In the early 1800s the excessive consumption of alcoholic drink in Yarmouth County created a need for some form of temperance reform. In his history of the Argyles, Jackson Ricker gave a nuanced assessment of the problem.

1. “I believe we have no reason to charge the pioneers of Argyle and other settlements of New Englanders along our coast with being morally weak. They were people with strength of character, true to established standards, righteous living standards that at that time did not condemn the use of intoxicants as a beverage, so long as drunkenness did not result from their use. Later in the history of the place conditions arose which increased the consumption of liquors and made their use common practice. The usual results followed, immoderate use and fixed drinking habits with their evil influence. The changes in the affairs of Argyle which would produce such fruits we find in the opening of trade with the West Indies, also more intercourse with Halifax and other ports where merchants carried liquors, particularly rum, as one of their staples. There can be no doubt that the use of strong drink was having harmful effects, which were more and more evident as time passed.” [1, p. 73]
   

Temperance Reform in Beaver River

In the 1820s, after Mr. Trask and Jonathan Raymond had opened taverns in Beaver River, Josiah Porter worried that some residents were drinking to excess.

1. “One night a neighbour who had gone to Yarmouth with a load of lumber failed to return at the usual time. At midnight, Mr. Porter became so alarmed, he went to look for him. He found him a few miles from home; his oxen had veered off the track and locked one of the cartwheels over a stump, and so were anchored. The driver had fallen off his cart and was lying insensibly drunk, his beloved rum keg in his arms.” [2, p. 279]
   

Eventually, at Josiah Porter’s instigation, eight men from Beaver River signed a pledge of abstinence, which had been prepared by John Wetmore, who in 1828 was Beaver River’s school teacher.

1. “We the undersigned firmly believing and most assuredly gathering that the too great use of spirituous liquors is prejudicial to the body and souls of mankind in general, both spiritual and temporal, to remedy this great and spreading evil, we therefore whose names are hereunto annexed do for ever renounce the use of ardent or distilled spirituous liquors except what may be taken as a medicine in case of sickness. And we pray Almighty God to establish our hearts and strengthen our serious resolutions.”  [3, p. 148]
   

                            [Signatures]

        “Josiah Porter          Jonathan Raymond

        “David B. Corning    William Perry

        “David Corning        Ebenezer Corning

        “Joseph Corning      David Corning, Jr.”  [2, p. 280]

The pledge was signed, and the society established, on 28 April 1828 (see Fig. 1) or 25 April 1829 [3, pp. 148–149; 4, p. 49]. By 1830 the number of signatories had increased from eight to sixty-eight [3, p. 149]. In 1831 the pledge was amended to include abstinence from wine, except for medical and sacramental uses, and to make the partaking of wine or spirituous liquors for medical purposes without a physician’s prescription a violation of the pledge [2, p. 280].

Fig. 1. Memorial Temperance Hall, facing Highway 1 at Beaver River Corner, N.S. “Memorial Hall, Total Abstinence Society Instituted April 28, 1828.” (William Day, December 2014)

Other than the pledge, the constitution or bylaws under which this society operated have long been lost. Initially, according to J. Murray Lawson, it was named the “Beaver River Society” [5, p. 13]; J. Roy Campbell called it the “Beaver River Temperance Society” [3, p. 148]. The first officers were:

1. “President: Josiah Porter.
   

2. “Vice Presidents:
   

3. Jonathan Raymond, Jonathan Corning
   

4. “Treasurer: Thomas Trask.
   

5. “Secretary: John Whitmore [sic.]
   

6. “Executive Committee:
   

7. Daniel Raymond, Jabez Landers, William Parry, Daniel Corning, Ebenezer Corning, David Parry.” [3, p. 149; 5, p. 13]
   

Eventually, in 1854, the society changed its name to the Beaver River Total Abstinence Society. [2, p. 281]

Temperance Reform in Yarmouth

In the Town of Yarmouth, as elsewhere in Yarmouth County, the Church’s ministers supported and encouraged the temperance movement. For example, Reverend Harris Harding, who was the senior pastor of the First Yarmouth Baptist Church for 57 years, embraced the cause of temperance.

Fig. 2. Rev. Harris Harding in his maturity [6, fspc.]

1. “Mr. Harding believed in little beside experimental religion, and that of the New Light cast. Still, however, he was a man of deep Christian benevolence; and this sometimes made him the philanthropist, and sometimes brought him into friendly relations with objects from which his prejudices might otherwise have made him revolt.
   

2. “Thus, in the year 1829, he entered, with characteristic ardour, into the Temperance reformation, and was, for many years, president of a Temperance Society, formed at Yarmouth, founded originally upon the principle of abstinence from ardent spirits. A similar society had been formed at Beaver River, about thirteen miles from Yarmouth, lying within the range of Mr. Harding’s extended field. A vessel had been wrecked there, with a large supply of West India rum on board. But it had something better,––a few copies of the late Dr. Lyman Beecher’s Sermons on Intemperance. The people read, thought, prayed; and then, as just now stated, proceeded to act. It is believed, that this Beaver River Temperance Society, constituted in 1828, was the first that was formed in British America; perhaps in the British dominions. A large proportion of Mr. Harding’s people connected themselves with these early movements; a result which may be traced, in great measure, to that good man’s individual, earnest, and persevering efforts. A few years later a Society was formed at Hebron, on the Total Abstinence principle; said, again, to have been the first so organized in Nova Scotia. Here also the countenance and efforts of Mr. Harding were afforded. Mr. Harding, and the Yarmouth Baptists should thus seem to occupy the very van of the great Temperance movement in Nova Scotia, and even in the British empire. …” [6, pp. 131–132]
   

Fig. 3. Rev. Harris Harding in his old age [6, p. 121]

Details of the organization of the Yarmouth Temperance Society were given in the third issue of Yarmouth’s first newspaper, the Yarmouth Telegraph. According to Lawson’s summary,

1. “We find it recorded in the issue of the Yarmouth Telegraph of Friday, Dec. 9th, 1831, that the Yarmouth Temperance Society was established on the 23d March, 1829. The following are the Rules and Regulations and officers of the Society:
   

2. “Rules and Regulations of the
   

3. Yarmouth Temperance Society,
   

4. Established 23d March, 1829.
   

5. “First: This Society shall be called the Yarmouth Temperance Society.
   

6. “Second: The Officers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary, and a Committee of eighteen persons who shall be chosen annually.
   

7. “President: Rev. Harris Harding.
   

8. “Vice-Presidents:
   

9. Rev. Abel Cutler, Rev. William Burton,
   

10. Rev. Mr. Ashly.
    

11. “Secretary: Mr. Edward Heustis.
    

12. “Committee for 1832:
    

13. William Harris, Wm. C. Williams, William Doty, Nathan Butler, Joseph Shaw, Amos Baker, T. Purney, Nathaniel Holmes, Joseph Robins, Thomas Hilton, Joseph Raymond, M. Cleaveland, Capt. Thomas Crosby, John Whetmore, Nathaniel Currier, W. Heustis, senr., George Jenkins, Moses Saunders.
    

14. “Third: No member shall drink any Rum, Brandy, Gin or other distilled spirituous Liquors, except in case of sickness, and then to be taken only as a medicine.
    

15. “Fourth: No member shall sell any spirituous Liquors, or give any away, except to those who may require them as medicine.
    

16. “Fifth: No member shall give any spirituous Liquors to his work-men, or to those whom he may employ, as has hitherto been customary.
    

17. “Sixth: Each member shall use his influence to encourage others to join this Society; and shall do all that he can, with propriety, to prevent the use of Ardent Spirits.
    

18. “Seventh: Any person may join this Society that will make application to any of the officers, and subscribe to these Regulations.
    

19. “Eighth: Any member violating the rules of this Society shall be visited by a committee of the society for the first and second offence, and expelled for the third.
    

20. “Ninth: This Society shall meet six times in a year, viz., on the first Tuesday in January, the first Tuesday in March, first Tuesday in May, first Tuesday in July, first Tuesday in Sept., first Tuesday in November.
    

21. “Tenth: These rules may be amended, added to, or revised, at an annual meeting of the Members of the Society.
    

22. “This Society, although established in 1829, had apparently been meeting without these Rules until the second annual meeting, which was held on the 6th December, 1831. We quote verbatim:
    

23. “Agreeable to public notice, the second annual meeting of the friends of Temperance was held in the Baptist Chapel on Tuesday, the 6th inst. The inclemency of the day was such as to prevent a numerous attendance, even of the Members. However, a number of the foes to the miseries and crimes of men assembled, to discharge the duties for which they hold themselves accountable, viz., the establishing of rules and the appointing of officers for the ensuing year. After the usual Christian ceremony of singing, and prayer, the late President, (the Rev. M. Burton) addressed the audience upon the objects of their meeting. When he concluded, the above Rules, were read by the Secretary and approved of.” [5, pp. 11–13]
    

The Society at this time numbered 260 members, and only three had so far “transgressed the law.”

References and Notes

   [1] Jackson Ricker, Historical Sketches of Glenwood and the Argyles, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. Truro Printing & Publishing Co., Ltd., Truro, N.S., 1941. iv+135 pp.

   [2] High Hopes Senior Citizens Club (compiler), Historical Trails Through Port Maitland, Beaver River, Sandford, Short Beach, Darling’s Lake. Sentinel Printing Ltd., Yarmouth, N.S., 1985. 299 pp.

   [3] Rev. John Roy Campbell, A History of the County of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. J. & A. McMillan, Saint John, N.B., 1876. xvi+200 pp.

   [4] C. Bruce Fergusson (introduction), Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S., 1967. vi+751 pp. Available on-line.

   [5] J. Murray Lawson (compiler), Yarmouth Past and Present: A Book of Reminiscences. Yarmouth Herald Office, Yarmouth, N.S., 1902. 647 pp. + advertisements + index.

   [6] Rev. John Davis (compiler), The Patriarch of Western Nova Scotia. Life and Times of the Late Rev. Harris Harding, Yarmouth, N.S. With an Introduction by J. W. Nutting, Esq., of Halifax, N.S. Printed for the Compiler, Charlottetown, P.E.I., 1866. xxii+273 pp.

   [7] At the top is a Parker Studio photograph of Beaver River Corner in the 1890s. We are looking north along the post road from Yarmouth to Digby. The large white two-storey building at centre right is the Memorial Temperance Hall, which was built in 1880–1881 to replace the original, smaller, meeting hall on that site. (PH–80–Beaver–8.8a, YCMA)

   [8] I thank archivist Lisette Gaudet, of the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives (YCMA), for providing access to photographs and to archival materials about temperance reform in Yarmouth County. Photographs labeled YCMA are copyrighted; please contact the Archives if you wish to obtain copies.