The Inspiration for an Event: The 26th Battalion Overseas Club Dinners

They say there is nothing stronger than the bonds formed on the battlefield, and the men of the 26th Battalion, who were in the thick of every major battle the Canadian Corps faced in the First World War, kept true to theirs for the rest of their lives. The veterans of the 26th Battalion organized the 26th Battalion Overseas Club after the war and held their first reunion ten years later in 1928. They continued to hold them every June 13th, commemorating the day the Battalion sailed for war from Saint John (for at least another 40 years).

We have found two programs from these dinners: one from 1960 (the 45th year since the sailing) and the other from 1966 (the 51st year since the sailing). Both programs follow the traditions of the 26th Battalion and standard military protocol, with the prescribed singing of anthems, the prerequisite toasts and responses and the remembering of those lost to time. The menus included in the programs are similar and both ended with the S.R.D. (Seldom Reaches Destination). What is an S.R.D.? To find out you will have to attend the Commemoration Dinner on Friday, June 12 at 6pm.

Our dinner, inspired by the 1960 45th Anniversary will be following the 1960 menu and program almost to the letter. It will give you a taste of what the men of the 26th Battalion experienced 55 years ago, along with a few additions that will liven up the evening. The Banquet  is also a fund-raiser for the Victory Cannon Campaign, which will help restore the two captured German First World War cannons that sit in the square in Hopewell Cape.

Be sure to grab your tickets early as they are going fast, and seating is limited. It is a great chance to experience a unique dinner and program honouring an important historical event.

PS Tickets are $25.00 each and can be purchased by calling the museum 506-734-2003

A Shipbuilding Past

The Bennett family came from England in 1635 and settled in the Saybrook Colony, a British colony established at the mouth of the Connecticut River.  Zadack (Zadoc) Bennett left Lyme, Connecticut in 1761 with his wife Mary (Mercy) Hackett and their children to settle in Horton, near present day Wolfville, Nova Scotia.  Their 500 acre land holdings included a town lot, a share of dyke land, and two farm lots.
In 1784 Benjamin Bennett, son of Zadoc Bennett, left his new wife in Horton while he went to Hopewell, New Brunswick, to clear land and build a home for his family.  Unfortunately his wife died in 1788 and therefore she never made the journey to join Benjamin in Hopewell.  In 1800 he married his second wife, Rebecca Stevens, of Harvey.  They had several children together.

Half-Model of a Bennett vessel

Benjamin’s brother, George, was the first Bennett in what is now Albert County to build ships.  The 61 ton Schooner ‘Mary and Eliza’ was launched in May 1818.  Several members of the Bennett family followed in the shipbuilding tradition including Benjamin’s and Rebecca’s son, Nathan Murray Bennett.  Nathan’s first registered vessel was the 75 ton Schooner ‘Hopewell’ that was launched in July 1835.  Nathan’s son, Henry John Bennett, joined the family tradition and launched his first vessel, the 680 ton Barque ‘Enoch Arden’, in June 1867.

Half-Model of a Bennett vessel

In all, there were 44 registered vessels built by the Bennett family.  36 of them were built at the family shipyard in Hopewell Cape, 7 in Hillsborough and one in Harvey.  The Bennett shipyard in Hopewell Cape was well equipped with a large boarding house, moulding copts, a blacksmith shop, barns and stables, and a general store.

Henry Bennett, father of Richard Bedford Bennett, is credited as the builder of the last vessel constructed at the Bennett Shipyard, the 298 ton Brigantine ‘Romola’.  It was launched in December 1874 and marked the end of an era for the Bennett family.

Origin of the Species

A group of history minded people from all over Albert County met in Alma to form a group called the Albert County Historical Society.  The Albert County Historical Society was incorporated as a Non-profit organization in New Brunswick in 1957.  The Society held regular meetings to decide how to best preserve the history of the county.  They decided to establish a museum and chose a building in Hillsborough to look at.  A short time later an opportunity arose in the shiretown of Hopewell Cape.  The County Council had recently built a new Municipal Office building so the former offices were now surplus.  It so happened that the President of the Historical Society, Judson Cleveland, was also a member of the County Council.  Arrangements were made for the Historical Society to lease the former Records Office for use as a museum.

Pye Store, Tax Office and Records Office in Hopewell Cape

The Historical Society began collecting artefacts in 1960 to be on display in the museum.  After some modifications were made to the Records Office, including removal of the stone wall between the two sections of the vault, the Albert County Museum was opened to the public in 1962.

Later that year, after an act of council to exhume the body of Thomas F. Collins was completed, the Albert County Gaol was sold to the Society for use as a permanent museum.  Modifications were made to open up the Gaolkeeper’s apartment rooms for use as galleries as well as upgrades to the electrical service.  When the museum opened for the season in 1965, it was in the Gaol.

All County Councils were dissolved in December 1966 and all assets became the property of the province of New Brunswick.  In 1972 the Albert County Court House was sold to the Historical Society and opened to the public as part of the museum in 1975.  The County Records Office, Tax Office and the Carriage Shed associated with them was also sold to the Historical Society in 1972 in the same transaction as the Court House, but these other buildings were only used as storage.

The Historical Society saw the growing need for space to properly display and interpret the industrial aspects of the county so they obtained funding over the first few years of the 1980’s to build the Exhibition Hall.  It was built in three stages with the last piece completed in 1983.

In 2003, the boards of directors for the Hopewell Cape Community Hall and the Silver Jubilee Lodge & Library both decided to merge with the Historical Society in the hope of being able to preserve the buildings.

After several years of effort the Historical Society was finally able to secure funding for an entire site redevelopment in 2007.  Over the next 3 years the $1.4 Million project saw all of the buildings refurbished.  In 2010 the revitalized Albert County Museum was officially opened.  It now consists of eight buildings featuring 22 themed galleries that tell the stories of “The People of the Tides” – the human and industrial history of Albert County.

The Symbols of New Brunswick

I was putting up the red ensign flag on top of the Court House today and realized something about it didn’t correspond to the information I had been told recently about the New Brunswick flag.  To make this bizarre brainwave connection that occurred in my head easier to follow, I should back up a little and provide some background information.

The province of New Brunswick declared February 9 to 16, 2015 to be Heritage Week.  The theme this year was “Hope Restored”, which is the English translation of the provincial Latin motto “Spem Reduxit.”  2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the national flag of Canada and the unveiling of the flag of New Brunswick.  The poster for Heritage Week this year incorporates both the motto and flag.

Our provincial flag, unveiled in 1965, bears the unique ship atop blue and white waves and a yellow lion on a red background.  These symbols also represent New Brunswick in the crest on the red ensign that was the flag of Canada from Confederation in 1868 until 1921.  The dates don’t match up!  So what’s the story?

Never wanting to let an educational opportunity pass by my son, I decided to ask him.  He set upon the task and with his skills as a teenager and access to the internet he came back to me with the answer in less than three minutes.

The symbols depicted on the flag are taken from the Coat of Arms assigned by Royal Warrant of Queen Victoria on May 26, 1868. They are a gold lion on a red field across the top and an ancient galley with its oars in action across the base.

With a little more digging I found a bit more information about the origin of these symbols.  In his book The Flags of Canada, Alistair B. Fraser states: “Many symbols of New Brunswick date from the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783 and its establishment as a separate colony in 1784.  The great seal deputed to the new colony the following year bore the motto Spem Reduxit and an illustration of a ship, both of which spoke of the Loyalists' journey to return to life under the British crown.

By the time New Brunswick entered Confederation as one of the founding provinces in 1867, the symbol of the ship had taken on an additional meaning.  The province now boasted a significant ship-building industry, so when arms were assigned in 1868 a conventional heraldic ship, or lymphad, was placed on them in apparent acknowledgment of this.  The shield of arms also bore a golden lion identical to one of the royal lions of England, but with the possibly additional allusion to the same lion found on the arms of the German Duchy of Brunswick (at the time ruled by King George III), after which the province was named.

In 1870, the arms of New Brunswick were officially incorporated into not only the badge on the flag of the lieutenant-governor, but also on the quartered badges on the governor general's flag and the Canadian Blue Ensign.  It also appeared unofficially on the Canadian Red Ensign until that too was approved in 1892.”

So now I understand why the symbols from the relatively new provincial flag also appears on the much older red ensign that flies proudly on top of the Albert County Court House.

On a side note, my son and I proceeded to discuss the fact that the symbols of New Brunswick include elements that are English, Scottish and German, but not French.  Interesting.

It was this day 100 years ago that John McCrae Wrote his Immortal Poem

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It was this day 100 years ago that Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote his immortal peom. He was inspired to write it on May 3, 1915, after presiding over the funeral of friend and fellow soldier Alexis Helmer, who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. According to legend, fellow soldiers retrieved the poem after McCrae, initially dissatisfied with his work, discarded it. "In Flanders Fields" was first published on December 8 of that year in the London-based magazine Punch.

It is one of the most popular and most quoted poems from the war. As a result of its immediate popularity, parts of the poem were used in propaganda efforts and appeals to recruit soldiers and raise money selling war bonds. Its references to the red poppies that grew over the graves of fallen soldiers resulted in the remembrance poppy becoming one of the world's most recognized memorial symbols for soldiers who have died in conflict.

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

Now that's a story worth sharing!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons that sit in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

A Sticky Situation at the Albert County Museum

The Albert County Museum has many stories to be told.  In our display called ‘Wonderful Winter’ we have several artefacts that help tell one such story: Maple Syrup!

The Natives were the first to harvest sap to make maple syrup in Albert County.  To extract the sap from the maple trees, the natives would cut an upward slash in the tree and place a reed or sliver of wood in the cut.  The sap would run up the tree, get stopped by the reed then follow the reed out and drip into a birch bark container called a cassa.  The cassas would also be used to evaporate the sap down to make syrup.  They would heat rocks in a fire then place the cassa on the hot rocks to heat the liquid inside.  It was a long process but eventually enough of the water would evaporate away leaving a delicious sweet syrup.

When the French and then subsequently the English settled in Albert County, natives taught them how to extract maple syrup and use it as food.  The first commercial production of maple syrup in Albert County was in the early 1840’s by the Colpitts family.  In their first year of production they gathered enough sap to produce 6200 pounds of maple sugar.  All the sap was gathered in birch bark cassas!  The annual output of maple sugar from the Parish of Elgin was approximately 80,000 pounds.  (1851 Census data.)  It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.  It takes one gallon of syrup to make 8 pounds of Maple Sugar.  When you do the math that means that 400,000 gallons of sap were collected to make the 80,000 pounds of sugar.

The cassas were replaced with tin in the 1800’s.  Tin rusts so it was replaced by what was called English tin.  The welds of English tin contain lead and some cans were even lined with lead to keep them from rusting.  Galvanized metal was developed in the early 1900’s after discovering the harmful effects of the lead-lined English tin.  The lids for the cans were developed shortly after the galvanized metal cans.  The first lids were just cut metal but because the edges were sharp they started rolling the edges.  The sap would be transferred from the cans to carrying buckets and then poured into the gathering tank.

The large gathering tank would be placed on a sled and drawn by a horse.  The inverted conical shape of the top is to allow the sap to be poured from the sap cans and it would run down to the center and through the filters to remove any twigs or debris that fell in the open cans.  The shape also prevents the sap from splashing out of the top opening as it is being transported over uneven snow.

The sap was brought to large storage tanks where it could then feed into the evaporator.  The large evaporator on display at the museum was brand new in 1950.  It is a commercial sized evaporator that cannot be used today because it is made of English tin.  Today’s health regulations require stainless steel.  The sap flows in through the pipe to boil in the large vat.  The flow is controlled by the float.  As the water evaporates and the level drops, the float opens the pipe to allow more sap in.  The large vat is ‘fluted’ to create a much larger surface area for heat transfer therefore increasing the efficiency.  As it boils down, the sap transfers to the smaller vat by a float control as well.  In the smaller vat the sap flows through each section as the density changes until it is ready to bottle.

The cauldron beside the evaporator is another way of boiling sap down to syrup for families that just wanted to make their own supply.  It would be suspended over an open fire as depicted in the picture.

The picture relates to Eastman Steeves and his family’s sugar camp in Rosevale, Albert County (the back side of Caledonia Mountain.)

After syrup is made it can be boiled down further to make maple candy or maple sugar.  This was usually done in a large pan on a cook stove.  Maple candy is made by boiling syrup to a specific temperature then taking it outside and pouring it over the snow.

The sugar camp where most of the equipment on display came from did not have a thermometer so they found a very unique stick that branches out in four directions from a single point creating fingers where they would place a snowball and then dip it in the boiling syrup.  If the candy formed properly on the snowball, they knew it was ready.

When making maple sugar it naturally wants to form lumps, a masher would be used to mash the lumps out.  Once the sugar was ready it would be placed in maple sugar moulds – ½ pound and 1 pound sizes were popular for commercial resale.  Wood paddles were used for working the sugar into the moulds.  Maple sugar and maple cream are actually the same thing.  When rationing of sugar was introduced in Canada during WW II maple sugar producers decided to change the name from sugar to cream so that it would not be subject to rationing.

Museum's 2015 Special Events Calendar - Something For Everyone!

May 6, 2015 (Wednesday)

Anglophone East School District Regional Heritage Fair

Public viewing of student projects 2:00pm -3:30pm

Awards Ceremony in Courthouse 3:30pm

Mother's Day Supper

May 10, 2015 (Sunday) at 6:00pm

Garlic Roasted Chicken Breast Dinner

Advance Tickets $12 (no tickets at door)

Farmer's and Crafter's Market

May 16th to October 10th, 2015 (Every Saturday)

9:00am-1:00pm

Local foods and crafts...grown, harvested and made right

here in Albert County. Breakfast available 9:00am-12 noon.

Official Museum & Market Opening

May 16, 2015 (Saturday)

Come out to celebrate the start of another season.

Mystery Box Talks

Last Friday of Each Month (May-September) 7:30PM

Treasures from the Vault. What's in the box? We don't know!

100th Anniversary Dinner for the 26th Battalion Sailing

June 12, 2015 (Friday) 6:00pm

Fundraising for Victory Cannon Campaign

Advance tickets $25.00 (no tickets at door)

Commemoration of 100th Anniversary (to the day)

Departure of 26th Battalion June 13, 1915 from Saint John

June 13, 2015 (Saturday) 2:00pm-5:30pm

Royal New Brunswick Regiment and RCMP Pipes and Drums Band Parade

Father's Day Supper

June 21, 2015 (Sunday) at 6:00pm

Treat Dad to a delicious lasagna dinner.

Advance Tickets $12 (no tickets at door)

Fifth Annual R. B. Bennett Day

July 4, 2015 (Saturday)

9am - 4:00pm (FREE ADMISSION)

Come celebrate the birthday of Canada's 11th Prime Minister

Quilt Show & Sale (Admission $2.00)

July 7 to 11, 2015 (Tuesday - Saturday)

9:30am – 5:30pm

Display & sale of hand crafted quilts and goods.

NB Day Lobster Supper

August 3, 2015 (Monday)

Community Hall 5:00pm-8:00pm

Advance Tickets $25 (also tickets at door)

Royalty Tea

August 12, 2015 (Wednesday)

2:00pm

Advance Tickets $12 (no tickets at door)

Antique Road Show

September 20, 2015 (Sunday)

2:00pm – 4:00pm

Have your antiques appraised

($5.00 per item or 3 for $10.00)

Albert County Historical Society

Annual General Meeting

October 15, 2015 (Thursday)

7:30pm in Community Hall

Christmas Concert

November 21 (Saturday) & 22, 2015 (Sunday)

Festive music, singing, dancing, drama & refreshments

Sat. Nov. 21 at 7:00pm Sun. Nov. 22 at 2:00pm

Advance tickets $12.00

98th Anniversary Update - Vimy Ridge and the Victory Cannon Campaign

It was 98 years ago today, (April 9, 1917)  that the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) fought the Battle of Vimy Ridge. It was the first time the Canadian Corp fought together as a single unit and achieved the first Allied Victory of the War. It was also the day the 27th Battalion captured the K14 10.5cm Cannon that sits in Hopewell Cape Square, which the people of Albert County won in the 1919 Victory Loans Competition for raising the greatest percentage over their target anywhere in New Brunswick. The County raised almost 3 times their goal of $110,000.00 with a realized sum of $317,000.00 (6.92 million in today's dollars). 

So today while we pause and remember the sacrifices of the Canadians on that day almost 100 years ago, it's fitting to give an update on our own campaign to restore their captured trophy. The Victory Cannon Campaign has raised $4704.40 to date of a goal of $15000.00, we are within arms reach of 1/3 of our goal. So please donate. CLICK TO DONATE

The cannon wheels are in the process of being restored, our Wheelwright Mike Hartigan has been kind enough to send some photos of his progress. 

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Old spokes on new oak blanks, this is where we set the pattern for all the other spokes. One of the hubs and some felloe sockets are in the background.

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Roughing out a spoke on the bandsaw removing excess wood.

Marking out the rough cuts for the cheeks on the hub end of the spoke.

Rough cut spokes laid out in front of their intended new home.

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Practice spoke blank mounted on the lathe.

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Rough turned spoke ready for finishing.  Each of the 24 required spokes will be individually shaped by hand using a spoke shave.

Cracking the stud nuts on the hub.  Some of them are really on there! 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons that sit in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Reconnecting With the Heroes of the Past - A Modern Marvel

Did you know that the Canadian Government is in the process of digitizing all the Great War Service Records? It is a fantastic way to reconnect with the men who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War One. All you need to know is the full name of someone who served and plug it into the search fields. 

During a recent search I was able to find the service records for my Great-Grandfather who joined the 116th Ontario County Battalion on September 15, 1915.  He was transferred to the 18th Battalion (Western Ontario)  on arrival in France. He fought at Vimy Ridge and was wounded on August 15, 1917 at the Battle of Hill 70, with gun shot wound to the right arm. After healing from that he was sent back to the front and was wounded again on June 2, 1918 by a high velocity shell fragment to his chest and his back. This wound ended his fighting days at the front, and he was eventually discharged on January 28, 1919. 

The interesting thing is that there is a wealth of secondary information found in these documents, like the address he was living at. Which I was able to plug into Google and find the house which still stands. The papers also listed that his father was deceased but his mother was still living, giving her address too. We also know how much he weighed, his height (5'3"), hair colour, eye colour, etc. it's an amazing way to touch base with your ancestors.  

Not every soldier has the full service records digitized yet, but the least they will have is the Attestation Papers, where they signed up to the C.E.F.. Keep checking back to the site because they add complete records all the time, and there is a spot to request documents. 

You can find the site at Library and Archives Canada HERE. 

As a footnote the 18th Battalion fought with the 2nd Division, where both the 26th New Brunswick Battalion and the 27th Winnipeg Battalion who captured the gun that sits in Hopewell Cape fought. It all ties in. 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

The More You Dig the Better the Story.

The large 10.5 Cm K14 German Cannon that sits in the square in Hopewell Cape, was captured at Vimy Ridge, April 9, 1917, and was won by the Citizens of Albert County during the Victory Loans Campaign of 1919 for raising the greatest percentage of monies over their set goal. They raised $317,000.00 almost tripling their goal of $110,000.00. Now that is a pretty impressive resume for a gun, but the story gets better. 

One of the consequences of the massive artillery bombardment during the attack on Vimy Ridge, was the absolute destruction of the terrain, and this coupled with the rain and snow made the ground almost impassable with mud. Once the Canadians gained control of their objectives they tried to move their artillery forward but found the ground just swallowed up the massive artillery pieces. At the end of day two of the battle (April 10), only a few pieces had been moved forward enough to be of any service. 

The Canadians then seized some of the captured German guns and put them into action.  The 6th Canadian Artillery Brigade records sending up a heavy artillery crew to put the K14 in action. In the War Diaries of the 27th Battalion it records several thousand rounds being sent back to the Germans on the guns they captured. It is also recorded in the War Trophies Allocation Report of 1920 that the cannon was used by the RGA. 

So not only was the gun used by the Germans against the Canadians, but the Canadians turned the gun around and used it against the Germans. There are not many guns in existence who fought on  both sides during the war. 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!

Location, Location Location - Location is Everything!

How many times have you heard the adage "Location, Location Location - Location is Everything!" well in terms of Real Estate it couldn't be truer, but it's also true in the telling of history. Take for example the captured German 10.5cm K14 Cannon located in the square in Hopewell Cape, not only do we know what battle it was captured in, and who captured it, but we know the exact location on the battlefield where it was captured, and can visit that location today via the web. 

We have to thank the men of the 27th Battalion for keeping such detailed records of their accomplishments on that snowy day in April almost 100 years ago. From their Battalion diaries, in the Intelligence Summary we see the cannon with the serial number 590 was captured at B8.a6.7.1/2 on the Thelus N.E. 1/10000 map. (The map is shown in the photo gallery). Once we find the spot on the map, we can then correlate it to a modern map via Google Earth, and can almost pinpoint it's location today. 

If we look at the large map we can see the road still has the same curve, the forest is still there on the right, and the left. The basic flora and topography of the map in 1917 is the same today.  Then we zoom in to road level we can see that where a tool of mass destruction stood in 1917, a child's playground now stands.  It's amazing that we know so much about an event that happened almost 100 years ago. 

Now that's a story worth saving!

The Victory Cannon Campaign is raising funds to restore the two captured World War One cannons situated in the square in Hopewell Cape. These cannons were captured by Canadians during the Great War, and were awarded to the people of Albert County. You can donate online to the Victory Cannon Campaign here, and best of all you'll be sent a tax receipt!  Click Here to Donate!