History

During the years that my grandmother Jane Rebertha Samuels, “Auntie Rosa”, “Mama Rose” – deceased at age 106 years – nurtured me in her dilapidated wooden house situated on the rocky terrain of “Mount Ease”, Flint Valley, Saint Elizabeth, among the many stories my grandmother related to me before she passed away, was that the hole from which fresh clean water was gushing was capped, and that an Engineer by the name of Mr. Alport stated publicly that there are seven (7) rivers running under Old New Market square.

Jane Rebertha Samuels, “Mama Rosa”, “Auntie Rosa”

My grandmother further related to me that when C. C. Bromfield, Syrian Businessman – deceased – was building his One Stop Shopping Department Store, Grocery, and Shell Gas Station – this building is currently owned...

German Gothic Style Cathedral-like Chapel built on a hill in Carmel, Westmoreland, like most Moravian Churches that were built in Jamaica. Beersheba Elementary School which was built and operated by the Moravian Church in Jamaica, was operated under the auspices of Carmel Moravian Church so as to provide primary education to the children of freed slave ancestors who fled and resided in the hilly terrain around the school after their emancipation from slavery.

Memories:

Caswell and Maud Lodenquai Grocery and Dry Goods Store; As mentioned in his abridged portrait, BOSA Secretary/Treasure worked in this store.

What use to be New Market People’s Co-operative Bank which was established to meet the needs of peasant farmers in the community, is now National People’s Co-operative Bank Jamaica Limited.

Renovation to New Market  Methodist Church on the Hill

Preparatory School: Currently operated by Mrs Martin, Retired Principal, New Roads All Age School, Westmoreland.

New Market SDA Church

Carr District: Birth place of James “Dick” Richards (1876-1965), Beersheba Primary School Alumnus, Soldier, Self-made Businessman, and Philanthropist[“Bermuda King”]

New Market Flood

LETTER OF THE DAY – REFORM BROKEN SCHOOL BOARDS

Published: Sunday | December 16, 2012

An announcement aired by RJR FM on December 13, 2012 that a major shake-up of Jamaican school boards is coming is welcome news. This move is fully supported by Beersheba Old Students Association (BOSA), a vibrant and vigilant community-based organisation (CBO) and stakeholder in Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased), Newmarket, St Elizabeth.

For far too long, the entrenched culture of silence, secrecy, pussy-footing, and non-response has become the norm on some of these school boards, because they have failed to hold principals accountable so as to ensure probity, transparency, and accountability in daily administration.

One way to ensure that there is effectiveness and efficienc...

Published: Sunday | January 20, 2013

Senior Superintendent of Police Steve McGregor, head of the Kingston Central Police Division, is warning delinquent parents that they will be arrested and locked behind bars if their children are found loitering on the streets.

McGregor told The Gleaner yesterday that there has been an increase in the number of children being found on the streets at late hours of the night.

“Can you have your nine- and 12-year-old on the streets at 10 and 11 o’clock at night and you don’t think it is your responsibility to ensure that they are with you?” asked McGregor.

“Well, we want the parents to know that we are coming for them, since they don’t care...

Photos by Ira Philip Vincent Samuels (second left) in the Gallery of the Bermuda Historical Society Museum about to receive what he said is the only photograph (other than sketches) he had seen of James (Dick) Richards. The photograph is from the gallery operated in Hamillton Parish by the late June Augustus of black people playing significant roles in the history of 20th Century Bermuda. Upon her death, her husband, Alfred Augustus (right) and their daughter, Bonnie Clagette, donated the collection to the Historical Society Gallery. At left above is Andrew Bermingham, the president of the Society and society executive Mrs Shirley Robinson Pearman.

We finally caught up personally this week with a distingished Jamaican, Vincent Samuels who can best be described as a man on an exciting miss...

Members of the School Board at Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) whose names are listed under About Us on BOSA website, are appointed by the Honourable Minister of Education on the advice of National Council on Education (NCE).

 Beersheba Elementary School which many of us Old Students attended was housed in an old dilapidated wooden building at Carr District, New Market, Saint Elizabeth that was owned by the Moravian Church in Jamaica. While we are indeed grateful to the Moravian Church for its innovation in building the wooden structure to provide formal education to the children of slave ancestors, many of us will recall the number of times we were forced to move our ink-well desks all over the floor whenever it rained.

As owner and administrator of Beersheba Elementary Scho...

Beersheba Primary School (Government Leased) Alumni, Honorary BOSA Members, Friends, and Well-wishers and other readers of BOSA Newsletters, will recall that in Volume 9 page 11 of 16 through 16 of 17 which featured James “Dick” Richards (1872 – 1965), Beersheba Primary School Alumnus, Soldier, Self-made Businessman, and Philanthropist under the heading MEET THE ACHIEVERS AND TRAILBLAZERS, mention was made that Mr. Richards built a house in Carr District, New Market, Saint Elizabeth, or his brother “Doxie” Gayle which he named “Del Cottage.”

Although “Del Cottage” in which the Dennis Family resided after the death of “Doxie” Gayle  and his marriage to his second wife and widow Estena “Miss Tena” to Nathaniel Dennis “Mass Keitie” has been demolished and the pr...