projets

Information from E. L. Eaton,

The Sheffield Farm and Other Properties in Cornwallis Township.(unpub.1961)
- ..."That what is now known as Sheffield Mills was the site of the early Chase industrial enterprise is further established in Book 1, page 351, 1772, where Colonel Jonathan Shearman bought for £18 "One fourth of the Mills Montique or otherwise Chase's Mills -- on the River little Habutunque at the branches thereof". This was obviously an attempt to give an English spelling to the French pronunciation of the word Habitant. Moreover, the only sizeable "branches thereof" are where the drainage basin from Pereau and Woodside joins the one from Centreville. It seems probable therefore, that the French operated a mill here prior to the expulsion and it is quite possible that the same is true for the Westhaver meadow."..
  - Extracted from The Research Branch Property at Upper Canard
- .."In the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association annual report for 1892, page 86, the then secretary, the scholarly Robert W. Starr, published a paper «The French in Kings County - Their Works» in which he identified the property under this name"..."The probabilities are that the first enclosure was that on what was formerly known as the Nesbitt farm near Upper Dyke Village. On a small brook coming from the north was a marsh of some extent, and just north of the present road where the low points of the upland come together they built a small aboiteau and a few rods of dyke which enclosed about forty acres of prime land"... "The greatest number of French apple trees now in existence in the county are to be found near Upper Dyke and Upper Canard"..
  - Extracted from The Research Branch Property at Upper Canard
- ."The old French road which served the Canard settlement was a winding, devious path, skirting the dyke on the south and then swinging inland to cross the many inlets or creeks."..
  - Extracted from Settlement by the New England Planters

.. "adjoining the mill land near the old french bridge over the west branch of the River Habutung, bounded on the east partly on a highway or old French Road, and partly by land laid out to Stephen Chase Junior".
- Extracted from The Mill Story at Sheffield Mills
..."The adjoining lot on the west, Number Eight, was draughted by Nathaniel Hatch, and from the subsequent records it is evident that the Nathaniel Hatch and Eaton grants are part of the farm at present owned by William E. Newcomb, in the Upper Dyke Village. At the price paid it is doubtful if any new buildings had been erected on the Eaton lot, although the remnants of the French occupation were here and some of them may have remained."..
- Extracted from The Eaton and Burbidge Draughts
.."A small apple orchard, set by the French, was on this property, also a house and barn. The purchase price of £60 suggests that the building could not have been very valuable and, like the orchard, may have remained from the French occupation."..
- Extracted from The Eaton and Burbidge Draughts
..."Under the French regime the village of Canard was relatively populous and during the first century of the English occupation business and local industry followed somewhat the same pattern..."
- Extracted from Upper Canard