The Davison family of Wallace and Pictou : a case study in Maritime enterprise

Abstract

In 1837 two brothers left their home in the town of Pictou, Nova Scotia and re-settled along the province's North Shore at Wallace, which was a small, Loyalist community. They were part of a specialized exodus of entrepreneurs who left Pictou in search of available water-front land close to an ample timber supply, to establish shipyards. The brothers were raised in an upper-middle class family; their father was a successful timber merchant and they both received their education at Pictou Academy. These experiences gave them the opportunity to form a network of relationships with influential members of the local business community and beyond into the upper echelon of Nova Scotian society. They utilized this network of social support in the establishment of their shipyard, and continued to form new relationships as their business flourished.

Wallace, as a shipbuilding community, functioned within a hierarchy of building centers in Nova Scotia and the entire Atlantic region. Throughout the nineteenth century, small villages and towns such as Wallace, produced wooden vessels which were often registered to the nearest port of registry. In the case of Wallace, it was Halifax, until the Pictou registry opened in 1840. The vessels produced by these communities contributed greatly to the shipping activity of larger port towns and added significantly to the size of their fleets.