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Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1892-2001 (Creation)
- Creator
- Watson Smith family
Physical description area
Physical description
51 cm of textual records (4 boxes)
790 photographs: black and white, colour, prints, negatives, postcards; 20 x 30 cm or smaller (6 boxes).
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical 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.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of correspondence (1928-2001), diaries (1892-1893, 1900-1980 with gaps), notebooks (1940-1944) and photographs (ca1894-2001) documenting rural life in early 20th century Shubenacadie, as well as the experiences of Harry Smith while stationed at a Royal Canadian Air Force base in England during the Second World War.
Most correspondence files relate to Harry Smith, and include letters he wrote to his mom, dad and sister while serving overseas, letters Harry received from friends during and after the War, and letters Harry wrote to his brother Cullen’s son Donne in the 1990s. Some correspondence files are of Cullen and Gwen Smith to their son Donne (1963-1977).
The diaries were kept daily by Watson Smith (1900, 1942-1945, 1949-1951) giving short entries on the weather, jobs being done by different members of family, and whether business was slow or brisk that day; sporadic entries by Cullen (1927, 1958, 1975-1976, 1980) on the weather and visits from family and friends; and daily entries by Jeanetta for all of 1949, and first six months of 1966 on her daily housework, cooking, church attendance and family members’ activities and illnesses. There is also one diary with cryptic one or two-line entries from Thomas B. Lynch, an ancestor of Cullen’s wife Gwen (1892-1893).
The notebooks were written by Harry during WWII and contain technical information on airplanes, names of maintenance crews and pilots, and statistics for their Squadron, as well as jokes, short stories, and comments from bicycling around England on his days off.
Most photographs were taken by Harry and depict pilots, officers and soldiers on and off duty, airplanes, Harry’s accommodations and bicycle while in the United Kingdom. Other photographs include family and places in Shubenacadie such as the family store, churches, and the war monument, Harry’s machine-building projects, and the former Halifax Airport on Chebucto Road.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Records acquired by Nova Scotia Archives in 2017 through private donation by Barbara Smith of St. Andrew’s, New Brunswick, great-granddaughter of Watson Smith.
Arrangement
Arrangement is by individual family member, in loose chronological order.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
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Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
See Nova Scotia Archives’ Services page for information on copying, reproduction, and use of materials.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Additional letters, photographs and documents of Harry Smith, as well as his uniform, were donated to Juno Beach Centre, Canada's Second World War Museum and Cultural Centre in Normandy, France by Barbara Smith in 2006.
General note
Included 3 published books on history of Colchester County and a Lunenburg, NS Fisheries Exhibition and Reunion program for 1953, now in NSA Reference Library.