Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

Original Settler Roots
• Charlie was a direct descendant of the French speaking Jacques Begin [Begein] from the
Montbeliard region of France. At the age of 25, Jacques and his first wife were among the
‘Foreign Protestants’ who immigrated to Nova Scotia, arriving in Halifax in 1752 and in
Lunenburg [to receive a grant of land] in 1754. Like so many early immigrants, the family
learned to turn their skills to the sea.
The Sail Making Tradition
• Charlie’s father Benjamin trained as a sail maker and prospered in Mahone Bay’s
golden age of wooden ships and sail, 1870-90. He married Sarah Louise Beck of
Lunenburg and, in 1874, they purchased the house on Main St. that is now The
Settlers Museum.
To left, a fine early family photo of sail-maker Charlie Begin:
• Charlie was only 12 yrs. old when his father died, and he was obliged to leave school
to support his mother and sister. He took up farming with his uncle, then turned to
successful sail making. He worked at home and at the sail loft on the top floor of the
C.U. Mader Building, now known as Mader’s Wharf.
Children, The School, Tragedy, The Bluenose
• In 1895, Charlie married Emily Louise Rhodenizer of First Peninsula. They had
five children: Nora-Belle, Anna Louise, Willoughby Charles Roy, Ellen Maude, and
Guerney Alden. The last three were still at school in 1914.
• With a classroom unfinished in the new building in September 1914, he would have
been instrumental in arranging the temporary use of part of the floor below him as the
classroom for the grades 4-5 class that included Fred Mosher. He would have seen
and heard them close at hand.
• In 1918, Nora Belle, less than a year after marrying Fred Penney of Penney’s Hotel on
Main, died of the flu pandemic that killed millions around the world.
• Charlie was a member of the crew of riggers, headed by Tom Mader, who stepped
the masts and fitted the sails of the original Bluenose in 1921.
• In later life Charlie took to interior and exterior decorating.
Courtesy of Settlers Museum
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