Trapper, poet, and storyteller born in Independent Harbour (Nunatsiavut) in 1904 or 1916 – died in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (Labrador) in 1986.
Harvey Mesher, also known as Harvey Augustus Ralph Mesher or Harvey A. R. Mesher, was born in Independent Harbour, on an island in Sandwich Bay, in the south of present-day Nunatsiavut. Although a timeline of key events in Harvey Mesher’s life is known, his date of birth is still unconfirmed: some sources claim that he was born in 1904, while others state he was born in 1916. Harvey Mesher himself wrote that 1916 was his year of birth, but this claim is contradicted by some of the information available about his life.
Harvey Mesher was the eldest of eight children. His parents, William Goodenough and Charlotte Elisabeth Davis, were both native to the region. Though Harvey Mesher’s mother never attended school, she taught her son how to read and count. A gifted child, Harvey Mesher was several years ahead in his education when he started elementary school in Paradise River (Labrador). In 1915, when he was in grade four, he left school to begin trapping with his father, who passed on his knowledge and skill.
Harvey Mesher was descended from a long line of trappers, beginning with his great-grandfather. At the age of seventeen, he hunted with a rifle for the first time. Two years later, he claimed to have trapped every animal that could legally be hunted in Labrador. Although Harvey Mesher’s father never paid him for his work as a trapper, he always provided for all his needs. Harvey Mesher spent one summer working for his father as a local retailer. Later, he was also employed as a salmon fisherman by the International Grenfell Association Hospital in Cartwright (Labrador). He continued trapping, fishing, and hunting for the next 30 years.
In April 1925, Harvey Mesher married Emily Leftbridge, with whom he had six children. In 1939, two years after his first wife’s death, he married Elfreda Learning, the governess who had been caring for his children. The couple remained in the Sandwich Bay area until 1955, when Harvey Mesher moved 350 kilometres north, settling in Happy Valley-Goose Bay (Labrador). For the sake of his health, Harvey Mesher was forced to stop trapping and fishing and to adjust to a more sedentary lifestyle.
A few years after his move, Harvey Mesher began writing poetry. In 1968, he published a collection entitled The Selected Poems of an Ex-Labrador Trapper. In an interview with CBC in 1983, he revealed that he had written some poems during his time as a trapper, but had not kept any of them. Many of Harvey Mesher’s poems focus on his time spent in the Labradorian wilderness. He also published poems, family stories, and autobiographical anecdotes in the magazine Them Days in 1981, and, posthumously, in 1987 and 2002. Harvey Mesher wrote to pass on his family history, which he considered important, to present and future generations.
In 1975, Harvey Mesher moved to Paradise Bay. A few years later, he returned to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, where he died in 1986.