In 1682 Pierre Terriot and his wife settled along the Saint Antoine (Cornwallis) River and built what was probably the first house in New Minas. Terriot was at the forefront of a wave of Acadians from Port Royal who would settle in what became the village of Saint Antoine and today is the village of New Minas.

This little-known fact about the Acadian link with New Minas was revealed in a presentation recently before the village commission. The presentation was made by members of the Acadian Heritage Sites Committee which was formed to have Acadian sites in the village identified and protected. Co-chairs Maynard Stevens and Ken Belfountain, along with Glenda Bishop, gave an extensive overview of New Minas’ Acadian roots, along with a detailed report on historical sources confirming that the village was an Acadian settlement.

Leading off the presentation, Maynard Stevens noted that after Pierre Terriot established a farm on the banks of the Cornwallis, “the settlement… grew larger, extended to both sides of the river, and took in what is present day New Minas.” Stevens said that source material “suggests the village was of significant size compared to Grand Pre and included a church, a mill as well as many farms.”

Stevens pointed out a census taken by the French indicate that a “sizeable population” lived in New Minas before the expulsion. “Remnants of (Acadian) cellars, a mill and graveyard” exist within the boundaries of New Minas, Stevens said, these sites being confirmed by various archaeological studies. The mill site is located immediately behind the elementary school on property owned by the school board. Acadian homesteads, the cellar depressions still visible today, are also on school board property.

The heritage committee would like to see Acadian sites in the village identified and where possible, protected under the special places act or similar legislation. To achieve these goals, Stevens said, the first step is to have Acadian sites on land owned by the village or municipality recognised as heritage sites.

“The one site that falls in this category,” Stevens said, “is the Acadian graveyard that is located beside the railroad tracks at the foot of Cornwallis Avenue. It is marked by a rise that is covered by a growth of small trees.

“It is our hope,” Stevens said in effect, “that the village commission will start the process whereby the cemetery is designated as a historic site and protected under municipal bylaws.”

I’m pleased to report that there was a positive response to the committee’s presentation and there will be action on the request that the cemetery be recognised and protected. Hopefully, by the time the Acadian World Congress meets here, the cemetery site will be marked by a plaque. The committee also hopes to have other Acadian sites in the village identified in the future.

Some historical writers claim that Kentville was once called the “Devil’s Half Acre” and Horton Corner; several historians – Bruce Fergusson, Dr. Watson Kirkconnell and Arthur W. H. Eaton among them – note that Kentville was once called Penooek by the Mi’kmaq.

The Devil’s Half Acre is the title of Mabel Nichol’s Kentville history, suggesting perhaps that the town was once known for ribald celebrations. The Mi’kmaq Penooek may have been used as a place-name at one time as Fergusson, Kirkconnell and Eaton suggest. However, Dr. Silas Rand writes that the Mi’kmaq designation for the Kentville area was Obsitquetchk, which means a fording place. This ford, where a bridge now spans the river, was a well-used crossing place and explains why the immediate area was settled. Two roads from the north and north-east which meet at the ford, Cornwallis and Belcher Street, probably were trails used by the Mi’kmaq and Acadians.

I doubt that the Planters or any later settlers used the Mi’kmaq names for Kentville. But Horton Corner it definitely was before the name was changed by public proclamation. Arthur W. H. Eaton confirms this; he refers to a notice published in the Nova Scotian newspaper in 1826 advising the public that henceforth Horton Corner would be called Kentville. “The inhabitants of Horton Corner having held a public meeting,” the notice began, “have resolved that their growing village should in the future be called Kentville.”

Kentville was chosen as the new name of Horton Corner, the notice read, in honour of the Duke of Kent. Some sources say that this honour was bestowed on the Duke because he stayed overnight in Horton Corner. Here’s what Louis Comeau wrote in the book Historic Kentville: “In 1826… the residents (of Horton Corner) decided to change the name to Kentville in honour of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, who had stayed in the village while on a hunting trip in 1794.”

Bruce Fergusson in Place-Names and Places in Nova Scotia writers in a similar vein on the origin of Kentville’s name: “The name Kentville was given… in honour of the Duke of Kent who visited the place in 1826.” Heather Davidson makes a similar inference in the Kentville history she wrote for the area’s Board of Trade in 1979. Mabel Nichols makes the same statement in her Kentville history, and names the hotel the Duke stayed in.

I have several other references including newspaper articles and an 1895 historical paper that also claim Kentville was given its name due to a visit by the Duke of Kent. There’s even a website that makes the same claim.

However, despite claims by local historians that he did, it’s questionable that the Duke of Kent stayed in Horton Corner. While the Duke of Kent travelled through Kings County in 1794, it appears that he made his lodgings in Wolfville. Arthur W. H. Eaton writes that the only known Kings County stop of the Duke was in Wolfville.

Finally, there is the Doreen Roberts exhaustive research for her 1977 Masters thesis (Two Hundred Years of Travel in Kings County) which is on file at Acadia University. Roberts said that “although the Duke of Kent may have stopped in the Shiretown as a resting place, he did not stop in the town overnight.” While Kentville residents “adhere very strongly” to the belief that their town was the official stop, it was Wolfville, Roberts concluded.

New Minas was settled by the Acadians around the same time as Grand Pre and as I pointed out in a previous column, some documentation of homesteads, mills, orchards and other sites has already been done. For the most part, however, the documentation exists only in archaeological studies, and surveys which are of limited access.

One example is a detailed study of Acadian sites, a historical, archaeological and botanical survey of the French period by the late John Erskine. This work was privately published in 1975 and copies are difficult to find today. Another example is a 1971 archaeological survey of Acadian sites by the Nova Scotia Museum (curatorial report number 20) which also looks at Acadian sites in New Minas.

Like Erskine’s work, curatorial report number 20 is not readily available for the study of Acadian sites. As I mentioned previously, some Acadian sites in New Minas are indicated in a municipal map of parks and open space. But like Erskine’s work and the curatorial report, it isn’t something you can find in a library or information centre.

This pretty well sums up the extent of the work that’s been done on the New Minas Acadian connection. In other words, while we are aware that New Minas was an Acadian settlement, no identification of these sites exists except for references in material of limited public access.

As I reported in my April 16 column, steps are being taken to rectify this. An Acadian Heritage Sites Committee was formed recently and immediately co-chairs Ken Belfountain and Maynard Stevens organised a tour of Acadian sites in the village. The committee checked out homestead sites and looked at what’s believed to be the location of an Acadian orchard, cemetery and mill.

As mentioned in the April column, the main purpose of forming the heritage committee is to identify Acadian sites in the village. The plan is to place plaques on sites where there is public access. The committee has already began to canvass senior residents of New Minas for the purpose of recording oral folklore about Acadian sites.

On April 29[, 2004] a public meeting was held in the New Minas civic centre and there was an excellent turnout. Several new Acadian sites were identified at the meeting including something I found intriguing, the possibility that the French military had built a blockhouse in New Minas.

The meeting began with a review by committee member Glenda Bishop of known Acadian homesteads and other sites. At the meeting, it was decided to concentrate on one site at a time and the Acadian cemetery was chosen as the first project. I’ll have more information on what will be done to mark the cemetery site in a future column.

Residents who are familiar with stories about Acadian sites in New Minas or who may have heard stories about the Acadians from parents, grandparents or other relatives are invited to contact any of the committee members: Ken Belfountain, 902-678-5356; Maynard Stevens, 902-681-2040; Glenda Bishop, 902-681-0819.

It wasn’t meant to be derogatory.

Actually, Canard historian Ernest Eaton was simply comparing old apple varieties with contemporary varieties when he wrote in 1973 that fruit grown by the Acadians “varied widely in appearance, flavour, season,” and with few exceptions were “small and unattractive except for cider.”

No doubt, for the most part, Eaton is correct. The apples grown today are bigger, tastier and more colourful than the apples produced by the Acadians. Eaton observed that grafting and pest control were unknown to the Acadians, which limited the quality of their apples. As for the varieties, he said that no more than two or three were grown in their orchards.

However, historians have different opinions on how many varieties were grown by the Acadians. Recently when I was working on a couple of apple-related stories for this newspaper I found references to more than three varieties grown by the Acadians. I also found that as well as disagreeing on numbers, historians also differ on what the varieties were called.

For example, in Valley Gold, Anne Hutten’s comprehensive history of the apple industry published in 1981, the author names several varieties that may have been grown by the Acadians. Hutten mentions the L’Epice, or Spicy Apple as probably being brought here by de Monts and cultivated by the Acadians. Hutten said that while it isn’t certain, other French varieties possibly grown by the Acadians were the Pomme Gris, Fameuse, Belliveau and the Bellefleur.

Keith Hatchard, in an eight-part history of apple growing in the Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly in 1977, writes that the Acadians grew the L’Epice and the Bellefleur, as well as other varieties which he didn’t name.

In files at the Kings County museum, I found two reports which said the Acadians grew the L’Epice, Pomme Gris, Belliveau, Bellefleur and Fameuse. I also found a reference to a variety called Nonpareil, which Anne Hutten also mentions in connection with the Acadians. The Acadians may have imported the Nonpareil from New England.

Some of the apple varieties known to the Acadians were grown in Nova Scotia long after the expulsion. At the Hants Exhibition in 1907, for example, two of the apples on display were the Bellefleur and Pomme Gris. The 19th-century fruit growing pioneer, Charles Prescott, is credited with introducing more apple varieties in the province than anyone. Prescott experimented with the Acadian variety Fameuse and it was growing in his Kings County orchards when he died in 1859. A census by the Department of Agriculture indicated that at least three Fameuse trees existed in 1949.

It’s interesting to note that according to Keith Hatchard, one of the apple varieties favoured by the Acadians still grows in Kings County. This is the Bellefleur, which Hatchard says was the predecessor of Bishop Inglis’s Yellow Belleflower, and today is called the Bishop Pippin.