Donald McDonald was the son of a Scottish settler, who came to Nova Scotia in 1802 and settled on interval lands at Sunnybrae, Pictou County. In 1847 at the age of 18, Donald McDonald came to Sherbrooke and opened a tailor shop, which he ran from…

Established in the 1860s, Cumminger Brothers’ General Store was owned and operated by John Cumminger (1827-1892) and his brother Samuel Cumminger (1838-1879). John was also a ship builder and master mariner and had shares in lumbering and gold…

Joseph McLane, the first owner of blacksmith shop in Sherbrooke Village, was born in Onslow, Colchester County, on May 26, 1820, to Captain William and Margaret McLane. In 1837, the family moved to Stillwater near Sherbrooke. In 1844, Joseph McLane…

Many of the early British settlements in Nova Scotia were recorded in maps made by Charles Morris, his son, and his grandson. Charles I was born in Boston and was commissioned in 1746 by Governor Shirley to serve in Nova Scotia. In 1748 he was…

Travel back to the late 1700s, to the days when Halifax was just a British settlement. Almon would have been a well-known name. This was thanks to the efforts ofWilliam James Almon, a physician originally from Rhode Island. When the American…

Bartholomew Green, like his father and grandfather, was a printer in Boston, establishing his own printing office there in 1725. He left Boston in 1745 to fight at Louisbourg, but when he returned, was unable to rebuild his business successfully.…

Established in 1890, the Dominion Chair Company, has a long history in Bass River. While the company endured many hardships, the Dominion Chair Company became one of Colchester County’s major industries. The company sold chairs across Canada and to…

Not much remains of a once thriving industry in Lower Ship Harbour known locally as the “Peg Factory." Built on Weeks Lake where the lake meets Ship Harbour River, John Lewis Industries' peg factory started up in 1922 after having shut down a…

The canning of shellfish, such as clams, lobster, crab, and oysters, developed as an industry around the early 1900s when equipment, canning materials, and a general knowledge of the science of canning coincided with a demand for canned goods.…

The Morse’s Teas building at the apex of Hollis and Lower Water Streets was not the first building at that location. In 1753, three years after Halifax was founded, British army agent Thomas Saul had a large stone house built on the property. The…