Hearts in the Past Background Notes i The Kavanagh Ships The Kavanagh Merchant fleet consisted of up to a dozen vessels at the height of their enterprise, many built on Isle Madame by John Landrie or in St Peter's by John Bona. They worked the lakes and the bay around St Peter's, made trips to the Grand Banks and the West Indies and back. Many local men worked aboard as sailors and fishermen, and on shore as labourers and servants for the Kavanaghs... ii Coopertown Laurence Kavanagh Junior was the reason many tradesmen and craftsmen settled at St Peter's in the early part of the 1800s. Coopers were in high demand for tubs and barrels to store salted fish and meat and butter in. Fellow Irishmen like Patrick Power and Peter Shanahan arrived along with James St John and my ancestor George Stone (Newfoundland). They all settled between the southern bay shore and Lynche's River to the east. So much so that the stretch of road was known in the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900s as Coopertown... iii The Marion In the 1880s the Bras d'or Lakes Steam Navigation Company purchased an old Hudson River boat for service on the lakes between North Sydney, Baddeck, St Peter's, Isle Madame and Mulgrave, where it met the mail train. For forty years she made the trip three times a week, passing through the locks at St Peter's Canal, where a widower named Dan B. Stone was the lockman for a number of years. He lost his first wife and had three young children to care for. Working aboard was one Catherine McKinnon, whose sister wed one of Dan's cousins. In 1905 she and Dan married...maybe the first "Love Boat"
iv Donald Campbell & his Faerie Bow The son of Argyllshire fiddler and former revolutionary soldier John Campbell, Donald was known (still is) as one of the greatest fiddlers to ever rosin a bow - perhaps a bow blessed by the faeries we are told. The story goes that Donald encountered "the wee folk" and they gave him a bow and told him three generations of fine fiddlers would be the result. Well six generations since then the fiddlers and musicians are still great like Dwayne Cote and Roger Stone and others. Some claim it was John Campbell who encountered the wee folk in Scotland when he was a boy. The truth is Donald and his father and his son Angus (1840-1907) played in an open tuning that produced a sound similar to the pipes. At parties when ask to share his fiddle - he would always mess up the tuning pegs so the person would have to adjust it back to standard. But he'd never lend them his bow... v James Beaver Chelsea England born in the latter part of the 1700s, James Beaver came to Nova Scotia after his military time ended. His land petition for 1818 tells a wonderful and sad story of his plight at the time. He first married to a descendant of the McNab's Island Kuhns and settled at Ship Harbour on the Eastern Shore. After Anna Maria's death and numerous children he married a Mary McGrath and followed their sons and several daughters to Cape Breton Island, where they squatted on land at River Tear (west of St Peter's) with the permission of the widowed owner Harris. The widows daughter married an Irish Blacksmith named William Toole and he promptly sought a "ticket" for the land from council in Sydney with the help of his employer - the politician/merchant Kavanagh...Beaver lost out...
vi The Malcolms Malcolm McDonald (according to several land petitions) left the island of South Uist (Long Island as they called it) in 1790 aboard a ship named the Lucy with his parents and some siblings, bound to PEI and eventually Cape Breton. The Clanranald Estates people were forced to choose between staying at home and converting to the Presbyterian faith from Catholicism by the clan Chief. Over 900 left between 1790 and 1791 alone. Known around home as "the Malcolms", they married into many of the pioneer families like the fiddling Campbells (Malcolm's sister Catherine) and others over several generations... vii The Sweet River Tear Growing up, the small river that empties into St Peter's Bay about a mile or so to the west of the village was called River Tillard. land Petitions, old maps and church records refer to it for generations as the River Tear, which ends at Tillard Point. It begins several miles to the west at Mountain Lake in the Seaview area. At one time it was home to dozens of families - many of them Irish and many Revolutionary War loyalists... viii Jerome Point Light With the successful construction of the St Peter's Canal and it's opening in 1869, and subsequent reconstruction between 1871 and 1876, the powers that be realized another thing was necessary now - a lighthouse at Jerome Point (Battery Point). The Jerome Point name was given when the area was under French control and known as Port Toulouse. The British Battery built on the hill above to defend against possible attacks from American troops during the War of 1812 (Fort Dorchester) saw the point being renamed. The lighthouse was an important part of the "harbour' during the busy years of the late 1800s and early 1900s" many vessels passed through on their way to the Bras d'or lakes or the fishing grounds off Cape Breton and Newfoundland. The final family of keepers of the light were McNeils, connected to the pioneer Stones, Shanahans and others...
ix Ranold Cricket Another of the many McDonald families that settled the area in the early 1800s, arrived from the Antigonish area. At least two sons and one daughter (and possibly the parents) of Allan McDonald and Mary McInnis settled in the Grand Greve area. One son Angus married into the Malcolms. The other son Ranold, wed a Sarah McDonald for the L'Ardoise area. They had several sons and daughters, who lived along the shore of the bay to the east of the old Kavanagh land. The oldest Allan Ranold was also known as Allan Cricket. His brother John was known as John the Dancer McDonald. A sister Kit Randall married into the Stones - as did Allan. The children of Allan Ranald and wife Mary Stone were also called Crickets. No one knows why. Their oldest son Ranold Anthony became a barber and was well known. he lived near to the canal and his daughter Beatrice worked the barber shop with him. Several oh er sons and daughters with PEI native Percy Hayter still live in the area. x John Jackson John Jackson worked a servant for Laurence Kavanagh, as well as a sailor and fisherman on his ships and jack of all trades according to the Kavanagh ledgers. Born in Hull England, Jackson came to Cape Breton about 1814 or so. He married one of Malcolm McDonald's daughters - Mary and petitioned for land beside Malcolm's on the north side of the Bras d'or channel in St Peter's. They had a large family and the area they resided at is still referred to as Jacksonville...Their sons were mostly mariners. xi The Shanahan Bankers The Shanahans at St Peter's originated with cooper Peter who married the daughter of another cooper Patrick Power. He originally settled in the Port Malcolm, Walkerville area along with a sister Mary Shanahan Flood. He and Betsey Power had at least one son Paddy who married into the first branch of the Stones. Paddy and wife Mary Stone had several sons who were farmers and fishermen, and like many went to sea after the spring planting and returned for the fall harvest and then went winter fishing out of Gloucester MA. One day a prominent Halifax banker was passing through the village and stopped for
a meal. When asked what his profession was, one of the locals told him he should drop in at the Shanahan home on the way to Sydney, as they were fine Bankers.