The firm of Pickford & Black was established by Robert Pickford and William Anderson Black in 1876. The partners entered into an arrangement with Bennett Brothers to take over their shipping business. At the time of its inception, Pickford & Black was a ship chandlery and hardware firm outfitting fishing and other vessels. In 1877, the partners purchased Seeton's wharf, which was to become known as Pickford & Black's wharf at 51 Upper Water Street, where the ship chandlery branch was extended. By 1887, the firm expanded into the steamship business. They purchased the Cunard ships Alpha and Beta and by 1889, established a shipping and trading service between Halifax and Cuba, and another to Bermuda, Turks Island and Jamaica. They also operated steamer lines in the Atlantic provinces. The firm acted as agents for several leading marine insurance underwriters including Lloyd's of London, and were agents for numerous European steamship lines including the owners of the ship Imo which was involved in the Halifax Explosion in 1917. Robert Pickford retired in 1911 and the company became Pickford & Black Ltd. After the death of W.A. Black in 1936, Ralph P. Bell became president and Col. A.N. Jones vice president and the business carried on under A.G. Jones and Co. was merged with Pickford & Black Ltd. In 1946 the firm was sold by Bell and his associates to a number of senior employees. During this period, Pickford & Black Ltd. managed the Maritime Stevedoring Co. and the Pickford & Black Agency, a custom brokerage. In 1975 Pickford & Black Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of McLean Kennedy Limited. In 2002, F.K. Warren became the parent company of Pickford & Black.
The Piercey’s were a prominent Halifax family, known for establishing and running Piercey Supplies Ltd. for close to a century. The founder of the company, William Drysdale Piercey, was born on June 9, 1877, to Charles E. Piercey and Eleanor Jane Drysdale. W.D. Piercey left school early to work on the family farm until the age of 14, when he went to work at a local shovel factory. From age 18 to 34, Piercey worked at Rhodes Curry and Company in Halifax. In 1915, he founded Piercey Supplies Ltd. which expanded and included many of his family members.
An active community member, Piercey was a MP of the Nova Scotia Legislature for one term. He was also Vice-President and a Director of the General Trust and Executor Corporation, President of the Yarmouth Building and Loan Society, and a Director of the Nova Scotia Trust Company. He was a Commissioner of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and a Justice of the Peace. He served as a Director of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children and on the Board of Pine Hill Divinity College. For many years he was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Armdale School Section.
W.D. Piercey married Anne Margaret Forbes on September 16, 1903, in Halifax. The couple had four children; Reginald Matheson (October 1, 1904), William Douglas (May 27, 1909), Joyce (Jones) (1917) and George Charles (February 22, 1919). Annie passed away on June 5, 1960, and Piercey remarried Elsie May Pert. Piercey passed away at home on January 21, 1964.
The eldest son, Reginald Piercey married Lillian Marguerite MacKinnon on September 7, 1932, and they had two daughters Shelia Kathleen Piercey (November 18, 1933-May 20, 2019) and Barbara (October 9, 1938-June 27, 2013). Piercey Investors was incorporated in 1933 and continues to be run by the Piercey family.
Harry (Henry) Piers was born in Halifax in 1870 and died there in 1941. A museum curator and librarian by profession, Piers was an antiquarian and scholar whose fields of special interest were military history and art history. A prolific author and editor, his most important work is his monograph on the painter Robert Field. He served as curator of the Provincial Museum (Nova Scotia Museum) from 1899 until his death and librarian of the Provincial Science Library from 1900 until his death. He also served as deputy keeper of the public records (provincial archivist) from 1899 to 1931.
Pink Breen Larkin is an Atlantic Canada law firm that specializes in representing labour union clients. Founded in 1992, the firm has offices in both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Representing trade unions during collective bargaining and at grievance arbitrations, the firm is also involved in pension and employee benefits law, pay equity, occupational health and safety, human rights, and in newer areas of law such as environmental and municipal law. It frequently represents public advocacy groups and municipal organizations in public law matters. During the Westray Mine Public Inquiry (1995-1996) the firm acted as solicitors for Local 9332 of the United Steelworkers of America, the union which represented the former employees of Westray Coal.
John Bonsall Porter was born in Glendale, Ohio on 1 October 1861. He received his engineering degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1882 and 1884 respectively. After twelve years of professional work, in 1896 he was appointed Macdonald Professor of Mining and Metallurgy at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, a position he held until his retirement in 1927. In that position he gained international recognition as an expert on mining and authored a number of influential reports, including Coal Mines of Cape Breton and the six volume Coals of Canada. Porter married Ethel Harding circa 1888. They had one child, Elizabeth. Dr. Porter first visited Guysborough, Nova Scotia in 1898. In 1900 he purchased an old farm there and used it as a summer residence. Following his retirement, Dr. Porter travelled extensively, visiting Europe, Bermuda, Jamaica, Nassau and Central America and wintering in La Jolla, California. He was an talented photographer and became a keen amateur filmmaker as film making technology became more accessible in the late 1920s. His film subjects were his home, his family and his travels. John Bonsall Porter died on 16 April 1944 in Montreal, Quebec.
Ada Louise Silver was born on 22 October 1859 at Lunenburg, N.S., the daughter of Charles Silver (1833-1913) and Louisa (Gerhardt) Silver (1836-1908). She attended Pictou Academy ca. 1867 for teacher's training and then taught school in the Lunenburg area. In 1885 she married Frank Powers (1853-1911), son of Peter and Elizabeth Thomson Powers of Halifax, with whom she had three children: Archibald Forbes, Frank, and William T. She also cared for Flora, a grandchild to Frank Sr. descending from an earlier marriage to Emma Sophia Morash (1855-1883), following the death of Flora's mother. Throughout her life Ada Powers was actively involved in education, temperance, missionary, and social service work. In 1922 she was the first woman appointed to the Lunenburg School Board. She was president of the Lunenburg Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) for 50 years and held several executive positions in the Nova Scotia WCTU. She represented Nova Scotia at World WCTU conferences in Stockholm, London, and across Canada, and was superintendent on the national executive of WCTU. Powers also served as an officer of the Lunenburg Presbyterian Church. She died at Lunenburg on 29 April 1942.
Samuel Prat (ca. 1829-1892) came to Nova Scotia from England in 1846 and was a station master for the Dominion Atlantic Railway. In 1857 he married Elizabeth Duport Morse (1835-1913) and they had five children who survived to adulthood: Annie Louisa (1861-1960), Rupert (b. 1863), Charlotte Elizabeth (b. 1865), Minnie Sophia (1868-1901), and May Rosina (1872-1965). Annie was an artist, poet, and the first dean of women at Kings College from 1917 to 1920. Following her graduation from the Art Institute of Chicago, Annie moved to New York City to open a studio with her sisters Minnie and May, who had apprenticed there as bookbinders. From 1899 to ca. 1903 the sisters operated Primrose Bindery in New York. Minnie won international recognition for her binding and was awarded a silver medal at the Paris Exposition in 1900. She died of typhoid fever the following year at Wolfville, N.S. Annie and May subsequently returned to Nova Scotia. May married Richard Sydney Starr in 1904 and they operated the family farm and orchard, "Willow Bank", at Starrs Point. The couple had two children: Charles ("Harry") (1905-1990) and Charlotte ("Sally") (d. 1983).
The Prince's Lodge Association was apparently founded, perhaps as early as the 1870s, to assist with and promote the preservation of the Prince's Lodge property. The Prince's Lodge was built by Edward, Duke of Kent (father of Queen Victoria) while he commanded the British Army at Halifax from 1794 to 1800. The 500 acre property belonged to the Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir John Wentworth, who had called his country estate “Friar Laurence's Cell.” When Prince Edward returned to England, the Wentworth family resumed occupation of Prince's Lodge, but after Sir John's death it was allowed to decay. In 1870 the property was sold at auction for building lots, but few houses were constructed until after the First World War, a development which accelerated after Second World War. The only structure on the estate surviving from Prince Edward's day is the circular music room or rotunda of 1796, which was taken over in 1959 by the Government of Nova Scotia as a provincial historic building. The Prince's Lodge Association ceased to exist when the remaining property was transferred to the Provincial Government in the 1950s.
Professional Secretaries International was originally known in Canada as the National Secretaries Association – Canada Division. It was established on 15 June 1957. The Halifax-Dartmouth Chapter held its organizational meeting on 14 January 1959. The Chapter was officially established on 24 March 1959 with thirty-nine charter members. The goals of the organization were to “assist the secretary in broadening her education, in increasing her knowledge, in heightening her skills, and in developing her personality.” The Association created testing criteria and standards for the professional secretary. As a result a testing centre was established in Halifax in 1964. The name of the chapter was modified circa 1978 to National Secretaries Association (International) and ultimately became Professional Secretaries International at a meeting held 4 March 1981 under which name it continues to operate.
Each court in the judicial system in Nova Scotia has an officer who is responsible for accepting the documents and forms which are submitted to the court in order to start, continue or complete a legal action. These officials are familiar with their court's forms and rules, and they assist litigants in properly preparing those documents. The documents are kept on file in a registry (usually in a court house) and may eventually accumulate as a complete record of the legal dispute. The officer's title varies: for the Nova Scotia Supreme Court it is the Protohonotary, and for the County Court, the Clerk of the County Court. Often the two offices were occupied by the same person. In England the office evolved from that of the chief or principal clerk or registrar in the courts of chancery, common pleas, and the King's Bench in the 15th century. Later the duties expanded to include making and keeping the records of other courts. In Nova Scotia one prothonotary is appointed for each county on the recommendation of the provincial government.
The court system in Nova Scotia can be said to have had its origins in the powers given in the commission issued to Governor Edward Cornwallis in Halifax on 6 May 1749. In that document the Governor was given plenary powers in judicial matters to establish courts of justice. This eventually led to the creation of the Supreme Court in 1754, which was centered in Halifax. In 1763 Cape Breton Island was formally annexed to Nova Scotia and was part of Halifax County until it was set apart as a separate county on 10 December 1765. It continued to be part of Nova Scotia until 1784, when it became a separate colony: while it was a separate entity it had a Lieutenant-Governor and a nominated council and its own Supreme Court. In 1820 it was re-annexed to Nova Scotia but retained its supreme court. From 1820 to 1835 Cape Breton County was co-existensive with Cape Breton Island. By a statue of 1835 (N.S. Statues, 1835, c.5) it was divided into three separate and distinct counties: Cape Breton, Richmond, and Juste Au Corps (later Inverness). In 1851 Victoria County was formed out of part of Cape Breton County. In 1874 the County Court Act was passed to create an intermediate trial court between the local courts and the supreme court, and Cape Breton County was included with Victoria and Richmond Counties as part of District # 7 of the County Court of Nova Scotia.
Thirty years of attempting to regulate the education and licensing of medical practitioners in Nova Scotia finally succeeded in 1828 with the passage of the first Medical Act. Subsequent legislation required all physicians and surgeons practicing in the province to register with the Provincial Secretary. Revisions to the Medical Act in 1872 established the Provincial Medical Board consisting of nine members, five appointed by the Governor in Council and four by the Medical Society of Nova Scotia. The act made registration compulsory and provided for the publication of a medical register. The first meeting of the board took place on 24 July 1872, and the first edition of the medical register was published in the Royal Gazette in August 1873. The board was responsible for educational standards and, initially, held professional entry examinations. It also registered physicians, monitored their qualifications, disciplined doctors, and mediated public complaints.
On 29 August 1879, the Provincial Miners Association was formed by a group of coal miners in Springhill, N.S., to "defend and protect the interests of miners and other workers" of the colliery. A constitution was adopted on 1 September 1879 and the association's first lodge, Pioneer Lodge No. 1, was established in Springhill. The association was incorporated as the Provincial Workmen's Association in 1881. Its primary objective was to improve living and working conditions for miners through political activism, lobbying, and strikes if deemed necessary. In the same year, the first lodges in Cape Breton were organized by the association's grand secretary and agent, Robert Drummond, including Drummond Lodge (South Mines), Equity (Caledonia), and Island and Unity Lodges (Bridgeport). By 1917 the PWA and the United Mine Workers of Nova Scotia had united to form the Amalgamated Mine Workers of Nova Scotia. In 1918 the remaining lodges of the Provincial Workmen's Association were dissolved.
The Pryor family of Halifax, can be compared to the Ritchies, Almons and Johnstons, prominent loyalist Nova Scotia families, to whom they were related. The Pryors enjoyed much commercial success and held important public offices in Nova Scotia. The progenitor of the Pryor family in Halifax was Edward Pryor, a New York merchant and United Empire Loyalist, who emigrated with his family to Halifax in 1783. Subsequent generations of the Pryor family included Edward Sr. (1746-1831), his son, Edward Jr. (1768-1855), and grandson, Edward the third (1800-1873). In the nineteenth century, The Pryor family owned all the lands fronting on the Northwest Arm from Quinpool Road to South Street and various lots along the waterfront in the "south suburbs”. Especially extensive were the properties acquired by Edward Jr., whose residence was known as the “Priory," located on the north side of Jubilee Road. It was destroyed by fire ca. 1870. Edward Jr.'s brother, William (1775-1859), founded the firm of William Pryor and Sons, which, at its height, carried on the largest mercantile business in Halifax, engaged in the West India trade. Edward the third, who had also engaged in commerce, died a wealthy man, with a house and lot on Hollis Street, a wharf, many stocks and shares, and many acres of land along the Shubenacadie Canal, the Eastern Shore, and in Colchester County.
The Public Archives of Canada appointed W.C. Milner in 1912 as its regional agent prior to the opening of offices in Halifax and St. John, New Brunswick. Both offices were closed in 1931 and records of the government of Nova Scotia that were acquired by the Halifax regional office were transferred to the Public Archives of Nova Scotia.
The Public Health Association of Nova Scotia was established in 1970 as an affiliate of the Canadian Public Health Association. Its predecessor was the Association of Medical Health Officers of Nova Scotia, formed in 1915. The purpose of the association is to promote the exhange and advancement of information among health professionals through conferences and literature, provide liaison among health agencies, and lobby on public health issues including health reform and disease prevention.
Hugh Francis Pullen was born 9 July 1905 at Oakville, Ontario and entered the Royal Naval College at Esquimalt, British Columbia in 1920. He spent two years at sea with the Canadian Pacific Steamships and rejoined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1924. In 1944 he received the Order of the British Empire for his services while commanding a convoy escort group. He retired from the navy in 1960, his last appointment as flag officer Atlantic Coast, Maritime commander Atlantic, and commander Atlantic Sub-Area (NATO), 1957-1960. Rear Admiral Pullen held executive positions in several voluntary organizations such as the United Appeal, The Royal Commonwealth Society, The Royal Life-Saving Society of Canada, the Canadian Mental Health Society, and the Anglican Church of Canada. In 1960 he was chairman for the World Refugee Campaign in Nova Scotia, and also served as a member of the National Council of the Duke of Edinburgh's Awards, 1963-1969. He was also co-founder of the Maritime Museum of Canada (now Maritime Museum of the Atlantic) and the Halifax Grammar School, and first commodore of the Nova Scotia Schooner Association. He was the author of several books and articles on Maritime history. Among his best known works are Atlantic Schooners (1967), The Shannon and the Chesapeake (1970), and The Pullen Expedition (1979), for which he won the John Lyman Book Award in 1980 from the North American Society for Oceanic History. Hugh F. Pullen died 4 May 1983 in England. He was married to Helen (MacKean); they had seven children.
Educator, author, historian, and genealogist Terrence (Terry) Michael Punch, son of Michael and Edyth (Little) Punch, was born on January 15, 1937 in Halifax, where he lived most of his life, until his death from cancer in April 11, 2017. He married Pamela Beaulieu on October 8, 1966, and was father to Jill (d. 1987) and Sara (d. 1985), and Sean Punch. He received a BA, B.Ed. and MA degrees from Saint Mary's University and Dalhousie University, and a BA in journalism from the University of King's College. During his post-secondary studies he also served in the navy in supply and signals. He began his teaching career in 1965, and taught in several Halifax secondary schools until his retirement in 1994. In 1983 he was awarded the National Award for Canadian History and Social Science Teacher of the Year. In addition to teaching in the school system, he also worked on updating Nova Scotia’s junior high social studies curriculum, and taught university courses at Saint Mary's and Dalhousie.
Throughout his career Terry Punch participated and held executive positions in a variety of organizations including the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society, Halifax Charitable Irish Society, Genealogical Institute of the Maritimes, and was founding president of the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia. He was a fellow of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society and the Royal Society of Antiquarians in Ireland. In 1987 he was awarded the Dr. Phyllis Blakeley Lifetime Achievement Award from the Federation of Nova Scotia Heritage and received an honourary doctorate from Saint Mary's in 2000. In 2010 he was awarded the Order of Canada (invested in 2011). Since 1961, Punch has published and contributed to numerous historical and genealogical periodicals and books. One of his best known works is Genealogical Research in Nova Scotia (1978). As the leading genealogical authority in the province of Nova Scotia, Punch was a regular columnist, book reviewer, and guest on several radio and television programs, including CBC's radio phone-in show, Maritime Noon since 1987.
Wynn Karl Rafuse was born in Parkdale, Lunenburg County, circa 1928, the son of Stewart A. and Dorothy (Wentzell) Rafuse. He was a member of the Agricultural Society of Nova Scotia and the IOOF Lodge. He died on 31 May 1993 in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
Red Herring Co-operative Books was incorporated in 1977 to found and manage the Red Herring Co-op Bookstore, which existed from 1977 to 1996. The bookstore was an independent cooperative attempting to serve the Atlantic region by providing access to books that were difficult to find; these related to feminism, labour, international issues, the Third World, children, non-mainstream topics and social issues. The Red Herring was the only bookstore of its kind in Atlantic Canada during its existence, and also served as a focal point for social and community activism in Nova Scotia. The store was financed by the sale of shares, which entitled the purchaser to full membership and voting rights, and the store itself was operated and managed mainly by volunteers. The co-op provided special orders, a mail order service, operated book tables at community events, and sponsored readings and autographing sessions by prominent Canadian artists such as Nancy White and Rick Salutin. In 1987 the store had sales of over $100,000. But it also weathered several financial crises as other bookstores were catching up in terms of alternate titles. The store closed in late 1996.
Edgar Nelson Rhodes was born at Amherst, N.S. on 5 January 1877, the son of Nelson and Sara (Curry) Rhodes. He received a BA (Acadia 1900), LLB (Dalhousie 1902), DCL (Acadia 1922) and LLD (Dalhousie 1929). He was first elected to the House of Commons in 1908 as a Liberal-Conservative for Cumberland County. In 1916, Rhodes was admitted to the bar and practiced law at Amherst. From 1916 to 1917 he was deputy speaker of the House of Commons followed by speaker from 1917 to 1921. In 1925 he was elected MLA for Hants Co. and was sworn in as premier and provincial secretary on 16 June 1925. He resigned from the premiership to become federal minister of fisheries, 1930-1932. He was MP for Richmond-West Cape Breton, 1930-1935. In 1932 Rhodes was appointed minister of finance and represented Canada at the World Economic Conference the following year. He was called to the Senate on 20 July 1935 and died in office at Ottawa on 15 March 1942. Rhodes and his wife Grace, daughter of William Thomas Pipes, were married on 12 July 1905.
Joseph N. Rice was born in 1857 in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the son of Timothy Rice and Mary Alice (Newcomb). He was a direct descendant of Beriah Rice, Sr., an original land grantee in Annapolis County in 1760. Little information is available about his life, but by 1881 he apparently had a photographic gallery in the upper flat of the old Bridgetown Monitor building. He later erected his own house and studio a few doors further down on Queen Street, and was reputed to be a popular and efficient photographer in Bridgetown for many years. He married Mary C. Allen in 1888 and they had two sons, J. Allen (b. 1888) and Victor (b. 1892). According to census records Joseph and family resided in Bridgetown at least until 1901. It is believed that his death occurred sometime between 1902 and 1909. His photographic studio was taken over first by Edith Crosskill and then by Georgia H. Cunningham, who purchased it in 1909.
Evelyn May Richardson was the daughter of Hattie (Larkin) and Arthur Douglas Fox. She graduated from Halifax Academy, attended Dalhousie University, and taught in various schools in Nova Scotia. In 1926 she married Morrill Richardson and moved to Massachusetts. In 1929 the Richardsons bought and moved to Bon Portage Island as lighthouse keepers. They had three children and resided on the island for thirty-five years, retiring to Doane's Point near Barrington, N.S. Evelyn Richardson wrote and published works both of fiction and non-fiction, winning a number of awards and commendations including the Governor General Award in 1945 for We Keep a Light. She held offices in the Shelburne Historical Society and the Cape Sable Historical Society.
Reginald McCarthy Richardson was born in 1913 in Halifax, the son of Maurice B. and Margaret (McCarthy) Richardson. Early in his career he was employed as a warrant officer for the Department of National Defence. During World War II he served in Belgium and the Netherlands with the Canadian forces. After the war he continued to serve with the military in Ottawa and Western Canada, retiring in the 1960s. He later worked as a psychiatric assistant at the Nova Scotia Hospital. After his retirement from that institution he moved to Windsor, N.S. and died on 15 January 2001. Throughout his lifetime Richardson had an interest in Nova Scotia history and genealogy, and was an avid collector of art works, signed portraits, books, antiques and collectibles, some of which he donated to museums and other institutions. A prolific letter-writer, he frequently wrote to newspaper editors and public figures, offering his opinion on various topics of the day such as gun control, capital punishment, the environment and health care. Many of these opinions were published in newspapers such as the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
Rob Richardson, Halifax Explosion survivor, was reportedly attending university in Halifax when the Halifax Explosion occurred on the morning of December 6, 1917. His family lived in Chipman, New Brunswick.