A settlement south west of Antigonish located near the West River of
Antigonish, named
after Ohio in the United States.
For many years the name applied to a large district from what is now
Addington Forks to
College Lake. The first settlers came to the Ohio about 1800
being Andrew McInnes,
Donald McPherson, and Angus McGillivray who had emigrated from Moidart,
Scotland,
and had been living at Cape George. Angus McInnes, Sergeant,
John McInnes, Angus
McGillivray and Duncan McLean, Angus and John McInnes, Angus and Donald
McLellan,
John McDonald, Donald McPherson, John O'Brien, Andrew and Donald McInnis,
William McGillivray.
There was a school at Ohio in 1827 and in 1848 James Foley was teaching twenty-six pupils there.
In 1838 David and James Fisher and Peter Jordain had commenced a grist
mill at the upper
part of the Ohio settlement. By 1898 it was a farming settlement
with one store and a population
of 85.
There was a postal way office from 1856 to 1869 when John McDonald was way office keeper.
A Roman Catholic Church called St. Beans was built in 1841. The
mission extended from Marshy
Hope in Pictou County to Wine Harbour in Guysborough County and the
parish priest ministered to
people who had come from Strathglass and Moidart in Scotland and some
Irish families. A new
Church overlooking the lake on the West River was begun in 1867 and
the parish was named
St. Joseph's. The population in 1956 was 103.
OHIO RIVER, Antigonish County
Flows north into West River.