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Maureen and Richard “Rick” Elwood raised their two children, Melissa (b. 1975) and Luke (b. 1977) in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia. Maureen was heavily involved in inclusion and integration efforts for people with disabilities and a regular attendee of meetings and conferences through the Canadian Association for Community Living (CACL); Rick worked as a firefighter. Both Melissa and Luke attended an integrated pre-school before the family’s fight for Luke’s inclusion at elementary school arose. It was during Luke’s Grade Three year that the fight reached Case status between Elwoods and the Halifax County-Bedford District School Board (HCBDSB). After an injunction ordered the School Board to allow Luke to stay in his mainstream classroom at Atlantic View School, the Case was eventually settled before trial. By June 1987, Luke would be able to stay with his peers all throughout his schooling years. The Elwood Family’s case set a precedent across Canada for the right to education for all students with disabilities and is a milestone in Nova Scotia’s disability rights history.

Benjamin Ernst, the son of Michael and Maria Ernst was born at Blockhouse, Nova Scotia in 1834. A well-known and respected citizen of Blockhouse, he worked as a shoemaker for a time and was active in community affairs. Later turning to farming, he was married three times (Sarah Zwicker, Isabella Zwicker, and Elizabeth Eisenhaur) and died as a widower in 1916. Benjamin’s son, Asom, who was active in the Blockhouse Agricultural Society, apparently inherited his father’s home in Blockhouse. The house later belonged to Aubrey R. Balcom (1913-2003), the son of Harry Eugene Balcom and Emily May Ernst. Members of the Ernst-Balcom family were apparently close to the Justice of the Peace Nathaniel Hebb and were involved in the recording of community rates for schools and the poor as well as other community services and activities.

The Ernst and Zwicker families were both among the original foreign Protestants that settled in Lunenburg in the 1750s. Johann Christian Ernst (1724-1798) arrived in Lunenburg County in 1753. Following the death of his first spouse, Margaret Helman, he married Anna Regina Hirtle (1736-1801). The couple had ten children, including the boys Frederick (1762-1806), Christian (1766-1834), and Conrad (1772-1859). Johan Christian Ernst’s eldest daughter, Anna Gertrude Ernst (1751-1834), married Peter Zwicker, marking the beginning of the close relationship between the Ernst and Zwicker families. In the following generation, Johan Christian Ernst’s granddaughter, Barbara Ernst (1812-1895), married Joseph Zwicker (1809-1881). Among their children were Ezra (1844-1925) and Edward Zwicker (1850-1918). In 1870, Ezra married Martha Ernst.

Reuben Herbert Webber was born on November 16, 1870 in Lake Charlotte. He was the eldest child of Sarah A. (Stevens) and Andrew William Henry Webber, who was a farmer at Clam Harbour and Lake Charlotte. He married Susannah Margaret (“Annie”) Newcombe (b. Oct. 11, 1860), daughter of William and Susannah Newcombe in Dartmouth on October 5, 1898. The family lived in Oyster Pond and Reuben worked as a day labourer and miller. He and Annie had one son, Ervin Edward Webber, who was born February 11, 1900. Annie died on March 30, 1917 and Reuben on June 27, 1944.*

Ervin Webber lived in Oyster Pond and worked in the woods and as a farmer, as well as doing odd jobs. He also served as church warden of St. John's Church for fifty years. He never married and died in Halifax on December 1, 1993 as a result of burns that he had sustained.

*Reuben’s death record (which also mentions his son Ervin) states that his parents were William and Sarah. If this is the case, his birth date is November 16, 1870, as appears on the birth record for Reuben, son of Andrew William and Sarah Webber. There was another Reuben Herbert (or Robert) Webber born in Lakeville on November 18, 1870 to William Henry Webber and Eliza Ann Webber, m. January 1869. Robert Kim Stevens lists Reuben Herbert Webber’s parents as being William Henry (b. 1845) and Sarah Jane Webber (m. Dec. 30, 1869, Clam Harbour). He states that she was the daughter of Peter John Webber and Catherine Faulkner and died in 1933.

The Fader family originates with John H. and Mary Ann (Mason) Fader who resided at the Head of St. Margaret’s Bay on their property, Oakland Point. Their son, John H. Fader, Jr. (1848-1934) was a commission merchant and victualler in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of several Faders who were prominent merchants and business people in both Halifax and the St. Margaret’s Bay areas of Nova Scotia. The main business associated with the family is Fader Brothers, victuallers, which was established in 1864 at 64 Barrington Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The firm was made up of brothers: John Jr. referenced above, Albert (1850-1897), Joseph (1858-1890) & Silas Fader (1856-1937). The firm re-located circa 1878 to the Colonial Market at 224 Argyle Street. Individually, several of the family members appeared in earlier city directories as hucksters, traders or victuallers. Among other members of the family who worked for the firm were Enoch H. (between 1861 1886) and Francis Fader (1881). The firm moved to 6 10 Bedford Row in 1883. In 1887, Joseph Fader left the firm and began a firm of general victuallers to ships and vessels at 17 19 Bedford Row. This business was later acquired in 1903 by the Boutilier family and went out of business in 1971. In 1888, Fader Bros was bought out by J.A. Leaman & Company and continued operating until 1962. Various members of the Boutilier family, many of whom had married Faders, were involved with both firms over the years. A number of the family members went further afield and operated businesses in Montreal, New Westminster and Vancouver, British Columbia and Alaska.

Arthur Ferguson was born December 29, 1878. He was the son of farmer and fisherman, Joseph John A. Ferguson of Lower East Chezzetcook and his second wife Jane Margaret Conrod. Arthur also worked as a fisherman and was listed as living in East Chezzetcook with his mother in the 1911 census.

James Daniel Bain Fraser was born 11 February 1807, at Pictou, Nova Scotia, the son of Daniel and Catherine (MacKay) Fraser. He probably attended school taught by Dr. Thomas McCulloch at Pictou before his family removed to Saint John, New Brunswick circa 1822. It is believed that Fraser apprenticed at Saint John with a local doctor, where he gained his medical knowledge, which was crucial to his success as a future druggist. Fraser returned to Pictou and in the spring of 1828 established a drug store, which serviced most parts of the Northumberland Strait, parts of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. He also acted as an agent for the Eastern Stage Coach Company. On 20 December 1831 he married Christianna MacKay, the daughter of John MacKay, of Pictou. The couple had five sons and four daughters. By the mid-1840s his business expanded to include two drug stores at Pictou. He also ventured into the stone quarry business and later invested in mining. Throughout his life Fraser was a strong Liberal and opposed Confederation. In 1841 he was appointed Justice of the Peace. He also held several municipal appointments such as Commission of Streets, Captain of the Fire Axe Company, member of the Board of Health, Fire Warden, Health Warden, and Commissioner for Place Bushes on the Ice. He was an active member of the Pictou Literary and Scientific Society, founding member of the Pictou Agricultural Society, and member of the Oriental Division, Sons of Temperance. Besides dispensing medicine, Fraser performed dental services and conducted numerous experiments. He pioneered the use of chloroform during childbirth. Fraser died after a long illness, at Pictou, 4 May 1869.

Crows Nest is an area that stretches across both sides of the St. Mary's River near Waternish, Guysborough County, Nova Scotia. Crows Nest farm was settled in the ca. 1820s by Simon Fraser, who was born in Pictou in 1790 and migrated to the St. Mary's River valley. He married Ann MacLean and together they had four children: Malcolm (b. 1813); John (b. 1824); Hugh R. (b. 1826); and Simon (birthdate unknown). Hugh R., who was born in St. Mary's, married Ann McDaniel and inherited the family farm. They had seven children: Rebekah (b. 1858, d. 1924); Abigail (b. 1858); John (b. 1860); Margaret (Maggie) (b. 1863, d. 1949); Charles (b. 1867); Freeman (b. 1868); and Hugh (b. 1872). Hugh R., Ann, and their children continued farming through the first decade of the 20th century, and the couple died in 1913.

Rebekah Fraser married James Coffey in Amherst, Nova Scotia in 1881 and was widowed. She returned to her parent’s farm at Crows Nest by the 1901 Census of Canada and lived in the community until her death in 1924.

Margaret (Maggie) Fraser immigrated to Chelsea, Massachusetts, sometime in the 1880s. There she married Herbert B. Smith, who was originally from Mount Denson, Nova Scotia, on 4 September 1895. He died in a tragic workplace accident in 1906, and the widowed Maggie returned home to the farm in Crows Nest by the 1911 Census of Canada.

Following the death of Hugh R. and Ann Fraser in 1913, and when sportsmen began frequenting the St. Mary's River region for hunting and fishing, Maggie Fraser Smith transitioned the farmhouse to an inn that accommodated sportsmen from around the world. According to Maggie’s death record, she operated the Crows Nest House, as the inn was called, until ca. 1937. She died in 1949 in a nursing home in Apple River, Cumberland County.

William Ansell Gaetz was born April 5, 1895 in Musquodoboit Harbour to parents Thomas Gaetz and Lydia Ann ‘Annie’ Ansell. He married Josephine Richardson, daughter of Jacob Richardson and Eliza Gaetz, on December 17, 1919 and together they had a son, Lowell Everett Gaetz (1921-1991) who married Frances Yeomans and lived in East Petpeswick.

William Gaetz served as a private with the 246th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I and worked as a section man with the railway following the war. He was very active in the community of Musquodoboit Harbour, serving as treasurer for the United Church and as a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Canadian National Eastern Lines System Federation Brothers of Maintenance of Way Employees. He also served as a reviser for the elector district voter lists. He died in 1967.