Antigonish County Place Names

Photographs courtesy of Conrad Poirier

Ballantynes Brook / Ballantynes Cove / Barrios Beach / Barrio Head / Bayfield / Bayfield Road / Beach Pond / Beauly / Beaver Meadow / Beaver River / Beech Hill / Beechhill Cove / Bellefontaine / Benoit Creek / Benoit Island / Big Marsh / Big Tracadie / Black Avon / Black River / Blue Cape / Boucher, Havre / Bowman Bank / Bowman Head / Bown Brook / Boyd / Brierly Brook / Brophy / Brown's Mountain / Bucklands /

BALLANTYNES BROOK, Antigonish County
Flows east into George Bay.
See Ballantynes Cove

BALLANTYNES COVE, Antigonish County
    A cove in George Bay and a settlement north of Antigonish.
    Named after David Ballentine [sic], a British soldier who had served in the 82nd regiment during the American Revolution and who received a grant for military service. It is one of the older settlements in Antigonish County because of the facilities of its excellent cove and was settled by soldiers and by emigrants from the highlands after 1800. The school section was first known as south side Cape George and Alexander McKay was schoolmaster there in 1831 and William Kelly in 1834.
    The population in 1956 was 55.

BARRIOS BEACH, Antigonish County
    A settlement about two miles north of Tracadie Lake named after the Bariault or Barrio family. This Acadian family was among the first settlers of Tracadie, and had come from St. Pierre and Miquelon via Arichat in the years after the deportation. The Acadians called this beach "La point du Cimetiere". The school section is also known as East Tracadie. Benjamin Boudrot was appointed postmaster in July 1, 1868.
    The population in 1956 was 143.

BARRIO HEAD, Antigonish County
A cliff of red sandstone on the south shore of George Bay in the Tracadie area.
See BARRIOS BEACH.

BAYFIELD, Antigonish County
    A settlement east of Antigonish.
    At an early period it was called "Little River" but in 1864 the name was changed to Bayfield in honor of Admiral Henry W. Bayfield (1795 -1885), an English naval officer and surveyor who surveyed and chartered the most of Nova Scotia from Halifax to the gut of Canso, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes.
    Among early settlers were those called Hosterman, Grant, Hullsman, Campbell, Randall, Atwater, Connors, O'Brien, Murphy, Talbet and Knowlan.
    The section has a United Church and St. Mary the Virgin Anglican Church to serve the two denominations which predominate. The Rev. Thomas H. White was the pioneer Anglican clergyman in the area and the parish began in 1834. The building was consecrated on March 8, 1880 but the original church was destroyed by fire on March 17, 1895. It was rebuilt and consecrated on September 3, 1903.
    Aylward Taylor was the schoolmaster (at Little River) in 1829 and a new school house was erected after the Act of 1864 providing for free schools.
    There was a postal way office from 1852 to 1867 and in 1868 E. W. Randall was postmaster.
    In the days of wooden ships many vessels made Bayfield their home port, particularly those owned by C. B. Whidden who carried on a trade in cattle with Newfoundland. S. W. Randall and Captain James Keay built vessels for the cattle trade which reached its height in the 1870's and ended about 1913.
    Fishing was also important, and in 1898 there were two stores, one grist mill, one carding mill and one lobster factory and a population of 250.
    The population in 1956 was 196.

BAYFIELD ROAD, Antigonish County
A settlement east of Antigonish where the roads from Bayfield on the coast joins the Antigonish-Tracadie Highway. In 1898 there was a railway station here in the midst of a farming district.
See also POMQUET ROAD.

BEECH POND, Antigonish County
A lake south of George Bay between Cape Blue and Cape Jack.
A descriptive term because the pond lies behind the beach.

BEAULY, Antigonish County
    A settlement S. E. of Antigonish.
    Named after the village of Beauly in Inverness-shire, Scotland, on the north side of the River Beauly, which was the market town of the old barons of Lovat.
   At one time was known as Manchester Road after the highway which ran from Halifax to Guysborough town but in 1871 the name was changed to Beauly. In 1887 the name of part of Beauly was changed to Blacks River. Among the early settlers were MacDonalds and Frasers.
    In 1898 farming was the chief occupation and there was a post office. The population in 1956 was 74.

BEAVER MEADOW, Antigonish County
    A settlement near Antigonish, situated in the midst of fertile farming lands.
    A descriptive name as the beavers had a dam across the river. It was part of the Hartshorne-Addington grant. The first settler in the district was Hugh Fraser (son of James Fraser of Bridgeville, Pictou County) in 1800, but in 1803 he sold his farm to John and Hugh McDonald. Murdoch McRae, a native of Kintail, Scotland settled on the Beaver Meadow in 1811. The beaver's dam was broken down by John MacDonald and Murdoch MacRae, who coveted the flooded marsh.
    The first log school was located on the line between the properties of Alexander MacRae and Ronald MacDonald, and the next two were on the same site. John Chisholm was the first teacher, holding school there in 1831. James Munro an old soldier was the second teacher and other teachers were Norman McDonald, John Ross, W. Grant, John Cameron, James Nicholas, John Boyd and Alexander McGillivray.
    Population in 1956 was 55.

BEAVER RIVER, Antigonish County
A river which flows N. E. into the Ohio river.
A descriptive term.

BEECH HILL, Antigonish County
    A locality S. E. of Antigonish.
    A descriptive name.
    A new school-house was built about 1865 but the district became depopulated at the turn of the century. A modern school building was erected in 1940 for children of new settlers, but there were only five families left by 1955 so it was consolidated with the "Fringe Area" three years later.

BEECHHILL COVE, Antigonish County
A cove on Northumberland Strait, north east of Merigomish Island.
A descriptive term.

BELLEFONTAINE, Antigonish County
See EAST HARVRE BOUCHER

BENOIT CREEK, Antigonish County
A creek which flows west into Tracadie Harbour and was so named because it passed through the grant of Peter Benoit.

BENOIT ISLAND, Antigonish County
An island in George Bay.
Named after Pierre Benoit, who claimed that he had been living at Merliguiche Bay [Lunenburg] in 1749 when Governor Edward Cornwallis was cruising along the coast and acted as pilot to guide the Sphinx to Halifax. Later he settled at Tracadie where he received a grant of 400 acres in 1787.

BIG MARSH, Antigonish County
    A post office north of Antigonish, near Maryvale.
    A descriptive name because of the low-lying land at Wallace Brook. Among the early settlers were those named MacDonald, MacMillan, MacPherson, MacGillivray, MacDougald and Gilles.
    Alexander MacDonald was the schoolmaster in 1828. The school section was first named Hallowell Grant and extended from Cloverville to Rear Georgeville. When School section No. 66 was created the new section took the name Hallowell Grant and No. 64 became Big Marsh.
    In 1765 Benjamin Hallowell, Sr., Comptroller of the port of Boston, received a grant of 20,000 acres on Chedabucto Harbor in what is now Guysborough County. His son Ward Nicholas Hallowell changed his name to Boylston because his uncle left him property in Massachusetts, and Boylston Street in Boston is named after him. Benjamin Hallowell, Jr. served in the Royal Navy, was one of Lord Nelson's captains at the Battle of the Nile and eventually rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral. He took the name of Carew when he succeeded to the family estates. Ward and Benjamin, Jr. in 1807 received the grant of 6,000 acres in Antigonish County which is called the Hallowell Grant.
    Population in 1956 was 83.

BIG TRACADIE, Antigonish County
    A settlement east of Antigonish.
    So called because the harbour was larger than "Little" Tracadie Harbour.
    In 1835 Miss McPhee and Martin Garvey were teaching there. William Gerroir was appointed post master on July 1, 1871.

BLACK AVON, Antigonish County
    A post office south east of Antigonish.
    Part of the settlement of Black River was named Blackavon in 1891.
    Among the early settlers were John Chisholm, Lauchlin McDonald, William Grant and the MacIntyres. The school served the residents of Meadow Green between Fraser's Grant although the boundaries were changed frequently.

BLACK RIVER, Antigonish County
    A river which flows north-west into the Pomquet River and thence into Pomquet Harbour and also a settlement south-east of Antigonish.
    The district was part of Beauly until it was divided in 1887 and section east of the Caledonia was called Black River. In 1891 there was a further subdivision as a portion of Black River was renamed Blackavon and another portion Glassburn.
    Alexander McNeil was the teacher in 1847-48 and early settlers were named Chisholm, Grant, McDonald, McIntryre, McKinnon, McNeil, and MacPherson. It was a farming district but in 1871 had a sawmill and a cooper and a population of one hundred.
    It became a way office in 1863 and in 1868 Donald Chisholm was the way office keeper.

BLUE CAPE, Antigonish County
See CAPE BLUE

BOUCHER, HAVRE, Antigonish County
See HARVRE BOUCHER

BOWMAN BANK, Antigonish County
A bank on George Bay

BOWMAN HEAD, Antigonish County
A head of land on the south shore of George Bay at Tracadie.

BOWN BROOK, Antigonish County
See McGILLIVRAY BROOK.

BOYD, Antigonish County
    A settlement south east of Antigonish.
    Originally part of the South River district, it was named for the Boyd family. John Boyd, pioneer, settled at South River and his four sons, Alexander, Hugh, John and Angus received a grant there in 1810.
    The most notable member of this family was John Boyd (1823-1880) school teacher and printer who set up the first primitive printing press in Antigonish County in 1849 and printed some Gaelic pamphlets and books. He founded the Casket newspaper at Antigonish in 1852.

BRIERLY BROOK, Antigonish County
    A brook flowing east into West River and a settlement S. W. of Antigonish.
    The brook was named after one of the early settlers, Ensign John Brierly or Briley or Brearly as it was variously spelled. He was one of the soldiers who came to Antigonish with Colonel Timothy Hierlihy and lived there until about 1800, when his wife died. Leaving his children with friends he travelled to Ireland on business where he himself died. When the Eastern Extension Railway began operating the first station west of Antigonish became Brierly Brook. The name of Chisholm way office was changed to Briley's Brook in 1870.
    A farming district in 1898, it had a post office and two limestone quarries in operation and a population of 150.
    There were schools at Upper Brierly Brook, Lower Brierly Brook, and at East Brierly Brook. The first two were consolidated in1907 but the school was closed in 1958 and the pupils conveyed to Post Road.
    The population in 1956 was 286.

BROPHY, Antigonish County
    A locality north of Antigonish.
    Located at the original Hallowell Grant, it was known for many years as Brophy's Post Office after Thomas Brophy.
    In 1898 it was a farming settlement with a population of 50, but is now largely deserted.

BROWN'S MOUNTAIN, Antigonish County
Part of the "Yankee Grant" to Jonathan Blanchard of New Hampshire in 1796, it was named for Nathaniel Brown who had come from New Hampshire with Blanchard's settlers. In 1804 Robert Campbell and Moses Towns from the same state settled with their families in log cabins at the foot of the mountain. The post road from Pictou to Antigonish crossed Brown's Mountain.
There was a school house in 1864 and a new building was erected in 1886. A marble quarry was operating nearby in 1864. A post office was established on December 1st, 1876, with Angus McEachern as postmaster. In 1898 it was a farming settlement with a population of 100. The settlement has now disappeared and the farms have returned to the forest.

BUCKLANDS, Antigonish County
    A settlement east of Antigonish.
    Possibly derived from Blacklands as it is on a back road and back of the first grants along the shore. Early grantees were Delorier, Pettipas, Delaney and Gerrior.
    Also known as Gorman's Corner.