1. Did you know that 1815 was called the "Year of the Mice" (bliadhna nan luch)? The Maritimes, including Antigonish County, was devastated by an mysterious invasion of mice which ravaged both the grain and potato crops. Legend says that the mice were "so bold as to face dogs and cats in mortal combat."
2. Did you know that the inhabitants of St. Andrews faced starvation after a long summer drought in 1851? The heat of the summer destroyed the crops of wheat, oats and potatoes. The year of hardship became known to the locals as "Bliadhna Na Min Budhie" or "The Year of the Yellow Meal".
3. Did you know that Ronald J. MacDonald of Fraser's Grant was the first Canadian to win the Boston Marathon in 1898? He ran in the second Boston Marathon along with 24 other contestants and cut thirteen minutes off the previous record. He was proclaimed by the Boston Globe to be "the champion Marathon road racer of the word." He was also a member of the United States Olympic team which went to Paris in 1900.
4. Did you know that Antigonish had its own doping scandal? In 1901, Ronald J. MacDonald collapsed during a race. It was alleged that he had been drugged with a chloroform-soaked sponge handed to him by a mysterious man dressed in an American military uniform.
5. Did you know that Alexander "Big Alex" MacDonald of Ashdale made his fortune in the Klondike in the 1880s and 1890s? Dubbed "the Klondike King", MacDonald had twenty eight leases and over one million dollars in assets within two years of prospecting in the Yukon. Eight years later, he valued his holdings at "$30 million".
6. Did you know that Antigonish's newspaper, The Casket, founded in 1852 by John Boyd, is Canada's oldest continuing weekly?
7. Did you know that Jane Pushie who died in 1853 tended to the medical needs of many Antigonish County residents? She helped deliver no less than 1,000 babies.
8. Did you know that the first woman to hold the rank of major in the British Empire came from Bailey's Brook? Major Margaret C. Macdonald (1873-1948), Matron-in-Chief of the Canadian Army Nursing Services, was posted overseas in 1914 with the First Canadian Contingent. She was a seasoned nurse by this time, having already served in South Africa during the Boer War and attended victims of malaria and yellow fever during the construction of the Panama Canal. Macdonald was widely recognized for her nursing service. She received such distinctions as Dame of the British Empire, Royal Red Cross, Florence Nightingale Medal and an honorary doctorate from St. Francis Xavier University.
9. Did you know that Antigonish was devastated by a huge gale on 1 October 1811? According to Dr. J.W. MacDonald, "It uprooted houses, and the brands blown from the hearths set fire to the buildings. Large elms bent before it to the ground, and whole tracts of forest were levelled to the ground like hay before the mower's scythe".
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