Valley’s rural life remembered, thanks to author Parks

Glen Hancock



Having been exposed to a series of photo books about Nova Scotia towns including Lunenburg, Amherst, Halifax, Dartmouth, Kentville, Wolfville and Windsor, it would seem that a new book called Historic Annapolis Valley, by Mike Parker, is superfluous, but happily it isn’t.

The book, subtitled Rural Life Remembered, is really about a region. It fills in empty spaces in other Nimbus books and stands well on its own, displaying many new photographs of old rural scenes and is accompanied by a friendly text written with affection by a Bear River writer.

Older people love these nostalgic images of the past, but they would serve us better still if they were read by Valley youth. It isn’t as though they get much history about their hometowns in their school classes these days.

It is interesting to note that the publisher acknowledges financial support from the Publishing Industry Program, the Canada Council, and Nova Scotia’s Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage. It is good to know that governments think it is important for us to know where we came from.

Viewed as an agricultural region, the Annapolis Valley is prominent in the history of the province and the nation. It was here that the first settlement was founded by the French at Annapolis town, and it was here that the Acadians, the Planters and the Loyalists made their first landfalls and were first to develop the province’s industry of farming.

This new heritage volume places emphasis, of course, on the apple industry, once the mainstay of the region’s prosperity. It was lost during World War II when apples were not able to reach their overseas markets, and would never again be able to do so.

While for sentimental reasons it is gratifying to remember when the pome was king, it is also satisfying to observe that as apple orchards disappear from the landscape they are being replaced by a promising new industry – grapes and wine.

Although it may be ironic in a sense, Parker’s book has some excellent aerial photos of towns and villages, and of the Gaspereau River, which curls its way from the mountaintop to the sea. The author describes farmers at work in the days before motor driven equipment, tradesmen shoeing horses, making axes and wagon wheels, and Mi’kmaq (then known as MicMac) making baskets.

Much of the book is devoted to Valley personalities, often nondescript people as well as prominent citizens of the day. We read about Heggie Luxie, the “last Mi’Kmaq of Paradise� and Ben Jackson.

Motorists enroute to Halifax frequently pass Exit 8A off Highway 101 near Hantsport and note the sign for Ben Jackson Road. But only now will they know who Ben Jackson was. He traveled in good company, including the black sailor hero, William Hall, who won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny in 1857.

Hall and Jackson grew up together in Kings County.

Like Hall, Ben went to sea and sailed in square-riggers around the world. Jackson was pressed into the U.S. navy during the Civil War, earning thereby a lifetime pension of $17 a month, a meager amount by today’s standards, but fully enough to support Jackson’s lifestyle. He was buried in an unmarked grave in Lockhartville in 1915, but he will be remembered as long as his road crosses Highway 101.

The book also mentions Berwick’s famed “apple king� and philanthropist, Sam Chute, who sold 4,000 barrels of apples in 1909. Also, Benjamin Sanford of Woodville, Kings County, who designed an apple-picking basket that opened from the bottom. And how about J.W. Hutchinson of Berwick, who invented the apple grader in 1927. Apples were priced and sold by grade from number ones that gleamed spotless in the barrelhead through to numbers two and three to domestics for local marketing. Finally, there were culls that were used for juice or fed to pigs.

Author Martha Banning Thomas of Victoria Beach, Annapolis County, is recognized and there are photos of Dr. William Morse, the “millionaire preacher� who was born in Paradise, attended Acadia University in 1897, was ordained in 1900, taught school in the U.S. and willed his land to the province of Nova Scotia. There is also a picture of A.A. Forrestal, Middleton police constable and gradfather of artist Tom Forrestal.

Minard Graves is described at length. In 1920, he began to manufacture the Evangeline brand of soft drinks, with almost as many flavours as Jello. He entered into an arrangement with the 7-Up Company of St. Louis and founded 7-Up Maritimes.

By 1849 there were seven bottling plants in the Maritimes. Graves sold the business venture to Sussex Beverage in New Brunswick.

Another interesting business venture was the L.J. McGuinnes Company of Toronto that purchased an idle processing plant from Graves in Bridgetown and converted it into a distillery, which thrived for awhile – to the delight of ‘swish’ addicts -- but it closed down in 1986.

Historic Annapolis Valley is chockfull of interesting anecdotes and pictures. Bridgetown’s United Elastic Limited, the basket factory in Hantsport, Canning’s frozen pea plant, Kentville’s pickle plant and Scotia Gold Pear are all noted. On the other hand, interesting information about peat moss and gypsum industries, churches, schools and old hotels – once beloved by traveling salesmen – are not ignored. Apple warehouses are especially noted. Now boarded up, they once buzzed with activity.

This book may be a trip down memory lane for oldsters, but it is an exciting view of the recent past for others whose memories are shorter.



Editor’s Note: Mike Parker has published 11 books, including Guides of the North Woods, Wood Chips and Beans, and Historic Digby. Mike was born and raised in Bear River and graduated from Acadia University in Wolfville. He lives in Dartmouth.

Historic Annapolis Valley, published by Nimbus, sells for $21.95.