The fate of the Dominion Atlantic Railway in the Valley was sealed in the late 1980s when highway 101 between Kentville and Yarmouth was completed. Now, decades later, the abandoned railbeds are walking trails and the only visible remnants indicating the railway was once here.

As for other remnants, a few books of railway history have been published, with at least one focusing on the Annapolis Valley. Some museums have token railway displays; only a few, such as the Macdonald Museum in Middleton with its all-encompassing exhibit, celebrates the fact that this was once a railway hub.

Besides museum exhibits, some remnants of the railway also can be found in private collections. Put together by people with a passionate interest in the railway and its lore, these collections are priceless; since they preserve artefacts and historic material that surely would have been lost forever, calling the collections “priceless” doesn’t say enough about their value.

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(Note: Tentative plans are being made to recognize an early Kentville police officer, Rupert Davis. The following account about Davis is based on a column I wrote in 2001 and from information found in the archives of the Kings County Museum).

In the December 26, 1938 issue of The Advertiser, the newspaper reported that Kentville’s former Chief of Police was in critical condition after being struck by an automobile on a town street.

“Rupert Davis, for 45 years Kentville Chief of Police… is in critical condition in Eastern Kings Memorial Hospital, Wolfville”, reads the newspaper report. “Returning to his home on his bicycle, the former Chief, now nearing 80 years of age, was struck by an alleged hit-and-run auto driver. Davis sustained a broken left arm, other injuries and severe shock.”

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One of my most cherished books is W. C. Milner’s collection of historical articles on people and communities around the Minas Basin. As I’ve mentioned before, Milner was the provincial archivist who moved to Wolfville around 1930 when he retired. In Wolfville he wrote a series of articles for the town paper (The Acadian) which was bound and published in book form.

As well as being rare, Milner’s book was cheaply bound on flimsy paper, so I only take it out of its protective cover to read once or twice a year. One of those occasions was during the recent holidays and I found some interesting historical nuggets worth sharing. Did you know, for example that laws in place during the Planter period allowed husbands and wives to be punished together publicly for minor infractions, such as being noisy in public. Quoting from Milner: “Scolding women were subjected to the dunking pool. Sometimes she and her husband were subjected to it, tied back to back.” This, you might say, is an early example of equal opportunities for women.

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People today find it difficult to believe that even when automobiles were running up and down Kentville’s streets, there were at least two and possibly three blacksmiths still operating inside the town limits.

This isn’t ancient history, by the way. People living today remember well the blacksmith shop operated by Buck Bennett at the corner of Main Street and Chester Avenue. One of my friends, who is 95, tells me Bennett was renowned in the county for shoeing horses that were too “troublesome” for other smiths. During the 1930s, when local hockey teams were competing in Boston, Bennett was also renowned as a player for the Kentville Wildcats. On December 28, 1943, Bennett was killed in a bombing raid near Ortona in Italy during World War 2. At the time, he was serving as a tradesman with the Canadian Army Ordnance Corp. According to local lore, Bennett went overseas as an overage soldier because craftsmen were sorely need for the war effort. That same lore says he served at a really young age in World War 1.

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