The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 11

The following letter received from a son of Rev. William Black, is of some interest:

"HALIFAX, N.S., "27th Sept. 1819.

"MR. WILLIAM TRUEMAN, "DEAR SIR,--Your favor of the 20th inst. is at hand, and in reply to it, as relates to the probable price of b.u.t.ter, I would state it as my opinion that it is likely to command about 14d. A considerable quant.i.ty of Irish b.u.t.ter has already arrived and more is expected. A number of firkins have this day been sold at public auction at 1s. per lb.,--the quality is said to be very fair. Please say to Mrs. Wells that I have received her letter of the 24th inst., and shall do as she requests.

Mrs. Black and family are well, and join me in best regards to Mrs.

Trueman, Yourself and Family.

"Yrs. Truly, "M. G. BLACK."

After Amos and Robert left Prospect for homes of their own, the family remained unchanged until 1820. That year, Mary, the second daughter, married William Humphrey, of Sackville. William Humphrey was a carpenter by trade but shortly after his marriage bought a farm in Upper Maccan and went quite extensively into farming and milling.

The Humphreys were from Yorks.h.i.+re, and after coming to America, settled first at Falmouth, Nova Scotia. After the death of Wm. Humphrey, sen., Mrs. Humphrey, following the advice of her friend, Charles Dixon, moved to Sackville with her family of five children, three sons and two daughters. James Dixon says of Mrs. Humphrey, in his history of the Dixons: "She was evidently a capable woman," and judging from the position her descendants have taken in the new country he was probably right in his estimate.

As I remember the second William Humphrey, he was a man of more than ordinary intelligence, one who looked closely at both sides of a question, and with whom every new undertaking was well thought out beforehand. He had no place for the man who wanted to make a show. He was, for the times, a large employer of labor, and his men did not readily leave his employ. He was possessed of strong religious convictions, but was by no means demonstrative in such matters. His children were given good educational opportunities. Two of his sons studied and graduated at colleges in the United States, and two others were students at the old Academy, at Sackville.

The following letter, written by William, one of the sons who was educated in the United States, to his cousin Ruth, will show how graduates of that day looked upon life:

"NEW HAVEN, June 27th, 1853.

"DEAR COUSIN, "Your very welcome letter came to hand in due time, for which I am exceedingly obliged, especially as many of my correspondents have been dilatory and others have given me up altogether. But they probably have as much reason to complain of me as I have of them. The truth is my studies so occupy my attention that I am too much inclined to forget my friends. The acquisition of a profession presents such an immensity of labor that it would seem to require a lifetime to become proficient, especially when the small amount of energy that I can command is brought to bear upon it. However, I am not disposed to find fault with the labor so long as there is so much that is intensely interesting and I can make respectable progress towards the grand crisis of a student's life.

"New Haven is equally as attractive as it was during my college life and I feel more at home here than in any other place in the United States during the present summer so far. I have become acquainted with the professional men of the city from whom I have received many favors and many of whom I hope to regard as my future friends. Through their influence I have had an opportunity of treating a number of patients, which is no small advantage to me in my studies. I confess I am so much attached to the city I should like to make it my home if it were practicable, but it is so much crowded with physicians that there is no room for me. In reply to your question as to what pleasure it afforded me to receive my diploma, I can very readily say that it was far from affording me anything like a thrill of pleasure to look back upon my acquirements. I rather felt as a tired traveller might be supposed to feel when, having exerted himself to reach the top of the first peak on a mountain, he has only secured a position where he can see Alpine peaks towering to the skies, which he must scale before his journey is ended. I very many times have felt as though I was not a particle wiser since I graduated than before I first left home, yet I suppose I may claim more than this for myself without being thought vain or arrogant, but what advantage either myself or others are to reap from it remains to be seen. I hope I am better prepared to spend the remainder of my life more profitably than I was before, with higher aims and in possession of greater capacity for enjoyment myself and of doing good to others. I cannot yet tell when I shall get my medical degree, yet if fortune favors and I get along with my studies pretty well, it will not be longer than fourteen months. I would like to arrange my plans to leave for home as soon as I get through, but it is so long beforehand that I do not think about it yet.

"I shall have a short vacation of a few weeks, commencing with August 1st, when I should like to be at home, but I do not deem it best for me to go this summer. I shall probably go into the country 'round. I shall probably return to Philadelphia early in October and spend the winter there, which will end my residence in that city, unless I should remain longer to attend the hospital and see more practice than I could otherwise.

"From the accounts I hear from home you still have need of doctors, for people continue to be sick and die.

"Think you there will be any patronage for me? But your answer will probably depend upon my worthiness of it.

"But I must hasten to close. I shall be happy to hear from you whenever you are disposed to write.

"Kind regards to your mother, sisters and brothers.

"Very sincerely yours, "WILLIAM F. HUMPHREY.

"To: "MISS RUTH TRUEMAN, "Point de Bute."

The Humphreys have not increased rapidly in this country. There were three brothers in the first family, William, John and Christopher. John never married. Christopher married, but had no family. William had four sons, and these, with their father and uncles, made seven of the name then living in the provinces. Since then these four boys have married, and two of their sons, yet the males of the name just number seven to-day; and, strange to say, have remained at that figure the most of the time for the last seventy years. At present there are living four great-grandsons, and three great-great-grandsons of the first William.

Dr. Humphrey graduated in regular course, received his medical degree, and settled in St. John, New Brunswick, where he worked up a good practice. His health, however, gave way, and he died a comparatively young man.

Mrs. Bishop, a daughter of William Humphrey, writes:--

"I do not remember hearing my parents say much about their early life.

I remember my father saying he gave a doubloon to the man who married them. They moved to Maccan very shortly after they were married. When grandmother Humphrey died they went to the funeral on horseback (thirty miles), and took John with them, then a young babe. (The baby, John, was the late John A. Humphrey, of Moncton.) I have heard mother say she took me to her father's funeral when I was four months old, another long ride on horseback."

Mrs. Bishop is the only one of the family now living.

Returning to the family at Prospect, Betty, the youngest daughter, was married to George Glendenning, in 1823. Her name was to have been Elizabeth, but one day previous to the baptism the minister was at the house and asked Mrs. Trueman what baby's name was to be. She said, "Oh, I suppose it will be Betty," meaning to have her baptized Elizabeth, but to call her Betty for short. When the minister came to the baptism, he did not ask the name, but baptized the baby Betty. The mother did not feel very well pleased about it, but Betty it had to be.

George Glendenning, George Moffat and George d.i.c.kson, three Dumfries.h.i.+re farmers, came to America in the spring of 1820. They had talked the matter over during the long evenings of the previous winter, and finally determined to try their fortunes in the New World.

The agricultural distress that prevailed in Ireland at that time affected Scotland also, and the wages of farm laborers was only a s.h.i.+lling a day in harvest time. No doubt the love of adventure and a desire to see more of world also had something to do with the decision of the young men. Pa.s.sages were secured on the s.h.i.+p ABIONA, bound for Miramichi, at which port the young men were safely landed early in May.

John Steele was also a pa.s.senger in this vessel. He went to c.u.mberland and settled on the gulf sh.o.r.e near Wallace. Rev. Dr. Steele, of Amherst, is a grandson of John Steele. George Moffat also went to c.u.mberland, and settled at River Hebert. Beside managing a farm he did a large business in sending beef cattle to the Halifax market. Mr.

Moffat was a fine, honest man, "a canny Scot," who was always as good as his word and expected others to be the same.

George Glendenning had a brother living in St. John, and after landing at Miramichi he went direct to that place, where he had a short visit.

There was not much in the surroundings of St. John that was attractive to the eye of a Scotch farmer, so the young emigrant decided to try another locality. He turned his steps toward "Old Chignecto," a long, hard walk. He made several attempts to get work on the way, always without success. At a farmhouse in Dorchester he might have got employment, but did not like the appearance of things about the place.

Before leaving Dorchester he had become much discouraged, and remembering his early training in a G.o.dly house, determined to ask direction and guidance from his Heavenly Father. And so, falling on his knees, he prayed that he might be directed in his way so that by another night he might find a place where work could be had. After this earnest prayer he started out with more heart, but in the long walk through the Dorchester woods to Sackville, then on the "Four Corners,"

no work was found, and so the marsh was crossed and Prospect Farm was reached just as it began to grow dark. He would try his fortune here.

An old man answered his knock at the door and bade him, "Come in," but in answer to his request for work said, "No, I do not want a man, but you had better not go any further to-night; we will keep you here." In the morning the proprietor of Prospect reversed his decision of the night before and decided to give the young Scotchman a trial. The result was that he remained with the family for three years, and when he left took with him as his wife the youngest daughter.

Mr. Glendenning settled on a new farm in Amherst Head (now Truemanville), and soon became one of the most successful farmers of the district. John Glendenning, of Amherst, is his son, and Rev. George Glendenning, of Halifax, N.S., and Robert Glendenning, M.D., of Ma.s.s., U.S., are his grandsons.

CHAPTER VIII

PROSPECT FARM.

Thompson Trueman, the youngest member of the family, was married in March, 1823, to Mary Freeze. He was only twenty-two years old, and young looking for that age. He used to say in later life that he married at just the right time. His wife was a daughter of Samuel Freeze, of Upper Suss.e.x, King's County. Her mother was Margaret Wells, daughter of Williams Wells, of Point de Bute.

The Freezes came from Yorks.h.i.+re to c.u.mberland in the DUKE OF YORK, the first vessel that landed Yorks.h.i.+re emigrants at Halifax. Charles Dixon, the founder of the Dixon name in Sackville, with his family, came out at this time. The Freeze family, when they arrived in Nova Scotia, consisted of William Freeze, sen., his son William, with his wife and two children. Wm. Freeze, sen., remained in this country only a short time. It was supposed the vessel in which he took pa.s.sage for England was lost, as his family never heard of him again.

The son, William, was a mason by trade, but settled on a farm in Amherst Point, now occupied by the Keillor brothers. He remained in c.u.mberland until the first of the present century, and then removed to Suss.e.x, King's Country, N.B. He had become rather discouraged in his efforts to reclaim the salt marsh, and came to the conclusion that it would never be of much value.

It is said that Mr. Freeze and his two sons started in a small boat for Kentucky. When they got as far as the mouth of the Pet.i.tcodiac River, they turned their boat up the stream, going with the tide to the head of the river. Leaving the boat, they plunged into the forest and tramped for some distance. At last they concluded they had lost their way and were not likely to reach Kentucky on that route. After some consultation, the father climbed to the top of a tall tree, and from this alt.i.tude the rich interval lands of the Upper Kennebecasis were full in view.

"There is a valley," said Mr. Freeze, "and there is where my bones are to be laid."

Here Mr. Freeze got a grant of nine hundred acres of land, enough to make farms for himself and his four sons. William, a son, was a great reader and student. He was very fond of mathematics, and it is said that sometimes when he and his boys would go to the field to hoe, he would take a stick and mark on the ground a mathematical figure, and then demonstrate it for the benefit of his boys. The dinner horn would sound, and no potatoes had been hoed that morning. John, another son, was a fine singer and took great pleasure in giving singing lessons to the young people in the neighborhood. The Freezes could all sing, and most of the men were handy with the mason's tools, which led some wag to say that the Freezes were all born with stone hammers in one hand and a note-book in the other. Charles, the fourth son, was a half- brother and inherited the home farm. Charles was a great reader and was very fond of history. He was eccentric in some ways and would take long journeys on foot.

He did not take kindly to railway travel, and his nephews liked to tell about his planning one day to go by rail instead of walking, but going to the station before the train arrived, he said he "couldn't be detained" and started away on foot.

There were two daughters. Miriam married Matthew Fenwick, of Maccan, N.S., who afterward moved to the Millstream, in King's County, and was the first to plant the Fenwick name in that county.

Mary was the wife of Thomas Black, of Amherst (brother of Bishop Black). They had a large family. The youngest son, Rev. A. B. Black, died in 1900. The history of the Blacks in this country was written by Cyrus, another member of the family.

Samuel, the eldest son of William Freeze, was married three times, and had a family of twenty-one children--seven by his first wife, Margaret Wells, of Point de Bute; eight by his second wife, Bethia Wager, of Dutch Valley; and six by his third wife, a Miss Scott of Pet.i.tcodiac.

The first family were all daughters. The tenth child was the first son born. Mr. Freeze elected several times to represent King's County in the Legislature at Fredericton, and while attending to his duties there he was taken with the illness that ended in his death.

The following letter is among the old papers at the Prospect, written by Samuel Freeze shortly after Polly's marriage:

"SUSs.e.x, KING'S COUNTY, "February 25th, 1824.

"DEAR SON AND DAUGHTER,-- "I received yours, favored by Mr. Stockton, and am happy to hear that you are all well, with a small exception, such as human nature is subject to.

"I am sorry to hear that the crop of hay has failed so much the last season, which must be a great injury to that part of the country. I believe that we will make out with what hay we have. You speak of driving oxen to St. John. The southerly weather that we had about the 12th of this month has raised the water and ice to such an unusual height that it has swept almost all the publick bridges downstream in this parish, which cuts off our communication from St. John by sleigh or sled, in a great measure, or I would have written the butcher, and then could have probably given you a satisfactory answer; but it is not the case.

"Mr. R. Stockton informs me that you can get 4 1/2d. at your own barn.

I think that, as the road is, you had better sell them for the 4 1/2 per lb., than to risk the St. John market, as there is but very little s.h.i.+pping in at present, and they get what they want from a less distance, and the butchers will take every advantage if they have not been contracted for. This is my opinion, but do as you think proper.

"I have set my hands to get out some timber this winter. I think about 150 tons of yellow pine and 50 of hackmatack, if the sledding continues three weeks longer. My crop of grain on my new farm did not answer my expectations, a great part of it was struck with the rust. I suppose I will get on the whole 16 acres something more than 100 bushels of grain, viz., wheat, buckwheat and rye. I have since exchanged it for an old farm (and pay 170 pounds) situate one mile below Matthew Fenwick's, formerly owned by Benj. Kierstead. It cuts 30 tons of English hay. The buildings are in tolerable repair. Susan Freeze talks of coming to see you shortly. Through the mercy of G.o.d I and wife and family are all as well as common.

"Dear children, from your loving father.

"SAMUEL FREEZE."

"MR. THOMPSON TRUEMAN, Westmoreland:

"You will please accept of our love and impart it to our children and friends.