Seventy-one years ago from the files of the Bridgewater Bulletin, dated June 29, 1938 (continued).

 The first sale of land on the town site was an acre, purchased by a shoemaker for five pounds and paid for in boots and shoes. This shoemaker, Ralph Hotchkiss, built the first house in Bridgewater, the frame and part of the lumber being sawed at Lower Northfield.

 In those days people in the districts adjacent, used to walk to Lunenburg to attend divine service each Sunday, and also visited the shire town in search of recreation. Only two horses were owned in the whole place and a scow ferry was run below the old Miller property known as "Glen Allen." The first bridge across the river was built some seventy years ago. This stood for about twenty years, when it was rebuilt from the high water mark. In 1869 the bridge was re-built from the pier, and improved generally. In 1891, the Dominion Bridge Company constructed the present "Warren girder deck bridge." It cost about $23,500.

 In the old days when "coaching" was the method of getting to Halifax, passage was sometimes taken on the coasting schooners. These trips, owing to adverse winds and fogs spun the trip out for days, and finally a fine vessel was put on the route for the purpose of carrying freight and passengers. This "packet" as she was called, sailed for about four years and carried as high as five hundred passengers during summer months of each year. In 1899 the steel steamer "Bridgewater" was put on the route and ran for a number of years in charge of Captain Joshua Oakes.