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Authority record
Coolen Arsenault family
Family

Arthur “Art” Joseph Arsenault (1906-1994), hotel waiter and wine steward, was born in Bathurst, New Brunswick to Joseph Arsenault (from Montreal) and Lucy (Withers) Arsenault. He worked at the Nova Scotian Hotel in Halifax, Nova Scotia from 1941 until retirement in 1972. He married Margaret Louise MacDonald (1911-1991) of Antigonish, daughter of Sherwood MacDonald and Mary Ann (MacMaster) MacDonald, on 9 August 1930. Margaret also worked in the service industry. They lived at 11 Dresden Row in Halifax and raised 5 children: John, André, Patricia, Simone, and Joan Marie. Their daughter Patricia “Pat Sea” Lillian Arsenault (1932-2016) married George Earl Coolen (1925-1987) of Prospect, NS in 1954. Pat Sea ran a canteen, then a general store and post office from their home while George earned money fishing, then eventually became the custodian for Atlantic Memorial School in Shad Bay, NS. They had 6 children: Susan M. (b.1955), Mark A., Michael A., Denise G., Christopher C. and Kelly L. After George’s death in 1987, Pat Sea continued living in Prospect, became a folk artist making hooked rugs, paintings and displays of objects in and around her home. She died in 2016.

Jones Clayton family
Family · ca1923-2021

The Jones and Clayton families, both prominent in the African Nova Scotian United Baptist Church community, were united by marriage when Rev. Dr. Willard Parker Clayton (1921-2007) married Annie Jean Jones (1932- ) on June 24, 1954 in Halifax Nova Scotia Canada. Willard was born in 1921 in Liverpool NS to Licentiate Samuel James Clayton (1886-1967) and Idella Mae (Croxen) Clayton (1888-1978) and raised in Upper Hammonds Plains NS. He left school to work with his father in the family cooperage business (making wooden barrels to transport foodstuffs), then joined the Canadian Army in 1942. Willard P. Clayton served overseas during the Second World War (1939-1945) in the Royal Highland Regiment, Black Watch of Canada, Canadian Army European Theatre (Infantry). He saw Front Line action in France, Holland, Germany, and Belgium before being honorably discharged in 1946. He was ordained as a Christian minister in The African United Baptist Association on September 25, 1952. Clayton earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952, a Bachelor of Divinity degree in 1955 and a Bachelor of Education degree in 1963, all from Acadia University. He went on to earn a Doctor of Religion degree in 1980 in the United States. In addition to ministering, Rev. Dr. Willard P. Clayton was employed full time, first with the Federal Public Service (1952-1962) then the Digby County and Halifax County Bedford District School Boards as classroom teacher (1963-1974) and Vice-Principal (1974-1986). Within the Church, Willard served as Executive Member of The African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia from 1954 to 1996. Together with his wife Jean they worked in church ministry to the Black community in Nova Scotia for 50 years. Clayton was also a writer, with 4 books published between 1982 and 2005. Rev. Dr. Clayton died on April 17, 2007 in Halifax NS.
Annie Jean (Jones) Clayton was born in 1932 in Tracadie NS to Deacon Sydney Morgan Jones (1899-1993) and Amelia Jean (Desmond) Jones (1900-1952). Sydney M. Jones was one of 16 Blacks to enlist in the 106th Battalion, Nova Scotia Rifles, Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was wounded at Passchendaele, Belgium during the Third Battle of Ypres while serving as a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment during the First World War (1914-1918). After the war, he served as Deacon for the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church and lived in north end Halifax, where his daughter Jean grew up. She graduated from Queen Elizabeth High School in 1951 with Grade 12. After her marriage to Willard Clayton in 1954, she worked as a pastor’s wife within the Church and raised their three daughters: Joyce, Shelley, and Heather. In 1975 Jean earned a diploma as a Social Service Worker from Nova Scotia Institute of Technology and started working outside the home and church. From 1975 to 1994 Jean was employed with the Black United Front, the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission, the Canadian Human Rights Commission, the Halifax Metro United Way, and finally Human Rights Resources Development Canada. Jean Clayton was also a writer, especially of poetry. As of 2023, she lives in Halifax NS.

Lorne White family
Family · 1874-

Ronald Lorne White (b.1928-d.2008), teacher, administrator, and professional singer, was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1928 the 12th child of Rev. Captain William Andrew White (b.1874-d.1936) and Izie Dora (White) White Sealy Johnston (b.1890-d.1972). Lorne earned a Bachelor of Education degree in 1952 from Acadia University, then a Master of Physical Education in 1955 and Master of School Administration in 1975 from Dalhousie University. He taught school in Halifax 1952 to 1973 then was Vice Principal of Bloomfield Elementary and Junior High School 1973 until retirement in 1986. He was also Principal Performer on CBC television show “Singalong Jubilee” 1960-1972 and acted in several television and theatre shows 1981-2007. In November 1955 he married fellow Acadia graduate Ann Mary (Hennigar) White (b.1933-d.2018) and had 3 daughters: Holly M., Shelly A. and Rosalie “Lee” J. White. Together with Lorne’s younger sister Yvonne White (b.1930), they performed religious concerts as the White Family Singers, 1980-1991. Lorne’s older sister Portia White (b.1911-d.1968) became internationally famous as a classical singer (opera) in the 1940s and 1950s, overcoming racism towards people of colour. Lorne’s father served overseas in the First World War as chaplain to the No. 2 Construction Battalion, a racially segregated Canadian military unit for people of colour. After the war Rev. Captain William A. White served as pastor of the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in Halifax (known as New Horizons Baptist Church starting in 2018). Lorne White died in Halifax on 14 April 2008 and Mary died 19 November 2018.

Miller family, 1742-
Family · 1742-

Jacob Miller (1742-1825) arrived in New York from Germany circa 1770 and emigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the 1780s as a Loyalist. Jacob and his wife, Elizabeth Bentley (1747-1817) had six children: son Garret (1770-1840) and five daughters, Abigail (d. 1834), Ann (1771-1859), Elizabeth (1774-1857), Margaret (1779-1864), and Mary (d. 1833). All of the daughters were unmarried and resided at the family's home in Halifax. Garret was a merchant and worked at his father's exporting business, Jacob Miller and Son, later becoming a member of provincial parliament for Lunenburg County, 1837 to 1841. He married Catherine Pernette, daughter of Colonel Joseph Pernette of LaHave, and had seven children who survived to adulthood. They were: Augusta (1804-1883), m. Jason Mack, Mill Village, and had three children; Garret Trafalgar Nelson (1805-1897), m. artist Maria Morris of Halifax and had five children; Frances (1807-1885), unmarried; Elizabeth (d. 1881), m. Daniel Owen, New Dublin, in 1837 and had six children; Joseph Pernette (1808-1881), merchant, MPP and justice of the peace in Bridgewater, m. Margaret C. Allan of Scotland and had four children including daughter Jennie, m. William D. Hall, miner and prospector; Jacob Pernette (1803-1893), m. Miss Daniels and held several government offices, including superintendent of quarantine and customs officer; and John (1811-1898), unmarried.

Family · 1720-

Reverend Nehemiah Porter, son of weaver Nehemiah Porter and Hannah (Smith) was born 22 or 27 March 1720 at Ipswich, Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College in 1745 and was ordained in 1750. On 14 February 1749 he married Rebecca Chipman at Beverly, Massachusetts; they had the following children: Rebekah, Hannah, Nehemiah (b. 1753), John C., Sarah, Samuel, Ebenezer, Joseph, and Elisabeth. Dismissed from his first church in Ipswich in 1766 and his wife having died a few years earlier, Rev. Porter moved to Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia where he served as minister of the Congregational Church, 1767-1771. He returned to Massachusetts in 1771, leaving his eldest son Nehemiah Porter Jr. to keep his farm at Yarmouth. Rev. Porter settled at Ashfield, Massachusetts in 1774 and was chaplain in 1777 during the American Revolutionary War. He married Elizabeth Raymond in 1778 and continued to preach until his death at Ashfield on 29 February 1820, a few days short of his 100th birthday. Nehemiah Porter Jr. bought his father's farm in Yarmouth ca. 1784. He and his wife Mary (Tardy), married 18 July 1776, had fourteen children: Rebecca (b. 1777), Mary (b. 1778), Hannah (b. 1780), Ruth (b. 1782), Sarah (b. 1784), Nehemiah (b. 1786), John Tardy (b. 1788), Ebenezer (b. 1791), Elizabeth (b. 1793), Joseph (b. 1795), Samuel Chipman (b. 1797), Jonathan (b. 1801), George Rowland (b. 1804), and Eunice (b. 1806).

Nichols family, 1790-
Family · 1790-

George and Susanna Nichols of Waterbury, Connecticut had three children: Ann, Mary, and George Kimberley. Ann Nichols married Rev. James Scovil of Kingston, New Brunswick. Mary Nichols married Judge Peleg Wiswall in 1803 and had one child, Mary Wiswall, who married Charles Budd, a Digby merchant, registrar of probate, and MLA. George Kimberley Nichols resided in Digby where he was a merchant dealing in general goods and hardware. He married Mary Budd, daughter of Loyalist Elisha Budd and sister of Charles Budd. George and Mary Nichols had three children: Charles, Edward Elisha Budd (1820-1893) and Mary Susannah.

Edward Elisha Budd (E.E.B.) Nichols was ordained as a minister in 1845 and served as rector of the Trinity Anglican Church, Liverpool for many years. He married his first wife, Amelia Caroline Sterns in 1861. In 1874 he married Caroline Seely Agney with whom he had two children: Mary Edith Letitia (m. Thomas Lynch of Liverpool in 1903) and George Everard Edgehill (m. Grace E. Robertson).

Piercey family
Family · 1877-

The Piercey’s were a prominent Halifax family, known for establishing and running Piercey Supplies Ltd. for close to a century. The founder of the company, William Drysdale Piercey, was born on June 9, 1877, to Charles E. Piercey and Eleanor Jane Drysdale. W.D. Piercey left school early to work on the family farm until the age of 14, when he went to work at a local shovel factory. From age 18 to 34, Piercey worked at Rhodes Curry and Company in Halifax. In 1915, he founded Piercey Supplies Ltd. which expanded and included many of his family members.

An active community member, Piercey was a MP of the Nova Scotia Legislature for one term. He was also Vice-President and a Director of the General Trust and Executor Corporation, President of the Yarmouth Building and Loan Society, and a Director of the Nova Scotia Trust Company. He was a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and a Justice of the Peace. He served as a Director of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children and on the Board of Pine Hill Divinity College. For many years he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Armdale School Section.

W.D. Piercey married Anne Margaret Forbes on September 16, 1903, in Halifax. The couple had four children; Reginald Matheson (October 1, 1904), William Douglas (May 27, 1909), Joyce (Jones) (1917) and George Charles (February 22, 1919). Annie passed away on June 5, 1960, and Piercey remarried Elsie May Pert. Piercey passed away at home on January 21, 1964.

The eldest son, Reginald Piercey married Lillian Marguerite MacKinnon on September 7, 1932, and they had two daughters Shelia Kathleen Piercey (November 18, 1933-May 20, 2019) and Barbara (October 9, 1938-June 27, 2013). Piercey Investors was incorporated in 1933 and continues to be run by the Piercey family.

Ross (family)
Family · 1816-

Captain William Ross arrived at Sherbrooke (now New Ross), Nova Scotia, on 7 August 1816. He was appointed deputy surveyor of lands in 1817 and in 1819 was granted a section of the Sherbrooke grant, which became known as New Ross. He held various offices and acted as chief administrative officer of the New Ross settlement until his death in 1822. He married Mary Williams and they had five children: Mary (born 30 September 1806 in Cork, Ireland), William Henry (born 12 December 1810 at Fort Amsterdam, South Armenia), Edward Irlam (born 3 January 1813 in Sunderland, England), George Lockhart (born 9 September 1815 at Fort Coteau de Lock, Canada), and Charles Henry Lawson (born 2 February 1818 in Sherbrooke). The family home in New Ross was known as "Rosebank". Edward Ross assisted his brother George with the family farm and operated a small store. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1838. He died in New Ross in 1894.