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John Daniel Logan was a writer and professor of poetry, literary and music criticism, and literary history. Born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia on May 2, 1869 to Charles and Elizabeth (Rankin) Logan, he moved with his mother and siblings to Pictou, Nova Scotia in 1876 after the death of his father. He attended Pictou Academy where he developed an affinity for the Gaelic language and started a life-long love of Celtic culture in Canada. He then went to Dalhousie College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (1893) and a Master of Arts (1894), and Harvard University, where he received his PhD (1896). He remained in academia until 1902, holding several teaching positions in the United States. After 1902, he continued to publish papers and give lectures, predominantly on philosophy.

In 1902, he left his position at the State University of South Dakota to work as an advertising specialist with Siegel, Cooper and Company of Chicago, where he stayed until 1906, when he returned to Canada to take a position with Woods-Norris, Limited of Toronto. Two years later, Logan left advertising to become the first literary and music critic for the Toronto newspaper Sunday World (1908-1910), and then the News (1910-1914). In this role, he supported cultural and artistic endeavours in Canada. At the same time, he began to write for the Canadian Magazine, which he continued to do for the rest of his life. His work as a music and literary critic, however, did not result in much popularity or success, and in 1914, he left Toronto for Montreal in search of work. At this point, he also separated from his wife, Minerva Shepard Bromer of New York (married in 1897).

Logan stayed in Montreal for eighteen months before moving to Halifax in 1915 for a government position. During this time, he also worked part-time as a journalist for the Halifax Morning Chronicle. In 1916, he enlisted in the Army. He was discharged in April 1918 due to an injury and returned to Halifax, where he resumed his work in literary and music journalism. In 1918, he donated his library of Canadian literature to Acadia University (where he had given a series of lectures in 1915) and on May 28, 1918, his positions as "Special Lecturer in Canadian Literature" was formalized by the Board of Governors at Acadia. In Halifax, as in Toronto, he frequently clashed with the literary-intellectual community, and is known for arguing with Archibald MacMechan of Dalhousie University about the teaching of Canadian literature there, and with H.L. Stewart, head of the Philosophy Department at Dalhousie, about his teaching methods.

In 1924, he founded the Colonel William Ernest Thompson Library of Musical Literature in 1924 in memory of his classmate and to support a Faculty or Department of Music at Dalhousie University. In 1925, he was appointed Associate Dominion Archivist for the Maritime Provinces, after persistently campaigning for the position from Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. He was not happy in Halifax, however, and resigned his position as Archivist to move to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he was elected Head of the English Department at Marquette University in 1927. He died there on January 24, 1929 and is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Halifax.

Robert Archibald Logan was born on in Middle Musquodoboit, N.S. on August 17, 1892. Born to small land-owning farmers, he helped his mother on the farm whilst attending school. On his graduation, he attended the Technical University of Nova Scotia to become a Dominion Land Surveyor. When war broke out in 1914, he learned to fly an airplane at his own expense, and became the first Canadian civilian pilot to earn a commission in the British Royal Flying Corps. During the war he distinguished himself as a pilot and navigator, and was involved in training other pilots. On Apr. 8, 1917, he was shot down behind enemy lines by an aerial attack led by Baron von Richtoven. He and his observer survived the crash and spent the rest of World War I in 6 different German POW camps, including Schweidnitz. He began to study languages during his internment, which began an interest that continued for the rest of his life.

When the War ended, Logan participated in a Canadian government expedition by boat into the Arctic, and helped to establish the first air landing fields in the far north, including on Ellesmere Island. He also became involved in the new field of aerial surveying, which led him to south-central Africa for two years. Upon his return to the USA, he was employed by Pan-American Airways, where he investigated potential landing sites for the airline through travels that took him from Alaska to Argentina, and was Operations Manager for Pan-Am in Argentina and Brazil.

In 1933, he participated in the "Jelling" North Atlantic voyage with the Lindberghs, which investigated fueling and landing sites for Pan-Am’s cross-Atlantic routes. He also began and managed a gold mining operation in Nova Scotia during this time. He was then hired by the Irish national airline Aer Lingus Teoranta, and was its general manager until World War II necessitated the shutdown of its operations.

During WWII, Logan worked for the RCAF as a Command Navigation Officer in Nova Scotia, and Lt. Colonel and Director of Intelligence in Ottawa until the USA entered the War. In 1941, he participated in a secret Arctic expedition to Greenland and Iceland with the US military for the establishment of northern military airbases. After that, he continued work with the American military, and was sent on an another special mission to the South Pacific in 1943 with Rear Admiral Richard Byrd (who he knew from their mutual association with the Explorer’s Club in New York), again to research potential airfield and fuelling sites for the US military. Due to a leg injury during this expedition, he was given a medical retirement discharge, and retired as a Colonel.

After Logan retired from the military, he devoted most of his time to writing. His research and writing spanned a great deal of topics, such as genealogy, history, astrology, philosophy, mineralogy, writing systems, and fiction. He also compiled and published a two-volume Cree-English dictionary, and had it distributed to many academic libraries across N. America at his own expense.

Logan remained active in these pursuits well into the later years of his life, and his achievements have been noted by organizations like the International Biographical Associations of the UK and the USA, and the Explorer’s Club. He died shortly after his 100th birthday in 1992, in Duluth, Minnesota.

William Wadsworth Longfellow was a poet and educator born in 1807 to Stephen Longfellow and Zilpah (Wadsworth) Longfellow in Portland, Maine. He was educated in the private Portland Academy and at Bowdoin College, Maine. After travelling and studying in Europe he became a professor at Bowdoin and, later, at Harvard College. He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing and spent the remainder of his life in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His major works include Paul Revere's Ride, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline.

Longfellow's first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage. His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire. Longfellow passed away in 1882.

William P. Lynch (Bill) operated the only carnival to be operated exclusively out of Atlantic Canada. Bill Lynch was born on 25 August 1900 and moved to McNabs Island in 1905 with his parents, Matthew and Josephine (Palmer) Lynch. After the 1917 Halifax Explosion damaged the island and destroyed existing carnival businesses, Lynch decided to revive the shows, purchasing his first merry-go-round in 1920. He managed the ride alone until 1924, when he partnered with Ray Rogers and began to travel around Nova Scotia, establishing the Bill Lynch Shows in 1925. The partnership did not last, but, by 1928, he had acquired a few concessions and a Ferris wheel. In 1929, Lynch won the bid for the Halifax Exhibition and was asked to return in 1930.

By 1940 the Bill Lynch Shows were Canada’s biggest carnival, including acts such as the Three Maldos, the Rooneys, and Flash McHugh. Lynch was passionate about working with children with disabilities, arranging free visits to the empty carnival and donating to children’s charities. He died on 23 October 1972, after 52 years in the carnival business. Clarence “Soggy” Reid operated the business until his own death in 1995, when John Drummey took over. In 2003 the Bill Lynch Shows were split into Maritime Amusements and Carnival Time.

The M/V "O.K. Service VI" was a 149-ton wooden auxiliary schooner built in 1941 by W.C. MacKay and Sons in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. It was owned by Himmelman Supply Company. The vessel was used to transport explosives and other cargo to ports in the Caribbean and Central and South America. It typically returned to Canada with cargos of rum and other commodities.

On October 7, 1960, the M/V "O.K. Service VI" came into San Juan, Puerto Rico with a cargo of explosives. The ship's cargo caught fire that evening. The crew initially tried to pump water on the fire to put it out, but after five or ten minutes, they abandoned ship. The ship sunk around 6:30 AM on October 8, 1960. The hulk was officially abandoned to the U.S. government in San Juan, Puerto Rico.