LOCATION:
The community is situated just off Highway #7.
WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Montague Gold Mines, like Minesville, draws its name
from the discovery of gold, this time by prospector Ben Clarke in
1863.
SETTLEMENT HISTORY:
The community's origins go back to the Honorable
Charles Morris, Surveyor-General of Nova Scotia, who received a land
grant not long after the Loyalists began to arrive in Nova Scotia in
the early 1780s. With the help of local young people, Mr. Morris
built a summer home on a 900-acre estate to the east of Lake Loon.
The home remained in the Morris family for many years.
The settlement remained small until the discovery of
gold in the 1860s. After the mines were depleted a few years later,
the community turned to lumbering and farming.
TRUE STORY:
In 1845, retired Lieutenant Colonel George F.
Thompson of the Royal Engineers bought the Morris residence. He
arrived with his wife, children, and an invalid aunt who died
shortly afterwards and was buried in the Catholic Cemetery on Geary
Street. The burial startled residents who knew the good Colonel to
be an Anglican. Nothing was done, however, until military officers
who had known the family while they resided in Barbados arrived in
Halifax and realized something was amiss.
An order was given to exhume the body and hold an
inquest. Then the true story came out. The aunt was Catherine
Thompson, the Colonel's wife. The family had lived through an
insurrection in Barbados during which Catherine had witnessed the
murder of her baby son. Unable to deal with such a horror, she went
insane. Meanwhile, the Thompson's housekeeper Mary Taylor, the widow
of one of Colonel Thompson's sergeants, suggested that she would
care for Catherine if the Colonel would treat her as his wife. The
family then moved to Nova Scotia, hoping the hoax would never be
discovered. After the story came out, Catherine's body was returned
to Geary Cemetery, and ultimately thereafter the Thompson family
left for unknown parts.
MONTAGUE GOLD MINES TODAY:
Today the community is a small residential area with
easy access to Dartmouth.
"one City...Many Communities" co -
published BY Halifax Regional Municipality AND Nimbus, funded BY
the HRM Millennium Committee.Author : Alfreda Withrow
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©
1999-2004 by Halifax County NS Canada GenWeb and/or it's contributors
RETURN
TO NOVA SCOTIA GENWEB
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Halifax County Genweb Project
gratefully acknowledges the following sources:
Historical Information on many
community pages is from : One
City...Many Communities" co - published by Halifax Regional
Municipality and Nimbus, funded By the HRM Millennium
Committee.Author : Alfreda Withrow.
Mapeeze: Free map linking on
Destination Nova Scotia.
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