In 1896 the Yarmouth Steamship Company of Boston published a tourist guide aimed at enticing American visitors to Nova Scotia. Steamship and rail travel was in its heyday at the time and the Yarmouth Steamship Company had close ties with the Dominion Atlantic Railway. Tourists could take a steamer out of Boston to Yarmouth, and then tour the province via convenient railway connections, stopping it was hoped at various inns and hotels promoted in the tourist publication.

Written by the poet Charles G. D. Roberts (before he was dubbed Sir Charles and was teaching in Windsor, Hants County) the tourist publication mentions various hotels and inns found along the rail route. Roberts apparently toured the province by rail, visiting major town and villages, staying overnight at some of the hostelries the railway wanted to promote. Thus we find Roberts mentioning “good Uncle Baxter,” who might be waiting for visitors when the train with tourists aboard arrived in Canning.

“Good Uncle Baxter” was Amos B. Baxter, who along with “Gram” Baxter, were proprietors of Waverley House, which in the late 19^th century, and for over 30 years, was apparently the place to stay in Canning. In fact, Waverly House is singled out as the only place to stay around Canning in the tourist publication. There is a prominent advertisement in the publication, advertising rooms available in the Waverly for $1.50 per day. The advertisement, signed by A. B. Baxter as proprietor, dwells on all the natural attractions tourists might find interesting around Canning, at Blomidon and the Look-Off.

There is mention of Mrs. Baxter in a write-up I have describing older Canning homes (source unknown) and I’m interested in it because it tells me Gram is a relative. She must have been quite the gal, this lady who possibly was my great aunt, since for three decades she ran the Waverly with Amos Baxter, and after his death continued to operate it for several more years.

Mrs. Baxter was born in 1837, and she lived to be 97, reads the write-up. “She was born at Baxter’s Harbour, a daughter of David Coleman. She married Amos Baxter in 1857. She and her husband opened the Waverley Hotel (sic) of which she was the proprietress for 30 years. After Mr. Baxter’s death, she carried on alone for three years.”

Since the write-up mentions that my great grandfather’s son, John Coleman, the county jailer, was her brother, I assume but question whether Gram was a relative. In two different census reports, no record exists of David Coleman having a daughter that was born in 1837. However, this may mean nothing. My grandfather, Joseph, isn’t listed in these census records either, and David is shown as his father in a couple of official documents. Gram Baxter had three children and relatives of her son, George, still live in Kings County.

I’ve been unable to determine what happened to Canning’s Waverley House after Gram passed away. I turned up a Waverley House operating in Kentville in 1890 but the Baxter name isn’t associated with it in late 19^th century newspaper advertisements.

There’s nothing new under the sun goes an old cliché, and it certainly applies to the current plans to harness the Fundy tides.

In fact, on at least two occasions in the past that I know of, attempts have been made to harness the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy at Cape Split to generate electricity. Apparently it was the dream two respected members of Acadia University, one of them its president. This was in 1916, and it was a grand scheme that almost got off the ground, failing possibly because it was simply ahead of its time.

In 1916 the Cape Split Development Company was formed; an announcement followed that the problem of harnessing the Fundy tides had been solved. The CSDC said that once their project was completed, cheap, unlimited electric power would be available immediately to Kings County, and in the future to the entire Maritimes.

From what I’ve read in documents available at Acadia University and in newspaper accounts, the project was the brainchild of Acadia University president George Barton Cutten and University professor of engineering, R. P. Clarkson. A prospectus released by the CSDC announced that at the core of the plan was the Clarkson Current Motor, which Professor Clarkson had invented and patented.

Basically, the project involved using the Clarkson Motor to pump seawater from the base of Cape Split into reservoirs in the cliffs some 300 feet above; from the reservoirs, water would then be dropped down chutes to turbines in the powerhouse at the base of the cliffs.

According to the prospectus, a charter had been granted, land had been acquired and some preliminary work had been done. Public shares were offered by the Company but despite the fact that some prominent local businessmen were involved, a drive to raise the necessary financing fizzled out. After a few years in existence, and undoubtedly after a few more unsuccessful funding drives, the CSDC quietly folded.

Earlier, coincidentally just 100 years ago, another grand scheme was proposed to build a causeway from Cape Split across to the shore near Spencer’s Island, a distance of about five kilometers.

Little is known about this plan or how much groundwork was done, but diagrams found at Acadia University years ago indicate the causeway would hold turbines to generate electricity. This may simply have been some engineer’s dream, but it tells us the current plan to harness Fundy tides is not a new idea.

With a hint that they couldn’t be “responsible for recipes” calling for flour unless their products were used, the Ogilvie Flour Mills Co. of Montreal released the first of a series of cook books in 1907. A century later, some of those first editions can still be found in Nova Scotia kitchens. We have one in our kitchen, a still handy book used by at least three generations of homemakers.

Oddly, in a book stuffed with recipes, Ogilvie claimed they weren’t offering a “general cook book,” but simply a “help to the average housekeeper.” However, while they called the publication a “book for a cook,” it did stray from being just that. Various household hints are offered, some sensible, some bizarre, the latter hinting at how much different household life was 100 years ago.

Rats must have been common around the home in 1907, for example. Else why, in the section on household hints, would Ogilvie suggest a way to great way to get rid of rats – “besides using traps, cats or dogs” – was to spread chloride of lime, which was probably common in 1907 households where it was used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant. “It is said they (rats) never come where that is placed.”

I was surprised that besides heating and lighting, kerosene oil was used as a cleanser in households a century ago. Ogilvie’s book advises housewives that a spoonful of kerosene oil, added to a kettle of hot water, will make “windows, looking glasses and picture glasses bright and clear.”

Ogilvie claimed that kerosene would accomplish other little miracles around the house as well. For example: “When your kitchen sink is rusty, rub it over with kerosene.” “Kerosene will clean your hands better than anything else.” “Squeaky shoes are cured by dipping the soles in kerosene.” “The white spots appearing in the spring on the lining of your refrigerator will disappear if you rub the zinc with kerosene.”

Maybe kerosene was as useful around the house as Ogilvie indicates. Folk medicine has it that kerosene mixed with molasses was once used to treat coughs in Newfoundland. Other folk medicine says kerosene was an excellent bedbug wash and a rub for rheumatism. In a century old outdoors book, there’s a recipe that says one can make cough drops by boiling a mixture of molasses, kerosene oil and ginger , letting it cool until it solidifies and cutting it into candies.