North Cumberland Historical and Genealogy Society, NS

10/03/2025

Oct. 3, 2025 - We were talking about how we got to school and Alice had a harrowing story.

She lived in Linden and went to PDHS. At some point from 1959 to 1961, this one-lane Port Howe bridge needed repairs. The school bus could no longer go across it, so the workmen came up with a solution. They laid planks across the gap. Men stood on either side with their hands out to grab the kids as they "walked the plank." It was terrifying with the water and the waves under the plank and all the children had heavy bookbags - and the girls were wearing skirts. A bus waited on the other side to take them the rest of the way.

When the parents found out, they were horrified and from that time on, the bus had to go to Oxford and cross the river that way.

Mary remembered a time in the 1960's when a car with a trailer got halfway across the one-lane bridge. Unfortunately there was a car coming from the other side and that driver felt he had the right of way. Each waited for the other to back up. Neither would move. According to Mary, they held up traffic for hours.

Here's how the bridge looked in the 1060's. Do you have a bridge story.

09/26/2025

Sept. 26, 2025 - Harvey and Mary attended the CIB volunteer luncheon this week. Thanks, CIB, for hosting this every year.

Today's photo from Brian Tuttle's collection shows two schools. Pugwash Junction School is the small one-room school on the left. This is the school where Margaret King was the teacher. When the larger school opened, it was named the Margaret King School. It took in all grades.

When PDHS opened, the high school kids from Margaret King were sent there. Eventually, the building was too large and becoming run down. The children were moved to a brand new building which is now the laundry for Sunset which was called South Pugwash School. At that time, the teachers were Jean Chase, Marie Wells and Irene Jamieson.

This photo shows men digging something. Joanne Tuttle thought it might be the baseball field but felt it was a bit far away from the school. Any ideas?

09/19/2025

Sept. 19, 2025 - If you know what today's photo is, you will be interested in a demonstration we will be hosting by one of the last telegraphers around who can operate in Morse Code. Neil Horsman worked at train stations throughout Canada. He will be donating his telegraph equipment to our society. It is being set up on the same train station telegraph desk that was used for so many years to link Pugwash to the world.

Neil will be coming in to demonstrate how to use this equipment. I will be writing more about this in the next few weeks as soon as a date is set. We are very grateful to be the new owners of this vital part of our history.

09/12/2025

September 12, 2025 - Steve is fixing an old door at the front of the train station. A day for banking and mailing books and general administrative work.

This happened around here in August, but there was too much for me to talk about then. Farming in the 1940's was a bit easier than the 1920's - but not much. At least you didn't have to hitch up the horses and take them out. Here are two of our farmers with their loads of hay. I imagine loading them took some skill. Mabel Salt of the 1940 photo lived in Wallace Bay with her husband Donald who was the vet in town. Their house was on Highway 6 on the Pugwash side of Wallace at the first turn after Coastal Gardens. We don't knwo the identity of the two men in the 1920 photo. Any help?

Alice remembers sliding off the tops of loads like this. Both these photos are from Brian Tuttle's collection. Thanks, Brian!

09/05/2025

Sept. 5, 2025 - Brian Tuttle was in with some more photos and awards for us. Gene Seaman dropped by for a chat.

Today's photo is from Brian's collection of Pugwash Junction. This is the water tank there.

The position of the round bulb on the tower indicated the water level in the metal tank inside the wooden tower. Steam locomotives would park next to the tank. As water was removed, a flotation device installed inside the tank was connected to this external bulb.

The tank's water supply depended on a pump house operating from a dam built on a nearby water source - the Doherty Creek. The dam was equipped with a fish ladder. There was good trout fishing in Doherty Creek. Both the tank and the pump house were tended year round by Fred Tuttle.

We note the passing of historian Ellen Giles Millard. This Wentworth woman wrote a number of "Back When . . . " volumes telling the anecdotes of our area. We have Volume 1 and 2 for sale.

08/29/2025

Aug. 29,2025 - Brian Tuttle was in with a wealth of stuff on a thumb drive - photos, newsclippings etc. of the area. We are thrilled. This photo is of swimmers at the aboiteau in Wallace Bay - the year is unknown as are the swimmers, but it shows summers were spent the same way back then as now. From the car, we are thinking 1920's?

A short post today as we are at the Oxford Exhibition. Drop by if you are there.

08/27/2025

We are set up at the Oxford Ex for the next three days. 1 pm to 7 pm. Come see us there.

08/22/2025

August 22, 2025 - We had lots of visitors today. Kind of like the old days. First was Brian Tuttle who is bringing in family diaries and a pair of wooden skates for us to hang.

Carol Hyslop was in with the old map of Wentworth that was made at a Historical Society meeting at Sherman Tuttle's many years ago. She has added a few notable sites on it.

Hazel Felderhof came in and checked out the Drysdale file. She is going to help us fill in the missing issues of The Strait News.
Brian Gordon donated some wonderful binders of the Gordon and the Thompson families. These binders were compiled by Karen Wand and provide a wealth of information about their families.

We will be at the Oxford Exhibition next week and will be selling our books. Please drop by and say hi. We will be closed at the train station on Thursday, but still open on Wednesday 1 to 4, Friday 1 to 4 and Saturday 10 to 1.

Today's photo is of the Wentworth Valley Schoolhouse. The annual reunion and open house will be held on Saturday, September 6th at the Valley school at 80 Barclay Road and will be open to the public. At 2 p.m. will be a Meet and Greet. At 3 will be a dessert auction followed by a meal for $10 at 4. There will be hot dogs, hamburgers, salad and dessert. At 5 will be entertainment. All proceeds go to the preservation of the school.

08/15/2025

August 15, 2025 - Today's visitors included Stewart Millard who regaled us with tales of yesterday and brought in a newspaper clipping on Pugwash's early history for us. He was born in the first house behind the hardware and the midwife was the train stationmaster who was a woman. That was the 1930's.

We also received the last of the Malagash Schools' registers thanks to the Malagash Salt Mine museum. There were six schools at one time there: Malagash Point, Malagash Mine, North Shore, East Wallace, Malagash Centre and Upper Malagash.

Today's photo shows staff working in the quarry in Wallace. What difficult work it must have been. This photo comes from the Provincial Archives Collection of Clara Dennis Nova Scotia Archives 1983-468 number 159.

The Amherst Daily News of Thursday April 12, 1906 reported on one of the employees of the quarry in an article titled William Langille: A Faithful Employee. "William Langille of Wallace Ridge has a unique record as a workingman. He has been in the employ of the Wallace Stone Company for over 25 years. For the eight months of the year which the quarry is operated, he has walked to and from his work a distance of four miles each way making a total of eight miles a day or forty-eight miles a week. In all, since he first began working for the company, he has travelled 36,400 miles, a distance of 11,000 miles greater than the circumference of the globe. Mr Langille is now about sixty years of age but is still hale and hearty. He follows lumbering in the winter months and always commands the highest market wages. "

Unfortunately we don't have a photo of this fit gentleman. Can anyone help us out with one?

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

Baseball games could be rough in the 1930's

08/08/2025

Aug. 8, 2025 - First thank you, Nellie Van der Wiel, for your donations of yearbooks and of Thinkers Harvest. She also leant us family papers and personal stories to photocopy and return. I have read her father's diary from the year that they immigrated. It is fascinating. What a testament to hard work and staying positive in the face of a lot of adversity.

Today's picture shows what happens if we ever relax about fire. This was the 1898 fire in Pugwash. A lot of lives destroyed!