One of Nova Scotia’s better-known natives, Will R. Bird, is noted as the author of numerous books with historical themes.

Bird is perhaps less known as a travel writer – that is, if his two books about exploring the province can truly be called travel writing. In these books – Off-Trail in Nova Scotia and This is Nova Scotia – Bird explored the lesser known byways of the province in the early 1950s, digging out its history and collecting quaint anecdotes and local lore.

If you’ve never read these books, I recommend you put them on your Christmas list. Bird captures the essence of the long settled areas he visited, and in the seaside communities especially he has faithfully projected their marine flavour.

Will R. Bird wasn’t the first to write books about exploring Nova Scotia, however. Nearly two decades before Birds’ books appeared, Ryerson Press published Down in Nova Scotia by Clara Dennis. This book, and I believe another by Ms. Dennis in the same vein, explores the remote regions of the province. Like Bird does later, Dennis retells local legends, interviews colourful characters and gives short historical accounts of various communities.

If you compare the Dennis and Bird books, you’ll note immediatly how the latter appears to copy the format and style of the former. They are much alike, perhaps because the authors had the same publisher. Bird’s books are better known and are still in print as paperbacks. Dennis was also a native Nova Scotian (and perhaps connected with the daily newspaper Dennis family). Her book(s) are no longer in print that I know of but can be found in local used book stores.

Even earlier, another famous Maritimes writer, Charles G. D. Roberts, authored articles that were similar in content to the Dennis and Bird books. Roberts is best noted as a poet and the author of nature study books; he is less known as a writer of history and it’s difficult to imagine that Sir Charles would stoop to churning out prose of a commercial nature aimed at the tourist trade.

However, this is precisely what Roberts did in the Canadian Guide-Book in 1891. At the time Roberts was professor of English Literature in King’s College, Windsor, a position he held from 1885 until 1895. He had already made his mark as a poet and had at least two volumes of poetry published before he researched and wrote the 1891 edition of the Canadian Guide-Book. I called it a tourist book and it was all of this and a bit more; the subtitle claiming it was a tourist and sportsman’s guide to eastern Canada and Newfoundland.

Roberts’ work in this publication may have inspired Dennis and Bird. I have several copies of pages from the Guide for this area and like Dennis and Bird, Roberts mentions a bit of local history. Otherwise, the Guide was meant to be something a tourist carried and read before he set out to explore the countryside. The language is plain for the most part, but on occasion Roberts indulges in some fancy and poetic prose.

The Wolfville of 1890, for example, is “embowered in apple-orchards, and ranged on a sunny slope facing the marshes, the Blue basin and Blomidon.” The Cornwallis Valley has “deep alluvial soil of quenchless fertility’ and its climate, “the sparkle of sea air.” In Kentville, there is a “brawling amber brook,” and “everywhere is close to everywhere else.”

Sometime between 1830 and 1850 my great grandfather David Coleman, along with two or three brothers, emigrated to New Brunswick from the county of Cork, Ireland. From New Brunswick David and at least one brother, James (and possibly a brother John) went to Nova Scotia, settling here in Kings County. David farmed in the Huntington Point and Centreville area all of his life and is buried somewhere in the County. He was of the Catholic faith when he arrived in Kings County, but after a family squabble over religion he left the church.

Most of the Colemans listed in the Kentville directory can trace their ancestry to David and his brother or brothers. Until recently, however, David Coleman has been a sort of mystery man. I began to look for information on him years ago but for the most part it was a fruitless search. It seemed for a long time that while David lived and prospered here, no record of his life existed other than what was passed on by word of mouth.

I’d like to tell readers about my search for David Coleman, if for no other reason than to make similar searches for others easier. When I began my search I learned that the Kings County Historical Society has recorded every gravestone existing in Kings County cemeteries. The readings, which were done in 1980 and again in 1990, may be accessed at the courthouse museum in Kentville. The cemetery records are also available on disk.

I began my search with the tombstone records but it was a dead end. Either my great grandfather had no stone or it had fallen down and deteriorated or had been destroyed. Whatever the reason, there is no record of him in the Society’s tombstone records. My next step was to read the massive collection of obituary notices that are filed at the museum. These are indexed and are an excellent resource for anyone looking for their ancestors.

Unfortunately no record of David Coleman existed in the obituary files either. However, on computer in the family history section of the museum are records from the census of 1871 and 1901. It was here that I found my first reference to David Coleman and a list of the children by his second wife, Frances Goodwin. My grandfather’s marriage record in the computer database confirmed that this David was indeed my great grandfather. The marriage records should be checked when searching for ancestors since they often list the parents of the bride and groom and have other information that may be valuable.

The Ambrose Church map of Kings County was also consulted in my search. This map shows roads and the name and occupation of the people who live along them. I found David Coleman here, living on the road to Hall’s Harbour in 1872 when the Church map of Kings County was completed. I also consulted the various old directories and almanacs that are on file at Acadia University. These books usually list residents of communities and like the Church maps, give their occupation.

Eventually I extended my search to the Internet and I recommend that you do so as well. At Ancestry.com I found a group devoted to the Coleman surname. I posted a message about my great grandfather, and asked for help. I figured this was a longshot and was dumbfounded when a message came from Florida about my great-grandfather, my great-great-grandfather and other 19th-century relatives.

In 1932 newspaperman Leslie Eugene Dennison was asked to reminisce about the early days in his hometown of Kentville. The result was a detailed article about life in this area in the late 19th century that was serialised in The Advertiser. In an earlier column, I took readers on the street tour that Dennison made of Kentville as he remembered it in the 1870s. In this column, we travel with Dennison as he describes a quaint Kentville in a time when apparently there were oxen, family cows and farms in what is now the downtown business core.

“Kentville sixty years ago was a small county village. Its inhabitants were chiefly the descendants if the first settlers, with a few families of railroad officials and workers from the Old Country.” (Comment: Many of Kentville’s early leading families were connected with the railroad and in a sense, the railroad made the town.)

“Ox teams were common in the streets, with cordwood in the winter, or hay and produce in the fall. A ‘speculator’ would load a car of potatoes for market, or a schooner or brig would load at Port Williams or Canning. Many Kentville families kept a cow, pastured in the summer in nearby meadows. They would get hay from the farmers for the winter. Families in the fall laid in the winter’s supply of cordwood and vegetables.

“If I remember aright, John Quierole (Johnny Queerall to us boys) had the first meat market in town. It was on Main Street, opposite Robert Masters’ drug store across the street from the former Advertiser office.” (Comment: The “nearby meadows” mentioned above were probably located along the Cornwallis River. “Cordwood” was probably the main source of winter fuel in the period before Cape Breton coal was available.)

“Some of the older men, including my great uncle, William Forsythe of Coldbrook, still wore their trousers buttoned across the front, as man-of-wars do now. High collars and cravats were in vogue. Some of the older ladies wore shawls and poke bonnets. Prince Alberts and tall hats were the Sunday attire of the older men. I remember well the furore created when John P. Chipman wore a ‘pepper-and-salt’ business suit to church.”

Mr. Dennison continues his account with a description of clothing worn by boys and girls in the 1870s. Can a reader tell us more about the unusual garments he mentions – “cow’s breakfast”, “clouds,” etc.

“Boys wore ‘cow’s breakfasts’ in summer, generally made at home if living on farms. The girls wore sunbonnets tied under their chins. In winter young women and girls wore bright-colored ‘clouds’ and ‘fascinators.’

“In winter boys generally wore ‘reefers’ and a woolen scarf around their necks, woolen mittens, and ‘long boots’ in some cases made by Kentville shoemakers. Angus Johnson and later Dennis McCarthy were makers of comfortable footwear. Boots and shoes were ‘pegged’ and sewn by ‘waxed ends’ with a pig’s bristle split and end of thread passed through a needle. Stitching by machine came later. Glengarry caps in fall and winter were worn by the boys. The ones with red pompoms were much sought after. Barry Calkin and Fred Terry had caps that were the envy of us smaller boys.”

As he continues his narrative, Dennison describes the winter activities of boys and girls in the 1870s. This will be the topic of a future column.

Dan Conlin, curator of the [Maritime] Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, e-mailed me recently with an update on the wreck found in Wolfville harbour. And from a Halifax reader, Dr. Frederick A. J. Mathews, comes information about shipbuilder Ebenezar Cox and some facts about early shipbuilding on the Cornwallis River.

Readers will recall that in a previous column on the investigation of the Wolfville harbour wreck I ran an interview with a reader who suggested it was a mud scow that sank about 60 years ago. Mr. Conlin tells me that findings by the marine archaeologists who surveyed the wreck preclude this possibility.

“The two underwater archaeologists Willis Stevens and Ryan Harris are certain this vessel was not a barge or scow,” Conlin writes. “(The person who suggested the wreck was a scow) had a good detailed memory of a flat-bottomed, square shaped scow and these timbers were curved with fine bow lines and a tapering stern. The planking is also different from scow and barge construction.”

The search for the wreck’s identity continues, Conlin said. “On the bright side, we can chalk up the knowledge of these unrelated wrecks, the 18-ton schooner wreck in 1878 and the mud scow wrecked in 1939, as useful information turned up in the search for the identity of these timbers.”

I received several letters from Mr. Mathews regarding the Cox family including the shipbuilder, Ebenezar. Mr. Mathews included some genealogy with his letters which may be of interest to anyone researching the Cox family.

In one letter Mr. Mathews writes that he has a “listing of vessels built on the Cornwallis River at Kentville in the 19th century.” These vessels were the 200 ton brig Mason’s Daughter, built in 1813 by Handley Chipman, and in 1846 a barque called the Kent, tonnage unknown, built by James Edward Dewolf.

I’m curious to know Mr. Mathews source of information; that is, if it can from a source other than Eaton’s Kings County history.

“Years ago,” Mathews writes, “I came across mention of a grist mill that was built and operated at Kentville on the Cornwallis River.” I’ve seen several references to mills on the Cornwallis and on tributaries of the river (including an Acadian mill) but have nothing concrete as far as dates and names go. Hopefully Mr. Mathews will recall where he found his reference when I contact him.

As I mentioned in a recent column, I’m collecting information on the Cornwallis River with the hopes of preparing a history that looks back at least 250 years. This will be posted on my website and a hard copy will be offered to libraries and historical groups. I hope that reader who have information about the early days of the river will contact me. Anything and everything will be useful. A letter mentioning the river, a story about the Cornwallis that was passed on by a grandparent, even photographs and postcards that can be copied will help fill out the river’s story.

And speaking of rivers, here’s a question about the Gaspereau River bridge at Whiter Rock. Was it once known as the Eagles Bridge?

To read more about the Cornwallis see the historical columns on my website. E-mail address: edwingcoleman@gmail.com.

In my opinion, no finer history of the Dominion Atlantic Railway than Marguerite Woodworth’s 1937 work has ever been written.

It is to Woodworth’s excellent book that we turn this week to look at a man who left his mark on the D.A.R. and the Annapolis Valley. This was George E. Graham who became general manager of the D.A.R., three years after it was acquired by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Graham arrived in Kentville in November 1915 and proceeded to take over a railway system that had become obsolete and was badly in need of modernising.

One of the first things Woodworth mentions about Graham is that prior to becoming general manager of the D.A.R. he had never east of Montreal. Graham, Woodworth said, “was quite unfamiliar with the topography of the country, its people, and of local conditions.”

Realising these factors were important in the operation of the railway, Graham immediately set out remedy his shortcomings. “Graham left no stone unturned to remedy this omission,” Woodworth says. “In a remarkably short time he had gained a knowledge of Nova Scotia and Scotians that is seldom met with among the people themselves.” Graham steeped himself in the history of the province and its famous landmarks and says Woodworth, “even wrote a short history of Nova Scotia.” A history, by the way, that “lies forgotten in the railway archives.”

As general manager of the D.A.R., Graham left his mark on the Annapolis Valley. Before Graham’s time, an act passed by the Nova Scotia legislature had set aside Grand Pre as historical grounds and a memorial to the Acadians. Long a Mecca of Acadians and American tourists the area offered visitors no more than “rolling dykelands and a row of old French willows” until Graham convinced the D.A.R. to purchase the site and establish a memorial park. Graham undoubtedly realised the park would attract visitors and the D.A.R. would benefit from increased tourism traffic. This proved to be, and while he may have had commercial motives, we can still thank Graham for the lasting Acadian memorial that resulted from his efforts.

When Graham became general manager of the D.A.R. there was no major hotel at Digby, a popular destination with American tourists. Graham convinced the D.A.R. to purchase and remodel the Pines hotel which had been closed for some time. The Pines was “renovated and newly equipped, new cottages were built around it and in 1918 it opened its doors to visitors.” The hotel was immediately successful and Graham turned his attention to Kentville, which had long been lacking major tourist accommodations and “stood badly in need of a good hotel.”

To remedy this situation the D.A.R. at Graham’s prompting purchased the old Aberdeen Hotel in 1919. “The old structure was repaired… new equipment installed, the grounds were landscaped and the hotel rechristened the Cornwallis Inn,” Woodworth writes.

Graham later was instrumental in building a new Pines Hotel in Digby. Soon he was pushing for the building of a larger and more modern hotel in Kentville; the result was the 100-room Cornwallis Inn which opened in 1930 offering “service and comfort equal to the best hotels on the continent.”

Woodworth praises Graham for his involvement in community affairs as well. His “personal contribution to the development of the community… is no less noteworthy,” she writes, saluting him for leadership and farsightedness.