Mary Lavers Gets a Letter from Home

Nova Scotia # 9 (the 2c county rate) on 22 October 1864 cover from Newport to Windsor, Nova Scotia. Addressed to Miss Mary Lavers, Windsor, N S. Manuscript notation on front "To the care of William M. Stevens". Backstamps Newport OC 22 1864, Windsor, OC 24 64.

Seventeen-year-old Mary Lavers was likely working as a domestic servant for the William Stevens family in Windsor, Nova Scotia when she received this letter. The letter, with its whimsically decorated front, appears to be from a close friend or family member.

On November 22nd, 1866, at the Baptist Church in Rawdon, Mary Lavers, age 19, daughter of Alexander and Matilda Lavers, shoemaker, married James Henry Murdock, carpenter, age 24, son of Henry and Mary Murdock, carpenter of Douglas, N.S.

Rawdon, Hants County

In the 1871 census of Noel, Hants Co. we find, James Murdock, 29, carpenter, Disciples of Christ, with his wife Mary, 23, and children, Estella M., 3, and Emily T., 1, living with Henry Murdock, 61, widowed carpenter.

Noel Bay had many shipyards in the 1860s and 70s. The most prominent was the Osmond O'Brien Shipyard. This shipyard produced twenty vessels, the largest being the Amanda, which was sailed out of the bay by Captain William Scott of Minasville, Nova Scotia. The Barque Noel was built in the Osmond O'Brien Shipyard and was named after the community.

In the 1881 census for Gore, Hants County is James Murdock, age 38, carpenter, Disciples of Christ, living with his wife, Mary, ages 33, and their children, Estella, 13, Emily, 11, Selina, 9, Franklin, 7, Myron, 4, Everet, 2, Mary, 5 months.

Gore is a farming community near the Rawdon Hills. It was once home to the East Hants Courthouse which conducted business of the East Hants Municipality and its council. The courthouse stood on the community's Courthouse Hill for 90 years until a fire destroyed it in 1956. In West Gore and Upper Rawdon the Disciples of Christ had flourishing Churches, they mostly stemmed from a breakaway from the Baptist church at Rawdon under a layman named John McDonald. In McDonald's words,

      "The Reformation was started between 1832 and 1835, by John McDonald, whilst he was a member of the Baptist church, An earnest student of the New Testament he became dissatisfied . . . and severed his connection . . . and with twenty-five or twenty-six of its members (including the pastor John Doyle) formed a separate body, taking the Bible only for their rule of faith and practice. About this time one of our evangelists, elder Benjamin Howard, came to the province (from the U.S.A.), and two of the prominent sisters who had left the Baptists with elder McDonald, hearing of him and his doctrine, sent him an invitation to come to Rawdon and hold a meeting. This invitation he accepted and held a meeting during the winter of 1837, in the course of which twenty members were added. These forty-six members continued to meet from house to house in West Gore, Rawdon and Newport, some of them walking from three to nine miles to meet on Sunday mornings, often through paths through the forest, as roads had not been opened up in many parts of the country. About this time elder John McDonald preached his first sermon as a regular minister of the church and was succeeded shortly after by elder Michael Wallace. A church building was erected in W. Gore in 1856."

In the 1891 census for Gore, James Murdock, 48, farmer and house joiner, Disciples of Christ, with Mary, 43, and Selina, 19, Franklin, 17, carpenter, Myron, 14, Everett, 12, and Mary, 10.

By 1901, Mary's husband, James, has died, we find her widowed, age 53, living with her son, Franklin, age 27, single farmer in Gore.

In 1864, William Stevens was an engineer for the Nova Scotia Railway. married with three small children at home. In the 1871 census, the household had an 18-year-old servant, Fanny Lake, living with them.

The Nova Scotia Railway

The Nova Scotia Railway was composed of two lines, one connecting Richmond (immediately north of Halifax) with Windsor, the other connecting Richmond with Pictou Landing via Truro.

Engine # 6 at Pictou

"A meeting of the inhabitants of Kings County was held in the Court House at Kentville on Wednesday, 24th July, 1850 ... for the purpose of ascertaining the views of the inhabitants of said county in reference to a railroad from Halifax to Digby ... It is the opinion of this meeting that the inhabitants of this County will cheerfully furnish the land that is necessary for a Railroad passing through it; also aid with their money, labour and materials to the utmost of their ability, in shares amounting to £25,000..."Quoted from a report delivered at the Railroad Convention in Portland, Maine, on 31 July 1850, by the two delegates sent to represent Kings County, John Hall, MPP, and Samuel Chipman.  This Convention was attended by representatives of several States, and the Provinces of Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

The railway was incorporated March 31, 1853, and received a charter to build railway lines from Halifax to Pictou by way of Truro, as well as from Halifax to Victoria Beach, Nova Scotia on the Annapolis Basin opposite Digby by way of Windsor. The company also received a charter to build from Truro to the border with New Brunswick. The railway was a key project of the visionary Nova Scotian leader Joseph Howe who felt a government-built railway led by Nova Scotia was necessary after the failure of the Intercolonial Railway talks and several fruitless private proposals.

The railway line to Windsor (known as the Windsor Branch) was opened in June 1858 and the line to Truro (known as the Eastern Line) was opened in December 1858.

December 30th, 1857, First Train to Windsor

"The contractor building the railway from Windsor Junction to Windsor (the track known ever since as the "Windsor Branch") ran a locomotive and one flat car from Halifax all the way to Windsor on this day.  The track was not yet adequately ballasted and levelled, but the rails were continuous along the entire distance, and, with care, the little train reached its destination, thus demonstrating that the work had reached an advanced stage, and the line was close to being finished and ready for regular traffic."

June 3rd, 1858, Official Opening of the Railway to Windsor

"On this day, Thursday, a train departed Richmond (Halifax) at 7:30 am, crowded with passengers.  This was the first train for public use, on the new Nova Scotia Railway line between Halifax and Windsor.  The train arrived on schedule at Windsor at 11:00 am, where almost the entire population was gathered at the station to see this important event.  The train departed Windsor on the return trip at 3:00 pm, and arrived at Richmond at 6:00.  To celebrate the opening of the Windsor Branch, the following Tuesday, June 8th, was declared a public holiday in Halifax by the Lieutenant Governor, His Excellency Sir Gaspard le Marchant, the Earl of Mulgrave; all shops and offices were closed to enable the population to celebrate.  As Marguerite Woodworth described it, "At 5:30 am the people were aroused by a 'merry peal from all chirch bells'; at 6:30 am any laggards were reminded of the occasion by a royal salute of 109 guns by the Royal Artillery from the Grand Parade; at 10:00 am there was a 'Grand review of the Troops, ending with a Sham Fight' on the Common; a yacht race took place at 1:00 pm, and the ceremonies ended with a grand ball at Government House." During the remainder of 1858, the trains between Halifax and Windsor carried 11,324 first class and 6,927 second class passengers; passenger revenue was £7,584 17s 1p.  The second class fare was two cents per mile.  Income from freight (which included 189,465 board feet of lumber) totalled £2,550 5s 11p, and horse and wagon traffic provided revenue of £1,466 5s 4p." Excerpted from History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, by Marguerite Woodworth, 1936.

Passenger Train Station, Windsor, Nova Scotia

April 2nd, 1860 Two Round Trips Each Day

On and after April 2nd, 1860, passengers could travel between Windsor and Halifax, on the Nova Scotia Railway, twice a day.  The morning westbound train departed Richmond (north Halifax) at 8:00 am and arrived in Windsor at 11:00 am; the morning eastbound train departed Windsor at 8:20 am and arrived in Richmond at 11:15 am.  These two trains crossed (passed each other) at Mount Uniacke; this was (and is) a single-track line, and trains going in opposite directions could (and can) pass each other only where a siding is available.  The afternoon westbound train departed Richmond (Halifax) at 2:30 pm and arrived in Windsor at 5:30 pm; the afternoon eastbound train departed Windsor at 3:00 pm and arrived in Richmond at 6:00 pm; these two trains also crossed (passed each other) at Mount Uniacke.  The end-to-end fare, one way, was $1.35 first class, and 87½ cents second class.  A resident of Windsor could now go to Halifax in the morning, have a clear three hours in the city to conduct business or filfill appointments, and return to Windsor the same day.  A resident of Halifax could travel to Windsor in the morning, have nearly four hours to conduct business there, and return to the city the same day.

August 2nd, 1860, Special Royal Train on the Nova Scotia Railway

The Prince of Wales travelled to Windsor on a special train from Halifax.  Windsor was, at that time, the end of the railway track westward from Halifax, there being no bridge across the Avon River that could sustain the weight of a locomotive.  Prince Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria and later King Edward VII, was travelling to Windsor to make a speech at Kings College.  The royal party left Government House on Hollis Street, and rode in carriages to Richmond (north Halifax), where at 7:00 am the special train departed for Windsor.  At Windsor they were met by a guard of honour made up of two Halifax regiments who had been brought to Windsor in a train that departed the city at 3:00 am, four hours ahead of the royal train.  During the period of the royal visit, there were no second class passengers on the Nova Scotia Railway – everyone was carried first class at half fare.

1862, Tour Tickets Available

"Beginning in 1862, travellers could buy a long ticket strip allowing them to go from Halifax to Windsor on the Nova Scotia Railway, from Windsor by steam boat to Saint John, then on the European and North American Railway from Saint John through Norton, Sussex, Petitcodiac, Moncton, and Shediac to Point de Chene, thence to Charlottetown by boat, on another boat to Pictou, from Pictou to Truro on Hiram Hyde's Royal Mail Stage Line, and back to Halifax on the Nova Scotia Railway."  In her History of the Dominion Atlantic Railway, Marguerite Woodworth reports that sixty-six of these tickets were sold in 1862.

January 1st, 1867, Construction Begins, Westward from Hantsport

"On this day the official sod-turning, marking the beginning of construction of the Windsor & Annapolis Railway westward from Hantsport, was performed.  At this time there was no bridge across the Avon River at Windsor, that could carry a railway train.  This meant that, even when the railway began running trains westward from Hantsport, there would be a gap in the railway between Windsor and Hantsport.  Travellers would have to proceed by stagecoach across this gap. Everything about the W&AR was unconventional. Construction started in defiance of the Provincial Engineer and the Nova Scotia statute four months before the company was even incorporated.  It had two 'first sod' turnings; one at Hantsport on January 1, 1867, and another at Annapolis Royal on July 20 of that same year to mollify Commissioner Avard Longley of the Nova Scotia Railway, whose wife performed the ceremony." 99 Years of Dominion Atlantic, by J.B. King, in the December 1968 issue of The Maritime Express, a newsletter published by The Scotian Railroad Society

On November 2nd, 1867, the first pile was driven, for the foundation of the first railway bridge over the Avon River at Windsor.

1868 July 31First Locomotives Arrive for W&A Railway

The first two locomotives on the Windsor & Annapolis Railway were Joseph Howe and Sir Gaspard le Marchant, which were bought second hand from the Nova Scotia government for $7,000.  They were delivered to the W&AR by ship.  Joseph Howe was landed at Bridgetown on 31 July 1868, and Sir Gaspard le Marchant at Elderkin Creek, one mile east of Kentville, on 8 August 1868.  A little later another second hand locomotive, St. Lawrence, was brought to Bridgetown on the sailing vessel Prince of Wales.  These three engines were put to work on the construction of the railway between Grand Pre and Annapolis.

January 1st, 1872 First Through Train, Annapolis - Halifax

The first Windsor & Annapolis Railway passenger train ran through from Annapolis to Halifax, using newly granted "running rights" over the track, owned by others, between Windsor and Halifax.  Until this day, no passenger train ran past Windsor – all trains in both directions stopped there and passengers had to get off one train and board another to continue their journey.  The W&AR operated trains between Windsor and Annapolis, and the Nova Scotia Railway operated trains between Windsor and Halifax. The Windsor station had three tracks: one for use by the NSR, one for use by the W&AR, and the one in the middle for either to use as needed.

No further work was undertaken on the line to Victoria Beach beyond Windsor but the Eastern Line to Pictou Landing was completed by June 1867, under the supervision of Sir Sandford Fleming. The construction of the Nova Scotia Railway by the colonial government was partly encouraged by the construction failures and ongoing delays in building the Shubenacadie Canal The success of the railway came at the expense of the canal which opened in 1861, but soon fell into disrepair from lack of use (and because the rail bridges over the canal were too low for the steamers on the canal).

One noteworthy early feature of operations on the Nova Scotia Railway was the first known case of intermodal operations involving the "piggyback" transport of road vehicles on railway cars. Farmers in the Windsor area were able to drive their teams of horses and loaded wagons onto railway cars and be transported into Halifax to sell their loads, returning to Windsor the same day.

"Man, horse, and wagon, (not to exceed 600 pounds) would be carried from Mt. Uniacke to Halifax for fifty cents" on railway flat cars.  "As many as fourteen cars of wagons have been conveyed at one time to Halifax." This service was used mostly to carry farm produce from the Annapolis Valley to Halifax.  At this time the railway ended at Mount Uniacke. History of Railroading in the Annapolis Valley by Conductor W.W. Clark, excerpts published in the special Railway Edition of The Sunday Leader, Halifax, 4 November 1923.

On July 1, 1867, ownership of the NSR was passed from the Government of Nova Scotia to the Government of Canada.