LEO J. DEVEAU: This Week in Nova Scotia History: Oct. 7-13

7 October 1825 – Nova Scotians learned that on this day “… a massive forest fire swept through northeastern New Brunswick, devastating entire communities. When the smoke cleared, it was estimated that the fire had burned across six thousand square miles, one-fifth of the colony.”

The Newcastle area (now part of the City of Miramichi), was in ruins. “Of the 260 houses and stores … only 12 remained, of the 70 in Douglastown, only 6 were left. The loss of life was very great.” Many unidentified lumbermen working in the forests were also believed to have died, but the exact numbers were uncertain.

The cause of the fire was believed to be the result of very dry weather throughout the summer and fall, creating an unparalleled drought over most of New Brunswick. Earlier in September, Government House in Fredericton had burned to the ground and the high winds had veered such that fire spread across the city, and well over “one-third of all the dwellings of Fredericton had been destroyed.”

The Miramichi fire was the largest wildfire within the British Empire, covering over 16,000 square kilometres – or about one-fifth of New Brunswick’s forests – one of the largest in North American history and the largest along the eastern seaboard. “Yet despite the international attention and relief efforts it generated, and the ruin it left behind, the fire all but disappeared from public memory by the twentieth century.”

(References: Alan MacEachern. The Miramichi Fire A History. Montreal: McGill Queens University Press, 2020. Will R. Bird. These Are the Maritimes. Toronto: McGraw Hill Ryerson, 1959 ed. And “Charlotte Taylor – Her Life and Times. Miramichi Fire 1825.” Mary Lynn Smith, 2000-2023. URL: https://bit.ly/3ZylE1C .)

8 October 2016 – Halifax City Councillor Gloria McCluskey retired after 23 years in politics. Eighty-five years old at the time, McCluskey had begun her political career as an alderman in Dartmouth before becoming mayor in 1992, filling that position until amalgamation into the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in 1996.

She was then elected councillor of District 5 of HRM where she spent a decade speaking out for the interests of Dartmouth. She said of her time in city politics; “I loved every day. Great staff to work with, a lot of fun, a lot of hard work and helping people. That was the great part of it. Whenever you can help somebody, it feels so good.”

(Reference: “Gloria McCluskey retires at 85 more in love with Dartmouth than ever.” 14 October, 2016. URL: https://bit.ly/48tFNKi .)

9 October 2016 – Roy Fredericks Sr. (b. 1922), a lifetime resident of Bedford, received the French Legion of Honour award for his military bravery during the Second World War. The French Government had extended this honour to Canadian veterans who participated in the liberation of France.

When Fredericks returned from the war, he was employed by the Bedford Naval Magazine, from which he later retired at the age of 55. He later became a senior resident in the Camp Hill’s Veterans’ Memorial Building and died in 2020 at the age of 98.

10 October 1885 – The Theatre Royal building in Halifax was torn down. Located near the corner of Queen Street and Spring Garden Road – sometimes called either the Amateur Theatre or the Spring Garden Theatre – it opened on 1 December 1846 and was used by both amateur and professional troupes for many years. The 60th Rifles put on the last performances in the theatre in February 1874, and the building languished thereafter in a state of disrepair.

Many of the amateur performers in Halifax had come from the resident military regiments, such as the Dramatic Corps of the Irish Volunteers, or volunteers from the Royal Engineers, or the Royal Navy ships. Professional theatrical troupes were often on tour from Boston or New York.

(Reference: A.D. Boutilier. The Citadel On Stage. Halifax: SVP Productions, 2014, pp. 220-224.)

11 October 1987 – Over 150 people met at Acadia University in Wolfville, to participate in a conference called “New England Planters in Maritime Canada.” The conference was the “… first time that the Planters had ever been made the exclusive focus of an academic conference.” It was felt by many that such a gathering was “long overdue.”

Between 1759 and 1768, over 8,000 New Englanders (representing approximately 2,000 families), largely farmers and fishermen, had emigrated to what is now the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They settled on the lands that were left vacant from the Acadian Expulsion.

Once known as “pre-Loyalists,” who were largely from the Protestant Congregationalist tradition, upon their arrival in Nova Scotia the Planters would significantly alter the economy and social institutions of the colony, and are now also recognized as being integral to the creation and development of representative democracy in Canada.

(Reference: They Planted Well: New England Planters in Maritime Canada, ed. Margaret Conrad. (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press, 1988.)

12 October 1747 – The New York Gazette published a “Wanted!!!” ad for Amos Fuller from his hometown of Lebanon, Connecticut, for “counterfeiting, jail breaking, (and) passing false money…” Reporting that, “When he was last seen, he was wearing a gray homespun jockey coat, with brass buttons, old leather breaches, yarn stockings, a linen cap and an old hat.”

Much later, Fuller (b. 1721) appeared as one of the agents to “investigate the newly opened lands in Nova Scotia” in April 1759, visiting Halifax “together with Major Robert Denison, Joseph Otis, Jonathan Harris and John Hicks….”

They also looked over the proposed places of settlement and made arrangements with Governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council for recruiting Planter settlers from New England to the newly established townships – each of which contained 100,000 acres. Townships with “at least fifty families” would also be able to elect two members to the colony’s new House of Assembly.

Heads of the households were offered 100 acres of land, with no rent charged for the first 10 years, which after would be charged one shilling for every 50 acres. The grantee was “required to land, cultivate, and improve one-third of his holdings each decade until all was under cultivation. No person could receive more than 1,000 acres.” Further, the Planters would be provided weapons to defend themselves but would not be subject to impressment in the army or navy for 10 years.

Amos Fuller would also receive land grants in the newly established townships of Horton and Cumberland, which he sold in 1765. No records indicate what happened to him after those transactions took place.

(Image: References. “Wanted from the New York Gazette.” Judith Norton. Wolfville: Planter Notes. Vol.1, No.1, October 1989, p.5. URL: https://bit.ly/3ZEz4JB. And Longley, R.S. “The Coming of the New England Planters to the Annapolis Valley.” )

13 October 1820 – On this day, (Sir) John “William” Dawson was born in Pictou (d. 1899). He later became a noted Canadian geologist, paleontologist and author. He was also Nova Scotia’s first school superintendent (1850-1853), and later a university administrator, as well as the first president of the Royal Society of Canada (formed in 1882, with its royal charter granted the following year).

Dawson began his formal education at the Pictou Academy under Thomas McCulloch. As a young boy, he also worked with his father, James Dawson (a bookseller, printer and publisher of the Pictou newspaper The Bee) in bookbinding and writing. His interest in geology, encouraged by McCulloch, motivated him to pursue further study at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Following his work as a school superintendent in Nova Scotia, he was later appointed as the fifth principal of McGill College (later McGill University) and served for 38 years. During his lifetime, his academic activities saw him publish some 350 scientific works, many of which were devoted to his research in geology and paleontology.

(Reference: “Dawson, Sir John William.” Peter R. Eakins and Jean Sinnamon Eakins. Dictionary of Canadian Biography. URL: https://bit.ly/3tbB3ZS.)

(Leo J. Deveau is an independent researcher, author and commentator. His previous columns can be found at: bit.ly/430kGwv. He can be reached at [email protected]).