Article extracted from the New Brunswick Reporter

NBR – 1845.05.02 – Reminiscences of New Brunswick – #6

COMMUNICATION.
[For the Reporter.]

REMINISCENCES OF NEW BRUNSWICK.
[CONTINUED.]
Woodstock.

Leaving the Gulph shore, I shall now proceed to the upper part of the River Saint John. As this may be considered a new country, and always has been, and still is a subject of dispute in regard to boundaries, it may be interesting to point out some of its localities, and to view nature in her wildest forms. In this part of the Province we meet with the sublime and the picturesque. In one part we find the towering mountain and then the roaring catarack ; diversified by the majestic grove and valley. But in our progress, it may also claim our attention to mark the achievements of man over the face of nature, by noticing some of the pleasing scenes where the busy hand of art and industry is changing the face of the country. And as Woodstock has the first claim, it may be well to pause and give it a passing notice.

This pleasant little Town is situated in the lower part of the County of Carleton, on the right bank of the River Saint John, and about sixty two miles from the Seat of Government. It comprises three villages, the distance between the two extremes, being a little over two miles, embracing a sufficient space for a large town. The whole of this space will no doubt be built up in future years, as it is situated in a fine country for Agricultural and Trading pursuits. What may now be properly called the Town, is the main settlement by the River Maduxnikik, at its confluence with the Saint John. Here are a number of small squares, well built up, with a fine bridge across the Maduxnikik. The Court House and Gaol are at the upper part of the upper village, where a road leads to the American plantation of Houlton, passing through the Richmond Settlement, and a fine farming country. Indeed the whole district adjoining and around this thriving little Town is a superior farming country, and will no doubt in future years, raise Woodstock to the rank of a flourishing city, and fill up the large space between its present extremes with a succession of buildings.

One remark may be made in regard to Woodstock, which is a great defect in most of the towns in the United States. The squares are laid out too small, and the Streets are too narrow. The squares do not allow room enough for back buildings. This however can be easily remedied in the future growth of the place.

Another thing should be attended to while land is plenty, to reserve good public squares, so healthy and ornamental in towns.

There are at present a number of fine buildings in Woodstock, particularly at the main village or Town. It has also no less than eight edifices appropriated to religious purposes, in six of which Divine Service is occasionally celebrated: Two of these buildings have towers and cupolas, which being covered with tin, making a handsome appearance, and are seen a great distance. The Chapel belonging to the Methodists stands on a plain near the bridge, but as they want a more central building, they would do wise to secure a site for another Chapel on the acclivity of the hill near the margin of the Maduxnikik, where there is a present a vacant lot in a very eligible place which should not be lost sight of. The Catholics have a small Chapel at present in use, and a large one in progress on a commanding hill with an extensive prospect. The Episcopal Church is most beautifully situated on the crest of the hill overlooking the Rivers Saint John and Maduxnakik, the Town and adjacent country. A finer spot could scarcely be found, and if the members of that Church will only [embelish] its immediate precincts by planting trees and preventing other buildings from crowding too near, it will remain an ornament to the place. This Church is usually decorated at the festival of Christmas by the ladies belonging to the congregation in the mast tasteful manner, and has no doubt led to the improvement lately introduced into the Metropolitan Church at the Seat of Government.

While noticing the Churches in this place, it would be unjust to the ladies of Woodstock not to notice their exertions in ornamenting their several places of Worship. By the proceeds of several Tea meetings, the ladies of the Methodist Church have raised funds to procure a Bell, which is now in use, and serves as a guide to all the congregations in that place. They have also by private conations and otherwise, trimmed their pulpit, and made other ornamental improvements in their Chapel. While the ladies of the Episcopal Church have tasked their ingenuity and industry to furnish material for A bazaar, with the proceeds of which, they have lately procured an Organ. So that now with the assistance of the fine voices of those ladies who form part of the Choir, that delightful part of the service, the Psalmody has been greatly improved. This is certainly a most pleasing and [laudible] way of ornamenting places of worship. The Tea meetings and Bazaars are pleasing and fruitful sources for raising funds. The Parish is beholding to the exertions of the ladies alone for those pleasing improvements. The conductors of the Tea meetings by their diligence and care with a small outlay not only procure fun as but promote by their harmony the best interests of society. A friendly intercourse among their neighbours. While those who manage the Bazaar by their ingenuity and industry with a small expense realize the means of lasting improvements that will descend with the Churches in what they are made to succeeding generations.

And here it may be well to observe that powerful agents are brought to exercise by ingenuity and industry. It was by these that the richest city of antiquity maintained its commerce and rose to unbounded wealth. Tyre possessed neither mines nor extended territory; but it possessed ingenuity and industry of its inhabitants. In its cunning workmen by whom the productions of other countries received a tenfold value and were then again sent abroad. So choice were they of their skill that they would not spend time on laborious occupations, even [their] ships were built and rigged by strangers. For the Tyrians were reserved those finer operations which raised the grosser materials above the value of gold.

More than 2,500 years since Silk was brought from China, (the only country where it was produced,) and after receiving the utmost skill of the Chinese, it was unravelled and wrought to a far finer texture and then exported, after having received more than a tenfold value from the ingenuity of the woman of Tyre.

(To be continued.)

Article extracted from the New Brunswick Reporter

NBR – 1845.04.11 – Reminiscences of New Brunswick – #5

COMMUNICATION.
[For the Reporter.]

REMINISCENCES OF NEW BRUNSWICK.
[CONTINUED.]
Fort Cumberland, – Fort Lawrence, – Bloody
Bridge, – Bay Verte, – Chediac.

“A tale of the times of old.”

Before leaving this part of the Province, I will take the reader across the great Marsh to what may be called the classic ground of New Brunswick. It will however be requisite first to notice two neat little Chapels at the head of Sackville, belonging to the Baptists. These buildings stand near each other, and although both are owned by Baptists, they are rivals. The separate congregations being as much opposed to each other as the ancient Greek and Latin churches, and if their leaders do not possess the learning, they can boast the obstinacy of the [Homoousians] and [Homoiousians] of the fourth century, and their equally captious and antichristian prejudices, afford an edifying example to the surrounding country, of the baneful effects of discord in religious communities. Near the termination of the Ridge of Point DeBute on a commanding site are the ruins of old Fort Cumberland, formerly called Beau-Sejour, and on the opposite Ridge may still be traced the outlines of Fort Lawrence. The River Missaguash and a Marsh fill up the space between. Those two Ports were formerly garrisoned by the troops of two rival and powerful Nations, and on those two Ridges many tragic scenes were enacted that are now buried in oblivion. Fort Cumberland was taken from the French by Col. Moncton, in 1755. The Fort at that time was strongly fortified, having 24 pieces of cannon mounted, and a numerous garrison, it was supposed capable of resisting any force that could be brought against it. The place was however taken in four days; one of those lucky incidents that sometimes occur in war, having favoured the British. Colonel Moncton having driven the French and Indians from their breastwork into the Fort, transported his artillery and troops from Fort Lawrence across the Marsh, and erected a battery near the works during the night. It the morning the French were surprised to find themselves closely invested, and being discouraged by the loss of most all their officers by the bursting of a shell which exploded in the room where they were at breakfast. A capitulation was soon agreed on, and the Fort was surrendered to the British.

Soon after this, Col. Moncton also took a Fort at Bay Verte, which had been the principal place of arms, and for supplying the French and Indians in that quarter, so that they were driven from all their strongholds in that country.

However, straggling parties of French and Indians still continued to prowl through the wilderness, plundering and burning, and sometimes scalping the settlers. A party of these freebooters formed an ambush in a ravine near a bridge a few miles from Fort Cumberland, and cut off a party, consisting of about twenty men, who had come out under an officer by the name of Dixon, to cut wood for the garrison. These men were nearly all killed by the fire of an unseen enemy, only two or three survivors being made prisoners. The scene of this disaster is still known by the name of Bloody Bridge. Indeed acts of rapine were so frequent in those troublesome times, that the settlers when they laid down at night, were in doubt whether their houses and cattle would not be swept off before morning, for burning and plundering were at that time things of common occurrence; and from the distance of the settlers from each other, and likewise the Fort, it was not easy to combine for mutual defence.

At this period there were but one or two isolated houses at Bay Verte, near where Mr. Chappell at present resides, and the few settlers were separated by a wilderness of several miles from the other settlements, and exposed to the straggling parties of French and Indians who frequented that place, as it was their principal rendezvous. Their only protection was the tact by which they could soothe or awe the passions of the lawless savages. The present settlers who enjoy good roads and houses, with the blessings of peace and society, know little of the anxieties and privations of the first settlers who were not only destitute of many of the necessaries of life, but whose very lives were frequently at the mercy of the irritated and, capricious Indians.

How different is the peace at the Bay Verte now. Instead of a solitary family, the Cove fronting the Bay exhibits a neat village, comprising a number of fine houses and two edifices for Public Worship, Stores, &c. As the traveller enters the village his eye is attracted by a neat little chateau, where a man of Law and a [diciple] of the Divine art have in mercy to the settlers, agreed to exercise their respective callings under the same roof. So that whatever legal disorders or wounds may be inflicted by the man of Briefs, may, as far as art can go, be immediately assuaged by the healing power of the son of Esculapius.

To return to Fort Cumberland, we find every warlike feature crumbling into dust. A part of the old Barrack has however been totally rescued from destruction and converted into a dwelling, and instead of the massy walls and spacious bombproofs that indicated the presence of war and hostility, the whole scene reposes in quietness The peaceful occupation of the Husbandman has succeeded to the sterner calling of the soldier. A few heavy guns lie harmlessly round the site, while the entire Ridge and the adjacent country exhibit a succession of well improved farms, and a wealthy, happy people. Instead of a rude wilderness, the eye now meets a well cultivated country, with good roads in all directions. From the site of Fort Cumberland to Cape Tormentine, a distance of over thirty miles, a fine carriage road passes through a succession of Settlements.

After passing the Cape and the lesser and greater Shemogue with several other rural districts, the traveller arrives at the quiet little town of Chediac, which shews some indications of that active trade so conspicuous in most of the rising Towns in New Brunswick.

(to be continued.)

COMMUNICATION.

[For the Reporter.]

REMINISCENCES OF NEW BRUNSWICK.
[CONTINUED.]
Various Scenery. – Kennebeckacis. – Dorchester. –

West Cock Church. – Wesleyan Academy, &c.

“I bring back the years that have roll’d away.”

To those who love to view nature, unadorned by art, New Brunswick affords an ample field, as it abounds in scenery of various kinds. It has the majestic River, with its mountain torrents, and the placid stream, bringing their tribute to swell its waters. Here we find the River broken by cataracts, and their expanding into the broad and silent Bay. The wild scenery of the Saint Croix on the border of the Province, and the imposing Falls at the Magaguadavic, near the pleasant Town of Saint George, would in some countries attract crowds of visitors. If we trace the noble Saint John, we shall find it at times contracted to a few hundred yards, and its stream rolling in foam over its rocky bed, and then expanding its bosom richly studded with beautiful Islands, and ever and anon receiving an accession from those numerous streams that are continually augmenting its volume; while along its margin we can trace the favourite seats of the Indian, long before the white man had marked it for his home. Again we trace the spot now reposing in quietness, where the heroic Madam Le Tour was led under the Gallows by the dastard who had betrayed her, where she beheld the remnant of her brave garrison, perish through treachery. But as my remarks will at present be confined to the eastern part of the Province, I will take the reader to the Kennebeckasis, and suppose him to be crossing the Hampton Bridge, early in a fine morning, just as the land fog is rising over the mountains, only disclosing the Valley and River, while the crest of the hills remains obscured, and the sight will richly pay him for early rising. Wending his way along the road at the base of the hills, he will open on a well improved country, abounding in neat houses and good barns, indicating a high degree of wealth and comfort. Indeed the country from near Hammond River to the Finger Board, exhibits a succession of well improved farms and commodious dwellings, most of which are painted and show a degree of neatness and taste that may well vie with any part of the Province. Advancing along the road he will find a neat church, [embosomed] among the trees near Lyons’ Mill Stream. The beautiful Vale of Sussex next meets his eye. Here is a church and some beautiful seats, and the country from thence to the head of the Vale is well improved and has some imposing scenery. Mount Pisgah towers majestically on the top as the traveller ascends the Valley, and the mountain that divides the Kennebeckasis from the Petitcodiac, appears to block u the passage in front. From the head of the Vale to the Bend of the Petitcodiac there is a line of road not exceeded for goodness in any part of the Province. The Village at the Bend will no doubt be greatly improved as soon as the Military road which commences at that place is opened. The distance from that point to the Grand Falls being a little over 160 miles.

Following the Great Road of Communication between Quebec and Halifax, and passing through the French Settlements, which show no great improvement, the neat little Town of Dorchester bursts on the view. This may be truly said to be a City set on a hill, for it commands a view of the country far and near. Passing Dorchester a few miles, and emerging from the woods at the turn of the road, stands a neat little Church. Entering this Church before Divine Service on a Sunday, I was agreeably surprised to find a small Organ and two young men prepared to aid the Psalmody; and during the Service the [chaunting] and singing were performed by a small Choir, assisted by the Rector, in a manner that would have graced Cathedral Service. A few ladies singing the air, while the young lad who performed at the Organ, executed his part in a style that would have done credit to a veteran performer. Near the turn of the road leading across the great [tantamar] Marsh, stands a Wesleyan Chapel with a spire and bell, and not far in advance on a commanding site, we behold the far famed Wesleyan Academy, which it would be wrong to pass without some further notice.*

Sir Walter Scott has observed, that to see a building with effect, we must view it by moon light. Fortunately it so happened that I did not reach it till in the evening. Being in the neighbourhood of the Academy at the time of the September visitation, I was anxious to be present at the examination of the pupils, but did not arrive till the Overseers had nearly concluded their addresses.

It was a beautiful evening. The moon at the full a few hours above the horizon in cloudless splendour threw a softened light on the surrounding landscape of undulating Hill and Vale. The building appeared to rest in a state of perfect repose. All was quiet and lonesome around it. No human object was to be seen. All had entered, while the number of carriages round the lawn and road indicated no ordinary gathering. Entering the vestibule of the Academy, I found the door of the Lecture Room barred by a mass of human heads. Having ascertained that the Rev. Mr. Wood was then on the stand, and knowing him to be one of those gifted persons who have only to open their lips and words will follow, I urged my way into the room which was crowded to excess, and found him earnestly addressing the juvenile part of his audience. After reminding them of the great privileges they enjoyed in having such pleasant accommodations and such diligent instructors to forward their various studies, and after enlarging on t he happy circumstances in which they were placed, he said that he himself would esteem it a pleasure to come at times, and join them in those pleasing and ennobling studies in which many of them were engaged. He then cautioned them on their return to their homes, to be careful and not let their parents sink in their estimation, or to fail in respect to them, if they should sometimes find them deficient in those literary attainments which they possessed. As their parents had passed their youthful days in times when a liberal education was accessible to but a few, and that it was to this diligence and industry of those parents, that they were indebted for the lovely homes and other advantages which most of them enjoyed.

The service soon after closed, and now the scene round the building was very different from what it was when I entered. Now all was life and bustle. The avenues were thronged with human beings. Carriages were departing in all directions, and the whole scene bore a strong resemblance to the Park in New York. In a short time all was quiet, and I found myself alone, when the caution of Mr. Wood to the pupils in regard to their [behaviour] to their parents returned forcibly to my mind, and brought back the times of old.

It is not likely that Mr. Wood himself was fully aware of the full extent of the truth conveyed in his remarks on the difficulties that many of the parents of those pupils had to surmount in early life, or of the many drawbacks they had to encounter to obtain even a common education, when Schools were few and far between, and books hard to be obtain. Add to this, that most persons in their times had to devote the chief part of their time to hard labour, to procure the necessaries of life to combat the difficulties attending the [subdueing] a Wilderness country. If these men were some of the difficulties many of the parents of those pupils had to contend with in their outset in life, what must have been the lot of their grandfathers and grandmothers who formed the first settlements in the Province. Their energies were fully tasked; not for mere necessaries, but the struggle for a long time was for existence itself. When they wanted goods they had not plain roads to travel, and a certain market to resort to for supplies for their famishing families, but to wander through the trackless Wilderness, guided only the blazes on the trees, and to carry their load on their back. Or in the winter, to draw their toboggan or hand sled through the woods, or on the rivers, from 50 to 100 miles, before they could even, find the smallest supply of food. For in those times there was no certainty of obtaining provisions at the end of a toilsome journey. To such pressing straits were the first settlers sometimes reduced, that they had to dig up part of the seed potatoes after they were sprouted, and to use them for food. This was only one of the many shifts they were put to, in order to sustain their families. Those fine roads that are now found in all directions were then unknown; and it was a greater labour for the old settlers to make their way over the marsh through bogs and mire, and often attended with more anxiety than a trip at present across the Atlantic by steam. Let the pupil then, while he views from the lofty windows of the Academy the fine roads over different parts of the rich marsh that spreads its subject plain before him, constant his easy, comfortable lot with that of his forefather, and if he has one spark of goodness in him, he will not fail to acknowledge the blessings he enjoys.

It may be well also for the Missionary, who in his [tour], may sometimes find himself exposed to storms and to indifferent lodgings and fare, to reflect how much pleasanter is his lot than that of the old Missionaries who travelled through the country when the roads were rude and wheel carriages unknown. When his fare was poor; when shelter was uncertain and lodgings often uncomfortable. I have been told personally by an old Preacher who travelled in this Province many years since, that in the most severe weather in winter, he has at night entered a poor house and been treated with the greatest kindness by the inmates; but when he retired to bed, the room was so exposed, that after adding his own clothes to those on the bed, he had laid shivering for some time with cold, and that in the morning after a storm, he has found the outside covering and the floor of the room covered with snow.

This may seem strange to those who are only acquainted with the present comfortable state of most of the inhabitants of this Province, but in the past times of which I treat, people were very destitute of bedding; and some very poor families had even to use boards as a substitute for blankets. A part of the family taking turns in the severest nights, and warming two pieces of boards and applying them alternately to the smaller children to keep them warm. There are persons till living who have witnessed these expedients.
(To be continued)

* It would have extended this article to a far greater length to have given only an outline of this noble structure. I shall therefore only state, that the pupils at present in the Institution, number a hundred, minus one; and that the Managers find they will soon want more room. That the building cost £5,400. The amount given by Mr. Allison was £4,000, leaving the sum of £1,400 still to be provided for.

Article extracted from the New Brunswick Reporter
NBR – 1845.03.21 – Reminiscences of New Brunswick – #3

COMMUNICATION.

One great objection which is made to the present location of the Seat of Government is, that there are a number of hangers on at Fredericton, who are like harpies, preying on the public by engrossing the different offices about the Legislature, and fattening on the spoils of the Province. That such charges are founded in truth, no person acquainted with the subject will attempt to gainsay, but this would be the case if the Provincial Parliament was removed to any other place, and the remedy remains with the Legislators, not with the location of the Seat of Government. The people of Fredericton are as much dissatisfied with those abuses as the inhabitants of any other part of the country.

 

Among the most permanent of these abuses is the enormous amount of the Contingent Bill and the charges for Printing. To give an idea of the opinion that prevails in regard to some of the extravagant charges in that Bill, it will only be requisite to state that the charge of stationary alone, on the average for each Member during one Session, has been carried by some calculators, as high as thirteen pounds, or even higher. Now, as no doubt that this is a mere wild attempt at exaggeration, still it shews the opinion that is abroad in regard to many of the charges in that Bill, and shews how necessary it is that the public should be satisfied on that point.

It is indeed strange that while a trifling account relating to Roads or any other expenditure is scrutinized with the greatest care, a Bill amounting to thousands has been allowed to come in at the end of the Session, and pass almost unquestioned.

The dissatisfaction in regard to the large amount for Printing could be easily removed. A part of the Government Printing, of course, falls to the Queen’s Printer in virtue of his office; but the Printing for the Legislature during its Session should be open to public competition. There should be no monopoly. It is certainly an injustice to the Printers in the different parts of the Province, some of whom have grown grey in the harness. That they should be forever debarred the privilege of sharing in such public [emoluements]as belong to their profession. By throwing open the Printing to public competition as is done in the neighbouring countries, all parties would be satisfied, and the Province would be served at the cheapest rate. I have no wish to follow up these remarks by enlarging on other abuses. It is sufficient to remark that the inhabitants of Fredericton, equally with those of Saint John and other places, wish to see these abuses abated, and that it is not to the locality of the Seat of Government that they are to be ascribed, but to other causes, and which can only be removed by the [vigilence] of the Legislature.

To return to [Ssint] John, it is obvious to every reflecting person that from its position it possesses natural advantages that cannot fail if properly improved to raise it to a high station among the most favoured Cities of the western hemisphere. Situated at the outlet of a great river, abounding in resources for a great and lasting trade, with a fine Harbour [accessable] at all seasons. While the mighty St. Lawrence is fast bound in its icy fetters, and the immense regions of Canada are shut out from the Atlantic, and while the seaboard to the north eastward is a wintry waste, and the Harbours along the whole line of coast are sealed up, the Port of St. John is open, and her shipping business unmolested. Even in the severe winter of 1844, when all the Harbours from the Bay of Fundy to New York, with the exception of Portsmouth, where locked up by the rigor of the season, the Harbour of Saint John remained unobstructed, and her Merchants were gladdened with arrivals, and fitting out their ships as if winter to them was unknown.

While St. John is thus highly favoured in regard to her commanding station, so favourable to a lasting and extensive commerce, Fredericton posses advantages that are [pecularly] her own; into which it is needless at present to enquire.

Should any person doubt her capabilities as regards trade, let those but take a few trips on the river Saint John in the latter part of May, and during the month of June, and they will see the water covered with immense rafts of Timber, Logs, Deals, Boards, &c., with Wood Boats and other craft loaded with Lumber of all kinds. Indeed the major part of those valuable cargoes of Lumber of all kinds that are shipped at St. John come from Fredericton and the country above it. The noble river St. John, with its numerous tributaries will long supply material for a great and lasting trade.

Those petty jealousies about the Seat of Government should therefore be scouted by every well-wisher of the Province. The general good of our common country should be out main object, and so far from envying the prosperity of any particular place, we should rejoice in the welfare of our neighbours. We are all component part of a rising Province. As one part flourishes so will the other parts be [benefitted]. We are so connected by trade and common interest, that no part of our country can long outstrip the other. The more the inland farms advance in trade and wealth, the greater will be our commerce, and the more rapid the growth of the Towns and Cities on the seaboard, and if we are true to ourselves, we shall continue to rise as a people, despite of monopolies, petty jealousies, and cabals at Banks, or other drawbacks. Our Province possesses the materials and sources of a great and lasting trade that will ensure it a high rank among the adjoining States and Colonies – and only requires energy and union to call them forth.

Having made this long digression on the Seat of Government, I shall now resume the more pleasing task of describing some of our Provincial scenery, and also make some remarks on the way people got along more than fifty years since.

“I will bring back the times of old.”
(To be continued.)