Summerville is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in The Municipality of the District of West Hants in Hants County. As of 2015, the population of Summerville was estimated to be 248.
The identities of the Acadians who settled this community prior to the Expulsion of the Acadians are unknown.
After the American Revolution, Summerville, Hants County was first settled by American Loyalists Captain John Robert Grant.
A large wharf was built at Summerville in the late 19th century to export gypsum. It was also used to repair ships and later became a vessel graveyard for old sailing ships converted to gypsum barges. Trace of the hulls of several of these large sailing vessels may still be seen at low tide, including the hull of the Barque Hamburg, the largest barque ever built in Canada. [1]
Climate data for Summerville | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 18 (64) | 15 (59) | 21 (70) | 24 (75) | 31.1 (88.0) | 32 (90) | 34 (93) | 36 (97) | 30.6 (87.1) | 26 (79) | 22 (72) | 17 (63) | 36 (97) |
Average high °C (°F) | −1 (30) | −0.6 (30.9) | 3.2 (37.8) | 9 (48) | 15.8 (60.4) | 21 (70) | 24.2 (75.6) | 23.7 (74.7) | 19.3 (66.7) | 13.3 (55.9) | 7.3 (45.1) | 2 (36) | 11.4 (52.5) |
Average low °C (°F) | −9.4 (15.1) | −9.1 (15.6) | −5.3 (22.5) | 0.1 (32.2) | 5 (41) | 9.6 (49.3) | 13.2 (55.8) | 13 (55) | 9.1 (48.4) | 4.5 (40.1) | 0.2 (32.4) | −5.7 (21.7) | 2.1 (35.8) |
Record low °C (°F) | −24 (−11) | −32 (−26) | −24 (−11) | −12 (10) | −5 (23) | −1.7 (28.9) | 3.3 (37.9) | 1.1 (34.0) | −2.2 (28.0) | −6.7 (19.9) | −13 (9) | −22 (−8) | −32 (−26) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 99.9 (3.93) | 84 (3.3) | 97.3 (3.83) | 80.4 (3.17) | 87.9 (3.46) | 69.3 (2.73) | 73.7 (2.90) | 72.1 (2.84) | 93 (3.7) | 94.4 (3.72) | 99.9 (3.93) | 102.1 (4.02) | 1,054 (41.5) |
Source: Environment Canada [2] |
A small restaurant and inn is operated in Summerville, originally called "The Avon Emporium" and "Shipright Inn", respectively. In February 2014 "the emporium" as many locals called it was bought by the owners of "The Flying Apron", relocating from Tantallon, NS.
Since 2007, Summerville has been the home of the Summerville Daryns who practice and play in the area.
The Acadians are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the descendants of a few Acadians who escaped the Expulsion of the Acadians re-settled. Most Acadians in Canada continue to live in majority French-speaking communities, notably those in New Brunswick where Acadians and Francophones are granted autonomy in areas such as education and health.
Hants County is an historical county and census division of Nova Scotia, Canada. Local government is provided by the West Hants Regional Municipality, and the Municipality of the District of East Hants.
Windsor is a community located in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is a service centre for the western part of the county and is situated on Highway 101.
The Minas Basin is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy and a sub-basin of the Fundy Basin located in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is known for its extremely high tides.
Annapolis Royal, formerly known as Port Royal, is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Great Village is a rural community of approximately 500 people located along Trunk 2 and the north shore of Cobequid Bay in Colchester County, Nova Scotia. It is considered locally to incorporate the areas of Highland Village to the west and Scrabble Hill to the north northwest.
Hantsport is an unincorporated area in the West Hants Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is at the western boundary between West Hants Regional Municipality and Kings County, along the west bank of the Avon River's tidal estuary. The community is best known for its former industries, including shipbuilding, a pulp mill, as well a marine terminal that once loaded gypsum, mined near Windsor. The community is the resting place of Victoria Cross recipient William Hall.
Ezra Churchill : Nineteenth-century industrialist, investing in shipbuilding, land, timber for domestic and foreign markets, gypsum quarries, insurance companies, hotels, etc. As a politician he held positions in the Nova Scotia legislature and was appointed a Canadian Senator for the Province of Nova Scotia. Churchill was also a Baptist lay preacher.
The history of New Brunswick covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day New Brunswick were inhabited for millennia by the several First Nations groups, most notably the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, and the Passamaquoddy.
Walton is a village in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants, Nova Scotia. The community is named after John Nutting's son James Walton Nutting.
Kings County was a four-masted barque built in 1890 at Kingsport, Nova Scotia on the Minas Basin. She was named to commemorate Kings County, Nova Scotia and represented the peak of the county's shipbuilding era. Kings County was one of the largest wooden sailing vessels ever built in Canada and one of only two Canadian four-masted barques. At first registered as a four-masted full-rigged ship, she was quickly changed to a barque after her June 2 launch. More than three thousand people from Kings and Hants counties attended the launch. She survived a collision with an iceberg on an 1893 voyage to Swansea, Wales. Like many of the large wooden merchant ships built in Atlantic Canada, she spent most of her career far from home on trading voyages around the world. In 1909, she returned to the Minas Basin for a refit at Hantsport and loaded a large cargo of lumber. In 1911 she became the largest wooden ship to enter Havana Harbour when she delivered a cargo of lumber and was briefly stranded. She was lost a few months later on a voyage to Montevideo, Uruguay when she ran aground in the River Plate. Too damaged to repair, she was scrapped in Montevideo where her massive timbers were visible for many years.
Hamburg was a three masted barque built in 1886 at Hantsport, Nova Scotia. She was the largest three masted barque ever built in Canada.
Maitland, East Hants, Nova Scotia is a village in East Hants, Nova Scotia. It is home to the historic Lawrence House Museum, which is part of the Nova Scotia Museum. The community was part of the Douglas Township until it was named Maitland after Governor General of Nova Scotia Peregrine Maitland (1828–34) when building the Shubenacadie Canal was first attempted (1826–1831). The Canal was supposed to start at Maitland, Nova Scotia and run through the province to Maitland Street, Dartmouth, the canal being "bookended" by two "Maitland" landmarks.
Noel is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipal District of East Hants, which is in Hants County, Nova Scotia. The community is most well known for being named after its most prominent resident Noël Doiron and for ship building in the nineteenth century. Noel Doiron is the namesake of the village as well as the surrounding communities of Noel Shore, Nova Scotia, East Noel, Noel Road, Nova Scotia, North Noel Road, Nova Scotia. The earliest recorded reference to the community of "Noel" was by surveyor Charles Morris in 1752. Prior to that date, the area is referred to as "Trejeptick", which first appears in the Colonial Office minutes of Annapolis Royal in 1734. Noel was also the home of the Osmond O'Brien Shipyard.
Scotch Village is an unincorporated community on the Kennetcook River in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in the Municipality of West Hants. This area was part of Newport Township at the time of settlement primarily by Rhode Island Planters in the early 1760s. It was referred to as “Scotchman’s Dyke” or “Scotch Village”, due to settlement of early families of Scottish descent. Prior to the arrival of the Planters, Scotch Village had been the home of Mi'kmaq and Acadians.
Selma is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in The Municipality of the District of East Hants in Hants County.
Canada was a full-rigged ship built in 1891 at Kingsport, Nova Scotia on the Minas Basin and was the largest sailing ship operated in Canada when launched in 1891. Canada was built and owned by Charles Rufus Burgess of nearby Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Despite the decline in wooden shipbuilding, Burgess saw that there was still potential for very large wooden sailing ships to make profits in the twilight days of the wooden sailing ship era. He had built the barque Kings County, the previous year, the largest four-masted barque ever built in Canada. Burgess planned to make Canada to be the largest sailing ship ever built in Canada, but damage, during harvesting, to a timber intended for the keel caused her length to be trimmed by ten feet making Canada slightly smaller than the ship William D. Lawrence built in 1874. However, as the William D. Lawrence had been sold to Norwegian owners and renamed in 1883, the ship Canada still claimed the honour of being the largest sailing ship under the Canadian flag at the time of her launch. Between 75 and 150 men were employed in building the ship. Canada was designed by master builder Ebenezer Cox who was in charge of the Burgess Shipyard in Kingsport where he had built ships since the 1860s and was regarded at the time to have built more ships than any man in Canada. The construction cost $111,000. Her interior included a finely outfitted captain's cabin, finished in walnut, ash and rosewood with a full dining room, office and bathroom. Her launch at noon on July 6, 1891 attracted 5,000 people from all across Western Nova Scotia, brought by multiple special trains run by the Cornwallis Valley Railway. It was regarded as the biggest event in the history of the village. A tug took the completed hull of Canada from the launch at Kingsport to Saint John, New Brunswick where the masting, rigging and outfitting was completed at the Customs House Wharf. Her immense size attracted hundreds to the Saint John waterfront to see Canada depart on September 1, 1891 for her maiden voyage, carrying with a cargo of lumber worth $144,109 bound for Liverpool, England. Classed A1 by Lloyd's Register for 14 years, Canada made several fast passages between South America and Australia. However by 1900, the ship was facing stif competition for cargoes from the growing numbers of general cargo steamships. Canada was converted to a gypsum barge in 1910, carrying gypsum from Windsor, Nova Scotia to Staten Island, New York for the Gypsum Transportation Company of New York. She was towed a final time from New York to Portland, Maine in 1926 where she was broken up.
Founded in 1836, Frieze and Roy was a shipping, shipbuilding and trading firm located in Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The firm was integral to the success of Maitland as a hub of shipbuilding in mid-to-late 19th century Nova Scotia. Its founder, David Frieze is regarded as one of the founding fathers of the community. The firm helped expand and develop local infrastructure, laying the groundwork for Maitland's most famous shipbuilder, William Dawson Lawrence.
Captain John Robert Grant fought in the American Revolution and then became an American Loyalist and the first British settler of Summerville, Nova Scotia.
A township in Nova Scotia, Canada, was an early form of land division and local administration during British colonial settlement in the 18th century. They were created as a means of populating the colony with people loyal to British rule. They were typically rural or wilderness areas of around 100,000 acres (400 km2) that would eventually include several villages or towns. Some townships, but not all, returned a member to the General Assembly of Nova Scotia; others were represented by the members from the county. Townships became obsolete by 1879 by which time towns and counties had become incorporated.
Endnotes
Sources
Coordinates: 45°5′47.58″N64°9′50.16″W / 45.0965500°N 64.1639333°W