and the closure
of Harmon Field the major source of employment has been pulpwood cutting,
supplemented by farming and the lobster fishery.
According to Alexander Murray in 
his
"Geological Survey'' for 1874, the term "Highlands'' was "appropriate as
the scenery of the back country is quite of the Highland type; and the
inhabitants of the coast at that part are descendents of the Scottish celts,
who still retain the language of their ancestors.'' According to Rosemary
Ommer in her study of migratory and kinship patterns in the Codroy Valley
beginning in 1841, "The Scots dominated Little River and Highlands, but
almost all settlements had an intermingling of Scots and others.'' Ommer's
study of the ethnic components of the Codroy Valley and Highlands c. 1880
showed that nearly sixty-seven per cent of the residents claimed Scottish
ancestry, with the majority of the Highlands Scots originating in Judique,
Inverness County, Cape Breton and other Gulf areas of Scottish settlement.
Ommer concluded that the founding Scots of Highlands were primarily from
Inverness County, Cape Breton. The Rev. Fr. Sears described the early settlers
in the 1870s as "a few families of faithful Scotch Highlanders who have
settled on a beautiful plateau just under the Cape Anguille range of mountains
whence the plane [sic] takes the very appropriate name of 'Highlands.'
These people speak the ancient Gaelic still. There is not a race that ever
were blessed with a knowledge of God's Church more steadfast than the Catholic
Highlanders. There are about sixty families of this class [in St. George's
Bay], faithful to their religion, loyal and obedient to their spiritual
superiors.''
Highlands was first reported in the Census in 1869, with a population of fifty-seven people, including nineteen people born in other British Colonies (probably Cape Breton). John J. Mannion states that after 1860 Bonne Bay, Port au Port and the Bay of Islands were favoured areas of settlement for a considerable number of immigrants. According to Mannion, "The most significant influx to these areas were the Catholic Gaelic-speaking settlers from Cape Breton of Highland Scottish provenance who occupied Highlands (Newfoundland) about the middle of the century.'' According to Mannion these settlers were originally drawn to Highlands by the agricultural potential of the area. He writes that "this agricultural tradition was reinforced by the arrival of the Scots in Highlands. .. who in the 18s, competed for land with the inhabitants of the Barrisways. The Scots eventually cleared more land and raised more farm produce and livestock per capita than ony other cultural group in the area. "
According to local tradition (The Georgian: July 11, 1979), the first Scotch settlers in Highlands were the MacLellans of Cape Breton. The Diocesan Review (June 1971) stated that this family came to Highlands between 1840 and 1841. Fishermen from nearby Crabbes and Barachoix, who had used the stony beaches at Highlands for drying their fish, originally tried to prevent the MacLellan family from settling. The family persisted and settled at Highlands originally to farm but they later turned also to fishing. Later families of Cape Breton Scots who emigrated to Highlands were the McDonalds, McPhersons, McInnises, McIssacs and Gillises. Most settlers to Highlands came to farm. As J.P. Howley described the capacity of the land in 1874,''This fringe of coast. .. is a splendid tract of agricultural land, level, dry and free from marsh. Grain crops and grass flourish luxuriantly wherever grown, and as an instance of its capabilities as a grazing country, I was informed by one of the residents that he had cut hay off one field for twenty consecutive years without ever having broken up the ground since time of first clearing.''
By the 1870s a lobster boom had also occurred in St. George's Bay which stimulated population growth and provided a lucrative source of income. According to Mannion, The rapid growth of the [lobster fishery in the] 1880s was not sustained in the subsequent decade, apart from the Port au Port Peninsula and Bonne Bay. Local tradition attributed the decline in production. .. especially in St. George's Bay. .. to a reduction in stocks. The large factories collapsed because some entrepreneurs, worried over French threats and dissatisfied with returns on initial investments withdrew their support. Often these factories were rapidly taken over by new owners and production managers. One such example was at Highlands where a fully equipped factory was offered for sale after two years in operation.
The "Report of Captain Campbell, R.N. on the Lobster Factories on the West Coast'', stated that the lobster factory operating at "Highland, Bay St. George'' was an "English Lobster Factory'' operated and owned in 1888 by Mr. E. Leroux of Sandy Point, who employed twenty-eight men and women in fishing and packaging 950 cases of lobster. Although the lobster-processing industry continued at Highlands through small, family-owned operations, it was on a smaller scale. Six-hundred cases were packed in 1891 but only 200 in 1892, and by this time agriculture had regained its primacy among sources of employment in Highlands.
The local fishing industry at 
Highlands
was handicapped somewhat by the lack of a harbour and by the open, exposed
shore. Although some interest was retained in the fishery (mainly salmon
and lobster taken in June and collected by coasting vessels from St. George's),
and sport fishing became a minor industry in the communities along the
southern shore of St. George's Bay in the early 1900s, fishermen increasingly
sought their livelihood in farming. Dairy farming, sheep farming, root
crops and hay became the main sources of income in Highlands. The coming
of the railway in the 1890s and early 1900s with the creation of a transhipping
point for the area at Stephenville Crossing further stimulated Highlands'
development as a farming area, and with the increasing wartime demand for
vegetables under Commission of Government, agriculture was aided and encouraged
in the area, with the produce being shipped from Robinson's Station in
mid-August for local markets in the larger communities of western Newfoundland.
After 
Confederation
with Canada in 1949 the great competition between agricultural produce
imported from Canada (mainly Prince Edward Island) and local products created
a diminution of full-time farming in Highlands. By the 1970s two full-time
farmers had 607 ha (1,500 acres) in production. Of this land 202 ha (500
acres) was used for crop production and 405 ha (1,000 acres) for hay production.
Livestock included cattle, sheep and poultry. By this time nearly seventy-five
per cent of the labour force was employed outside the community in forestry,
service and transportation jobs. Three fishermen prosecuted the inshore
fishery. One sawmill operator produced 23.6 m³ (10,000 board feet)
of wood and three pulpwood operations produced 4 350 m³ (1,200 cords)
of wood.
According to Sears, the first church in Highlands was "a private house which I purchased and converted into a chapel for the use of a few families of faithful Scotch Highlanders.'' Both a church and a school were recorded in the Census of 1874. Another church was reputedly built near the river. This church, described as the first church, blew over the riverbank in a windstorm and was replaced by a new church built near the original site. The first school was reputedly a log cabin built at Butter Brook (Newfoundland Historical Society: Highlands). In 1982 Highlands students attended elementary and high school in St. Fintan's.
Although the St. George's Bay South area was early recognized for
its minerological potential, and outcrops of grey and white gypsum have
been investigated along the Highlands River, no commercial development
of these occurrences had taken place by 1982. The population of Highlands,
which reached 141 hy 1891, remained at about 180 throughout the early 1900s,
reaching 201 in 1966. In the late 1970s it dropped slightly to 189 by 1976.
Catholic
Bishop of St. George's. Born St. John's, son of Margaret (Kelly) and Michael
Power. Educated St. Bonaventure's College; St. Francis Xavier College;
Propaganda College, Rome. On March 10, 1906, after six years of study in
Rome, Power was ordained a priest, and in that year was appointed parish
priest at Harbour Breton. A talented writer and speaker, he was chosen
as a young man to succeed Bishop McNeil. On July 25, 1911, he was consecrated
in the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. In spite of increasingly frail
health, the Bishop built new churches and schools, and worked for religious
tolerance in the area, which included Burgeo, Baie d'Espoir and communities
as far eastward as Garnish. He oversaw the creation of new parishes in
St. Alban's and Lourdes, and saw an increase of the work of the Sisters
of Mercy in the diocese. Power died during a visit to Sydney, Nova Scotia,
and was buried in St. George's.
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