Charles Fenerty Monument

Sackville, Nova Scotia

The Sackville Heritage Society wants to put a monument to Charles Fenerty at the proposed Upper Sackville recreation complex.

Norman Fenerty, a great-great nephew of the pulp pioneer says the existing monument – a small, inconspicuous marker that stands near the corner of Paton Road and Old Windsor Highway – is in bad shape.

"It's on the old Fenerty homestead," said Fenerty, of the monument to the lumberman and poet. "It's badly deteriorated and the expense of repairing it and updating it would exceed the cost of a new one."

It's believed Fenerty, a native of Springfield Lake, discovered the process of making paper from ground sprucewood.

The society has contacted several tombstone companies and is comparing prices before selecting a new monument. "We have pretty well gelled an idea that we want, we just have to pick a contractor," said Fenerty, a society member.

The group considered putting the monument in the Sackville Heritage Park next to Fultz House in Lower Sackville, but residents of Upper Sackville thought it should be closer to Charles Fenerty's original home.

Construction of the new recreation centre hasn't started yet, and Fenerty says the society doesn't know when they'll be able to erect the monument.

Sackville-Beaverbank MLA Bill MacDonald, who supports the project, said erecting a monument to Fenerty at the new complex will help more people learn about him.

It's a common refrain in the community, where people wish the unheralded Fenerty would get his due. "It would give people more room to stop and look and talk about him," MacDonald said. "I can't see the municipality not agreeing with it."

Society president Dave Peverill said the plaque on the existing monument will stay there in some form. "That's his birthplace; it's important that something remains," he said.

The Halifax Regional Library recently named a community meeting room at the Sackville Public Library in honor of Charles Fenerty and his achievements.

A thumbs-down from the province on a request to honor pulp pioneer Charles Fenerty with a highway sign has a local councillor fuming.

"We're simply trying to bring attention to a famous member of our community," Sackville-Beaverbank Councillor Barry Barnet told a recent meeting of Northwest community council.

Council wrote to the Department of Transportation and Public Works Oct. 31 to request "celebrity signing" showing Sackville as the home of Fenerty – believed to have discovered the process of making paper from ground sprucewood in the mid-1800s.

But a Nov. 27 letter from central district traffic authority staffer J.S. Jerram shoots down the proposal. Jerram says the program allows "advertising or informational statements" along highways 101, 102 and the Bedford bypass.

"The blue and white community identity signage, such as those for the Town of Bedford on Highway 102, was designed to create the opportunity for incorporated cities and towns to receive an identity on the 100-series highway that caused the incorporated community to be bypassed," he writes.

"These signs provide for the inclusion of a theme or slogan." They cost $8,000-$10,000 each.

Jerram says Sackville was not eligible for such a sign before amalgamation because it wasn't an incorporated municipal unit. "Now, Sackville is a community within the Halifax Regional Municipality and still not eligible for inclusion in the 100-Series signing program," he says.

"It goes on to say that even if you want to pay for it, you can't," said a frustrated Barnet. "It appears to me that rules were created to allow communities to have these signs but also to severely restrict them to communities that were municipalities."

Barnet said he was reluctant to raise the issue because of the sign in Bedford, which declares the former town "a traditional stopping place."

"I hesitate to raise this because I fear that the Department of Transportation will come out and take down the sign for Bedford because it's no longer an incorporated municipality," he said.

Barnet said it's unfair for the province to "dangle this in front of us" and then refuse the request. "I'm disappointed, I really am," he said.

Community council agreed to write to the department expressing disappointment.

Reference:   Barnet Sees Red Over Sign Refusal
The Bedford-Sackville Weekly News 8 January 1997

The provincial Tourism Department has pledged cash to help promote awareness of Sackville pulp pioneer Charles Fenerty.

Sackville-Beaverbank MLA Bill MacDonald wrote to Northwest community council recently after the Transportation Department turned down its request to have highway signs touting the community as Fenerty's birthplace.

The Sackville Heritage and Fultz Corner Restoration societies have teamed up with Tourism to research "the potential tourism effect Charles Fenerty's image may have on the community," said MacDonald.

He said signs promoting a new cairn honoring Fenerty may spring up if the study indicates tourism potential. Fenerty, a native of Springfield Lake, is thought to have discovered the process of making newsprint from sprucewood pulp in 1839.

Many residents believe he hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves.

A legislative road block means Sackville isn't eligible for the highway signs, even if it's willing to pay for them. Only municipalities can take part in the sign program; Sackville is part of the Halifax Regional Municipality.