A tale of two rivers

We did that on a recent Sunday, fetching up at the Sable River Community Hall along with close to 150 other people. Inside were chairs set up facing tables placed at the front. People were milling about, while in the kitchen ladies were getting ready to serve sandwiches, sweets, tea, and coffee. On the stage was Phillip Harding, providing background music on his guitar.

We were all there for a very special event. Community members had written a history of Sable River, complete with old photographs, and were launching the book that afternoon. The book’s title was A Tale of Two Rivers, aptly named since both the Sable and the Tom Tigney Rivers pass through the village.

When the appointed hour came, Sherman Embree, councillor in the Municipality of Shelburne, took the microphone and welcomed everyone to the hall. Among those there were South Shore-St. Margaret’s MP Gerald Keddy; Paulette Scott, who used to attend school in nearby Lockeport and is now Warden of the Municipality of the District of Shelburne; Pat Nickerson, former (and now deputy) warden, who at one time taught home economics at Lockeport Regional High, and Ardith Van Buskirk, also a councillor, and chairperson of the Municipal Heritage Committee.

Embree told the crowd the hall they were sitting in had been built in 1903 by the Beaconsfield division of the Sons of Temperance. He noted the Temperance Society built it, but now it was a community hall, there were dances there, and there was even, on occasion, a bar. He said the proceeds from the sale of the book would go to the hall, which is a heritage building.

Sitting at the table at front was Bessie Robart, who, with her late husband Wilbur, was always fascinated by the stories behind their little community. Bessie, described by Sherman Embree as a real dynamo whose spirit was contagious, was one of the people responsible for guiding the history project to its conclusion, and wrote a number of the stories.

She read the introduction to the book, which said that over the years many people had saved photographs, made scrapbooks, written poems, and kept diaries, while others saved tax bills and invoices and kept minute books for such groups as the Women’s Institute, the Temperance Society and the 4-H Club. All were used.

She said word about the project had traveled fast, and people began sending in photos and anecdotes. Soon a dedicated group of people began meeting to prepare the book. Confidence in writing the book came from two people to whom the book is dedicated: one is Marion Allen, who died in 1972; and the other is Wilbur Robart, who died in 2002. Marion kept notes from a variety of sources about the history of the area, and Wilbur kept a diary of stories that provided a good deal of the material for the book.

The book itself is attractive, with a colourful cover showing an aerial photograph of the Sable River, with its swinging bridge, taken by Linda Ross. It contains a gold mine of information and stories about early Nova Scotia, ranging from the first settlers to accounts of the various businesses that operated over the years.

Wilbur Robart was a warm and generous person who, with Bessie, raised a family of three sons. He was always full of stories about Sable River and wrote many of the sections. His fine accounts of life in the 1930s, logging, shipbuilding, working for the area’s carding mill, the history of the swinging bridge, road building, and being on the sea in the war years are fascinating.

Others, members of the Friends of Sable River, wrote accounts of the railroad, hunting and fishing, heritage properties in Sable River, the telephone company, the schools and churches, the agricultural exhibition, the volunteer fire department, the Women’s Institute, the Seafelt plant, the Old Mill Tea Room, and more. All are a part of the history of this province and it is to the benefit of everyone in Nova Scotia that they have been collected and preserved.

The book, containing both black and white and colour photographs, was printed in Lockeport by Seeblick Printing, and comes with a separate CD of additional photographs. It has already sold out, but new copies are being printed and will be available from the Whirlygig Bookshop in Shelburne.

- Tom Sheppard can be reached at twsheppard@gmail.com