HILLCREST HALL COUNTRY INN - Key Persons

Ebenezer Oscar Leadbetter (1877-1955) was born in Port Hood where he grew to be financially successful. His parents, David Leadbetter and Mary MacKinnon of Northeast Margaree, left for the U.S. when he was only 14, but Ebenezer stayed behind. He taught school in 1898 at Glencoe Station and, when the big mine began operations about 1901, he foresaw a future as a merchant. He first purchased land and built a store and a barn on the lower side of the road at Little River, Port Hood, opposite Sam Smith's farm. Both buildings are now gone; erosion by the sea has even altered the coast so that some of the land on which they stood has crumbled and disappeared. Leadbetter's store sold everything from clothing to groceries and feed. In the early days, he lived with his wife above the shop, where their first two children, Margaret and Gladys, were born. Gladys said that the house was built in 1909 or 1910, just before the mine closed. Sandy William MacDonald, one of the last men living who worked in the big mine (from 1908 to 1911) said that the house was built in 1910. At that time, Port Hood was electrified by the mining company's generator, which served some homes and supplied street lighting. When the sea flooded the mine, the company left and the electricity ceased. People had to revert to oil lamps. Mrs. Dan Collie MacDonald remembers the original electrical fittings, some usable, when her family rented the Leadbetter buildings in July 1938. Water was supplied by an artesian well behind the house, piped to a large tank in the basement. Pressure to supply water to the first and second floors was maintained by a hand pump. Years later, Dan Collie MacDonald replaced that system with a well and an electric pump. There was speculation that Mr. Leadbetter built the big house to become a hotel. However, his daughter Gladys was unaware of such plans. As Mrs. Leadbetter (Sarah Ross of Whycocomagh) had six children, perhaps Ebenezer never envisioned the house as more than a large family home. E.O. Leadbetter left the community and moved to Truro after the big mine flooded in 1923. His daughter said that he considered retirement then, aged 46, indicating that his ten years as a store owner in Port Hood had been profitable. But in Truro he became involved in the Orange Crush Company, taking control and renaming it Crystal Springs. He also ran a coal business there.