There was a time when the local hall provided some of the only entertainment for the community. Such an event attracted people for miles around. This is the story a concert held at Coleman, P.E.I. on a winter evening in 1928...Summerside Journal, 12 March 1928.

“The concert held at Coleman Hall on February 20th came off with a rousing success, the hall being filled to overflowing, Mr Russel Rogers presiding explained that the concert was in aid of the Protestant Orphanage, and was a most worthy cause, he then announced the opening chorus, ‘Out where the West Begins,’ with instrumental music by Mr Jerry Dalton, Lot 7, accompanied by Miss Greta Rogers.”

FROM OUR PAST By Allan MacRae

People Had a Sense of Humor in the Past, 1928

A “Hunting” Dog Story
There is a possibility, though rather a rare one at present, that a new live stock industry may be started at Summerside which, if properly engineered, might even rival silver fox ranching...The Pioneer, 7 January 1928.

“It seems that an esteemed citizen of Summerside, who is an expert trapper and hunter, recently ordered a high pedigreed hunting dog from the United States. This high priced animal duly arrived a few days ago and it took an additional $14 and some odd cents to bail him out of the express office. Then the earliest possible opportunity was taken to try him out on hunting rabbits in the woods near Summerside, to which our hunter and several sporting friends repaired.”

FROM OUR PAST By Allan MacRae

Big Captures of Booze Made by Crusier Margaret in Waters off North Cape, 1927

In the late 1920s Prohibition was in full swing. In fact, trafficking in the sale of illegal liquor was one of the major industries in Prince Edward Island waters, as prices for both farm products and fish were at rock bottom. But the year 1927 was a most successful one for Customs boats which seized many vessels with large cargoes of contraband liquor in P. E.I sland waters. This is the story of the Customs Crusier Margaret...The Pioneer, 21 January 1928.

“Last season (1927) was the most successful and also financially most productive in the case of custom Crusier Margaret under Captain Alfred Lecouvee. During the past few months the National revenue Office reported that the crusier had made the following seizures.”

Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas in many homes without a Christmas stocking! Small children, and many not so small, look forward eagerly to hanging up their stockings on Christmas Eve and finding them chuck-full Christmas morning...The Pioneer, 24 December 1927.
“Christmas stockings have come down to us from the good St. Nicholas who was a saint born 6 December 342 in Lycia, in the Middle East. He was regarded especially the patron saint of children. His parents were wealthy and he was left quite a fortune. He was very generous and loved to give little gifts to needy folk. But he didn’t give in order to be thanked, and so he tried to give his presents without anyone knowing who sent them. Often when it was dark, he would slip quietly into a poor home and leave a little surprise on the hearth.”

Imagine buying an all wool dress for $1.75, and stockings, two pairs for 25 cents. That is not a fairy tale, nor yet an advertisement for some new cut-price selling agent. It is just what it was like in great-grand-mother’s day.” The Pioneer, 10 December 1927.
“Shopping was an event in those days. From many a prosperous farm house the mistress went two or three times a year to the nearest town to replenish her stock of household gear. In some districts they were fortunate in having splendid general stores near by, maybe at the cross roads, and they need not wait to make a laborious journey far away.”

A regular night visitor to the orchard of Harry Hanson, of Lee, Maine attacks the farmer, tears his clothes to shreds and escapes into the woods”...The Pioneer, 5 November 1927.

“Mr Hanson ambushed a bear that was a regular nightly visitor to a nearby orchard and, getting the bear just where he wanted him, fired four shots at him from his magazine rifle. The bear went over on his back and Hanson rushed in. The bear popped up and caught Hanson a swipe on the side of the head that knocked him ten feet, and then followed him.”

The following letter dated 13 March 1927 has been received by Mrs Edward Moreshead, of Coleman, from her grandson, Astor Byron MacLean, of Hyde Park, Massachusettts, and now of Tela, Honduras...The Pioneer, 2 April 1927.

“Mr MacLean, who was born in Coleman and served overseas in the first World War, Canadian Expeditionary Forces, now occupies a prominent position with the United Fruit Company of Honduras, Central America. The winter months he refers to is about six weeks of almost continual rain.”

He writes, “I suppose you are looking forward to spring now. Our winter weather is over with and we have entered the hot season again. Seems pretty hot this year. I am doing a little hunting occasionally, but the mosquitoes back in the jungle are terrible and if one expects to get much they must be on the hunting grounds at night, early morning or late evening.”

Letter from Alphonse Doucette, Drummer, of Tignish, Prince Edward Island writing at Whitney Camp, Surrey, England, Bugle Band of 105th Regiment...The Pioneer, 10 January 1917.

“Well, I am a long while coming around to tell you that I received your dandy full box a few days ago, and it certainly was a glad surprise to me! It was a long while on the way but everything was in good condition, so I had some feed all right!”

“We are in pretty good quarters now, we are in huts and we have a stove, but not an awful lot of coal, but we are warm by spells so that is a little help. The huts are all right except when it rains then it leak like an old basket and we get some wet. At present the floor is covered by an inch of water, and it isn’t one bit too pleasant. Some people say ‘old soldiers shouldn’t mind that but we are human, I guess, and a little of that stuff goes a long way.”

"An old story, popular in the state of Connecticut after the American Revolution (1776-81), was revealed in 1928 when a piece of metal, said to have been a fragment of the first submarine used in America as a weapon in warfare, was presented to the Met Museum in New York...” Summerside Journal, 26 March 1928.

“The story credits the operation of the first submarine used in America to a Connecticut army sergeant. As the Britisha fleet neared New York in June, 1776, after being delayed in Halifax awaiting reinforcements from England, the sergeant was asked to sink the warship, the Eagle.”

“ In a shipyard at Saybrook, CT, a queer kind of boat had been completed. It was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. Davis Bushnell of Saybrook had designed the craft for submarine navigation. And tests showed that it would perform as Bushnell said it would.”

Steamship travel between Prince Edward Island, Halifax and Boston had become routine and usually without mishap by 1887. “However at one o’clock, Sunday morning, 16 July 1887, the splendid steamer Merrimac, sailing between Charlottetown, Halifax and Boston, struck on Little Hope Island, near Liverpool, N.S. and became a total wreck. There were 150 passengers on board for Boston.” This is the SS Merrimac.story....The Pioneer, 19 July 1887.

“The escape of the passengers and crew is one of the most marvelous ever known on the rock-bound coast of Nova Scotia. An experienced navigator said that the loss of the Merrimac is inexcusable, if not criminal. Capt Crowell should not have been within two miles of that well-known dangerous spot, with its doubly dangerous currents. If it was a foggy night he should have been five miles off. Near that Island are other dangerous ledges known to all navigators.”