- 1953-09-22 — Kathleen Weston MacLeod moved from her pioneering post in Charlottetown to the Magdalene Islands. She was followed by her husband Ernest. Although she was qualified as a nurse she was unable to work at the Catholic hospital and so took a job as a temporary replacement for the teacher in an English school. The local minister launched a rumour campaign against her and so she called a meeting of the parents of her school to reveal that she was a Bahá'í and to explain the tenants of the Faith. They expressed their overwhelming support for her in oppositions to the minister's efforts to have her teacher's permit revoked and to have her leave the Island.
Because she was not able to find employment she departed on the 22nd of December and was replaced by Kay Zinky in February 1954. She was an American from Colorado Spring, Colorado, whose husband, a non-Bahá'í, supported her during her stay of one year, until February 1954. Margaret and Larry Rowdon with their daughter Ayn arrived in the summer of 1954. They stayed until 1969. During this time the rest of their children, Leslie, Ruth, Devin, Karen and Bret were born. [CBN No 49 Feb 1954 p2; CBN No 54Jul 1954 p2]
[CBN Vol 18 No 1 May 2005 p24-26; HB25; BW13:453; KoB278-280]
The first person to declare on the Magdalens was Carole Bates, originally from Nova Scotia. [HB116]
- 1955-09-00 — Canadian Bahá'í News No 68 Sep 1955 p3 reported that Margaret and Larry Rowdon and family arrived in the Magdalen Islands and settled in Grindstone.
- 1986-07-00 — Margaret and Larry Rowdon pioneered to Montserrat.
The island of Montserrat is in the Leeward Islands, which is part of the Lesser Antilles chain in the West Indies.
They stayed for six years.
In 1989 they experienced a hurricane. Although the eye of the hurricane missed Montserrat, Hugo still produced sustained winds of 140 mph and pounded the island. Nearly every home on Montserrat was destroyed or heavily damaged, leaving 11,000 of the island's 12,000 inhabitants homeless.
Larry subsequently wrote a short biography of their time there appropriately titled In the Path of the Wind: Recollections of Montserrat. - 1994-00-00 —
The publication of Hidden Bounties: Memories of Pioneering on the Magdalen Archipelago by Larry Rowdon. It was published by Nine Pines Publishing in Manotick, ON.
Larry Rowdon was born in St Catharines, ON in 1923. He was educated in Canada and abroad, serving with the Canadian Armed Forces and gravely wounded in the Normandy landings in 1944. He became a Bahá'í in 1951 while living in Kingston, ON, then later with his wife Margaret and their year-old daughter Ayn, pioneered (1954-1969 to the Magdalen Islands. This is the story of the early part of their lives, living and raising a family on this archipelago. [CBN No 24 December 1951 p3; CBN No 68 Sep 1955 p3]
- See a book review by Will C. van den Hoonaard.
- 1997-00-00 — The publication of In the Path of the Wind: Recollections of Monserrat by Larry Rowdon. It was published by September House in Osgood, ON. It would appear that the book is no longer available.
The book is biographical and recounts some of the memories of Margaret and Larry Rowdon during their 6 years of pioneering (1986-1992) on the island.
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