Dartmouth author unveils the mysterious history of Canada’s first quintuplets

CITYnews halifax / By Steve Gow

A 140-year-old Nova Scotia mystery is finally getting attention, thanks to a Dartmouth author’s new book.

Recounting the true story of Canada’s first quintuplets, Searching for Mayflowers, follows a story that Lori McKay’s grandmother told her many times as a child growing up in Pictou County.

The five infants, which died shortly after their birth in a farmhouse in Little Egypt in the winter of 1880, would become a curiosity that even caught the attention of showman P.T. Barnum, famous for his American Museum and touring circus.

“As the story went, they were buried in a cemetery and then P.T. Barnum showed an interest in buying the bodies,” says McKay, adding the family refused the showman’s offer. “Then fearing grave robbers, (the family) dug them up and buried them in the basement of their home and three months later, they buried them somewhere else and no one knew where it was.”

(Nimbus Publishing Limited)

It was that mystery as well as McKay’s family connection that inspired the author to seek out the answers and reveal the true account of the Murray Quintuplets story, a little-known tale that precedes Canada’s famous Dionne Quintuplets by decades.

“I’ve always been fascinated with history,” McKay says. “We are really lucky to have those stories recorded and that was always important to me that people knew this story because, like I said, it was kept kind of a secret.”

She says the book, which is in stores now, contains an important piece of Nova Scotia history and one that has followed McKay almost her entire life.

After all, although she wasn’t officially credited with it, McKay’s great-great-grandmother delivered the babies.

“A lot of people didn’t know (the story) at all,” says McKay about the slice of Pictou County history. “My family is very excited about it. Like, my cousins, they don’t know about the details of the story so I feel like I have a few new things to tell people about the tale.”