I’ve been told that it contains minor inaccuracies, but that is to be expected in a work as extensive as Eaton’s History of Kings County. “After all, Eaton worked alone in writing it and was unable to check out all his sources” a reader explained when he mentioned finding a trivial error in Eaton’s book.

If you read Eaton’s history thoroughly you will discover that in one sense he didn’t work alone in compiling his work. In several instances, Eaton quotes earlier historians and researchers extensively. In his chapter on the Acadian French, for example, Eaton’s discussion on the origin of roads in Kings County is mostly based on a manuscript researched and written by Dr. William Pitt Brechin.

In his preface as well, Eaton acknowledges that a number of people were of great help when he was writing his history. What Eaton says in the preface is that he literally picked the brains and used the research of some prominent people of his time, such as Robert William Starr, Dr. Benjamin Rand and Harry Piers. Eaton also leaned heavily on a number of amateur historians, most of which are acknowledged in his preface.

The researcher/historian Eaton quotes from most is Dr. William Pitt Brechin, 1851 – 1899. The Brechins are included in Eaton’s chapter of family sketches; from these sketches, we learn that Dr. Brechin was a third generation Nova Scotian. Brechin’s great-grandfather, James, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. Eaton doesn’t tell us when James arrived in Nova Scotia, only that he died in Halifax or Chester around 1796. His son and grandson remained in Nova Scotia. The grandson, Major Perez Martin Brechin who was born in Halifax, married a Kings County woman and sired William. Dr. Brechin was born in Cornwallis, and likely was raised on an original Planter land grant since his mother was a Harrington.

Eaton tells us nothing of Dr. Brechin’s life other than that he graduated at the Harvard Medical School, practised medicine in Boston and died there suddenly on December 10, 1899. It is obvious, however, that Dr. Brechin never lost contact with his native land. Brechin was a keen student of Annapolis Valley history and a historical writer. Confirmation of this is given in the preface to Eaton’s history:

“In the preparation of family sketches the well known newspaper articles, now in scrap books, of the late William Pitt Brechin, M.D., of Boston, have been of great assistance. Dr. Brechin was an indefatigable genealogist of Cornwallis families.” Eaton goes on to mention that the “vital records of the Cornwallis Town Book” were the original source “from which a very considerable part of Dr. Brechin’s material was drawn.”

As mentioned, Eaton leans heavily on the work of Dr. Brechin in his discussion of the early road system in Kings County. Further on Eaton again refers to Brechin’s research on the so-called massacre at Bloody Run or Moccasin Hollow, west of Kentville. According to Brechin’s findings, a small party of British troops was ambushed and slain in this area by the French and Micmacs.

Brechin’s interest in local history may have been stimulated by his boyhood surroundings. Eaton writes that the farm of Brechin’s father, Perez, was situated in an area steeped in Acadian history. Eatons says, for example, that “near the willow trees on the easterly side of Mr. Perez M. Brechin’s farm… it is said an Acadian blacksmith shop stood.”

Other than the references in Eaton’s history, Dr. Brechin has received little recognition for his pioneer historical work. Some of his historical work was published in various periodicals, but if Eaton is right, all that might exist of it today lies in yellowing scrapbooks.

In 1860 the Secretary of the Board of Statistics wrote that this would be “a first attempt to make a complete census (in Nova Scotia).” The reference was to the census of 1861 that was started on March 30 of that year. Using county residents as census-takers, this was the last independent enumeration of the province before Confederation.

When the last census was taken a decade earlier, Nova Scotia’s population was 276,117. The count in 1861 was 330,857, an increase of nearly 20 percent. Nova Scotia’s population was growing rapidly and most of the increase was taking place in rural areas. In Kings County alone the population had increased by almost one-third since the 1851 census; Kings County was the second highest growth area in the province between 1851 and 1861.

The census of 1861 produced more interesting information than population counts, however. The census revealed the gruesome statistic that between the census years there were more male deaths than female – 12 percent more, in fact. The main cause of death was tuberculosis and diphtheria but the census showed that other contagious diseases had also taken their toll.

A census that counted that counted heads and includes a survey health problems? Apparently, that’s the way they did things in the 19th century. Head counts, death rates, farm and industry surveys, a cataloguing of occupations… these things and more were in the copy of the census I found recently at Acadia University. And while the statistics are dull and the facts and figures only apply to life as it was over 100 years ago, they put our great grandfather’s period in perspective. Besides that, some of the information gathered in the census is amusing.

In 1861, for example, seven people in Nova Scotia gave their occupation as matchmakers and at the time there were only five registered dentists and 170 registered physicians. One quarter of the male population told the census-takers they were farmers (with some fishing on the side) and one gentleman was a full-time ice dealer. It was the time of wooden ships and iron men, so it isn’t surprising that Nova Scotians had 3,118 vessels registered in the shipping trade; and a count of 5,242 mariners and 1,112 shipwrights was to be expected.

Horses were the main mode of transportation and along with oxen, were used as draft animals in farming and lumbering. So it isn’t surprising that in 1861 a total of 1,518 men (and possibly a female or two) worked as blacksmiths. In 1851 Nova Scotians owned 13,138 horses; by 1861 this number had increased to 41,927, mainly the census returns said “because they (horses) were starting to replace oxen.”

Potatoes were the main farm crop in the period from census to census – the returns indicated a 100 percent increase in the growing of potatoes between 1851 and 1861. There were over 2,000 mills operating in the province in 1861, of which 414 were grist mills and 77 carding mills. Most of the mills ran by water power but there were a handful of steam mills and one wind mill that ground grain commercially.

Another commentary on the times (and perhaps a comment of sorts on the drinking habits of Valley people) were the number of temperance halls registered in the province. The grand total was 49 province-wide and of these eight were located in Kings County and nine in Hants County.

Just after the census was taken, 14,392 Kings County residents said their ethnic origin was English, there were 3,755 residents of Irish origin and 1,841 Scots; the number of French (Acadian?) in the county was a mere 281. In Hants County during the same period 8,589 people said they were English, 5,728 claimed Irish origin and the Scots numbered 5,051; only 186 people said they were of French origin.

As mentioned in last week’s column a re-enactment of the old Nova Scotia pony express run of 1849 will take place in early autumn. Thanks to Ivan Smith of Canning, I have an update about the events that will take place to mark the pony express anniversary.

The celebration will involve numerous communities and organizations throughout the Annapolis Valley. The re-enactment of the run will see riders galloping through the Valley along #1 highway, which was part of the original route. As I mentioned, the organizers of the anniversary hope to include a proclamation from Queen Elisabeth, which will be carried by the riders participating in the re-enactment.

To give you an overview of the re-enactment and to answer questions you may have about the short-lived pony express, extracts follow from the update received from Mr. Smith.

Why a pony express in Nova Scotia in 1849? “The Associated Press (AP) had been formed in 1848 by six leading New York newspapers to pool their efforts in speeding international news, and had invested significantly in the extension of the telegraph from the U.S. to Saint John, New Brunswick. The challenge was to get the dispatches from the docks of Halifax to the telegraph office in Saint John in the least possible time. The answer: To run a ‘pony express’ overland to Victoria Beach on the Bay of Fundy and carry dispatches on a fast chartered steamboat to Saint John.”

The Celebration: “The Pony Express Sesquicentennial Committee has been formed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of this colorful event. A number of municipalities and historical organizations are represented along the route. Celebrations are expected at the dockside when the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 11 docks at Halifax on the 28th of September.

“A total of around 12 celebrations will occur along the historical route, with Hants County celebrating on the 30th, Kings County on the 1st of October, and Annapolis County on the 2nd of October. Town Criers will read messages and proclamations, (and) there will be historical exhibits.

“A highlight of the celebration will be a re-enactment run by horses and riders over the entire 144 mile route, with stops at various scheduled ceremonies. The accent throughout will be a safe run.”

The original Pony express run: “The route was along the old Post Road, roughly the route of Highway 1 today. The AP paid the then enormous sum of US$1000 for each of the 20 runs. The service started on the 21st of February 1849 and ended on the 15th of November 1849 when the telegraph was completed from Saint John to Halifax.

“The horses were the finest available and the run was made at high speed day and night. The 144 miles were covered by a relay of two riders, changing in Kentville, on a total of 12 horses for each run. The average time was eight hours for the run, so each rider covered about 72 miles in just four hours. For comparison, the Halifax-Victoria Beach trip takes around three hours by car today, using high speeds and limited access roads such as the 101.”

That the runs were made “night and day” made it a hazardous undertaking and the rider on the pony express had many mishaps. From the press release: “Horse and rider were lucky another time. A rider at night was astonished when his horse gave a mighty leap (of 18 feet) while crossing a stream at Lower Horton. What the horse had seen, and the rider had not, was that the swing bridge was not in place that night.”

If above all you desire a good reputation, a long life and happiness, then drink beer says the Nova Scotia Temperance Society.

The Nova Scotia Temperance Society of 1831, that is. The Society’s message, published in the Nova Scotia Almanac for 1831, advises people that one small beer a day can bring all the good things mentioned above. Drinking water rather than strong alcohol, said the Society, would bring health and wealth. And by drinking milk along with water one would achieve “serenity and composure of mind.”

Living up to its temperance name, the Society’s message in the old Almanac was that some alcoholic beverages were acceptable if used in moderation, or as they said in the Almanac “in temperance.” Wine in moderation, said the Society, brought strength, vigor and provided nourishment. Cider and Perry (in moderation of course) were also recommended since they brought one “cheerfulness and contentment.”

Not all alcohol beverages had health benefits or generated mental well-being, however. Nova Scotians were warned to avoid punch, grog, brandy, gin, etc., since they brought sickness in various forms. Among the evils one was susceptible to when imbibing these drinks was dropsy, epilepsy, apoplexy, various terrible swellings of the limbs and …. madness.

Curious and quaint best describe the warnings issued by the Temperance Society in 1831. Oddly, researchers have recently confirmed that wine and beer do have health benefits. Yet over 150 years ago the Temperance Society was telling people wine and beer provided nourishment and improved one’s general well-being. How did they know? And how did they positively know away back then that milk was so good for people?

The Temperance Society’s promotion of alcoholic drinks as healthful isn’t the only interesting item in the old Almanac. For example, did you know that in 1831 females outnumbered males in the Annapolis Valley? According to the Almanac, the population of Kings County in 1831 was 10,208 of which 4,756 were males; Hants County’s population was 8,627 and 3,901 were males. Annapolis County had the largest population in 1831 – 14,661 – and 7,152 were males.

Other trivia from the old Almanac: Between the census year of 1817 and 1831, Annapolis County was the fastest growing area in the Annapolis Valley. In this period Annapolis County’s population increased by almost 50 percent; in the same period Kings and Hants averaged a 35 percent increase.

Some of the surnames of Kings and Hants County dignitaries mentioned in the Almanac are of Planter and Loyalist origin and come from some of the first families to settle the Valley after the expulsion of the Acadians. In 1831, for example, George Chipman was high sheriff in Kings County, while in Hants County this office was held by J. Wilkins. Lt. Col. Henry Gisner (Gesner?) commanded the 1st battalion of the Kings County Regiment; the 2nd. battalion commander was Lt. Col. S. Dennison. The battalions of the Hants County Regiment were commanded by Lt. Col. W. H. Shey and Lt. Col. R. Smith.

Pony Express Re-enactment

If you’ve been following the news you are likely aware of the pony express, which operated in Nova Scotia for about nine months in 1849. A re-enactment of the running of the pony express across Nova Scotia is being planned for this 150th anniversary year in late September or early October. This should be an interesting salute to a little-known piece of Nova Scotia history. I understand there may even be a Royal Proclamation which will be carried by riders during the re-enactment.

In an Advertiser column several years ago, Harold Woodman wrote that with the coming of old age pensions “the county poorhouses, which had been the home of many old people, soon disappeared from the scene.”

We can assume from this observation that poor-houses were once a fact of life. In 1910 A.W.H. Eaton (History of Kings County) wrote that “for many years now Poor-Houses have existed in the three original townships (Aylesford, Horton, Cornwallis) of the county.” When Eaton wrote this there were at least five provincially operated poor-houses in this part of the Annapolis Valley. Three were located in Kings County, one in West Hants and one in Bridgetown.

As for the establishment of poor-houses in Kings County, it’s possible to be more explicit than Eaton. Thanks to a grant from the Kings County Agricultural Society, poor-houses were opened in Billtown, Greenwich and Aylesford late in the 19th century. Records of the year-to-year operation of these houses can be found in House of Assembly reports in the Nova Scotia Archives and the Kirkconnell Room at Acadia University. A brief description of the Greenwich poor-house is in the history of this community (Greenwich Times 1760 – 1968) by Edythe Quinn.

It appears that before the establishment of poor-houses the poor and needy (as Eaton calls them in his Kings County history) were often “farmed out” and “bid off.” Translated, this meant that men, women and children needing assistance were often boarded in private homes where they were required to work at farm labor and domestic chores. Eaton tells us that private homes, subsidized by county grants, operated as boarding rooms for the poor and were common in the 19th century.

The opening of poor-houses in the Annapolis Valley did away with the boarding house system of caring for the needy – a system newspapers called “wasteful, inefficient and ill-suited to looking after certain classes of the poor,” – i.e. people with physical and mental disabilities. In some cases, however, the poor-houses or poor farms as government reports called them, were worse than private boarding rooms. While government reports on early county poor-houses gloss over what life was really like in these institutions, enough was said to paint a terrible picture.

In 1891, for example, a government inspector, Dr. A. C. Page toured the poor-houses of Kings and Hants County and while he used phrases such as “prettily situated,” a “handsome and substantial” building, and “tempting accommodations,” the misery peeks through.

“The Horton (Greenwich) farm … is a very suitable one,” Dr. Page reported, “but the house is old and not well adapted to the purpose, being too small and having very poor sleeping accommodations. There are 22 inmates, seven of whom are children. The bedsteads are poor, rickety wooden contrivances, not fit for the purpose for which they are used, but on the other hand well calculated for the breeding of vermin.” Dr. Page concludes with, “No bath room. No bathing. No enclosed grounds. No pains taken to keep sexes separate.”

On the Billtown poor-house Dr. Page reports that while there are no violent or acute insane there are “several silly imbeciles.” The buildings there are very poor, Page notes, and there is no regular medical supervision, no bathrooms and no heat throughout the house. The poor-house in West Hants has 45 inmates, “two of them insane, 25 are children.” We can see from Dr. Page’s reports that in most cases these poor-houses were the last stop for the homeless and for people with physical and mental disabilities.

With consolidation of several railway companies and the incorporation of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1894, a single line ran through the province from Halifax to Yarmouth. Wherever possible, the line through the Annapolis Valley had been laid in the lowlands, in some places running near the Minas Basin shore where railroad builders found fewer natural obstructions.

In Kings County the turbulent Cornwallis River and a geological feature, the Cornwallis Valley, dictated where the rail line would run. This left a vacuum of sorts along the northern bank of the Cornwallis River from Port Williams to Kentville and from these communities north to the Fundy shore. The establishment of the Cornwallis Valley Railway (C.V.R.) from Kingsport to Kentville provided some service, but it was obvious that a major area in Kings County had been “left out” when it came to rail service.

Looking at the lay of the land, it was also obvious that running to Kentville on the D.A.R. and doubling back on the C.V.R. to reach the then major port of Kingsport was taking the long way around. A line crossing the Cornwallis River at Port Williams and running north to Canning was the direct and shortest route to Kingsport. Since bridging the Cornwallis River near Port Williams would have presented no major problems other than financial, why was such a rail line never considered?

Actually it was. On March 31, 1911, an act to incorporate the Blomidon Railway Company Limited was passed by the provincial government. The document of incorporation can be found in the 1911 Statutes of Nova Scotia; this document indicates that the new railway would connect with the D.A.R. at Wolfville, cross the Cornwallis River at Port Williams and service areas untouched by the current railway

From Port Williams the Blomidon Railway was to run to Canning via Starr’s Point and Canard. After connecting with the C.V.R. “at or near Canning,” the new line would run north to Cape Blomidon, passing first through Woodside, North Corner, Upper Pereau and Delhaven. The plan was to run the line to the top of Cape Blomidon to the site of the National Park and from there run to Scots Bay and then to Cape Split. Today an old trail of unclear origin runs from the park site straight through the woods to Scots Bay; perhaps it is the right of way hewed out of the forest by the fledgling Blomidon Railway Company.

A number of prominent professional men and merchants were named as the chief operating officers of the proposed line and it’s is obvious from this list that the Blomidon Railway was a serious undertaking. One of the officers, Kentville lawyer Harry H. Wickwire, came from a pioneer family that had long played a prominent role in Kings County. Another officer, Leslie S. Macoun of Ottawa, was the son-in-law of Sir Frederick Borden. Named also as officers of the line were Canning physician Archibald M. Covert and Canning businessmen Arthur S. Burgess and Halle Bigelow.

Rumored to have the blessing of Sir Frederick and with initial capital of a quarter million dollars, the plan to build the Blomidon Railway was far from a fanciful scheme.  It would have been a magnificent undertaking but looking back from our vantage point today, we know that the Blomidon Railway was never built.

The Company had two years from the date of incorporation to start work on the railway, and I assumed that newspapers in 1911 or 1912 would have some reference to it. I found nothing. Perhaps another researcher will discover why the Blomidon Railway never happened.

“It is necessary, in order to raise grains, to drain the marshes which the sea at high tide overflows,” the Sieur de Diereville wrote of his travels in Acadia in 1699. “It is not easy to stay the course of the sea,” de Diereville continued, “(but) the Acadians nevertheless accomplish the task by means of strong dykes which they call aboteaux.”

As we know from history books, the Acadians did accomplish this task well; the evidence is all around us in Kings, Hants and Annapolis County. Much of the prime farm land in these areas was first dyked off by the Acadians. A number of dykes and aboiteaux stand today where they were originally conceived and laid out by the Acadians.

Locally the Acadians placed dykes and aboiteaux on the Pereau, Canard and Habitant (Canning) River. There are running dykes on the Cornwallis River, some of which are of Acadian origin. However, there is no evidence that the Acadians attempted to place a cross dyke and aboiteau on any part of the Cornwallis.

This seems puzzling at first since the Acadians dyked other major waterways in this area – in some cases feeder streams were dyked as well. When we take a second look, however, we can see that the Acadians would have been gained little by placing an aboiteau on the Cornwallis. Dykes and aboiteaux were built with one purpose in mind: to hold back the sea and create farm land.

What agricultural land would have been reclaimed by dykeing the Cornwallis and placing an aboiteau on it? Running dykes along the lower Cornwallis salvage meadows that were being flooded daily, but there were no great upland meadows to be claimed from the sea such as are found on the Canard and Habitant.

Beside lack of reclaimable uplands, the Acadians may have ignored the Cornwallis because of its nature. Compared to the Pereau, Canard and Habitant River, the Cornwallis is swift, treacherous and deep; its tidal force is concentrated in a narrow, muddy channel that may have been too powerful to contain. In other words, the dykeing techniques used by the Acadians may have been inadequate for the Cornwallis.

But if not the Acadians, what about the Planters? Did they consider dykeing the mighty tidal waters of the Cornwallis?

The answer is a tentative “maybe.” In his History of Kings County, Arthur W. H. Eaton quotes an earlier historian, Dr. Benjamin Rand, who says that an aboiteau is “now proposed at the old French ford at Starr’s Point.” Eaton gives no year for the proposed aboiteau but the date may have been 1865. The Statutes of Nova Scotia for that year record an “Act to provide for building an Aboiteau across the Cornwallis River.” The site of the aboiteau was to be at Port Williams.

The historical records don’t tell us why this plan to build an aboiteau on the Cornwallis was never carried out. Like the Acadians perhaps, 19th century engineers found that blocking the Cornwallis and putting is a sea gate was not only difficult but impractical. If the aboiteau was placed at Port Williams, for example, wouldn’t the farmlands on the seaward side in this area be flooded on every tide?

While the loss of farmlands already reclaimed from the sea may have resulted from a Cornwallis River aboiteau, this didn’t stop people from considering it again. In 1912 an act was passed to incorporate the Cornwallis River Aboiteau Company. The plan was to build an aboiteau on the river “west of the present bridge at Port Williams.” Once again the plan was dropped, perhaps because of the downstream flooding that would have resulted.

During a break in our Friday night card game I brought out some apples and challenged the guys to name the varieties before they dipped into them. There were Cortlands and Macs, which I knew would be named immediately, but I figured that a couple of the varieties might not be recognized by the younger members of our card club.

As I suspected, only the seniors in our card group were able to identify the old-fashioned Gravensteins. No one identified the Cox’s Orange, an old variety that was a favorite in our grandparent’s day. Which was a surprise, by the way, since a couple of the club members have lived in the Valley’s apple belt over half a century.

On the other hand, maybe it shouldn’t have been surprising. Many of the old apples have disappeared and have been forgotten. In the marketplace today are apple varieties that were never heard of a decade ago.

My favorite apple is the Bishop Pippin; you can still find this apple if you know where to look out in the country, but most of trees have been cut down. The Bishop Pippin has a sweet, wine-like flavor and would certainly be a hit with the younger generations if it was readily available. But perhaps like many of the old apple varieties that have disappeared, they weren’t hardy enough, or storageable, or disease-resistant enough, or shippable or something.

The work of the Acadians has had a social and economic impact on this area that is often ignored or overlooked. While an obvious example is the dykes, the Acadians may have laid the foundation for the Valley’s apple growing industry. Eaton says in his Kings County history that the “first fruit gardens of Kings (County) were planted by the Acadians.” Eaton refers to the Acadians as “fruit-raising pioneers.”

In his discussion on Acadians and apples, Eaton the historian is quoting from an essay by Eaton the fruit-grower. Ralph Samuel Eaton, the originator of the famed Hillcrest Orchards northeast of Kentville, wrote that the “patches of fruit trees” planted by the Acadians “encouraged the New England settlers …. and they soon began to enlarge the orchards and introduce new varieties of fruit.”

When Eaton the fruit-grower wrote his essay, which may have been for the annual report of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers’ Association in 1892, or 1893, he said that a few of the apple trees planted by the Acadians still existed. “A few individual trees at Gaspereau, Grand Pre and Canard still stand, which are supposed to have been planted by (the Acadians)” Eaton wrote.

In the essay Eaton named many of the early pioneers of apple-growing in the Annapolis Valley. Among these pioneers are names familiar to Valley history buffs: Col. John Burbidge, who started the Nonpareil and Golden Russet; Bishop Charles Inglis, who introduced the Bishop Pippin (or Yellow Belle fleur); Ahira Calkin, who introduced the Calkin Pippin and Calkin’s Early.

Last summer a new apple variety was dedicated to another fruit-growing pioneer, Charles Ramage Prescott, who died in 1859. A news release in this paper said Mr. Prescott helped to introduce various varieties of apples, grapes and peaches. Eaton’s history is more specific, mentioning a number of apples that Prescott cultivated – and incidentally giving us the origin of many of the old varieties, some of which are still on the market today.

“Here, in his beautifully kept garden,” Eaton said, “Mr. Prescott planted the Ribston, Blenheim, King of Pippins, Gravenstein, Alexandra and Golden Pippin, which he imported from England, the Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Esopus Spitz, Sweet Bough, Early Harvest and Spy, which he obtained from the United States, and the Fameusse, Pomme Gris and Canada Reinette, which he got from Montreal.”

“Of the dozens of Acadian hamlets that speckled Kings County countryside in early 1755 …. only four survive by name in 1971, namely Grand Pre, Gaspereau, Melanson and Pereau,” Watson Kirkconnell wrote in his study on local place names.

Dr. Kirkconnell either overlooked or ignored the old community of Habitant, which lies immediately east of Canning and was one of the first areas settled in this region by the Acadians. Outside Canning, by the way, there is evidence that in some quarters the existence of Habitant is still being ignored. Just as you leave Canning driving east a road sign announces that you have entered Habitant. A hundred meters or so past this sign another sign indicates that the “Canning Aboiteau” lies to your right.

Putting this triviality aside, let’s look at the history of Habitant, which may rightfully claim to be one of the oldest settlements in this area. Over half a century ago Ira Cox compiled a collection of historical facts about Habitant, which was published in this newspaper in 1950. Cox identified Habitant as a unique community of Acadian origin.

Like many rural communities in the Annapolis Valley, Habitant has nebulous borders. Road signs may mark where Habitant starts and ends, but most people refer to its western area as Canning and the east end as Kingsport. Habitant, or Habitant Village as it was once called, may have been situated west of Canning at one time In his newspaper article Ira Cox wrote that according to an early map, “the west end of Canning, at the corner of the highway near the residence of the late Dr. John Miller, was known as Habitant Village.” However, this reference to a westerly location for Habitant was most likely an error.

Mr. Cox notes that “Habitant, as we consider it today (1950) is the school section 54, about two miles of street between Canning and Kingsport.” This areas was settled by the Acadians between 1670 and 1680. After the expulsion of the Acadians, the whole of Habitant may have been granted to four individuals. Cox names two of the grantees as Loomer and Rand. One of Cox’s ancestors also received a large grant in Habitant. Capt. John Cox, “who landed the greater part of the New England settlers in this part of the province,” was rewarded with a large land grant, part of which may have been in Habitant. Ira Cox wrote that it wasn’t clear who the other early Habitant grantees were but he notes that “MacKenzie and Wickwire are also mentioned among the names.”

For the most part, Ira Cox’s history is a record of the “individual residences or homes” of Habitant. After a brief preamble on the Acadians and Planters, Cox writes that he “will begin at the east end of the street” and tell his readers who has occupied the various Habitant homes that existed in 1950. In this recounting we learn that beginning with Capt. John Cox, seven generations of the family have lived on part of the original grant since 1775.

Several sons of Capt. Cox built homes in Habitant and the property of one of them, Harry, was eventually owned by a couple of famous Valley personages. In 1897 Sir Frederick Borden purchased the property that Harry Cox originally built on. Cox tells us that this property was inherited by Borden’s daughter after his death. In 1949 the property was purchased by a company headed by R. A. Joudrey.

Many of the names Cox mentions belong in a who’s who of Annapolis Valley and Nova Scotia history. Besides Borden and Joudrey, Cox mentions Rand, Wickwire, DeWolfe, Eaton, Newcombe, Blenkhorn and Chase, the surnames of families that were among the movers and shakers of this area.

In a fax to this newspaper, Geoffrey Muttart referred to a three acre area the Village of New Minas plans to turn into a park and suggested we look at its history. “It would be a shame to have a park with no mention of the historical significance of the immediate area,” Muttart wrote.

Mr. Muttart noted that since the park will soon be a reality, the Acadian/Native connection the park area should be researched. “I seem to recall mention of a burial ground (in Eaton’s History of Kings County)” Muttart said.

Eaton’s History does indeed mention a burial ground in New Minas, In fact, there are several pages on New Minas that will be fodder for anyone doing historical research in relation to the park. New Minas was the site of an Acadian settlement. Eaton suggests New Minas was settled because the first Acadians had taken the best land along the Minas Basin and latecomers had to look elsewhere. In one sense history repeated itself centuries later. New Minas became a major commercial center when retail firms in Kentville looked for space to expand.

According to Eaton, New Minas apparently was a “somewhat important hamlet” in Acadian days. He bases this assumption on the works of contemporary researchers which he quotes freely. The sources Eaton quotes reveal that New Minas had a priest, a chapel and the Acadians may have built a small stone fort nearby.

The Acadian farms mentioned in Eaton’s History may not be easily located today since his work was published almost 90 years ago. However, Eaton has important references to Acadian sites and the efforts of the Acadians to settle the New Minas area. These references, two of which are quoted below, refer to the Acadian chapel and burial ground; these quotes should help determine if historical sites of any importance are located in the proposed park.

“On what was formerly known as the Best Farm, now owned by Amos Griffin, in New Minas, was a French village, where there was a chapel and a resident priest. Most of the cellars have been filled, but the foundations of the chapel, say 28×36 feet, are still partly visible, as are also the supposed site of the priest’s house …. By the side of the brook, about 50 rods from the chapel, some of the first English settlers found a set of blacksmith tools buried. They found also, a mile or two south, in the woods, remains of a stone building, which has always been known since as the French fort.”

“Minas, with its dykes, consisted of the village along the banks of the upland with the Grand Pre lying in front, and with Long Island and Boot Island bounding it on the north. As new lands for settlement were wanted, some of the (Acadians) went up the Cornwallis River and found a place that seemed curiously familiar.

“There was a piece of marsh somewhat resembling the Grand Pre, with Oak Island lying outside it. On the edge was a similar chance for settlement to that furnished by the upland that bordered the Grand Pre. They, therefore, put in short dykes at each end of Oak Island, reclaimed a considerable piece of marsh, built themselves some houses, and called their settlement New Minas.

“In later times French cellars have been numerous here …. The center of the (settlement) was what afterwards became known as the Foster farm. The French burying ground is said to have been on a little knoll near the railroad track. To the south and east of the Griffin house a chapel was built …. It would seem as if there was a burying ground here, too, and tradition says that not far off there was a mill.”