GRAND MIRA TIDBITS
The Nova Scotia Doers and Dreamers Guide features everything you need to know to plan and enjoy your vacation in Canada's Ocean Playground.
UCCB To Confer Honorary Degree During 2001 Convocation Ceremonies
Marion Honora MacKinnon received the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
MacKinnon completed qualifications as a teacher in the province of Nova Scotia before she was even old enough to hold a teacher's license.
She accepted her first posting at the one-room school in Baleine in September of 1930, at just sixteen years of age.
During her 45-year educational career, MacKinnon spent most of her time as a teaching principal, combining administrative and classroom duties, while still finding time each year to coach Grand Mira children in the art of public speaking, for both local and provincial competitions.
A mother of 14 children herself, MacKinnon was a dedicated member of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, serving for twenty-three years on the Board of Directors of the Teachers' Union Credit Union.
Recognizing that rural teachers had particular needs and interests, she provided leadership in the formation of a Union local for rural teachers and served as the local's first woman president.
She is a charter member of the St. Margaret's Parish Ladies Auxillary and was organist and choir director in Grand Mira South for more than 35 years.
She was General Leader of the Grand Mira 4H club for 65 years -- the longest, sustained individual leadership in the province.
An Interview with Rosemary McCormack from Scotland
I remember when I had been in Cape Breton about a year, Joe Neil MacNeil took me to visit some people that were related to me in Grand Mira.
They were Curries whose ancestors had come from South Uist.
I think there were three brothers who had come over around 1840. So they were cousins of mine.
I met up with them and I met a connection of theirs that lived in Sydney.
Looking at their family photographs, and listening to them talk, and looking at themselves and their faces ‹ they were my family.
It was quite amazing. We went through their photograph albums and they were saying this is so-and-so Currie from Grand Mira, and I was seeing Allan Currie from Loch Carnan and Jean Currie from Loch Boisdale and Duncan Currie from Loch Boisdale and photographs of people who looked exactly like my mother.
And they had the same sense of humor, they had the same slant on things and the same mannerisms Š they even had the same family names running down through their family here on this side of the Atlantic as we had in our family.
http://www.gaelcast.com/?page_id=60
Marion Gertrude Huntington was born in Grand Mira on Jan. 07, 1864, and died on Dec. 10, 1935 in Homeville, Nova Scotia. She was buried in Christ Church Cemetery, South Head, Nova Scotia. She married on Jan. 05, 1892 in Grand Mira, Robert Nelson Spencer
Cape Breton South (federal electoral district)
Cape Breton South was a federal electoral district in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, that was represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1904 to 1911 and from 1925 to 1968.
This riding was created in 1903 from Cape Breton riding. It consisted of the southern part of the county of Cape Breton, i.e., the districts of Balls Creek Bateston, Big Pond, Bridgeport, Catalone, Dominion No. 1 and Reverse Mines, Fast Bay (South), Gabarus, Grand Mira, Hillside, Loch Lomond, Louisbourg, Main-à-Dieu, Port Morien, Sydney Forks, Trout Creek, Victoria Mines and Lingan, and the towns of Glace Bay, Louisbourg and Sydney.
It was abolished in 1914 when it was merged into Cape Breton South and Richmond.
It was created again in 1924 from Cape Breton South and Richmond. The new riding consisted of the part of the County of Cape Breton not included in the electoral district of Cape Breton North-Victoria and lying north of a line described as commencing in Mira Bay and following the Mira River and Mira Lake to Marion Bridge, the Mira Road to the Morley Road, the Morley Road to the main road between St. Peters and Sydney, that road to the road leading to East Bay and Gillisville, and that road to the waters of East Bay.
It 1933, it was redefined to cosist of the part of the county of Cape Breton contained in the municipal districts of Dominion No. 6 (No. 11), Hillside (No. 3), Lingan (No. 20), Port-Morien (No. 12), Reserve Mines (No. 1) and South Forks (No. 18), and including the city of Sydney and the towns of Glace Bay, New Waterford and Dominion. In 1947, it was redefined to exclude Hillside and South Forks.
http://www.answers.com/topic/cape-breton-south-federal-electoral-district
Grand Mira Rural Telephone Company
The Grand Mira Tel. Co. reported, for the year 1912, a total operating revenue of $228.64 and operating expense of $28.40.
Source: PUB Annual Report 1912
Pirates and Privateers
By: Terry Dwyer
And about 15 miles from Mira Gut, there is a carved stone memorial to the famous pirate, Captain William Kidd. The pirates used this shipyard as a safe haven and as a base to haul their ships and clean the hulls.
They operated out of the Mira River for over 100 years.
According to the history of Trepassy, Newfoundland, in 1720, a Captain Roberts (aka Black Bart), from Mira River, sailed into Trepassy Bay and looted 22 ships in one day.
The pirates left few records of their activities, but those that did, refer to the safe harbor of Saint Mary's, and old maps show the Mira River as the Saint Mary's River.
http://nswrecks.net/ns-pirates.htm
Angus McLellan was son of Donald McLellan and was raised on Cape Breton Island, N.S. As an adult, he lived in Grand Mira and served as secretary of Grand Mira North School.
During World War I he served in the armed forces.
After the war he was employed by the Dominion Coal Company, and in 1919 was appointed Justice of the Peace.
He married and continued to reside in Cape Breton.
After his death, his personal records were presented to the Beaton Institute Archives by Lauchlin Gillis of Grand Mira in 1977 and by Mrs. Angus A. MacLellan in 1982.
Subjects:
Justices of the Peace World War I, 1914-1918 - Correspondence, reminiscences, etc. Coal mining Grand Mira (Cape Breton County, N.S.)
Retrieval Code:
MG 12.172, acc. no. 77-233-435b; 82-56-1526
Jetta Marion Gibbons was the daughter of Henrietta and Phillip Gibbons, born 2 September 1914 at Huntington, Nova Scotia. She married John MacDonald and resided at Marion Bridge.
Records were presented to the Beaton Institute Archives
Jetta MacDonald correspondence
Series forms part of Huntington Family fonds and consists of correspondence regarding the Grand Mira Baptist Church and Freemasons.
The Huntington family of Mira River, N.S. were of Planter descent.
Caleb Adolphus Huntington was the son of John and Ruth (Martell) Huntington and born at Mira River, 6 May 1833.
He married on 15 January 1862 Emily Francis Gesner, who was the daughter of Gibbs Henry and Elizabeth (Hill) Gesner, born 1 May 1837.
The couple had six children:
Henrietta Evelina (b. 6 February 1870), Henry Gesner, Hubert, Hortense, Marian, and Francis.
The family were members of the Baptist church and resided at Huntington where they operated a farm and Caleb served as a Justice of the Peace for more than forty years.
Henrietta married Phillip Ingouville Gibbons 4 Oct. 1903 and the couple had ten children:
Emily Gesner, Allen (died at birth), Richard Napoleon, Henry Hubert, Mary Martin, Portia Ingouville, Ruth Eveline, Gertrude, Caleb Phillip and Jetta Marion (b. 2 Sept. 1914). Henrietta died in 1943.
Her daughter Jetta married John MacDonald and the couple resided at Marion Bridge.Records were donated by the family of Richard Gibbons, Marion Bridge, Nova Scotia.
Records were presented to the Beaton Institute Archives
Retrieval Code:
MG 12.36, acc. 77-218-420.
Fonds consists of three series:
1 Caleb A. Huntington correspondence and legal records
2 Jetta MacDonald correspondence
3 Henrietta Gibbons records
These pages were created by Lark Szick
© Copyright All Rights Reserved. April. 29, 2007.
Space donated by the C.B.G.H.A.
http://www.cbgha.org