About 100 years ago, give or take a year, a New Brunswick magazine asked newspaper editors and other luminaries to review the attributes of leading towns in Kings Counties.  The result was a special edition of the Busy East devoted to promoting the business and tourist potential of Wolfville, Kentville and Berwick, with the eastern end of Annapolis Valley reviewed for good measure.

With the headquarters of the railway and its major facilities established there, the leading county town a century ago was Kentville.  But Berwick and Wolfville had much to boast about and it’s interesting to see what newspaper editors and leading citizens selected as the main attributes of these towns.

In most cases the gentlemen praising Berwick, Kentville and Wolfville singled out the leading retail stores and industries of their respective towns as worth mentioning.  Let’s look at Berwick first.

F. Lawson, whom I believe was a printer, wrote Berwick’s contribution to the Busy East’s special edition. As well as being the “leading town of two valleys,” wrote Lawson, Berwick was into apples in a big, big way 100 years ago. As well as the headquarters of the sprawling United Fruit Companies of Nova Scotia (with over 40 subsidiary companies along the train tracks) Berwick was the home port of eastern Canada’s biggest apple grower.  When it came to growing, packing and exporting apples, no one in eastern Canada came near Sam Chute.

At the time Berwick had one of the most modern flour and cereal mills in eastern Canada.  The Woodworth Bros. Mill generated its own electricity and using the railway, shipped its products all over the Maritimes.  A “show place”, the Berwick Nurseries, graced the town, along with a hotel and a combination automotive garage and foundry.

Now to Wolfville, which 100 years ago – according to B. O Davison, editor of The Acadian – was a favourite residential centre.  “We have modern streets, an abundant supply of purest water, an up-to-date sewerage system (and) electric lighting,” boasted Davison; and, of course, Acadia University, one of the “school centres of Canada.”

There were fine hotels in Wolfville 100 years ago, among them Acadia Villa Hotel and Acadia Lodge, but no mention is made of retail stores or industries.  The potential of Wolfville as a major seaport hasn’t been realised, writes Davison, who appears more interested in promoting the town as a “desirable place to live in and move in.”

Reflecting perhaps the size and importance of the town 100 years ago, Kentville was given the biggest spread by the Busy East.  “It is the gem of the Valley and the hub of Evangeline land,” writes one of its leading citizens, George E. Calkin.  It helped of course that the Dominion Atlantic Railway had its headquarters in the town, along with all the facilities and employees required to keep the trains running.

Thanks to the railway and the nearby military camp, Kentville was thriving 100 years ago.  A major hotel, the Aberdeen, was located downtown, and firms such as T. P Calkin were expanding from Kentville into other areas of the province.  A major provincial automobile distributor was located in the town, and the Nova Scotia Power Company was about to set up its headquarters there.

Long since gone and hardly remembered anymore is the Neary Liniment Company.  Owned by W. Wylie Rockwell, of Rockwell Ltd. fame, the firm was given is own write-up in the Big East review.  At the time R. L. Mcdonald was operating an “auto livery” in Kentville.  Was this a misspelling of Macdonald and the start of the distinguished Valley firm of Ralph L. Macdonald & Co Ltd?  Perhaps it was.

Looking at these reviews, I’m surprised by attempts to portray each town as a tourist destination.  Nearby scenic areas were described in detail, the Look-Off, Cape Blomidon and Grand Pre, for example.  Mention was often made of scenic apple orchards near each town, with Kentville described as being in the “centre of the far-famed garden of Nova Scotia.”

“If you’ve lived in the Gaspereau Valley or travelled through the area, you’ve no doubt noticed the tower that sits atop the hill,” Tarina Bambrick wrote in a summer issue of The Advertiser in 1992.

The tower, Bambrick said, was on the Wallbrook side of the Gaspereau River near the Ralph Stirling residence, on what is known locally as Trenholm Hill; near its base is an old graveyard.

Now, just over two decades later, there are a few more graves in the cemetery but little else has changed.  The tower still looms there on Trenholm Hill; dominating its surroundings for longer than most people can remember, it’s a curiosity of sorts, its origin and purpose bandied about.  The tiny graveyard near the base of the tower adds to the mystery of a structure that has long been speculated about.  Was it built as a look off, a watch tower, a tourist attraction or constructed on a whim?  No one seems to know for sure.

Tarina Bambrick was on the staff of The Advertiser in 1992 when she determined to learn the age of the tower and “how it came to be.”  Bambrick had grown up nearby, had visited the tower like most residents of the area, but it was only until she had been away and hadn’t seen it for 18 years that she became interested in its origin.

Bambrick’s historical research began by interviewing several senior residents around the Gaspereau Valley.  It seemed to be the logical way to discover the tower’s age, why it was built and who constructed it.  In a way this was a dead end when it came to learning the tower’s age; tallying up what seniors remembered about the tower, its age varied according to whom she was talking to.

For example, one of the seniors reckoned that the tower was built just after World War 1.  Based on the recollections of another interviewee, the tower was erected in 1908 0r 1909.  Based on yet another interview with a senior resident of the Gaspereau area, the tower was built around 1920 or in 1921.  These estimates are close to the actual age of the tower, as you will see shortly.

Recently I talked with Kay Stirling, who was interviewed by Tarina Bambrick for the 1992 article.  The Stirlings have owned the tower property for about 60 years, Ms. Stirling said. Stirling confirmed what Bambrick had learned through her research on the tower.   The gentleman who had the tower constructed was the late Harry Trenholm.  Mr. Trenholm employed Havelock Brown to build it.  Brown’s reputation as an expert carpenter, one of the best in the area, made him the natural choice to construct the tower.

It appears the consensus is Harry Trenholm built the tower as a family memorial, possibly for his mother.  This is what Kay Stirling believes. Also, it may have been a place the Trenholm family retired to on Sunday afternoons, the view from the tower being spectacular.

Nearly 15 meters high and standing on one of the highest hills in the area, the tower is an excellent look-off.  It’s claimed that one can see three counties, perhaps even four, from the tower on a clear day; much of the Gaspereau Valley and a bit of Minas Basin can be viewed from the tower.

As for the actual age of the tower, I was told by Kay Stirling that it likely has stood on the hill overlooking the Gaspereau River for about 110 years.  Ms. Stirling said when the tower was being renovated, newspapers dated 1902 were found in the walls, meaning undoubtedly the tower is into its second century and counting.

I checked on some of the headstones in the cemetery and found one dated 1905, that of Douglass A. Mitchell who was drowned in Boston Harbour.  Harry Trenholm, 1870 – 1945, the man who had the tower built, lies in the cemetery.  Buried there as well, according to the Rootsweb list of Kings County cemeteries are Bishops, Careys, Stirlings, Perrys and Tamlins.  I found markers/headstones for these families except for the Tamlins.

The tower has weathered well over the years, Tarina Bambrick wrote in 1992.  It still looks good today, thanks to the Stirlings keeping it up.  While the tower was accessible to the public at one time, due to vandalism the Stirlings had to put a gate on the road leading to it.   If you don’t mind the long climbing, the tower is accessible by foot.  As a courtesy to the family, I’m sure Kay Stirling would appreciate you asking for permission first before venturing up the hill

As I said, the view is spectacular.

Looming high above the Gaspereau Valley for over a century, the original purpose of the Trenholm tower is still somewhat of a mystery. (E. Coleman)

The old cemetery below Trenholm tower holds one headstone dated 1905. (E. Coleman)

Dated 21 December, 1760, a document in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, advises the Lords of Trade in Great Britain of a shipwreck in the Canard River.  “With concern,” writes Lieutenant Governor Jonathan Belcher, “I acquaint your Lordships of the loss of the Provincial Brigantine the Montague after unloading the provisions for the new settlers at Horton and Cornwallis in her passage down the Canard River, she ran upon a Bank of Mud and was overset so deep that the water covers her at high tides and tho all endeavours have been used, I am satisfied that she will not again be fit for service.”

In an earlier column I had written about the sinking of the Montague in the Canard River, noting Arthur W. H. Eaton’s reference to the shipwreck in his Kings County history and in a 1915 paper on Rhode Island settlers.  Other historical writers have mentioned the shipwreck but Belcher’s dispatch is the only government record found so far confirming the fate of the Montague.

Another interesting document on the Montague has surfaced and it has spurred the Kings Historical Society into producing a video on the shipwreck.  Discovered in the Public Archives by Historical Society president Doug Crowell, the document, a court paper, reveals unauthorised attempts to salvage pieces of the Montague.  Apparently the Montague, as it sat on the mud flats along the Canard River channel near Porter’s Point, was too much of a temptation for Nathanial Curtis who along with John Dains cut away the Montague’s mast and carried away the ironwork.

Dated 7 December 1761, the court document reveals that a complaint was made to Justice of the Peace Amos Bill that “some evil minded person or persons had cut a mast and carried away the Irons belonging to said mast, which mast floated from his Majesty’s Brigg Montecue” (sic).

Bill found that Curtis “of Cornwallis, yeoman, did cut and carry or at least assist in cutting and carrying away said Iron, which is contrary to Law.”  Dains name does not appear in this document and it is likely he was charged separately.

To guarantee the appearance of Curtis in court to face the charges, two prominent citizens of Cornwallis agreed to put up a surety bond.  They were Dr. Samuel Willoughby and Samuel Starr “who both acknowledge themselves bound in the sum of ten pounds sterling,” reads the court document …. “in the recognizance thereof that the said Nathaniel Curtis shall appear before the next Quarter Sessions and shall not depart said Court without leave or license …”

The court case against Curtis and his apparently successful attempt to salvage what he could from the shipwrecked Montague undoubtedly will be a feature of the documentary on the Montague.  This is being produced for the Kings Historical Society by Innovative’s Stephen Wilsack.  Attempts to find the shipwreck, which may still lie buried in the mud along the Canard River channel, will be documented as well. The video will also look at the career of the Montague’s Captain, Jeremiah Rogers.   Before she was commissioned to provide supplies for the Planters of Cornwallis and Horton, the Montague under Rogers was a privateer.

(Note:  Readers who may have heard of folklore on the Montague or Capt. Rogers are invited to contact the Kings Historical Society.)

“Berwick is the very center of the great apple growing industry,” notes an editorial about the town in a 1916 review of the Annapolis Valley.

The review was published in a special issue of the Busy East in Canada magazine (which later became the Atlantic Advocate) and it’s interesting since it mentions the proclaimed king of apple growing in Nova Scotia, Berwick’s famed Sam Chute, establishing his credentials as a prominent pioneer orchardist.

A while back I devoted a column to Mr. Chute, determining he was indeed a leading pioneer in apple growing.  I had erroneously claimed that William H. Chase deserved the title of apple king but the then editor of this paper, Sara Keddy, set me straight. Bottom line, Chute was the leading apple grower, Chase the man who marketed the apple crop with a genius unrivalled and making a fortune doing so.

Anyway, back to the Busy East, its Valley Review and the write-up on Sam Chute.  At the time of publication Sam Chute was hailed as the man “who has the largest orchard in the world.”  Chute, when asked if this true, asked in turn, “Who has one larger.”  At the time Chute had 40,000 apple trees and was busy planting more.  He was also prominent in establishing the United Fruit Companies, which had it headquarters in Berwick.

Berwick wasn’t alone in claiming to be the apple capital.  Wolfville made a similar claim at the time and it was also published in the Busy East.  “Wolfville is the center of the finest fruit-growing sections of Nova Scotia,” writes B. O. Davison, editor the town’s weekly, The Acadian.  Kentville’s mayor made a similar claim, but more on that later when I look at the Busy East’s review of Valley towns.

In this special edition the Busy East mentioned an unusual agricultural product I never heard of before, a product that apparently had the potential of making the Valley known far and wide for more than just apple growing.

That product was Humogen and here’s what the Busy East said about it:  “As the valley progresses, so will Berwick.  If the day comes when the immense Caribou Bog, which lies on Berwick’s western boundary, is made to produce Humogen, then, surely, will come an era of accelerated prosperity, for the lack of fertilizer is the valley’s greatest drawback.

“Humogen is a product discovered by Professor Bottomley, a noted scientist of the University of London.  Bog peat is inoculated with a bacteria discovered by Prof. Bottomley and the material is thus converted into soluble plant food.”

Nothing came of the project to convert the Aylesford peat bog into a massive fertilizer swamp.  The whole scheme apparently fizzled out when it was found Humogen wasn’t as effective as regular fertilizer and was costly and time consuming to produce and harvest.

It’s interesting though.  As well as once being the apple capital, we almost became the Humogen producing capital of Canada.

There are various history books and research papers devoted to the period when the Planters arrived here.  I have in mind the writing of Esther Clark Wright, James Stuart Martell, and the book They Planted Well, a collection of historical articles on the Planters.*

But besides the Chipman Papers in the Public Archives (which cover a century of Planter history mainly in Kings County) there are relatively few published personal records, diaries and such offering contemporary views of the early Planter period.  A few Planter family diaries exist but for the most part they’re not available to the general public.

Sometimes you come across descriptions of early Planter life in Kings County where you’d never expect to find them.  An example is the autobiography by a New England soldier (Capt. David Perry) who served in the Seven Year’s War and was briefly stationed in Kings County just after the Acadian deportation.

In a recent column I mentioned Perry’s reference to one of the first forts built in Kings County and his military activities.  Interesting is Perry’s reference to the Acadians that remained after the deportation, noting as I’ve read elsewhere they were of great assistance to the Planter settlers.

“Two Acadian families came to reside with us, who were very useful to our people,” Perry writes, “and learned them many useful arts, and among others, how to catch fish.  Which was of great service to them, as the provisions they brought with them were soon exhausted.”   We learn from Perry that without the Acadian’s help and “provision from the King’s stores,” the settlers “must in all probability have starved.”

Interesting also is Perry’s description of an environment he found not to his liking:  “Three large rivers (the Habitant, Cornwallis and Gaspereau) run through the town of Cornwallis.  At high water vessels of the largest size could sail up and down them with safety.  The rivers made a vast quantity of marshy land and the upland between them was not very good.  I did not like (this) country.”

Perry described the Acadians that remained in Kings County and the Mi’kmaq as “quite peaceful and to all appearance friendly,” questioning whether a fort really was needed to protect the settlers.

Another view of Kings County and the Planters is found in a book by Rev. Jacob Bailey, a Maine Loyalist.  As the American Revolution began, Bailey was forced to leave his country.  For a few years he preached in Kings County – from 1779 to 1782 – before moving to Annapolis Royal.

In his memoir, The Frontier Missionary, Bailey wrote a gloomy description of the Planter arrival in Kings County:  “Upon the departure of these unfortunate people (the Acadians) their houses and church were burned by the English, their domestic animals perished with hunger and the dykes, which protected their fertile land from the seas, fell into decay.

“Five years after this event a fleet of twenty-two transports, convoyed by an armed vessel of sixteen guns, landed emigrants from New England on the territory that had been occupied by the neutral French.  Two hundred persons from Connecticut settled at Cornwallis.  Although, as before stated, the natural features of the country were beautiful, yet the ruin which had befallen the former inhabitants was distinctly visible, and could hardly fail to inspire melancholy emotions.”

*Available at the Valley Regional Library

“Beside this fort ran a large river of the same name, Pisga (Piziquid) River, over which we passed in boats into the Menus (Minas) country,” wrote Capt. David Perry in an autobiography published in 1822.* “The people had laid out two towns, one called Horton and the other Cornwallis.  We were stationed at the latter ….  We had a very agreeable time of it, among our own country people, and built a picket fort there.”

Perry’s “picket fort,” built in 1760 after the Planters arrived here – or perhaps early in 1761- is one of the earliest records of a military fort in Kings County.   In his history of Kings County, Arthur W. H. Eaton refers to two forts the military erected here shortly before and just after the Acadian expulsion in 1755.   One, Fort Montague in Horton Township near Grand Pre, is mentioned briefly.  Eaton has more detail on what was called Fort Vieux Logis in Cornwallis Township, even though he notes that Fort Montague was the more important of the two.  Of course neither is the picket fort Perry mentions in his book, this being simply a hastily made post barrier that wasn’t meant to be permanent.

Vieux Logis (said to be an Acadian place name in Kings County) was originally a blockhouse at Annapolis Royal.  Eaton writes that in 1749, on orders from Governor Cornwallis, “the block-house now erected at Annapolis Royal (is) to be taken down and transported to Minas, there to be set up for the protection of the detachment you are ordered to send there.”

Late in 1760, Jonathan Belcher wrote to the English Board of Trade informing them that as soon as the townships of Horton and Cornwallis were laid out, “palisaded forts” were erected in each of them.  Eaton writes that the fort in Horton Township (Vieux Logis) likely was the renovated blockhouse carted up from Annapolis Royal.  However, says Eaton, it’s probable a new fort was constructed in Cornwallis Township and perhaps this was the aforementioned Fort Montague near Grand Pre.  This fort was still standing “as late as from 1840 to 1850,” Eaton notes.

Exactly where Fort Vieux Logis in Horton Township was located has never been determined.  Local folklore places it several places, one of them on a rise overlooking and above the south side of the Gaspereau River, approximately where the landmark Stirling tower stands today.  However, recent research places the fort more to the north on the opposite side of the river.

Apparently Fort Vieux Logis was named after the Acadian locale in which it stood – a bilingual friend tells me it translates as “old house.”  Eaton says the fort was established in Horton Township in 1749 and abandoned in 1753, the military outpost moving to Windsor.  In historical research I have on the fort (origin unknown) it’s suggested the fort was located on the Hortonville side of the Gaspereau River, near a landing used by the Acadians.

Perhaps one day when the exact site of the fort is located, a suitable monument will mark where it stood.

*The Life of Captain David Perry, a Soldier of the French and Revolutionary War.   Perry began his military career with the New England militia in 1758 when he was 16 and participated in several battles during the Seven Years’ War.