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North Cumberland Historical and Genealogy Society, NS

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Pugwash, NS
North Cumberland Historical and Genealogy Society, NS

Collecting and sharing the history and genealogy of northern Cumberland County for 60 years and counting.

The North Cumberland Historical Society holds the following collections that are available to the public:
· Family files, related publications, genealogies, and charts.
· Folders of information related to the general history of the area, including local land grants and petitions.
· Built heritage files with information on buildings and ownership (Currently in development).
· Scrapbooks compiled by local people.
· Cemetery inscriptions first collected in 1969 and periodically updated since then.
· School records (Subject to Canadian privacy laws).
· Local newspapers, primarily the Oxford Journal, Strait News, and Tatamagouche Light with additional collections of specific history-related columns from various newspapers.
· Photographic holdings of more than 1,000 images from the areas served by the Society (Ranging from Northport to Malagash and then south to Wentworth and Folly Lake). Photocopying of these records within reasonable limits that follow Canadian copyright law is available. Prices are as follows:
Black & White copies (Text): 25 cents per page
Black & White copies (Picture): $1/page
Colour copies (Text) : $1/page
Colour copies (Picture): $4/page

09/18/2026

Sept. 18, 2026 - Many visitors today. Thankfully the Visitor's Information Centre has closed and we are being allowed to use the room for research. It is much appreciated by our guests and us.

One question came To get to my father's previous school which was Wallace Station he had to cross over the river as he lived in Wallace Bridge on Kerr's Mill road. To get to North Middleboro School would he have crossed the river as well? Did the children cross over the via the Swing Bridge or was there another route to school?

Look what Owen brought in today!!! His great grandfather Willis McGrath had it in a cupboard for the last 40 years or so. That's great.

09/11/2026

Sept. 11, 2026 - Can't recognize the farm? Actually it is Alberta, but the workers are more local. This is a Beaton from Pugwash helping with the 1920 harvest. It was this time of year when the Harvest Excursions would head out packed with Nova Scotians to harvest the bumper crops of the prairie provinces. Special trains were run on the Intercolonial and a ticket could be purchased for $10. The steam engine would pull a long string of cars loaded with young farmers and the trains were so overloaded that many of their passengers were forced to ride on the tops of the cars. Even if you had a seat, it was slatted and none too comfortable. And it was slow - the train had to make regular stops to take on water for the steam locomotive.

Harvesters changed trains in Montreal and again in Winnipeg. Women who went worked at feeding the crews. The men worked in the fields. In the vast regions of the prairie provinces, 40 or more teams of horses to a combine were used, and the men were needed. These trains continued for 40 years from the 1890s until the depression slowed the need for labour. In 1911, 30,000 workers took the train out west.

It was an adventure and a rite of passage for Nova Scotians. Most went out to see the country, make some money and return home in the fall. Some did not return.

09/04/2026

September 4, 2026 - Come and visit us at the Cumberland County Exhibition in Oxford. We have a table with our publications and a volunteer there to share stories with. Debby Weagle looks ready in our new Historical Society t-shirt. Do drop by.

The RCMP have been contacted about the vandalism at the Loyalist cairn. It is a provincial Site of Historical Importance, so we are hoping that the plaque will be replaced.

Gerry Cooling dropped by to talk about all things Waugh. He also donated a copy of the Bible information of George Campbell Waugh. These pages are increasingly important as people are trying to prove Canadian ancestry. Often their family information was not registered with the provincial government when it happened. Bible records can be used as proofs.

08/28/2026

Aug. 28, 2026 - On October 27, 1981, the descendants of the Loyalists who came to North Cumberland County gathered to honour their ancestors. They honoured them with this stone and a brass plaque. The plaque read "To commemorate the United Empire Loyalists who remained loyal to the British Crown, and came here during the American Revolutionary War to establish new homes under severe hardships." The stone was erected on the Dotten land since this land had been occupied by this Loyalist Family continuously since 1784.

Last week a tourist family stopped in to tell us the plaque is gone. It was forcefully ripped off the stone where it has stood for 45 years. Vandals took it and we are in a bit of a quandry of what to do. So many worked so hard to raise the funds to have this plaque. It is just so very sad.

08/21/2026

August 21, 2026 - Lots of visitors today. First was Marion Mckinnon and her two nieces, children of Bernard. Marion is 90 and grew up in the train station where her father was the station master. She scampered up those stairs to view her old room and where she and her 9 brother and sisters were raised. When she was a girl, some men carried a piano up those stairs. It got stuck half way and was quite a production.

Three of her brothers, Aldo, Bernard and Karl, learned morse code and helped her dad receive and deliver messages. Often they were messages about deaths in the war. They had brothers in the war and each message was reached with trepidation. And delivering them was a dreaded chore.

Today's photo is of John Mckinnon, known as Jack. He was the station master in Wallace Station moving to Pugwash Station in 1946. He and wife Beatrice Colter raised 10 children. From the book he is reading, I would date this photo from the 40's.

Our second visitor is Cathy Eaton, Cyrus's granddaughter. She visits Pugwash every summer and feels very connected. She is looking for information on Cyrus's birth so she can apply for Canadian citizenship. We hear that a lot these days.

And just as we were leaving today, Fraser McLeod and Wayne Hanson came in. Fraser brought early post office documents from Joseph Howe Eaton and a ledger about mail sent from Doherty Creek post office in 1897. It mentions Stone House Post Office, Pugwash. We had thought it might have been a post office but this is proof.

08/14/2026

August 14, 2026 - Come to our AGM. There will be a short business meeting to review the Society's past year of operation. This will be followed by our annual speaker and this year, it is a man whom many of you already know, David Forshner. His talk will be full of tales about our small village and memories of people and events as part of a larger reflection on the passing of time. In his own words, a historical figure... Who, me? If me, then perhaps you too.

08/07/2026

August 7, 2026 - Does anyone have any information on the history of the fire department? Please let us know.

We have a heritage project where we keep history of houses. Alison is the keeper.

Today Fraser MacLeod dropped by with the kind of info we love to archive. This picture is of the beautiful Webb/MacNevin House from 5783 Thomson Road in Pugwash Junction. It was built about 1900 for Trueman Webb and Eva Eaton. They moved to Alberta 1905 - 1907.

Over the next 125 years a lot of life happened in this house. A great number of families followed them. James Williams and children Jessie and James Junior lived there next. Then came Ern Piers who later moved to the USA. Smith Weeks was the next owner. He also operated the general store in Pugwash Junction and dealt in real estate. Mrs McWilliams and her son Sandy came from Pictou for a while. Then the house seemed to have been traded with Danson from Ripples NB, with Danson moving to this house and Smith Weeks moving to Ripples. They were both storeowners. The Dansons were in the house in the 1920's and son Bob attended Margaret King School.

Lars and Alma Hanson moved in next. Curtis Williams rented if for a short time.

The last owner was Lloyd and Irene MacNevin. Lloyd was a war veteran. In the 50's they moved to PEI and the house was abandoned. A son planned to restore it, but he passed away suddenly. I imagine it is slowly decaying until it is gone. It is heartbreaking to see beautiful buildings fall into disrepair.

07/31/2026

July 31, 2026 - We have been incredibly busy this summer. We have had to turn people away because there is no place for them to sit. Frustrating.

The 14th hole of Northumberland Links is named The Grim Reaper. When NL was expanding from 9 holes to 18, they needed to develop the completely overgrown land between the road
and the shore. John Mills was brush cutting one day and his footing sank. He moved along and sank again. He started to see a pattern in the regularity of the dips in the land under this bush. Looking
around, he saw what he now expected: pieces of gravestones.

Some would have tossed them aside, but the golf course did the right thing and contacted the Wells Foundation. Any pieces that could be read were recorded. There were many more fragments shattered and buried in the mud. The legible ones were gathered up and in 2008, a stone was erected with those 4 names on it. The graveyard was named the Nicholson Graveyard as two of the
people were named Nicholson. John said it was quite a large graveyard and extended along the shore. The golf course has tended it ever since.

There is a section on a NS death certificate which states place of burial. On the certificates of some Nicholsons from the 1800’s, the cemetery named is Gulf Shore. The Scots liked to be buried with their clans hence the Gulf Shore cemeteries are usually named e.g. McLeod, Waugh, Mackenzie and so on. And there was the Melville Church one. Could this one have been named Gulf Shore and been more inclusive about who could be buried there? Given the size of it, it is likely. So, give a thought, golfers, next time you are
whizzing along #14 about the Scots who lived and died on this land.

This photo is a bit old. The trees behind it are now gone. The grey stone at the back is the one erected by the golf course.

07/24/2026

July 24, 2026 - Mieke did a wonderful job of bringing Ross Hamilton and the Dumbells to life. Thank you so much.

We have been wondering why Pugwash was never renamed Waterford. There was a poorly advertised meeting and those present voted to change it. However, there’s no evidence
that the name was ever legally changed beyond the steps
taken in that meeting of citizens. We’ve reviewed three major newspaper databases consisting of thousands of periodicals but only found three mentions of the name change. None were from
Halifax newspapers. These references basically inform the
extent of our knowledge in regards to the name change.

The obvious question comes up of who had the authority to make
the change and what were the proper channels? Things were a little murky at this point of history in terms of who was responsible for what and the line between provincial and village responsibility.

The earliest Guide to Town Officers that we were able to access was authored by Daniel Dickson in 1837. According to this guide, the burden of proof as to whether the name was legally changed rested on the local magistrate present at the meeting but that
neither he nor the High Sheriff had the authority to enact such a change. A comparison of similar changes in nearby places revealed an extra step that would have been required in order to make the change permanent. This would have been the presentation of
the name change to the provincial government assembly by means of a private bill.

In the case of Pugwash/Waterford, a decision was made but nobody filed the paperwork so to speak. So while the general public was aware of the proposed change, there was no governmental backing to ensure that it stuck. This is the real reason why the name Waterford fell out of use - because it was never officially and legally changed to begin with. The reason it continues to show up on maps until it eventually peters out is because some circles were aware of the proposed change. So rest easy. We get to keep our distinctive and not at all uncouth name!

07/17/2026

July 17, 2026 - Don't miss Mieke Van Vulpen's talk at the Peace Hall on July 23rd at 7 p.m. She will be talking about native son Ross Hamilton and the Dumbells.

This group entertained during World War I. They were incredibly popular - and their popularity continued after the war. This photo is from when they played at the London Coliseum. It is from the Canadian War Museum collection.

Address

10222 Durham Street
Pugwash, NS
B0K1L0

Opening Hours

Tuesday	1am - 4am
Friday	1pm - 4pm

Telephone

902-243-3348

Website

https://ncumbhistorical.wixsite.com/genealogyhistory

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