Allan Everett Marble, retired professor, author and researcher, was born in Truro, Nova Scotia in 1939 and educated at Colchester County Academy, Dartmouth High School and Dalhousie University, graduating with a doctorate degree in the early 1960s. From 1963 to 1966 he was a Lieutenant in the Royal Canadian Army. Starting in 1967, he taught at universities in Nova Scotia for over 40 years in the fields of physics, mathematics, surgery, and biomedical engineering, retired in 2010. In addition to teaching, Dr. Marble was actively involved in medical research with a focus on the cardiovascular system. His other research interests included the history of Nova Scotia and genealogy. He has written several books on the history of medicine in Nova Scotia, as well as biographies of early medical practitioners for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Dr. Marble is a certified genealogist for Canada, was President of the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia in the 1990s and again 2010-2015, and a founding member of the Genealogical Institute of the Maritimes in 1982. He also served on the executives of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society 1978-1982 and the Dalhousie Society for the History of Medicine 1986-1993, and in 2016-2017 was chair of the Medical History Society of Nova Scotia.
This organization was originally established in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1881 to assist independent businessmen with accommodations, insurance, and death related benefits as an aid with their business activities. The first president was A.K. Mackinlay and the first secretary was James Fraser. The geographic scope of the organization rapidly changed to include all three Maritime Provinces. In more recent years the Association has offered group registered retirement savings plans and other group benefits. In 1993 members of the Maritime Commercial Travellers Association joined the NWC Travellers Association to provide greater access to benefit services and create a larger national negotiating body.
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic was established in 1948 and is the oldest and largest Maritime Museum in Canada. The idea of this maritime museum can be credited to a group of Royal Canadian Navy officers who envisaged a maritime museum where relics of Canada's naval past could be preserved. Starting with a small space at HMC Dockyard, the museum moved to quarters in the Halifax Citadel in 1952 and became the Maritime Museum of Canada in 1957. Floods and fires in the early 1960s caused temporary relocations to a variety of sites until 1965 when a home was found in a former bakery building at the Navy's Victualling Depot. The museum became the Marine History section of the Nova Scotia Museum in 1967. The exhibits remained on Citadel Hill while the offices, library and some of the collection moved to the new Nova Scotia Museum building on Summer Street in Halifax in 1970. Through the 1970s, a long search for a permanent home ensued. On 22 January 1982, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic opened on the site of the historic William Robertson & Son Ship Chandlery and A.M. Smith and Co. properties on the Halifax Waterfront. The museum includes exhibits on the age of steamships, local small craft, the Royal Canadian and Merchant Navies, Second World War convoys and The Battle of the Atlantic, the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and Nova Scotia's role in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster.
Mark Edward Simkins (1954-2022) was a freelance photograph journalist and film maker in Halifax, Nova Scotia (NS), Canada and LaHave, Lunenburg County, NS. Born in 1954 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to military Captain Harold Edward “Ted” and Mary Shirley (Martindale) Simkins, Mark Simkins graduated high school in Peterborough, Ontario in 1973, then studied Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa, 1974-1975, and Dalhousie University in Halifax 1977-1978. After University he worked as a reporter-photographer for the Truro Daily News 1979-1980, and sold photographs to the Canadian Press 1980-1981, and the Atlantic Bureau of United Press Canada (UPC) 1981-1982 under the name “Mark Simkins Photography”. In 1998 he moved from Halifax to LaHave NS where he sold photographs to local gift shops for re-sale and covered sports and town council meetings for the local newspapers, until 2003. Simkins also worked as a film technician and cinematographer until 2002. He served as president of the Nova Scotia Photographers Cooperative in 1986 and was a member of the Atlantic Filmmakers Coop (AFCOOP) with whom he directed the docu-drama “Mary and the Mayor: the Housing Crisis”, from 1988 to 1990. Mark Simkins died in Halifax NS on November 19, 2022.
Margaret Olwyn Gander was born in Toronto, Ontario on 24 February 1915, the daughter of Robert and Ida (Johnston) Gander. She was known professionally as Joan Marshall, having started her career with CKCW radio station in Moncton. She began in 1942 as a free-lance writer and broadcaster for CBC radio, where she was ultimately appointed the women's commentator for CBC Maritimes. In 1956 she and her family moved to Halifax in order to continue her broadcasting career in the new field of television at CBHT. For fifteen years she served as the host of the Joan Marshall Show and as a guest host of Take 30. She retired in 1974. She was very active in the work of both the National and Local Council of Women, serving on the executives of both organizations. She also worked for the National Status of Women, serving as a vice-president. She was married to Wendell Embree Colpitts of Moncton, New Brunswick. She died in Ottawa on 11 November 1984 and was buried in the St. Martin's-in-the-Woods Anglican Church cemetery in Shediac Cape, New Brunswick.
John George Marshall, barrister, judge, politician, poet, and author, was born 15 October 1786 at Country Harbour, Guysborourgh Co., N.S., the son of Capt. Joseph Marshall, MLA, and Margaret Marshall. He attended the Halifax Grammar School and in 1803, entered the law office of Lewis Morris Wilkins. He was called to the bar of Nova Scotia in 1810. Marshall served as MLA for Sydney Co., 1811-1818, 1820-1823, resigning when he was appointed chief justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for Cape Breton, 1823-1841. He also held the offices of custos rostulorum [principal justice] for Cape Breton; master in the Court of Chancery for the province, and president of the General and Special Sessions, 1823-1843. He wrote several books and articles about temperance, religion, politics, and history of Nova Scotia. His most noted work was The justice of the peace and county and township officers in the Province of Nova Scotia (Halifax, 1837, 1846). He died on 7 April 1880 at Halifax. He and his wife Catherine (Jones) (1786-1903), married on 26 November 1809, had five daughters: Margaret, Mary, Elizabeth, Jane, and Annie.
Edward James Mason (ca.1863-ca.1919), fisherman, carpenter, then grocer, was born circa 1863 in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to George and Angeline Mason. He married Hannah Dauphinee on August 27, 1885 in St. Margaret’s Bay, NS and together they raised 5 or 6 children: Edward (1887-1955), Edith F. (b.1894), Hazel Elizabeth (b.1896), George Thomas (1900-1944), Leslie Alton (b.1907), and possibly Annie and Aileen. Edward J. Mason was a merchant in Halifax, operating a grocery store at 29 ½ Almon Street, Halifax, NS when the Halifax Explosion occurred on December 6, 1917. The family was lucky, only 2 members received eye injuries from the flying glass, but the family home and store collapsed in the blast. The family went to live with Hannah’s mother Sarah (Mason) Dauphinee in Tantallon, NS, while repairs were made. Edward resumed his grocer business in 1918 at the same location but by 1919 Hannah was operating the store on her own, as a widow, and by 1921 the store was closed, though the Mason family continued to live at 29 Almon St., Halifax.
Linda Mason, daughter of James and Regina (MacGillivray) Downie, was born at Halifax on 10 October 1943 and received her post-secondary education at Halifax Business College. She married William Mason, formerly of St. Margarets Bay, and the couple had two children: Marianne Mason Matuchet and Shawn Mason. In 1964 the family moved to Bridgewater where Linda began working as a part-time reporter for The Halifax Herald Limited in 1977. Several years later she joined the paper on a full-time basis and became the area's bureau chief. During her nineteen-year career, Mason covered stories pertaining to fishing, farming, exhibitions, business, federal and provincial elections, the visit of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, visits by music entertainers, and Hollywood actors during the production of several movies filmed in Nova Scotia. She also took the photographs for her stories. Mason travelled extensively across Canada, Europe, Central America, West Indies, South America, and the United States, and also wrote travel stories accompanied by her photographs. She retired from The Halifax Herald Limited in March 1995.
Frederick Francis Mathers was born in Saint John, New Brunswick on 17 October 1871, the son of Isaac Henry and Kathleen (McDonnell) Mathers. He was educated at private schools, Dalhousie University, (LL.B. 1892) and Harvard University. He was called to the Bar of Nova Scotia in 1892, and was created King's Counsel in 1909. On 2 October 1899 he married Margaret Ethel Bligh, daughter of Howard Bligh of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and they had one daughter, Mrs. Kathleen Hope. He practiced law in the Halifax firm of Ross, Mellish and Mathers. He served as Honorary Colonel of the Scottish Rifles from 1942 until 1947. He was a member and past president of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society. In government he served as Deputy Provincial Secretary and Clerk of the Executive Council from 1902 to 1918, Registrar of Joint Stock Companies from 1910 to 1918, Deputy Attorney General and Commissioner of Municipal Sinking Funds from 1918 to 1940, and Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, 1940-1942. He resigned from his appointment as Lieutenant Governor due to poor health, and died in Windsor, Nova Scotia, on 14 April 1947.
Mary Byers and Margaret McBurney have researched and published a number of publications on pre-confederation architecture in Ontario and Nova Scotia, including: Atlantic Hearth: Early Homes and Families of Nova Scotia, (1994); Rural Roots: Pre-Confederation Buildings of the York Region of Ontario, (1979); The Governor's Road: Early Buildings from Mississauga to London; Homesteads: Early Buildings and Families from Kingston to Toronto; and Tavern in the Town: Early Inns and Taverns of Ontario.
Duncan Alexander McCaskill (ca.1840-1907) was born circa 1840 in Little Narrows, Victoria County, Nova Scotia, the son of Murdock McCaskill and Jessie (Ferguson) McCaskill. He married Lillian Seba Abbott (1853-1947) of Thetford, Vermont, United States on January 24, 1883 in Sutton, Vermont. He earned a living as a merchant and by 1885 he owned D.A. McCaskill & Company, manufacturer of carriages and car varnishes, in Montreal, Quebec. In 1900 he ran for election as a federal Member of Parliament for the riding of Victoria County, NS as the Conservative candidate but lost to Liberal William Ross. (This electoral district was abolished in 1904.) From 1901 to his death in 1907, Duncan and Lillian travelled around Europe. He died July 12, 1907 and is buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal, QC.
Little information is available regarding the life of Charles F. McClure. It is known that he was a resident of Boston in the 1860s and 1870s, and involved at that time in various mining operations in North America as an agent and/or investor. From his correspondence with mine managers and engineers he was obviously familiar with mining techniques and technology. Much of his focus seemed to be on operations in Waverley, N.S., which was dominated in its early years by the highly speculative gold mining industry. In 1865 McClure was reportedly an agent for the Taylor Gold Mining Company, and purchased free claims there. He was also associated with the Waverley Gold Mining Company and the North American Gold Mining Company, which also mined in Waverley.
Thomas McCulloch, Dalhousie's first president, was a Presbyterian minister, author and educator. Born in 1776 in Fereneze, Scotland, to Michael and Elizabeth McCulloch, he was raised in a prosperous, intellectual environment engendered by a community of highly-skilled textile workers. He graduated in logic from Glasgow University in 1792, started medical school, and continued independent studies in languages, politics and church history before training as a minister at the General Associate Synod in Whitburn. In 1799 he was ordained, assigned a presbytery in Stewarton (near Glasgow), and married Isabella Walker, with whom he eventually had nine children.
Four years after his appointment in Stewarton, McCulloch requested an assignment in North America. He was intended for Prince Edward Island, but in 1804 he was inducted into the Harbour Church in Pictou, Nova Scotia. In 1806 he opened a school in his house, a first step toward his dream of establishing a non-sectarian institute of higher education in Nova Scotia. By 1818 he had helped to establish Pictou Academy, where he served as principal. Although an academic success, with a fine collection of scientific instruments and a distinguished library and natural history collection, from its beginning the school was under political and financial pressure.
In 1824 McCulloch resigned from the ministry to concentrate his efforts on teaching and educational reform. He remained at Pictou until 1838, when he became the first president of Dalhousie College as well as Professor of Logic, Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy. McCulloch’s belief in the importance of mathematics, natural philosophy and the physical sciences was integral to his understanding of a liberal education. He gave public lectures in chemistry, established a museum of natural history at Dalhousie, and continued to pursue insect collecting. He also wrote on theology and politics and composed popular satirical stories, including The Stepsure Letters. McCulloch died in September 1843.
In 2018 Thomas McCulloch was named one of 52 Dalhousie Originals, a list of individuals identified as having made a significant impact on the university and the broader community since Dalhousie's inception in 1818. https://www.dal.ca/about-dal/dalhousie-originals/thomas-mcculloch.html
Henry McCullough, son of Henry A. McCullough, native of Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, Ireland, and merchant in Saint John, N.B., married Mary Elizabeth (Lizzie) Gallagher (1848-1938), daughter of Patrick and Sarah (Mulhall) Gallagher of Saint John on 8 February 1875. They had four children: Frank (1878-1960), Harry (fl. 1920s), Mary (fl. 1908-1958?), and Kathleen (d. 1973). After Henry's death in 1885, Mary McCullough opened a boarding house in Saint John as a means of supporting her family. Her son Frank married Thirza Marie (McManus) (1896-1918), daughter of Jeremiah Brownell and Sarah (Pettipas) McManus, and had four children: Thirza (b. 1919), twins John and Frank (b. 1921), and David (b. 1925). Frank was employed by several British trade companies and worked in the Gold Coast, West Africa, between 1898 and the 1930s. He was also based in Kent and Sussex, England, where his children were educated. His brother Harry married Agnes Quinn, daughter of Saint John merchant P.J. Quinn, and had two children: Henry and Kathleen. Mary McCullough married dentist Dr. J.D. Maher and had one child, Hortense (who married Percival Streeter in Montreal). Henry and Mary McCullough's youngest daughter, Kathleen, married Dr. Charles Burriss McManus (1878-1964), brother of Thiza Marie McManus, from Memramcook, N.B. and had three children: Harold, Burriss, and Sheila Kathleen.
Jotham Blanchard McCully was born on 19 January 1819, the son of William McCully and Elizabeth (Arnold) of Debert. He resided in Truro and married Isabelle McConnell on 27 July 1844; they had 10 children. He is believed to have been an engineer by profession, and was involved in several attempts to locate treasure on Oak Island in the mid-19th century. In 1845 he became manager of operations of the Truro Company, formed to raise money for the treasure hunt by selling shares. The company began digging in 1850, but by 1851 had run out of funds and ceased operations. In 1861 McCully was corporate secretary of the newly-formed Oak Island Association of Truro, which was able to raise a large sum of money. With a work force of 63 men and 33 horses, the Association made several attempts to solve the problem of water flooding in the “money pit”. McCully wrote of these attempts in the Liverpool Transcript, 16 October 1862. The work was unsuccessful, however; the money ran out and the company folded in 1864. In 1866 McCully participated in a third company, the Oak Island Eldorado Company [Halifax Company], which again raised funds and continued operations. But it also failed and closed down in 1867. McCully died in Truro on 9 September 1899 at age 80.
John Alexander Douglas McCurdy was born on 2 August 1886 in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, the son of Arthur Williams McCurdy and Lucy (O'Brien) McCurdy. He was educated at St. Andrew's College in Aurora, Ontario and graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1906. He then returned to Cape Breton where he began working with Alexander Graham Bell's Aerial Experiment Association. The two were well acquainted through an association between Bell and McCurdy's father who was editor of the Cape Breton Island Reporter. On 23 February 1909 J.A.D. MacCurdy became the first person in the British Empire to successfully fly an airplane, the Silver Dart, and in 1910 became the first person in Canada to be issued a pilot's license. In 1911 he made the longest flight over open water to that date, from Key West, Florida to Havana, Cuba. He gave up flying in 1916 due to problems with his eyesight. On 2 April 1919 he married Margaret Millicent Ball of Woodstock, Ontario. He was a pioneer of the Canadian aircraft industry, serving as an officer of the Reid Aircraft Company (1928) and the Curtiss-Reid Aircraft Limited (1929-1939). Thereafter, he served as the Assistant Director General of Aircraft Production in Canada (1939-1947). He was later appointed the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia after Confederation and served in that capacity between 1947 and 1952. He died in Montreal from complications of leukemia on 25 June 1961 and was buried in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.
Alexander McDougall Jr. was born on 4 February 1804 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the son of Alexander and Catherine (Buchanan) McDougall. He was educated at the Pictou Academy. He studied to be a lawyer and was admitted to the Nova Scotia Bar in 1826. He married Elizabeth Ann (Watson) Van Buskirk on 24 January 1831. Together they had the following children: Catherine (born 1833,) who married James Edward Wilson, and Marianne (1836-1844). McDougall served as MLA for Sydney County between 1836 and 1840. He subsequently served as a member of the Legislative Council between 1844 and 1855. He died in Halifax on 13 March 1855.
Alexander "Sandy" McDougall Sr. was born in Stirling, Scotland on 17 March 1765 and married Catherine "Kate" Buchanan. They came to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1795. Together they had the following children: Arthur (1791-1838) who married Mary Ann Irish in 1816; Daniel (1794-1802); Margaret Ann who married James Duffus in 1818; Isabella Catherine who married William Duffus; Hugh A. (1802-1803); Alexander, Jr. (1804-1855), and Elizabeth Arbuthnot (born ca. 1810) who married Archibald Scott. Alexander McDougall died on 30 August 1834. His wife, Kate, had predeceased him on 16 January 1834.
Thomas Johnson McInnis was born on 9 April 1945 in Sheet Harbour, N.S. He was educated at St. Mary's University, and Dalhousie Law School where he received an LLB in 1976. He practised law until he was elected MLA for Halifax-Eastern Shore in the general election of 1978. He served as minister of highways, 1978-1981; municipal affairs, 1981-1985; education, 1985-1988; community services and consumer affairs, 1988-1989; attorney-general, 1989-1992; minister of industry, trade, and technology, 1992-1993; and minister of labour and deputy premier in 1993. He returned to his legal practice following his defeat in the general election of 1993.
McKenna, Matthew D. was the superintendent of Sable Island from 8 November, 1848 - 5 September, 1855. M.D. McKenna arrived on the island with his wife and four children. During their stay, his wife had another child, a boy, born on July 15, 1854. The child passed away on 3 September, 1854 due to dysentery.--McKenna created a high state of order and efficiency on the island. He introduced Captain Marryat's code of signals to Sable Island, and adopted to the mercantile marine Sir Home Popham's system of signaling.
Charles Burriss McManus (1878-1964), dentist, of Memramcook, N.B. married Kathleen McCullough (d. 1973), daughter of merchant Henry and Mary Elizabeth (Gallagher) McCullough of Saint John, N.B. They had three children: Harold; Buriss F. (ca. 1917-1949, m. Jean and had three children); and Sheila Kathleen (1909-1985).
Daniel McQueen (1819-1894) and Catherine Collard (Olding) (1822-1916) were married in New Glasgow, N.S. in 1849. They raised eight children in Sutherlands River, Pictou Co., where Daniel was a carpenter and farmer. With the exception of the eldest, all the McQueen daughters were schoolteachers. The eldest child, Jane (1850-1934), was diagnosed with mental illness and for many years was a patient at Mount Hope, Dartmouth, N.S. Mary Isabel (commonly known as "Bell", 1851-1928) married Freeman W. Wisdom in 1880 and lived in Saint John, N.B. Elizabeth Davidson ("Eliza") (1854-1912) married Norman Cunningham, MD, and lived in Dartmouth. Susan Dove (1856-1941) married Edwin Crowell, DD, and lived in Barrington, N.S. George William (1858-1899) moved to New York, N.Y. Margaret Jane ("Jessie") (1860-1934) moved to Nicola Valley, Rossland, B.C., in 1888 to teach school. Daniel Forrester (1863-1864) died in infancy. Annie Lowden (1865-1941) also moved to Nicola Valley, Rossland, in 1887, where she married James Gordon in 1889. Daniel McQueen's younger brother, Duncan McQueen (1828-1884), moved from Pictou Co. to Boston in 1850, and later to Indiana where he became a ship's carpenter.
Aileen Meagher was born 26 November 1910 in Edmonton, Alberta, daughter of Arthur and Mary Meagher. She moved with her family to Halifax in 1917. She attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart and then Dalhousie University where she received a BA and diploma in education. As a competitive runner, she won numerous medals including a bronze for the 400 metre relay at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Meagher was employed as a teacher in Halifax elementary schools from 1935 to 1969. From 1949 to 1956 she spent the summers studying with accomplished artists in Ontario, Massachusetts and Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia. She won the Nova Scotia Society of Artists' (NSSA) prize for water colour in 1950 and continued to exhibit in nearly every annual NSSA show from 1951 to 1969. Beginning in 1958, Meagher travelled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa. Meagher 's last exhibit was a retrospective at the Dalhousie Art Gallery in 1985. She died at Halifax 1 August 1987.