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Wallace And Area

Wallace is a village and a number of small communities loosely centred around the Wallace River and the harbour.  As well as Wallace, there is Wallace Bay (North and South), Head of Wallace Bay, Wallace Station, Wallace River, Wallace Bridge, East Wallace, Wallace Ridge, Wallace Highlands often called Richmond) and North Wallace.  All are to be found as distinct entities in the records.

 

Wallace Village

 

Wallace was first known as Remsheg, a Mi’kmaq word meaning the place between.  There is no record of a settled Mi’kmaq community here, but there are many remnants of the Acadians, their dikes and their salt marshes.  Along with the Acadians of Tatamagouche, they were the first to be expelled in 1755 by the British – they were seen as a threat because of their ability to ship goods to Louisburg and escape detection from British Man of Wars. ​

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After the Expulsion, there was no settlement until the land was surveyed in 1783 for the coming of the United Empire Loyalists.  These lands were known as the Remsheg Grant.  

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These were 109 lots of 200 acres around the Wallace area as well as 3-acre building lots which were situated in North Wallace.  In all, 137 Loyalists came to Remsheg.  They were promised supplies of flour, pork, beef, butter and salt.  Each two families got a plow and a cow to share and every four families received a crosscut saw and a whipsaw.  Each family got a hammer, a handsaw, nails and four small panes of glass.  Every five families got a musket, gun powder and a supply of lead for making bullets.

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In 1791, a Methodist congregation was formed and for a number of years, services were held in the homes of Stephen Canfield, Thomas Fulton and Thomas Huestis.  In 1808 a small log church, St. John’s, was built.   By 1851, more space was needed and a frame church was constructed to replace the original.  This in turn was replaced by the present church in 1902.  The bell was purchased in 1906.

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The first Presbyterian Church, St. Matthew’s, was built before 1800 and replaced in 1828.   It had branches at Fox Harbour and Stake Road. In 1840, John Munro built Knox Church at Wallace Bridge which had branches at North Shore, Gulf Shore and Pugwash.  When church union happened in 1925, a majority of the Presbyterians concurred and St. Matthews Church and Manse became the property of the unionists.  A minority wished to remain Presbyterian and bought the church building, so the Methodist church of 1903 was used for the new union. 

In 1846, the Anglicans built their church.

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In 1825, the name Remsheg was changed to Wallace.

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With the boom in the shipbuilding industry, the town was crowded with workmen.  There were three hotels and many boarding houses.   Monroe’s Hotel on the corner was the main inn and the town’s social centre.  It was also stage coach base.  The Hillside Hotel run by Edwin Edgett was available in Wallace for visitors in the mid 1900’s.  A later hotel was the Remsheg.

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There were many one-man industries: blacksmith shops, tailors, cobblers, harness makers, sail makers etc. A company of militia had its headquarters in an old drill shed.  There was a camp site for the occasional roving bands of gypsies who sold tin ware and lace and traded horses.  With all this population came wealth.

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The high society of the town often put on formal balls to celebrate the launching of a ship.  The hall was located on the west end of town overlooking the harbour.  According to one report, one of the dances was decorated by covering the interior of the hall with spruce bows and maple foliage with live squirrels running through the branches inside a netting.  And those present danced cotillions and minuets all night and the home waltz at the dawn.

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The first school was taught in the house of the teacher, Rev. Hugh McKenzie.  A school was eventually built which stood at the corner of Gulf Shore Road and Hwy. 6.  It was torn down.  In 1854, the first free school at Wallace was built and immediately burned down by opponents of free schools.  In 1865, they built again, and on Feb. 5, 1915, a new school was built to replace it.

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The early settlers were supplied by Mr. D. MacFarland, the first store keeper.  Afterwards, Yates and Webber, two Englishmen, had a store on the bank below the Methodist Church grounds, followed in 1840 by Kenneth McKenzie.

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In 1890, Rob Nelson built a two-storey store in Wallace right across from St. Matthew’s Presbyterian church as you go up Six Mile Road.  It was called Rob Nelson and Co. General Store.  The goods came by train to Wallace Station or by boat to Wallace Harbour and were transported by horse and carriage.  Rob’s first cousin Ira Drysdale joined him in the business – his father was originally from Tatamagouche Mountain.  Since the sign never changed, he was called Co Drysdale.  Ira married Emma West and had 7 children.  The store continued until the Depression, and today the lot is empty.

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In 1911, the Livingston Bridge was built to cross the Wallace Harbour and North Wallace was finally connected to the busy little village.

 

By 1915, there were other general stores, one of which was owned by J. R. Sutherland.  It was on the harbour side across from the Community Centre.  It burned in the village fire of 1922.  John Charman and Wylie Grant, cousins, also had a general store and sold stoves and fire insurance as well.  The village drug store was at the corner of Six Mile Road and Sunrise Trail.  There were 3 blacksmiths, one being William Cummings and a village barber, Robert Sawyer.  There were 2 doctors, Frank Charman and Dr. Bentley who stayed for a while before moving on to Truro.  A small meat market was owned by Samuel P. Jamieson. 

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The first post office stood on the south side of the back street.  In 1854, Joshua Huestis was the post master. There were four mails weekly from Halifax and three each from Pictou, Tata, Pugwash, and Amherst.  There was one a week from River Philip and Londonderry.  All came and went by stagecoach.  Smith Seaman was the next postmaster followed by L. H. Betts.  A. S. Dewar took it over in 1930, then Norman Bettes and Francis McKinnon.  Vaughn Rhindress and Mae Sellick followed.

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In 1922, Wallace had a fire.

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North Wallace (Fanningsborough)

 

North Wallace is bordered on the north by Fox Harbour and on the south by Wallace Bay.  It was the site of the 3-acre building lots of the Remsheg Grant which each settler got in addition to a 200-acre farm grant.  The town that was to be built was called Fanningsborough.  The first loyalists arrived in Fort Cumberland in 1783 and after wintering there in tents, set out for their new home. 

 

However, with no bridge, the North Wallace Loyalists felt cut off from the mainland.  Many sold their 3-acre lots for whatever they could get and went to their large farm lots to build cabins and barns.  Few families remained, but one of these, the Dottens, have one of the oldest burying grounds in the area on their land.   Some of the graves date back to 1790.

 

James Dotten had arrived in North Wallace in 1784 with building tools, a cow and enough food to last for a year.  He stayed in North Wallace, acquiring the grants of some of his fellow loyalists and his family is still there today. 

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Wallace Bay

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This area was once called North Branch Remsheg River and the river leading into it was called South Branch.  These names reflect the importance of the river as a means of transportation and as the only available source of mechanical power.

 

The North Branch Remsheg provided the early inhabitants with fish and shellfish.  In 1838, an aboideau was built at the narrows, and the subsequent marshland was capable of producing large crops of hay.

 

The first settler at Wallace Bay after the Acadians was Major Andrew Forshner who came from the United States at the close of the Revolutionary War, he having been a member of a German regiment that fought for the English armies against the Colonists.

 

The major obtained a grant of a large block of land on which he settled his sons.  One son conducted a wayside inn at which all drivers of the Amherst-Pictou stages stopped and changed horses.  By the 1880's no less than seven families of the Forshner name lived at the Bay.

 

United Empire Loyalists from New York arrived and settled in 1784.  Much of this area was part of the Remsheg Grant.

 

Among the earliest settlers was Stephen Tuttle and his three young sons, John, Stephen, and William.  The family had lived in New Jersey where all their property was confiscated and stock slaughtered.  They fled to Quebec and Stephen moved on to Remsheg.  Some time later, his wife Mary Graham and their youngest son Peter Graham started to walk to Wallace Bay from Quebec. At the same time, Steven had started walking to Quebec to fetch them.  By chance, he ran into some natives.  They took him to see a white woman they had found in the woods, and it turned out to be Mary.

 

Stephen’s sons John and Stephen settled at Wallace Bay North, William at Wallace Bridge and later at Wentworth and Peter at Wallace.  John, son of Stephen, married a Miss Horton and their son William was the first white child born at Wallace Bay.  William was a carriage builder and Thomas a blacksmith after 1890, and they also built coffins..

 

Another early settler was Alexander Peers who moved from North Wallace.  John Brown, a neighbour of Mr. Peers at North Wallace, and his daughter had been killed by lightning and left two sons.   Abraham, the eldest, later settled on what was known as the James Albert Brown farm, while Isaac, the youngest was adopted by Mr. Peers and came with the Peers family to Wallace Bay where years later he married a granddaughter of his foster parents.  He built a grist mill on a small brook and sometime later bought a farm where he built a long dam and erected a saw mill.  Isaac Brown settled five sons on the Bay, three of them in houses built from one plan.

 

Mr. Alexander Peers owned a large amount of property which in 1815 he willed to the various members of his family.  He and his wife were buried in the old cemetery at North Wallace, their graves being marked by separate grey stone slabs.

 

Perhaps one of the earliest settlers was a family by the name of Dean, an Englishman who settled near the Bay.  He was a friend of James Doherty, one of the first settlers of Doherty Creek, now Pugwash Junction.  Mr. Dean had a wife, one son and one daughter.  Apparently he believed he could raise cattle in the forest as moose, deer and other animals.  His cattle died and to add to his troubles his daughter died and was buried near the Brown and Wells line.  Some time later, a baby was born, and the mother and baby both died and were buried beside the daughter.  After the death of his wife, Dean is said to have taken his son to James Doherty and left him there.  He returned to his home and later rowed down the creek and was never heard of after.

 

The first McKims were Andrew and his wife who came from Ireland to Jamestown, Virginia to Londonderry and finally to East Pugwash.  He became an active politician under the leadership of Joseph Howe and was elected member of the legislature for Cumberland.

 

The first Dotten settled near the shore, but their sons later built their homes on what is now called “The Sunrise Trail”.  One son, Joseph, drove the mail between Greenville Station and Wallace Bay North and South for many years.  Every Friday evening the people would gather at the post offices to get their mail.  The Post Masters were George Forshner and George Brown who were paid the handsome sum of $12 a year.

 

In 1829, school district No.9 of Wallace Bay had 25 students under the care of teacher Robert Dallis.  Surnames of the students were King, Brown, Forshener, Tuttle, Fountain, and Thompson.  W. D. Corbett taught on the north side until 1863.

 

The Wallace Bay United Church which was originally Methodist was built in 1852.  A bell was bought and placed in the steeple and in 1853, there was a rather heated debate over who should have the honour of being the bell ringer.  Charles Oxley was chosen by the church trustees and this was very unpopular with the other contender, John Forshner.  When the congregation waited to hear their bell for the first time before the Saturday grand opening of the church in June 1853, all that met them was silence.  Someone had stolen the 200 – 300-pound bell out of the steeple.  It was searched for extensively but never found.  In 1980, John MacQuarrie contacted a dowser  to find it, and that too failed.  The steeple of the church was struck by lightning in 1922, and the church itself no longer used after 1982.

 

In 1898, the Wallace Bay Butter and Cheese Company was built.

 

East Wallace

 

The area known as East Wallace is east from Wallace on the Sunrise Trail (Hwy 6) where it meets the North Shore Road, which leads in to Malagash. It circles around Lazy Bay.  The land was initially granted to UEL and was later known as Canfield Town. 

 

It was named after Stephen Canfield who was born in September 1752 in Bedford NY.  He married Mary Pierce, and they remained loyal to the crown.  Driven by their home by drunken soldiers they immigrated to PEI and then to Amherst in 1779 with some of their furniture.  In 1785, they moved to lot 110 of the Remsheg Grant.  From there, they moved to East Wallace and bought 4 UEL land grants from Captain Barnes Hatfield, David Totten, John Teed and James Totten. 

 

Good quality limestone was discovered at East Wallace and shipped south by schooner.

 

Wallace Ridge

 

Wallace Ridge is where the Sunrise Trail crosses a height of land commanding a magnificent view of the countryside and sea.

 

During the time of the Fenian Raids (1866) the men of the Wallace area trained on Wallace Ridge in what became Harold Mattatal’s land.  Many years after, each man who could prove that he did this training received $100.

 

There is a little Catholic church on the ridge.  It was first known as the Church of St. Simon and St. Jude but in 1883 changed its name to St. Cyprian.  Its earliest record comes from 1854 when Archbishop Walsh visited, but it is thought to have been built sometime in the 1840’s on land donated by Ed Carberry, a native of Ireland.  It was a successor to the church in Brule which had been built by the French, and served as the spiritual home for the Irish who came to the area.  The first grave is that of James Kackeys who died in 1844..

 

Mass was last celebrated in this church in 1973.

 

Wallace Bridge and Wallace River

 

Mills, quarries, brickyards and farms lined the Wallace River during the 1800’s.  Now some of that same land is the home of the Wallace River Golf Course.

 

The 138-meter long Wallace train bridge was built in the 1880s to serve the railway which arrived at the area in 1890.  It was a beautiful example of masonry.  The east span could be manually swiveled to right angles and out of the way of ships sailing up the Wallace River to take on loads of brick, stone and other supplies.  It was burned in 2002.

 

The original owners of the land where Wallace Bridge now stands were Remsheg Grantees Thomas Cornell, Jacob Neal, Warren Myers, John Angevine, Ezekiel Peers, Gabriel Purdy and there was a lot for Governor Wentworth.  Initially the river was crossed by ferry.  The first bridge constructed was a covered wooden draw bridge 535 feet in length. 

 

In 1800, John Munroe came and built the old Knox Church at Wallace Bridge.

 

At one time there was a wharf where boats came in to load pulpwood from up the Wallace River.  The J.L. McKim Store at Wallace Bridge was destroyed by the August storm of 1873 where the merchandise was washed away by high tides. They built again and that store was bought by the O’Briens who ran The Bridge Motel from it.

 

The principal shipyards of the area were at Betts’ Point where the Livingston Bridge is now.  In the early times, no less than four ships would be on the blocks at a time.  When these were launched, they would be followed by another four. 

 

They also designed ships there.  First they carved them in wood, but finding that too slow a medium, at the instigation of Grandmother Betts, switched to using turnips.  From this came the first model of a new type of mechanical steering gear for ships later known as the Jordeson Patent Steering Gear which was used in ships all over the world.

 

Once called Henderson Siding Station, the name was changed to Wallace Bridge in 1897.  One of Nova Scotia’s most famous sons was born here: Simon Newcomb.  The son of John Burton Newcomb, a teacher, and Emily Prince who died when he was in his teens, Simon was the oldest of 7 children. He was educated by his father and from that foundation became the greatest astronomer of the 19th century. He won many prestigious awards and honorary doctorates.

 

Another notable citizen was Rev. James B. Woodland who founded and edited the first newspaper in Oxford in 1870.

 

One of the famous landmarks of the 1950’s, The Bridge Motel displayed the replica of two dappled grey horses and a landau.  They became famous with tourists and residents of the area.  The horses had been made by the Toledo Display Horse Co. to stand in a harness maker’s shop.  They were moved to Arizona and finally went to the Carriage Museum in the Napa Valley.

 

By 1993, the electoral district of Wallace Bridge had 254 adults registered to vote.

 

Wallace Station

 

Wallace Station is centred at Highway 307 and Colter Road, about 2 miles inland, south of Wallace.

 

People had settled out the Colter Road during the 1700’s.  Many of their homes were still standing in the early 1900’s.  Most of the descendants of the original settlers seemed to move away from the area except the Woodland family who were there for more than 150 years. 

 

The road between Wallace and Wallace Station was a narrow trail until the railroad was established.  The early settlers had to walk to the then nearest store at Wallace Bridge to buy groceries and to Wallace River to attend the Baptist Church there.

 

At one time the train station was a very busy place with three passenger trains stopping regularly, freight trains passing through steadily and a great lumber yard.  It was also the junction between Oxford and a small private 3-mile spur which ran to the sandstone quarry and shipping pier at Wallace.  The station was managed by McKinnon.  There was also a post office operated by Austa Drysdale and a store and blacksmith shop operated by Roderick Gullen. Now the track bed is part of the Trans Canada Trail and the village is a group of farms.

 

The Wallace Station school house had only one room with an old wood stove at the centre.  According to one graduate, if you sat near the stove you cooked to death and if you sat away from it, you froze.  The drinking water was kept in first a pail and then a creamer and everybody drank out of a common dipper.  The water had to be carried from a house each day.  At one time there were 60 students from Grades 1 – 11 taught by one teacher.  After, the school house became the Orangeman’s Hall until that was dissolved.  It was moved in 1997.

 

There was a Community Hall which held the year’s big event, the annual Christmas Concert.

 

Wallace and Area Industries

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Shipbuilding

 

The building of the first vessels in the area dates back to the 1700’s.  One was built by Benjamin Stevens at Salters Creek.  Not having any rope at the time, the builders peeled the elms.  Using the bark for both rigging and cable and a stone for an anchor they closely hugged the shore until they arrived at Halifax where they were able to procure proper rigging and an anchor.

 

In 1816, Samuel Cunard had a ship built in Wallace, the Country’s Dalhousie, described as a British plantation-built ship with one deck and two masts.

 

About 1821, John and Donald MacFarlane built on the north side of the harbour.  Angus Livingstone, came from Scotland in 1830.  He built two vessels in the 1840’s.

 

In the 1850's, there was a boom in shipbuilding in Wallace Harbour spurred by the need for supply ships to feed the armies involved in the Crimean War.  Wallace was the home of 11 shipyards, all working at full capacity.  The industry gave work to about three hundred besides the men and teams who prepared the timber.  And then there were offshoots such as the shipping of ice blocks to Boston and New York.  Limestone from East Wallace, tanning bark, eggs, blueberries and timber were other frequent cargoes.

 

In 1854, 16 ships were completed or under construction in the harbour in 7 shipyards.  With the end of the Crimean War, shipbuilding slowed down and finally came to a halt - not only because of the war, but also because of the increase in steam power which was creating a need for iron ships. 

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In all, records and names of 110 ships have been found with many more known to have been built.  The largest was the Retriever, a full-rigged ship of 990 tons built in 1854 by Robert Purvis.  His workmen were paid with tokens which could be redeemed at his general store.

Until about 1870, these early vessels were mostly square rigged and other than for the war, they were built for the St. John’s and Great Britain trade.  Later ships, until 1885, were large schooners built in Wallace to carry stone from the quarry to the U.S.A.  Listed as outstanding workmen on the ships were James Robertson a rigger and blacksmiths – “Old” Leggett, John Stevenson, John Chambers, David Betts and William MacLennan.

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Milling

 

With the coming of the loyalists, lumber for building was needed.  Mills supplied the power for lumber, for grinding grain, grist and meal as well as for turning wool into yarn.  It was also found that there was a ready market for pine and spruce lumber.  The first record of a sawmill in the area is in 1786 near Samuel Kipp’s grant.  It was bequeathed to Isaac Brown and converted to a grist mill.  There were, at one time, mills all the way up the Wallace River.  The largest was the Forshner stand of mills which included a sawmill, grist mill and a carding mill.  It continued until the late 1870’s.

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The Dewar River also had its share of mills.  The Dewar Mill which was at at the head of tide was a flour mill.  The John Johnson mill was about 3/4 mile upstream for woodworking and furniture making.  Upstream from that was the Levi Stevens mill, grandson of the original Levi Stevens, loyalist.  He built the IOGT hall and donated it  to the community.  The mill was eventually sold to Wes Porteous.  Next up the river was the Charman mill.  They were the first family to settle on the River.  It was a lumber mill, and they also quarried sandstone.  The MacIntosh Mill was a lumber mill on the Dewar where the Wallace Highland Road crosses over.

 

The portable steam sawmill heralded the end of the water powered ones.  The first in Wallace Bay was owned by Noble who had a contract to supply ties for the short line railroad in 1889.  The camp remained until the 1920’s and was used by a number of crews.  The last of the mills was reconstructed by George B. Treen.

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Quarrying of Wallace Stone

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By 1809, a number of quarries were being worked along the North Shore.  John Merrick, architect, had a love for Wallace and so Wallace rock was used to build the Province House in Halifax.  At first, it was fairly easy to move; there was a bare face of solid rock from the water up to the top with practically no overburden.  Vessels came to the base of the cliff and the stones was rolled out on to the ship’s deck on cannon balls.  The building was finished in 1819.

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Land was granted to William Mackenzie in 1810, who deeded it to Isaac and Benjamin Smith, who sold it to architect Richard Smith. This later became the Battye quarry. Not far away the Battye brothers also started a brickyard.  In 1860, Thomas Battye became owner and had two ships built the Freestone and the Mary Anne to carry the stone away.

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In 1863, William McNab bought a 6-acre field from Joshua Huestis.  When he tried to build a fence, he found he could only put posts down ten inches before striking rock.  James Drysdale, a stone mason, was called, and they realized that there were sheets of rock four inches thick.  McNab hired three men who cut the sheets into flagstones and loaded them to on scows to take out to schooners to ship to PEI and Halifax for sidewalks.  As they proceeded, the rock became thicker until it was building blocks, and it was determined to be a high quality of stone.

 

In 1873, the Wallace Huestis Gray Stone Company leased the quarry for 20 years.  A gravity railroad was installed to take the extracted stone down to the wharf to be loaded onto ships. Barriers were placed at each street crossed by the rail track; these barriers dropped down each time a trolley load of stone came down the hill and when an empty one went up. A semaphore signaled when a trolley was ready to go up or down the hill, which was every 20 minutes. It was finally removed in 1936.  Stone was sent to Boston on the “Wallace” which was owned by James Drysdale.  Fred and George Battye had come from their quarry on Wallace River and opened a much-expanded quarry nearby.  Other owner/managers have been G.P. Sherwood, T. C. Dobson, and Peter Lyall and sons of Montreal.  Today it is operated by Wallace Quarries Ltd.

 

With the quarry came improvements to the harbour in the form of jetties, wharves, and methods of getting the stone to the ships.

Stone from Wallace Quarries has been used in the construction of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, Halifax Province House, Charlottetown Province House and the Central Park Bridge in New York and many other beautiful stone buildings.

 

Brickyards

 

The clay along Wallace River is excellent for brick, and at one time, there were eight brickyards along the river.

 

Fishing - Lobster Industry

 

The first lobster canning factory on the north shore of NS was in Wallace in 1875.  It was owned by an American company and lobsters were packed and shipped to the U.S. and to England.  The number of canneries soon expanded to twelve in the area.

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Initially, fishermen could set traps wherever and whenever they wanted, often starting as soon as the ice left.  However, it was soon realized that the industry had to be managed, and regulations were put in place. 

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Lobster meat was packed in one pound cans and the shells were used as a fertilizer.   This industry continues to today, but is strictly controlled – and the lobster canneries of yesteryear are nothing but a memory.

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Tin Can Factory

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Late in the 1800’s, tin cans were needed for the lobster factories.  Mitchell Burns Canfield operated the Tin Shop or Tin Can factory in Wallace which stood opposite to the community hall.  It took a great deal of manual labour and ability to produce a can.  It was done on an assembly line.  The solder cutter was next to the tin tester who was next to the table shears.  Next came the rollers and the press for lids and bottoms.  The first World War and the drowning of Burns Canfield put an end to this successful business.

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Compiled by Dianne Elliott from the files of the North Cumberland Historical Society

PUGWASH

 

70 Water Street: The Clarke House

 

The Clarke House is on lot 103 of the original Black plan of Pugwash. A deed, signed by John and Sarah Black, shows that the land was purchased on Jan. 19, 1847 for 30 pounds by Dr. Joseph Clarke, a physician. The lot was on Water Street starting at Victoria Street and running east 85 feet and south 85 feet.

 

Joseph built a house which he named Napoleon’s Cottage. It also served as his office and his dispensary. In 1854, he also bought lot 106 for 80 pounds. That was on the corner of Water and Durham Street. He sold that land in 1873 to William Henry Brown for $364.00, and it eventually became the war memorial.

 

Dr. Joseph Clarke was born in Kilkenny, Ireland. He emigrated as a young physician and dentist to Nova Scotia. This was unusual as many Irish immigrants were coming to the area, but few were educated. He married Olivia King (Mar. 30, 1827 – Feb. 28, 1910), daughter of Lavina Pineo and Oliver King in about 1850. In 1853, their first child, Cyrilla Clarke (1853 – 1938) was born. She was followed three years later by brother William (1856 – 1882). Child 3, Joseph Holmes Clarke (1860 – 1938) followed soon after being born in 1860. Their newly built house was on Water Street, and Joseph was a successful physician with three children. He practiced out of his house, and it served also as his dispensary.

 

In the 1861 census, he was in a household of 8 in Pugwash, 5 males and 3 females. That same year, Dr. Joseph had a schooner built in Wallace, The Janet. Unfortunately, it sank in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1862. In the 1864 Hutchinson’s Directory, Joseph is listed as a physician and dentist. In the 1871 census, the family of 5 are in Pugwash and living with them are Hiram and Clara Huston. Hiram was an engineer at a steam mill. Servant Maggie Satoris is with them as was a sailor, Joseph Akerly.

 

Daughter Cyrilla married Edgar Augustus Elliott in 1874 in Amherst. Dr. Joseph Clarke was obviously a man of some influence and service to the village. On August 27, 1857, he was appointed coroner for Cumberland County. He held other offices for the village. In 1858, he was an assessor. In 1858 - 60, he served as commissioner of streets. In 1870 and 1875, he was one of three school trustees. In 1871, he was an overseer of the poor. In 1872, he and Dr. Creed participated in the examination of Mr. Macaulay’s 103 students. In 1877, he had a meeting with the premier to change the route of the Northern Light which went to PEI through Pictou. He successfully pressed for it to be changed to going from Pugwash to Victoria instead.

 

The Christian Messenger reported that on Jan. 25, 1880, Dr. Clarke, just before retiring, went into his surgery to get some medicine and made a mistake, taking carbolic acid instead of the preparation he intended to take. Before he had drank the whole dose he discovered his mistake and told his wife that he was poisoned and had only a few minutes to live. Dr. Dakin, who lived just across the street, was at once called and used all possible remedies, but Clarke died in half an hour. The Miramichi Advance added that he had not been well for some time. Dr. Creed and Dr. Mackintosh also arrived but Dr. Clarke was speechless and could only wave his hand to indicate that there was nothing to be done. Reports of his death showed that the deceased had been in practice for a great number of years and had been particularly successful in the treatment of diphtheria. He practiced out of his house, but he also was said to travel into the countryside regardless of weather. He was buried in Palmerston Cemetery.

 

The appraisal of Joseph’s estate showed 3 pieces of real estate – 17 acres of land on Irishtown Road, 1 lot in Pugwash of 80 feet x 80 feet with a house and a barn, and a farm of 150 acres where Thomas Sarson was residing. The lot in Pugwash and the furniture was deeded to Augusta and Cyrilla including the portion owned by son Joseph Holmes. JH relinquished all right to his portion of that land and deeded it to his mother and sister. By the 1881 census, Olivia was a widow. She was living with her daughter Cyrilla Elliott, also a widow, sons William and Joseph Clarke and Cyrilla’s children Daisy and Pearl. In 1891, she was still in her house in Pugwash with Cyrilla, Daisy and Edmund as well as lodgers John Seaman and William Morgan.

 

Olivia was burned out twice. On July 25, 1898, a raging fire struck the Durham Street area. Winds fanned the flames and without a fire department, eighteen families were rendered homeless. Olivia’s house was completely lost along with 17 other properties, including the house and barn of her son, Joseph Holmes Clarke. In 1899, Olivia was rebuilding on the site of her former residence at 70 Water Street. In 1899, Joseph’s daughter Cyrilla married again to Clarence Edward Reed a sea captain in Pictou. Cyrilla’s son Edmund Pearl married Hattie M. Hay that same year in Truro. Her daughter Daisy Elliott married Stephen Percival Wilson also in 1899. Joseph’s brother William had died without having children. In the 1901 census, Olivia is living alone. On Sept. 10, 1901, the Clark house was again damaged by fire resulting from thieves blowing up the safe in Brown’s store which was adjacent. The house caught on fire several times, but was saved by the people. The town had no fire department. Finally, on Nov. 11, 1901, was a large fire that almost wiped out the town of Pugwash. Olivia’s damage was recorded as $1500 for loss of house and furniture. As the winter coal and vegetables had been laid in, the damage was even greater.

 

Olivia had to build again. By January of 1902, they had decided to also build a meat market on the property. This structure was right next door to the house she was also building, the house that is there now. Olivia died on Feb. 28, 1910, of softening of the brain and exhaustion. She is buried in Willow Grove Cemetery. She was C of E. This is interesting because son, Joseph Holmes Clarke and family were RC.

 

In 1911, according to the census, Cyrilla and Edward Reed were living alone in the house.

 

Cyrilla’s brother, Joseph Holmes Clarke (April 8, 1860 – Jan. 13, 1938) was initially employed as a bookkeeper and auctioneer. In 1879, Joseph was a surveyor of lumber. He married Agustia (Gussie) Adilea Walsh (Mar. 17, 1866 -   ) on July 16, 1886 in Pugwash. In 1898, when he was a general merchant, they lived in Pugwash. Their house was burned in 1898, with the loss being assessed at $800 and insurance at $300. In 1901 they were in Pugwash with children Adilea, Joseph and Alexander. They were Roman Catholic. He was a general merchant and also a surveyor of lumber. In 1915, a poem of his was published in Moncton called “Home is home where ere it be”. In 1920 he was a fence viewer. This was a municipal post. He became very active in municipal government, receiving appointment as stripendiary magistrate at Pugwash, acting periodically as returning officer for municipal elections and even running as an unsuccessful Liberal candidate for a seat on County Council in 1922. In 1927, he was a Customs Collector. He also worked for a time as a conductor for the railway out west and as the station agent and telegrapher in Pugwash Junction.

 

In 1911, Joseph, Gussie and the children are all in Pugwash. In 1916, Joseph Holmes is living in a hotel in Cochrane, Ontario working for the railway according to his son’s attestation papers. In 1921 Joseph and Gussie are in Pugwash with son Joseph V. In 1931, they are in Pugwash with Daisy Wilson who is listed as their boarder. She was Joseph’s niece. Joseph was a judge by then. Joseph Holmes and Gussie’s eldest daughter, Adilea Mary Clarke (May 6, 1888 - ) became a teacher. When she retired, she moved into the Clarke house. After Adelia died, the house was empty for some time.

 

JH’s second child, Joseph Valentine Clarke (Feb. 14, 1890 [1901 Census] - ) joined up for WWI in March 1916 from Winnipeg where he was a switchman. He was hit by a bullet on Vimy Ridge, and his right arm was amputated. After his return to Canada, he married Jean Elizabeth Thompson on Sept. 14, 1921. She died, and he married Christina Williams in May of 1928. Chrissy renovated the family house and she and Joseph moved in.

 

He was an insurance agent for 40 years and sold his business in 1969. Jophie and Chrissie’s second child was Joseph. Another child was Marion Clarke who won a beauty contest and from that was offered a contract by the CBC in 1953 to work in television. She gave up her career as host of The Saturday Show in 1957 to marry Darroch MacGillivray. Their third child, Alexander Bernard Clarke (Jan. 31, 1892 – June 13, 1953) also enlisted in 1914. At Ypres, he was wounded and taken prisoner. His leg was amputated. He was returned to Canada in 1917. He married Marie Clarisse Cantin in Calgary and moved to BC. Joseph and Chrissy’s fourth child was James David Clarke. They had grandson Darren Clarke who wrote an article about spending his summers in Pugwash in the Clarke house. According to him, Joseph V. smoked and loved pipes and had a room in his house dedicated to pipes. When Joseph and Chrissie became older, they moved to a smaller house down Water Street. 

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Darren Clarke was a grandson of Joseph and Gussy and son of James David Clarke..  He wrote excerpts from reminiscences for “The Left Field Lark” June 18, 2018 Travel section.

 

Sitting on my grandparents’ sun porch in a rain storm – Pugwash is a tiny little town of 784 that sits on the Northumberland Strait at the mouth of the Pugwash River. My grandparents’ house sat on the corner of the town’s main streets, Water Street and Victoria Street. The sunporch overlooked Water Street and wrapped around half of the length of the house that ran parallel to Victoria. The windows were weathered, vaguely distorting the outside world. If you were sitting in the front of the house, you could look across Water Street and see Pugwash bay, its clay-coloured beach just steps away.

 

Memories of visiting my Grandfather - . . . lounging in lawn chairs beneath the tree in my grandparents’ back yard listening to my grandfather regale me, indeed educate me, with war stories and tales of his time as a magistrate – good decisions, bad decisions, funny decisions, in his endeavour to provide justice, the people he met, the ones that surprised him, the ones he respected, the ones that let him down and beyond that his stories of long lost World War I battlefields, former boxing champions (Tommy Burns) and so much more.

 

My grandfather’s pipes – My dad’s dad had tons of smoking pipes varying from simple corn cob pipes to straightforward wood pipes with plastic ends to crazy cool wood ones, some with improbably intricate metal ends. We loved them. He had an entire room dedicated to his pipes.

 

On the porch -The guns I remember really, rifles which appeared to be circa World War One. There was tons of random stuff there: almanacs, nicnacks, magazines, pins, old metal lighters that didn’t work.

 

The village – memories of collecting bottle caps out front of the same corner store in Pugwash where you bought the little packages of seaweed to eat.

 

70 Water Street was bought by John Caraberis and Bonnie Wood in 1996. They rented it to Dale O’Hara and Erin Horton who turned it into a restaurant known as Walden Pond, named after the book which Dale had been reading. It was a successful business. The current kitchen was the kitchen of the restaurant; there were two rooms which are now the dining room and living room and an outdoor deck on the Victoria Street side. Reception was from Water Street and Dale and Erin lived upstairs. It was next sold to Peter Sietel who used it as a storehouse for antiques.

 

In 2025, it was again bought by John Caraberis and Bonnie Wood. They renovated: municipal water was connected, the foundation was fixed, there was some new wiring and plastering, new heat pumps and a new roof were installed, the sun porch was repaired and a new entrance from Victoria Street was built. , and it is currently being occupied by a family who are new to the area.

 

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