Little-Known Portions of
Nova Scotia History
These are facts, historical facts. Not schoolbook history, not Mr. Welles's history, but history nevertheless. Casper Gutman, in Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon.
Lost At Sea This page is dedicated to Atlantic Canada fishermen and mariners lost at sea, their families and survivors. And to all those from the US East Coast and other countries who were also lost at sea. The Way It Was - stories containing facts of how the fisheries was; Maps; Newspaper and book articles or extracts - tragedies, mysteries, happy endings and light reading; Personal recollections, letters, diaries, accounts of the sea; Photographs - old and new...
Boat-hunting in Nova Scotia The year 1996 was declared "Year of the Wooden Boat" in Nova Scotia, and we are always being encouraged to celebrate those eclectic, small craft which have figured so prominently in our history...
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This website was launched at a ceremony in Halifax on 6 October 1999. Senator Willie Moore was there, representing the federal Department of Industry. The provincial Department of Education was represented by Michael Jeffery, Director of Learning Resources and Technology. Both departments supported the development of this website.
[The Halifax Daily News, 7 October 1999]
Westray Mine Public Inquiry online transcript
Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management
Halifax and its People, 1749-1999
Halifax 1749-1999, Transportation and Communications
1849: Communications between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick A collection of "clippings" from New Brunswick sources containing information about transportation and communications links between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1849.
Sandy Group (books) History of Inverness County, History of Victoria County
Online Mail-Order Service
Special Event:
1999 is the 150th anniversary of the 1849 Nova Scotia pony express
Index to Online Documents about the Nova Scotia Pony Express
Marconi's Three Transatlantic Radio Stations in Cape Breton by Henry M. Bradford. In the early years of the twentieth century Nova Scotia played an important role in the history of communications by becoming the North American terminus of the first transatlantic radio communications service. Not only did this service link the Old World and New World by the magic of radio, but it was the first link in the world-wide wireless network that we take for granted today. The driving force behind this accomplishment was a young Italian, Guglielmo Marconi. In the course of establishing the transatlantic service, Marconi built three large radio stations in Cape Breton: the first in Glace Bay, the second just south of Glace Bay, and the third in Louisbourg...
Blandford and Area Historical Society Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia
Early Canadiana Online (ECO) is a full text online collection of more than 3,000 books and pamphlets documenting Canadian history from the first European contact to the late 19th century...
[On 25 April 1999, I did a search of this website using selected keyphrases and words:
"nova scotia" returned 2638 matches in 282 documents.
"cunard" returned 95 matches in 45 documents.
"north atlantic" returned 30 matches in 23 documents.]
Daniel Craig's Letter, May 1851 During the winter and spring of 1851, Daniel H. Craig travelled "from Halifax, Nova Scotia, through the Atlantic cities to New Orleans, and from thence to Louisville, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Albany, &c." He found everywhere that the general character of telegraphic news, as published in the leading newspapers of the country, "was a positive disgrace to all concerned." He reported that the public had come to regard "all telegraphic newspaper despatches with suspicion or disgust." In this letter, Craig outlines the leading features of new policies he was implementing on behalf of the New York Associated Press, to improve the "inefficient and irresponsible" system which had previously prevailed. The principles and policies outlined by Craig in this letter quickly became the basic working principles and policies of the Associated Press, and to this day have remained its defining framework.
History of Oxford School 6364 North Street, Halifax
Spurgeon G. Roscoe's manuscript History of marine communications
The National Post interviews Spud Roscoe 2 February 1999, on the occasion of the official end of the use of the Morse Code for communication with ships.
CBH interviews Spud Roscoe 3 February 1999, on the occasion of the official end of the use of the Morse Code for communication with ships.
The oldest newspaper in North America began publication in 1752 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as the Halifax Gazette. The first issue is dated March 23rd, 1752. In 1766, the name was changed to the Nova Scotia Gazette. Today it continues regular publication as the Royal Gazette.
Nova Scotia Newspapers A comprehensive list of all daily and community newspapers being published regularly in Nova Scotia in 1999. There are six daily newspapers (can you name them?) and 29 others, mostly weeklies.
Icelandic Memorial Society of Nova Scotia This website includes
one of the best online historic maps I've seen.
1813, May 12 -- Cartel for the exchange of prisoners of war between Great Britain and the United States of America The Provisional agreement for the exchange of naval prisoners of war made and concluded at Halifax in the province of Nova Scotia on the 28th day of November 1812 between the Honourable Richard John Uniacke His Britannic Majestys attorney and advocate General for the province of Nova Scotia and William Miller Esquire Lieutenant in the Royal navy and agent for Prisoners of War at Halifax; and John Mitchell Esquire late consul of the united states at St Jago de Cuba, american agent for Prisoners of war at Halifax...
1812, July 6 -- An Act to Prohibit American Vessels from Proceeding to or Trading with the Enemies of the United States, and for Other Purposes ...That if any citizen or citizens of the United States, or person inhabiting the same, shall transport or attempt to transport, over land or otherwise, in any wagon, cart, sleigh, boat, or otherwise, naval or military stores, arms or the munitions of war, or any article of provision, from any place of the United States, to any place in Upper or Lower Canada, Nova Scotia or New Brunswick the wagon, cart, sleigh, boat, or the thing by-which the said naval or military stores, arms, or munitions of war or articles of provision are transported or attempted to be transported, together with such naval or military stores, army munitions of war or provisions, shall be forfeited to the use of the United States, and the person or persons aiding or privy to the same shall severally forfeit and pay to the use of the United States a sum equal in value to the wagon, cart, sleigh, boat, or thing by which the said naval or military stores, arms, or munitions of war or articles of provision, are transported, or are attempted to be transported; and shall moreover be considered as guilty of a misdemeanor, and be liable to be Sued in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, and imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months, in the discretion of the court...
Anglo-American Telegraph Company diary of 1866 Here are reproductions of four pages from the Anglo-American Telegraph Company diary of 1866. The diary covers the testing of the 1866 cable, the commencement of traffic handling, transfers between the Anglo cable and the Western Union landlines, a count and evalutation of the traffic, log entries of distinguished visitors to the office, records of staff assigned movement of cable ships, the successful landing of the 1865 cable and the beginning of its operations, references to Cyrus Field and other officers, and so on.
History of St. Paul Island St. Paul Island is at the entrance of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in the Cabot Strait, about 15 miles from Cape Breton and 44 miles from Cape Ray, Newfoundland. The island is three miles long and approximately a mile wide, covered with small spruce whitch gives it a green appearance in all seasons. It is very hilly, the highest being about 500 ft... One of the first wrecks on record is the loss of the British Transport Sovereign in 1814. The Sovereign was bringing detachments of different regiments to Canada, and in
all, about 800 lives were lost...
Sunrise Trail Museum Tatamagouche
History of Sackville Halifax County
Brief community histories prepared by students at St. Mary's Elementary School:
History of Victoria Harbour
History of Nicholsville
History of Morristown
History of Morden
History of Millville
History of Lake Paul
History of Harmony
History of Factorydale
History of Dempsey Corner
History of Aylesford
History of Auburn
Brief History of Riverview High School Coxheath, Cape Breton
History of Lawrencetown, Site #1
History of Lawrencetown, Site #2
Here's hoping this model project, by the class of 1977, will inspire others to prepare similar histories of lots of other towns and villages in Nova Scotia.
Economy, Nova Scotia: Photograph of the Solar Eclipse of 11 August 1999
Six minutes after sunrise, partially-eclipsed sunlight
shimmers across the Fundy mud flats at Economy, Nova Scotia. Photo by John Potter, of Pembroke, Ontario, who traveled to Economy specially to see and photograph this eclipse, the last solar eclipse before the Big Rollover to 2000. He stayed at the Four Seasons Retreat in Economy, right on the Bay of Fundy; with the alignment of the Moon and Sun the tides "were amazing." Ordinarily this area has some of the highest tides in the world, but when there is an eclipse the tides are extra extreme. In Nova Scotia, the Sun rose over the horizon already partially eclipsed.
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Mr. Potter:
Sunrise in Economy happened at 6:13am
My estimate is that at sunrise, sun was approx 40% eclipsed
This picture was taken at 6:19am looking toward Bass River, with Kodak 100asa film, a shutter speed of 1/125 sec, and fstop of f11
Max was around 6:33am at around 90%
Eclipse ended at 7:32am at this location.
Ed Coleman's Columns from the Kentville Advertiser
Nova Scotia Pony Express, 150th Anniversary
McKay Motor Car - Valley-Made
Index to Ed's other online columns
Minas Tides - Eighth Wonder of the World
Was the Expulsion a Land Grab?
Kentville Quiz - Trivial but Tough
Newspaper Trivia, 1871 and 1903
Bishop's Scrapbook
Canning - a Lost History?
Readers Respond to Canning, Boot Island Columns
Kings County Once King-Sized
Friend Charles - An 1887 Swindle Attempt
Maguire letter, pages 4 and 1 left half, page 4 -- right half, page 1
Maguire letter, pages 2 and 3 left half, page 2 -- right half, page 3
Explanation of the Maguire letter
Text of the Maguire letter
Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society
Cape Sable Historical Society The Cape Sable Historical Society was formed in 1937 by a group of concerned citizens, to collect and preserve all documents, papers, and other objects of interest, which may serve to throw light upon and illustrate the history of Shelburne and Yarmouth Counties; preserve historical sites and land marks; promote the study of history of both counties. Today our goals are much the same...
History of McNabs Island The death of Ellen McNab in 1934 ended the long association between McNabs Island and the McNab family...
History of Georges Island in Halifax Harbour. For nearly two hundred years Georges Island was the scene of constant military activity. Tales of executions, forts and hidden tunnels surround the folklore associated with the mysterious island...
The Captain Joshua Slocum Home Page Nova Scotia born, with family roots in New England, Captain Slocum commanded some of the finest tall ships that ever sailed the seas. On April 24, 1895, at the age of 51, he departed Boston in his tiny sloop Spray and sailed around the world single-handed, a passage of 46,000 miles, returning to Newport, Rhode Island on June 27, 1898. This historic achievement made him the patron saint of small-boat voyagers, navigators and adventurers all over the world...
Water-Sharing Contract 22 March 1817 -- between Frederic Vogler and Frederic Conrad, both of West Medway in the Township of New Dublin, in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Excellent reproductions of well-preserved 180-year-old handwritten documents, agreements about the sharing of water power...
Fortress of Louisbourg The Official Louisbourg Institute Home Page
Index to Historical Societies in Cape Breton
Orangedale Railway Station
Margaree Salmon Museum
MacAskill House Museum
Sydney & Louisburg Railway Historic Society The S&L was the last all-steam Class One railroad in North America...
Louisbourg With the destruction of Canso in 1744, Annapolis Royal had became the sole remaining British stronghold in Nova Scotia. Its garrison was under-strength and poorly equipped... Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts, fearing a domino-like string of French successes that would bring the enemy to his colony's shores, rallied support for Annapolis Royal's defense. Massachusetts raised almost two hundred men... Ben Franklin warned that the fortress at Louisbourg would be a "hard nut to crack" -- but in 1745 a ragtag army of New Englanders captured France's most imposing North American stronghold...
Nova Scotia Lighthouse Preservation Society
List of Nova Scotia Lighthouses
Nova Scotia Lighthouses by Lorne Hull
Nova Scotia Lighthouses by Val and James Campbell
A Brief History of Canadian Lighthouses The second-oldest lighthouse on the continent, and the first Canadian one, went into service at the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton island in 1734. Patterned after the lighthouse of Les Baleines built off La Rochelle in 1682, the beacon at Louisbourg was destroyed by British troops during the seige of 1758, and not rebuilt until 1842; the rubble of the original lighthouse is still visible at the base of the current Louisbourg lighthouse, which dates from 1924. Next came the lighthouse on Sambro Island in 1760. Located at the entrance to Halifax harbor, it has been upgraded over the years but remains the oldest continuously-operating lighthouse in North America, predating New Jersey's Sandy Hook lighthouse by 4 years, and such venerable lighthouses as Virginia's Cape Henry, Maine's photogenic Portland Head, and Long Island's Montauk Point lighthouses by three decades...
King's Head Lighthouse King's Head light was extinguished after it suffered the singular indignity of being declared a hazard to shipping... The Lighthouse is now a beautiful home...
The H.R. Banks Collection of NovaScotiana The Herbert Robertson Banks collection, amassed over many years, is a remarkable record of Nova Scotian and Maritime life and culture. Included is fiction, non-fiction and poetry, some of it quite rare, as well as political works, literary criticisms, an outstanding accumulation of materials on art and antiques, and an impressive number of periodicals dealing with Nova Scotia. Mr. Banks also collected small local newspapers, unpublished manuscripts, scholarly papers on Nova Scotia history, and local histories. There is no aspect of Nova Scotia life which is not touched by this remarkable compilation.
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History of Nova Scotia
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, Before 31 December 1829
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1830 to 31 Dec 1849
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1850 to 31 Dec 1879
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1880 to 31 Dec 1899
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1900 to 31 Dec 1919
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1920 to 31 Dec 1949
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1950 to 31 Dec 1989
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1990 to 31 Dec 1994
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, From 1 Jan 1995 to 31 Dec 1996
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1997 January - June
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1997 July - September
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1997 October - December
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 January - February
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 March - April
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 May - June
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 July - August
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 September - October
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1998 November - December
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1999 January - March
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1999 April - June
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1999 July - September
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, 1999 October - December
- Go To: History of Nova Scotia, from 2000 January onward
with special attention given to Communications and Transportation
Electric Companies
How many separate public utility companies have operated electricity generating and/or distribution systems in Nova Scotia? 10? 20? 30? Here's a list, from the Acadia Electric Light Co. Ltd. to the Zwicker Electric Power Co. Ltd.
Telephone Companies
In December 1919, there were 223 telephone utility companies operating telephone systems in various parts of Nova Scotia, according to the 1919 Annual Report of the Nova Scotia Board of Commissioners of Public Utilities.
MT&T advertisement: "Put a Telephone in Your Home"
[From the Halifax Morning Chronicle 2 January 1914]
Significant Dates in Canadian Railway History by Colin Churcher. An excellent compilation, with many Nova Scotia references. 1720: short tramway in Louisburg... 1818: A tramway was built to haul coal at Pictou... A regular rail track was laid in 1829...
The Railways of Nova Scotia Historical Society by Robert Chant
Maritime Coal, Railway & Power Company, Joggins historic photos
Chignecto Ship Railway by Sarah K. Chapman. Eroded by time, only scattered remnants across the Chignecto isthmus stand as a monument to the dream of Henry George Clopper Ketchum. Recommended.
Chignecto Marine Railway, 1888 - 1891 Cumberland County
Wolfville Railway Station: Renovation Story
History of Nova Scotia Railways
The First Trans-Canada Auto Trip
From Halifax 27 August 1912, to Victoria 17 October 1912
Thomas Wilby and Jack Haney drove a 1912 REO automobile across Canada. It was the first Trans-Canada automobile trip...
New France (Electric City) Digby County. The Weymouth and New France Railroad, when it was completed in 1898, carried passengers in its specially outfitted caboose called "Caribou"...
The "Saxby Gale" of October 4-5, 1869 is a definitive storm in the Canadian Maritimes. The storm was a hurricane that transformed into a deep extratropical depression that caused dozens of fatalities, set rainfall records in New England that still stand today, and was responsible for the world's largest known "tidal" excursion at the head of the Bay of Fundy ... Maximum water levels in the Bay of Fundy are achieved when large storm surges are coincident with perigean spring tides; but these circumstances are rare. The Saxby Tide was such an event...
The Grand Banks earthquake, 18 November 1929 at 4:32pm
Magnitude 7.2. On land, damage due to earthquake vibrations was limited to Cape Breton Island where chimneys were overthrown or cracked and where some highways were blocked by minor landslides. The earthquake triggered a large submarine slump which ruptured 12 transatlantic cables and generated a tsunami (a large induced sea wave).
Maritime Provinces and Newfoundland Earthquake, 18 November 1929
Recollections of Capt. Raymond P. "Robbie" Robertson, as narrated to Charles H. Rafuse, Liverpool.
Pier 21 The Pier 21 Society has been created to revitalize Pier 21 as a permanent testament, designed to celebrate the profound contributions of immigrant Canadians. Pier 21 will do for Canada and Canadians what Ellis Island has done for the United States. It will be a national and international centre whose purpose is to explore the Canadian immigration experience. ...
History of Coal Mining in Nova Scotia The Louis Frost Notes, 1685 - 1962. A previously unpublished internal document of the Dominion Coal Company, written c. 1962. A long document, with a lot of details. More material is being added (autumn 1997), about coal mining throughout Nova Scotia...
Nova Scotia Coal Mines underground plans
Nova Scotia Loyalist Pages
Unfortunately, this site has disappeared. It was located at
http://www.buckingham-press.com/loyalist.html It contained lists of Americans who supported the British Crown during the American Revolution and fled to Nova Scotia, and related information, including -- Port Roseway Associated Loyalists of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1783 -- Westchester Refugees of Westchester County, New York -- The Nova Scotia Loyalist List...
History Scrapbook A collection of "clippings" of historical interest
Simon Newcomb's role in the assassination of President Garfield James Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881 and lingered until September 19, 1881 when he died. The problem was that a bullet was lodged inside his chest. Finding the exact location of the bullet was very critical in the president's recovery. X-rays had not been invented yet so the only way to determine the exact location of the bullet was to do a manual probe with instruments. If they were to make continued probes to locate the bullet, it increased the risk of infection. One week after the shooting, Simon Newcomb was interviewed by a reporter for the Washington National Intelligencer...
This report is available at
http://www.historybuff.com/library/refgarfield.html
and at
http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives/
history/bell-garfield-assasin.html
Photograph, Building a Culvert under the Intercolonial Railway Nova Scotia, 1871
Capt. John Gorham A collection of 45 "clippings" from Nova Scotia newspapers printed during January 1998
Nova Scotia History Peter Landry's website...
Selected Nova Scotia Biographies, 1764-1800
Selected Nova Scotia Biographies, 1800-1867
Historical Errors in The Dominion Institute's Great Questions series
One-line notes about Nova Scotia history The White House and Washington D.C. were burned by General Ross in 1813, (buried in Halifax, 1813), resulting in the writing of the Star Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key and the painting of the President's Home - White...
Some Famous Nova Scotians Bucknam Pasha (1866-1919) - Founded the Turkish Navy and was titled Pasha by the Sultan of Turkey...
Seasoned Sailors is an ongoing production of a series of short historical videos, each running less than an hour and focussing on one or another of Canada's gallant band of World War II naval heroes... Doug Fisher, national journalist: "To a country and people short on appealing stories of our naval past, the series Seasoned Sailors is a blessing ... the RCN's Debbie Piers - a natural story teller. Listen to him, watch him and the magnitude of what our small ship men did for us comes rolling over you."
Short stories, all true, from Nova Scotia's past:
Mary Hichen - the Lighthouse Heroine of Seal Island Every spring, fishermen visited the uninhabited island to collect and bury the dead from the winter's wrecks, including one wretch found frozen solid crouched over a pile of unburned twigs and sticks...
Rufus Parks: the One-Man Rescue Machine Returning again and again, he rescued every man, the captain last of all...
Bell's Hydrofoil A desperate call for help by the U.S. Navy...
The Saladin Pirates No one remained who could navigate the ship...
Joshua Slocum The first man to sail around the world by himself...
Mi'kmaq Seagoing Legacy The Mi'kmaq were formidable sea raiders, capturing more than 80 vessels at sea in the wars of the 1700s...
Treasure of the Chameau The Chameau was a navy transport ship -- large, fast and heavily armed with 44 cannons... Chameau's last voyage began in July, 1725...
Angeline's Wedding Dress It was supposed to be a one-day trip...
Ensign Prenties ...contemplating cannabalism in Cape Breton...
Nova Scotia's Private Navy She became the terror of New England...
The Captain's Captain He once took a large ship up the twisting, shallow Clyde River to Glasgow by sail only, to win a silver plate as the only large ship ever to make it without a tow... His feats as a ship builder were equally remarkable. In 1850 he started building a large barque in August, even though everyone said it would be impossible to finish before winter. He took on extra hands, built the ship with a cargo already inside, and had it sailing past the Pictou lighthouse for Scotland less than ninety days after the keel was laid...
Captain Allan and the Tickler He was a typical coastal schooner captain, a jack-of-all-trades who fished, farmed and sailed...
Robert Laird Borden 1854-1937, Prime Minister of Canada
Transatlantic Cable Communications Canso & Hazel Hill, "the Original Information Highway"... With the exception of a small piece of Labrador, Canso is the farthest point east on the mainland of North America.
Early History of Atlantic Cables
The Cable Story in Canso
FAQ file submarine telegraph cables
The Commercial Cable Company's Cable Station, Hazel Hill, Nova Scotia by Charles Bellamy, Superintendent in 1927
William Walsh assisted in locating and landing ten international telegraph cables, in the vicinity of Canso
Frederick Creed invented what he called the "High Speed Automatic Printing Telegraph System", which we know as the teletype machine. In 1898, he demonstrated that he could transmit the Glasgow Herald newspaper to London via telegraphy at a rate of sixty words per minute. By 1913, his system was being used routinely to transmit London newspapers to other major centres in Great Britain and Europe. Creed Teleprinters were sold to Denmark, Sweden, India, Australia and South Africa, and provided almost instant printed communications between heads of state...
Tools of the Cable Trade
History of Muggah Creek Sydney
Nova Scotia license plates by David Fraser
Nova Scotia license plates by Mike Sells
Nova Scotia license plates by Marc Welby
Nova Scotia license plates by Michael Kustermann
Nova Scotia license plates by Joseph P. Sallmen
A Brief History of Port Morien
History of Lyons Brook Pictou County
d'Entremont Millstone found in East Pubnico Yarmouth County. Seventeenth century millstone has been discovered on the Hipson Brook between the railway bridge and the stone bridge (map). There are historical writings of a Sieur de Villebon who sailed into Pubnico Harbour, in 1699, with 80 bushels of wheat to be milled at the d'Entremont grist mill...
The History of the Lowbush Blueberry Industry in Nova Scotia, 1880 - 1950
Stanfield's History Charles E. Stanfield had no idea when he immigrated to America in 1855 that he would found the firm that is a leader in its field today. Charles, along with his brother-in-law Samuel E. Dawson, founded the Tryon Woolen Mills in Tryon, P.E.I. in 1856. Charles sold his interests to Samuel in 1866. Charles, after spending a year or so in Charlottetown, then left for Truro, Nova Scotia...
Index to The Collections of The Nova Scotia Historical Society 1878 - 1998
Mining in Nova Scotia, Past and Present By Howard V. Donohoe, Jr
History of the Uniacke & District Volunteer Fire Department Mount Uniacke
Archaeology at the Uniacke Estate A short archaeological survey at Uniacke Estate by the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society in 1991 led to a full-scale project in 1992...
From telegraph to Internet: Canada's weather service, since 1871 As rain began to fall on August 25, 1873, residents of the outports and farms on Cape Breton Island secured their doors and shutters against a rising wind. Few people on this rugged island expected anything more than a late summer gale. But that night, after gathering strength for a week in the mid-Atlantic, a hurricane spiralled up the coast of the United States and smashed headlong into Cape Breton's east shore. By mid-afternoon the next day, the Great Nova Scotian Cyclone had laid waste to a large swath of Cape Breton. Newspapers were filled with accounts of steamers driven aground and bridges washed away in the deluge that accompanied the high winds. The storm's final toll: almost 1,000 people dead, some 1,200 ships sunk or smashed, hundreds of homes and bridges destroyed. Tragically, meteorologists in Toronto knew a day in advance that the hurricane would make landfall in the Maritimes, but no alarm was raised because the telegraph lines to Halifax were down...
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy (1886-1961) McCurdy piloted the Silver Dart on Canada's historic first flight, 23 February 1909, at Baddeck.
Photographs of Shortline and Industrial Railways in Nova Scotia Pat & David Othen. Nova Scotia has two shortlines -- the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway and the Windsor & Hantsport Railway -- and a variety of industrial operations based on gypsum mining, coal mining and steel manufacture and fabrication. Be patient. This page takes a looooooong time to download, but there are numerous good photographs of railway operations in the 1990s in Nova Scotia.
Inverness Miners' Museum The museum, a registered provincial heritage site, is located in the old CN railway station on Lower Railway Street in Inverness, and is open to the public from June until September.
Lunenburg County Cemeteries
All of these cemeteries are on the Aspotogan Peninsula in Lunenburg County:
All Saints Anglican Cemetery (New), Bayswater
All Saints Anglican Cemetery (Old), Bayswater
Bayswater Boutilier Cemetery, Bayswater
Gates Cemetery, Upper Blandford
Gates Cemetery II, Upper Blandford
Old Zinck Cemetery, Blandford
Publicover Cemetery, Blandford
St. Barnabas Church Anglican Cemetery, Blandford
St. George's Cemetery, East River
Union Church Cemetery, Simpson's Corner
United Baptist Cemetery, Upper Blandford
St. Cuthbert's Anglican Church Cemetery, Northwest Cove
St. James Cemetery (Old), Fox Point
St. James Cemetery (New), Fox Point
St. Mark's Cemetery, Mill Cove
Seventh-Day Adventist Cemetery, Fox Point
The Templars, based in southern France, were an order of fighting monk-knights prominent in the Crusades, who amassed great wealth. "To them, the Crusades were largely a matter of loot." Powerful and loyal only to the Pope, the Templars became a threat to European kings. In 1307, the King of France arrested almost all the Templars. A few escaped and have never been heard of since. Some say they went to a far away land now known as Nova Scotia. Oak Island might hold the lost treasure of the Knights Templar, a trove touted as being so fabulous it could contain the Holy Grail. Born in Scotland in about 1345 A.D.
Henry Sinclair became Earl of Rosslyn and the surrounding lands as well as Prince of Orkney, Duke of Oldenburg (Denmark), and Premier Earl of Norway. In 1398 he led an expedition to explore Nova Scotia and Massachusetts. This was 90 years before Columbus 'discovered America'! Prince Henry Sinclair was the subject of historian Frederick J. Pohl's Atlantic Crossings Before Columbus, which was published in 1961. Not all historians agreed with Pohl, but he made a highly convincing case that this blond, sea-going Scot, born at Rosslyn Castle near Edinburgh in 1345, not only wandered about mainland Nova Scotia in 1398, but also lived among the Micmacs long enough to be remembered through centuries as the man-god 'Glooscap'...
Map: Where Is Oak Island? near Western Shore
History of CBHT The early days of CBC Television in Halifax. Do you remember the days of Don Tremaine, Max Ferguson and Rube Hornstein? They're here, along with Don Messer and Marg Osbourne and Charlie Chamberlain, and a young whippersnapper named Frank Cameron, and others...
Brief History of Wallace Cumberland County
History of Mulgrave
This webpage has disappeared. It used to be located at
http://www.auracom.com/~mulgrave/history.html
Arms of Nova Scotia
Granted by King Charles I in 1625, 24 years before the unpleasantness of 30 January 1649 O.S. The original records of the Ancient Arms of Nova Scotia disappeared with the loss of the early Lyon Register during the English Civil War, 1642-1651. The Lyon Register is the Official Registry of Armorial Bearings and Pedigrees for Scotland, located at:
Court of the Lord Lyon,
HM New Register House, Edinburgh EH1 3YT, Scotland. The Lyon Register re-entered the Nova Scotia Arms about 1805.
Horatio C. Crowell's tribute to Nova Scotia
"...this little sea-girt peninsula..."
Oswald Schenk's 1931 design
Crowell's text
Origin of the Name "Nova Scotia" first used on September 29, 1621
From Montbéliard to a New World Until 1793, Montbéliard was the independent homeland of about 420 French-speaking Protestants brought to Nova Scotia by a Dutch shipping agent named John Dick...
Parliamentary Government, by Eugene A. Forsey Nova Scotia (which, till 1784, included what is now New Brunswick) was the first part of Canada to secure representative government. In 1758, it was given an assembly, elected by the people... Nova Scotia was also the first part of Canada to win responsible government (government by a cabinet answerable to, and removable by, a majority of the assembly) in January 1848...
Premiers of Nova Scotia, 1848 - 1998 The best NS Premiers site I know of.
Names of all Premiers of Nova Scotia 1848 - 1998
Biographies of Premiers:
Joseph Howe 1860-1863
Charles Tupper 1864-1867
William Annand 1867-1875
Philip Carteret Hill 1875-1878
John Sparrow David Thompson May - July, 1882
William Thomas Pipes 1882-1884
William Stevens Fielding 1884-1896
George Henry Murray 1896-1923
Ernest Howard Armstrong 1923-1925
Angus Lewis Macdonald 1933-1940
Alexander Sterling MacMillan 1940-1945
Angus Lewis Macdonald 1945-1954
Harold Joseph Connolly April-September, 1954
Henry Davies Hicks 1954-1956
Gerald Augustine Regan 1970-1978
John Savage 1993-1997
Castine, Maine, and the Nova Scotia connection the spoils of war...
Jess Coffill: Shark Infested Waters During the years between 1869 and 1897, Jessie Coffill worked as a carpenter in the Canning Shipyards, he would sign on as ships carpenter during lax periods when no ships were being built. One such trip in 1899, when he was 46 years old, he signed on a Saint John registered ship named the Caribbean, his oldest son William who had just turned sixteen, joined the same ship as a deck hand. On their return trip from Havana, Cuba with a part load of sugar and part load of mahogany they ran into a storm just North of Grand Bahama Island, the storm caused quite a bit of damage, including the mainstay portion of the mainmast. The Captain of the ship normally got drunk during storms, and this storm was no exception. After the storm had passed, Jessie climbed the rigging and was making repairs to the mainstay when a heavy squall hit the ship, Jessie lost his balance and was blown into the sea. William who was on deck, had seen what happened to his father and was about to throw him a life line when the drunken captain emerged from his cabin and hit William over the head with a marlinespike. "Apparently the Captain did not know that a man was overboard, and seeing the young deckhand throwing something overboard, became enraged and grabbed the nearest object availabe." The ship continued on to the Bay of Fundy and detoured to Kingsport, Nova Scotia which is about five miles from Jessie's homestead in Canning. The crew dumped William on the dock with a note attached stating that Jess had accidentally drowned at sea. The ship immediately sailed on to its destination, Saint John, New Brunswick. Jessie was lost in Shark infested waters, William went insane from the blow to the head and died in an asylum in Halifax a few years later.
The Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763 ...We have also... thought fit to annex the Islands of St. John's [now Prince Edward Island] and Cape Breton, or Isle Royale, with the lesser Islands adjacent thereto, to our Government of Nova Scotia...
Complete Text
British North America Act adopted 27 March 1867
Whereas the provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their desire...
Confederation 1867
By the Queen, A Proclamation for Uniting the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick...
Nova Scotia Ship Passenger Lists
Speedwell, May 1751, Anne, June 1750, Gale, May 1751 Almost everyone on the passenger lists are foreign protestants, recruited by the British to populate Nova Scotia with loyal, fresh tax payers. These folks were victualled in Halifax for two to three years before founding and populating Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia... (The date "July 5, N.S., 1750" refers to N.S., meaning New Style, indicating this date is reckoned in the Gregorian calendar, instead of the O.S., or Old Style, Julian calendar, which in 1750 was the legal calendar throughout all territory under the control of the King of England.)
Hector, 1773
Map: Exploration in the New Amsterdam to Port Royal area 1497-1650
Table: Journeys of Exploration 1497-1650 The Atlantic Coast, Saint Lawrence River, and Eastern Great Lakes. Only those routes which revealed new geographic information
are shown.
Council of Nova Scotia Archives There are now over 70 members...
Samuel Cunard and the Cunard Steamship Company chronology
The Cunard Line
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On 29 June 1998, the following notice appeared at
http://www.liv.ac.uk/~archives/
Cunard: webpages are temporarily unavailable Records of the Cunard Steamship Company, c1840-1976 We [the University of Liverpool] regret we are unable to provide an enquiry service at the present time. The following links, which previously led to a lot of Cunard history, are no longer valid. They are kept on record here, in the hope that this Cunard archive will soon become available again.
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Complete text of the Contract signed on 14 December 1841 by John Howe, Deputy Post Master General in Halifax, and Samuel Cunard, to establish and operate a fast stage coach service between Halifax and Pictou through Truro. This stage line was an essential link in the British Admiralty's new arrangements to carry the Royal Mail quickly, regularly, and reliably, between London and Quebec. The contract required each trip to be completed within seventeen hours, one way, which was tight scheduling in those days. Cunard was required to provide four horses to draw each coach. Passengers were to be carried at a fare of £2 10s. Cunard was to set up and operate this service for eight years, and was given a government subsidy of £1550 sterling annually. The contract specified three round trips each week during the months May through October, and twice a week November through April. The stage coach trips were scheduled by the Post Office, to connect at Pictou with the steam packet boats running between Pictou and Quebec, and at Halifax with the steam packet boats running between England and Halifax.
History of Architecture in Canada the Nova Scotia contribution
Canadian Street Railways includes Halifax, Sydney, Yarmouth, the Pictou County interurban, and the Cape Breton Electric interurban railways.
Dominion Atlantic Railway Abandons main line to Yarmouth
Number 2 Construction Battalion 1916 - 1920
Decorated WWII Airmen of Pictou County
U-Boats After World War Two
U-190 surrendered at Halifax, U-889 surrendered at Shelburne...
They were known as unterseebootes, or U-boats...
Death of a Grey Wolf ...In December 1922, the CPR received permission to scrap the submarine and keep the proceeds as some small compensation for storage costs. The scrap value turned out to be $1,059.20 and the cost of cutting it up $900. That left $159.20 to the CPR. Small compensation indeed for the damage the U-boats had inflicted on the company's fleet.
History of How Blacks Came to Nova Scotia
To Be Sold At Auction 3 November 1760
Her Majesty's Yankees This paper, by Bernard J. Hibbitts, examines the use of American case law and legal literature in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia during the Victorian period, 1837-1901... (Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History, Richmond, VA, October 1996; previously presented to the Atlantic Canadian Legal History Conference, Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 1995.)
[Formerly available at http://www.law.pitt.edu/hibbitts/hermaj.htm]
Bernard J. Hibbitts currently Associate Dean for Communications & Information
Technology and Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Hibbitts attended Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax, and was a member of the QEHS "Reach for the Top" CBC-TV high-school quiz show team that won the Canadian national championship in 1975...
Last Writes? Re-assessing the Law Review in the Age of Cyberspace ...new academic circumstances...and new computer-mediated communications technologies (e.g. on-line services and the Internet) are coming together in a way that may soon lead to the demise of the familiar law review...
E-Journals, Archives, and Knowledge Networks: A Commentary on Archie Zariski's Defense of Electronic Law Journals ...In the 1660s, the first scholarly journals collected the latest letters and printed them for the convenience of a "mass" academic audience; ultimately, the journals evolved into collections of articles which retained little of their initial epistolary nature. If print facilitated the creation of the journal format, why should we presume that the Internet, now beginning to challenge print as the academic medium of choice, will not facilitate the creation of another format of scholarly publishing which is as different from the journal as the journal was from the scholarly letter?...
Sherbrooke Village In 1861, the cry of "Gold" was heard...
History of the Village of New Minas
Coal Was There for Burning, by Charles Henry Milsom (1996?) This is the dramatic story of the loss of the White Star Liner Atlantic which was wrecked on the rocks off Nova Scotia and which rates amongst the worst sea disasters the world has known. A review used to be available at http://www.engc.org.uk/IMarE/bks_his.htm but it has disappeared.
This book is now (1998) out of print.
History of the Nova Scotia Rifle Association The NSRA has been in continuous operation for more than 130 years and is older than Canada as a country. It is the second oldest Rifle Association in the Commonwealth.
Treaty of Paris, 1783 The complete text of the Peace Treaty signed 3 September 1783, also known as The Paris Peace Treaty, which ended the United States War for Independence. Includes a surveyor's description of the westernmost boundaries of Nova Scotia in 1783 (very different from the modern boundary).
In Search of Our Acadian Roots CD-ROM
The fountains of Yarmouth:
Golden Horse Fountain 1894. At Milton Corner. A designated historic site.
Law Fountain 1897. The first large Yarmouth fountain.
Lewis Fountain 1895. The street car tracks are gone, but the fountain is still here. The original fountain had two taps for people to drink from, two large bowls for horses and cattle, and four smaller ones for dogs, sheep, and goats.
Frost Park Fountain
Planter Studies Centre Planters: the old English term for colonists
Public Archives of Nova Scotia PANS
West Hants Historical Society books for sale: local histories, etc.
Liquor Permit 1965 gif file 115 kilobytes
History of the Nova Scotia Department of Agriculture & Marketing The earliest recorded attempt at organizing agriculture in Nova Scotia came in 1789...
Reproduction (image) of an invoice for software, November 1983 773 kilobytes
for Commodore PET computers at the Bridgewater High School
Invoice Date 23 11 83
Code Title Price
1 F0M100 MERL PHYS 1 DISK PET 110.00
1 F0M190 WAV VIBRTON DISK PET 138.00
1 F0M390 LAB SIMLATN DISK PET 99.00
1 F0M559 MATH SCI SRS 12PR PE 207.00
1 F0M737 ELEC 16 SERIES PET 275.00
1 F2M190 CM NMN SR PET-64 DSK 66.00
1 F5M211 CLS MGR 2 PET-64 DSK 95.00
Supreme Court of Canada:
New Brunswick Broadcasting Co. versus Nova Scotia (Speaker of the House of
Assembly), [1993] 1 S.C.R. 319. Arthur Donahoe in his capacity as the Speaker of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, Appellant, versus Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Respondent, et al...
Cape Breton Passenger Train: Feasibility Study On August 23, (1997 ?) an ad was placed in the Cape Breton Post by the Cape Breton County Economic Development Authority. Qualified firms were invited to submit proposals to BCA Holdings of Sydney for assessment of the feasibility of operation of a rail passenger service between Sydney and Halifax by Silver Dart Railway Ltd., a private company. Deadline was September 15th.
Lunenburg Academy photo
The Bluenose 50-Cent Stamp an excellent rendition of this famous stamp
Stamp collectors are licking their lips over an upside-down Canadian stamp. About 70 of the $2 stamps were printed in error in 1994, with the Provincial Normal School in Truro, Nova Scotia shown upside down. The lettering and dollar figures are correct... The stamps made the cover story of the current issue of Canadian Stamp News.
[The Globe and Mail 4 May 1996]
History of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia
Chronology of Events in the History of Canadian Coins includes the conversion to decimal currency...
Unpublished Manuscripts a rich lode of historical material...
Examples:
The American Invasion of Nova Scotia, 1776-77, W.B. Kerr. From: Canadian Defence
Quarterly, n.d. pp 433-445. Photocopy.
History of New-Scotland From its Discovery to the Present Times, [John Oldmixon].
From: The British Empire in America, Containing the History of the Discovery,
Settlement, Progress and Present State of all the British Colonies ... 1708?
Directory of Royal Genealogical Data 18,000+ names..
Medical History Museum of Nova Scotia has been working since 1968 to collect, preserve, conserve, research, and interpret the medical heritage of Nova Scotia...
All Time List of Canadian Transit Systems (Nova Scotia section) by David A. Wyatt
Nova Scotia Separatists (1867) In Nova Scotia in 1867 there was a strong feeling that the province should get out of Confederation. The provincial general election of 1867 had swept the government of pro-confederate Premier Charles Tupper out of office. Anti-confederate not only won 35 of 38 seats in the provincial assembly, but also 18 of 19 Nova Scotia ridings in the federal election...
A Guide to Scottish Law The legal system of a country is of no value unless it is accessible to all its citizens. It must be available for use by them and it must be intelligible. Those who require access to it must be able to understand its system and procedures. Its vitality depends upon the service which it provides to ordinary people up and down the country, and especially to those who need to make use of it for the first time... There are differences between the Scottish and the English legal system. The civil law in Scotland is based on more generalised rights and duties than in England and Scots law argues deductively from principles and still holds the distinction between legal process and substantive (i.e. actual) law...
A guide to the 250 year history of Halifax and Dartmouth
Unfortunately, the designer of this website chose to encumber it with the latest flashy gizmos, thus making much of it inaccessible to anyone who does not have the very latest computer and software. I include this link in the hope there is some worthwhile content hidden below the tinsel and glitter. I have been able to look at some of the content, and found it contains careless errors. [One example: The 1849 pony express is described as having "rushed across the province to Digby," but it is well-known that this express service never went anywhere near Digby.]
History of Municipal Government in Nova Scotia This is a disappointing effort. It is very superficial. For example, "Five towns had been incorporated by Special Act of the Legislature prior to 1879, and three more were incorporated before general incorporating legislation was passed in 1888. There have been 45 towns incorporated in Nova Scotia over the years, the last before Bedford in 1980 having been in 1923." But, of those 45 towns, the only one named is the most recent, Bedford. There is a similar vague generality throughout this brief article.
since 5 September 1999
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