“In 1900-1901 the Department at a cost of $6,360.50 built by contract a public wharf on the right bank of the river near its mouth, at a distance of about half a mile from the town. The approach consists of earthworks and embankments 144 feet in length, 25 feet in width…. The wharf itself, which was substantially built of pileworks, was 152 feet long, 36 feet wide … It had an ‘L’ on the outer end 82 feet long … The ‘L’ was 40 feet wide and from 48 to 49 feet high…”

The town referred to in the 1912 report of the chief engineer of the Dept. of Public Works is Wolfville. In the report, Wolfville is referred to as a “town of about 2,000 inhabitants situated on the right bank and near the mouth of the Cornwallis River…” The report, therefore tells us that about 100 years ago a large wharf was constructed near Wolfville, apparently at the mouth of the channel that leads to the town’s harbour.

No such wharf exists today, of course. And, in fact, few people living today know that it even existed. Even less known is that the wharf was originally built to accommodate a ferry that ran in the Minas Basin for a couple of decades before the famous Kipawo began its run. In its relatively short lifetime, however, the now forgotten wharf and ferry provided Wolfville and the inhabitants of eastern Kings County with an important connection to the Minas Basin and ports along its shores.

The wharf’s lifespan? Perhaps 25 to 30 years. The wharf was the docking place for the Prince Albert, a ferry that plied the Minas Basin, serving the ports of Wolfville, Parrsboro and Kingsport as did its successor, the Kipawo. Leon Barron tells me the Prince Albert ran from 1904 to 1925. Barron doesn’t believe that the wharf was ever used by the Kipawo which docked in close to the town proper. One long-time resident of the town claims, however, that a photograph is extant of the Kipawo tied up at the old Cornwallis River wharf.

Readers will note that in the quote above, the old wharf’s distance from Wolfville is given as about half a mile. This distance from the town must have been inconvenient and it probably explains why a new wharf was built practically in downtown Wolfville for the Kipawo.

Actually, the distance out to the Cornwallis River ferry terminal may have been more than half a mile. A road connected to the old wharf started about opposite the duck pond in Wolfville’s east end and ran across the dykeland. This road, Barron says was approximately a mile long. Traces of the old road are visible today, but says Barron, two to three feet of silt have built up over it.

It is believed that the Cornwallis River wharf never saw regular use after the Prince Albert ceased running. Leon Barron believes that the wharf was abandoned after the Kipawo replaced the Prince Albert. If it was, it probably deteriorated rapidly, he says. The wharf’s position on the river channel was precarious in that it was exposed to wind, tide and weather. For example, a few years after the wharf was completed, during the winter of 1903-04, erosion and exceptionally heavy ice in the Minas Basin almost totally destroyed it. The Dept. of Public Works report on this destruction notes that wharf had to be “rebuilt in substantial cribwork” between 1904 and 1906.

Leon Barron tells me that he visited the site on the river channel last autumn and found that almost nothing remains of the old wharf. “Basically, all that’s left is a bunch of rock ballast,” he said.

As late as 1762 Nova Scotia consisted of only five counties. Kings County was one of the original five and it was comprised of its current area and most of Hants County. In other words, Hants County didn’t officially exist until after 1762, the year when the government decided that five counties was too cumbersome and began to divide up the province.

While we know that Hants County came into existence sometime shortly after 1762, I’ve been unable to find the date in my files of historical material. However, over a century after the government decided that the original five counties should be divided up into smaller entities, some confusion apparently existed over the boundaries of Kings and Hants County.

I believe there was confusion because of a couple of full-page newspaper reprints sailing ships and railway researcher Leon Barron showed me recently. These are pages that Annapolis Valley sailing ship buffs would delight in perusing. One reprint is from an old Windsor weekly newspaper, the Tribune, and is dated 1887; the second is from a 1937 issue of the Hants Journal, which if I remember my newspaper genealogy correctly, succeeded the Tribune as Windsor’s paper of record.

The Tribune page is titled the “1887 Hants Co. Shipping List.” Following is a list of “all the vessels afloat that are owned, built or registered in the County of Hants… up to the 31st December, 1886, showing their rig, tonnage, place of building, year when built and managing owner.”

In all, this magnificent list contains some 234 sailing ships that were built in Kings and Hants County between 1860 and 1886. The list amounts to a who’s who of shipbuilding and marine commerce in Kings and Hants County in the 19th century. On the list are the names of some of the greatest 19th-century shipbuilders in this area of the Valley. A name that comes up at least right times is C. Rufus Burgess of Wolfville shipbuilding fame. Another famed shipbuilder of the era, E. Churchill & Sons, Hantsport, appears in the list 15 times.

A surprising number of ships in the list were built in the townships of Cornwallis and Horton. Leon Barron says it’s too bad that the home sites of the shipyards weren’t listed specifically rather than generally by township. Horton and Cornwallis townships take in a wide area with many seaside communities; it would have been helpful for historians to know exactly where the shipyards were located in the townships of Horton and Cornwallis.

Reading through this list, we find the names of shipbuilders whose families have thrived here – and in many cases left their mark here – since the days of the Planters and Loyalists: Names such as Newcomb, Chase, Borden, Ells, Sheffield, Wickwire, Tupper, Begelow (Bigelow), Parker, Starr, Rand, Kenny, Slocumb, Dimock and Baxter.

The reprint from the 1937 issue of the Hants Journal is similar to the 1887 list in that it also contains a lengthy role call of sailing ships, along with owners, tonnage and home shipyards. Dated 1885, it confirms that C. R. Burgess of Wolfville and the Churchills of Hantsport were among the leading shipbuilders of this era.

The 1885 page is a list of ships registered in Hants County, unlike the 1887 list which claims to be an account of ships built in Hants. It seems that when the 1887 list was published, the Windsor Tribune had the mindset that Kings and Hants County were still one and the same.

What military badge has in its design a replica of the Acadian chapel at Grand Pre, our provincial flower and the world-famous Bluenose?

Old sweats, badge collectors and military buffs will correctly answer this question; they will also name the Nova Scotian who designed the badge, adding that he had an Annapolis Valley, or to be explicit a Kings County connection.

Until a few days ago I knew none of these facts about the badge worn for over half a century by the West Nova Scotia Regiment, or as it is more commonly known, the West Novies. Gordon Hansford and I were doodling around with accordions in his kitchen when he told me about the badge that was designed by a Liverpool native, Francis W. “Skip” McCarthy. The symbols in the badge, the Grand Pre church and the Bluenose, stand for the areas where the West Novas originated. McCarthy designed the badge in 1936, the year the regiment was formed, his design being selected over others in a competition.

The various symbols in McCarthy’s design stand for more than the origins of the West Novas regiment. In effect, the symbols are a mini-history that represent Nova Scotia traditions. Across the face of the badge is the cross of St. Andrew, for example. The cross was taken from the ancient provincial flag and I assume is meant to acknowledge our Scottish connection.

When McCarthy designed the badge, Nova Scotia was the easternmost province (now it’s Newfoundland) and was the first place to greet the sun on a Canadian day. The eight-point sunburst McCarthy placed on the badge represents the first Canadian dawn and was correct at the time of the design. In the four triangles formed by the St. Andrew’s cross McCarthy placed the Grand Pre chapel and the Bluenose at top and bottom, and on the right and left segments our provincial floral emblem, the Mayflower.

The inclusion of the Grand Pre scene and the Bluenose are appropriate in that they represent the Annapolis Valley and South Shore origins of the West Novas. Formed in 1936, the West Novas were an amalgamation of the Lunenburg Regiments (hence the Bluenose) and the Annapolis Regiment, which is represented by the Grand Pre church.

In his history of the West Novas, Thomas H. Raddall explains that the Bluenose in the regiment’s badge symbolizes the seafaring communities of the South Shore and their old established militia companies. Raddall contends that the replica of the Acadian chapel represents the Annapolis Valley in general and the “ancient Acadian militia companies” in particular. It seems unusual that McCarthy purposely intended to represent the Acadian militia in his badge design but we have to take Raddall’s word for it. Raddall and McCarthy both lived in Liverpool and may have discussed the purpose of the symbols in the badge.

Raddall’s reference to the South Shore militia companies being old is correct. The West Novas can trace their lineage to military units that served in Nova Scotia as early as 1717. And possibly there may be more than we realize to Francis W. McCarthy’s inclusion of the Grand Pre church in his design. One of the military regiments from which the West Novas traces its lineage assisted in the deportation of the Acadians at Grand Pre.

A prisoner of war for five years, Francis W. McCarthy died of tuberculosis at the Nova Scotia Sanatorium in Kentville. His date of death is given in one source as 1947 and in another as 1950. While he designed the West Nova badge while a private in the unit, McCarthy served in another regiment during the war.

Are there really place names in this area called Russia, Etna and Vesuvius? Was there really a “Battle of Blomidon” in earlier times? Is it true that automobiles were actually manufactured here at one time?

Where did the famous Valley brand name “Scotian Gold” originate and who was the first to use it? And if I have you intrigued by now, here’s one more question: Was a pirate’s chest full of Spanish doubloons really found in this area?

Nearly 12 years ago a local historian, the late Elizabeth Rand, decided that answering questions such as the ones posed above would make interesting reading and would be a neat way of offering local history to the public. Ms. Rand became the driving force behind publication of a neat little paperback booklet of some 50 pages containing 21 short historical essays on Kings County. The booklet, called Kings County Vignettes, was published in June 1989 by the community history committee of the Kings County Historical Society.

Since the first issue of Vignettes was subtitled volume one, the Historical Society must have decided from the first to produce other issues. Volume one of Vignettes was followed 10 months later by volume two with 10 historical articles in more than 50 pages. Like the first Vignettes, the second issue was also compiled and edited by Elizabeth Rand. Other volumes of Kings County Vignettes followed. This past winter the Historical Society published volume 10 which like its predecessors, is a series of short historical essays on the immediate area.

As mentioned, Vignettes was the brainchild of Elizabeth Rand, who was one of the charter members of the Historical Society. Apparently Ms. Rand had collected a number of interesting stories about this area and wanted them saved. In the forward to volume 10 it was noted that it was Ms. Rand’s “desire to have these stories put together so they would not be forgotten.” That in the past decade nine more issues followed the original Vignettes is proof that Ms. Rand had hit on a unique vehicle for presenting local history in a readable, inexpensive format.

Elizabeth Rand compiled and edited five volumes of Kings County Vignettes. Early on she was assisted by Cathy Margeson who with Helen Hansford, took on the task of editing and compiling following editions of Vignettes. Various Historical Society members also volunteered their assistance in producing Vignettes; all 10 issues were typeset, printed and bound by Historical Society members at the Old Courthouse Museum in Kentville.

All the questions I asked above are answered in some detail in the Vignettes. For now, let me say that yes, there is or was a Russia, Etna and Vesuvius in this area; yes there was a Battle of Blomidon and yes, automobiles were manufactured in Kings County. The Vignettes are a fund raising project for the Courthouse Museum, so I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to shell out a few dollars for an issue.

If I haven’t, here a few topics covered in various issues of Vignettes: The story of Klondike Ward, the Kentville native who struck it rich in the goldfields; old Davidson sawmill in Black River; sketch on the Blenkhorn axe factory in Canning; the story of John Orpin, the amazing strongman dubbed the “Sampson of the Annapolis Valley.”

All the topics covered in Vignettes have a Kings County connection but the essays also deal with historical happenings in other areas of the Annapolis Valley. Vignettes are available at the Old Kings Courthouse Museum and in local bookstores.