Showing 35 results

Samuel Burton Sweet was born July 31, 1857 in Black Rock, Kings County, Nova Scotia to Lorana and Leander Sweet. He moved to the Country Harbour area of Guysborough County sometime after 1881, where he ran a store in Country Harbour Mines before moving his business interests to Goldenville sometime after 1894 and before 1901. He married Alice Cox Eaton and together they had twelve children. He died July 29, 1903 and he and his wife are buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, Cross Roads Country Harbour, Guysborough County.

The Stewart family owned and operated Eleven Mile House (or 11 Mile House), an historic inn and coach stop near the forks of the St. Mary's River at Melrose, Guysborough County located eleven miles from Sherbrooke on the Antigonish to Sherbrooke road. Eleven Mile House was an important social and economic center for Melrose and surrounding areas, offering lodgings, meals, coaching services, and mail delivery. James Stewart (born around 1836, died 1887 and buried in Riverside Cemetery, Sherbrooke) married Margaret Bollong, the widow of Isaac Cumminger, in 1863 and together they had four children. Their third son, Harry Edwin Stewart (born November 11, 1869) went on to operate Eleven Mile House. He also farmed and lumbered, operated a store from the house, and was involved in provincial elections as a reviser of voting lists. He married Sarah Tate on October 18, 1892 and together they had three children. He died September 10, 1950 in Berwick, Nova Scotia, where his son, William C. Stewart, resided. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Aspen, Guysborough Co.

The International Association of Rebekah Assemblies (also known as the Rebekahs or the Daughters of Rebekah) is an international sororal and service organization that was founded in 1851. It is the female auxiliary of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows [I.O.O.F.] The St. Mary's Rebekah Lodge was instituted on 6 August 1927. The first Noble Grand was Mrs. Margaret G. McKeen, First Vice Grand Miss Annie Bears.

The St. Mary's Genealogy Research Centre at Sherbrooke Village was founded in 2011 by a group of community-based genealogists and local historians in response to the need to provide a place to collect, preserve, and share historic records and resources of the St. Mary's municipal area (the western portion of Guysborough County). Included in its holdings are genealogy and archival materials gathered and donated to Sherbrooke Village over many years. The mandate of the SMGRC is to:
–– acquire primary and secondary records which will aid in the research of the genealogical, social, business, and natural history of the Municipality of the District of St. Mary’s;
–– preserve and organize archival materials and published materials using the most current standards;
–– provide members and the general public with efficient access to the Research Centre’s holdings through finding aids and other search tools;
–– respond to reference questions and aid researchers in their objective.

The dissenting congregation of the Presbyterian Church in Sherbrooke was established as an entity on 29 March 1838. Prior to that time, various clergy visited or labored on a part-time basis with services being held in homes or the school. The first church building (meeting house) was erected ca 1820-24. In 1824, Rev. Alexander Lewis was ordained and Sherbrooke received one-quarter of his services. By 1847, there was a need for a new church and in 1852, a building committee was appointed. On 29 September 1855, the Sessions met for the first time in the new church. In 1859, the Secessionist Congregation of Sherbrooke passed a resolution favouring the union of the Free Church with the Presbyterian Church of Nova Scotia. With the establishment of the Historic Sherbrooke Village Restoration in the late 1960s, the church building was included as a part of the restoration but the congregation continued to worship in the building until 27 June 2007, at which time the Sherbrooke Presbyterian congregation was dissolved. The ownership of the building was transferred to the Province of Nova Scotia in 2010. The building is used for weddings, funerals, and special events, as well as being part of the living history museum, and is maintained by Historic Sherbrooke Village.

The Sonora Timber Company was founded in the early 1920s by five former Russian naval officers who acquired Nova Scotian land to sell softwood pulp to the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co. At its height, Sonora Timber employed between 1,000 and 1,500 people. The company closed in 1931. Source: Legge, Ruth M. (Rumley) (2005). Sawdust & Sea Breezes (pp. 139).

Robert Ramsay or R.R. Sinclair was born ca. 18 October 1842, likely in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. His grandfather, Donald Sinclair, was a merchant who emigrated to Sherbrooke from Thurso, Scotland around 1807. He took with him his two sons, Alexander and William. Alexander married Margaret Ramsay (originally from Edinburgh) in 1830 and together they had ten children, including Robert Ramsay. The family were Anglican. Alexander and his family lived in Sherbrooke before settling in Liscomb, likely in the late 1850s or early 1860s, where they operated a large, successful sawmill, producing over 500,000 board feet of lumber, laths, and staves in 1871. After Alexander Sinclair died in 1866, the mill was operated by his sons Donald Smith, Robert Ramsay, and William James as Donald Sinclair and Bros. The brothers were also involved in shipbuilding, and the James R. Lithgow (1872) and the Three Cheers (1873) were built in their yard at Liscomb. In 1873, the Liscomb sawmill was sold, and R.R. Sinclair moved to Sherbrooke where he worked as a merchant through to the first decades of the 20th century, selling groceries and general provisions. His first store was near the McDaniel's Sherbrooke Hotel on Mill St., where he also boarded, and in 1900 he built a new store located on Main or First St., just past the bridge to Goldenville and across from Anderson's grocery store. The building was demolished in 2018. R.R. Sinclair was also a dealer and exporter of lumber and farm produce. While most of his clients and customers were farmers within the St. Mary's River region, as well as townspeople from the villages of Sherbrooke and Goldenville, he also supplied local gold mining and lumbering companies with provisions, and exported lumber to Nova Scotia building firms like Chappell Bros. in Sydney, Cape Breton. Local memory recalls that "Bob," as he was known, would buy "rafts" of lumber floated down the river from Caledonia, which he then exported on the coastal steamer, S.S. Dufferin. It is likely that Sinclair owned a sawmill on the Northwest Arm Brook in Sherbrooke, as well as a large tract of land on present-day Cameron Rd., listed as the "Sinclair Property" on the 1876 A.F. Church map of Sherbrooke, and where the R. Sinclair shipyard was also located. Sinclair built at least two schooners at his St. Mary's shipyard, the William Hayes in 1874 and the Marshall S. in 1876. At some point, he purchased 124 Cameron Rd, a large Gothic Revival house that had been built for his brother, Marshall Sinclair, a merchant in Goldenville. Later, in 1896, R.R. Sinclair purchased 8149 Main St,. Sherbrooke, which he owned until his death on 19 January 1914, in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He is buried in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia. R.R. Sinclair was also a member of the 4th Guysborough Regiment, a militia formed in response to the Fenian raids of 1866, serving in the Liscomb area. He remained a life-long bachelor.

Sherbrooke Village Restoration grew from a citizens’ movement to preserve the historic streetscape of the village of Sherbrooke in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia in the mid-1960s. In 1969, the Sherbrooke Restoration Act was passed in the Nova Scotia Legislature, which appointed the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission as the body responsible for administering regulations on the orderly development and restoration of a large area within the village of Sherbrooke, creating a living history museum. The Commission became the body responsible for making decisions on any and all development issues in the historic area. Their decisions, based on the powers provided by the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission Act, supersede any provincial or municipal law within the designated area. Sherbrooke Village Restoration is administered by the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission under the direction of the Nova Scotia Museum, part of the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, and Heritage. In 1970, restoration of buildings began and the first visitors were welcomed in 1971.

With the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission Act. 1961, the Nova Scotia Legislature established the Sherbrooke Restoration Commission to regulate the use of land, buildings, and any other matter necessary for the restoration and development of the Sherbrooke Planning Area. It is responsible for the use and administration of funds, preparation of budgets and operation of the Sherbrooke Village Restoration, a living history museum . The Commission reports to the Nova Scotia Museum Board of Governors, who grant funding for the Village.

Queen's Lodge No. 34 A.F. & A.M., located in Sherbrooke, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia, dates from December 1864 when a dispensation was granted by the Hon. Alexander Keith, Provincial Grand Master for Scotland in Nova Scotia. The Lodge worked under this dispensation until 1866 when it received its charter from the newly-organized Grand Lodge of Nova Scotia. The Queen's Lodge was first known as No. 10, but became No. 34 in 1869. Alfred K. White, a tinsmith born in England in 1841, was the first master of Queen's Lodge, but was demitted from Queen's in 1889 to become the first master of Canso Lodge No. 79.

Local tradition suggests that the lodge met initially near the corner of Main St. and the Goldenville Rd., in a building known as Rock Hall. This building eventually became the general store (and later warehouse) of A. Anderson & Sons, and was located on the site where Sherbrooke's modern grocery store stands in 2020. The Masonic Lodge eventually moved up the street to a building located on the corner of Main Street and the road leading to Back Street, just between Main St. and the brook. The A.F. Church map of Sherbrooke shows the hall at this location by 1876, the year the map was published. By 1882, it was discovered that the title to the hall was unsatisfactory, and a clear deed for the hall was placed on record in October of 1882. At this time, interior work was also performed on the hall, including plastering, painting, and redecorating.

In the summer of 1895, it was decided to moved the Masonic Hall (known locally as the Machinist Hall) down Main St. to a lot purchased from Adam MacLane, located directly across the street from the Joe MacLane blacksmith shop. The lot on which the Hall had previously stood was sold. The Masons continued to meet in their new location until March 1957, when Queen's Lodge No. 34 purchased the I.O.O.F. Hall, located further down Main St., from the Unity Hall Building Company. This structure had been originally built for the Odd Fellows circa the 1920s by Johnny MacKenzie Cameron of East River St. Mary's. The Masons made repairs to the building and redecorated it, and the first regular communication (or meeting) of Queen's Lodge No. 34 was held there on 16 April 1957. The old hall, the home of Queen's Lodge for over ninety years, was sold and later became a store. It was demolished in 1994.

As goldmining, lumbering, and other industries flourished in Sherbrooke and area throughout the mid-to-late decades of the 19th century, Queen's Lodge grew in membership. Masons were members of all levels of local society, from goldminers to merchants, doctors to clergy. The nearby community of Goldenville eventually formed its own lodge, Hiram, which decreased membership in Queen's Lodge (it closed, however, in 1889, and members returned to Queen's Lodge).

Queen's Lodge played an active role in the social lives of its members and worked towards the benefit of the wider Sherbrooke community. Early records indicate that in addition to weekly meetings and other member-only gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals, Queen's Lodge offered charity to those in need, frequently paid for the funeral expenses of members, maintained a library and reading room, and supported public music festivals and the Freemasons' Home in Windsor. Queen's Lodge masons even joined together to make hay for a sick member. The Lodge hall was also used for community purposes, such as dances and lectures.

Queen's Lodge No. 34 A.F. & A.M. is still active in Sherbrooke in 2020. Monthly meetings are held the first Tuesday of the month in the lodge building, which is now part of Sherbrooke Village Restoration. Members do not meet during the months of July and August. In addition to regular meetings, Queen's Lodge members offer support to important community initiatives including school breakfast programs and scholarships.