History
Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally establishing Halifax, the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War. The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1751), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).
In 1750, the sailing ship Alderney arrived with 151 immigrants. Municipal officials at Halifax decided that these new arrivals should be settled on the eastern side of Halifax Harbour. During the early years, there were 8 Acadian and Mi'kmaq raids on the new British settlement, such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751).
The original settlement was made in an area known to the Mi'kmaq as "Boonamoogwaddy" or "Tomcod Ground". The community was later given the English name of Dartmouth in honour of William Legge, 1st Earl of Dartmouth who was a former Secretary of State. By 1752, 53 families consisting of 193 people lived in the community.
In 1873, Dartmouth was incorporated as a town and a Town Hall was established in 1877. In 1955, the town was permanently linked to Halifax by the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge which led to rapid suburban growth. The Town of Dartmouth amalgamated with several neighbouring villages into the City of Dartmouth in 1961. The A. Murray MacKay Bridge opened in 1970, furthering commercial and residential growth.
The city was dissolved on April 1, 1996, when its government was amalgamated into the Halifax Regional Municipality.
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1881 | 3,786 | — |
| 1891 | 6,252 | +65.1% |
| 1901 | 4,806 | −23.1% |
| 1911 | 5,058 | +5.2% |
| 1921 | 7,899 | +56.2% |
| 1931 | 9,100 | +15.2% |
| 1941 | 10,847 | +19.2% |
| 1951 | 15,037 | +38.6% |
| 1961 | 46,966 | +212.3% |
| 1991 | 67,798 | +44.4% |
| 1996 | 65,629 | −3.2% |
| 2001 | 65,741 | +0.2% |
| Population figures reflect the 1961 amalgamation. | ||
Read more about this topic: Dartmouthians
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“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
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“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)