Hantsport Stories

- 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 Irving 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...

This newspaper clipping was probably published in the Windsor newspaper, October 1899.   While our people were not unprepared for the announcement of the death of this eminent scholar and energetic Micmac Missionary, on Friday last, yet there were many expressions of regret that he did not sooner enjoy the marks of appreciation of which he had recently been the recipient. It was no secret that the learned Dr., in his later years, while working diligently in behalf of the Indians, was not himself as comfortably situated pecuniarily as he should have been when all the circumstances were considered, but he was patient as well as trustful, and better than all earthy honors or emoluments, is now enjoying the rest beyond. His has been an eventful life, and also a marked example of what can be accomplished, under manifold difficulties, in the matter of self-education. The following brief history has been gleaned from various sources; Was born at Cornwallis 1810. He was...

Richard "Dick" Beazley was born, grew up, married, had three sons, and worked in Hantsport. One of the best distance runners in the Maritime Provinces through the 1930s, he became a hometown favorite and gained widespread popularity with Nova Scotia's sports writers and fans of "the running game." On February 26, 1945, at age 34, Dick was killed in action during World War II. On July 1, 1947, veterans who were members of Hantsport's Lucknow Branch No.109 of the Royal Canadian Legion inaugurated the Dick Beazley Memorial Six-Mile Race, which became an important part of Hantsport's first and subsequent Canada Day celebrations. The second-longest annually-run race in Nova Scotia, its winners include some of the best runners in the Maritime Provinces. Dick Beazley was inducted into the Nova Scotia Sport Hall of Fame in 2002. Taped Interviews with Maurice “Moss” Smith Hantsport, NS – Summer 1975 OFY Project – Historical Insights BEAZLEY RACE & MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP: When we formed the Legion way back after the second war, I got...

Horton Journal of Canadian History - Volume II - 2001 Hantsport: From the Bustling Shipbuilding Town of the 1800’s to the Town of Industry that it is Today By Morgan Dunbar The town of Hantsport celebrated the 100th anniversary of its incorporation in 1995. From that there has been an increased interest of the history of the town. Hantsport started in 1790 when a British soldier wanted to expand what he had out of Falmouth. The land that he acquired was in what Hantsport is today. (Robertson, 9) From there, the town became "fifth among the world’s shipbuilding centers." (Chittick, 10) Today, "the Town of Hantsport encompasses approximately one square mile of the area of Hants County." (Mister Webpage) Ezra Churchill started the shipbuilding industry during the time of the Napoleonic Wars when colonial timber and colonial vessels were in demand. Ezra Churchill was a farmer in Hantsport at this time, but he had the sea in his blood and he began building ships. He built...