Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to the following people for the information they provided (not noted in Index below):

Dexter, Annette
Dillman, Vera (Mrs. Davis)
Flemming, Blanche
Garrison, Roblin
Goff, Edna (Mrs. Warner)
Goff, Everill
Gray, Matthew
Horne, Muriel (Mrs. Willett
Humphrey, James
Kerr, John
Kidson, Ella (Mrs. Moore)
Kidston, Hattie
MacDowell, Judy (Mrs. Isnor)
McDonald, John
McDonald, Min (Mrs. Greenough)
Meagher, Frances (Mrs. Brown)
Meagher, Jean (Mrs. Hill)
Miller, Mina (Mrs. Ross)
Miller, Percy
Neary, Ella (Mrs. Houlihan)
Oakes, Margaret
Pleasant, Norma
Settle, Gertrude
Silmarie, Pauline
Wilson, Charles
Wilson, Clyde

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THE GUYSBOROUGH ROAD
Page 9, paragraph 1: “One of Nova Scotia’s earliest villages, Guysborough Road, more recently known as Goffs, is fast disappearing. The original road to this village has been severed near its southern extremity by new highways and access roads to the Halifax International Airport and the Aero Tech Business Park which is now under construction. In 1960 much of the original village site was buried under slabs of concrete that made the Halifax International Airport. In 1985 the Aero Tech Business Park took over an additional 2000 acres.”


LAND GRANTS
Page 9, paragraph 3: “Grants in the Guysborough Road (Goffs) area began in 1784.”


BABES IN THE WOODS
Page 13, paragraph 3: “One such ridge was presciently named Melancholy Mountain. In 1842 it became the resting place of the “Babes in the Woods”: the Meagher sisters were found dead, wrapped in each other’s arms beneath a huge boulder on this black desolate ridge.”


BOY SCOUT CAMP - HIGHWAY 102
Page 22, paragraph 5 - 23, paragraph 1: “In 1926 the Waverley Game Sanctuary was to claim much of the land on the south side of the lake. In the same year a Boy Scout site was built on the large island situated in the middle of the lake. This island remains a popular summer camp for boys who gather here each summer to learn outdoor skills and water safety.
  “In 1957 Highway 102 was built beside Miller Lake.”


UNITED BAPTIST CHURCH
[Photo to the right of the United Baptist Church was taken by Diana Lynn Tibert, June 2006]
Page 28, paragraph 2: “The United Baptist Church at Goff’s can trace its history back to 1814 when the first black settlers formed two separate settlements - West Settlement and a settlement known simply as the Grove.”

Page 28, paragraph 3: “In 1892 the name was changed to Guysborough Road United Baptist Church.”Goffs Church

Page 29, paragraph 1: “Halifax Mail Star, November 1984: The Guysborough Road United Baptist Church was moved recently for the third time and is now situated near the Guysborough Road-Oldham Road turn-off. The building and graves were moved too from their former location to make way for the Halifax County Aerotech Industrial Park.
  “The graves of these former black pioneers have been moved to Fall River Cemetery opposite G. P. Vanier School.”

Page 29, paragraph 3: “. . . this church has been moved several times. From the Grove to a location further along the Guysborough Road where it sat for many years surrounded by its small well kept graveyard. With the opening of the Halifax International Airport the church was moved some distance further up the Guysborough Road leaving behind the small forlorn graveyard which was left encompassed at the edge of the Airport property. In November 1984 the small church was again moved, this time to make way for the expansion of the Halifax County Aerotech Park. Now hopefully it has found a permanent home at the Goffs-Oldham Crossroads. With this move extensive renovation was done and the new church, although incorporating the old church, is much larger and very little except for a few handmade benches and altar of the original church remains.”


DANIEL GARRET BLOIS
[Photos of the headstones below were taken by Diana Lynn Tibert, July 2006. The graves of Jane Elizabeth and Margaret Meagher are located in the Woodlawn Cemetery, Dartmouth, NS. The plague is located on the horizontal headstone. Beside the girls' grave is the headstone for their parents, a sister and two brothers. It reads: front: Martha, Margaret, Jane Elizabeth & George, Children of John and Jane Meagher; right side: John Meagher, aged 44 years, also his wife, Jane, aged 50 years; left side: John S. C. Meagher, son of John & Jane Meagher, Died September 7, 1883 (or 85), age 41 years.]

Page 57, paragraph 1: “Some of his [Daniel ‘Devil Dan’ Blois] ballads that have survived are “Captain Mann,” “The Brave Volunteers” and “The Lost Children”. This latter better known as “The Babes in the Woods,” refers to the Meagher sisters who were lost on desolate Melancholy Mountain (between Preston and Goffs) in April 1842.

The Lost Children - a poem by Daniel Garret Blois (pages 57, 58, 59, 60) Also known as Babes in the Woods
Good people read these verses that I have written here,
And, when you have perused them, you can’t but shed a tear.
In eighteen hundred and forty-two, April the 11th day,
Two little girls from Preston Road into the woods did stray.

Their father and their mother were sick in bed all day:
Whilst those two little children about the door did play;
Hand in hand together, they saw them leave the door,
The eldest was but six years old, the youngest only four.

Jane Elizabeth and Margaret were their pretty names,
Two fairer creatures never did Dame Nature ever frame.
They walked abroad together and cheerfully did play,
But mark what followed after, now soon they lost their way.

There in the lonely wilderness they spent a dismal day,
The night came on, they thought of home, their streaming eyes gave way.
The frosty gale blew very hard, not a star to yield them light,
The beasts of prey they feared all day, the screeching owls by night.

They might have been discovered, but for that simple race;
You Preston Negroes wash your hands, and wipe off your disgrace.Meagher Stones
You cruel Brown that heard them cry and did not take them in.
May God reward or punish you according to your sin.

But when the shocking news did reach the neighbouring town,
Each manly heart with pity swell’d and thus for grief atoned,
Saying, poor Meagher, your babes are lost and you are left forlorn.
How true it is, as Burns remarked, that man was born to mourn.

Early the next morning went out one hundred men,
And there they found poor Meagher and wife searching the lonely glen.
First casting their eyes to Heaven and then upon the grove,
With prayers and groans and touching cries, distress’d as they rove.

All that week they hunted, but alas ‘twas all in vain,
So in the lonely wilderness those infants did remain.
Though oft they stopp’d to listen, they ne’er could hear their sound;
At twelve o’clock on Thursday a bloody rag was found.

Think gentle reader, what a sight, if we could then behold,
Lying in the wilderness, with hunger, fright and cold;
Not a mother by to close an eye, nor a friend to wipe a tear,
Pharoah’s heart would surely melt, their dying cries to hear.

On the 17th of April went out a valiant crew,
To search the woods and dreary plains as hunters used to do;
From Halifax and Dartmouth, Preston and Porter’s Lake,
Twelve hundred men assembled, a final search to make.

‘Twas Beret Curry found them at twelve o’clock that day,
On Melancholy Mountain, but lumps of breathless clay.
Their hair was dragged out of their heads, their clothes in pieces tore,
Their tender flesh, from head to foot, the prickly thorns did gore.

The frost it stole upon their hearts, their blood began to chill,
Their feeble nerves could not obey, with all their heart and skill.
Headlong they fell, their souls unwilling took their way.
And left their tender bodies on a dismal rock to lay.

No longer did they leave them for the birds and beasts to tear,
On decent biers they laid them, and graced with a tear.
To their father’s house they carried them for their mother to behold;
She kissed them both a thousand times though they were dead and cold.

Their father quite distracted was, and overcome with grief,
His neighbours tried to comfort him, but could yield him no relief.
The cries of their poor mother were terrible to hear,
To think that death had her bereft of those she lov’d so dear.

On the nineteenth day of April, they were in one coffin laid,
Between Ellen Vane and Allan’s farm their little grave was made
Where thousands did assemble a last farewell to take,
Both rich and poor lamented sore for the poor children’s sake.

The rain was fasts a falling, most dismal was the day,
While gazing on Elizabeth, methinks I hear her say -
“Farewell my loving neighbours, return, dry up your tears,
Let us two lay in this cold clay, til Christ himself appear.”

Five pounds reward was offered to the man that did them find,
But, Curry he refused it as a Christian just and kind;
May God forever bless him and grant him length of days,
Your humble poet, D. G. B. will ever sing his praise.

You gentle folk of Halifax that did turn out so kind,
I hope in Heaven hereafter a full reward you’ll find;
Not forgetting Dartmouth, that turned out, rich and poor,
And likewise those of Preston, and round the Eastern Shore.

Now, to conclude and make an end of this mournful song,
I beg you will excuse me, for writing it so long;
That I another theme like this may never have to pen,
This is the first, I hope the last, God grant it so, Amen.


Page 60: When Mrs. Teasdale asked Dan Blois to pen a headstone inscription for her husband Johnny , who recently passed away, Dan revealed his mischievous side to the penny-pinching lady and wrote:
“Johnny Teasdale died of late,
And now he stands at Heaven’s Gate.
Up jumped the Devil, Just like a Weasel,
And, down to Hell went Old Johnny Teasdale.”


NUTTLE HIL CHURCH
Page 62, paragraph 1: “The first church to service this area, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, was built at the top of Nuttle Hill in 1866 under the leadership of John MacMillan who was ordained at Little River (Elderbank) in 1866. This church still stands and is believed to be the oldest church in the Musquodoboit Valley.”


FIRST WORLD WAR
Page 80, paragraph 3: “As this was the period of the First World War she [the school teacher] received a letter from the Government of Canada requesting the names of all men over the age of eighteen living in the area.”

Page 81: Honor Roll Goffs Area
First World War
Roy Nelson
Warren Wyse
Edward McDonald
Andrew MacDowell (US Army; Killed in action)
Frank Ledwidge
Alfred Ledwidge

Second World War
Sadie Kidston (Nursing Sister)
Leo Smith
Emery Ledwidge (Killed in action)
Neil Keddy (Killed in action)
Robert Ledwidge
Joseph Ledwidge
Donald Ledwidge
Duncan Ledwidge
Harold Miller
George Dillman

SOURCES (Listed in the back of the book)
Provincial Crown Lands Records of NS
The Militia of Nova Scotia, 1749 - 1867 by Joseph P. Edwards
A Sketch of Lawrence O’Connor Doyle by George Mullame
The Township of Dartmouth, Preston and Lawrencetown by Mrs. William Lawson
Story of Dartmouth by John P. Martin
“Oldham Mining Days Recalled,” Halifax Mail Star by E. G. L. Wetmore.
Acadian Recorder, Halifax, NS, October 24, 1887
Truro News - Circa - 1945 Article by S. M. Parker
Blois Voice Newsletter No. 6
James Barron (Deed), Provincial Crown Lands of NS
Public Archives of NS
Ledwidge Family History (Ledwidge Family)
MacDowell Family History (Audrey MacDowell Ellis)
Goff Family History by Goff family

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PHOTO SECTION in the center of the book starting after page 42: Page i to xvi (Not noted in Index below)
i. Wilson House
ii. Kidston, William House
ii. Meagher, John Henry Home: Henry, wife Susan, Adella Fisher and Blanche MacMichael
iii. McDonald Homestead (unidentified people)
iii. Goff, William House
iv. Ledwidge, Richard Homestead
iv. Preeper House
v: Dillman House at Wyse Corner
v. Blois, Capt. Cornelius
vi. Laurie, Lt. Col. John Winburn
vii. Kidston, Mr. and Mrs. William
vii. Fisher, Adella and MacMichael, Blanche (teachers)
viii. Goff, Hannah
viii. Goff, William
ix. Poole, George and Josie
x. Miller, Percy and McDonald, Tom
x. MacDowell, Mrs.; Benvie, Miss.; MacDowell, Alfred; MacDowell, Edmund and MacDowell, Veronia
xi. Goff’s Pupils, 1924 (eight unidentified kids)
xi. Goff’s School
xii. Original Old Guysborough United Baptist Church
xii. New Guysborough Road United Baptist Church
xiii. Moose Horne Lodge, June 4, 1923 (six people unidentified)
xiv. Perrin’s Run - a brook
xiv. Goffs’ Fire Department
xv. Lumbering on the Guysborough Road (two unidentified men)
xv. Leaving for Market (four unidentified people)
xvi. Halifax International Airport (aerial view)
xvi. Aerotech Industrial Park in the building stage.

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