As mentioned in last week’s column a re-enactment of the old Nova Scotia pony express run of 1849 will take place in early autumn. Thanks to Ivan Smith of Canning, I have an update about the events that will take place to mark the pony express anniversary.

The celebration will involve numerous communities and organizations throughout the Annapolis Valley. The re-enactment of the run will see riders galloping through the Valley along #1 highway, which was part of the original route. As I mentioned, the organizers of the anniversary hope to include a proclamation from Queen Elisabeth, which will be carried by the riders participating in the re-enactment.

To give you an overview of the re-enactment and to answer questions you may have about the short-lived pony express, extracts follow from the update received from Mr. Smith.

Why a pony express in Nova Scotia in 1849? “The Associated Press (AP) had been formed in 1848 by six leading New York newspapers to pool their efforts in speeding international news, and had invested significantly in the extension of the telegraph from the U.S. to Saint John, New Brunswick. The challenge was to get the dispatches from the docks of Halifax to the telegraph office in Saint John in the least possible time. The answer: To run a ‘pony express’ overland to Victoria Beach on the Bay of Fundy and carry dispatches on a fast chartered steamboat to Saint John.”

The Celebration: “The Pony Express Sesquicentennial Committee has been formed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this colorful event. A number of municipalities and historical organizations are represented along the route. Celebrations are expected at the dockside when the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 11 docks at Halifax on the 28th of September.

“A total of around 12 celebrations will occur along the historical route, with Hants County celebrating on the 30th, Kings County on the 1st of October, and Annapolis County on the 2nd of October. Town Criers will read messages and proclamations, (and) there will be historical exhibits.

“A highlight of the celebration will be a re-enactment run by horses and riders over the entire 144 mile route, with stops at various scheduled ceremonies. The accent throughout will be a safe run.”

The original Pony express run: “The route was along the old Post Road, roughly the route of Highway 1 today. The AP paid the then enormous sum of US$1000 for each of the 20 runs. The service started on the 21st of February 1849 and ended on the 15th of November 1849 when the telegraph was completed from Saint John to Halifax.

“The horses were the finest available and the run was made at high speed day and night. The 144 miles were covered by a relay of two riders, changing in Kentville, on a total of 12 horses for each run. The average time was eight hours for the run, so each rider covered about 72 miles in just four hours. For comparison, the Halifax-Victoria Beach trip takes around three hours by car today, using high speeds and limited access roads such as the 101.”

That the runs were made “night and day” made it a hazardous undertaking and the rider on the pony express had many mishaps. From the press release: “Horse and rider were lucky another time. A rider at night was astonished when his horse gave a mighty leap (of 18 feet) while crossing a stream at Lower Horton. What the horse had seen, and the rider had not, was that the swing bridge was not in place that night.”

If above all you desire a good reputation, a long life and happiness, then drink beer says the Nova Scotia Temperance Society.

The Nova Scotia Temperance Society of 1831, that is. The Society’s message, published in the Nova Scotia Almanac for 1831, advises people that one small beer a day can bring all the good things mentioned above. Drinking water rather than strong alcohol, said the Society, would bring health and wealth. And by drinking milk along with water one would achieve “serenity and composure of mind.”

Living up to its temperance name, the Society’s message in the old Almanac was that some alcoholic beverages were acceptable if used in moderation, or as they said in the Almanac “in temperance.” Wine in moderation, said the Society, brought strength, vigor and provided nourishment. Cider and Perry (in moderation of course) were also recommended since they brought one “cheerfulness and contentment.”

Not all alcohol beverages had health benefits or generated mental well-being, however. Nova Scotians were warned to avoid punch, grog, brandy, gin, etc., since they brought sickness in various forms. Among the evils one was susceptible to when imbibing these drinks was dropsy, epilepsy, apoplexy, various terrible swellings of the limbs and …. madness.

Curious and quaint best describe the warnings issued by the Temperance Society in 1831. Oddly, researchers have recently confirmed that wine and beer do have health benefits. Yet over 150 years ago the Temperance Society was telling people wine and beer provided nourishment and improved one’s general well-being. How did they know? And how did they positively know away back then that milk was so good for people?

The Temperance Society’s promotion of alcoholic drinks as healthful isn’t the only interesting item in the old Almanac. For example, did you know that in 1831 females outnumbered males in the Annapolis Valley? According to the Almanac, the population of Kings County in 1831 was 10,208 of which 4,756 were males; Hants County’s population was 8,627 and 3,901 were males. Annapolis County had the largest population in 1831 – 14,661 – and 7,152 were males.

Other trivia from the old Almanac: Between the census year of 1817 and 1831, Annapolis County was the fastest growing area in the Annapolis Valley. In this period Annapolis County’s population increased by almost 50 percent; in the same period Kings and Hants averaged a 35 percent increase.

Some of the surnames of Kings and Hants County dignitaries mentioned in the Almanac are of Planter and Loyalist origin and come from some of the first families to settle the Valley after the expulsion of the Acadians. In 1831, for example, George Chipman was high sheriff in Kings County, while in Hants County this office was held by J. Wilkins. Lt. Col. Henry Gisner (Gesner?) commanded the 1st battalion of the Kings County Regiment; the 2nd. battalion commander was Lt. Col. S. Dennison. The battalions of the Hants County Regiment were commanded by Lt. Col. W. H. Shey and Lt. Col. R. Smith.

Pony Express Re-enactment

If you’ve been following the news you are likely aware of the pony express, which operated in Nova Scotia for about nine months in 1849. A re-enactment of the running of the pony express across Nova Scotia is being planned for this 150th anniversary year in late September or early October. This should be an interesting salute to a little-known piece of Nova Scotia history. I understand there may even be a Royal Proclamation which will be carried by riders during the re-enactment.

In an Advertiser column several years ago, Harold Woodman wrote that with the coming of old age pensions “the county poorhouses, which had been the home of many old people, soon disappeared from the scene.”

We can assume from this observation that poor-houses were once a fact of life. In 1910 A.W.H. Eaton (History of Kings County) wrote that “for many years now Poor-Houses have existed in the three original townships (Aylesford, Horton, Cornwallis) of the county.” When Eaton wrote this there were at least five provincially operated poor-houses in this part of the Annapolis Valley. Three were located in Kings County, one in West Hants and one in Bridgetown.

As for the establishment of poor-houses in Kings County, it’s possible to be more explicit than Eaton. Thanks to a grant from the Kings County Agricultural Society, poor-houses were opened in Billtown, Greenwich and Aylesford late in the 19th century. Records of the year-to-year operation of these houses can be found in House of Assembly reports in the Nova Scotia Archives and the Kirkconnell Room at Acadia University. A brief description of the Greenwich poor-house is in the history of this community (Greenwich Times 1760 – 1968) by Edythe Quinn.

It appears that before the establishment of poor-houses the poor and needy (as Eaton calls them in his Kings County history) were often “farmed out” and “bid off.” Translated, this meant that men, women and children needing assistance were often boarded in private homes where they were required to work at farm labor and domestic chores. Eaton tells us that private homes, subsidized by county grants, operated as boarding rooms for the poor and were common in the 19th century.

The opening of poor-houses in the Annapolis Valley did away with the boarding house system of caring for the needy – a system newspapers called “wasteful, inefficient and ill-suited to looking after certain classes of the poor,” – i.e. people with physical and mental disabilities. In some cases, however, the poor-houses or poor farms as government reports called them, were worse than private boarding rooms. While government reports on early county poor-houses gloss over what life was really like in these institutions, enough was said to paint a terrible picture.

In 1891, for example, a government inspector, Dr. A. C. Page toured the poor-houses of Kings and Hants County and while he used phrases such as “prettily situated,” a “handsome and substantial” building, and “tempting accommodations,” the misery peeks through.

“The Horton (Greenwich) farm … is a very suitable one,” Dr. Page reported, “but the house is old and not well adapted to the purpose, being too small and having very poor sleeping accommodations. There are 22 inmates, seven of whom are children. The bedsteads are poor, rickety wooden contrivances, not fit for the purpose for which they are used, but on the other hand well calculated for the breeding of vermin.” Dr. Page concludes with, “No bath room. No bathing. No enclosed grounds. No pains taken to keep sexes separate.”

On the Billtown poor-house Dr. Page reports that while there are no violent or acute insane there are “several silly imbeciles.” The buildings there are very poor, Page notes, and there is no regular medical supervision, no bathrooms and no heat throughout the house. The poor-house in West Hants has 45 inmates, “two of them insane, 25 are children.” We can see from Dr. Page’s reports that in most cases these poor-houses were the last stop for the homeless and for people with physical and mental disabilities.

With consolidation of several railway companies and the incorporation of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1894, a single line ran through the province from Halifax to Yarmouth. Wherever possible, the line through the Annapolis Valley had been laid in the lowlands, in some places running near the Minas Basin shore where railroad builders found fewer natural obstructions.

In Kings County the turbulent Cornwallis River and a geological feature, the Cornwallis Valley, dictated where the rail line would run. This left a vacuum of sorts along the northern bank of the Cornwallis River from Port Williams to Kentville and from these communities north to the Fundy shore. The establishment of the Cornwallis Valley Railway (C.V.R.) from Kingsport to Kentville provided some service, but it was obvious that a major area in Kings County had been “left out” when it came to rail service.

Looking at the lay of the land, it was also obvious that running to Kentville on the D.A.R. and doubling back on the C.V.R. to reach the then major port of Kingsport was taking the long way around. A line crossing the Cornwallis River at Port Williams and running north to Canning was the direct and shortest route to Kingsport. Since bridging the Cornwallis River near Port Williams would have presented no major problems other than financial, why was such a rail line never considered?

Actually it was. On March 31, 1911, an act to incorporate the Blomidon Railway Company Limited was passed by the provincial government. The document of incorporation can be found in the 1911 Statutes of Nova Scotia; this document indicates that the new railway would connect with the D.A.R. at Wolfville, cross the Cornwallis River at Port Williams and service areas untouched by the current railway

From Port Williams the Blomidon Railway was to run to Canning via Starr’s Point and Canard. After connecting with the C.V.R. “at or near Canning,” the new line would run north to Cape Blomidon, passing first through Woodside, North Corner, Upper Pereau and Delhaven. The plan was to run the line to the top of Cape Blomidon to the site of the National Park and from there run to Scots Bay and then to Cape Split. Today an old trail of unclear origin runs from the park site straight through the woods to Scots Bay; perhaps it is the right of way hewed out of the forest by the fledgling Blomidon Railway Company.

A number of prominent professional men and merchants were named as the chief operating officers of the proposed line and it’s is obvious from this list that the Blomidon Railway was a serious undertaking. One of the officers, Kentville lawyer Harry H. Wickwire, came from a pioneer family that had long played a prominent role in Kings County. Another officer, Leslie S. Macoun of Ottawa, was the son-in-law of Sir Frederick Borden. Named also as officers of the line were Canning physician Archibald M. Covert and Canning businessmen Arthur S. Burgess and Halle Bigelow.

Rumored to have the blessing of Sir Frederick and with initial capital of a quarter million dollars, the plan to build the Blomidon Railway was far from a fanciful scheme.  It would have been a magnificent undertaking but looking back from our vantage point today, we know that the Blomidon Railway was never built.

The Company had two years from the date of incorporation to start work on the railway, and I assumed that newspapers in 1911 or 1912 would have some reference to it. I found nothing. Perhaps another researcher will discover why the Blomidon Railway never happened.

“It is necessary, in order to raise grains, to drain the marshes which the sea at high tide overflows,” the Sieur de Diereville wrote of his travels in Acadia in 1699. “It is not easy to stay the course of the sea,” de Diereville continued, “(but) the Acadians nevertheless accomplish the task by means of strong dykes which they call aboteaux.”

As we know from history books, the Acadians did accomplish this task well; the evidence is all around us in Kings, Hants and Annapolis County. Much of the prime farm land in these areas was first dyked off by the Acadians. A number of dykes and aboiteaux stand today where they were originally conceived and laid out by the Acadians.

Locally the Acadians placed dykes and aboiteaux on the Pereau, Canard and Habitant (Canning) River. There are running dykes on the Cornwallis River, some of which are of Acadian origin. However, there is no evidence that the Acadians attempted to place a cross dyke and aboiteau on any part of the Cornwallis.

This seems puzzling at first since the Acadians dyked other major waterways in this area – in some cases feeder streams were dyked as well. When we take a second look, however, we can see that the Acadians would have been gained little by placing an aboiteau on the Cornwallis. Dykes and aboiteaux were built with one purpose in mind: to hold back the sea and create farm land.

What agricultural land would have been reclaimed by dykeing the Cornwallis and placing an aboiteau on it? Running dykes along the lower Cornwallis salvage meadows that were being flooded daily, but there were no great upland meadows to be claimed from the sea such as are found on the Canard and Habitant.

Beside lack of reclaimable uplands, the Acadians may have ignored the Cornwallis because of its nature. Compared to the Pereau, Canard and Habitant River, the Cornwallis is swift, treacherous and deep; its tidal force is concentrated in a narrow, muddy channel that may have been too powerful to contain. In other words, the dykeing techniques used by the Acadians may have been inadequate for the Cornwallis.

But if not the Acadians, what about the Planters? Did they consider dykeing the mighty tidal waters of the Cornwallis?

The answer is a tentative “maybe.” In his History of Kings County, Arthur W. H. Eaton quotes an earlier historian, Dr. Benjamin Rand, who says that an aboiteau is “now proposed at the old French ford at Starr’s Point.” Eaton gives no year for the proposed aboiteau but the date may have been 1865. The Statutes of Nova Scotia for that year record an “Act to provide for building an Aboiteau across the Cornwallis River.” The site of the aboiteau was to be at Port Williams.

The historical records don’t tell us why this plan to build an aboiteau on the Cornwallis was never carried out. Like the Acadians perhaps, 19th century engineers found that blocking the Cornwallis and putting is a sea gate was not only difficult but impractical. If the aboiteau was placed at Port Williams, for example, wouldn’t the farmlands on the seaward side in this area be flooded on every tide?

While the loss of farmlands already reclaimed from the sea may have resulted from a Cornwallis River aboiteau, this didn’t stop people from considering it again. In 1912 an act was passed to incorporate the Cornwallis River Aboiteau Company. The plan was to build an aboiteau on the river “west of the present bridge at Port Williams.” Once again the plan was dropped, perhaps because of the downstream flooding that would have resulted.