Renamed After a Newfoundland Town? The Gaultois Family of Stephenville

Instead of lending their names to Newfoundland places, one family may have taken their name from a Newfoundland place!

Joseph Ghattas left Lebanon in 1899. First on his own and then with his wife, Rose Brighter, Joseph spent several years travelling. They moved from Europe to Michigan, St. John’s, Gambo, and Humbermouth before finally settling in Sandy Point, St. George’s. In 1911, they opened a grocery business.

Joseph and Rose’s last name was Ghattas in Arabic.  One theory is that they changed it to a Newfoundland place name that they thought sounded most like the Arabic. This was Gaultois, a small settlement on the south coast of the island.

Gaultois Bros. store. Stephenville. Circa 1941-44.

Joseph and Rose raised a family of 13 in St. George’s. The children all moved to Stephenville Crossing and Stephenville, and became a significant force in the area. Two sons, Mike and George, formed the Gaultois Brothers Company in the 1930s. They moved to Stephenville Crossing, where they had a large dry goods and clothing store, warehouse, lumber business, taxi service, and rental properties.

Tenement building, Stephenville. Circa 1941-44.

Their son Leo also set up in Stephenville, operating a movie theatre and a small convenience store next to his house. One of the daughters, Marie (Gaultois) Byrne, had a shoe store in Stephenville. Son, Francis, and another daughter, Annie, had stores for a period of time in St. David’s.

The opening of Harmon Air Base in Stephenville as part of World War Two brought new business opportunities. The Gaultois enterprise owned a block of duplex homes which they rented to the Americans from the base.

Head of the family Joseph Gaultois died in 1947. Rose eventually moved to Stephenville Crossing to be with her children and their families, where she died in 1980.