SOUTH BERWICK, N.S. — Phil Vogler explains the tremendous amount of time he puts into historical research with a simple, yet powerful adage.
“Canadian history started in the Maritimes, no matter which way you look at it.”
Another reason is even simpler; he finds history fascinating. The South Berwick resident says the more he researches, the more it draws him in. He compares his thirst for historical discover to an addiction.
The local history buff has a prolific knowledge of the province’s history, with much of it focused on the Annapolis Valley and Bay of Fundy area.
“History has always been a passion, right through from high school. My father was also pretty informed, and it was a passion of his, too,” Vogler said. “It all snowballed from there.”
It all started from a young age for Vogler, who grew up in a military family, constantly on the move, discovering his love of history in grade school.
Among the many places he lived was the Valley – a place he loved so much, he came back to live here and start a family.
Vogler’s forays into the annals of history was to find out more about the South Shore origins of his family.
This eventually blossomed into an interest in genealogy. He would peruse the archives of the Annapolis Valley Register.
“I would go through the old original volumes in the back room. I just went through the genealogy.”
Eventually, Vogler got good at climbing family trees. He became a go-to guy in his community of South Berwick, often receiving requests to help people discover their family histories.
“It got to the point where I had people from the States requesting I take photos of grave sites in the Valley, which I gladly did,” he said.
Vogler credited the editorial direction founder, editor and co-owner Johnny Woodworth, with the old Annapolis Valley Register in the 1890s, an era where he did a lot of historical digging.
“It almost read like a history book. Johnny was a historian and would write about weddings and anniversaries and talk about whether the family was a Planter family, or Loyalist or Irish,” Vogler said. “He’d do a whole history on them. He knew what he was doing, and in 100 years’ time, it would be a great resource for people like me.”
Although he noted many newsprint archives are online, many older issues aren’t. Sometimes, more prolific sleuthing is needed.
“The Register is one of a few papers that Google hasn’t digitalized, and it probably never will be because all the original volumes are in bad shape,” Vogler said. “They’re housed at Acadia.”
DIGGING DEEPER
Eventually, Vogler bored of genealogy, and started digging more into the broader history of the Annapolis Valley and Bay of Fundy.
He moved onto ancient seafaring stories originating from our coastal seascapes. Through this, Vogler would learn about everything from schooners named after his grandmother, to the Bay of Fundy and Valley connections to events as far-flung as the burgeoning years of the gold rush in the Yukon, through friendships at sea like the one forged between Henry Havelock and Jujiro Wada, while sailing in the Bay of Fundy.
“The Bay of Fundy always fascinated me, and I started looking at places like French Cross, Harbourville and Morden, and it was amazing what I found,” Vogler said.
What Vogler found, he transcribed, starting in the 1990s, following events like confederation and how its effects were felt in Valley communities.
METHODS
“I do a lot of research through internet archives, old Advertisers and old issues of the Halifax Gazette,” Vogler said, adding that he also consults museums and government records in his searches through the timetables of history.
“I’m always looking for a story that amazes me. I’m afraid of missing a big story somewhere,” he said.
Sometimes inspiration comes before he even lifts a finger to thumb through pages, or type a name onto a keyboard.
“Local people called me once and said they found an old church map in the attic in the 1860s,” Vogler said.
Vogler has a number of friends who similarly scour archives and historical sources. They often “trade notes” when they’re looking for something.
This comparing of notes has often helped with other projects. Some historical books based on the province have drawn on Vogler’s knowledge.
He gets a certain pride and fulfillment from “breaking down historical brick walls over the years that have stumped people.”
Sometimes history isn’t always marriage records and journal entries. He’s found that the numbers and records of government publications can be just as valuable in creating a historical picture as any colourful prose.
“If you look at Harbourville, for example, you can go through government journals and ledgers and can find when the piers when it and when they actually became wharfs,” Vogler said. “You can look at records of what was coming and going, and you can tell where nails came from and lumber came from, for example. It fits together like little pieces of a puzzle.”
MEMORIES
Of all the records Vogler has studied, the one that stuck with him the most was writing by Nellie McClung, when she came to Nova Scotia in 1938.
“She wrote about the economy, housing and all the counties and her first impression of the province,” Vogler said, noting that the piece that fascinated him was a passage in which McClung describes the life of an older lady living near Grand Pré, who claimed to be able to tell how the weather would change by watching the way trees moved in the wind.
“The way Nellie wrote that article captured my imagination,” Vogler said. “That was one of the more memorable things I came across.”
PLANS
Much of Vogler’s work is printed, but none of it is published.
“It’s not organized,” he admitted, noting that one of the first ventures he’d like to do is to combine his fascination with history with his penchant for photography.
“I’d like to go around the bay and start that way. God knows where that would take me,” he said.
One place his interest in history has taken him is a board room. Vogler was recently accepted onto the Kings County Historical Society in July.
“I’m excited to have that door open for me, he said. “Not only will they be able to help me with museum issues, but I’ll have access to all that history.”
Vogler, 62, is three years from retirement. He is looking forward to more time to dig through the history of the area, travelling, taking photos – and, of course – visiting any museums and historical societies he can find along the way.
