This Month in History - National Bird Day (Suggested by: Chelsea Flowers)
In the month of January, on the 5th, every year since 2002, the United States has celebrated National Bird Day. This annual observance focuses on bird conservation and appreciating avian wildlife through activities like birdwatching, education, and improving habitats. This year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City posted an interesting bird related article to commemorate the date. The topic was about a rock crystal figurine from Nuremberg, Germany that dated to the 1500s. This figurine featured a pigeon with ruby eyes and silver guilded legs and collar. The Met article posed a very interesting question: "How many cows would this statue be worth in the 1550s?" Now, of course, this sounds like a preposterous question in 2026, but cows had a very high value at that time. One cow at that time was worth approximately 175 grams of silver. The answer to the question was that the little statuary was more than likely valued at roughly 275 cows. As for the value of seeing a bird that you haven't seen before and can now add to your life list - and surely you must have a birding life list - that is priceless!
Haunted Sydney, Nova Scotia
Sydney, Nova Scotia's historic North End has a haunted reputation. Many of the buildings here have stood for more than 100 years and a handful are now museums. The Cossit House is one of the oldest houses on Cape Breton Island and haunted by its former occupants. The same is true with the Jost House. There are also a couple of haunted churches of all things. And the nearby Fortress of Louisbourg endured a couple of sieges and is today a National Historic site with several ghosts. Join us for the history and hauntings of Sydney, Nova Scotia.
The British founded the city of Sydney in 1785 on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Today, it has been absorbed into the regional municipality, but it once was the colonial capital of Cape Breton Island. The capital moved to Halifax - a location we covered in Ep. 423. Sydney was named in honor of Thomas Townshend who was the 1st Viscount Sydney. He was serving as the Home Secretary in the British cabinet at the time. The city was incorporated in 1885. Beginning in the 20th century, the region's biggest employer would be the steel industry and Sydney would be the base of North America's main steel mills. That steel would eventually nationalize and the population of the city would shrink and today tourism is its top industry and cruise ship facilities were constructed. Fun Fact: The world's largest fiddle is here on the waterfront. And there are several haunted locations in the city that we are going to explore. There is a historic murder case that took place in North Sydney. John Flahaven was killed in the early morning hours of October 16, 1832 by two English sailors. These sailors were Reuban Easman and William Johnston and they had taken shelter in the Flahaven's barn. While the men were there, John's wife Charlotte became taken with Johnston and the two had an affair. The couple decided that John needed to go, so Reuban and William devised a plan. They let one loose one of the Flahaven's cows and when John went out to retrieve it, the men were waiting in ambush for him. The murder was discovered because the men did a bad job of burying the body and left a hand sticking up out of the ground. The three were arrested and found guilty of the murder and sentenced to be hanged. They were kept at a jail that is now the basement of a private home at 25 Charlotte Street. Their spirits are thought to still be down in that basement and thre are some people who claim they haunt the whole neighborhood because wood that was used to build some of the houses was actually used to build the gallows that were at Victoria Park first.
Cossit House Museum (Suggested by: Stephen Weiss)
The Cossit House was built in 1787 by Reverend Ranna (Rene) Cossit for his family. Cossit had actually been born in Connecticut to a French family that came to America in the early 1700s. He decided to go into ministry and was ordained in 1773 and he married Thankful Brooks from New Hampshire. The couple decided to settle in New Hampshire and they had seven children there. They would add six more later.
Despite being loyal to the British, the Cossits remained in New Hampshire during the American Revolution. In 1785, Rev. Cossit was offered a ministry position in Sydney and he moved his family there in June of 1786. No parsonage was offered to him and that is why he ended up building the house at his own expense. And he also had to build the church, which wasn't finished until 1805. The British government did cough up 500 pounds for the church. The house was pretty big for the time and designed in the Neoclassical Georgian architectural style. This was a one-and-one-half story wood home built from local timbers with a rubble stone foundation and gabled roof. The interior was a central hallway plan. After years of ongoing political conflict that Cossit found himself in the middle of, he resigned from the Sydney mission in July 1805. He moved onto an appointment to Yarmouth and that is where he died in 1815. His wife Thankful had preceded him in death in 1802 while giving birth to their thirteenth child. A John Lorway bought the house in 1826 and then the Cossit House passed through various owners through the years. The Old Sydney Society partnered with the Nova Scotia Museum and the Provincial Government and they refurbished and staged the house as it would have been in the late 1700s and opened as a museum in 1977. In 2008, the entire area around the house became part of a Heritage Conservation District, which includes a seven block area with 100 buildings.
There are claims that the house is haunted. Reverand Cossit liked to smoke a pipe and people catch the scent of pipe tobacco. Female visitors have often also reported the feeling of a little hand grabbing their hand. Cold drafts is another claim, especially near the stiarway. Suffling footsteps and laughing and giggling from upstairs have also been heard.
Old Sydney Society employee Breagh MacDermid had said she had a unique experience with a medium when in the Cossit House. She told the Saltwire website, "A medium came from off the ship and she started crying when we went into the kitchen. She actually started speaking to me as if she was Thankful Cossitt and she kept crying and telling me how sad she was and stuff like that. I couldn’t stop thinking about it — I still can’t stop thinking about it, a week later. It was so sad and so heartbreaking." Haunts From The Cape investigated in 2017 and they reported, "Last year, with the help of Joyce Rankin of the Old Sydney Society, we encountered a negative force that wanted us to leave. The more we pushed it, the angrier the responses got." They have a video on YouTube and indeed the Spirit Box says to "leave" and they ask why they should leave and the answer is "not safe" and when they ask if they are making them uncomfortable, there was a clear "yes."
Jost House Museum
The Jost House is one of the oldest wooden structures in Sydney and was built in 1786 in the Neoclassical style. The house was similar to the Cossit House in that it was also one-and-a-half stories and had a gable roof. In 1900, the roof was raised and changed to a low pitch roof to increase the number of bedrooms. There were two chimneys, with one servicing three fireplaces including a beehive oven in the basement.
Sparrow only lived here until 1787. The next owner was Halifax merchant Thomas Jost, for whom the house is named. He bought the property in 1836 and the house stayed in the Jost family until 1971. Jost opened a general store in a corner room of the house, which was open until 1850. Then he opened a new store behind the house and Jost was considered one of the more important businessmen in the city of Sydney. The Old Sydney Society bought the house in 1991 and they restored it and opened it as a museum with artifacts from the Jost family and other collections put together by prominent Cape Bretoners like Dr. J. Esmonde Cooke’s collection in our Apothecary room featuring an assortment of medicinals and apparatus used in the making of medicine in the early 20th century. The Marine room reflects the maritime heritage of the city. There have been several ghosts spotted here, including a little boy in the basement. He is mischievous and once stole an earring from an employee and he locked another employee in a cabinet. A woman in blue has been seen on the staircase and people think that this is Joan Harris who was a well loved in the town that helped develop cruise ship visits to the town and who is primarily responsible for the museum's creation. Two women haunt the upstairs Victorian Room. Books have gone flying off of shelving.
St. Patrick's Church Museum
St. Patrick’s Church was founded as a Roman Catholic Church in 1828. A balcony was added in 1850 to help with the growth of the population, but eventually, a new church ha to be built. A Lebanese group took over the church and worshipped there until 1950 and then the Old Sydney Society took over the church and began restoring it in 1966. They reopened it as a museum.
St. Patrick's Church Museum has a market bell hanging on the museum's first floor and legend claims that if the bell rings three times, the door to the upstairs belfry will open on its own. Old Sydney Society employee Breagh MacDermid told the Saltwire website, "There is a ghost at St. Patrick’s but he’s pretty jolly. All he’ll do is run across the balcony and then if you ring the market bell three times, he’ll open the belfry door. A lot of people like to do that on the tour and he almost always does."
St. George's Church
St. George's Anglican Church is the oldest building on Cape Breton Island and was built in 1785. The church was originally a small stone building in the Gothic Revival style with three circular windows on two sides. In 1853, a chancel and vestry were added, but just a few years later it was decided to rebuild the church, so it was torn down to its foundation. It was built again in the Gothic Revival style and the windows were changed to a pointed style and made from stained glass. A stone tower and spire were added in 1888. The interior has wall-hung headstones, memorial tablets, memorial stained-glass windows and a Casavant organ. The grave markers in the cemetery are made from limestone and sandstone. The church received a Royal Pew in 1854 meaning that it was an official place of worship for members of the Royal Family.
Even though it is a church, this is said to be the most haunted location in Sydney. The local ghost tour always makes sure to stop by the graveyard. The legend connected to the church claims that a male ghost wanders the cemetery, especially at night. He is referred to as the pacing apparition. It is believed he is searching for a final resting place next to his family as he was denied burial here because he had committed a monstrous crime.
Fortress Louisbourg
The French were the first Europeans to settle Cape Breton Island. In 1713, they built a naval support base in the harbor, which they quickly abandoned after it froze over. They chose another spot for a new winter port that was well protected and free of ice and they called it Havre Louisbourg (Av-ruh Loo-ee-boor) after King Louis XIV.This fishing port became a major commercial port and fortifications were built around the town totaling two-and-a-half miles of wall. Four gates granted access to the town. The Fortress of Louisbourg wasn't very strong as it was built on a low-lying area and all its defenses were to the sea, so there was no protection for land assaults. The finest hospital in North America was here in the 1700s. During the War of Austrian Succession in 1745, the British beseiged the harbor and captured it, but they returned it to the French after the war. Around 500 British and colonial forces and approximately 300 French troops were killed or wounded during that siege. The French and Indian War began after several skirmishes between the French and American colonists escalated. That war broadened into the Seven Years' War and the British again laid siege to Louisbourg in 1758. This lasted for six weeks before the French surrendered with 172 British killed and 300 wounded and an unknown amount of French casualties. The British took over the fortress and launched the Siege of Quebec from there. The French soldiers and inhabitants were sent back to France and then the British began demolishing the town. The process took six years. The British kept a garrison at Louisbourg until 1768. For more than 150 years, the site remained rough and mostly forgotten.
In 1920, the fortress became a National Historic Site. The Canadian government undertook a massive restoration effort in 1961 to recreate Louisbourg as it had been in 1744. Sixty buildings were built and also two bastions. One of these reconstructed buildings was the Military Chapel. The site is operated by Parks Canada and offers self-guided and guided tours, demonstrations and re-enactors.
Many battles were fought here and many lived were lost, so its not surprising that there are rumors of hauntings. There are bodies still buried in the ground in places. A couple who was staying overnight on the grounds one night, fled in the middle of the night because they had become so scared. There are tunnels on the property where apparitions have been seen and EVPs have been recorded. People have also been pushed by unseen forces. One of the most seen ghosts is a French soldier who seems to be on patrol near the King's Bastion, usually on foggy nights and his uniform seems to be ragged and he seems to be very sad. A young drummer boy was killed during a battle and the sounds of drumming is sometimes heard. There is a White Lady here as well. Visitors and staff tend to see her around dusk walking the ramparts and she sometimes wails. People assume that she had been the wife of a soldier or officer who had died at the fortress.
The Lartigue House was owned by Joseph Lartigue and his Basque wife Jeanne. They came with the first settlers from Newfoundland and Joseph worked as a fisherman and trader, but eventually he worked in public office, serving on the Superior Council and then as town magistrate. They built the house in 1734 on a rubblestone foundation with a timberframe. Part of the house was used as a courtroom. The couple raised twelve children in the house. Jeanne stayed on in the house until her death in 1763, so she was there for the founding and the fall. There are claims that disembodied footsteps are heard upstairs.
The Duhaget Property was owned by garrison officer Robert Tarride Duhaget who had been born in the south of France. The house was built in 1737 with beveled board siding. Robert married Marguerite Rousseau de Villejouin and the couple hoped to fill their large home with children, but they remained childless. Duhagets health failed in 1757 and he returned to France where he died. Staff report seeing shadow figures on the stairs. One time, someone tripped on the stairs and was falling when an unseen force propped them back up so they didn't fall. A presence at the house has been talked about for 50 years. Fortress of Louisbourg events co-ordinator Kyle Allen, told the saltwire website, "There was one year with the curatorial department and I was one of the people that was responsible for setting up and dismantling the period displays and things like that during the spring and winter. I was working in the Duhaget residence hanging a curtain on the second floor and I clearly heard footsteps in the attic. I looked up the stairs and the padlock was on the one door that leads into the attic so nobody could have been in there, but it was clearly footsteps."
Michel Rodrigue was a seaman who sailed up the Saint Lawrence with French and West Indian goods to trade for flour and vegetables in other parts of Canada in the 1730s. He raised five children in the home with his wife Marguerite, who was the daughter of Joseph Lartigue. He lead a militia during the Siege of 1745 and after the town fell, he went back to France. Troy Allen was a longtime employee and he was once in the Rodrigue property closing up the building and making sure no one was inside when he looked out a window to the building across the street and there was a face staring at him from a window. He proceeded to the next window and when he looked at that window the same face was still across the street staring directly back at the same spot he had just been previously in the proceeding window.
The Military Chapel was a central religious building within the King's Bastion and featured the patron of St. Louis IX. Governor Duquesnel was buried in the chapel. Barracks were also inside and government functions were carried out here as it was the most fortified part of the fortress. A psychic in the chapel once sensed negative energy in the attic of the chapel and an investigator's camera died inexplicably. Kyle Allen told a story about an experience his father had here. He said, "Another story, my father worked here in the ’70s and ’80s. In the 1970s, our military chapel burnt due to an electrical fire and he was cleaning out the smoke and soot damage out of the rooms adjacent to the chapel. He was cleaning out one room, moving everything into another room, cleaning that one, moving it all back. At one point, he sees this ball of beeswax floating into the next room. So he thought the smoke had gotten to him, went outside, found another staff person and they went back up. Here in the room that he was cleaning, you could clearly see on the table the outline of the beeswax because there was no soot underneath where the beeswax was sitting. Forty feet away is where the beeswax was sitting on another table. They lifted it up, nothing but soot underneath the other table where it ended up, and the only mark on the beeswax was where they had just touched it. So there’s always things that are unexplained." Unexplained knocks and bangs are often heard.
Sydney is the largest urban area on Cape Breton and the heart of the waterfront. This has become a popular cruise ship stop and tourist destination and if you are into ghosts, this would be a great spot for it. Lots of old buildings with unexplained activity inside possibly. Is the city of Sydney in Nova Scotia haunted? That is for you to decide!
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