Early Antigonish Stone Cutters

There is little more than scant information on Antigonish’s early 19th-century stonecarvers. In both Pictou and Antigonish Counties, Scottish immigrant stone cutters formed a core of skilled artisans who adeptly carved freestone, marble and granite. Evidence of their skill can be seen in the multitude of rosettes, flowers and thistles that adorn early tombstones in the region. Their names, however, are lost to an ill-deserved obscurity.

Several names have escaped this fate. In the 1860s, Joseph Albert Walker (1838-1919), born in St. George, New Brunswick, established a monument business in Antigonish. He operated a “Marble Works” on West Street, where he boasted the “largest stock of Marble probably East of Halifax”. In a Casket advertisement for May 1863, he urged potential clients to examine his "Marble Slabs and Monument Stock of all sizes", just arrived on the schooner Mary. He also offered reassurances that his prices were commensurate with those in Halifax and that he would take "country produce" as partial payment for his services. Walker's business lasted for almost thirty years before his departure for Boston, Massachusetts. Over a brief period, he was assisted by his son, John Milton Walker (1871-1821), also a stonecutter. J.A. Walker took on many ambitious projects, including a monument ten feet high fashioned from Cape Breton marble for a Windsor client. John (Donald Duncan) McIsaac of Dunmore also enjoyed a reputation as a well-known sculptor and marble worker. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was regarded as “a most competent workman” for “scarcely a cemetery in the Eastern parishes” did not feature examples of his craftsmanship. John R. MacDonald ( - 1933) figured prominently as a local monument designer. This Brown’s Mountain native apprenticed as a stonecutter in Truro before launching a successful career as a building contractor specializing in stone churches and houses that took him as far afield as Montreal. MacDonald participated in the rebuilding of Halifax after the 1917 Halifax Explosion. Several years later, he relocated to Antigonish, finally settling on the South River Road. Over the next decade, his name was virtually synomous with Antigonish County's monument business. Daniel C. MacKinnon (1866-1959), born in Lismore, Pictou County, also joined the ranks of the region’s most prominent marble masons and freestone cutters. He apprenticed in New Glasgow and later pursued a career as a farmer and stonecutter at The Ponds. According to Clyde F. Macdonald, author of Artisans in Stone of Pictou County, many of the headstones in the Lismore and Arisaig cemeteries can be attributed to MacKinnon. These stones bear his signature trademark “D.McK. Lismore” or “D.McK.P.” or “D McK”.

Few people know that late 19th-century Bayfield played a supporting role in the history of Antigonish County tombstones. It is more than an interesting footnote that Bayfield was the source of “socket stones” shipped via the coastal trade to Newfoundland. These stones, hauled by oxen and shifted onto ships with block and tackle, often measured as large as eight feet in length and three feet in width. They served as posts or bases for headstones.

It is interesting to note that not all gravemarkers in 19th-century Antigonish were carved from stone. Some of the monuments were foundery-cast zinc imported from St. Thomas, Ontario. In the 20th century, Tommy Young ( - 1962), a Mi’kmaq resident of Antigonish Landing, turned to a different medium altogether--wood. Many of the wooden crosses in St. Ninian’s Cemetery are his handiwork. Young was a skilful woodworker, turning his hand with equal facility to carving hockey sticks and small boats. It is difficult to pinpoint when Antigonish County’s stonecarving traditions lost ground. The introduction of the cast-zinc monument during the late 19th century probably had negative repurcussions. However, far more serious was the development of railroad systems that facilitated the easy transport of pre-cut standardized monuments—this force spelled the demise of locally crafted gravestone markers all over the Maritimes.

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