Anti-Confederates

1887

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

Up to 1886 the Dartmouth civic year closed on April 30th. From 1887 onward it was changed to coincide with the calendar year ending on December 31st, and the Town elections were held on the first Tuesday of February instead of the first Tuesday of May as heretofore. In the February election of 1887 the first woman ever to poll a vote in Nova Scotia, voted at the Ward II polling booth in the Town Hall. Unfortunately the name of the lady is not preserved in local records but the candidates for Councillor that day were A. C. Johnston and H. C. Walker.

The usual winter activities of Dartmouth centred around the lakes and the new skating rink. That season the Chebucto Club played a series of hockey matches with the Wanderers A.A.C., whose home rink was the Halifax Exhibition building on the present location of All Saints’ Cathedral. In February a grand carnival was held in the electrically lighted Dartmouth rink where some 200 skaters in unique and comic costumes attracted another 800 spectators. At Montreal, Jack Warner (who lived at the northeast corner of King and Church Streets) made quite an impression upon ice-racing enthusiasts. In a three-mile contest against Hugh McCormack of St. John, and speedy Frank Dowd of Montreal, Warner was in the lead when fouled by one of his opponents. The report of the Montreal Herald classed Jack Warner as “one of the foremost amateur skaters in Canada.”

The members of the Chebuctos, who for the past year had been grubbing out the rocks and scraggy growth of that portion of Dartmouth Common (now the Arrows’ baseball park), formally opened their grounds in June. The newly-levelled field was encircled with a quarter-mile cinder track and the whole area was surrounded with a high board fence. The home-plate for baseball was in the same position as now in use. West of that point about 50 yards, stood a small club-house. The entrance gates fronted Wyse Road almost in a direct line easterly from the present first base position.

The Chebuctos promoted baseball, lacrosse, cricket, quoits, tennis, football and field sports. This Club held the first road race hereabouts on a Wednesday afternoon in October when Louis A. McKenna won a six-mile contest from Dartmouth to Mrs. Walker’s at Salmon River House in Preston (now Merrick’s). H. D. Creighton was second. On the Saturday following, these two athletes entered among a large field of contestants in a 10-mile road race from the Willow Tree in Halifax to Bedford. Again McKenna won, with Creighton second. When they returned home that evening, both boys were welcomed by an enthusiastic and hurrahing crowd who paraded them in a carriage through Dartmouth streets in an impromptu torchlight procession, with speech-making at corners.

Our summer recreations favored the water. Over 1,000 people were ferried to Lawlor’s Island on a perfect August day where St. Peter’s picnic netted $700 in aid of their proposed new church. The Knockabout Club held their second annual regatta at the lake. The Halifax County Exhibition was held at the Rink in October. That autumn the Salvation Army commenced the erection of their Hall on Portland Street. The Starr Manufacturing Company were building cars for the railway near a siding at the Hamilton field. Harry Watt was foreman. John N. McElmon set up a steam-driven lumber mill at the foot of Canal Street. In this year also liquor licences were abolished, and open bars no longer existed.

There were two disastrous foundry fires in 1887. Mumford’s forge works on the present location of Lambert Mason’s plant was burned down causing a loss of $15,000. No insurance. In December a midnight blaze destroyed Symonds’ Foundry, and threw 35 hands out of employment. The loss was,estimated at $40,000.

The first school banks in Canada originated in Dartmouth that autumn largely through the suggestion and efforts of Town Clerk Elliot. From weekly deposits of one cent and upward, over $1,400 was saved by the scholars in the first year of trial. Later on other centres throughout the Dominion adopted this system.

Nathaniel Russell, ex-Magistrate and one of the prominent leaders in the public life of Dartmouth, died in August. Formerly a staunch supporter of Hon. J. W. Johnston, he later became a strong anti-Confederate. Mr. Russell was a pillar of Grace Methodist Church.

See also the Town of Dartmouth’s Annual Report for 1887:

Annual Report 1887

1878

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

The first public demonstration of a telephone in Dartmouth, and also the first local broadcast over wires took place on March 21st, 1878, when a vocal and instrumental concert at the Town Hall was heard and acknowledged through telephone apparatus set up in the Dominion Telegraph Company’s office at 187 Hollis Street in Halifax. The Dartmouth hookup was made by connecting a telephone instrument to the local telegraph wire, an extension of which had been run in to the auditorium of the Town Hall.

This Dartmouth exhibition of the newly-invented telephone, previously advertised as a feature of the concert, was highly successful. Communication was held with the City, and the notes of musical instruments were clearly heard by a group assembled in the Halifax office. They in turn rendered a short program which was listened to by the Town Hall audience. A few names of our own people who took part in the concert and whose voices may have been among those that went out over the wire that evening are preserved in the newspapers. According to the program there were readings by Miss Sarah Findlay, Dutch recitations by Thomas Harrison and a medley of songs by Messrs. Shute and Ruggles. The 63rd Regiment Band furnished music.

The proceeds of the concert were in aid of the Dartmouth Temperance Reform Club, which had just been organized with Dr. W. H. Weeks, John Lawlor and John E. Leadley as the principal officers. They had a membership of nearly 600, and were campaigning for funds to erect a commodious hall for meetings and entertainments.

Dartmouth had two spectacular night-fires that year. The more glaring one occurred at the gristmill in April. The second was at Oland’s Brewery in early August. Both were disastrous. At the unoccupied four-storey gristmill, wind-fanned sheets of flame shot upward to redden the sky so alarmingly that people in west-end Halifax imagined their own downtown business section was ablaze. Elderly Dartmouth men of our time who were youths in 1878, often related how they were impressed into giving the fire-fighters a spell at the hand-pump engines on that fearful night when flying embers threatened rooftops and stifling smoke choked the lungs. The efforts of workers were largely centred on saving the storehouse.

The gristmill fire was among the last jobs of the old style rope-drawn engines, for in July the Town took delivery of a brand new horse-drawn fire engine from the Silsby Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls, N. Y. In honor of the consort of the Governor-General of Canada, the engine was named ‘the “Lady Dufferin.” She was long considered one of the most efficient machines in Eastern Canada.

There were 39 pupils in the High School department that term. At the closing examinations on July 10th, the following were prize winners in order of merit: Annie Hunt, Edward Fairbanks, Louis McKenna, Libbie Creelman, Sarah Creighton (now Mrs. Walter Creighton of 114 Ochterloney St.), Lizzie Adams, Ida Bowes, Georgie Grant, Emma Findlay, Alice Downey.

Another move was made in 1878 towards the installation of a water-system when the Town purchased Lamont’s Lake and its gristmill for $3,719.11. Policeman John “Elbows” McLellan was given a $30 increase in salary. A new steel bell weighing 870 pounds was set up in a tower erected on the fire-engine house. Fire gutted the residence and shop of J. E. Leadley who kept a general store, Post Office and telegraph office at Poplar Hill corner. The property was owned by J. R. Ormon, grocer, who was then doing business at Sterns’ Corner near the ferry. Councillor John P. Mott took J. Walter Allison into his establishment and the firm became known as J. P. Mott and Company. The foundry of Mumford and Sons (near the present Police Station) had the most powerful welding-hammer in the Province and was turning out about 1,000 tons of finished iron-work every year. The 90-ton schooner “Blanche” was launched at Ebenezer Moseley’s shipyard. Dartmouth Ropeworks won a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition. A weekly newspaper called the “Dartmouth Tribune” commenced publication in July.

The summer was generally hot. The steamer “Goliath” ran trips from Halifax to Cow Bay where passengers were landed on the beach in small boats. At Lawlor’s Island in September over 1,000 children and adults attended St. Peter’s Sunday School picnic. At Dartmouth there was still the odd bear lurking as will be learned from a newspaper item of October 1878: Bruin is terrorizing certain Dartmouthians just now. The other night he made an unsuccessful raid on a soap manufactory for tallow. Traps have been set, and armed men with dogs await him at night.

There was a Dominion election in 1878 when the Conservatives came back to power on the platform of the National Policy. This policy was adopted by Sir John A. Macdonald’s party largely as a result of the persistent agitation of George G. Dustan of Woodside, who had been long pleading for a protective tariff on sugar imports so that Sugar Refineries could be established and operated with some degree of security. Dartmouth and Halifax County forgot their old enmity towards the Confederationists and elected two Conservatives.

1872

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

In January 1872 Dartmouth purchased a second-hand Hand Fire Engine in St. John, N. B., which went into service here after considerable repair work was done at Adam McKay’s boiler shop. R. B. Morris of the Virginia Tobacco Company instituted a series of winter lectures at his factory on Church Street for the cultural improvement of employees and their families. Results of trotting races at the Dartmouth Lakes together with names of officials appeared in the “Halifax Citizen” in February. The list includes names of well known horsemen of that time including Thomas Farrell, John R. Glendenning, Garrett Kingston, James Settle, J. E. Leadley, Andrew Corbin, Richard Barry, Thomas Hyde. (These races were not likely the first to be held here, because older residents used to relate tales of trotting contests long before that date.)

The weather grew pretty cold that winter. In March the harbor was so covered with ice that the ferries smashed their way across with difficulty. Mill Cove and Dartmouth side were frozen solidly. Soldiers from Fort Clarence walked back and forth freely over the surface, and skating parties were out in force.

Hornsby’s Brickyard at Eastern Passage advertised that they were prepared to furnish 2,000,000 bricks that season. At Lawlor’s Island, recently purchased from the Lawlor family, a Government quarantine hospital was being constructed. At Dartmouth Frederick Scarfe, late of the brickyards, set up the Chebucto Planing Mill. The Starr Company sent another large shipment of Acme skates by the English steamer. They now had about 150 employees, and had just declared a dividend of 15%, with a bonus of $1,000 to Manager John Forbes.

That spring over 400 residents crowded the Mechanics’ Institute to consider the question of incorporating Dartmouth Town. James W. Johnston, junior, submitted a charter modelled after the City of Halifax. The matter was deferred until July when a vote of ratepayers was taken, with the result that 141 voted in favor of incorporation, and 98 against. The Committee then prepared a Bill for the next session of the Legislature.

There was a Dominion election in 1872. This time the anti-Confederates offered no opposition to Hon. Joseph Howe in Hants County. There seems to be only one record of a political meeting here, and that one was held at Hoyne’s Hotel. The Conservatives won in Halifax County, but Dartmouth went Liberal; in other words they were still strongly “Anti”.

In August a representative meeting of Dartmouthians was held in the Mechanics’ Institute to present a farewell address to Judge James W. Johnston, ex-Premier of the Province, who was taking final leave of Mount Amelia to dwell in the south of France. The address was moved by Andrew Shiels and seconded by Rev. Dr. James Ross, Principal of Dalhousie College.

1868

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

As the people of Nova Scotia had voted so overwhelmingly against Confederation at the polls, one of the first acts of the new House of Assembly in 1868 was to send a delegation to London praying for a repeal of the B.N.A. Act as far as it regarded this Province. Although Joseph Howe was a member of the House of Commons at Ottawa, he was nevertheless among the number selected. Dr. Charles Tupper, also a member of the Federal Parliament, likewise went to England to use his influence in favor of Confederation.

In his reminiscences written in later life, Sir Charles records that when the delegation of that time had failed in its mission, he discussed the situation with Joseph Howe in London, pointing out the great advantages the latter could obtain for his native Province by accepting the inevitable and supporting the Union. As a proof there was no enmity among the opposing factions, Dr. Tupper further relates that on the homeward bound steamer for Halifax in July, he had played the odd rubber of whist with Joseph Howe and with others of the party, including Mrs. Howe who had accompanied her husband from Dartmouth to London.

At Halifax there was only “mild cheering” when the Howe delegation disembarked on a Wednesday morning, and perhaps still less when Dr. Tupper and his supporters landed. Hon. S. L. Tilley, Federal Minister of Customs, who chanced to be in the City, came down the wharf later and took advantage of an opportunity to speak with Joseph Howe and to inquire after the welfare of Mrs. Howe, expressing a wish to call on her before he left Halifax. Thereupon Mr. Tilley was invited to breakfast with the Howe family at “Fairfield” in Dartmouth on Friday morning of that same week.

Mr. Tilley’s observations of public opinion around Halifax and Dartmouth, together with the substance of his Friday interview with Mr. Howe were reported next day to the Prime Minister at Ottawa, in a letter*, part of which stated:

Many of the people are worked up to a perfect frenzy and ready for the most extreme measures. These are backed up and encouraged by the annexation and the Fenian element, and there is a good deal of that scattered throughout Nova Scotia.

By the end of July, Sir John A. Macdonald was in Halifax. He came, with a few members of his Cabinet, ostensibly to hear the grievances of the Province from a Convention of Liberals then being assembled, but perhaps the real reason was to sound out the feelings of Joseph Howe. No doubt Tilley’s report encouraged him to do so.

Evidently the Prime Minister lost no time in sending a communication to Dartmouth. In those pre-telephone times the customary method was by special messenger who, on this occasion, most likely came posthaste across the harbor, and traveled towards “Fairfield” with a message that was historic in its significance:

Government House, Halifax, Saturday, August 1, 1868

My dear Mr. Howe,—I have come to Nova Scotia for the purpose of seeing what can be done in the present state of affairs, and should like of all things to have a quiet talk with you thereafter. I shall be ready to meet you at any time or place you may appoint. The General has kindly given me up his office here and if it would suit your convenience we might perhaps meet here after church tomorrow,

Believe me, Yours faithfully, JOHN A. MACDONALD

The reply is dated the same day, indicating that the messenger waited for Mr. Howe’s answer. The latter agreed to meet Sir John on Sunday at 1.30 p.m. (This was a far different attitude towards Howe than had been shown hitherto by Sir John at Ottawa.}

Political issues were not discussed during the meal that morning. This is learned from Mr. Tilley’s letter to the Prime Minister preserved among Confederation papers of Macdonald-Tilley at the Dominion Archives wherein he states that, “After Mrs. Howe and her sons had left the room we approached the main question.” The day was Friday, July 16th 1868, and the letter was dated at Windsor, N.S., July 17th. The visit of a Conservative Cabinet Minister to Fairfield is further proof that the place was associated with the formative period of the history of the Dominion of Canada. Students nowadays examining Howe’s letters at Ottawa, or in newspapers at the N.S. Archives, or in the volumes of “Letters and Speeches of Joseph Howe’’, must be puzzled as to the location of “Fairfield”, and probably imagine that it is the name of a town. There is no hint given the reader that it was Howe’s estate in a rural part of Dartmouth.

“In his Dartmouth booklet published in 1941, John W. Regan’s sketch of Fairfield noted that between there and Government House in 1868, “weighty proposals were carried back and forth on the Ferry— a Ferry Tale of vast importance”.

The year 1868 also saw the beginnings of another Dartmouth undertaking when William J. Stairs commenced the Ropeworks on former Albro land where he erected a brick factory, tarring house and a ‘long walk”—then the longest structure in the Province. This industry set development going in the north-end, and contributed to the prosperity of the town by continually increasing the amount of assessable property in their own buildings and in the dwellings of employees. New streets were laid out.

The Dartmouth Woolen Factory, situated west of the “Channel” at Lake Banook was also in operation by 1868 because their name is listed, among prize winners, for several varieties of tweed at an Exhibition in Halifax that autumn. Other local firms having displays included Albro’s Nail Factory, Eben Moseley, ships’ models, Nathaniel Russell, tinsmith, John P. Mott’s products and Starr Manufacturing Company’s artistic array of John Forbes’ new skates. Exhibits of birch bark canoes, paddles, beads, moccasins and chair bottoms won prizes for Mary Thomas, Peter Sack, James Paul and Peter Cope from the Mi’kmaq camps at Dartmouth.

The last named firm was incorporated in 1868 with a capital of $60,000. Shares were $1,000. John Starr was the first President.

On a December night in 1868 fire destroyed a vacant house at “Abbeville” belonging to Mrs. John H. Slayter. This house (was located on what would now be) part of Slayter Street.

Speech in favor of repeal, January 13th, 1868

1867

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

In the winter of 1867, Halifax newspapers carried unusually long accounts of seasonal activities on our lakes, such as games of curling, hockey and ice-boating. Up to about the mid-century there was only occasional reference to such recreations, perhaps because of the few persons participating. Now with a skate factory located in our midst, hundreds of others must have joined in the fashion. Increasing crowds came over from Halifax especially on holidays and Sundays. The bright uniforms of naval and military officers gliding over the glassy surfaces with their lady partners amid the throngs on our various lakes, created quite a colorful scene.

The “Halifax Reporter” of that time observed that it was curious the way that skating enthusiasts of Halifax changed their locations in different seasons. One year Maynard’s Lake in Dartmouth has the best ice; the next year the North West Arm will be the ‘favorite; and another year First and Second Dartmouth Lake will bear the palm, said a writer of that day.

The following account from the same newspaper of Feb. 17th. 1867, clearly proves that hockey was a long-established sport hereabouts:

On Saturday there were about 1,500 people at Oathill Lake. Two well contested games of ricket were being played at the upper end of the lake where a number of young men from Dartmouth and the City were playing their hurleys and “following up” the ball. The centre of the lake was occupied by a number of officers of the Garrison and the Fleet in a match game called hockey, i.e., ricket.

Very little science was displayed in either game, the old class of players seems to have died out, and their successors are not up to the science of leading off the ball, doubling and carrying it through. Instead of the old style, the game as now played is dangerous to outsiders especially the ladies, some of whom were rather roughly treated in the scrimmages after the ball.

On July 1st, 1867, the Dominion of Canada came into existence. One of the last shots fired by the opposing forces was the brilliant speech of Joseph Howe delivered in McDonald’s Hall at Dartmouth. A verbatim report may be found in Volume II of Howe’s Letters and Speeches edited by Sir Joseph Chisholm.

Nova Scotians expressed their anti-Union feelings in the first Dominion elections that September, by sending to Ottawa 18 Liberals and One Conservative. (The latter was Dr. Charles Tupper.) Polling booths in Dartmouth were at Huxtable’s shop near the Engine House, and at Alex. Hubley’s at Black Point, (probably Black Rock). Dartmouth Township gave a majority for the anti-Unionists, while Chezzetcook and Preston voted for the Unionist candidate. Joseph Howe ran for Hants, and was elected. On his return to the City, he was met at the ferry in Dartmouth and escorted in a torchlight procession to “Fairfield”, while bonfires blazed on the hills, and an 18-gun salute was fired.*

One of the worst conflagrations in Dartmouth occurred in mid-November on a rainy and windy Sunday, about two o’clock in the morning. Seven buildings fronting on Portland Street and on King Street at the southwest corner, were completely gutted. The magnificent but terrible illumination could be seen from Halifax and the surrounding country. A fire engine came over from the City.

At the Paris Exhibition in 1867, a model of a quartz-crusher from Symonds Foundry at Dartmouth, received honorable mention. S. Oland and Son bought the Albro Tannery land at Turtle Grove, and commenced their well-known brewery business. The Dartmouth Axe and Ladder Company was organized, with Henry Watt as Captain. St. James’ congregation purchased from Dominick Farrell for $1,600, land at the southeast corner of King and Quarrell Streets as a site for their new church. An 11-year-old boy named Bishop was killed while riding on a car of the inclined plane at the Canal. Contractor Jonathan Elliot died that year aged 70; also Peter Laidlaw 48, and James P. Dunn 42, (the last body in Dunn’s vault).

S. Oland Sons & Co. Brewery

1866

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

The year 1866 opened with a sharp spell of weather. On January 8th the thermometer at Citadel Hill registered 20 below zero. On February 2nd, Henry Y. Mott, former political partner of Joseph Howe, died in his 69th year at his residence near the brickyard. William Condran, born in 1859, well remembered the funeral procession passing his home, and often told me that it was the longest ever seen in Dartmouth up to that time.

The Starr Manufacturing Co. were now exporting their newly invented Acme spring skates and outselling American and European competitors in this field. This information was gathered from a report in the Halifax Morning Chronicle of 1866, which stated:

A few days since Messrs. Starr shipped 40 packages of skates to Montreal, which were manufactured at Dartmouth. They have upwards of 20 men employed and turn out weekly large numbers of skates and hundreds of kegs of nails. The firm can manufacture skates cheaper than the article can be imported from England. Much of the apparatus used in the manufacture of the skates was invented by Mr. Forbes who is foreman of the works.

The simplicity of the spring skates must have made it possible for local ladies to take up the pastime of skating which they evidently had not practised very extensively up to that time.

The Condran house was built about 1859 by John Condran, and was the first dwelling erected in North Woodside. It stood on the spot of the now Marvin house opposite North Woodside School. For some years it was the only human habitation between “Sunnyside” and McMinn’s. Both sides of what is now the busy thoroughfare of Pleasant Street were then bordered by thick forests teeming with rabbits, partridge and other wild life. Soldiers regularly travelled the lonely road back and forth to Fort Clarence, but traffic to the Passage was mostly by water except for an occasional ox cart load of hay, bound for Halifax market. The old Condran house was burned down in 1940. William Condran died In 1947, having lived In the neighborhood for 88 years. James Condran, another son of John, lived there over 92 years. He died In 1954.

Severe weather came early in February to freeze the harbor for five days, and thus tie up the ferries. The story continued:

Yesterday the tug “Neptune” cut a channel and ferried people over at 3 cents a head. The enterprise was well rewarded. The last time the harbor was frozen over, was some six years ago. Then there was not a young lady to be seen skating on the surface, as this amusement had not yet become fashionable among the fair sex. Yesterday afternoon, however, there were perhaps as many as a hundred lady skaters on the harbor, and the gay dresses rendered the scene quite a colorful one.

From Halifax on Friday night, parties could be seen walking across the ice to Dartmouth holding torchlights which reflected the light a great distance. Landing on the Dartmouth side, they appeared as if coming up out of the sea.

The first public school building in Dartmouth, for which money had been voted in 1864, was ready for occupancy in the early part of 1866. This was Central School, on the site of the Quaker Meeting House at the northeast corner of King and Quarrell Streets. At the time it was considered one of the finest of its kind in the Province. John Hollies was Principal and he had three female assistants. Four large well-lighted rooms provided accommodation for about 270 pupils, but these classes soon became so overcrowded that in November the Town trustees were obliged to apply for a lease of the room in the Mechanics’ Institute which had been used in the past for school purposes. The November minutes of the Institute noted that the trustees were already paying rent for three rooms in other buildings. This information enables us to form an estimate of the total Dartmouth school attendance in 1866. Allowing 60 pupils to a teacher, the figures would be approximately 450.

In 1866, there came to live at “The Grove” in Dartmouth, Commodore Josiah Tattnall who had been head of the Confederate Navy in the American Civil War. This is the man who originated the saying, “Blood is thicker than water”, uttered in 1859 when he sent American sailors to aid the British then being slaughtered in Chinese waters.

Feeling throughout Nova Scotia was so strong against Confederation of Canada in 1866 that an anti-Confederate League was formed. Dartmouth had many members. In order to protest the passing of the B.N.A. Act, this group sent a strong delegation to London that autumn. Among the number was Hon. Joseph Howe of “Fairfield”.

1865

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

By mid-January of 1865 the new ferry “Chebucto” was ready for launching. Customary preparations were made and the town school children invited to be present at the ceremony. But they all arrived too late. Ex-Ferry Superintendent Charles Pearce once told me the story. The latter’s grandfather, Abraham Pearce, and his assistants, were working below decks preparatory to the launching, and their hammering against the joists and sides caused such a jarring that the boat started to slide and could not be stopped. She actually launched herself. Mr. Pearce further stated that all the one-laned boats had side-beamed engines, and that the one from the “Boxer” was transferred to the “Chebucto”.

The “Boxer” evidently did not give satisfaction as a ferry for she was taken off the service and later converted into a tugboat. At this time a stagecoach came over from Halifax and travelled to Tangier thrice a week, and to Sheet Harbor once a week. Adam McKay moved his boiler works from Freshwater at Halifax to the Dartmouth location. Stoves made at the foundry of W. S. Symonds were on display at the Dublin Exhibition. Dartmouth built a new lockup that year, and obtained authority to appropriate all police fines to pay for its construction. The Magistrates were Nathaniel Russell, Patrick Fuller and George Shiels. Town Constable was Richard Bishop. Town Clerk was Donald McLean. The office of the Clerk was in his home on Portland Street near Prince. It was probably a part time position.

Early in 1865 Joseph Howe contributed a series of newspaper articles against Confederation which he entitled “The Botheration Scheme”. At Detroit in July he won a great triumph by his masterly oration in favor of continuing Reciprocity with the United States. No doubt the material for both these topics was prepared and written out in the quietude of his home at “Fairfield”.

In September, Richard Hartshorne died at Halifax, and was buried from his father’s residence at “Poplar Hill”. A fortnight later, the venerable old gentleman himself passed away in his 80th year. He had been County Treasurer since 1838 and also became the first City Treasurer when Halifax was incorporated in 1841. Mr. Hartshorne died in office. He was held in such high esteem for his integrity and devotion to duty that the City Council arranged for a tablet to be purchased and placed inside Christ Church whereon was inscrolled a worthy tribute to Lawrence Hartshorne from grateful Halifax. (This mural remained there until destroyed by the Great Explosion of 1917. For the inscription on the plaque, consult Canon Vernon’s Centennial History of Christ Church.)

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