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Full text: M i h THE DIARY OF ADOLPHUS GAETZ by CHARLES BRUCE FERGUSSON Introduction I The diary of Adolphus Gaetz for the years 1855-73 sheds considerable light on the political, economic, religious, and social history of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in particular, and of the Province in general. It was kept by a merchant, in the town of Lunenburg, who held several important local public offices. Consequently it discloses not only something of the person- ality of the diarist, with a talent for painting tablets and for playing the clarinet, and with an occasional propensity to verse, but also a good deal about the various aspects of the life of a South Shore town and of the whole region. In preparing this volume for publication, it has been necessary to use a typescript which William A. Gaetz, Registrar of Probate at Lunenburg, certified to be a true copy of his father's diary. Actually, Adolphus Gaetz began to keep a journal before 1855, but that part of it for the period prior to May 1, 1855 was lost before the certified true copy was made. Sub- sequently, William A. Gaetz moved to Ottawa and the location of the orig- inal dairy for the years 1855-73 is not now known to the editor. n Adolphus. Gaetz, the author of this diary, was born in Wertheim, Ger- many, on May 13, 1804, and (according to Mather Byles DesBrisay, in History of the County of Lunenburg, second edition, page 115) he went to Lunenburg, N.S. in August 1832. However, it appears that he had crossed the Atlantic as early as 1825 or 1826, for on November 13, 1869, when he recorded the death of Mrs. Casper Metzler, at Lunenburg, Gaetz stated that forty-three years ago he had been groomsman at her wedding, and, in fact, Casper Metzler and Lucy Catherine Lenox were married (according to the records of St. John's Anglican Church, Lunenburg) on February 2, 1826. Gaetz established himself as a dry goods merchant in Lunenburg. There, on August 29, 1833, at the home of the bride's parents, Adolphus Gaetz, a young merchant, married Lucy, daughter of John Zwicker, an older mer- chant in the town. He was a respected citizen as well as a rising man of business. He be- came a teacher in the Sunday School of St. John's Anglican Church and, eventually at the urging of the Rector, he assumed the duties of Superin- tendent of it on December 7, 1856. He joined the second battalion of the Lunenburg Regiment of Militia. By 1841, if not before that year, he was a Second Lieutenant in it; two years later he was its Quartermaster; and