Simon Hugh Holmes

(1831-1919)

Born in Springville, Pictou County, As editor of the Colonial Standard, Holmes opposed Sandford Fleming’s appointment as the contractor on the Pictou branch of the Nova Scotia Railway. Later, as premier of Nova Scotia, he reincorporated the Nova Scotia Railway (1878) in order to solve the mounting financial problem caused by the subsides claimed by the many insolvent lines then underway. He was a principal in the ill-fated Stewiacke & Lansdowne Railway scheme.

Joseph Howe

(1804-1873)

Born and raised in Halifax, Howe is Nova Scotia's best known political figure. He was a printer, journalist, and editor of The NovaScotian from 1828-41 and 1844-56. He was the MLA for Halifax County from 1836-1851 and for Cumberland Co. in 1851, 1852-55, Windsor Township 1856-59 and the southern division of Hants Co. from 1859-63. A Reformer in politics, Howe was an Anti-Confederate but entered Sir John A. Macdonald's cabinet on the offer of "Better Terms" for Nova Scotia after Confederation.

Eventually serving as Premier of the province (1860-1863), and as its Lieutenant-Governor from May 7 1873 to his death June 1 of that year. Howe was named to the Executive Council without portfolio in October of 1840. His rise through the political ranks was meteoric, serving as Speaker of the House (1841-1843) then as Provincial Secretary and Clerk of Council (1848-1854). It was in this capacity that he named himself to the Nova Scotia Railway Commission, and managed to get allies on to the bi-partisan board. His enthusiasm for railways took its toll on many of those around him. He dismissed his wife's cousin, James McNab as chairman of the board (1857-1860) after McNab's political defection to the Conservatives, and his friend William Stairs resigned from the Legislative Council in 1854 rather than oppose Howe's railway policies. Another political casualty was George Renny Young, from whom Howe had purchased the Nova Scotian. Young resigned from the Executive Council in 1851 over Howe's railway scheme.

Gardiner Greene Hubbard

(1833-1884)

A founding partner of the Bell Telephone Company, Gardiner Hubbard was the father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell. A lawyer and businessman, Hubbard believed that Bell's inventions would make a fortune, but selling the first phones was not an easy task. A shareholder in the Caledonia Coal Mines on Cape Breton, Hubbard put the telephones to work on the railway, and in doing so became the first in North America to use the telephone to dispatch trains.