Beginning in 1672, Acadians from Port Royal established farms in the area that came to be known as Minudie. In 1823, Amos Peck Seaman became a tenant on the Minudie estate, which was granted to Joseph Frederic Wallet DesBarres years earlier. From…

Presbyterianism has deep roots in the agricultural communities of the St. Mary’s River valley, settled largely by emigrant Scots in the initial decades of the nineteenth century. The tradition of Presbyterianism in the St. Mary’s region stems from…

William Samuel Wagner was born in Upper LaHave, Nova Scotia, on November 5, 1820. His great grandfather, Phillippus Wager (b. 1707), came over from Germany in 1751 with many other German immigrants to settle in what would be known as Lunenburg. They…

In the early 1800s, many of the remote new settlements along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia were bereft of any religious influence other than the occasional visiting missionary or clergyman. Roads were virtually non-existent, other than paths…

The Black community on Sand Hill was established more than 100 years before Amherst was incorporated in 1889. The sprawling five-kilometer community overlooks beautiful downtown Amherst and encompasses streets such as Albion, Poplar, East Pleasant,…

Before Sherbrooke had a church, the community gathered for worship at the village school. Meetings were also held in private homes.Once the community had the funds to build a church, the land was sold to a trustee by Henry and Sarah Cumminger. The…

Minudie is a fairly isolated area of Nova Scotia between the mouth of River Hebert and the Cumberland Basin. Originally occupied by the Mi’kmaq and later farmed by Acadians before the Deportation, the area became part of a grant made to Joseph…

In 1892, Will and Annie McDiarmid, returned home to Liscomb after several years living in the United States, during which time, they were introduced to Methodism. Until 1892, the Church of England was the only religious influence in the Liscomb…

Captain John Butler Wilson arrived in Sydney in 1785 and became the first captain of the Sydney Garrison. Soon thereafter, Captain Wilson met and married an Irish Catholic named Margaret Caverly. Unlike his wife, Captain Wilson was an Anglican. The…

In an isolated clearing in the forest, accessible only by rough logging roads from the TransCanada Highway or from Judique, is the small, white-painted church of St. Margaret of Scotland. Thirty Gaelic-speaking families from the Scottish Highlands…