Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Watson Smith (ca1865-1953), merchant and tinsmith, was born at Folly Mountain, Colchester County, Nova Scotia in circa 1865 to Sydney Smith and Agnes (Rae) Smith. He married Jeanetta “Nettie” Allison Blair (ca1867-1963) on October 28, 1890 in Nappan, Cumberland County, NS, daughter of Harriet and Colonel William Blair, Member of the NS Legislative Assembly for Colchester County 1878-1886 and Superintendent of Dominion Experimental Farm at Nappan 1888-1896. Watson and Nettie lived at Acadia Mines, then settled in Shubenacadie, Hants County, NS in 1895 where Watson opened his tinsmith shop and hardware store. They had four children: Cullen Blair (b.1891), Alfred (b.1893), Jeanetta “Jennie” May (b.1897) and Harry Victor (1903-2002). Both Cullen and Harry worked with their father at the Watson Smith & Sons Hardware and Tinsmith Metal Shop and ran the business after Watson’s death in 1953.
It appears Alfred died in childhood. Jennie became a nurse. Cullen married Gwendolyn F. Lynch on September 1, 1915 in Shubenacadie and had four children: Cullen Jr., Kathleen, Blair and Donne. He worked at the family business until retirement in 1964.
Harry, the youngest son of Watson and Nettie, was a mechanic and inventor prior to the Second World War. He patented a car turning signal in 1930, and built his own version of a snowmobile. He was a member of the Chebucto Road Flying Club in Halifax, 1932-1934. From 1940 to 1944 Harry volunteered with First Canadian F Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force and served at Topcliff and York in the United Kingdom as an air frame mechanic, earning the rank of sergeant in 1943. Upon his return to Canada, he resumed work in the family business, taking over from Cullen from 1964 until he closed it in ca1982. He donated the building to the Village of Shubenacadie as a museum. Harry never married but kept in close contact with his brother Cullen’s children. He died in Shubenacadie in 2002.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Maintained by
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
2018-02-28 created
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
The contents of the fonds.
Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics database https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/ accessed October 11, 2017.
Canadian Census 1901, 1911, from Library and Archives Canada website http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx accessed October 11, 2017.
“The Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia 1758-1983” in PDF from Nova Scotia Legislature website http://nslegislature.ca/pdfs/about/b10537582.pdf accessed October 11, 2017.
Maintenance notes
Karen White