Kings County was one of the original five counties of the province and as I’ve pointed out before in this column (column 1, column 2), it included most of what is now Hants County, and part of what is now Cumberland County and Colchester County.

If you weren’t aware of this, some of the references to the Kings-Hants area in community history books and documents, covering the period from 1759 to 1781, would be puzzling. The five original counties were established in 1759, several years after the Acadian expulsion and a few years before the Planters arrived. Kings County remained king-sized until 1781 when Hants County was created.

History books and archive documents have numerous references to the confusing 22-year period when Kings and Hants County were one. Even some of the early writers who chronicled this period appeared to confuse the boundaries of Kings and Hants. For example, in 1889, when Henry Youle Hind published a book on an old burial ground in Windsor, he thought it necessary to describe fishing activities on the Canard River, which rises a few miles north of Kentville.

Reading a bibliography of Kings County documents stored in the Public Archives, I found other references to the 22-year period before Hants County was formed. In the Archives is a record of monies collected in the townships of Kings County to repair the jail at Horton, which must have been constructed sometime between 1765 and 1773. Two of the Kings County townships mentioned in this document are Falmouth and Newport which became part of Hants County.

Similar documents fail to distinguish between what is Kings County then and Kings County after 1781. One dated 1763 is a petition from residents to unite one section of Kings County with another by having a road built from Fort Edward to Cornwallis Township. Apparently there was no action on this petition. Four years later, in 1767, the good citizens of Kings County again petitioned the government, asking that Cornwallis and Horton Townships be connected by a road to Pisaquid (Windsor); the petition requested that said road should have at least three bridges.

Any documents of this nature would be mystifying if you had no knowledge of what transpired here in the early decades following arrival of the Planters. Unfortunately, some historical writers assume you know your history and they neglect to tell you Kings County once took in most of the eastern end of the Valley and butted on Halifax County. I hope that now the references to Hants County places being in Kings County will be no longer be puzzling.

From a historical viewpoint, the Cornwallis River wasn’t much of a factor in the early settlement of Kings County. Early on, for example, the Acadians realized that dykeing the Cornwallis and building aboiteaux wasn’t worthwhile since relatively little land could be reclaimed from the sea. The Canard River, on the other hand, was ideal for dykeing, and soon after settling here the Acadians concentrated their efforts on it.

The Cornwallis River, from just above Kentville down to the Minas Basin is muddy, treacherous, turbulent at high tide, and unfriendly at low tide. As far as early settlers were concerned, the river’s only saving grace was its huge shad runs. For generations, the lower area of the river offered a productive, much needed fishery, a sort of kitchen industry providing food and fertilizer.

Reading the archives at Acadia University, I discovered that Esther Clark Wright once considered writing a book on the Cornwallis River. Apparently she started to put together some of the river’s history. We can only surmise that she dropped the project when she found there was little of interest historically to write about the river.

However, while the Cornwallis was for the most part ignored by the Acadians, the Planters quickly found that the river had an annoying featuring. Literally, the river split apart their major settlements in Kings County and was an impediment when it came to agricultural and social intercourse. Ferries became a necessity early on; several sources claim that the Acadians and later the Planters operated a ferry on the river just below Port Williams.

Arthur W. H. Eaton in his Kings County history writes that the first bridge on the Cornwallis River was “built at least as early as 1780” at Port Williams. The editors of the Port Williams history (The Port Remembers) state that the date of the bridge is “controversial;” meaning, I assume, that no one knows for sure when the first bridge at Port Williams was constructed.

In 1769, a petition signed by 25 inhabitants of Kings County (Cornwallis Township) requested that the price of “ferriage” on the Cornwallis River be reduced. We can assume this document, which is in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia, indicates there was no bridge on the river at that time.

Another document in the Archives makes Eaton’s 1780 bridge date questionable since a ferry was running much later than this. Dated 1792, this document is an application to raise ferry prices on the Cornwallis River to 15 pence for a man and a horse. It’s amusing to note that the rate increase was requested because the ferryman was required to transport jury members free of charge.

Of course, a ferry could have operated on the Cornwallis River after a bridge was constructed. Arthur W. H. Eaton indicates that a bridge definitely was in place at Port Williams by 1818; he mentions legislative records relating to rebuilding and repairing said bridge. On the ferries, I’ve been unable to determine when they stopped operating on the Cornwallis River.

In 1786, Kings County constable Samuel Witter lodged two charges “against individuals” for breach of the Sabbath. One of the charges involved “several apprentice boys swimming in the river.” The other charge Witter lodged was against three men who were seen carrying scythes on Sunday.

In 1787, one David B—— of Kings County was indicted by a jury and found guilty of “profane swearing.” Apparently David committed his offence in public. He was fined two shillings.

Obviously it was against the law to swim on Sunday in Kings County in the late 18^th century. It also was an offence to mow hay on Sunday; you could even be charged for carrying work tools on Sunday even if you had no intentions to use them. You couldn’t swear in public either, Sunday or otherwise.

Looking at how liberal the laws are today – or how liberally they’re interpreted – and realizing they were once rigorous and strict to the point of being ridiculous is difficult to comprehend. Your mind kind of boggles when you read that swimming or simply carrying farm tools on Sunday was a crime in the eyes of the law.

This was the case, however. It seems that in some instances, the Planter settlers of Kings County were puritanical to the extreme, and their laws were strict and unforgiving. There’s a document in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia (PANS) for example, indicating how harshly lawbreakers could be treated. Dated 1784, the document is an invoice and itemized account on the cost of apprehending and keeping prisoners in the Kings County jail. In the list of items in the invoice are “irons,” a “pilory and a catt,” (sic) and the cost of hiring a “man to whip a criminal.” The “catt” must refer to a cat-o’-nine-tails which a man hired to “whip a criminal” would necessarily require.

A similar document, dated 1800, contains Grand Jury actions dealing with matters such as enforcing the laws against horse racing and with the construction of stocks and whipping posts. Beware, ye who would race horses or break the Sabbath, in other words.

The documents on Constable Witter’s charges and the trial of David B—— can be found in PANS as well. There’s a bibliography of hundreds of similar documents in PANS, dating between 1759 and 1800, in the book New England Planters in the Maritime Provinces. As mentioned in a previous column, the book can be found in the reference section of the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia. The contents of the documents listed in the book are summed of in one and two brief sentences and you can get the gist of what they contain at a glance. To read the entire document would require a visit to the Public Archives in Halifax.

As well as the documents that I’ve mentioned regarding laws, I found numerous references in the book about Kings County jails, and early Cornwallis river bridges and ferries. These documents will be discussed in a later column.

When a jury sat to consider a case in the summer of 1770 in Kings County, says a document in the Public Archives of Nova Scotia (PANS), they were served “considerable rum and ‘tody’.” The document, an account of what was served in the way of liquor, notes that it was for “entertainment of the jury.”

Another document in PANS is an order of the Grand Jury stating the four individuals in Kings County “be arrested and charged with racing horses in the public roads during the sitting of the court.”

And yet another document in PANS, dated 1764, is a petition with 25 signatures “witnessing to a charge of irregular living against Ezekial —— and Phoebe ——- (wife of Seth ——-) for taking each other as man and wife and co-habiting.”

Also in PANS are petitions, five dated 1778 and 15 dated 1783 requesting the right to sell “spirituous liquors” in Kings County.

An adulterous couple publicly denounced, charges of horse racing in public when court is in session, rum served to juries to smooth their deliberations, and the likelihood there were more taverns than stores in Kings County in the 18^th century. These are a few of the documents in PANS relating to everyday Planter life in Kings County, and you can see there was intolerance on one hand, and a liberal attitude when it came to alcohol.

Brief descriptions of these and other documents from the early Planter period can be found in a book called New England Planters in the Maritime Provinces. As mentioned, the documents are in PANS, and the book apparently was compiled to assist historical researchers.

If anyone would like to read it, the book can be found in the reference section of the Vaughan Memorial Library at Acadia. The one and two sentence description of each document are interesting since they reveal aspects of Planter life you don’t find in history books. Who would think, for example, that horse racing was an offence, or that alcohol consumption by juries was acceptable in those days, and paid for out of the public purse.

Admittedly, I’ve mentioned a few of the slightly scandalous documents found in PANS. After all, they’re more revealing and more interesting. My favorite, by the way, is a document from 1763. This is described as an “order that Supreme Court Judges should have priority on the ferry from Windsor to Partridge Island (then part of Kings County) and no other passengers would be taken on the same passage without the Judges written consent.”

Now is that using political clout or what?

Writing in the Seniors’ Advocate a few years ago, folklore researcher Clary Croft mentioned that Auction Forty-Fives is the most popular card game in the Maritimes.

This may be true. However, drop into any branch of the Royal Canadian Legion in Nova Scotia and you’ll find that cribbage boards are as common as the Legion logo. While Auction Forty-Five no doubt is popular, the card game of choice, the card game most often organized by the Legion into tournaments, is cribbage, or “crib,” which is what most of us call this centuries old pastime.

Cribbage is played big time by Legion branches across Canada and is well organized. Paul Justason, sports chairman of Kings Branch # 6 in Kentville, tells me that Legions across the country compete every year for the ultimate in cribbage competitions, the Canadian championship, which has been held annually since 1989 and involves some 400 branches.

Play starts at the branch level first, and then advances to the zone, Justason said. Each zone in the province – there are 16 – sends two teams to the Nova Scotia/Nunavut final, which will be held later this month in Fairview outside Halifax. The winning team there advances to the Dominion championship in Grand Bend, Ontario, where it will compete with teams from other Legion zones from across Canada.

I mentioned above that cribbage is a centuries old pastime. The game is well over 300 years old. Cribbage was invented by the Englishman John Suckling, a swashbuckling gambler who lived from 1609 to 1642. The game hasn’t changed a whole lot since Suckling created it and this may explain part of its charm. The game combines elements of skill and chance the game. Its relatively simple rules of play and the equipment required (cards and scoring boards) makes it easy to organize into tournaments, explaining perhaps why Legion sports committees keep the cribbage competitions alive.

But simple as the game appears to be, cribbage is deceptively complex and appeals to players who like card games requiring calculation and a few shifty moves now and then. Then there’s the Nova Scotia cribbage connection, which may also explain its popularity.

As far as I can determine, only one book has ever been published in Canada about cribbage. All About Cribbage was written by the late Douglas Anderson of Halifax and published in 1971 by Winchester Press. The book contains a wealth of historical data, rules and terminology and even has a Kentville connection. The chapter with tables showing scoring possibilities were prepared by The Advertiser’s former publisher, George Baker.

About a year ago I devoted two columns (column1, column2) to the career of William H. Chase (1851-1933) and called him the apple king of Nova Scotia.  At the time, the editor of the Kings County Register questioned this.  “I always thought the title of apple king belonged to Berwick’s Sam Chute,” Sara Keddy said.

Of course I had heard of Sam Chute.  Who hasn’t if they live in the Valley.  His name is synonymous with apple growing and with Berwick, where he was one of the town’s leading citizens.   But as for him being the apple king, well I was dubious about that.  William H. Chase’s impact on the apple industry in Nova Scotia was unrivalled, as far as I was concerned, and he’s regarded as one of the men who brokered the apple industry into national prominence.

However, the possibility that others regarded Sam Chute as the apple king intrigued me.  What was Chute’s claim to fame?  Looking for an answer to this question, I learned that first of all, that comparing Chute to Chase was, well, like comparing apples to oranges, if you’ll pardon the cliché.   While Chase owned orchards, for example, he flourished more as an apple broker, a major exporter, a builder of warehouses and ports, a pioneer in turning the growing and selling of apples into a major business that put Nova Scotia on the world map.

Sam Chute, on the other hand, was an apple pioneer, one of the men who led the way into making the Valley a flourishing fruit belt, a fruit belt which astute businessmen like Chase turned into a financial empire.  Comparing Chute with Chase was, in other words, comparing growers with an exporter, a man who bought and sold apples, and this was wrong.

I have Berwick historian Pat Hampsey to thank for setting me straight on this.   Pat gave me several newspapers clipping on Chute from the Berwick Register, one detailing the life of the grower when he died in 1941 at age 74.  The Register hailed Chute as a pioneer of the apple industry.  In addition to turning out record crops and operating some of the largest orchards in the Valley, the Register said, Chute had also established international business connections with the fruit trade, and had “large fruit interests” in the States.

Sam Chute’s prominent role in the apple industry is brought into perspective by Anne Hutten in her book, Valley Gold.  “S. B. ‘Sam’ Chute of Berwick is known to have pioneered in the extensive use of commercial fertilizers during the 1890s, while increasing his acreage of orchards at a steady pace,” Hutten writes.  “By 1909 he was producing 4,000 barrels of apples, the largest crop ever grown by a single farmer up to that time.”

Elsewhere, Hutten tells us that when Apple growers banded together to form the United Fruit Companies of Nova Scotia, the new organization looked for the best men available to manage it and build warehouses.  “S. B. Chute of Berwick was an acknowledged expert on the growing, buying and shipping of apples, and he was hired as the first general manager.  That he continued to operate his own private business did not yet bother growers.  They needed a man who knew the business, and Sam Chute, without any doubt, knew it.”

Hutten includes other tributes to Chute in the book, verifying that beyond a doubt, he was in his time a leader in the apple industry.  That in one sense he was worthy of being dubbed the apple king cannot be disputed.  He was certainly acknowledged in his day as the apple king; the Register clippings from Pat Hampsey’s file never fail to refer to him as such whenever his name came up.

The little rail line that operated between Kingsport and Kentville beginning in 1890 was incorporated as the Cornwallis Valley Railway. Marguerite Woodworth, in her Dominion Atlantic Railway history, refers to the line as the Cornwallis Valley Railway. Internet historian Ivan Smith, Canning, also calls it the Cornwallis Valley Railway, as do numerous historical sources, so it appears that this is the correct name for the line.

However, the dean of Kings County historical writers, Arthur W. H. Eaton in his county history, calls the little railroad the Central Valley Railway, inferring that it was incorporated as such.

Possibly this was an error by Eaton and I mention it because it’s interesting historical trivia. I often find odd things like this in historical books and documents and I collect them. I call this stuff historical trivia, or things I found while looking up something else. Here are a few from my file.

In a journal entry dated February 28, 1871, Henry Alline rails against horse racing in Horton. “This day I went from Cornwallis to Horton, and O how I was grieved to see a vast crowd of people at horse-racing.” (From The Journal of Henry Alline, 1982 Lancelot Press edition edited by James Beverley and Barry Moody). Alline doesn’t indicate where in Horton Township the racing took place, but possibly it was in or near present day Wolfville.

The Markland Sagas, a book examining the Viking presence in Nova Scotia, and the possibility they may have landed in several parts of the province, was written by C. H. L. Jones and Thomas H. Raddall, and privately published in the early 1930s. (Mentioned in the book To Nova Scotia written in 1934 by T. Morris Longstreth.) In this connection, Longstreth mentions the so-called Runic Stone with its mysterious inscriptions that was found in Yarmouth.

Now here’s an aside our folks with Scottish ancestors will appreciate. Quoting from Norse documents, the authors of The Markland Sagas write that when Vikings explored what may have been Nova Scotia, they sent “Scottish slaves” ashore to check out the land. Does this raise the possibility that the Scots were the first people to set foot in North America?

On the early name for Kingsport, folklore has it that it was Indian Point. For anyone wondering if this is fact or fiction, here’s a quote from an unpublished paper on the Planters written in 1961 by Ernest Eaton: “Indian Point, an old name for Kingsport, is mentioned as the location of Lot 16, granted to Benjamin Newcomb.”

Many towns, villages and county communities were known by different names in earlier times. In his papers, for example, Ernest Eaton writes that the community adjacent to Kentville, South Alton, was once known as Moores Mills.

From Ernest Eaton as well, I found that Saxon Street, near Canning, was once called Washington Street. I’ve found Saxon Street designated as Washington Street on older maps. I’ve never found Bently Path on old maps, but Ernest Eaton says this was an even earlier name for Saxon Street/Washington Street.

Anyone interested in knowing where the first court house was built in Kings County? “I preached this day at the court-house in Horton,” Henry Alline wrote in his Journal on May 5, 1781. In a footnote, the editors say Alline preached at the “Meeting house in Horton, built in 1763, (which) was also the court house.” This was located at “what is now the Old Baptist Burying Ground, Wolfville.”

Later, in 1767, a meeting house or church was built at Chipman’s Corner (Arthur W. H. Eaton) and Alline would have preached there as well. Eaton says that nearby, close to where Middle Dyke road meets Church Street, an Acadian church once stood. I find it odd that the Acadians and Planters selected Chipman Corner as the site for a church.

In a column nearly a decade ago I asked how many of the roads in use today in Kings County follow ancient trails of the Mi’kmaq. I suggested that many of the pathways used countless generations by the Mi’kmaq were utilized by the Acadians and undoubtedly improved on and expanded here and there. In turn, as well as laying out new roads, the Planters found many of the Acadian trails convenient and some became permanent fixtures in the countryside.

Consider, for example, two major highways just outside Kentville, Belcher and Church Street. Since they follow the high ground, skirting two rivers as they wind towards Minas Basin, I assume these streets first were Mi’kmaq trails and then Acadian roads. Belcher Street winds through the high ground north of Kentville to a crossing place (now a bridge) known to have been used by the Mi’kmaq and Acadians. Both streets offer access to the shad fishery in the Cornwallis River and the Canard River, which were of vital importance, especially in the early days, to the Planter settlements in Kings County.

However, if we need solid evidence that early pathways and trails eventually became common roads, all we need do is consult historians such as Arthur W. H. Eaton and Ernest Eaton. The latter’s work is not as well known as the man who wrote the History of Kings County, but Ernest Eaton produced many well-documented historical articles on early times in Kings County. Some of these articles can be found in the Nova Scotia Historical Quarterly, some are unpublished; while the articles are mainly about dykes and early farm holdings, Eaton occasionally refers to old Acadian and Planter roads that remain today as well used highways.

In his county history, in the chapter on roads, traveling and dykes, Arthur W. H. Eaton writes that the Acadians cleared a “road eighteen feet wide all that way from Minas to Halifax.” The Acadians also began a major road from Minas to Port Royal, which was never completed. We can speculate that both roads were eventually part of #1 highway, which served the province so well before the 101 was opened.

The well traveled Middle dyke road, the highways running north from Greenwich to Canning, and north from Kentville towards the Bay of Fundy, are other example of roads that originated with the Acadians and Planters. In fact, Kings County has numerous roads that began as Mi’kmaq footpaths and became head-of-the-tide trails from one Acadian settlement to the other. Most of us drive over these roads today and don’t realize we’re following ancient pathways.

Historian Ivan smith of Canning writes that my January 8 column on the once common use of kerosene in the household “brought up an ancient memory.”

He has some interesting revelations about the use of kerosene, writing that when he was growing up in Lunenburg County in the 1930s and 1940s, his mother regularly used it as a cleanser. “For the kerosene she had a rectangular metal can with a small opening in the top with a screw cap,” he writes. “I clearly recall being sent with the empty can to the local garage to buy a refill (for) fifteen cents. This quantity, about a pint, would last two or three months. The can was kept on a shelf in the kitchen. It was always there during the time I lived at home.

“I do not recall it being used to clean glass surfaces, windows or mirrors. She used it for cleaning the glazed kitchen and bathroom sinks. I remember that after I was big enough to reach across the bathtub, one of my chores was sometimes to remove the ring around the bathtub after the Saturday evening baths.”

A wet cloth daubed with kerosene was used to clean the sink and tub, Smith writes, and for this “the kerosene was very effective. It left a clean surface that needed only a rinse with warm water.” After 1948, he concluded, his mother stopped using kerosene for cleaning and switched to Bon Ami, a powder cleanser that has been around for over 100 years.

History Preview

I reported in last week’s column that Mack Frail is busy researching and writing a history of Centreville. Mack recently sent me an excerpt from his upcoming work, with permission to reprint it here. In it he looks back on winter in Centreville some 50 years ago.

“The Centreville meadows would flood during January thaws and when they froze over, there was skating from highway 359 to beyond the railway bridge in Billtown. The large bon fires we had near the ice could be seen for a long distance. Clearing the snow off the ice and setting up for a game of hockey require some effort by the children. A pair of lumberman’s rubbers …. provided excellent goal markers.

“Without a net to stop the shots on goal, there were interruptions in the game to retrieve the puck. It required some nerve to be a goal tender considering that we wore little or no pads for protection. Our equipment was crude by today’s standard. Magazines or catalogues were attached to the legs as shin pads. A curved alder branch could be used as a hockey stick. The broken sticks that were discarded at the rink were in demand by us boys to be repaired and put back into service.”

It’s no surprise to me that many of the family names Mack Frail gleaned from an old Centreville store ledger are Irish. While researching, I discovered that Irish families often settled together in various outlying Kings County communities and Centreville was no exception.

Mack Frail is writing a history of Centreville, a task he’s been working on for several years. He recently compiled a list of families that shopped at a Centreville general store in the late 19^th century. The list was compiled from a ledger Ron and Bernice Ward found when they took over the general store in 1983. The store has been open in Centreville for well over a century. Frail tells me this is only one of several of the store ledgers that exist, and he hopes to include their records in his Centreville history.

While copying the ledger accounts, Frail found that some 397 families were shopping at the general store. The first entry in the ledger is dated January 2, 1878, the final entry June 16, 1879. At the time the store was operated by Reuben Thorpe. While entries consists solely of items purchased and their prices, one of those dry, boring account books in other words, Frail says it “is wonderful document and for me a step back in the past.” The ledger shows, for example, that the barter system was alive and well at the time in Kings County. As Frail says, “a great deal of the transactions (at the store) were by barter, that is, when no cash exchanged hands.” The ledger indicates that “cord wood” was often exchanged for groceries, for example.

Frail tells me he has a lot of work ahead of him before the history will be finished. Folklore says there is an Acadian connection with the village, for example, and chronicling this phase of the village’s history may be difficult. Centreville could owe its origin to the fact that the Acadian roads met in the area. It’s possible also that these roads originally were Mi’kmaq trails, but that may be difficult to determine.

Pinning down records of the old Centreville lands grants has been difficult, Frail says. “I have always heard of the Bowles land grant, for example,” he said in effect, “but I haven’t located any documentation concerning it.” One Thadius Bowles operated what may have been the first mill in Centreville. A barn that’s some 150 years old and was part of the Bowles’ mill is still standing on Frail’s property.

Frail will also have to delve into Centreville’s Irish connection. Centreville has a Catholic cemetery with many old Irish headstones. I have no record of the Irish names on the tombstones, but Reuben Thorpe’s accounts ledger suggests some of them could be Haggertys, Magees, Murphys, Colemans, Sullivans or Mahaneys, to list a few of the Irish families that shopped at the store a century ago.

Little is known about the Acadians and the Irish in and around Centreville, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Frail comes up with regarding them. While Centreville undoubtedly grew rapidly after the railway arrived in 1890, the most interesting eras in Centreville’s history – and in any community’s history, in fact – should be the Acadian and post Acadian period immediately after the Planters arrived.