The Research
Branch Property at Upper Canard
Prepared by E.L. Eaton in
January 1961
Personal Papers, shared but not published
The property known within the Research Branch as the Sheffield Farm was
owned by three different persons. The two larger farms were
astride the brook while the third property bordered the brook on one
side. Since irrigation studies were contemplated, it seemed wise
to purchase all three. Negotiations were largely completed in
1956 and the bills were finally passed for payment in
February 1957. The land was measured on May 14, 1956, by two
members of the Station staff, E.L. Eaton and Donald Wilson. The
former was at the time a research officer in charge of native fruits,
the latter a seasonal employee. Some other preparatory work was
performed in 1956.
Approximately 120 acres was owned by Mason Sheffield, whose father was
Frank A., grandfather Delancy S., and great-grandfather Aaron, each of
whom in turn had owned the property. The buildings consisted of a
large dwelling house, large cattle barn, smaller horse barn and a 2-car
garage, with an excellent drilled well. Just east of this block
was about 70 acres owned by John B. Young. This had been owned
briefly by a brother George Young, who bought it from Walter
Pearce. Previously it had been owned by the brothers Daniel and
Frank Westhaver, and before that in turn by James MacRae, Andrew Boyle,
Edwin Ells and Delancey Sheffield. The only building on this was
a small old barn, near the south east corner. The dwelling was
burned a few years earlier. The third parcel was owned by Mrs.
Charles Corkum (Catherine), daughter of Frank Westhaver, and was merely
a house lot set off from the north west corner of the Westhaver
farm. The buildings were removed from this as a condition of
purchase. A good drilled well was on this portion.
At an early period a mill pond was constructed on the meadow of the
Westhaver place. There is conjecture that this was at one time a
Sheffield property. However, a search of the records fails to
reveal any ownership by a person of that name until it was purchased by
Delancey Sheffield and quickly re-sold to Edwin S. Ells long after the
period in question.
A suggestion that this may have been the "Stephen Chase and Company
Mills", is incorrect. A deed of Lot Four in the Thirteenth
Division from Branch Blackmore to Judah Wells, the town clerk, on one
part of which T.D. Sterling now lives, Book 1, page 337, 1769,
describes a woodlot "Fronting on the 6-rod highway" and extending
northerly to "The road leading to Stephen Chase and Company
Mills". Without doubt this was the present paved road from
Centreville to Sheffield Mills mentioned in several deeds and noted on
Church's Map of Kings County, 1864, as Gibson Road. That what is
now known as Sheffield Mills was the site of the early Chase industrial
enterprise is further established in Book 1, page 351, 1772, where
Colonel Jonathan Shearman bought for £18 "One fourth of the
Mills Montique or otherwise Chase's Mills -- on the River little
Habutunque at the branches thereof". This was obviously an
attempt to give an English spelling to the French pronunciation of the
word Habitant. Moreover, the only sizeable "branches thereof" are
where the drainage basin from Pereau and Woodside joins the one from
Centreville. It seems probable therefore, that the French
operated a mill here prior to the expulsion and it is quite possible
that the same is true for the Westhaver meadow. This pond is
known to have been there around 1850, but when it was drained and
converted to a hay meadow is not known. A part of the mill itself
was moved to a site near the south entrance to the Westhaver property
and became a part of the dwelling which was burned a few years
prior to the purchase by the Research Division. Remains of the
old dam were clearly visible at the time of purchase and the new
irrigation dam was constructed on the site of the old.
The land bought from Mason Sheffield was clearly described in 1887 in a
deed to his father, Frank A. Sheffield, from his grandfather, Delancy
S. Sheffield, and recorded in Book 53, pzbd 209, in the Registry of
Deeds at Kentville. This and the farm immediately to the south,
now owned by Jan Struik, were parts of the Aaron Sheffield farm which
was divided between Delancey and a younger son Charles.
At one period this property was known as the Nesbit farm, with the
water course spoken of as the Nesbit brook, and this name appears on
the boundary description of one of the lots bought by the Research
Station. In the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association annual
report for 1892, page 86, the then secretary, the scholarly Robert W.
Starr, published a paper "The French in Kings County - Their Works" in
which he identified the property under this name. In tracing the
early dyke reclamation he states: "The probabilities are that the first
enclosure was that on what was formerly known as the Nesbit farm near
Upper Dyke Village. On a small brook coming from the north was a
marsh of some extent, and just north of the present road where the low
points of the upland come together they built a small aboiteau and a
few rods of dyke which enclosed about forty acres of prime land."
A considerable part of this enclosed land is included in the Research
Station purchase. It should be added, however, that "the present
road" is not the Kentville-Kingsport highway which received hard
surface in 1940, but the gravel road further down stream which diverges
from the pavement and skirts the main body of dyke land more
closely. Mr. Starr adds "The greatest number of French apple
trees now in existence in the county are to be found near Upper Dyke
and Upper Canard. On the Nesbit farm before spoken of, is an
orchard of about one hundred trees originally, with some vacancies
now. These trees were regulaarly set about 24 feet each
way, and although showing signs of great age, are many of them healthy,
and the large number of them have been grafted with modern sorts within
the last twenty years ---". This orchard was in the south west
corner of the land bought from Mason Sheffield, on the section known as
A6. The trees were removed and highbush blueberries were planted
in 1959.
The Nesbit ownership is obscure. The Nesbit name does not appear
in either the first or second list of Cornwallis grantees, nor is the
name included in Horton or Aylesford lists. Neither is there any
grave marker carrying the name Nesbit in the old public cemetery at
Upper Canard. The pursuit of the Nesbit title led to an
examination of the general plan of settlement by the New England
Planters.