Thirteen daughters and a fishing life at Jeddore Oyster Ponds
The Fisherman's Life Museum at Jeddore Oyster Ponds was the home of Ervin and Ethelda Myers, who took over the house in 1915 and had thirteen daughters. The province closed the museum in 2026.
Ervin Myers spent his summers fishing from a shack on Roger Barren Island and his winters in the lumber camps, so when he and his wife, Ethelda, took over the house at Jeddore Oyster Ponds in 1915, the farm was hers to run. Between them, they had thirteen daughters.
Who built the house at Jeddore Oyster Ponds?
The house had been built in 1857 by a fisherman, James Myers. In 1915, it passed, with eight acres, from James H. and Hannah Myers to Ervin and Ethelda.
Ethelda was born a Stoddard. With Ervin away for so much of the year, the work of the farm fell to her.
The family made its living the way many families on the shore did: inshore fishing, farming, and work in the woods through the winter. Every season had its own work, and the whole family was part of it.
So how do you fit thirteen daughters into one fisherman’s house?
You don’t, all at once. The girls were never all living in the house at the same time.
Why did the Fisherman's Life Museum close?
The house later became part of the Nova Scotia Museum, as the Fisherman’s Life Museum, to show how a fishing family lived.
Then, in February 2026, the province announced that the museum would close for good. That same month, people gathered at the house to protest. The museum closed anyway.
The doors are shut now. But this was the house where Ethelda kept the farm going while Ervin was away, and where thirteen daughters came and went with the seasons of the shore.
Quick facts
- Where
- Jeddore Oyster Ponds
- Built
- 1857, by fisherman James Myers
- Family
- Ervin and Ethelda Myers, from 1915
- Children
- Thirteen daughters
- Became
- The Fisherman’s Life Museum, part of the Nova Scotia Museum
- Closed
- 2026
