Belgium Town

The largest single group of immigrants next to the Scots in Broad Cove Coal Mines were the Belgians. Due to the expansion of the mines and the demand for experienced miners, Alex Glabais Sr. went to Belgium and recruited experienced miners to come to the fledgling community. Between 1903-1904, 250 families came to the Mines to establish a community within a community.  Like all mass migrations, the Belgiums had a tendency to settle together to protect their culture, religion, and music. 

Their settlement became known locally as Belgium Town, an area on top of Forest St., a few houses below the present-day Dr. Bernie MacLean Cultural and Recreational Center. The Belgium miners were hard workers and did well in the fast-paced Number One Mine. Very musical, the miners comprised their own band and took place in parades and social functions in the community. On the corner of Forest St. and Joe's Lane stood the Belgium Hall that was overseen by a committee from the Belgium community, built by them and maintained by them.

Every Saturday night the band tuned their instruments and lively dances would take place and would be enjoyed by all of the residents. The Belgiums that came over were trained miners and craftsmen who contributed to the busy community. According to Arthur LeMal, a Belgium descendent, the ten-cent dances became very popular and began to attract leary Scots who would overdo it on the gilleck and begin to pick fights, accusing the Belgians of taking the Scots jobs. This became the norm every Saturday night until one Saturday night the fighting was especially intense with doors pulled off hinges, windows broken and the final indignity, the piano smashed. After a meeting of the hall committee the next day the hall was boarded up bringing an era to an end. It never reopened depriving the community of a place to gather socially and musically.

As the fortunes of the mines began to wane in the 1930’s many miners moved in search of gainful work to B.C. to Joggins, NS, as well as Ontario while some returned to Belgium. According to Arthur LeMal, his parents packed up their family and went back home to their native soil but were treated badly for leaving for Canada and were shunned so they returned back to Cape Breton. That was a major ordeal to undertake with children by train and an arduous journey by boat. When the Belgians arrived they were shunned by the Scots who formed the larger part of the population.  According to Mary Ann Monnon in her essay, My Belgian Connection, the Belgians could not speak English well. Their native language was French, Flemish, and Walloon.

But this improved in time. The other problem they encountered was the community thought they were transient and not going to stay long term. Like any large workforce, there is an element of transience.  The first Belgians to arrive in Cape Breton were enticed by the Dominion Coal Company in 1880 and they arrived from Hainaut. This company operated mines in Glace Bay, Dominion and Reserve Mines. Dissatisfied with wages and living conditions they had to endure while employed by the Dominion Coal Company they pulled up stakes and sought employment in the smaller mines in Cape Breton namely Inverness and moving then to Stellarton and Pictou.

As the mining jobs became marginalized by strikes and lost work the productivity suffered and many Belgium families became Inverness entrepreneurs, thus adding to the multi-cultural facet in Inverness. Joe van Volsen, owned and operated the first ice cream wagon in Inverness according to the recollections of Mary Ann Monnon. On the corner of Central Avenue and Upper Railway Street was the Monnon Barber Shop and Hair Salon operated by Joe and Melvina Monnon for many years.

Like all nationalities, some put down roots in their new home and some wanted more adventure and better working conditions. Those Belgians that remained in the community saw it incorporated with great fanfare and like all other families celebrated weddings, birthdays, funerals, and new births. They have become immersed in the community through marriage and have made Inverness prouder by their presence.

In conversation with Mrs. Adelaide MacLellan Burney she recounted families that lived on Forest Street that brought skills with them from Belgium and the sense of community that was experienced in Belgium Town. Names like the Burneys, Quigleys, Glabais, Monnon, vanVolson and LeMals as well as the Morets, Vandenburgs, all live and remain in the community while the Corbishers, Vanden Brookes and Shoits are names not recognizable except for family connections.

One interview recollected a group of 48 Belgiums arriving at Pier 21 in 1903 or 1904 and taking a train to the end of the line in Orangedale and setting out on foot – men, women, children, and babies to Inverness. As darkness began to loom the babies were crying from hunger. At this point, they had reached Skye Glen and went up to a farm and knocked on the door and the lady of the house gave them milk for the babies, fed them all, and put them to sleep in the barn and the rest in the house. In the morning, fed them all, and away they set on foot for Inverness. True hospitality at its best and this is how the communities grew.