Antigonish County Place Names

Photographs courtesy of Conrad Poirier

Caledonia Mills / Cameron Lake / Cape Blue / Cape George / Cape George Brook / Cape George Point / Cape Jack / Cape Lewis / Cape Pond / Captain Island / Captain Pond / Chisholm Brook / Cloverville / Clydesdale / Colin Chisholm Brook / College Grant / College Lake / Colquhoun Point / Condon Cove / Copper Lake / Cove Brook / Cribbean Head / Cribbens Point / Cribbing Head / Croft / Cross Roads Ohio / Crystal Cliffs

CALEDONIA MILLS, Antigonish County
    Settlement south-east of Antigonish on the old Antigonish-Guysborough Post road.
    Called Caledonia because most of the settlers were Scottish and this was the name applied by the Romans to the land north of the wall of Antonius, which ran between the Firths of Forth and Clyde. However, Sir Walter Scott applied it poetically to the whole of Scotland. The district had several small saw mills and in 1864 it had a shingle mill, a grist mill and a kiln. Colin McDonald was the miller in 1866. In 1871 when the population had reached 120, that portion of the new Manchester Road Settlement, south of Marydale to the county line was named Caledonia.
    Early settlers were named Boyle, Campbell, Chisholm, Forbes, Fraser, McDonald, McGillivray and McIsaac, John Forbes coming to Caledonia about 1800. A postal way office was established in 1866-67 and in 1868 John Boyle was the way office keeper.
    There was a school-house in 1864 but in 1957 the district was consolidated with St. Andrew's.
    In 1922 the McDonald home was upset by mysterious disturbances and unexplained fires which were considered to be caused by a poltergeist and caused widespread publicity.
    The population in 1956 was 51.

CAMERON LAKE, Antigonish County
Lake south west of Antigonish.
Named after various members of the Cameron family who lived nearby.

CAPE BLUE, Antigonish County
A limestone cape on George Bay between Little Tracadie and Cape Jack.
A descriptive term.

CAPE GEORGE, Antigonish County
    A cape between George Bay and Northumberland Strait and a settlement north of Antigonish.
    The French called it Cap St. Louis after the French monarch, and it is so marked on De Meulles map of Acadia in 1686. For a time the English continued this name and it appears thus on Captain John Montresor's Map of "Nova Scotia or Acadia" of 1768. On J. F. W. DesBarres map in the "Atlantic Neptune" it is marked as Cape St. George after the patron saint of England but is now commonly called Cape George. The bay was also marked St. George's Bay.
    Among the original grantees on the Cape were Archy Cameron, Malcolm McLean, John Graham, Angus McDonald, John French McNeil, Alexander, Donald and John Chisholm, Martin MacNeil, John and Angus McInnis, John McNeil, Donald Smith, Angus Gillis and John MacDougall. Some of these sold to men who became the first settlers. Donald McLean, John McNeill, John Campbell, Donald McKinnon, Rory Breac McNeill and Donald McNeill, all Barra men and soldiers in the American Revolutionary War. John McDougall from Morar, Scotland, Angus McInnis, Donald McInnis (Glic) Angus Mor MacDonald, Alexander and Donald Chisholm, Alexander McPherson, John McMillan and Malcolm Livingstone from Lochaber, Scotland, Charles Arbuckles, Neil and John MacNeil, Allan and John MacDonald, Angus McInnes, Duncan McDonald Taylor, Donald McEachern and Hugh McInnes of Arisaig, Scotland who owned the first axe in the community. John McDonald built the first grist mill.
    The district suffered from the Gale of 1811 and from the plague of the mice.
    John Hanrahan taught school at Cape George from July 1, 1816 to July 1, 1817, and in 1827 there was a school on the north side of Cape George and in 1832 the south side. Both sections erected new school houses after the Free School Act of 1864. There are two mission churches, one Roman Catholic and one United Church.
    The coast provides little shelter except at Ballantyne's Cove (for vessels) and a lighthouse was established in 1861 and altered in 1908. By 1898 it was a fishing station and farming settlement with a population of 750.
    There was a postal way office from 1834 to 1864, when a post office was established. Robert McDonald was postmaster in 1868.
    The population in 1956 was 72.

CAPE GEORGE BROOK, Antigonish County
A brook flowing east into George Bay near the settlement of Cape George, sometimes called Wilkie Brook.

CAPE GEORGE POINT, Antigonish County
    A settlement north of Antigonish also called "Point of Cape." Among the first grantees were Duncan McDonald, John McDonald, Sr., John McDonald, Jr., and Donald Hugh McInnes.
    There was a school there in 1827 and Malcolm Campbell was the teacher in 1829.
    A postal way office was established in 1863 and in 1898 it had a store, a lobster factory and a church and a population of 550. It was also a fishing and farming settlement noted for the excellent quality of its lamb and mutton.

CAPE JACK, Antigonish County
    A cape and a settlement north-east of Antigonish.
    It is marked on J. F. DeBarres' "Atlantic Neptune" 1781. Among early settlers in this farming or fishing area were families named Breen, Brow, Carpenter, Chisholm, Cormier, Corbet, Decosts, Irwin.
    The school section was consolidated with Havre Boucher in 1952.
    The population in 1956 was 159.

CAPE LEWIS, Antigonish County
See CAPE GEORGE.

CAPE POND, Antigonish County
A lake south of George Bay thus called because it lies on Cape Jack.

CAPTAIN ISLAND, Antigonish County
An island in Antigonish harbour.
Named for Captain Timothy William Hierlihy who received it as a grant from the crown in 1785. Captain Hierlihy (1755-1831) was the eldest son of Lt. Col. Timothy Hierlihy served in an Independent Company of Volunteers during the American Revolutionary War which became the Royal Nova Scotia Volunteers and was on garrison duty at Charlottetown. With others in the regiment he received land at Antigonish for his military service and became a justice of the peace and high sheriff for Sydney County.

CAPTAIN POND, Antigonish County
Lake N. E. of Antigonish.
Land nearby had been granted to Lt. Col. Timothy Hierlihy in 1784 but his son Captain Timothy William Hierlihy probably lived there later.

CHISHOLM BROOK, Antigonish County
Brook flows N. W. into Northumberland Strait thus named because it ran through land granted to Alexander Chisholm.

CLOVERVILLE, Antigonish County
    A descriptive term for a settlement north of Antigonish on the road from Antigonish to Malignant Cove. Early grantees were John Lawler, Michael Sipple, M. MacDonald and Rev. Edmund Burke, but it was settled largely by Irish settlers and their descendants who migrated from Guysborough County in the mid 19th century to farm.
    The school section was first known as the "Old Gulf Road" because it was on the road to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. From the Section came two Presidents of St. Francis Xavier University, Rev. Dr. A. M. Thompson and Monsignor H. P. McPherson.
    The population in 1956 was 52.

CLYDESDALE, Antigonish county
    A settlement north west of Antigonish.
    Known for many years as "Yankee Grant" because the first settlers were from New England the district had been granted in 1796 to Jonathan Blanchard, a native of New Hampshire who had come to live at Truro, Nova Scotia. About 1804 he persuaded Robert Campbell and Moses Towns to emigrate from New Hampshire to his grant and they settled with their families in log cabins in the forest at the foot of Brown's Mountain. In 1810 they were joined by John McPherson. The New Englanders were joined later by a number of Presbyterian Scots.
    In 1848 Kenneth McDonald was teaching twenty-two children named Adie, Baxter, Chisholm, Connors, MacDonald, MacDermaid, MacLean, Mooney and Taylor. A new school-house was finished in 1877.
    In 1876 Yankee Grant was renamed Clydesdale on the suggestion of Donald Chisholm, father of C. P. Chisholm, M.L.C. (1854-1894) because the mountain stream which cut the district in two suggested the River Clyde in Scotland. The water supply for the town of Antigonish is piped from a reservoir in this section.
    The population in 1956 was 103.

COLIN CHISHOLM BROOK, Antigonish County
A brook which flows N.W. into Little Tracadie Harbour named for Colin Chisholm.

COLLEGE GRANT, Antigonish County
    A settlement S. W. of Antigonish.
    Named because of a large grant of land to the Governors President and Fellows of Kings College at Windsor.
    Peter Stewart was teaching thirty-four pupils named Sears, Taylor, McNaughton and Hanophen in this scattered farming settlement in 1848. Then for many years it had no school, but in 1886 it was reorganized and a school opened for the children in the district between the rear of Lochaber Lake and East River St. Mary's. The school was closed in 1956.

COLLEGE LAKE, Antigonish County
A beautiful lake south west of Antigonish, named thus because a large grant of land on the shores of the lake was given to the Governors, President and Fellows of Kings College at Windsor in 1813.

COLQUHOUN POINT, Antigonish County
A point on the east shore of Pomquet Harbour.

CONDON COVE, Antigonish County
Cove on Tracadie Harbour.
May be named for John Condon who emigrated from Ireland in 1821.

COPPER LAKE, Antigonish County
A lake and a settlement south of Antigonish, named because of the copper deposits found in the vicinity. It was formerly known as Polson Lake after William Polson who had a 200 acre grant of land there in 1828 and a mine was called the Polson Lake mine. A mining syndicate was prospecting in the area in 1962.
A school section was formed in 1901 between the St. Mary's municipal line and the Lochaber Chapel Road, the schoolhouse being built on the north shore of the lake.

COVE BROOK, Antigonish County
A brook which flows into Ballantynes Cove in George Bay, thus a descriptive term.

CRIBBEAN HEAD, Antigonish County
West shore of George Bay.
Thomas Cribben who had served as Master in the Royal Navy for many years, was the first settler at Cribben's Point or Head about 1789. he was a native of Great Britain but in 1789 he was living on half pay with his family at Antigonish and asked for 500 acres. In 1810 this was granted to his widow Lucinna Sherlocke and his two daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann Cribben.

CRIBBENS POINT, Antigonish County
See CRIBBEAN HEAD

CRIBBING HEAD, Antigonish County
See CRIBBEAN HEAD

CROFT, Antigonish County
    Locality south east of Antigonish.
    A descriptive term given by early Scottish settlers meaning a small agricultural holding cultivated by a peasant tenant. Among the early grantees in the vicinity were Angus McDonald, and Alexander, Archibald, Donald and William Chisholm.
    In 1898 it was a farming settlement with a population of 50.

CROSS ROADS OHIO, Antigonish County
    A settlement S. W. of Antigonish.
    A descriptive name because a settlement, a village, store and a school were built here at the intersection of the roads from each side of the Ohio River. At one time it was called West River. Early settlers were Angus McPherson, Angus McGilvray, Angus and John McInnes, Duncan and John McLean.
    School section Stewart's Mills is now consolidated with Cross Roads.
    James McPherson was appointed way office keeper on Sept. 1, 1868.
    Population in 1956 was 114.

CRYSTAL CLIFFS, Antigonish County
Settlement N.E. of Antigonish.
Named because of its geological features. In the 1950's the Nova Scotia Center for geological Sciences and the annual spring survey school for civil and mining engineering students were held there.