The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 24

SMITH.--Dr. Rufus Smith lived near Fort c.u.mberland and had a large medical practice on the Isthmus. He belonged to one of the Loyalist families, and represented the County of Westmoreland in the a.s.sembly at Fredericton for a period of fifteen years, from 1816. His remains lie in the cemetery at Point de Bute.

CHANDLER.--Col. Joshua Chandler, of New Haven, graduated at Yale College in 1747. He was a member of the Connecticut Legislature. Being loyal, he left when Gen. Tryon, was obliged to evacuate that place. His property was valued at L30,000 sterling, and was confiscated. He settled with his family at Annapolis, N.S. He and two daughters and a son were s.h.i.+p-wrecked going from Digby to St. John, in March, 1787. The son was drowned in his efforts to swim to the land, while the father and the two daughters perished from cold and exposure after they had reached the sh.o.r.e. The British Government allowed the surviving children, Sarah, Mary, Thomas, Samuel and Charles, each L1,000 sterling. Sarah married Wm. Botsford, father of the late Judge Wm.

Botsford, and grandfather of Senator Botsford; Mary married Col. Joshua Upham, afterwards Chief Justice of New Brunswick. Thomas Chandler, M.P.P., a lawyer of eminence, died at Pictou. His wife, Elizabeth Grant, was an aunt of Sam. Slick, whose name was Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Samuel Chandler was also in the Legislature of Nova Scotia for many years, representing Colchester County. He married Susan Watson. His eldest son was the late Judge James W. Chandler, of Westmoreland, Charles H. Chandler was Sheriff of c.u.mberland for thirty- eight years. Among his children were Sheriff Joshua Chandler, of Amherst, and the late Lieutenant-Governor E. B. Chandler, of Dorchester. The three sons of Col. Joshua Chandler in the early part of the last century, lived in the towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland for a time and conducted a general trading business. Their brother-in-law, William Botsford, was also a resident of the towns.h.i.+p at the same time.

McMONAGLES.--The McMonagles lived for a time in c.u.mberland and afterwards moved to Suss.e.x, where the name is still found.

FORSTER.--George Forster was from Yorks.h.i.+re and settled in Amherst, N.S. One of his sons settled in Fort Lawrence, and another, Ralph, in Point de Bute. Ralph subsequently went to Upper Canada. The Forsters were Methodists, and it is doubtful if any of that Yorks.h.i.+re band of Bible loving men and women equalled the Forsters in their veneration for the Word of G.o.d and its teachings as they understood it.

CAREY.--The Careys belonged to the Scotch-Irish immigration that came to Eastern Canada between 1815 and 1830. The family landed here about the year 1822. Robert settled near Halifax; John came to New Brunswick and bought a property at Port Elgin, near the village of Bay Verte, where he built a grist and carding mill, and successfully conducted a large business for many years. He married Caroline Chappell and had a family of seven children. There are some of the descendants, but none of the name living in Bay Verte at this date. Leslie Carey, of Sackville, and Everett Carey, of California, are grandsons of John Carey.

DOHERTY.

REXTON, KENT, July 4th, 1902.

DEAR SIR,--Yours to hand yesterday, and in reply I have to state that the widow Doherty (my grandmother) left the Parish of Rag, County Donegal, Ireland, about the year 1820, and landed with her family in Magudavic, walked to St. John, N.B., and eventually got by schooner up to Great Village, N.S., except my father, William, who remained for some time longer in St. John, but also got to Great Village, N.S., and gradually worked his way to Richibucto, where he had an aunt (Mrs. John McGregor, and sister to Mrs. Joseph Irvin, of Point de Bute or Tidnish). My grandmother likely found her way for a time with part of her large family to Point de Bute, where one of her daughters (Jane) married Richard Jones, of that place. One of her daughters (Mary) remained in Nova Scotia and married George Spencer, and after a number of years moved to Mill Branch, Kent, N.B. Grisilda, the eldest daughter, married John Reid, but I do not know when married, but they resided in Mill Branch, Kent County, from my earliest recollection. My father, William, in time settled on a farm on the main Richibucto River, and married Nancy McLeland, of Great Village, N.S., a sister of G. W. McLelland, who for many years represented Colchester County in the House of a.s.sembly at Halifax. My father afterwards moved to the south branch of the St. Nicholas River, Kent County, and built an extensive establishment of mills, including saw, grist and carding mills. Joseph Doherty, the youngest of the family, located in Buctouche, where he also established a mill property, now in possession of John McKee, but subsequently removed to Campbellton. Isaac Doherty, the eldest of the family, came to Canada some five years before his mother and the rest of the family, and he and Joseph Irvin conducted some trade with Newfoundland, and, I think, built a s.h.i.+p somewhere about Tidnish or Bay Verte. Isaac and Joseph married sisters, the former Cynthia, and the latter Polly Wells.

After my father, William, got settled on the main Richibucto River, his mother and youngest brother, Joseph, resided with him; so I don't think that the family, except Isaac and Jane, remained very long in Point de Bute. My grandfather's name was William, but he never came to America.

My grandmother's maiden name was Marjorie Fetters. You can see that the Doherty family, with the exception of Isaac and Jane, were not actually settlers or permanent residents of Point de Bute. Both Isaac and Jane (Mrs. Jones) are buried there. Perhaps the Irvin family can add other facts to what I have written. With kind remembrance to self and family, I remain.

Yours very truly,

J. W. DOHERTY, M.D.

HOWARD TRUEMAN, Esq.

Prospect Farm, Point de Bute.

LATER RESIDENTS OF WHAT WAS THE OLD TOWNs.h.i.+P OF c.u.mBERLAND.

McCREADY.--HIGGINS.--C. F. McCready's and David Higgin's ancestors were Loyalists. The McCreadys settled in King's County, N.B., and Higgins, in Colchester, N.S.

SNOWDON.--The Snowdons were originally from Wales, England. Pickering Snowdon was a resident of Sackville in 1786.

SUTHERLAND.--James Sutherland is of Scotch blood. Donald Sutherland, his grandfather, came from Sutherlands.h.i.+re, Scotland, in 1818, and settled in Pictou County, N.S.

BULMER.--George Bulmer is a descendant of George Bulmer, who came from Yorks.h.i.+re in the s.h.i.+p DUKE OF YORK in the spring of 1772. He came with his brother-in-law, William Freeze. The Bulmers are said to be of Norman descent.

FULLERTON.--Douglas Fullerton's grandfather was a Scotchman, coming to Halifax about the year 1790. He taught school for a number of years. He married a Miss Peck and soon after settled down as a farmer in Parrsboro', c.u.mberland County, N.S., where many of his descendants live.

DOYLE.--James Doyle's grandfather came from Ireland and settled at Five Islands, Colchester County, N.S.

HICKS.--This name was early in Nova Scotia. I find John Hicks in company with three others, prospected Nova Scotia, in 1759, for prospective settlers, from Rhodes (sic) Island and Connecticut, and decided to take up lands at Pisquid or Windsor. Josiah Hicks was a resident of Sackville in 1786. The late Samuel Hicks of Jolicure came to that place from Sackville where the name is now in large number.