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January 1996
Lunenburg Honoured Lunenburg town was founded two hundred and forty two years ago in June, 1753. In 1992, the site of the original town was designated as a National Historic District in Canada. On December 13, 1995, the original site of Lunenburg was declared a World Heritage Site. This designation was bestowed on Lunenburg by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Orgaization (UNESCO), then meeting in Berlin, Germany.
In making the announcement, UNESCO praised Lunenburg as an outstanding example of planned European colonial settlement in North America in terms both of its conception and its remarkable level of conservation.
Lunenburg now ranks among such landmarks as the Nubian monuments of Egypt and the ancient city of Damascus, Syria.
Thos os us whose ancestors were among the original founding settlers of Lunenburg in June of 1753, whether they were from the German States, the Principality of Montbéliard, or Switzerland, should be justly proud of this honour to the town our ancestors founded.
Historical Notes on the Township of Dublin Continued from November 1995 issue
The town plot was to be established just north of Fort Point, at the spot where the centre of the present settlement og LaHave eventually grew up. There is no indication that losts were actually laid out or allocated in the town plot in the early 1760's, although it was noted on October 6, 1761 that a "Town Lott at New Dublin" was to be given to Mordow McCleod. McCleod was also granted permission, on September 17, 1761, to occupy land about a mile from the Old French Fort for a fishery, "until a division shall be made for the Township." Other shares and half rights in the township were given sporadically during the early 1760's to various individuals, but few of the originally designated settlers from Connecticut came to, or remained in, the area. In January, Charles Morris, who had been largely responsible for the organization of Planter settlements throughout the province, reported that "This Township...was granted in 1760 to two hundred and sixty proprietors in the Colony of Connecticut, very few have attempted to settle, and those without ability to support themselves, these few resided there about nine months, and then quitted it, it remains at present without inhabitants." Clearly, the terms of the grant had not been met, and so the area was available for redistribution. A handful of individual shares or grants were allotted during the years 1762-3, mostly to people from Lunenburg. On 17 August 1762, approval was given for the laying out of "Two Hundred Lotts ...in the Township of Dublin, adjoining the River and Harbour of LaHave, Bay of Petite Riviere and Port Mettois, not exceeding Two Hundred Acres each, to be drawn for as settlers shall arrive..."
These expected settlers were part of a group brought to Nova Scotia from Ulster by Alexander McNutt. By 29 October 1763, Morris would again report on the state of New Dublin: "Dublin has about 30 families mostly protestants from Ireland. They have been settled only since last Winter, are very industrious but poor having no stock nor clear improvable Lands. They have caught Fish sufficient for their Support, but are in want of Bread Corn. A Justice of the Peace is wanting here also."
One of those who went to New Dublin with the prospective settlers was Henry Ferguson, not a newly arrived Irish immigrant, but one of those named in the original 1760 grant as a resident of Lunenburg. He applied for, and eventually received, a grant of an Island (now known as Mosher's Island, but identified on contemporary plans as Ferguson's Island) on which he set up a fishery. Many of the Irish were as reluctant as the Connecticut proprietors to remain in the area, and moved to other townships such as Truro and Onslow where some of their fellow countrymen were established.
Meanwhile, Mordow McCleod retained his piece of land on the shore for fishing, and a number of other shore lots were occupied, mostly by people from Lunenburg. A handful of settlers developed farm lots along the Petite, but nowhere near the 407 families projected in 1760 took up residence in New Dublin.
In the "History of the County of Lunenburg", by Mather Byles DesBrisay, we find this reference to the New Dublin township:
"Among the early settlers in New Dublin township was one Muirhead, who came from Scotland, and lived on the property afterward occupied by the late Frederick Haine, near Conquerall Bank. His style of living and working was truly primitive, and his sustenance cost him little, as the river was full of fish and there was no potatoe rot; and he is described by an old inhabitant as 'a man who knew how to live upon nothing.' Horn spoons and pewter plates were used by the family, and he had a cap brought from Auld Scotia, which turned up every winter of his long residence, and was always fit for wear. He bought a pair of three-year-old steers, and worked them fifteen years, until he moved from the country; and doing without a wheeled vehicle of any kind while on the farm, he used sleds in winter and summer and 'looked out for wet weather to make easiest hauling.' He also cut a roadway through his best woodland, on which he placed skids, six feet apart, and over these, with oxen and sled, he hauled firewood for home, and the cordwood which he shipped from the river.
Other instances were given in this work of the use, in summer, of sleds instead of wheeled vehicles.
Writers on early days in Canada have referred to roads on which wheels had to be dispensed with, and where "jumpers" or ox-sleds were used for conveyance of goods.
How times have changed since those days. Our forbears did not have an easy time to eke out a living in the early days of Lunenburg County.
There are many other stories of the life of early settlers in Lunenburg County to be found in DesBrisay's "History of the County of Lunenburg". Here is one of them:
Page 457: "The county furnishes notable instances of what can be done by close attention to agriculture, one of which may be mentioned. Solomon Vienot, who died July 5, 1895, became owner of 250 acres of forest land, in what is now Hemford. He felled the first tree, and shortly afterwards built a small log house, in which he lived alone for several years, being his own cook and housekeeper. All the chopping was done by him, and he had only occasional assistance when piling the logs for burning. Ninety acres were cleared, and he had a large portion under plough and well cultivated. He gathered in one season twenty to twenty-five tons of English hay, nine tons of meadow hay, and large quantities of wheat, barley, oats, corn, rye, potatoes, turnips, carrots, pumpkins and cabbages. Having received instructions from an Indian (Simon Glode), he made the buckets, butter firkins, tubs and other articles of woodenware required on the farm. He was out of debt and had a comfortable home, enjoyed good health and boasted that he could do his own "doctoring." The farm, in walking over which he could feel much honest pride, is now in the midst of a large and flourishing settlement where, as elsewhere in the county, are many more visible proofs of the returns which may be expected from a diligent tillage of the soil.
"Mrs. Vienot makes a superior article of maple sugar. In the forest belonging to the farm, there are many hundreds of sugar-maple trees, from several of which have been taken forty pails of sap each. The sugar sold by Mrs. Vienot, in one season, besides all that was used, realized $20.32."
Solomon Vienot was one of three brothers who settled in Hemford. The two others were Fabian Vienot, born 1819 d. 1891 and James William Vienot born 1826 d. 1878.
Solomon was born in 1821 and died in 1895. He married Sarah C. Colp on November 1, 1860. She was born in 1835 and died July 3, 1909. They had six children, namely:
Sarah Lucretia Vienot, b. 1861 who married on July 9, 1879, Joseph Varner b. 1854
Jason Vienot, b. March 29, 1862 d. July 9, 1916. He married Freelove Moore, born 7 July 1867 d. 1941
Mary Dina Vienot, born 12 April 1868
Alfonso Vienot, born 1869 d. 26 September 1888
Amelia Vienot, b. 1870
Ellen Vienot, b. 1870Jason Vienot was a blacksmith, and lived about a half mile from his birthplace. Jason and Freelove had eight children, namely:
Alfonso Vienot, b. 26 September 1889 d. 22 Oct. 1903
Mark Tracy Vienot, b. 29 May 1891
Freda Vienot, dates unknown
Noble Annas Vienot, 14 Dec. 1892 d. 18 Feb. 1918
Henry Burrill Vienot, b. 1 Mar. 1896 d. 24 Jan. 1919
Ernest Reginald Vienot b. 22 Feb 1899 d. 26 Mar. 1961
Gladys Joyce Vienot, b. 19 Jun 1901 d. 6 Nov. 1918. Married Leonard Austin Wile b. 27 Apr 1898 d. 1980
Ethel Zelda Vienot, b. 18 Mar 1906 d. 19 Nov 1918
Gladys Joyce had a daughter, Edith Peace Wile b. 20 Jun 1916 d. 11 Nov 1918
Ernest Reginald never married. He learned the blacksmith trade from his father, and worked as a blacksmith for most of his life.The Vienot families that came to Hemford all changed the spelling of their surname to Veinot. There were many descendants from the two brothers of Solomon.
Solomon Vienot's field in Hemford has now returned to forest. The old house was still standing vacant in the 1940's, it's windows and doors broken by vandals. It was thought by the older people of the community to be haunted. Lights were reported to have been seen at night in and around the house, and it was a place to stay away from when it was dark. Your editor can remember being with a group of teenagers walking, one night when the moon was shining brightly, along the road that went through the village. As we passed the Vienot property one of the group spotted a light up by the vacant house. As we stood there in the road, watching this light which seemed to be moving, one of the boys suggested that we go up on the hill to the house and see what was causing the light. Some were afraid to go, but there being strength in numbers, we thought, we all walked up the long driveway, watching the moving light. When we arrived at the house we discoverred that a piece of glass from one of the upper windows was lodged in a branch of a tree growing beside the house, and was reflecting the light of the moon. The mystery was solved. There was no ghost in the house.
There are no descendants of Solomon living today, so the name is forgotten in the village of Hemford, and only a few grave stones remain as reminders of this pioneer who worked so hard to develop a farm from the forest.
Hemford, for those who do not know where it is located, is on the road between New Germany, Lunenburg County, and Caledonia, Queens County. It is about 8 miles from New Germany. The driveway to the Solomon Vienot property is across the road from the fire station in Hemford.