White's Lake

The small community of White's Lake is located on the Prospect Road about 19 km southwest of Halifax. There is rumour of a Mi'kmaq burial mound located near here just off Bayview Drive.

White's Lake beach has been a popular swimming spot to residents for generations.

Obviously named after the first settlers, the White family settled the area in the early 1800s. Others soon arrived with John Christian settling on 97 acres around 1835. William H. Rudolph settled in 1847 with a grant of 120 acres. Michael Hogan was here by 1850 and in 1851 James Duggan moved into the community. Beazley, Church and Power families also arrived later. In the 1880s James Christian built his house in White's Lake. At the bottom of Stoney Beach Road, there are 50 acres of land that belong to the Tucker children and is known locally as Tuckerville.

Mills were established at the point where the waters of White's Lake River flow into Prospect Bay. One such mill was opened by Josh Church. Jeff Christian operated a slaughterhouse. Roy Christian opened the first Texaco station around 1930. He also ran the post office and acted as Justice of the Peace. Some say the first store was run by Thomas White. In 1934 Roland Umlah picked up mail at White's Lake twice a week and delivered it to the surrounding communities.

In 1947 students who lived in White's Lake were driven by bus to school in Upper Prospect by Joseph Ball. That year an official opening of the recreation centre took place with Albert Beazley appointed as manager and Stanley Duggan as assistant manager. The opening celebration featured card games, lunch, music and dancing. In 1948 a meeting took place in White's Lake where C. Topshee of the Department of Education came to speak to a group about cooperatives and credit unions.

Modern highways in the 1960s attracted new people who moved into the community from Halifax. They commuted to the city for employment. Few, if any, signs of the early settlement remain to be seen.

The Bourgeois families in the area are descendents of Jacques Bourgeois, an Acadian, who died when he was eighty in 1701 at Port Royal. He had lived in the 1600s with his wife Jeanne on a island in the Annapolis River which they called, "Isle aux Chochons." Their family escaped capture when the English attacked Port Royal in 1654. Jacques was a doctor, a farmer and a sea merchant, trading extensively with the Mi'kmaq people. Between the years 1643 and 1667, Jacques and Jeanne had seven daughters and three sons: Anne, Jeanne, Charles, Jeanne, Germain, Marie, Guilliame, Marguerite, Francois, and Marie. The family was wealthy with 24 sheep and 33 cows. In 1671, they founded a village that is today Amherst. They named their village Beaubassin. Beaubassin was attacked in 1696 by Bostonians causing Jacques and his family to return to Port Royal.