In an earlier column on Kentville’s 100^th anniversary, I quoted on the event from a scrapbook compiled in the 1920s and 1930s by Lucy MacInnes, the wife of a Kentville storekeeper. The scrapbook is now in the possession of her son-in-law, George Ashby and as mentioned, he has been kind enough to let me read it.

The late Ms. MacInnes was interested in local history, and most of the clippings she collected for her scrapbook are of a historical nature. In it, for example, is a historical sketch of Kentville by A. L. Pelton, who was mayor of the town from 1924 to 1927. There’s also a series of essays on the history of Kentville’s churches; one of the essays was written by a man with a name most history buffs will recognize, Arthur W. H. Eaton, author of the History of Kings County.

I’d estimate that there are some 50 clippings in the MacInnes scrapbook on Kings County and Kentville history. Here are excerpts from some of the clippings:

Why was Kentville once known as Horton Corner? A. L. Pelton explains why in a review of the town’s history he wrote in 1926. “Kings County comprised the townships of Aylesford, Cornwallis and Horton; the embryo village known as Horton Corner derived its name from the fact that it was the northwest corner of Horton Township.”

In 1869, station agents of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway were paid $400 per year. The Kentville agent in that year is identified only by a last name, Metzley; station agents in Port Williams (Greenwich) and Wolfville at the time were E. A. Forsythe and J. M. Dennison respectively. Railway carpenters in 1869 received the sum of $1.10 per day.

A photographer was on hand to capture the arrival of the first train in Kentville. A clipping of the photograph, taken from an unnamed newspaper, is on the scrapbook. The caption under the photograph reads, “Above is shown the first Windsor and Annapolis train arriving at Kentville in 1869.”

From a series of historical sketches on Kentville churches: “After the dispersion of the French (Acadians) it was many years before other Catholics came into the Valley. During the time of the Great Famine in Ireland (1845-1849) a considerable number of families from that country, forced to leave their native land, settled on the North and South Mountains, and the present (Catholic) parish is made up of their descendants.”

A clipping in the scrapbook indicates that in the late 1920s Kentville could boast of having a children’s hospital: “The Red Cross of Kentville is doing an excellent work, of which little is known, in conducting a children’s hospital on Canaan Avenue, where children whose parents are not able to pay the usual hospital charges may receive medical and surgical treatment. This institution is made possible through the cordial co-operation of all the doctors in Kentville who give their services free.”

Kentville loses a valued citizen, The Advertiser said on announcing his death in the summer of 1932. When he died at age 89, the newspaper further hailed George E. Calkin as the town’s most outstanding citizen.

And indeed he was. If a list is ever compiled of the men and women who contributed most to Kentville’s growth since its inception, George E. Calkin’s name would be at the top of the rolls. Yet, despite what were successful pioneering efforts to establish a board of trade and a hospital here, and a lengthy association with Kentville as a businessman and postmaster, George E. Calkin is practically forgotten today, only remembered perhaps by a few historical writers and museum people.

I hope to rectify this to some extent in this column. My interest in George E. Calkin was piqued when I recently found a story about him published in The Advertiser in the 1920s. Since then, I’ve scoured local history books and obituary files to see what I could find about Mr. Calkin. Arthur W. H. Eaton mentions him twice in his Kings County history. Quoting another historian, Eaton says that George E. was the “pioneer advocate of Boards of Trade in Kings County.” It was through Calkin’s “spirited and persistent efforts that the Kentville Board was founded in 1886.”

Eaton also says that Calkin was a “prominent member of the Calkin family in the county,” and that he was “for many years postmaster of the town, and long engaged in business there.”

George E. Calkin undoubtedly should best be remembered for the prominent role he played in establishing the Blanchard Fraser Memorial Hospital. In her Kentville history (The Devil’s Half Acre) Mabel G. Nichols writes that the hospital “had its beginning in 1921” when Calkin started a movement for “erection of such an institute” which resulted in a hospital commission. In 1928, about four years before he died, Calkin turned over his entire real estate holdings valued at some $40,000 to the commission, practically ensuring the hospital would be a go. Calkin’s role in this respect is confirmed by Louis Comeau in his book, Historic Kentville.

However, when the hospital was eventually built and officially opened in 1938, Calkins name wasn’t on it. That honor went to the wife of A. Milne Fraser who willed $30,000 to the hospital with the stipulation that it be named in memory of his spouse. Calkin’s pivotal role in the formation of the hospital apparently had been forgotten.

George E. Calkin was born in Steam Mill and as a young man worked in the firm of Benjamin Calkin (later T. P. Calkin Ltd.) before starting his own business. As Eaton points out, he was a prominent member of the Kings County Calkins and a Planter descendant. It’s said that he was no more than a distant cousin of the founder of the prominent Kentville firm of T. P. Calkin. However, in the existing photographs of Benjamin Calkin’s son, T. P. Calkin, and George E. Calkin, the two appear to be twins and there may have been a closer relationship. Is it possible he’s the same “A. E. Calkin” that Mabel Nichols mentions as working for his uncle, Benjamin Calkin, before starting his own business?

Calkin was the Kentville postmaster for a decade (1867-1876), a position he relinquished to open up a hardware business in the town. He eventually acquired what was known as the Scotia Block in Downtown Kentville.

I couldn’t help chuckle a bit when I read Kirk Starratt’s excellent article on the “mystery cannonball” now residing in the dusty coffers of the Kings County Museum.

What brought the chuckle was reference to a skirmish grandly called the Battle of Blomidon. The so-called battle was mentioned as possibly explaining why a cannonball was found on the dykes in Lower Wolfville. However, if you read Arthur W. H. Eaton’s account of the event (page 432 and 433 in his history of Kings County) you’ll find that the skirmish, for the most part, took place in the waters off Blomidon and Cape Split.

It’s possible I suppose, but it isn’t likely cannons fired from this area could deposit a cannonball on the dykes of Lower Wolfville. Besides, Eaton doesn’t mention any cannon play. He does tell us a “carriage gun” was carried by one of the boats involved in the clash and this would fire cannonballs.

Most likely calling the skirmish the Battle of Blomidon was a poetic embellishment. This is the title of a poem about the clash and it does have a nice kind of ring to it. The poem was written by Belle Robinson and can be found in a Kings Historical Society publication, volume 1 of the Kings County Vignettes.

Further on the cannonball, I was surprised that the museum employee Kirk Starratt interviewed pleaded ignorance about a blockhouse (as a source of the cannonball) which is said to be located “in the Wolfville area” at the time of the Acadian expulsion.

Might I suggest that anyone interested in what existed in the way of blockhouses or forts here as early as 1749 and in the 19th century, check out page 426 and 427 of Eaton’s Kings County history. Eaton is quite explicit that a fort or blockhouse was moved from Annapolis Royal to Minas in 1749. Further, he gives details about other forts that were constructed here. According to Eaton, “palisaded forts” were erected in Horton and Cornwallis townships. Since Eaton tells us the forts were defended with cannons, one of them could be the source of the mystery cannonball.