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S. S. G. S. NEWS

July 16, 2001
South Shore Genealogical Society PO Box 901 68 Bluenose Drive Lunenburg NS B0J 2C0 Phone : 1-902-634-4794 Ext. 26 ssgsoc@hotmail.com www.rootsweb.com/~nslssgs Summer Office Hours Monday to Friday 9:00 - 5:00 PM and Wednesday & Thursday 6:30 to 9:00 PM Zellers - Club Z#: 840345301

Ryan Joudrey is working as a Research Assistant in the SSGS office until August 31^st. Ryan is a third year Commerce student at Dalhousie. Welcome Ryan!

Bridgewater Bulletin June 12, 1935
...Thomas L. Spidell, Milford Mass.

"History of Parkdale and Maplewood, in colonial days known as Foster Settlement. Its old white school house, 1850, and its church in 1879 to 1935."

One hundred and thirteen years ago (1812), a small group of God-fearing souls organized the Lunenburg Baptist Church at North West Range, three miles from Lunenburg Town.

Prominent workers were Maders, Langilles, Refuse, Doreys and Spidles, and this church, as well as the Chester Church, are the parents of all Baptist churches in the county. (M.B. DesBrisay History, page 159). Thirty years later the New Germany Church was organized April 14, 1842, with twelve members and a church erected in the same year, in the time of Rev. Thomas DeLong.

Eighteen years later the present church was built. "Rev. William H. Caldwell done the framing with his own hands." And a short time after its completion, [he] died and was the first to be buried in the new cemetery.

Rev. William E. Hall was the first Baptist minister ordained in New Germany. (The article lists the ministers from 1842 to 1934).

Parkdale and Maplewood, a branch of the New Germany church, was first settled by Ezekiel Foster about 1840, for in April 1848, when David Kaulback with his brother Edward went there from Bridgewater, they found Ezekiel Foster living in a log house, his brother, Henry living in a shack built by Nelson Chesley near Whetstone Lake. The Fosters were the first settlers. There was no road, only a narrow path. Barns had not been built and the grains were stacked until they could be threshed.

A school house was built about ten years later. The school house for 25 years served many purposes - a church, school, singing school, town meeting, temperance hall, political rallies, concerts, plays of various kinds and one good fist fight.

Twelve of the above mentioned pastors preached in this little sanctuary now used as a shop and woodshed.

Why should we forget these spots and buildings that served us so well? Let us be generous enough to place a tablet and mark the spot. Let's bring them out into the limelight: publish the same for our newspaper editors and even read to help us.

In 1879 a church was built and later two beautiful school houses and a hall. Very different now than when our fathers first landed with their dough dishes on their backs, not even a house at first to live in. The dear wife was companion and friend. They started with a hand barrow to dig their little wares from the lakeshore; hand poles to carry the hay from the lowlands; hails to thresh the wheat, barley, oats and buckwheat.

The Lunenburg Co. Historical Society are looking for old photos of the LaHave River Valley to copy and eventually be reproduced in a book about the LaHave River Valley. If you have any old photographs that you would think would be of interest, take them to the Fort Point Museum.

Bridgewater Bulletin - 1952 (found in an old scrapbook of Janet Heisler)

The article was from Mr. Gardner's search that was made into the origin of Lunenburg Co. place names.

Many of the towns, villages, capes, coves, lakes, harbours etc. were named by the original MicMac Indians, others by Spanish, Irish, German adventurers and early settlers.

Some of these named their new homes after loved places in the old country, others after the settler who became head of his village. In some cases it is very hard to get a correct answer to the question, why the name? In order to fortify himself against any criticism that will be made, Mr. Gardner said he would append to his note the letters, E & O-E, which the old bookkeepers fifty years or so ago used to put on the bills which they sent to their customers - "Error and Ommissions Excepted".

- Forties - the old military road from Halifax to Annapolis via Hammond Plains, New Ross and Dalhousie - lots were laid out and up to 40 taken - the 40 lot was where the village is now located.

- New Ross - changed to New Ross from Sherbrooke during the administration of Lord Mulgrave in honour of his Lordhsip, whose second title was derived from New Ross in Ireland. Lake Ramsay was named for George Ramsay, Earl of Dalhousie.

- Petite Riviere - from the French meaning 'little river'.

- Molega - Indian name for fretful waters.

- Cherry Hill - from the wild cherries which were abundant on the hill.

- Blue Rocks - settled by Heinrich, now spelled Hynick; they were the first settlers who came to Lunenburg in 1753. The village was named from the blue slate rocks abundant there.

- Stonehurst - was first called Black Rocks by men of Blue Rocks who refused to give them blue rocks for their chimney, saying their black rocks were just as good.

-Indian Point - Micmac headquarters.

- Mahone Bay - some say from the French Mahonne and others from a Turkish word for a low venetian boat used by pirates - this latter ties in with the story of our Oak Island and the pirates who were supposed to have landed their plunders there.

- Cross Island - named from the Black Cross placed on the lighthouse until a light could be procured.

- Blockhouse - from military supplies kept there.

- First South - the village is situated south from Lunenburg - a village further south was called Middle South, now Bayport. Then families moved across the way and called it Feltzen South, meaning on the other side of the bay.

- New Cornwall - descriptive of Cornwall in England - large rolling hills and lakes.

- Tancook - formerly Queen Charlotte Island - some think it was called after a cook who was tanned - one man said you have a tan cook. Another story is that it is derived from a Micmac word.

- Battery Point - from the Blockhouse on the Point - it was one time called Boscawen.

- Dayspring - changed from Summerside at the request of the Postal Department, as there were several Summersides. After much discussion, the village was named from the Temperance Lodge there and with the remembrance of the hymn, Dayspring from on high.

- Conquerall - Mrs. J. Arthur Miller has the story that a Mr. Fancy was looking for a dam site and place for his mill when he saw the fine country and hill surrounding the Lake, which was named for him, Fancy's Lake - he said "This conquers all that I have seen" and purchased a lot of land from Col. Pernette.

The Riverport Review, June 2001
Contributed by Joan Dawson - a local historian

With the upcoming celebrations in the year 2004 of Champlain's arrival in LaHave/Green Bay, a lot of attention has been directed toward the French/Acadian history in our area.

The earliest inhabitants of the area now known as Riverport were the aboriginal people. In his 1604 map of the "Port of LaHave", Champlain shows settlements - tepees and long houses - on the eastern side of the mouth of the LaHave River. These were traditional native summer campgrounds, long established in this area.

The first permanent French settlement in the Lahave area was set up in 1632. During the period of Isaac de Razilly's governorship, we know that the native people were employed as guides and in other capacities. Razilly reports that there was a very good relationship between the aboriginal people and the settlers. They were not displaced by the French, and indeed some of the French settlers are known to have married native women. A number of these families remained in the area after the departure of the majority of the settlers for Port Royal.

When Issac de Razilly established his settlement, he built his fort and centred the colony on the west side of the river at Fort Sainte-Marie-de-Grace on Fort Point. But during the period of French occupation, the name Lahave was applied not only to the present village of Lahave, but to the entire area, including both sidees of the river and the islands. The settlers moved freely from one side of the river to the other.

An important feature of Razilly's settlement was the meadow on the eastern side of the river that appears on Jacques Nicholas Bellin's map of the Port LaHave as LaVacherie, below Five Houses and behind Oxner's Beach. This was the pasture and salt marsh where the cattle that has been brought over with the settlers grazed. In Razilly's day it was known as the Governor's Farm. Also on Bellin's 1744 map of LaHave, Ritcey's Cove was called "L'Anse aux huîtres" or "Oyster Cove" which suggests that in the early days there was an oyster fishery there.

Also on this side of the river was the residence of Nicholas Dennys, an entrepreneur who had accompanied Razilly in 1632. He started up a lumbering business, cutting the red oaks that grew on the east side of the LaHave River and sending dressed lumber back to France with the returning supply vessels. His description of the location of his house is a little ambiguous, but it seems to have been at the head of Ritcey Cove (or possibly on Parks Creek). The lumbering operation was on the Lunenburg side. When he conducted a tour of his operation for Issac de Razilly, they sailed round to Lunenburg Bay in order to reach the site. Dennys continued to send lumber to France until the death of Issac de Razilly in 1636, after which Charles de Menou d"Aulnay terminated that agreement.

In early days, travel to Mirligueche (Lunenburg) was commonly done by the portage route established by the aboriginal inhabitants. This is reflected by the name Indian Path and Parks Creek is described on Bellin's map as "the river where there is a portage that leads to Mirligueche."

Although less well known than LaHave, the history of the Riverport area goes back just as far as the area played an important role in the early development of Acadia.

Gordon Romkey gave an interesting talk in May at the SSGS on his work to identify the final resting places for fallen comrades from the County who were interred in Italy during the Second World War. He began with a brief overview of his military career and told of his trip to the Italian military cemeteries with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Much had changed in the area from when he was there fifty years ago. Members enjoyed looking at two albums of photos of many of the cemeteries and places of interest he visited on the tour. Mr. Romkey donated a copy of the "Casualty List and War Action Death Records and Grave Sites for the West Nova Scotia Regiment 1939-1945" to the Society's library and expressed the hope that future Nova Scotians would "Remember Them" with pride for their sacrifices.

Smile

Bridgewater Bulletin October 12, 1915

How to Choose a Wife

Six hundred bachelors, some young and some pretty old, spent their lunch hour receiving some 'fatherly advice' from Professor Windfield S. Hall of Northwestern University medical school.

"I don't see any bald heads in the audience," said Dr. Hall, "so I can take it for granted you are all good candidates for marriage. By that I mean you have sound health, are morally clean and can support a wife if you can win one.

"Four things must be considered - her health, her hereditary qualities, her education and her age. Exclude from the ranks the girls of poor health. It's a calamity for a man to marry such a girl. Some of you may say the girl might get well. Let her get better before you marry her.

"Let her go in to the woods for a year or so and develop the ability to walk fifteen or twenty miles and return without fatigue and with Dame Nature's priceless rouge upon her cheeks. Then you may marry her, knowing she is of good health.

- Don't marry a girl just because she has a pretty figure and large, lustrous eyes and is a beautiful dancer, if at 20 she has only the mind of a girl of 12 years old.
- Don't marry an heiress. You may become unhappy with her and her money.
- Don't marry into a family where there are traces of insanity or feeblemindedness.
- Look up the health record of her parents and grandparents.
- Avoid the daughter of a confirmed alcoholic."

Submitted by Rosemary Rafuse

Seeking information on great great grandparents - Elizabeth Sperry (Lunenburg Co.) and Captain Michael Redmond Keating (Guysborough Co.). Place of marriage, siblings, children, death. Yvonne Comeau, 41 East Broadway, Haverhill MA 01830.

Congratulations to Joan Parks, Program & Education Co-ordinator. Joan Parks and Frank Hubley were married June 16, 2001 in the Little Dutch Church, Halifax. {IN 1756 the Little Dutch (Deutsch) Church, the first Lutheran church in Canada, was built}. Best wishes on behalf of the members of the SSGS.

FOR SALE at SSGS

Tandy 2500 XL computer with dot matrix printer and 80 MB hard drive. It is a 286. Make an offer.
Tel: (902)634-4794 Ext. 26

Boxes - Cardboard. The size is 18" x 9" x 11" high. They are suitable for storage of ledgers etc. $2.50 per box.