Located a few miles above Liverpool, in its earliest days Milton was known simply as "The Falls," as it straddled both sides of the first set of waterfalls on the Mersey River.

 The early settlers who attempted to carve a living out of the area - including Richard Kempton and his four children, Thomas, Curtis, John and Francis - were confronted with rocky soils that deterred farming.

 Thankfully, the plentiful fishing and accessible lumber in the area offered motivation for those first settlers to arrive in the region, beginning early in the 1760s.

 By the 1830s, the settlement at The Falls had become formally known as Milton. Unfortunately, also by the 1830s, Milton had acquired a reputation far and wide as a community known for the "intemperate habits" of its people.

 It seemed that the people of Milton liked to drink - and they liked to drink a lot.

 One public alehouse in the community was reputed to have gone through some 25 puncheons of rum in one year. A puncheon is a large barrel, and while they tended to vary in size, it's fair to say that your great-great-great-grandfather's typical puncheon would hold in excess of 80 gallons, or roughly 300 litres.

 With alcohol consumption so high, it was generally believed that the intemperance demonstrated in the community had greatly inhibited Milton's ability to grow and prosper as a community.

 There was even an old verse, recounted by James More, written about a failed mill built by the Freeman family, which might have been quietly fingering the overabundance of drinking taking place during those early days:

 "Freeman's boys they built a mill,

 Part of the time it did stand still,

 But when it went it made no noise,

 Because it was built by Freeman's boys."

 But one of the greatest weapons against intoxication in those early days was religion, and while Milton might have seemed lacking in other areas, it had a very influential religious leader in Rev. William Washington Ashley.

 Rev. Ashley, like many early settlers in Queens County, was American by birth. Originally from the Carolinas, Ashley had come to Nova Scotia in his youth as a Free Baptist minister, looking to spread the word of God.

 While visiting with a member of the Kempton family in Brookfield, in North Queens, Ashley met Hannah Kempton, who was visiting her uncle. The two seemed to have an instant connection and, by 1820, Ashley and 22-year-old Hannah were married.

 Now, young Hannah also happened to be the daughter of Thomas Kempton, one of the original founders of the settlement at Milton.

 In 1834, when Ashley and a number of community members began contemplating the formation of a church on the banks of the Mersey River at Milton, they were supported by the entire Kempton clan.

 Chiefly among the well-wishers was Ashley's father-in-law, Thomas, who offered up a piece of his own property along the river's bank as a site for the new chapel.

 On April 20, 1834, Rev. Ashley, along with William Bryden, Elizabeth Ford, Zoheth Freeman, Elizabeth and Abigail Kempton, Eleanor Minard, Nancy Harlow, David Murray and others, officially founded the first Church of Jesus Christ at Milton, known as the Mount Zion chapel.

 As pastor, one of the first actions Ashley took was to establish a temperance movement in Milton, to combat the evils brought about by alcohol and the consumption of puncheon after puncheon of rum.

 Rev. Ashley had, in 1827 and 1831, been the driving force behind the formation of the Queens County Temperance Society in Liverpool. That experience had taught him much about the dedication needed to encourage and nurture temperance, and how to deal with those who were less than willing to co-operate.

 And so, despite some hesitation on the part of Milton residents, Ashley's movement was received favourably by many in the community and, like his work in other communities, with the passage of time and the work of dedicated members, support of Milton's Temperance Society slowly grew.

 Rev. Ashley went on to serve the Mount Zion Chapel at Milton until 1840. He and Hannah had 10 children together, six of whom also became Free Baptist ministers. While most of his children eventually departed for the United States, Ashley's legacy in Queens County is nonetheless notable.

 Following the establishment of the temperance movement, Milton lost its reputation as a community of ill repute and, by the 1870s, there were five different chapels along the Mersey by the falls, an academy on the west bank and even a public reading room.

 Within a generation, Milton had shaken off its reputation as an intemperate community, and was increasingly known for its strong merchant class and passion for religion and education that had been cultivated along the banks of the Mersey.

 Sources: Milton Christ Church, "A Brief History"; Buchart, Reuben, "The Disciples of Christ in Canada Since 1830"; Simeon Perkins House Museum, Liverpool, Nova Scotia; More, James F., "The History of Queens County"; "The Kemptons of West Street, Milton," from www.harleyshistories.netfirms.com/Kemptons.

Written and researched by Patrick Hirtle.