Glimpses of the Past Part 30

In confidence of this, and being ourselves Soldiers, we apprehended we might with great safety prepare ourselves for settling the Lands we Pet.i.tioned for, and accordingly sold our Estates in New England, and have at near a Thousand Pounds Sterling expence Transported ourselves, Families and Stock, and are now Settled to the number of one Hundred persons, on St.

John's River seventy miles from the Mouth; and a large number of disbanded officers and soldiers in confidence of the same Encouragement have now sold all their Possessions in New England and are hiring Vessels to Transport themselves and Settle among us.

We were not a little astonished when we were informed by his Majesty's Governor and Council here that we could not have a Grant of the Lands we have settled ourselves upon.

We therefore humbly apply to your Lords.h.i.+ps to Lay our Cause before his most Gracious Majesty for whose service we have often exposed our lives in America, that he would be pleased to direct the Governor and Council here to Grant us these Lands, we are now settled upon, as the Removal therefrom would prove our utter Ruin and Destruction. We have been at no expence to the crown and intend to be at none, and are settled two hundred miles from any other English Settlement.

And your Memorialists as in duty bound shall ever pray.

Recd. & Read Decr. 16, 1763.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FIRM OF HAZEN, JARVIS, SIMONDS & WHITE.

The circ.u.mstances under which James Simonds, William Hazen and their a.s.sociates organized the first trading company at St. John have been already related. Their business contract was signed on the 1st of March, 1764. In the course of a year or two the character of the original company was essentially altered by the death of Richard Simonds, the retirement of Samuel Blodget and Richard Peaslie and the admission of Leonard Jarvis as a new partner. Questions had also arisen as to the rights of the several partners in the lands granted in 1765 to James Simonds, James White and Richard Simonds. In order to settle these questions a new business contract was signed at Newburyport, on the 16th April, 1767, by James Simonds, Leonard Jarvis and William Hazen. The original contract is yet in existence amongst the papers of the Hazen family. It is in the handwriting of Leonard Jarvis and is a well worn doc.u.ment which bears marks of having been repeatedly handled. This is not to be wondered at for this contract proved a veritable storm-centre in the litigation that ensued relative to the division of the lands between the partners. The legal proceedings a.s.sumed various phases and occupied the attention of the courts for a period of twenty years.[87]

[87] The second contract, or Articles of Partners.h.i.+p, entered into by William Hazen, Leonard Jarvis, James Simonds and James White is printed in Collections of the N. B. Hist. Soc., Vol. I. p.

191. It is entered also in the book of records of the old County of Sunbury. The original doc.u.ment bears the following certificate, "Registered by me March 9th, 1782, Ja. Simonds, Dep'y Reg'r."

Under the new contract Hazen and Jarvis were to have a half interest in the business, James Simonds one-third and James White one-sixth, and all the lands on the River St. John that had been granted to any or either of the partners (Mr. Simonds' lot in Maugerville excepted) were to be put into the common stock and divided in the following proportions, namely, one-half to Hazen and Jarvis, one-third to Simonds and one-sixth to White. The same division was to be made of any lands that should thereafter be obtained by the members of the company, either individually or collectively, during the continuance of the partners.h.i.+p.

Mr. Simonds sailed from St. John for Newburyport in the schooner Eunice on the 4th March, 1767, but owing to head winds he was twenty days in arriving at his destination. He submitted to Hazen and Jarvis the accounts of the business at St. John for the three years of the company's operations and then repaired to Haverhill, about fourteen miles distant, to visit his relations. On his return he was accompanied by his sister Sarah and by his young bride, Hannah Peabody, who were about to settle with him at St. John. On his arrival at the store of Hazen and Jarvis, the new contract was presented to him for his signature. The proposition relative to the division of lands led to "a warm altercation and dispute." Hazen and Jarvis positively declined to continue in the business or to furnish supplies unless they were allowed an interest in the lands. They stated further that the goods on board the schooner Eunice should not leave Newburyport, nor would they furnish anything for the spring trade but insist upon immediate payment of the balance due them unless Mr.

Simonds should execute the contract. Much as he disliked the proposal the situation of Mr. Simonds did not admit of delay. He was anxious to settle his family at St. John, his workmen and tenants needed his supervision and the Indian trade for the season would be lost unless the goods on board the Eunice were delivered as speedily as possible.

Under these circ.u.mstances he deemed it best to sign the contract.

Hazen & Jarvis claimed the company were at this time indebted to them in the sum of 3,135, but in the subsequent proceedings in the court of chancery this was disputed by Mr. Simonds and the statements of the parties interested are so much at variance that it is difficult to determine the exact truth in the matter.

James White declined to sign the new contract stating:

"That having one-fourth part of the duties, trouble and services to undergo and perform in transacting the business of the Copartners.h.i.+p, yet he was by the said Contract ent.i.tled to one-sixth part only of the lands to be divided under the contract.

But that, although he disliked as aforesaid his having no greater share than one-sixth part in the Concern, he nevertheless joined with James Simonds in carrying on the business in full confidence that some equitable allowance would be made him for his services over and above his proportion of the said profits and lands."

On the occasion of James Simonds' visit to Halifax early in 1764 he obtained a license to occupy ten acres of land at Portland Point for carrying on the fishery and burning limestone, but it was not until the 2nd October, 1765, that a grant was made to him, in conjunction with his brother Richard, and James White, described as follows:

"Beginning at a point of upland opposite to his (Simonds') House and running East till it meets with a little Cove or River; thence bounded by said Cove till it comes to a Red Head on the east side of the Cove--thence running North eleven degrees fifteen minutes west till it meets Canebekssis river, thence bounded by said river, the river St. John and harbour till it comes to the first mentioned boundary."

The bounds of this tract are shown in the accompanying plan. It was supposed to contain 2,000 acres "more or less," but in reality it contained upwards of 5,000 acres. Elias Hardy in 1785 claimed that the grant must have originated in misrepresentation, either in the application or survey, otherwise the quant.i.ty could not have been so much mistaken. To this Ward Chipman replied that the land had never been actually surveyed, but making allowance for lakes, sunken and broken ground, etc., it was supposed not to contain much if any more than the number of acres mentioned in the grant. The grant was made in accordance with the return of the surveyor describing its boundaries and expressing them to be "with allowance for bad lands, containing in the whole by estimation 2,000 acres more or less." Chipman adds, "no misrepresentation can well be supposed to have taken place at the time of pa.s.sing this Grant when the lands upon the river St. Johns were considered as of very little value and there could be no inducement to such a step."

However, in view of the fact that when surveyed the grant was found to contain 5,496 acres, it must be admitted that the allowance for "bad lands" was tolerably liberal, and the grantees were fortunate to escape without the loss of at least half of their property. The line running from Mr. Simonds' house eastward to Courtenay Bay is that now followed by Union street. It will be observed that the peninsula south of this street which now contains the business part of the city of St.

John, and which was laid out for the Loyalists in 1783 as Parr-town, was not included in the grant. The primary object of the grantees was evidently to obtain possession of the limestone quarries and the big marsh, and they probably deemed the land south of Union street to be hardly worth the quit rents.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Plan of Grants to Simonds & White]

The first grant at the mouth of the River St. John included only a small part of the great marsh--then called by the Indians, Sebaskastaggan--and a further tract in that locality was applied for by James Simonds in a memorial to the government of Nova Scotia.

The memorial stated that James and Richard Simonds and James White had obtained a grant of 2,000 acres of mountainous and broken land at the mouth of the River Saint John in the year 1765, which had been improved by building houses, a saw mill and lime kiln, and the company had settled upwards of thirty people on it who were engaged in carrying on those two branches of business, but that the wood and timber so necessary for them was all consumed, therefore praying that 2,000 acres additional to the eastward of the said tract might be granted to the said James Simonds.

It can scarcely be believed that all the wood from the harbor of St.

John to the Kennebeccasis had been consumed in the five years of the company's operations at Portland Point. But probably the lumber in the vicinity of the saw-mill and the wood most convenient to the lime kilns had been cut and this was sufficient to afford a pretext for another grant. Mr. Simonds' memorial was considered by the Governor in Council December 18, 1769, and approved. The grant did not issue till May 1, 1770. The bounds are thus described:

"Beginning at a Red Head in a little Bay or cove to the eastward of the Harbor at the mouth of Saint John's River described in a former grant to James Simonds in the year 1765, being the south eastern bound of the said grant, thence to run north 75 degrees east 170 chains, thence north 15 degrees west 160 chains or until it meets the river Kennebeccasis, and from thence to run westerly until it meets the north eastern bound of the former grant."

The boundaries of the second grant may be readily traced on the plan.

Like the former grant it included a good deal more than the 2,000 acres it was supposed to contain, and in this case, too, the grant escaped curtailment. The grant was in the name of James Simonds, but the other partners relied upon the clause in their business contract as a sufficient guarantee of their interests.

It must be admitted that as the first adventurers to settle in an exposed and at times perilous situation the first grantees of the lands at the mouth of the River St. John were ent.i.tled to special consideration. James Simonds had to make repeated visits to Halifax in connection with the business at St. John and these visits were sometimes attended with risk as will be seen from the following extract of one of his earliest letters.

Halifax, Oct'r 1st, 1764.

"Last night arrived here after four days pa.s.sage from St.

John's--the first 24 hours were at sea in a severe storm, the second pa.s.sed a place called the Masquerades where there was seas and whirlpools enough to have foundered the largest s.h.i.+ps--we were providentially saved with the loss of all our cable and anchor endeavoring to ride at anchor till the tide slacked, but in vain.

It was unlucky for us that we happened to fall in with that tremendous place in the strength of flood tide in the highest spring tide that has been this year. Gentlemen here say it is presumptuous to attempt to return the same way at this season in an open boat; but as the boat and men are at Pisiquit (Windsor), and I have no other way to get to St. John in season for my business this fall, shall get our business done here as soon as may be and return the same way I came. The plea of the above difficulty will have a greater weight than any other to have business finished here immediately. This morning I waited on the Governor, Secretary and all officers concerned in granting license, etc., who a.s.sure me that my request shall be granted directly so that I hope to be on my way to St. John's tomorrow."

We cannot but admire the courage and enterprise of a man who after so fatiguing and perilous a journey, was ready, on the second day after his arrival in Halifax, to remount his horse and travel forty-odd miles over a very rough road to Windsor to face again the perils of the Bay of Fundy in an open boat at a stormy season.

The establishment of Fort Frederick on the west side of the Harbor of St. John, by Brig. General Monckton, in the fall of the year 1759, contributed not a little to the advantage of the first settlers. The Indians were disposed to be troublesome to the English, and the presence of the garrison rendered their situation less lonely and added very greatly to their sense of security. Not only so, but the garrison brought quite an amount of business to the store of Simonds & White. In the old accounts of the year 1764 are to be found the names of Lieut. Gilfred Studholme of the 40th Regt., Lieut. John Marr and Commissary Henry Green. Captain Pierce Butler, of the 29th Regt., was in command at Fort Frederick the following year and his name also appears in the accounts. For a year or two after the fort was established the garrison was furnished by the provincial troops of Ma.s.sachusetts, afterwards by detachments of British regiments under various commanders. In addition to the trade with the officers and soldiers, Simonds & White furnished wood and other supplies to the garrison, and doubtless it was not the least satisfactory incident in this connection that the pay-master was "John Bull." The Indians were unreliable customers and bad debts were not infrequent, the white settlers on the river had but little money and their pay was chiefly in s.h.i.+ngles, staves, spars, clapboards, musquash and beaver skins; John Bull paid cash.

About three years after the arrival of Simonds and White at St. John their trade with the garrison was interrupted by the removal of the troops to Boston in consequence of some riots in connection with the enforcement of the Stamp Act. Mr. Simonds speaks of this circ.u.mstance in a letter dated July 25, 1768, in which he writes: "The troops are withdrawn from all the outposts in the Province and sent to Boston to quell the mob. The charge of Fort Frederick is committed to me, which I accepted to prevent another person being appointed who would be a trader. I don't know but I must reside in the Garrison, but the privilege of the fisheries on that side of the River and the use of the King's boats will be more than an equivalent for the inconvenience." The defenceless condition of the port of St. John brought disaster to the settlers there some years later, but of this we shall hear more by and by.

The names of most of the heads of families settled at Maugerville appear in the earlier account books of Simonds & White, and later we have those of the settlers at Gagetown, Burton and St. Anns. In the course of time branches of the company's business seem to have been established at convenient centres up the river, and their account books contain the invoices of goods s.h.i.+pped to Peter Carr, who lived just below Gagetown, to Jabez Nevers of Maugerville, and to Benjamin Atherton at St. Ann's Point. The goods appear to have been sold on commission and returns were made chiefly in lumber, furs and produce.

The invoices of goods s.h.i.+pped to Hazen & Jarvis at Newburyport by Simonds & White included pine boards, s.h.i.+ngles, clapboards, cedar posts, spars and cordwood, besides some 50,000 white and red oak staves, most of these articles having been taken in trade with the settlers on the river. Messrs. Hazen & Jarvis carried on quite an extensive trade with the West Indies where, in consequence of the manufacture of rum and mola.s.ses, there was a large demand for hogshead and barrel staves, these were obtainable in considerable quant.i.ties on the River St. John, and the terms at which they were purchased may be seen in the following agreement:--

"St. Johns River, Nov'r. 10th, 1772.

"It is agreed between Simonds & White on the one part and Joseph Garrison & William Saunders on the other, that the said Garrison & Saunders make and lay at the bank of the said River, at convenient place to load on board a vessel, five thousand of White Oak barrel staves and the same number of White Oak hogshead staves, the hogshead staves to be well shaved and both to be merchantable according to the laws of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, for which the said Simonds & White are to pay, for Barrel Staves twenty-five s.h.i.+llings for each thousand and for the Hogshead forty s.h.i.+llings; the said staves to be ready by the 20th day of April next and at farthest to be received by the 20th day of June.

"To the performance of the above agreement each of the parties hereby bind themselves to each other in the sum of Twenty pounds currency, to be paid in default of fulfilment of either party. "Witness our hands,

JOSEPH GARRISON, WM. SAUNDERS, SIMONDS & WHITE."

Joseph Garrison it may be observed was the grandfather of William Lloyd Garrison, the celebrated advocate of the abolition of slavery.

He was one of the original grantees of Maugerville, and drew lot No.

4, opposite Middle Island in Upper Sheffield. He was on the River St.

John as early at least as July, 1764, and is said to have been the first of the English speaking race to work the coal mines at Grand Lake. Another early miner was Edmund Price of Gagetown, who in the year 1775 delivered nine chaldrons of coal, to Simonds & White for which they allowed him 20 s.h.i.+llings per chaldron.

Nearly all the settlers on the river obtained their goods from the old trading company at Portland Point, and for their accommodation the little schooner "Polly" made frequent trips to Maugerville and St.

Anns. Inspection of the old accounts shows that on the occasion of a trip up the river in May, 1773, goods were sold to thirty families at various points along the way. In November, 1775, goods were sold in like manner to more than forty families. At that time there were to be found in the company's day book the names of 120 customers, nearly all of them heads of families. Of these, 25 were residents at Portland Point, 20 lived across the harbor in Conway, 45 belonged to Maugerville, 20 to other towns.h.i.+ps up the river and ten were casual visitors, fishermen and traders.

The partners amidst all their variety of business continued to make improvements upon their lands at St. John. They cleared up the Great Marsh and cut hay there, for in June, 1768, Mr. Simonds writes to Newburyport, "Please send half a dozen Salem scythes; Haskel's tools are entirely out of credit here; it would be a sufficient excuse for a hired man to do but half a day's work in a day if he was furnished with an axe or scythe of that stamp." The next year plans were discussed for the general improvement of the marsh, and a number of indigent Acadians were employed to a.s.sist in the construction of a "Running Dike" and aboideau. These Acadians probably lived at French Village, near the Kennebecasis, and the fact that they had some experience in d.y.k.eing marsh lands shows that they were refugees from the Expulsion of 1755. The situation of the first d.y.k.e was not, as now, at the mouth of the Marsh Creek but at a place nearly opposite the gate of the cemetery, where the lake-like expansion of the Marsh begins. The work was completed in August, 1774, by the construction of an aboideau. Those employed in the work were the company's laborers, six or eight Acadians and a number of the Maugerville people--about twenty-five hands in all. William Hazen was at St. John that summer and he and James White gave their personal attendance, "not in overseeing the work only but in the active and laborious parts thereof," the company providing the implements, tools, carts, several teams of oxen, gundolas and other boats, materials and supplies of every kind including rum for the workmen. This d.y.k.e and aboideau served the purpose of shutting out the tide from about 600 acres of marsh land. Ten years later Hazen & White built a new aboideau a little above the first one which had fallen into disrepair. A much better one than either was built at the mouth of the creek in 1788 by James Simonds at a cost of 1,300. The House of a.s.sembly voted 100 towards building a bridge at the place and Mr. Simonds agreed to erect a structure to serve the double purpose of a public bridge and aboideau. The width of the structure was 75 feet at the bottom and 25 feet at the top. Not long afterwards Mr. Simonds built here two tide saw-mills. These were not a profitable investment, and in 1812 one had fallen into total decay while the other was so much out of repair as to be of little benefit to its owner.

After the first Marsh Bridge had been in existence about twenty-five years there arose a controversy as to what proportion of the cost of repairs should be borne respectively by the province, the City of St.

John and the proprietors of the marsh. This controversy has continued to crop up at regular intervals during the last century and the end is not yet.

When the Loyalists arrived in 1783 the d.y.k.ed marsh lands produced about 400 tons of hay, but it was said that "if tilled and ditched they would produce much more." Today the marsh raises at least four times the quant.i.ty of hay named above.

After building the first running d.y.k.e in 1769, Hazen, Simonds and White continued to devote considerable attention to the task of reclaiming and improving the marsh. In order to have ready access a road was laid out running back of Fort Howe hill and along Mount Pleasant to the marsh. Not far from the present station at Coldbrook they built a house with hovels for cattle and put up fences and settled a family there. A few years later they built two more houses and settled two more families there, each with a stock of cattle. The first tenants on the marsh were Stephen Dow, Silas Parker and Jabez Salisbury. The houses built for their accommodation cost from 15 to 20 apiece. About this time or a little later a small grist mill was built at the outlet of Lily Lake.