1877

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From The Story of Dartmouth, by John P. Martin:

In June of 1877 when a disastrous fire destroyed a great part of St. John, N. B., the Dartmouth Town Council in special session appointed a citizens’ committee to collect food, clothing and funds for the relief of sufferers. Those selected were Peter McNab, J. E. Leadley, W. S. Symonds, George Shiels, Dr. Cogswell, James Reeves, John Forbes, Paul Farrell, J. D. VanBuskirk, T. A. Hyde, G. A. S. Crichton and Frederick Scarfe. The Treasurer was G. A. MacKenzie. They collected nearly $2,600.

At the July examinations of the Dartmouth High School, the following were the prize winners in order of merit:    Henry Creighton, Maggie Christie, Emma Hume, Alma Pheener, George Sterns, Bessie Hume, James Bowers, Clara Levy, Annie Webber, Alice Downey, Sarah Walker, Henry McCulloch. In Mr. Metzler’s department the leaders were Annie Hume, Albert Keeler, Hattie Ross, Annie Daly, William Shute, Walter Elliot, Annie Burnyeat, John Young. In Miss O’Toole’s primary school, the winning prizes were awarded to Minnie Tufts and George Findlay.

At Ebenezer Moseley’s yard that summer the 8-ton sailing ship “Kestrel” was launched. At the Starr Manufacturing plant, a heavy iron bridge was fabricated for the Intercolonial Railway, and placed in position at Elmsdale. (The 1936 edition of “First Things in Acadia” says ‘that this was the first bridge of its type in all Canada.)

A branch of the Halifax Dispensary was opened in Dartmouth that year with the help of a small grant from the Town Council, and with Dr. Thomas Milsom as physician. The firm of Warner and Harrison was given the contract for painting the names of streets on corner lamp-posts. There were only about a dozen of these at that time. Residents near the Lake petitioned to have a footpath constructed, and at least two lamps placed on a portion of the road leading past the Inebriates’ Home entrance.

The present Town Hall was purchased from the surviving trustees of the Mechanics’ Institute in 1877 and the interior fitted up to accommodate a Town Clerk’s office, a Court Room and a Council Chamber. The building was opened with a concert in October.

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