Custodial History

All municipal council meetings were held at the Argyle Township Court House at Tusket from the municipality’s incorporation in 1879, but nothing resembling a business office for the municipality seems to have been undertaken until 1945. Previous to this time Municipal Clerks had always been from the village of Tusket, and appear to have kept the majority of the records at their homes. Whether all of these records eventually found their way into the Court House and thus into this fonds, or whether some records are still in private hands in unclear.

From 1945-1976 a proper staff was on hand in the Court House and about one-half of the records in this fonds are thought to have been left in the building when the Municipality of Argyle removed its offices to the renovated Tusket School Building in 1976. The Archives was subsequently established in the Court House building with these and other abandoned municipal records forming the core of its holdings. The remainder of the records in this fonds were transferred to the Archives from the Municipal Office in approximately equal portions in 1990, 1996, and 1997.

Prior to 1969 the Municipality of Argyle was in charge of local assessments, and therefore, records were usually kept at the Court House. In 1969 the Yarmouth-Clare Regional Assessment Committee, a jointly funded regional assessment service, was established. In 1977 the provincial government took over sole responsibility for assessment and the municipal governments ceased to be involved. For a time a field assessment office for Argyle, containing property field cards, was maintained in the Court House and, after 1976, in the new Municipal Office, but this ceased around 1978. Since that time the assessment office has been located in the Provincial Building on Starr’s Road in Yarmouth.