Early local history...
Lawrencetown is a rural community located a few kilometres east of Dartmouth on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia.
Long before European settlement, the Mi’kmaq people fished here during the summer months. They called the area Taboolsimkek, meaning “two small branches flowing through the sand.” In winter, they moved to more sheltered locations inland.
Early in the eighteenth century the Mi’kmaq were joined by a number of French Acadian settlers. The Acadians, living and farming along the coast, were skilled at reclaiming land from the sea with great ingenuity and much hard work. Channels were cut in the salt marshes to reduce the amount of water at high tide, dykes were built around the perimeters of the drained lands to keep saltwater out, and the dyked marshes were then used to grow fodder. Farmers used the areas for cattle grazing. Remnants of the dykes may still be seen throughout the area.
Over the ensuing years only a few of the French settlers remained in the Lawrencetown area, but the neighbouring community of Chezzetcook has managed to maintain much of its Acadian heritage to the present day.
In 1754, Colonel Charles Lawrence gave land grants to twenty Protestant families. By 1763 only three of these families remained. In time, however, more settlers of German, Swiss, Irish and Scottish descent arrived.
In the early days, most families fished or farmed for a living. As the population slowly increased, sawmills, forges, ship builders, gravel pits, small factories, and gold mines began to appear.