The Murder of Timothy McCarthy
For decades, Acadian singers would open a long, mournful ballad with those words in the song called “Le Meurtre de Timothy McCarthy,” which means…
August 11, 2026
1800s Long Reads Moncton Women
Articles
Categories (2)
Showing stories in 2 categories – clear categories
24 stories are shown.
The Woodman’s Ghost
A crew of woodsmen pause for a photo deep in the forest, axes in hand and snow at their feet. What they did out…
February 3, 2026
1800s Long Reads North Shore PEI
The Curse of the Anna Currier
A ship drifted ashore near St. Martins in January 1884, her crew missing and her cargo untouched. The mystery of what happened aboard the…
January 6, 2026
1800s Bay of Fundy Long Reads Strange Tales
The Forgotten Christmas Traditions of Old New Brunswick
Many of our beloved holiday traditions are surprisingly young. For example the old Loyalists would have been baffled at what a tree was doing…
December 9, 2025
1700s Christmas
The Great Fire of Miramichi
New Brunswick Legends Tapestries – Great Fire of the Miramichi, 1996, Designed by Micheal McEwing, Woven by Ivan H Crowell. (Provincial Archives of New…
September 30, 2025
1800s Long Reads North Shore
The First Ever Murder in Moncton
Headlines from 1892 announcing that, after 220 years, Moncton had its first ever murder. It started with a North Shore break-in. Then another. Then…
August 19, 2025
1800s Long Reads Moncton
The Wreck of the Martha
Loyalists had to endure unimaginable hardships to make it to the safety of New Brunswick, and not all made it. One ship of refugees…
June 10, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John War
The First Murder in New Brunswick
New Brunswick’s first-ever murder took place in 1784, only two months after the province was created. The murder weapon was an ordinary table fork.…
May 13, 2025
1700s Bay of Fundy Saint John Strange Tales Women
The Mysterious Lost and Found Diary of the Tobique
A mysterious Englishman sailed to New Brunswick in the 1850s. His name and his fate are unknown. All that remains of him is his…
February 18, 2025
1800s Greatest Hits Long Reads North Shore Strange Tales
Nellie McGowan’s Quarantine Journal from Partridge Island
For exactly one year to the day, beginning on New Year’s Eve 1901, Nellie McGowan kept a diary. It appears that she began her…
January 1, 2025
1900s Long Reads Saint John Women
ANNOUNCEMENT: Book 3 ‘Rebellious Women In The Maritimes’ Is Out!
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of my new book, Backyard History: Rebellious Women in the Maritimes! This one’s for all of you who…
November 13, 2024
1600s and Before 1700s 1800s 1900s Women
The Man Who Was Hanged On The Gallows He Built
A remarkable tale of dastardly murder, daring escape, and disastrously bad luck in the earliest days of New Brunswick is so (in)famous that it…
October 15, 2024
1700s Bay of Fundy Strange Tales
The Hate Preacher
Nicknamed "The Travelling Peace Breaker," New Brunswicker L. J. King left the province after Saint Johners tried to throw him off a cliff, but…
October 1, 2024
1800s Long Reads Saint John
The Candy Killer: The Serial Killer Who Stalked Saint John
Terror gripped the gritty streets of Saint John in 1889. The city had its very own serial killer — but this murderer didn’t use…
August 27, 2024
1800s Greatest Hits Long Reads Saint John
Nova Scotia’s Queen of the Bootleggers: Amy Mason
During Prohibition when booze was banned, reluctant liquor control officer Clifford Rose found himself in the middle of a dispute between a corrupt politician…
August 12, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Rum Runners Women
“Canada’s Flying Schoolmarm” Wins at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Aileen Meagher, a runner from Halifax, represented Canada in the infamous 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hitler himself watched her beat the German team for…
July 24, 2024
1900s Long Reads Nova Scotia Women
Painless Parker, Renegade Dentist
A popular postcard from the early 1900s mocking the claim that dentistry could be painless (Telegraph-Journal) Step into the world of dentistry's most controversial…
June 12, 2024
1900s Bay of Fundy Long Reads Strange Tales
Message In A Molasses Barrel
The author with a reproduction of the molasses barrel, called a ponchon, which sailed from the Iles de la Madeleine to Cape Breton to…
February 11, 2024
1900s Greatest Hits Long Reads Strange Tales
Princess Louise, a War Horse’s Tale
During the Second World War, New Brunswickers fighting in Italy rescued a horse, who became a beloved mascot for their regiment. After following the…
January 10, 2024
1900s Long Reads Saint John War
The Dr. Leslie E. Keeley Gold Cure Institute For Drunkards
In the 1890s Frederictonians pooled money together to help fund a new health institute. It was based on an extraordinarily bizarre new health remedy:…
December 1, 2023
1800s Fredericton Long Reads Rum Runners
The Second Halifax Explosion
On 18 July 1945, an ammunition barge blew up at the Naval Magazine jetty on Bedford Basin. Fire spread quickly to piles of ammunition.…
November 19, 2023
1900s Greatest Hits Long Reads Nova Scotia War
Canada’s Forgotten Siberian Expedition: Ollie & Winslow’s Odyssey
Despite being shot in the face in the trenches, Lt. J. Douglas Winslow wanted to get back to fighting in the First World War.…
November 8, 2023
1900s Long Reads War
American Invaders Stole PEI’s Great Seal
Map of Prince Edward Island in 1775. Titled: "A plan of the island of St. John with the divisions of the counties parishes &…
October 1, 2023
1700s Long Reads PEI War
The World’s Worst Nazi Spy
On the moonless night of November 9th, 1942, during the Second World War, a German U-Boat lay in the Bay de Chaleurs, watching through…
September 15, 2023
1900s Greatest Hits Long Reads Strange Tales War