
Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Ford Webber fonds
General material designation
- Textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.
Level of description
Fonds
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1940-1951, 1962, 1982-1998, 1943-1962 predominant (Creation)
- Creator
- Webber, Ford Hanscom, 1937-2008
- Place
- Lake Charlotte (N.S.)
Physical description area
Physical description
16 cm of textual records
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Ford Hanscom Webber was born on September 30, 1937 in Lake Charlotte, Halifax County, Nova Scotia to parents Edward James “Ned” Webber (1897-1963) and Marguerite Lillias “Babe” Grant (1907-1971). His father owned and operated Webber's Store in Lake Charlotte and as a child Ford helped out at the store while also attending the local one-room schoolhouse. At the age of fifteen, he left Lake Charlotte to attend the Halifax County Vocational High School, where he studied carpentry and stayed with his aunt Gertrude Stretch in Dartmouth. He graduated from vocational school at the age of eighteen and continued to attend night school for two years in Halifax. He then took a six-week finishing course in Sydney, graduating with full carpentry certification at the age of twenty-one.
Ford Webber spent his first summer after graduation as a carpenter in Halifax, before moving back to the Eastern Shore to help complete the construction of Robert Jamieson Memorial Consolidated High School in Oyster Pond. Thereafter, he was self-employed, working on a variety of construction projects on the Eastern Shore, including maintenance work for the County Schoolboard, pallet construction for Moirs, and constructing and repairing local bridges. During this time, Ford employed numerous workers. He married Joyce Anthony, daughter of Edward ‘Ted’ and Maud Anthony, and together they had two sons, Anthony and Timothy. He and Joyce later divorced and he married Marguerite ‘Peggy’ Sweet, daughter of Joan (Stevens) and Elliot Whyman Sweet. In 1964, Ford joined in a construction venture called Dolphin Industries, located in Musquodoboit Harbour and specializing in manufacturing as well as in concrete fabrication. One of the items produced were wooden sleds, which were shipped by rail and sold across Canada. Together with his mother, he had assumed management of Webber's Store after the death of his father in 1963, and continued running it until his mother’s death in 1971. The store was then operated by the company, E. J. Webber’s Store and owned jointly by the children of Ned and Babe. Ford retired from management of the store in 2004.
Throughout his lifetime, Ford’s father collected examples of changing technology and equipment in the hopes of someday creating a display or attraction for the visitors coming to Lake Charlotte. Ford shared his father’s interest and continued his father’s practice of preserving objects that others were throwing away, over time amassing a collection of artefacts and records. In 1994, along with other community members, he began to plan how this collection could be displayed. This led to the founding of the Lake Charlotte Area Heritage Society in 1995. The Society modified and expanded his proposal into Memory Lane Heritage Village, which opened in 2000 and was completed in 2003, with Ford playing an important role throughout. Ford Webber remained active in the Village and Society’s activities until his death on July 31, 2008.
Custodial history
Records were created and accumulated by Ford Webber and donated to the Eastern Shore Archives in 2008 and 2012 by his second wife, Marguerite ‘Peggy’ (Sweet) Webber.
Scope and content
Fonds consists of local news leaflets entitled, Webbers Shore News, published by Ford Webber, school books and scribblers, and other books belonging to Ford Webber from the 1940s.
Notes area
Physical condition
Some books in the books and guides series are missing covers and have loose pages.
Immediate source of acquisition
Records were donated to the Eastern Shore Archives by Ford Webber and Peggy (Sweet) Webber.
Arrangement
Published material that was not relevant to the mandate of the archives was weeded as well as exercise books that did not contain any relevant information.
Records in the Webbers Shore News series are arranged in reverse chronological order.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Open to researchers without restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Inventory with file list available.
Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
Accompanying material
Some books were catalogued as artefacts to be used in the Memory Lane school house. These consisted of a copy of The Adventures of Bob White by Thornton W. Burgess, and a copy of Edgar Allen Poe's, The Raven and The Bells.
Physical description
Includes 11 folders of textual records.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
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Control area
Sources
“How Lake Charlotte Area Heritage Society created Memory Lane Heritage Village” / Gordon Hammond. Griffin [March 2003]. – Halifax, NS: Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.