Author: Hantsport & Area Historical Society

This post is based on a presentation by Martin Gillis and Carol Smithson given at the March 2017 Hantsport & Area Historical Society meeting. Navy League of Canada   This group of Sea Cadets is the first to have their picture taken after the group formed in 1949. In boat, from left, Edward Pearson, Les Beazley Standing, from left, (Inspection Officer from Navy name not known), Leonard Winchester, Warren Tompkins, Earl Schurman, Bev Patten, Carl Salter, _ Skiner, Edward Veino, Fred Turner, Donald Miller, Joe Winchester, Ross Merriam (first Commanding officer). Front row, from left, Malcolm Coffill, Burton Smith, Joe Saulnier, Dick Cohoon, Glenn Salter 1951 WARRANT FOR RCSCC LINDSAY WAS ISSUED FOR THE HANTSPORT SEA CADET CORPS The Corps was named after the HMCS Lindsay, a Flower-class Corvette, which fought mainly in the Battle of the Atlantic as convoy escort. Ross Merriam was the first Commanding Officer. He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1939 just before the Second World War, as a boy seaman. He served in...

The Hantsport & Area Historical Society has, over the years, produced or acquired a large number of audio and video recordings, mostly of Hantsport residents. An inventory created in 2015 is listed below with a few notable additions. A complete set of audio cassette tapes, together with transcripts and log books from a 1975 Federal Opportunities for Youth Summer Grant program sponsored by the town was recently donated by the family of Joseph McGinn, former Hantsport town clerk. Copies of some of the tapes and transcripts were already in the Historical Society collection but many were new or in better condition. The audio tapes have now been digitized as MP3 files and the typewritten transcripts are in the process of being converted to electronic format. The Project title was “Audio Visual Historical Insight” (AVHI). It ran from May to August 1975 and was led by Leah Clark, Julie Comstock, and Patty Fraser. The scope of the project included a portable display and plans for...

St. Andrew's Anglican Church On June 11 of 1896 the Congregation purchased a bell from Meneely and Co. of West Troy, New York for the sum of $89.28. The purchase included mountings and ringing ropes, also delivery to vessel in Boston, Mass., thence to Saint John, New Brunswick, thence by steamer Hiawatha. Terms of payment were 45 days and the account was settled on July 23rd, 1896. The weight of the bell is 354 pounds. The prompt settlement of this account can be appreciated in light of the fact that at the Annual Meeting the following year, the Treasurer reported that with all bills paid except insurance, cash on hand was $7.69. The following account of the Service at which the bell was dedicated is taken from the Hants Journal of June 1896. “On Friday evening last a service was held in St. Andrew's Church for the purpose of dedicating the bell which has lately been hung in the tower. The exercises were...

- HANTSPORT RAIL YARD TO BE EXTENDED - New Station Built HANTSPORT, May 9, 1944 —The new $15,000 railway station built by the Dominion Atlantic Railway at Hantsport was recently completed and is now in use. The new station, complete less than ten months after the old one was destroyed by fire last June, is an attractive one-storey building, approximately 75 feet by 22 feet, modern in every respect and equipped with hot water heating. The building contains a comfortable general waiting room, office, express and baggage room, and a freight shed. Off the waiting room are two well-equipped wash rooms, one of them large enough to be used as a women’s rest room. 350-Foot Platform The outside walls, 12 feet high, resting on a three-foot concrete base, are built of shale facing brick, and the roof is finished with blue-black asphalt shingles. The building is surrounded on all four sides by a platform partly sheltered by the projecting canopy roof which extends about 20...

The Oulton Memorial Library The estate of the late Grace Burgess Oulton (1885-1956), wife of former Hantsport school teacher and principal Millage Alfred Oulton (1881-1947), was left to the Hantsport Public School Board to set up a library to be known as the Millage Oulton Memorial Library. In the Court of Probate for Hants County on 17 March 1957 the estate was settled. D. M. Frittenburg, Mr. McDade, and B. Alexander were in attendance representing the School Board. It was decided by the board that an independent library could not serve the community as well as a branch of the Annapolis Valley Regional Library. The Library was housed at first in the Community Centre House. Two rooms on the second floor were redecorated and reading tables and chairs were installed. One room contained children’s books and the other books for adult readers. Miss Elmira Borden served as librarian. The Library opened in December 1957, and total registered membership grew from 335 to 500 borrowers after...

“Tea Room Artists” was the name of a group of artists from Hantsport and the surrounding area who met during the winter months to enjoy the leisure art of painting. Although amateurs their paintings do have a professional flair. This photograph of the mural done by the group in 1995, on the IGA building on Main Street in Hantsport, depicts the era of ship building and sailing in Hantsport. Hantsport was incorporated on April 25, 1895. Painting classes were held in the evenings during the fall and winter at the Hantsport school as part of the Adult Education Program since the 1960's. The first instructor was Mrs. Orin Johnson. Later Vera Rawlings and Lillian Irvin served as instructors. After amalgamation of the Hantsport Town School, when charges for use of space in the building became prohibitive, the group began to meet at Valerie St. Amour's Tea Room. In a January 1994  Hants Journal article it was reported that "Members of the Hantsport Tea Room Artists painted...

(Originally published in the 1969/70 Hantsport High School Yearbook) INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT      In an effort to add “something different” to our Year Book, the Editors have decided to include a local history supplement. We have arrived at this decision for a number of reasons. First, in April of this year our town marked its seventy-fifth anniversary and we felt it had earned some sort of recognition. Secondly, we thought the results might be interesting: to the young who had never heard, a new story of the old town, and to the less young, the reliving of a memory. Finally, we knew it would be fun to do. The first section of our supplement consists of excerpts from the “Hantsport Advance”. The Advance was a weekly paper published in Hantsport from some time in the 1890's until around 1914. It is believed to have been founded by O. C. Dorman and later published by J. W. Lawrence, followed by Stanley Marchant....

BRIEF HISTORY OF TOWN OF HANTSPORT      The first record we have of Edward Barker, the first settler of Hantsport, was a letter from his step-brother, William Hall, Nottingham, England, dated April 5, 1773; written to Edward Barker in the 59th Regiment. Commanded by General Owans in Captain Wilson's Company, now situated at Halifax. Edward Barker went from Halifax to Rhode Island with the army, and there got his discharge. He married Miss Rebecca Chadwick and settled in Falmouth. Miss Sarah Chadwick, her sister, married Able Mitchener, who settled at Mitchener's Point, Mount Denson.      Coln. Henry Denson had received a grant of land from the Government, after the expulsion of the Acadians, extending from the County Line between Hants and Kings to the White Rocks on the Avon River, and west about three miles until it strikes the said County Line, easterly along the said County Line to the Avon River and to the place of beginning.      Coln....

McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory, 1890-97. Containing an Alphabetical Directory of Each County, and a Separate Directory of the Cities and Provincial Towns. Also a Directory of the Magdalen Islands and St. Pierre de Miquelon. A Business Directory of All Advertisers and Subscribers, with an Appendix of Useful Information and Indexes. -- Halifax : D. McAlpine & Son, [1890?]. 1502 p. -- Printed by Nova Scotia Printing Co. Hants County Andrews John, mate, Hantsport Balcolm W. C., jewelry, Hantsport Barker Geo. M., sea captain, Hantsport Barker G. J. sea captain, Hantsport Barker James L., rigger, Hantsport Barker K. H., sea captain, Hantsport Barker Mrs. Louisa, Hantsport Beazley Jesse, sailmaker, Hantsport Benjamin Amos, ship carpenter, Hantsport BENT D. A., grocer, Hantsport Bezanson Joseph, joiner, Hantsport Bezanson Otis, boat builder, Mnt. Denson Borden Mrs. John, undertaker, Hantsport Borden Joseph E., carpenter, Hantsport Borden Mrs. Mary, Hantsport Borden William, carpenter, Hantsport Brown E. R., station agent, Hantsport Burgess Sylvancus, machinist, Hantsport Carrol John, carpenter, Hantsport CARTER BROS., gen dealers, Hantsport Carter Frederick, engine driver, Hantsport Chandler William, mariner, Mount Denson Chipman F. W., of E. Churchill & Sons,...

This article appeared in “The Hants Journal” on 9 September 1909. We are glad to be able to present to our readers in this issue a cut of the handsome gates which now adorn the entrance of the Riverside Cemetery at Hantsport - the gift of John W. Churchill. Esq., of that town. When in Hantsport a few days ago the editor of the “Journal” saw this very handsome piece of work, which is a credit to all connected with it. The whole width is 334 feet; and the height , including the finals, 19 feet. The two main posts or columns which support the whole structure are of southern red pine, 16 inches square. They were made from the mainmast of the brigantine Genoa, owned by E. Churchill and Sons. After the vessel was dismantled the masts lay in the salt water for years, which helped to preserve them. After being cut to the size required they were well coated at...