In a December 1895 issue of a Valley newspaper, the Western Chronicle, one E. J. Cogswell recalled the early days in this area. I have a typeset copy of Cogswell’s article, edited with footnotes and an index. This was a gift from the same person who gave me the 25 page Dennison article on Kentville in the 1870s.

The donor of the Dennison and Cogswell articles, who wishes to remain anonymous, tell me they aren’t sure who typeset, edited and indexed these mini-histories. However, they are much appreciated and will be put to good use. I plan to include excerpts from the articles in future columns and I’m sure readers keen on local history will enjoy reading them.

This week, from the Cogswell article, we take a peek at a humorous incident involving a man with the unusual surname of Bear. Cogswell wrote about early Kentville in his article and Mr. George Bear may have been what today we call the “village character.” The village or town Bear called home isn’t mentioned.

Cogswell begins his story about Mr. Bear with a description of Winkworth Chipman (born 1804 according to Eaton’s Kings County history where his name is spelled Winckworth). “He was the last of the old, big builders, and afterwards a carriage builder,” Cogswell writes. Chipman was a Justice of the Peace and writes Cogswell, “whatever may have been his defects in regard to a knowledge of the law, his proceedings were marked with great discretion and honesty.”

One of the curiosities of Chipman’s career, says Cogswell, was the famous case of the Queen against George Bear for selling intoxicating liquor without a license. “Mr. Chipman and B. H. Calkin sat at the court. Mr. Bear… was called upon for his defence when he arose and delivered himself as follows:

‘Your worships I have been summoned here for selling intoxicating liquor. Now your worships the people in England gets this liquor from the West Indies and they make it one quarter water. The merchants in Halifax gets it from England and they make it one quarter water. Mr. … gets it from Halifax and then he makes it one quarter water. Then I gets it from Mr. … and I makes it one quarter water. Now your worships I would like to know where the toxication comes in.’

“Old George evidently thought he had shown that there was no intoxicating liquor sold by him at all, ” Cogswell continued. “The Justices seemed to think that there might be a little, but they were not prepared to say how much, so they adjourned the court to take time to consider.”

Cogswell says that Chipman and Calkin “considered so long and so carefully that George Bear died, as did also Mr. Chipman before judgement was given.”

Cogswell apparently had a fine sense of humour. “I intimated to Mr. Calkin once,” Cogswell said, “that he still considered himself a quorum (and) for the benefit of jurisprudence, he should go on and settle the knotty question (regarding George Bear).”

But, Cogswell concluded, “he also went on considering until he too died and the case is still subjudice (undetermined and still before the court) without any judice (judge).”

When we compare it with rivers such as the mighty St. Lawrence and even the nearby Annapolis, the Cornwallis pales in significance. However, rising in the heart of the Annapolis Valley and meandering at a leisurely pace to the Minas Basin, the partly tidal Cornwallis provides drainage and irrigation for some of the best farm land in the province. And there was a time when the Cornwallis was of historical significance.

It was the Cornwallis that in the 1680s attracted Acadians from Port Royal when they decided to establish a settlement in this region. Along with Grand Pre and Canard, the tidal section of the Cornwallis around New Minas was settled, the Acadians most likely attracted by the possibility of dykeing the land upriver. In that time the river was called Riviere St. Antoine, a name the Acadians later changed to Riviere des Habitation.

Snuggled along the south bank of the Cornwallis, Kentville undoubtedly owes its existence to a convenient ford on the river, a ford first used by natives and later the Acadians and Planters. Without stretching the imagination much, it’s possible to establish a link between the Acadian settlement on the Cornwallis in New Minas and the village’s current status as a major commercial center. Travelling upriver, we find that the settlement and growth of Coldbrook, Cambridge, Waterville and Berwick are solidly linked with the nearby Cornwallis. The same can be said of Port Williams downstream, the first ferries and early bridges on the Cornwallis undoubtedly being a factor in its development.

Some of the first mills in this area were established on the Cornwallis River and its tributaries. When the railroad came to this area, the tracks for the most part were laid beside the Cornwallis, most likely because the natives, the Acadians and later settlers established trails parallel to the river.

Any history written of this area would be incomplete without reference to the influence the Cornwallis had on colonisation and the patterns of commercial growth.  Arthur W. H. Eaton recognised this when preparing his history of Kings County. In the chapter on the Acadians, Eaton has numerous references to the settlements on and near the Cornwallis, recognising that the river influenced settlement here. While you won’t find it in the index, Eaton has numerous references to the Cornwallis River throughout his history.

For several years I’ve been gathering information on the Cornwallis River with the hopes of one day of writing a short history commencing with the Acadians. Other than brief mentions here and there by various writers – Esther Clark Wright in Blomidon Rose, for example – no serious research has been done on the river. I hope to rectify this and perhaps publish my research. Once completed, the history will be posted on my website.

The general plan is to scour all available literature, such as the various community histories, to collect every mention of the Cornwallis. Hopefully this research will result in a comprehensive history of the river over at least a 300 year period. This work is ongoing and readers who may have historical information relating to the Cornwallis, no matter how trivial it may seem, are asked to consider contributing it. All contributions to the history will be acknowledged in the completed work.

Born in 1866, Leslie Eugene Dennison learned the printing trade in Kentville, apprenticing with one of the town’s earliest newspapers, the Western Chronicle, at age 16. Dennison later worked with the Boston Globe and other American and Canadian newspapers. He served in three wars, was prominent in labour circles and was a renowned writer of poetry and prose.

Dennison must also have been a history buff and a man with almost total recall. In 1932 he was asked to write about the early days in Kentville as he recalled them. What followed was an amazing in-depth article about Kentville in the 1870s that was serialised in The Advertiser. Thanks to a reader I have the complete article, some 25 typeset pages and an index. Beginning this week and from time to time in the months to follow excerpts from the Dennison article will be given here. In the first excerpt, Dennison tours Kentville streets, mentioning many of the town’s personalities.

“Threescore (60) years ago the western limit of the Kentville school district was the Kinsman road, its eastern near the Roy farm. We will now in memory traverse the Post Road from west to east, taking note of the homes and stores, go round the square, taking short side trips to the Cornwallis River, up the Beech Hill road, the Canaan road, the new Canaan road (and) travel east till we reach Elderkin (research station hollow) Brook.

“The widow Ratchford house, on the south side of the Post Road… has long since disappeared. Next east on the south side is John Harrington; then farther on, on the north side, William Harrington; then Robert Harrington. Just east and south, on a small hill between the road and the railway, was the home of James MacKay, a maker of pumps from bored-out tree trunks….”

Dennison referred to the section of the Post Road that ran through Kentville as Main Street. The “schoolhouse road” joined Main and when Dennison refers to this area we learn some historical trivia about the town.

“To return to the schoolhouse road, on the south side, away from the street, was the house of Hon. Daniel C. Moore… then the Methodist Church, George Davidson, John Dodge, Lee Neary (Kentville’s first uniformed chief of police), Benjamin Calkin, general store of George Dodge, Mrs. Eliza Angus, George E. Master’s house and blacksmith shop, Judge Stephen H. Moore’s law office, Robert S. Master’s store, James A. Hallliday’s newspaper, The Kentville Star, Chipman Hall, James W. Ryan’s drygoods store, Mrs. William Harris, near corner of Beech Hill road…

“A short distance up (Beech Hill) road lived Alfred A. DeWolfe; then farther on, near the red barn on Fred Webster’s farm, lived ‘Black’ John Mitchell, well known for his jollity and skill as a butcher… Still farther on was the home of ‘White’ John Mitchell, whose children were the last pupils on that street to attend the Kentville school, the Nathan P. Ward children going to Beech Hill, or Alton, as the neighbourhood was afterwards called.”

Dennison concludes his Main Street tour with more historical trivia:

“At the southwest corner of Main Street and Beech Hill road stood the home of James DeWolfe, proprietor of the Red Store. At the Corner of Main and Canaan road was a tenement house, with Angus Johnson’s shoemaking shop on the ground floor, and around the corner to the south was a blacksmith’s shop (and farther along) a lane led to Margeson’s saw, grist and cider mill.”

The Hiltz Bros. furniture store stood on the corner of Cornwallis and Aberdeen Street in Kentville, the site now occupied by the W. C Hiltz Funeral Home. Over 40 years ago when I was pounding the sales beat for The Advertiser, the store was one of my regular calls. On these occasions, I often had long conversations with the late Ray Hiltz about the building, which in its time was a Kentville landmark. Many readers will recall that the building was the site of one of the first movie theatres in the area; some readers may also remember that the building housed a pioneer retail complex, a mini-mall that was a forerunner of today’s shopping malls.

At my request, Mr. Hiltz wrote a brief history of the building from memory. I found his hand-written recollections recently while cleaning out a filing cabinet and it’s presented here, with a few comments and editing.

“The Hiltz Bros. block was rebuilt after a fire in 1895 by Margeson’s Mill (which operated from) Brook Avenue. It was especially built with a frostproof basement for fresh apple storage, sorting and shipping depot. The ground floor housed the Kings Bridge Stores, a retail complex operated by a joint stock company. The second floor contained three apartments. The third floor was a theatre and later a movie house until 1926.

“The building was purchased by Hiltz Bros. in 1911 and remodelled to the one store, while the second and third floor remained unchanged. A new movie house, the Nicklet, was opened in 1936 and again extensive remodelling of the building took place.

“In the same year the apartments on the second floor were converted into a thirteen actual room display for furniture (thirteen furnished rooms representing various areas of the household). The third floor was converted into a lounge room with recreational facilities for the Dominion Atlantic Railway staff members and was a dance hall until 1945.

“In 1945 the third floor was then converted into a warehouse for Hiltz Bros. and an electric powered goods lift was installed to move goods from the first to the third floor. Additional remodelling followed, in 1949 and 1952.”

There were additional remarks about more renovations in 1956, a year before the store was added to my account list. However, despite the renovations over the years, the upper floor of the building looked much like it did just after the turn of the century. When Mr. Hiltz showed me the third floor in the 1950s it was evident that it once housed a theatre.

As mentioned, Mr. Hiltz wrote this brief history from memory. It may have been 1913 and not 1911 when the Hiltz’ purchased the building that was to hold their store. The building was purchased by W. A. (Bert) Hiltz, who along with his brother George previously conducted business nearby on Main and later Aberdeen Street under the Hiltz Bros. name. George Hiltz died in 1906. On Bert’s death in 1960, the business was taken over by his sons, Ray and George.

In its day the Hiltz Bros. building was connected with the apple growing industry – as a warehouse and sorting area – housed what may have been the first shopping mall in the Valley and held the first movie theatre. Mabel Ferguson’s The Devil’s Half Acre, has other interesting facts about the Hiltz Bros. building and can be found in the local library.

Master tool maker Thomas W. Cox (1844-1921) specialised in making axes in the 50 years he operated a blacksmith shop in Kentville. Cox probably made hundreds of axes but they’re difficult to find today; antique tool collectors are convinced for the most part that few if any exist.

However, in response to my [recent] column on the life of the old-time blacksmith, a rare Cox axe has surfaced.

John Griffiths, English Mountain Road, called after he saw the column to tell me he has a Cox axe and a garden hack the blacksmith may also have made. “The axe is definitely Cox made,” Griffiths said. “It has T.W. Cox stamped on it.”

Griffiths said the axe is in reasonably good condition. He described it as a single-bitted pole axe – an axe made for cutting and pounding – and he has an unusual tale about how it came into his possession.

One of Griffiths’ neighbours of decades age, the late Wilson Hatchard, used to talk about Cox tools, Griffiths said. “He was always praising them up, and telling me how good they were, so I knew something about them.”

One day Griffiths was poking around a pile of junk in a New Minas salvage yard. He saw an old axe in the junk heap and as he was digging it out a friend jokingly asked, “You aren’t going to take that?”

“Of course I am,” Griffiths replied. “It looks old enough to be a Thomas Cox axe.”

Griffiths said he was flabbergasted when that’s exactly what it was – an axe made by Thomas Cox.

The axe is still in excellent condition even though it’s over 80s years old, Griffiths said.

A Mud Scow?

Is the mystery wreck in Wolfville harbour nothing more than the workhorse of the marine world, a scow once used in mud clearing operations?

That’s what it is, says long-time Wolfville area resident Earl Weatherbee who recalls a mud scow sinking in the harbour about 60 years ago. Marine history buff Leon Barron, who assisted in the recent exploration of the wreck, says there is clear evidence that it once carried a mast. This definitely means the wreck is a vessel and not a scow, Barron says.

Mr. Weatherbee tells me that when the ferry was running into Wolfville, two scows were used in an ongoing battle to keep the channel into the harbour open. The scows were anchored in the channel at high tide and filled with mud at low tide by a crew armed with shovels. On the next high tide the mud-filled scows were ferried into Minas Basin and emptied. Around 1939 or 1940, Weatherbee says, one of the scows sprung a leak and sank in the harbour; since it was no obstacle to navigation, it was left where it settled.

Mr.Weatherbee estimates the length of the scow that sank as approximately 40 to 50 feet. Dan Conlin, curator at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic says the investigation of the wreck indicates its length was about 60 to 70 feet, which “probably means a vessel around 100 gross tons size.” And says a former Wolfville resident, Gordon Hansford, there are more wrecks besides the scow in Wolfville harbour; Hansford says that at least six and possibly seven vessels sank in the harbour.

During investigation of a wreck found in Wolfville harbour, the curator of marine history at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic made an intriguing, and what may be to some, a puzzling comment.

In a review of preliminary findings, Dan Conlin remarked that underwater archaeologists from Parks Canada took wood samples from the wreck. This, Conlin said, “should tell us whether (the ship) was built of local woods.”

In the same vein, a wreck found recently on a Haitian reef has been identified as the fabled “Nova Scotia ghost ship,” the Mary Celeste. If you read the various stories carried in the press, you probably noted that wood found in the decomposed hull of the Mary Celeste was a key in the ship’s identification. Apparently, a marine archaeologist identified the wood in the hull as coming from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Now the wreck found in Wolfville harbour is literally a nothing story compared to the discovery of the infamous Mary Celeste. Yet in both cases wood samples taken from the wrecks were, or in the case of the Wolfville wreck will be, important clues in identifying the vessels.

And now one more piece of intriguing information on the wood used in ships, this from the files of Kentville marine history buff, Leon Barron.

In Barron’s files is a document containing detailed specifications in a 1919 contract for building a four-masted keel schooner. The line in the specifications that interests me calls specifically for parts of the vessel to be built of wood from Nova Scotia. “Frame,” the specifications read, “to be of hardwood floor, Nova Scotia Bayshore Spruce.”

Barron tells me that in the shipbuilding era one often finds bayshore spruce from Nova Scotia as a component of sailing vessels. In some cases, such as in the spec sheets from the Amelia Zeman, bayshore spruce was often specifically called for.

The report on the Mary Celeste said that wood from the hull was of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick origin, cementing the ship’s identification; the investigation of the Wolfville harbour wreck includes checking wood samples to determine their regional origin and the contract for the Amelia Zeman calls for Nova Scotia wood.

As I did, you may ask why is Nova Scotia bayshore spruce called for? And why was spruce wood from the bayshore – the Bay of Fundy shore – favoured over other woods from the province and from other regions? And finally, what is Nova Scotia bayshore spruce?

The best way to answer these questions is to again call on the acknowledged local expert on sailing ships and the age of sail, Leon Barron.

“Nova Scotia lying on the angle that it is, north-east and south-west, and our prevailing wind being westerly, this gives the bayshore of the province an onshore wind,” Barron says. “These winds stunt the growth of the shoreside spruce, which is the dominant species on the shoreline, giving the wood more density and making it stronger and heavier. The salt air is what does it, the onshore winds carrying the salt air.”

The stunting effect of salt-laden winds on spruce stands along the Bay of Fundy is what made this wood preferable in shipbuilding since it was more durable. Barron said he’s been told the winds have the same effect on bayshore hardwoods.

“There’s a record of him in Halifax and old-timers tell me his axes were stamped TC,” tool collector Kevin Wood says of an early Kentville blacksmith and axemaker named Thomas William Cox. “But nobody’s ever identified a Tom Cox axe or found where his shop was located.”

Before machinery replaced the horse and ox, farm life and local industries literally evolved around the blacksmith’s shop and the blacksmith often was held in high esteem. Thus I found it intriguing that Kevin Wood mentioned a Kentville blacksmith/axemaker of which little is known. Mr. Wood spoke about Cox during a talk on antique tools last spring at the Kings Historical Society.

Curious to find out who Thomas Cox was – I couldn’t accept that there was little or no record of his existence and his work – I made a note at the time to do some research. Fortunately, I had two potential sources of information – the database compiled by Kentville historian Louis Comeau and the extensive files of the Kings Historical Society. Thanks to these sources I came up a mini profile of Thomas Cox and that highly regarded gentleman is no longer a total mystery.

In his day Thomas Cox was one of Kentville’s best-known citizens. A resident of the town for 50 years, he died at age 78 in 1921, survived by four daughters. His obituary spoke of his “genial and generous nature,” noting that at the time of his death he was Kentville’s oldest citizen. Cox worked as a blacksmith in Kentville until five years before his death, ill health forcing him to retire at age 73.

A reference to Thomas Cox, who was a Planter descendant, can be found in The Cox Connection, a detailed genealogy on the many offspring of Captain John Cox. Captain John was a Planter grantee. Eaton’s Kings County history notes that Captain John founded the Cox family here, receiving a grant in the Cornwallis township in 1764.

Mabel Nichols Kentville history, The Devil’s Half Acre, lists Thomas Cox as one of three practising blacksmiths in Kentville in the 1880s, along with W. O. Forsythe and Frederick Haystead. This jibes with dates given in his obituary which indicates that Cox opened his blacksmith shop in Kentville about the year 1870.

Cox’s obituary indicates that his residence was on Webster Street but the exact location of his shop is not known. Cox was undoubtedly one of the old fashion blacksmiths whose craft was tied in with the horse and oxen period and the time when blacksmiths made most of the tools used on the farm and in the woods. Cox apparently specialised in making axes. He would have been active when the railway reached the Valley and the Nova Scotia Carriage Company was in business.

I mention the railway and the Carriage Company since both employed a great number of blacksmiths. Louis Comeau tells me that due mainly to Kentville being a railway centre, there were at least 50 “company blacksmiths” working out of Kentville at one time. However, there is no evidence that Thomas Cox was employed by the railway or the carriage factory.

Cox’s blacksmith shop may have been located next to the Cornwallis River on Cornwallis Street. Kentville’s last practising blacksmith, John Fitch, apprenticed with Cox for five years. Louis Comeau says that Fitch took over the Cox business and may have used the same premises, a building that once stood on what is now the town library parking lot. Other sources indicate Cox’s shop was once located at the foot of Gallows Hill, Comeau says.

“We have more clues but (it still) remains an interesting mystery,” Dan Conlin, curator of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic says of the wreck found in Wolfville harbour.

Mr. Conlin was commenting on the recent archaeological survey of the site that I discussed in last week’s column. As mentioned in the column, the wreck was discovered about a year ago by Sherman Bleakney who alerted the Museum. A preliminary survey of the wreck was conducted last September by Conlin, Bleakney and Leon Barron.

While Conlin noted that while “about half the length of the wreck” is buried in mud, a “special frame structure,” which is normally found in the centre of vessels, determined its size to be about 60 to 70 feet long. Conlin said this probably means the wreck was a vessel around 100 gross tons in size. “Further results will have to wait several months for the detailed wreck site drawings to be completed,” Conlin said.

The marine archaeologists who worked on the wreck took wood samples, Conlin said. The samples should reveal if the ship was built of wood obtained locally and perhaps add one more clue in the effort to identify the vessel.

I mentioned in last week’s column that a ceramic shard had been found at the wreck site that was of 18th-century origin, intimating this was a possible clue to the vessel’s age. Mr. Conlin tells me that this ceramic was first produced in the 1850s but it is “not 100 percent clear that it is from the wreck.” David Christianson, an archaeologist with the Nova Scotia Museum who participated in the wreck survey, said it was difficult to confirm that the shard was associated with the vessel since it was “a surface find and not in an intact soil layer.”

The recent archaeological survey yielded a number of clues that may eventually lead to identifying the wreck. However, Conlin notes that while “we know its size and its construction indicates a mid to late 1800s (origin)” more historical background is required to compare to the archaeological record.

Hopefully, some of that background will come from people who have heard stories about the wreck and may know where it came from. The Kings Historical Society has collected a bit of oral history that includes an account from a woman who remembers seeing the wreck in the late 1930s, but more information would be helpful. Readers who know anything about the wreck are urged to contact the Historical Society or me. Anything you have, family lore, an old tale passed down from a grandparent, will help to fill out the story of the Wolfville harbour wreck.

There’s the possibility that researchers will be taking another look at the Wolfville harbour wreck and it’s important that it be left undisturbed. Under the Special Places Act it is illegal to remove objects from a historic shipwreck without a permit. If you’re curious about the wreck, an excellent place to view it is at low tide from Wolfville’s new wharf complex.

“The wreck emerged about mid-July as a mud bank in the harbour… through some change in the current,” reads the initial report by Dan Conlin, curator of marine history at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Mr. Conlin had done the preliminary investigation of a wreck uncovered by the action of the tides in Wolfville Harbour a year ago. The wreck was tentatively identified as the 18-ton schooner Clara Jane which capsized and sank in Wolfville harbour in November 1879 but there appears to be some doubt about this. In his report Mr. Conlin noted that the measurements of the Clara Jane are only “roughly consistent with the size of the remains” but the wreck appears to be of larger tonnage.

I first heard about the discovery of the wreck last autumn from Leon Barron. Dykelands researcher Sherman Bleakney made the discovery and along with Conlin and Barron participated in the preliminary investigation of the wreck in September 2000. Upon hearing about the discovery – a “mystery wreck” so close at hand is, after all, exciting news – I was gung-ho to write about it in this column. I held off when concerns were raised about publicity luring unwanted visitors to the site before it could be surveyed by marine and archaeological experts. Originally scheduled this spring, the survey was delayed until this month and I was delighted to be invited to tag along.

In his detailed report on the original survey, Dan Conlin noted that the wreck is “in very close proximity to the town of Wolfville” and is visible from the new waterfront park. Since it is close to the wharf I’m surprised no one has reported it before. However, as Conlin points out, the short duration of exposure at low tide may explain why the wreck wasn’t noticed. And perhaps the site has been buried in debris and mud for decades and only now has been uncovered by the powerful Minas Basin tides.

If you’re curious and have a good pair of binoculars, the wreck can easily be seen from the wharf at low tide, looking approximately north towards the harbour channel. You are cautioned about investigating the site since the mud and the tides in this area are treacherous.

In his original report, Dan Conlin noted that the wreck lies roughly in an east-west orientation and is approximately 15 feet wide by 32 feet long. No artefacts were moved from the site but various pieces of ironwork were observed at the wreck – bolts, hasps, hooks and rings, for example. Mr. Conlin noted a thin shard of white ceramic that later was identified as being of 18th-century origin.

Participating in the recent investigation of the site, along with Mr. Conlin and David Christensen of the Nova Scotia Museum were marine archaeologists from Parks Canada who made detailed measurements of the wreck. Their assessment will be available at a later date.

As of this date, the Wolfville harbour wreck has not been identified. Dan Conlin says that Wolfville had at least eight recorded marine casualties, “but no exact match of the wreck.” Conlin said that the wreck’s position is unusual in that it lies close to the harbour entrance and may at one time have been an obstacle to navigation. There’s the possibility, Conlin said, that the wreck was “burned to the water or mud line” to remove it as a hazard.

When he was introduced as guest speaker at the Kings Historical Society earlier this summer, mentioned was made that Rev. James Doyle Davison had recently passed his driving test.

Davison rated this a “very satisfying achievement,” accomplished as it was at age 91, and it is typically modest of him. As a historical writer, Davison has far greater accomplishments but he made no mention of them in the bio he prepared for his introduction.

At last count, Davison has written and had published at least six books dealing with local history. Davison was editor of that superb Wolfville history, Mud Creek, which must rate as one of most detailed small town histories in the Annapolis Valley. In addition, he has researched and written, or is in the process of writing and researching at least 10 more historical or semi-historical books. Most of these books will be privately printed and circulated only to family and acquaintances. Among these latter books are a biography, a Davison genealogy going back nearly four centuries and an autobiography.

Over the years Rev. Davison has been perhaps the most prolific historical writer in the Valley. Besides editing the Wolfville history, Rev. Davison’s published history books include What Mean These Stones?, an account and inventory of the old Horton-Wolfville burial ground which lies along Wolfville’s Main Street and is over 200 years old. Davison also penned a book on the life of Alice Shaw Chipman and the start of formal schooling for women in the Valley (Alice of Grand Pre) and an account of five Planters, A Planter Davison Fivesome.

Another of Davison’s historical works includes an account of the life of Kings County Planter Handley Chipman, 1717-1799 and a detailed account of the life of Eliza Ann Chipman (Eliza of Pleasant Valley). His other historical works include another Chipman biography, William of Pleasant Valley, histories of three Baptist churches -Margaree, Springhill, Berwick – and an account of the life of his parents.

In his recent talk at the Kings Historical Society, Rev. Davison discussed a number of works that are now on his plate. Davison is currently doing research for a work on the Scottish Border and an ancestor that hailed from this region. Davison is also planning a work on Canadian literary theorist Northrup Frye, 1912-91 and a study on irregularities of the English language.

Two years ago Rev. Davison wrote what he calls his Magnum Opus, an account of three 18th century female writers, Eliza Haywood, Aphra Behn and Delariviere Manley. Last year Davison completed a 114 page account of his life and an account of his experiences in touring East End London.

I believe I’ve missed at least half a dozen other books that Rev. Davison has written. In his Historical Society address Rev. Davison made passing reference to a biography on Frank Cleveland Davison, 1875-1917 and works with the titles Your Father Knows and Sense and Nonsense, the latter an account of a stay in hospital after suffering a heart attack.

Despite approaching the century mark, Rev. Davison shows no sign of slowing down – actually, he appears to be young and mentally sharper than some 60-year-olds of my acquaintance – and I believe we’ll see more historical works from his pen.