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Some of the earliest records of Bible Society activity in Canada can be found in Nova Scotia. From Pictou by 1807, the Bible Society movement spread. The Bible Society has been distributing Bibles in the province of Nova Scotia for over 195 years. In 1808, a consignment of 500 Bibles and 1,000 New Testaments in Gaelic was sent to a Bible Society at Pictou, for the use of the highlanders who had settled in the eastern part of Nova Scotia. Since that time, the Bible Society in Nova Scotia has pioneered various national programs that the Canadian Bible Society has been embracing for many years.

Shortly after Canadian Confederation in 1867, Jews came to Halifax and formed the nucleus of a permanent Jewish community. During the last fifteen years of the 19th Century, there were many Jewish men of business in Halifax. These residents realized the need for an organized Jewish community, with its own House of Worship and the other facilities necessary to maintain a Jewish home and community. In September of 1890, with only eighteen Jews, the Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society was formed. This earliest Congregation conducted services in rented halls and homes. -- The name was chosen to honour the great Jewish philanthropist, Baron Maurice de Hirsch, of Munich. In 1895, by Private Member’s Bill in the Nova Scotia Legislature, Chapter 157, the Charter for the Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society was obtained. Thus, the first Jewish Orthodox Congregation east of Montreal was formally incorporated. In 1894, the Congregation purchased a church on the corner of Starr and Hurd Streets, which was repaired and repainted at a cost of $1,000. The building was dedicated on February 19th, 1895 and one of the very first functions held in the new Synagogue immediately following the dedication was a wedding ceremony. -- Until 1914, this Synagogue at 19 Starr Street was the only house of worship for the Jewish community in the area. The earliest recollection of Talmud Torah Classes dates back to approximately 1905. -- A major turning point in the history of Halifax and the Jewish Community was occasioned by the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917, when the munitions ship Mount Blanc collided with the freighter Imo at the narrows of Halifax Harbour. Massive loss of life, personal injuries and property damage resulted as never seen before nor again in this region. Although the Starr Street Shul was damaged beyond repair, the Sefer Torahs were spared and were removed and used for the next few years in various halls and rented premises for the interim. -- After the explosion, the Jewish community immediately started looking into building another Synagogue. On July 14, 1920, the cornerstone was laid for the Robie Street Shul. The first wedding was held there a mere two years later. -- By mid-century, faced with a growing membership, the Board of Governors purchased land at the corner of Oxford Street and Coburg Road, our present location, from members of the Congregation. On April 12, 1956 a ground breaking ceremony took place and the Beth Israel Synagogue building was finished in time for High Holy Day Services on September 14, 1957. -- Our current building houses a Daily Chapel, a Sanctuary with seating for 600, a large social hall, kosher kitchen, a Talmud Torah, a Sisterhood Gift Shop and a Mikvah. Our cemetery, located at the corner of Connaught Avenue and Windsor Street is the final resting place for 530 members as well as 10 victims of the Titanic disaster. We also have an Eruv that encompasses much of the Halifax Peninsula. -- The Baron de Hirsch Hebrew Benevolent Society commemorated its 100th Anniversary in 1990, during a year long celebration, Simcha 100. As a centennial project, the Synagogue commissioned two sets of large stained glass windows; the south window depicts Jewish holidays and ceremonies and the north window depicts events in Jewish History. -- The Beth Israel Synagogue currently has a vibrant membership of approximately 180 families, with the only daily Minyan east of Montreal, as well as regular classes and services for a growing Community.

Carrie Mae Prevoe was born in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, on 4 March 1903, the daughter of James and Georgina (Ashe) Prevoe. She married Albert Theophilus Best on 24 June 1925. She was a journalist and in 1946 founded The Clarion, the first Black-owned and published Nova Scotia newspaper which operated until 1956. In 1952 she started a radio show, The Quiet Corner, which aired for 12 years. From 1968 to 1975 she was a columnist for The Pictou Advocate newspaper. She received the first Lloyd McInnes Memorial Award in 1970. After her husband's death, she donated five hectares of her land to create a park named after him. The Albert T. Best Park in New Glasgow, carefully planned to be safe for children and seniors, was opened on 21 August 1972. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1974 and promoted to Officer in 1979. In 1977 she published her auto-biography, That Lonesome Road. She also received honorary degrees from both the University of King's College and St. Francis Xavier University in 1975. She died on 24 July 2001. She was posthumously awarded the Order of Nova Scotia in 2002.

Paul Warren Bennett, is an author, education commentator, and consultant. He began his career in education in 1974 as a history teacher in Ontario, then joined Upper Canada College in Toronto in 1980 as Chair of the History Department and served as their academic vice principal until 1997. He then moved to Montreal QC to become headmaster of Lower Canada College from 1997 to 2005. In 2005 Bennett moved to Halifax Nova Scotia to be headmaster at Halifax Grammar School, a post he held until 2009, when he established his own consulting company Schoolhouse Institute and Consulting Inc. As part of his business, Bennett conducted research into education policy and produced reports for the Atlantic Institute of Market Studies (AIMS), the Canadian Accredited Independent Schools (CAIS), the Northern Policy Institute, and Thinkwell Research for the Nova Scotia Department of Education. In addition, he wrote research commentaries, opinion editorials, and book reviews for The Halifax Chronicle Herald Newspaper, and gave public talks on the history of schools in Nova Scotia. Bennett is also a community organizer, being a founding member of two education reform movements in Nova Scotia, an extension of his earlier work with the Ontario School Board Reform Network and the Coalition for Education Reform in Ontario. The Students First NS movement focused on school board reform and was active from 2010 to 2011. The NS Small Schools Initiative citizen activists group formed in 2012. They lobbied school boards and the Department of Education to keep rural schools open and were active until 2017. Bennett also taught graduate education courses at Mount Saint Vincent University and then taught as Adjunct Professor of Education at Saint Mary’s University, both in Halifax. Since 2017, he has been founder and National Coordinator for ResearchED in Canada. As of 2023, Paul W. Bennett continues to teach, write and comment on educational matters.

Carl Norwood Bennett was born in Boston, Massachusetts on 10 November 1895, the son of Walter Roy Bennett, a clerk with Robert Taylor & Co. (manufacturer of boots and shoes) and Rosalie N. Bennett. He grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and attended Dalhousie University. In 1913 he joined the 63rd Regiment of the Halifax Rifles. In 1916 he was appointed Lieutenant of Unit 1, Overseas draft, 63rd Regiment, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, and was sent to France. He served with the Canadian Machine Gun Corps and later transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as Flying Officer (observer) in 1917. He was wounded on 2 June 1917. He died of typhoid fever on 24 June 1918 at Woolwich, England, and is buried in the Canadian Military Cemetery at Brookwood, England.

Bennett Smith & Sons was a shipbuilding and shipping company with offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Saint John, New Brunswick. Bennett Smith was well known as one of the largest and wealthiest shipowners in the Maritimes. After his death in 1886, Bennett Smith & Sons was taken over by Bennett's sons, John Marshall Smith and Charles Dewolfe Smith.

Robert Allen Benjamin (1920-2014), professional photographer, was born 3 November 1920 in Brookfield, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, Canada to Stairs Benjamin (1891-1936) and Helen Francis (Titus) Benjamin (1910-1950). Shortly after his birth, the family moved to 49 Lyle Street in Dartmouth, NS. He studied photography in New York City, then in 1940 opened a photographic business Industrial Commercial Portraits which became Benjamin Studio in 1947, located in the Bell Building in Dartmouth, NS. The business lasted until 1970. He died in Deland, Florida, United States on 25 July 2014.

The Belmont Amateur Athletic Club seems to have been in existence in Halifax from 1896 - 1903. Little is know about the club besides the fact that it was a sports club, given that the surviving items, a treasurer's book, and a tin box, give little information on the clubs history.

Andrew Mackinlay Bell was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on 12 February 1847, the son of Joseph (1819-1883) and Maria (Goodfellow) Bell (1822-1898). He worked for Black Brothers in Halifax until 1875, when he established his own business, which became known as A.M. Bell and Company. He married Mary Emerancy Pickard (1847-1918) of Sackville, New Brunswick, on 17 July 1883. He sold his business in 1914 and died on 7 August 1918. His son, Ralph Pickard Bell, was born in Halifax on 28 March 1886. He studied at Mount Allison University and went on to become the university's first chancellor in 1960. During the Second World War he served as Director-General for Aircraft Production in Canada. He was also a prominent business man who was involved with the timber trade and fisheries in Nova Scotia. He spearheaded the creation of National Sea Products Limited and also served as a vice-president of the Bank of Nova Scotia. He married Annie Marguerite Deinstadt in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on 22 May 1907. She was born on 7 June 1884 in Woodstock, New Brunswick, the daughter of Rev. Thomas James and Rebecca (Beer) Deinstadt. She died in Halifax, Nova, Scotia on 17 March 1943. Their eldest child was Dorothy Allison Deinstadt Bell who was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on 20 February 1908. She was married on 11 June 1933 in Westmount, Quebec, to James Isbester Maclaren, the son of James and Menota (Isbester) Maclaren. She died on 2 July 1991 at Martins Point, Nova Scotia.

Winthrop Pickard Bell was a philosopher, author, and historian. He received a BA in mathematics from Mount Allison University in 1904 and took engineering courses at McGill and Cornell before obtaining an MA from Mount Allison in 1907 and an MA in philosophy from Harvard in 1909. He continued his studies at Cambridge, England, and at Leipzig and Gottingen in Germany. In 1914, he received a Ph.D. from Gottingen. During World War I, Bell was imprisoned in Germany and sent to the civilian prisoner of war camp at Ruhlebeu. Upon his release, he returned to England where he was recruited to work for the British Secret Service. After two years, he returned to Canada due to ill health and began teaching at the University of Toronto. Following a teaching position at Harvard, Bell returned to Nova Scotia and engaged in business until he retired to begin writing. From 1946, he researched and published The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia (1961). He also served as president of the Nova Scotia Historical Society. Bell was married to Hazel Deinstadt (1889-1966). He died at Chester on 4 April 1965.

The Bell Gift Cemetery Company was incorporated in 1877. The cemetery is located in West New Annan, Colchester County, Nova Scotia. The organization was established to be responsible for the upkeep of the cemetery and for collecting fees to maintain it.

The Bell family of Halifax, N.S., is descended from the Hon. Hugh Bell (1780-1860), educator, businessman, officeholder, politician and philanthropist. Originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Hugh Bell came as a child to Nova Scotia after the American Revolutionary War. He married first in 1808 Elizabeth Lane at Halifax and secondly in 1815 Ann Allison at the Mantua estate near Newport, N.S. He was related through his second wife to Charles Frederick Allison, founder of Mount Allison University. Hugh Bell and several of his descendents owned businesses in Halifax. They were strongly involved with the Methodist Church in Nova Scotia and Sackville, N.B.

Merchant and colonial governor Jonathan Belcher was born at Cambridge, Mass. in 1682. A graduate of Harvard University (1699), he built a sizeable fortune as a merchant in Boston and served as governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, 1730-1741, and governor of New Jersey from 1746 until his death on 31 August 1757. He was also the founder of Princeton University. Governor Belcher and his first wife Mary (Patridge) had six children: Elizabeth, Andrew (b. 1706), Sarah (b. 1708), Jonathan (1710-1776); William (b. 1712) and Thomas (b. 1713). Sarah married Byfield Lyde in 1727. Jonathan received an AB (1728) and AM (1731) from Harvard University and master's degrees from Cambridge University and the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He studied law at the Middle Temple in London, England in 1730 and was called to the English bar in 1734. In 1741 he moved to Dublin where he was eventually appointed deputy secretary to the lord chancellor of Ireland. He remained in Ireland until 1754 when he was appointed the first chief justice of Nova Scotia. He arrived at Halifax in October 1754 and was named a member of the Executive Council. Belcher also served as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia from 1761 to 1763 and Masonic grandmaster of Nova Scotia from 1760 until his death on 30 March 1776, at Halifax. He married Abigail Allen at Boston on 8 April 1756 and had seven children, only two of whom survived to adulthood.

Born in 1903 [Halifax, Nova Scotia?], Dr. Beckwith received his medical training at Dalhousie University and postgraduate training in Montreal and Toronto. His decision to pursue a career in internal medicine and chest diseases was largely due to being ill with tuberculous during his training in Toronto. In 1937, he developed a health unit in Cape Breton, the first of its kind in Nova Scotia. He returned to Halifax after nine years in Cape Breton and became Superintendent of the Halifax Tuberculosis Hospital and a member of the staff at Dalhousie University's Faculty of Medicine, Department of Preventative Medicine. In 1951 he was made Associate Professor of Medicine. In 1956 he became Executive Secretary (full-time) of the MSNS of Nova Scotia. In 1968, he retired, but remained a consultant until his death in 1973. During his career he was president of the Nova Scotia Tuberculosis Association, the Canadian Tuberculosis Association, and the Nova Scotia Rehabilitation Council.

Dr. James Murray Beck, a university professor, researcher and writer, was born in Lunenburg in 1914 to Allan Clyde Beck and Florence Louise Silver. He was educated at Acadia University, Wolfville, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (History) in 1934 and a Master of Arts (History) in 1938. After serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a radar officer during World War II, he returned to Nova Scotia in 1945 and taught veterans preparing to enter university. He resumed his studies at the University of Toronto, obtaining a Master of Arts (Political Science) in 1946 and a Doctor of Philosophy (Political Science) in 1954. Dr. Beck taught political science at the University of Toronto 1948-1950, Acadia University 1950-1952, the Royal Military College of Canada 1952-1963, and Dalhousie University 1963-1980, retiring from Dalhousie in 1980. As a scholar he was well-respected for his research and writing on Nova Scotian and Canadian politics, especially for his books Politics of Nova Scotia, 1985, Joseph Howe Vol. 1: Conservative Reformer 1804-1848, 1982 and Joseph Howe Vol. 2: The Briton Becomes Canadian 1848-1873, 1983. He contributed many articles to Dalhousie Review, Queen’s Quarterly, Acadiensis, Dictionary of Canadian Biography and Encyclopedia Britanica. He served as a member of the Nova Scotia Advisory Committee on Government Institutions and Division of Powers, part of the effort to formulate a position and strategy for Nova Scotia in the Canadian constitutional reform debates of 1991-1992. Dr. Beck received 3 honourary degrees from Dalhousie University (1981), St. Francis Xavier University (1985) and the Royal Military College of Canada (1985). He was the first recipient of the Dalhousie Alumni Award for Teaching Excellence (1980) and he was made a member of the Order of Canada (1995). Dr. Beck died in Halifax on June 30, 2011 at the age of 96.

In the early 1800s the excessive consumption of alcoholic drink in Yarmouth County created a need for some form of temperance reform. -- In the 1820s, after Mr. Trask and Jonathan Raymond had opened taverns in Beaver River, Josiah Porter worried that some residents were drinking to excess. -- Eventually, at Josiah Porter’s instigation, eight men from Beaver River signed a pledge of abstinence, which had been prepared by John Wetmore, who in 1828 was Beaver River’s school teacher. -- The pledge was signed, and the society established, on 28 April 1828 or 25 April 1829. By 1830 the number of signatories had increased from eight to sixty-eight. In 1831 the pledge was amended to include abstinence from wine, except for medical and sacramental uses, and to make the partaking of wine or spirituous liquors for medical purposes without a physician’s prescription a violation of the pledge. -- Other than the pledge and minute book, the constitution or bylaws under which this society operated have long been lost. Initially, according to J. Murray Lawson, it was named the “Beaver River Society”; J. Roy Campbell called it the “Beaver River Temperance Society”. -- Eventually, in 1854, the society changed its name to the Beaver River Total Abstinence Society. -- In the Town of Yarmouth, as elsewhere in Yarmouth County, the Church’s ministers supported and encouraged the temperance movement. For example, Reverend Harris Harding, who was the senior pastor of the First Yarmouth Baptist Church for 57 years, embraced the cause of temperance.

Edward Bayer of Lower Horton, N.S. married H. (Stint) McClelland of County Down, Ireland, ca. 22 March 1864 in Wolfville, N.S. They had a daughter, Lavinia.

Jessie Gertrude (Scott) Battis was born circa 1887, the daughter of George and Elizabeth Scott. She married James Battis on June 28, 1910 in Moncton, New Brunswick. In 1915 they lived in Amherst, Nova Scotia before moving back to Moncton, New Brunswick in 1916, shortly after James enlisted with the army. She carefully kept the letters.

James Sydney Battis was born December 21, 1886 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to Levi and Eliza Battis. He married Jessie Gertrude (Scott) Battis and had 3 children: Margaret, Bill and George. He earned a living as a brakesman with the Intercolonial Railway (ICR) until October 1915, when he volunteered for service as a soldier in the First World War. He joined the Nova Scotia Highlanders, 85th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force with the rank of Private, left Halifax on the S.S. Olympic on October 13, 1916 and arrived in Liverpool, England on October 19, 1916. On February 10, 1917 his unit was sent to Boulogne, France. He was killed in action on June 19, 1917.

Norman Bassett was a railroad ticket agent at Union Station in Indianapolis, Ind. Between 1910 and ca. 1950, he travelled throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico with his wife, Edna, and attended annual conventions for ticket agents. In 1937 the Bassetts travelled to Nova Scotia for the National Convention of the United States Railroad Ticket Agents.

Edna Bassett, of Indianapolis, Ind., was the wife of Norman Bassett, a railroad ticket agent. The Bassetts travelled throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico between 1910 and ca. 1950, and visited Nova Scotia in 1937.

Peter Barss was born on 4 July 1941 and is a descendant of the Barss family of Lunenburg County. He emigrated from Massachusetts in 1973 and has a BA and MA in English Literature from Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He studied photography in 1971-1972 under Lee Broman at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Barss is an accomplished photographer, having operated the Barss Photographic Studio in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia for many years. He is the author of Images of Lunenburg County.

Robert Barry (ca. 1759-1843), an active Methodist, arrived in Nova Scotia from Scotland in 1783. He became a merchant and partner with his brother, Alexander, in the firm A & R Barry. He married Mary Jessop of Delaware (ca. 1770-1832) in 1789 and moved to Liverpool ca. 1810. The Barreys had nine children who survived to adulthood: William Hoosse, Thomas Smart, Samuel John Wesley, John Alexander, Mary Elizabeth, Charlotte Elizabeth Hosse, Ellen, Margaret Cole, and Robert Martin. Margaret Cole Barry (1802-1860), married John Hicks (1790-1843) at Liverpool, N.S. on 16 December 1826. They had eight children: Charlotte (1827-1851), Mary Ellen (1829-1916), John Thomas (1831-1918), Walter (1832-1871), Francenia (b. 1835), Dorival (1837-1901), Albenia (b. 1839), and Robert Alex (1841-1843).

Edward Barron Sr. was a member of the Second Battlion of the 60th Regiment of the Royal Americans in the British Army and served in Quebec during the Battle of the Plains of Abraham under General James Wolfe in 1759. As a result of this service Colonel Barron was granted a large tract of land in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia. The area, situated between Minudie and River Hebert, is now known as Barronsfield in his honour. He subsequently received additional lands from the Athol grant.