In the introduction to O’Neill’s collection of Irish dance music the compiler of the book, James O’Neill, said in effect that he makes no apology for including a tune supposedly of American origin, called Old Zip Coon; we know this tune as Turkey in the Straw, a long-time popular square dance and fiddle tune.

In a recent documentary, a narrator stressed that most of the wonderful old songs and especially the melancholy melodies peculiar to Newfoundland, and cherished across Canada as “Newfy music,” are of Irish origin. During Ireland’s famine period massive emigration to Newfoundland made this province a bastion of Irish culture.

In the book, Music an Illustrated Encyclopedia, author Neil Ardley writes that in the southern states, particularly the Appalachian mountains, jigs, reels and ballads that came from Britain and Ireland, developed into hillbilly and bluegrass music.

There’s a common thread in the references to Old Zip Coon, Newfoundland songs and hillbilly/bluegrass music and that is their Irish origin. James O’Neill wrote, for example, that while Americans claimed Old Zip Coon/Turkey In The Straw as their own, there was good reason to include it in an Irish music collection. Some over zealous champions of Irish music will criticise this inclusion, O’Neil said, but “convincing evidence of its Irish antecedents (as a tune called Turkeys In The Straw) came to hand a few years ago in a roll of age-browned manuscript music.”

In his comments on its British and Irish origin, Neil Ardley noted that hillbilly and bluegrass music “are the basis of country music.” In websites devoted to the history of country music, the Original Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers are acknowledged as the founders of country music. One site notes that the Carter Family and Rodgers “accidentally invented country music.”

By now the reader will see where I’m going.

Much of the music we enjoy today, such as Newfoundland, country and western, country rock and folk are either Irish in origin or have been strongly influenced by old Irish music. To be exact, I should say that much of this type of music has a touch of Gaelic, particularly Irish and Scotch Gaelic, in its bloodlines.

I’m sure many people remember the original Carter Family who recorded commercially from the 1920s to the 1940s. The Carters lead the way in popularising country music, influencing generations of country singers. Many of the haunting ballads the Carter Family sang were of Irish origin. One beautiful old Irish melody in particular stands out – the Connemara Cradle Song. This melody was used by the Carters and following country singers as the basis for several songs.

There’s nothing new about this. As a race, the Irish are great music makers. For centuries music of Irish origin has enriched the world. And while Scots may think it sacrilege to claim it, many of the traditional Scottish tunes originally came from Ireland.

I can think of several examples offhand but one in particular stands out. Most of us are familiar with a Scottish tune that salutes the clan Campbell, “The Campbells Are coming.” This tune is an adaptation of an ancient Irish piece called “The Burnt Old Man,” which can be found in many collections of old Irish music.

Many bagpipe tunes beloved by the Scots and claimed as their own can be found in early collections of Irish music. One example out of countless many that exist is the old Irish tune called “Blackeyed Biddy.” One can find this melody in the Scots Guards manual of piping as “The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow.”

My April 27 column on the old Cornwallis River wharf off Wolfville, where the Minas Basin ferry Prince Albert once docked, brought responses from several readers and added more to my collection of river lore.

Starr Williams, a former Kentville resident who now resides at Grandview Manor in Berwick, tells me that there was another wharf on the Cornwallis where ships could dock. While nowhere near the size of the Prince Albert’s dock, which as previously mentioned was 152 feet in length, a privately owned wharf that once stood on the river could accommodate smaller boats.

Mr. Williams tells me some 70 years ago the wharf was located in Kentville in the area known to most residents as “the Klondyke.” In this area where the dead end streets Maple Place and Chestnut place run towards the Cornwallis River, a well-known Kentville resident Arch Pelton built a wharf; Mr. Pelton apparently maintained a yacht or some sort of seaworthy boat that he tied up at the wharf.

Mr. Williams also told me that Pelton once operated a Studebaker dealership in Kentville; Pelton’s home was located in the Klondyke area and said Williams, was called “Pelton Place.”

Starr Williams mention that Arch Pelton operated a car dealership rang a bell. I knew I had heard the name before in association with Kentville’s early history but I couldn’t recall where. When I told Leon Barron about the wharf Arch Pelton had once maintained on the upper Cornwallis, he immediately placed the gentleman. “I believe Arch Pelton was involved with the McKay car when it was manufactured in Kentville,” Barron said.

Of course. That’s why the name seemed familiar. Pelton’s name has been mentioned in this column as being associated with the McKay Motor Car which for a short time was manufactured in Kentville. As well as the Studebaker, Pelton, who was a Berwick native, was also the distributor for Franklyn, Gray Dort, Oldsmobile and other makes of motor vehicles. Pelton apparently was the head mechanic with the McKay company. He also made a name for himself by being one of the first to drive an automobile across Canada.

Anyone interested in more details about Mr. Pelton are directed to a short history of the McKay Motor Car by William H. McCurdy. Mabel Nichols Kentville history, The Devil’s Half Acre, may also have references to Pelton since he may be the E. L. Pelton who served several terms as Mayor of Kentville.

Where Are They?

Many of the old place and street names once common in this area are now forgotten, or for various reasons have been discarded or changed. Take Onion Street in the Gaspereau Valley, for example; everyone knows which road it is and residents still call it Onion Street, but the name was ignored by the Dept. of Highways when road signs were erected.

Brooklyn Street, said to be the longest continuous road in Kings County, lost what might have been its original Planter name, Shadow Street. Does anyone know why?

Government records often contain the names of roads and communities that are no longer in use. Here are some of the vanished Kings County place-names from the sessional papers, with the year they were in use: Givan Wharf (1851); Barnaby’s Mill Cove (1856). Also from 19th-century records for Kings County: Ira Woodworth Creek, Murray Hill Brook and Safe Harbour.

It was a grand scheme involving leading citizens of the day and all landholders along the Cornwallis River from Port Williams west to Kentville and several miles beyond. The plan was simple. Remove the bridge spanning the Cornwallis at Port Williams and replace it with a permanent aboiteau, a sea wall that would control the river’s twice daily tides and reclaim many acres of upriver dykeland.

The plan never came to fruition, however, and looking back almost 90 years it is difficult to determine why. Perhaps the obvious answer is that when costs were determined, the acreage reclaimed along the Cornwallis wouldn’t be enough to make building an aboiteau worthwhile. A simpler, perhaps less costly alternative to controlling the Cornwallis tides was available. Looking upriver from the bridge at Port Williams you can see what that alternative was – the running dykes.

But let’s look at that old proposal to tame the Cornwallis. In government records, the sessional papers of the General Assembly for 1912, there is an “Act to Incorporate the Cornwallis Aboiteau Company” that was passed on the third of May. Named as officers of the Company were Amos N. Griffen, Burpee L. Bishop, Thomas J. Borden, Clayton C. Cogswell, Eugene Roy, Ernest H. Johnson, Leonard Bishop, Adelbert Bishop and Frederick S. Mitchell, who are noted as being residents of Kings County.

The Act stated the “general object and purpose” of the Cornwallis Aboiteau Company, which was the “building and construction of an aboiteau across the Cornwallis River west of the present bridge at Port Williams… and the charge and maintenance of the same after the construction thereof shall be completed.”

Translating the official legalese of the Act, we learn that the officers of the newly incorporated Company and all landowners on the river would jointly have ownership of the aboiteau. “There shall be no stockholders as such,” the sessional records read, spelling out that the officers named and “proprietors for the time being of marsh, dyked marsh meadow and swamp lands on either side” of the Cornwallis would be “members of the Company.”

The construction of an aboiteau on the Cornwallis at Port Williams was apparently expected to improve upriver properties, explaining why all landowners in this area were included in the Act of Incorporation. In fact, a lengthy stretch of the river, about seven to eight miles, is mentioned in the sessional records as being affected by construction of the aboiteau; this stretch is described as running from the Port Williams bridge “to the ‘Lovett Bridge’ so called, being a bridge across the said river some four miles west of Kentville.”

The sessional records also make it clear that the aboiteau was expected to replace the bridge at Port Williams. The Act noted that “if the construction of the said aboiteau can be of such design as shall permit a public highway over the said river, the directors shall have power to construct the said aboiteau with such public highway thereon.”

Expecting that the “said aboiteau” (I like that term) would include a public highway, the Act of Incorporation made certain that taxpayer’s dollars would be used in its construction. “If in such case it shall appear that the said highway (across the aboiteau) would obviate the necessity of the further continuance of the Port Williams bridge… the Governor-in-Council may grant such assistance towards the construction of the said aboiteau.”

Even with public funds and the financial obligations of Cornwallis River landholders guaranteed by the Act, the aboiteau was never constructed. Perhaps as I suggested, a system of running dykes on the Cornwallis was a better alternative.

In or around the year 1813 a two-ton brig is said to have been built on the banks of the Cornwallis River in Kentville and sailed downstream to the Minas Basin. A. W. H. Eaton (History of Kings County) records the builder as Handley Chipman, adding that a barque was built at the same place – “near the bridge at Kentville” – in 1846.

Earlier in his history, Eaton writes that the first bridge across the Cornwallis River at Port Williams was “built at least as early as 1780.” Eaton then mentions that in 1818 the legislature approved funds for rebuilding and repairing this bridge. Noting that one or two bridges had been destroyed by the tides, Eaton says that a new bridge was opened in 1835.

It seems contradictory and puzzling that sea-going vessels were built at Kentville when an obstacle such as a bridge existed at Port Williams. Eaton is undoubtedly correct with his bridge dates, however, since provincial government records indicate there was a bridge at Port Williams around the time he says the first one was built.

In the acts of the General Assembly of the province of Nova Scotia, the sessional papers, it is recorded that on the 18th day of May, 1865, authorisation was given to the Cornwallis Bridge Company “to sell and convey to the public the Cornwallis toll bridge,” the price not to exceed 1,800 pounds. An earlier act, dated in 1857, gives approval for the loan of a thousand pounds for bridge repairs. These records indicate that at least one early bridge was privately built. As for how early this toll bridge was in place, we have to take Eaton’s 1780 date as a guide.

Perhaps future researchers can tell us why sea-going vessels were built at Kentville when a bridge existed at Port Williams. If anyone is interested in the early ferry across the Cornwallis and the various charges for the toll bridge, I recommend reading the history of Port Williams, The Port Remembers.

Since the days of the Planters there have been many grand schemes for bridging and/or harnessing the Cornwallis River. The sessional papers of the provincial legislature contain a number of revealing acts that were passed regarding plans for the Cornwallis River at or near the present bridge site in Port Williams. As you will see from the following excerpts from 19th century General Assembly papers, there were at least two proposals for aboiteaus and one for a draw bridge on the river.

On May 7, 1858, an act was passed authorising the placing of a “Draw” in the lower Cornwallis River. “The Sessions of Kings County, upon the presentment of the grand jury,” reads the excerpt, “are authorized to cause a Draw to be placed in the lower bridge over the Cornwallis River….”

This scheme was abandoned and an aboiteau, in place of the bridge, was next considered. In the Assembly papers we find that on the 2nd day of May, 1865, an Act was passed “to provide for building an Aboiteau across the Cornwallis River.” The excerpt read that the “Commissioner of Sewers for the County of Kings may build and erect an aboiteau over and across the Cornwallis River at Port Williams.”

Obviously, no aboiteau was built at this time or it would exist today. The sessional papers gave no details on the 1865 proposal. In Assembly records for 1912, however, there are details galore on another proposal to build an aboiteau on the Cornwallis River at Port Williams. The 1912 proposal to build an aboiteau that would replace the bridge at Port Williams will be covered in detail next week.

(My thanks to Kentville researcher Leon Barron, who provided the sessional paper excerpts used in this column.)

“In 1900-1901 the Department at a cost of $6,360.50 built by contract a public wharf on the right bank of the river near its mouth, at a distance of about half a mile from the town. The approach consists of earthworks and embankments 144 feet in length, 25 feet in width…. The wharf itself, which was substantially built of pileworks, was 152 feet long, 36 feet wide … It had an ‘L’ on the outer end 82 feet long … The ‘L’ was 40 feet wide and from 48 to 49 feet high…”

The town referred to in the 1912 report of the chief engineer of the Dept. of Public Works is Wolfville. In the report, Wolfville is referred to as a “town of about 2,000 inhabitants situated on the right bank and near the mouth of the Cornwallis River…” The report, therefore tells us that about 100 years ago a large wharf was constructed near Wolfville, apparently at the mouth of the channel that leads to the town’s harbour.

No such wharf exists today, of course. And, in fact, few people living today know that it even existed. Even less known is that the wharf was originally built to accommodate a ferry that ran in the Minas Basin for a couple of decades before the famous Kipawo began its run. In its relatively short lifetime, however, the now forgotten wharf and ferry provided Wolfville and the inhabitants of eastern Kings County with an important connection to the Minas Basin and ports along its shores.

The wharf’s lifespan? Perhaps 25 to 30 years. The wharf was the docking place for the Prince Albert, a ferry that plied the Minas Basin, serving the ports of Wolfville, Parrsboro and Kingsport as did its successor, the Kipawo. Leon Barron tells me the Prince Albert ran from 1904 to 1925. Barron doesn’t believe that the wharf was ever used by the Kipawo which docked in close to the town proper. One long-time resident of the town claims, however, that a photograph is extant of the Kipawo tied up at the old Cornwallis River wharf.

Readers will note that in the quote above, the old wharf’s distance from Wolfville is given as about half a mile. This distance from the town must have been inconvenient and it probably explains why a new wharf was built practically in downtown Wolfville for the Kipawo.

Actually, the distance out to the Cornwallis River ferry terminal may have been more than half a mile. A road connected to the old wharf started about opposite the duck pond in Wolfville’s east end and ran across the dykeland. This road, Barron says was approximately a mile long. Traces of the old road are visible today, but says Barron, two to three feet of silt have built up over it.

It is believed that the Cornwallis River wharf never saw regular use after the Prince Albert ceased running. Leon Barron believes that the wharf was abandoned after the Kipawo replaced the Prince Albert. If it was, it probably deteriorated rapidly, he says. The wharf’s position on the river channel was precarious in that it was exposed to wind, tide and weather. For example, a few years after the wharf was completed, during the winter of 1903-04, erosion and exceptionally heavy ice in the Minas Basin almost totally destroyed it. The Dept. of Public Works report on this destruction notes that wharf had to be “rebuilt in substantial cribwork” between 1904 and 1906.

Leon Barron tells me that he visited the site on the river channel last autumn and found that almost nothing remains of the old wharf. “Basically, all that’s left is a bunch of rock ballast,” he said.

As late as 1762 Nova Scotia consisted of only five counties. Kings County was one of the original five and it was comprised of its current area and most of Hants County. In other words, Hants County didn’t officially exist until after 1762, the year when the government decided that five counties was too cumbersome and began to divide up the province.

While we know that Hants County came into existence sometime shortly after 1762, I’ve been unable to find the date in my files of historical material. However, over a century after the government decided that the original five counties should be divided up into smaller entities, some confusion apparently existed over the boundaries of Kings and Hants County.

I believe there was confusion because of a couple of full-page newspaper reprints sailing ships and railway researcher Leon Barron showed me recently. These are pages that Annapolis Valley sailing ship buffs would delight in perusing. One reprint is from an old Windsor weekly newspaper, the Tribune, and is dated 1887; the second is from a 1937 issue of the Hants Journal, which if I remember my newspaper genealogy correctly, succeeded the Tribune as Windsor’s paper of record.

The Tribune page is titled the “1887 Hants Co. Shipping List.” Following is a list of “all the vessels afloat that are owned, built or registered in the County of Hants… up to the 31st December, 1886, showing their rig, tonnage, place of building, year when built and managing owner.”

In all, this magnificent list contains some 234 sailing ships that were built in Kings and Hants County between 1860 and 1886. The list amounts to a who’s who of shipbuilding and marine commerce in Kings and Hants County in the 19th century. On the list are the names of some of the greatest 19th-century shipbuilders in this area of the Valley. A name that comes up at least right times is C. Rufus Burgess of Wolfville shipbuilding fame. Another famed shipbuilder of the era, E. Churchill & Sons, Hantsport, appears in the list 15 times.

A surprising number of ships in the list were built in the townships of Cornwallis and Horton. Leon Barron says it’s too bad that the home sites of the shipyards weren’t listed specifically rather than generally by township. Horton and Cornwallis townships take in a wide area with many seaside communities; it would have been helpful for historians to know exactly where the shipyards were located in the townships of Horton and Cornwallis.

Reading through this list, we find the names of shipbuilders whose families have thrived here – and in many cases left their mark here – since the days of the Planters and Loyalists: Names such as Newcomb, Chase, Borden, Ells, Sheffield, Wickwire, Tupper, Begelow (Bigelow), Parker, Starr, Rand, Kenny, Slocumb, Dimock and Baxter.

The reprint from the 1937 issue of the Hants Journal is similar to the 1887 list in that it also contains a lengthy role call of sailing ships, along with owners, tonnage and home shipyards. Dated 1885, it confirms that C. R. Burgess of Wolfville and the Churchills of Hantsport were among the leading shipbuilders of this era.

The 1885 page is a list of ships registered in Hants County, unlike the 1887 list which claims to be an account of ships built in Hants. It seems that when the 1887 list was published, the Windsor Tribune had the mindset that Kings and Hants County were still one and the same.

What military badge has in its design a replica of the Acadian chapel at Grand Pre, our provincial flower and the world-famous Bluenose?

Old sweats, badge collectors and military buffs will correctly answer this question; they will also name the Nova Scotian who designed the badge, adding that he had an Annapolis Valley, or to be explicit a Kings County connection.

Until a few days ago I knew none of these facts about the badge worn for over half a century by the West Nova Scotia Regiment, or as it is more commonly known, the West Novies. Gordon Hansford and I were doodling around with accordions in his kitchen when he told me about the badge that was designed by a Liverpool native, Francis W. “Skip” McCarthy. The symbols in the badge, the Grand Pre church and the Bluenose, stand for the areas where the West Novas originated. McCarthy designed the badge in 1936, the year the regiment was formed, his design being selected over others in a competition.

The various symbols in McCarthy’s design stand for more than the origins of the West Novas regiment. In effect, the symbols are a mini-history that represent Nova Scotia traditions. Across the face of the badge is the cross of St. Andrew, for example. The cross was taken from the ancient provincial flag and I assume is meant to acknowledge our Scottish connection.

When McCarthy designed the badge, Nova Scotia was the easternmost province (now it’s Newfoundland) and was the first place to greet the sun on a Canadian day. The eight-point sunburst McCarthy placed on the badge represents the first Canadian dawn and was correct at the time of the design. In the four triangles formed by the St. Andrew’s cross McCarthy placed the Grand Pre chapel and the Bluenose at top and bottom, and on the right and left segments our provincial floral emblem, the Mayflower.

The inclusion of the Grand Pre scene and the Bluenose are appropriate in that they represent the Annapolis Valley and South Shore origins of the West Novas. Formed in 1936, the West Novas were an amalgamation of the Lunenburg Regiments (hence the Bluenose) and the Annapolis Regiment, which is represented by the Grand Pre church.

In his history of the West Novas, Thomas H. Raddall explains that the Bluenose in the regiment’s badge symbolizes the seafaring communities of the South Shore and their old established militia companies. Raddall contends that the replica of the Acadian chapel represents the Annapolis Valley in general and the “ancient Acadian militia companies” in particular. It seems unusual that McCarthy purposely intended to represent the Acadian militia in his badge design but we have to take Raddall’s word for it. Raddall and McCarthy both lived in Liverpool and may have discussed the purpose of the symbols in the badge.

Raddall’s reference to the South Shore militia companies being old is correct. The West Novas can trace their lineage to military units that served in Nova Scotia as early as 1717. And possibly there may be more than we realize to Francis W. McCarthy’s inclusion of the Grand Pre church in his design. One of the military regiments from which the West Novas traces its lineage assisted in the deportation of the Acadians at Grand Pre.

A prisoner of war for five years, Francis W. McCarthy died of tuberculosis at the Nova Scotia Sanatorium in Kentville. His date of death is given in one source as 1947 and in another as 1950. While he designed the West Nova badge while a private in the unit, McCarthy served in another regiment during the war.

Are there really place names in this area called Russia, Etna and Vesuvius? Was there really a “Battle of Blomidon” in earlier times? Is it true that automobiles were actually manufactured here at one time?

Where did the famous Valley brand name “Scotian Gold” originate and who was the first to use it? And if I have you intrigued by now, here’s one more question: Was a pirate’s chest full of Spanish doubloons really found in this area?

Nearly 12 years ago a local historian, the late Elizabeth Rand, decided that answering questions such as the ones posed above would make interesting reading and would be a neat way of offering local history to the public. Ms. Rand became the driving force behind publication of a neat little paperback booklet of some 50 pages containing 21 short historical essays on Kings County. The booklet, called Kings County Vignettes, was published in June 1989 by the community history committee of the Kings County Historical Society.

Since the first issue of Vignettes was subtitled volume one, the Historical Society must have decided from the first to produce other issues. Volume one of Vignettes was followed 10 months later by volume two with 10 historical articles in more than 50 pages. Like the first Vignettes, the second issue was also compiled and edited by Elizabeth Rand. Other volumes of Kings County Vignettes followed. This past winter the Historical Society published volume 10 which like its predecessors, is a series of short historical essays on the immediate area.

As mentioned, Vignettes was the brainchild of Elizabeth Rand, who was one of the charter members of the Historical Society. Apparently Ms. Rand had collected a number of interesting stories about this area and wanted them saved. In the forward to volume 10 it was noted that it was Ms. Rand’s “desire to have these stories put together so they would not be forgotten.” That in the past decade nine more issues followed the original Vignettes is proof that Ms. Rand had hit on a unique vehicle for presenting local history in a readable, inexpensive format.

Elizabeth Rand compiled and edited five volumes of Kings County Vignettes. Early on she was assisted by Cathy Margeson who with Helen Hansford, took on the task of editing and compiling following editions of Vignettes. Various Historical Society members also volunteered their assistance in producing Vignettes; all 10 issues were typeset, printed and bound by Historical Society members at the Old Courthouse Museum in Kentville.

All the questions I asked above are answered in some detail in the Vignettes. For now, let me say that yes, there is or was a Russia, Etna and Vesuvius in this area; yes there was a Battle of Blomidon and yes, automobiles were manufactured in Kings County. The Vignettes are a fund raising project for the Courthouse Museum, so I hope I’ve intrigued you enough to shell out a few dollars for an issue.

If I haven’t, here a few topics covered in various issues of Vignettes: The story of Klondike Ward, the Kentville native who struck it rich in the goldfields; old Davidson sawmill in Black River; sketch on the Blenkhorn axe factory in Canning; the story of John Orpin, the amazing strongman dubbed the “Sampson of the Annapolis Valley.”

All the topics covered in Vignettes have a Kings County connection but the essays also deal with historical happenings in other areas of the Annapolis Valley. Vignettes are available at the Old Kings Courthouse Museum and in local bookstores.

Benjamin Eaton, 1822 – 1906, was an axemaker in Sheffield Mills. Thomas Cox, blacksmith and wheelwright, worked out of a shop in Kentville in the late 1800s and also made axes.

Forged from raw materials by Eaton and Cox, the axes are superb examples of the hand tools made by local craftsmen a century ago. These axes and other artifacts tradesmen used in bygone days are part of the antique tool collection of Kevin Wood. For 20 years Wood has been collecting the implements used by wheelwrights, coopers, shipwrights, carpenters, cobblers, shipsmiths, sawyers, blacksmiths and other old-time craftsmen. Housed in the basement of his Kentville residence are hundreds of examples of old tools, many of which were used in trades and crafts now forgotten or made obsolete by modern technology.

“I’ve always been interested in old tools and the old trades, especially the history of them,” Wood says, explaining why he amassed his huge collection, which also includes a large Micmac axe estimated to be at least a thousand years old and an old dykeing tool of the type used by the Acadians.

Wood’s tool collection comes from an age when everything was made by hand, including the tools that were used to hew, saw and shape the necessities of life in previous centuries. When houses were constructed a hundred or more years ago, for example, every piece of wood that went into it was shaped and milled with hand tools. One of those tools was the pit saw, a large two-man saw used to produce rafters and boards from raw timber. The saw is so named because, due to its length, one of the men operating it had to stand in a pit, the saw being used vertically.

Wood has a pit saw in his collection dating from the 1700s and it ranks as one of his most prized collectibles since only a few exist today. “They’re difficult to find and much sought after by collectors,” Wood says. “I’ve had several good offers for mine but I won’t part with it.”

Also among the rare tools in Wood’s collection is a Crown surveyor’s hammer. The hammer has the crown of the British monarchy engraved on one end and was used between the 1600s and 1800s to stamp timber destined for the Royal Navy. The hammer was used in the days when the British monarch claimed timber rights here, Wood says. In that period it was a criminal offense to possess timber stamped with the Crown.

When possible, Wood prefers to collect artifacts used and made by local craftsmen and workers. One of his specialties is the Blenkhorn Axe Factory which produced axes in Canning for the lumber industry from 1884 to 1965. In Wood’s collection are Blenkhorn axes, ledgers kept by the Blenkhorns, and various clippings, photographs and other data detailing the history of the factory over the years.

Among Wood’s most prized artifacts are carpenter’s planes that were used in the 1860s and 1880s, and a turn-of-the-century bucksaw with a hand carved wood frame. Most of his antique tools are in working condition and Wood often uses them in another of his hobbies, restoring antiques.

A lifelong resident of Kentville, Wood teaches Industrial Arts technology at Cornwallis District High School, Canning.

If it was to remain viable, Kingsport, a shipping outlet on the Minas Basin required a connection with the new railway line that was laid out through the Annapolis Valley about midway through the 19th century. On January 8, 1887, a public meeting was held in Canning to discuss financing a connector line. Prominent among the citizens attending was Leander Rand, M.P.P. and J. W. King of the Windsor and Annapolis Railway; it is said to be King’s suggestion that the connector line should be named the Cornwallis Valley Railway, or as area residents would fondly call it, the C.V.R.

The C.V.R. would eventually be built – it was operational by 1890 – and the tracks ran into Kentville to connect with the line that would become the Dominion Atlantic Railway. Early on, however, there was talk of bypassing Kentville and running the line due west to Sheffield Mills and thence to Middleton. The importance of having a railway line to service fruit growers in the region west of Centreville and north of what is now the 101 highway was realized early.

Eventually, a spur would be constructed to run west from Centreville into the heart of the Kings County’s fruit growing belt, the line the C.V.R, might have built but for pressure from the Annapolis and Windsor Railway. This spur line, called the Weston subdivision, was built by the Canadian Pacific Railway between 1912 and 1914, nearly two decades after the completion of the C.V.R.

The Weston subdivision ran west into the fruit belt for 14 miles with stations at Northville, Lakeville, Woodville, Somerset and Weston. Railway buff Leon Barron tells me that while there were stations at these communities along the line and passenger service was available, there were no permanent station agents. “The railway used a system of traveling agents,” Barron explained.

As mentioned, the fruit growing industry spurred the building of the C.V.R. and was the main reason the Weston subdivision was laid out. Leon Barron says there were at least 25 apple warehouses constructed along the C.V.R. line to service apple growers. When the Weston subdivision was added, another 19 warehouses were built between Centreville and Weston. These included the warehouses of private fruit companies, the United Fruit Co. for example. A few of these warehouses still stand along the right of way and the company logos can still be read.

Most of the tracks of the Cornwallis Valley Railway and the Weston subdivision were removed in 1962. The rights of way are still visible in many areas, however, and some are being used as walking and snowmobile trails. In a few areas on the Weston line, some of the cement culverts at stream crossings are still extant. The existing culverts are dated on the north side – “either 1912, 1913 or 1914,” Leon Barron says.

If you’re interested in looking at remnants of the Weston line, Leon Barron tells me there is a large cement bridge that crosses a gully near Woodville. Turn north at the Woodville intersection and a short distance up the road the line crosses by a poultry house. You can find the culvert or bridge by walking west along the old right of way.

A couple of the old Weston line stations are also still standing, Barron says. The Lakeville station was purchased by the Stirling family years ago and moved away from the right of way; the station now stands about a half mile away from the original railway line on Sterling land north-west of Lakeville.