The English settlers were drawn to the area by the easy access to fishing grounds, but by 1869 were farming 13 acres of land. Beginning in the 1860s more people were attracted by the flurry of copper mining in the Green Bay area, with five mines soon opening near Jackson's Cove. The Swatridge mine opened in 1876 only to close the following winter when the mine manager, a Mr. Martin, fell through pond ice and drowned. In 1878 the Colchester mine was opened by Betts Cove Mining Company. (A James Batstone of Jackson's Cove filed a suit claiming he had first discovered the ore body early in the 1870s and was awarded the right to purchase a one-seventh share in the mine for $220, later selling half of the share to Robert Bond, the future Prime Minister, for $400.) Another mine was opened around the same time at Bear Cove. The fishery remained a principal source of employment. A fishplant built at nearby Harry's Harbour qv in the late 1970s replaced individual fishing facilities. Before this fishermen took their cured catches at season's end to Nipper's Harbour or to Little Bay Islands.
Farming eventually became another major source of employment. The area's relatively rich soil was noted by J.P. Howley in 1878, and 104 acres were under cultivation by 1911. By the 1950s a government land clearing policy made a tractor available and many more acres came under cultivation. Residents formed an agricultural society (membership was 25 in 1954) and soon such farm equipment as hay rakers, mowers, potato sowers and disc barrows were being used. Some cattle and sheep were also raised. As early as the 1940s some farmers had become part-time mink ranchers as well. In 1973 a community hall-agricultural exhibition centre was constructed.
The first English settlers to the area were predominantly Wesleyan. They had constructed a church as early as 1869 and a school by 1901. The Salvation Army had arrived by 1891, when 56 adherents were reported, and by 1921 had constructed its own church and school. In the 1950s children attended two United Church one-room schools at Jackson's Cove and Silverdale. In 1990 most children beyond the elementary grades attended school at Valmount Collegiate in King's Point. Principal family names in these communities in 1990 were Batstone, Kelly, King, Knight, Pynn, Upward and Webber.