In 1908, Winfred Theodore Ritcey started the Acadia Gas Engines Company on the banks of the LaHave River in Bridgewater. The company was known the world over for its two-cycle gas engines. With the company’s rapid expansion, Acadia Gas Engines began…

Mather Byles DesBrisay was born in Chester, Lunenburg County, on March 19, 1828 to Lucretia Woodward and Thomas Belcher DesBrisay, M.D. He studied law at Dalhousie University and was admitted to the bar in 1851, practicing his profession in Halifax…

In June of 1898, the local paper of the day, Bridgewater Bulletin, announced that the Bridgewater Band was to build a bandstand. Prominent citizen, W. H. Owen (1842-1928), donated a site on his property on the eastern side of the old bridge, and…

In 1890, Bridgewater announced a company was to build a music hall. Land was purchased, and the building commenced. E. D. Davison commented, "men are framing the Music Hall, which gives employment to carpenters for the winter. Hope the investment…

According to the October 1918 issue of Busy East, the "Bridgewater Band" was organized in 1868 and was led by bandmaster Charles Jeffries. A photograph dated c. 1865 of a band in front of Robert West's store, its members with mutton chop whiskers,…

Frank Elam Garber was born in Newcombville in 1877 to Emanuel and Mary Eliza (Hebb) Garber. From a young age, Frank Garber showed artistic abilities as seen in his early charcoal self-portrait, a skill he later applied to his hand-coloured…

Edward Doran Davison, Sr. (1819-1894) was a prominent businessman, caring philanthropist, devoted family man, Methodist, self-taught mechanical engineer, and avid politician. In 1837, at the young age of 18, Davison acquired large tracts of forest…