july2017

126 127 ANTIGONISH, NOVA SCOTIA T he first European settlement took place in the area that became Antigonish, Nova Scotia, in 1784, when Lt. Colonel Tim- othy Hierlihy, of the Royal Nova Scotia Volunteer Regiment, received a large land grant surrounding Antigonish Harbor. Hierlihy and his party founded the Dorchester settlement, named for Sir Guy Carleton, who was Governor General of Canada and subsequently Lord Dorchester. By the late 1820s, Dorchester was commonly referred to as Antigonish. St.F.X. was established in Antigonish in 1855. It was originally a Catholic seminary but was grant- ed full university powers in 1866 by an act of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. In the 1920s, the university was the source of the Antigonish Move- ment, which was led by a group of priests and educators, and whose objective was the blending of adult education, co-operatives, microfinance, and rural community development to help small, re- source-based communities around Canada’s Mar- itimes improve their economic and social circum- stances. WHO COULDWANT FOR MORE? AT A GLANCE | ANTIGONISH, NS WHAT: A town of 5,000 WHERE: Eastern Nova Scotia, across the bay from Cape Breton Island WEBSITE: www.townofantigonish.ca