Moncton's help after Halifax Explosion subject of new exhibit

Within three hours of the devastating blast that destroyed much of Halifax the morning of Dec. 6, 1917, a train filled with doctors, nurses and medical supplies was already pulling out of the Moncton railway station and heading toward the disaster to help.

You just can't imagine these people leaving their day-to-day jobs and saying, 'Yup I'm just going,' How selfless is that? It's amazing.- Bridget Murphy, Moncton Museum

Moncton's Resurgo Place wants residents to share their stories about the Monctonians who were among the first  to offer help after the Halifax Explosion.

Bridget Murphy, collections and research library co-ordinator at Resurgo Place, is asking people to contact the museum to share their family history.

"We have a lot of knowledge of who went down — we know that four trains left Moncton that day, we know doctors, nurses, supplies — but what did these people do once they got to Halifax? That's the really big missing part of our story."

Murphy said the records show the first train left Moncton at 12:05 p.m., the second train, filled with half of Moncton's firefighters, left an hour later and a third train left around 4 p.m.

"This was mostly food cars," Murphy said. "The Red Cross provided 118 hospital shirts, 42 suit pyjamas and six quilts."

By the end of the day, a total of four trains had left the Moncton station filled with first responders, food and supplies.

'If we don't tell these stories, they will be lost'

So far eight people have contacted the Moncton Museum to share their family stories connected to the Halifax Explosion, but Murphy said she'd love to have a few more to include in the November exhibit.

James Upham, a heritage officer with Resurgo Place, said people hear a lot about how Boston helped to rebuild Halifax but not much about other cities. Help came from all over the Maritimes.

"We all pulled together in this entire region — way before folks got here from the States, we were already there."

One story in the exhibit will be about a 19-year-old carpenter from Albert County who responded to the call from Halifax as the city began to rebuild.

"So this young fellow on Christmas Eve gets his stuff together, hops on the train and goes down to Halifax to help rebuild," Upham said. "He was there until June — he left because it was time to come home and start planting."

"You just can't imagine these people leaving their day-to-day jobs and saying, 'Yup I'm just going,' How selfless is that? It's amazing," said Murphy.

The exhibit will tell the story of Anthony Agnew Sr., one of the firefighters who responded in 1917.

He returned with a cowbell that he found on the Dartmouth side of the harbour while putting out hotspots.

"He found this bell, which is just a little cowbell but it has a big piece out of it — this would have been a brass bell, so it's pretty hard but it's just pocked all over the place," Murphy said.

"This is just one firefighter who went down there. This is what he did and this is what he brought back — that's what we're looking for."

Grandfather found piece of Mont-Blanc

Gary Gaskin heard about the new exhibit and wanted to share his family's connection to the Halifax Explosion.

The retired teacher first remembers seeing a "very strange" piece of twisted metal on top of the china cabinet at his grandfather's home as a young child.

He says it wasn't until he was in Grade 9 and read an excerpt from Barometer Rising, by Hugh MacLennan, that he realized what that piece of metal was.

"I went home and talked to my grandfather about it," Gaskin said. "He got the piece of metal down off the top of the china cabinet and showed me. There's writing on it and my grandfather had put exactly where this piece of metal came from."

It was from the French munitions ship Mont-Blanc. After being struck in the harbour by a Northwegian ship, the Imo, Mont-Blanc drifted on fire to a pier in north end Halifax, where it was blown to smithereens.

Gaskin's grandfather worked for the railway in Moncton as a sign painter and was helping to refurbish boxcars damaged in the explosion and sent to Moncton for repairs.

"When the Mont-Blanc blew up, practically the ship became flying shrapnel, so this is a piece that penetrated the boxcar."

Gaskin loves history and considers the piece of the ship that is now displayed in his home a piece of Canadian history.

"This is pretty gnarly," he said looking at the piece of metal, "But it's also a connection to my grandfather, who was a pretty big influence to me growing up.

"I hope that there are people who have family that have stories like this that pass them on."  

Murphy hopes so too. She worries that if these stories aren't told and shared, they will be lost.

"Moncton played such a vital role in helping these people. What did they do once they got there?"