The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 4

Governor Franklin did not stay long in the northern district, but left agents who, judging by the number that came to Nova Scotia during the few ensuing years, must have done their work well.

Among the first of the Yorks.h.i.+re emigrants to sail for Nova Scotia was a party that left Liverpool in the good s.h.i.+p "DUKE OF YORK," on the 16th of March, 1772. The voyage lasted forty-six days, and at the end of that time the sixty-two pa.s.sengers were all landed safely at Halifax. From that port they went by schooner to Chignecto, landing at Fort c.u.mberland on the 21st of May.

Charles Dixon, with his wife and four children, were pa.s.sengers on the "DUKE OF YORK." Mr. Dixon's is the only record I have seen of this voyage, and it is very concise indeed. He writes: "We had a rough pa.s.sage. None of us having been to sea before, much sea-sickness prevailed. At Halifax we were received with much joy by the gentlemen in general, but were much discouraged by others, and the account given us of c.u.mberland was enough to make the stoutest give way."

Mr. Dixon does not seem to have allowed these discouraging reports to influence him greatly, for by the 8th of June he had made a purchase of 2,500 acres of land in Sackville, and moved his family there.

Other vessels followed the "DUKE OF YORK" during 1773 and the two following years, the largest number coming in 1774. By May of that year, two brigantines moored at Halifax with 280 pa.s.sengers, and three more vessels were expected. By the last of June nine pa.s.senger vessels had arrived. The s.h.i.+p ADAMANT at this time was the regular packet between Halifax and Great Britain.

As one of the pa.s.senger vessels was from Aberdeen, it is not likely that all the immigrants this year were from Yorks.h.i.+re. At Halifax, the women and children going to c.u.mberland were put on board a schooner bound for Chignecto, and the younger man started to make the journey on foot. The latter took the usual road to Fort Edward; from there they went by boat to Parrsboro', and then followed the high ridge of land called the "Boar's Back," to River Hebert. At Minudie they found boats to carry them to Fort c.u.mberland, where they were given a right royal Yorks.h.i.+re welcome by their wives and children, who had reached the fort before them. From Fort c.u.mberland the immigrants quickly began to look around the country for suitable locations.

Those by the name of Black, Freeze, Robinson, Lusby, Oxley and Forster bought farms at Amherst and Amherst Point. Keilor, Siddall, Wells, Lowerson, Trueman, Chapman, Donkin, Read, Carter, King, Trenholm, Dobson and Smith were the names of those who settled at Westmoreland Point, Point de Bute and Fort Lawrence. The names of the Sackville contingent were Dixon, Bowser, Atkinson, Anderson, Bulmer, Harper, Patterson, Fawcett, Richardson, Humphrey, Cornforth and Wry. Brown, Lodge, Ripley, Shepley, Pipes, Coates, Harrison, Fenwick and others settled at Nappan, Maccan and River Hebert.

Hants and King's County, in Nova Scotia, got a part of this immigration. Those who came to c.u.mberland were too late to secure any of the vacated Acadian farms before others had got possession, these lands having been pre-empted by the New Englanders and the traders who followed the army. Those who had the means, however, seem to have found no difficulty in purchasing from the owners, and very quickly set to work to adjust themselves to the new conditions. So effectually did they do this, that almost every man of them succeeded in making a comfortable home for his family.

The local historians of those times claim that these English settlers, arriving as they did just before the Revolutionary war, saved Nova Scotia to the British Crown. If that is the correct opinion, and we are more disposed to believe it is true than to question its accuracy, then the British Empire is more indebted to these loyal Yorks.h.i.+re immigrants than history has ever given them credit for. The Eddy Rebellion proved that the New Englanders, who const.i.tuted a large part of the inhabitants of Chignecto previous to the arrival of the English, sympathized very generally with the revolutionists, and were ready to help their cause to the extent of taking up arms, if necessary, on its behalf. These English immigrants were not soldiers; most of them were farmers and mechanics who had taken little part in the discussions of public questions, but they were loyal subjects of the King of Great Britain. They always had been, and they always expected to be, loyal.

The headquarters of the rebellion was in c.u.mberland, and it was in c.u.mberland that the largest number of these Englishmen settled.

In 1776, Mr. Arbuthnot writes, "There is an absolute necessity for troops to be sent to Fort c.u.mberland, Annapolis Royal, and a few to Fort Edward and Windsor for protection, with the help of His Majesty's loyal subjects who consist of English farmers. A sober, religious people, though ignorant of the use of arms, will afford every a.s.sistance." He says the others are from New England and will join in any rebellion. Murdock thinks that Arburthnot did not judge the New England men fairly; that many of them were loyal subjects of Great Britain, and did not want to be mixed up in the trouble and discussion between Great Britain and her older colonies.

Whether this English immigration did for Nova Scotia what is claimed for it or not, their success in the new country as farmers and settlers forever removed from the English mind the belief that Nova Scotia was a cold, barren and inhospitable country, "fit only as a home for convicts and Indians." And thus it opened the way for future settlers. It is not claiming too much to say these northern Englishmen were a superior cla.s.s of men. Industrious, hardy, resourceful and G.o.d-fearing, they were made of the right material to form the groundwork of prosperous communities, and wherever this element predominated it was a guarantee that justice and order would be maintained. They were not all saints-- perhaps none of them were--but there was a homely honesty and a fixedness of principle about the majority of them that "made for righteousness" wherever they were found.

The most considerable addition to the population of Nova Scotia after the Yorks.h.i.+re immigration was in 1783 and 1784, when the United Empire Loyalists came to the Province. They left New England as the French left Acadia, without the choice of remaining. The story of their removal and bitter experiences has been told by more than one historian. They were the right stamp of men, and have left their impress on the provinces by the sea. Among the names of those who settled at the old Chignecto were: Fowler, Knapp, Palmer, Purdy, Pugsley. After the Loyalists there was no marked emigration to the Maritime Provinces till after the battle of Waterloo. The hard times in England following the war turned the attention of the people of Great Britain again to America, and from 1815 to 1830 there was a steady stream of emigrants, particularly from Scotland to the Provinces.

Northern New Brunswick received a large share of these Scotch settlers.

The Mains, Grahams, Girvins, McElmons, and the Braits of Galloway and Richibucto, in Kent County, and the Scotts, Murrays, Grants, and Blacklocks of Botsford, Westmoreland County, came at this time.

An account of the wreck of a s.h.i.+p in 1826, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is yet told by the descendants of some of those who were coming as settlers to Richibucto.

In the spring of 1826 a lumber vessel bound for Richibucto, N.B., carried a number of pa.s.sengers for that part. When off the Magdalen Islands the vessel was stove in with the ice, and the crew and pa.s.sengers had to take to the boats. There was no time to secure any provisions, and a little package of potato starch that a lady pa.s.senger had been using at the time of the accident, and carried with her, was the only thing eatable in the boats. Among the pa.s.sengers was James Johnstone, of Dumfries, Scotland, and his daughter Jean, sixteen years old. For three days and nights the boats drifted. Mr. Johnstone, who was an old man, died from the cold and exposure, and at the time of his death his daughter was lying apparently unconscious in the bottom of one of the boats. On the morning of the fourth day a vessel bound for Miramichi discovered them and took all on board. After landing safely at Miramichi they took pa.s.sage for Richibucto. Miss Johnstone married John Main of Richibucto, and was the mother of a large family. Mrs.

Main was never able to overcome her dread of the sea after this dreadful experience.

The last immigrants who came to the vicinity of the Isthmus were from Ireland. They arrived in the decade between 1830 and 1840, and settled in a district now called Melrose. Until recently their settlement was known as the Emigrant Road. Some of the names of this immigration were: Lane, Carroll, Sweeney, Barry, Noonen, Mahoney and Hennessy. They proved good settlers, industrious and saving, and many of the second generation are filling prominent positions in the country. Ex-Warden Mahoney, of Melrose, and lawyers Sweeney and Riley, of Moncton, and Dr.

Hennessy, of Bangor, Maine, are descended from this stock.

CHAPTER IV

THE EDDY REBELLION.

THE Eddy Rebellion does not occupy much s.p.a.ce in history, but it was an important event in the district where it occurred, and in the lives of those who were responsible for it. The leaders were Colonel Jonathan Eddy, Sheriff John Allan, or "Rebel John," as he was afterwards called, William Howe, and Samuel Rogers. Eddy, Rogers and Allan had been, or were at that time members of the a.s.sembly at Halifax. Allan was a Scotsman by birth, the others were from New England.

The pretext for the rebellion was the militia order of Governor Legge; the real reason was the sympathy of the New Englanders with their brother colonists. It was represented at the Continental Congress that six hundred persons in Nova Scotia, whose names were given, were ready to join any army who might come to their help. If these six hundred names represented those who were of an age to bear arms, then the statement of Arbuthnot that the New Englanders were all disloyal was correct.

The first step taken in opposition to Governor Legge's order was to pet.i.tion against its enforcement. The pet.i.tion from c.u.mberland referred to the destruction of the fort on the St. John River as "rather an act of inconsideration than otherwise," and then said, "those of us who belong to New England, being invited into this Province by Governor Lawrence's proclamation, it must be the greatest piece of cruelty and imposition for them to be subjected to march into different parts in arms against their friends and relations. The Acadians among us being also under the same situation, most, if not all, having friends distributed in different parts of America, and that done by order of His Majesty."

This pet.i.tion was signed by sixty-four persons in c.u.mberland, the Amherst pet.i.tion was signed by fifty-eight, and the Sackville one by seventy-three. Fifty-one of the pet.i.tioners were Acadians. The date was December 23rd, 1775.

Governor Legge took no other action on these pet.i.tions than to send them at once to the British Government as evidence of the disloyalty of the Province, and at the same time he wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth that some persons had spread the report that he was trying to draw the militia to Halifax that he might transport them to New England and make soldiers of them. He also adds, "The consequence of such reports influenced the whole country, so that many companies of the militia have refused to a.s.semble, ending in these remonstrances which here in a public manner have been transmitted to your Lords.h.i.+p."

As soon as it became known to the pet.i.tioners that Governor Legge would not cancel the militia order, and that the pet.i.tions had been forwarded to Downing Street, it was decided to elect delegates to meet in c.u.mberland to take into consideration what steps should next be taken.

Accordingly, representatives appointed by the pet.i.tioners met at Inverma, the home of Sheriff Allan. Jonathan Eddy and Sheriff Allan were there as members of the convention, and took especial pains to urge upon the meeting that the time had arrived for decided action.

Either they must cast in their lot with their friends in Ma.s.sachusetts and Connecticut, or they must be loyal to the British Government. They also made it clear that they could not hold the country against the British without help from their friends. The decision must have been in favor of independent action, as almost immediately Colonel Eddy started for New England with the intention of securing help from that quarter.

Allan remained for a while longer in the country, but his outspoken sympathy with the rebel cause was soon reported to the Government and steps were taken to have him arrested.

About this time Rogers' and Allan's seats in the Legislature were declared vacant, and a reward of two hundred pounds was offered for the apprehension of Eddy and one hundred pounds each for Allan, Rogers, and Howe. Allan's biographer, in writing of this period in his life, says, "His life being now in danger, he resolved to leave the Province for the revolted colonies; but previous to his departure he made several excursions among the Indians to the northward and by his influence secured for the rebel provinces the co-operation of a large number of the Micmac tribe." He left c.u.mberland in an open boat on August 3rd, 1776, and coasting along the Bay of Fundy, reached Pa.s.samaquoddy Bay on the 11th. In Machias Bay, which he entered on the 13th, he found Col.

Eddy with twenty-eight others in a schooner on their way to the Bay of Fundy to capture Fort c.u.mberland. Allan tried to induce Eddy to abandon the expedition for the present, urging that it was impossible to accomplish anything with so small a force. Colonel Eddy was headstrong and sanguine, and kept on his way. He was sure more men would follow him, and he expected to get a large addition to his force when he reached the St. John River.

Allan, in the meantime, pushed on to Machias, and after spending a few days there, went as far as the Piscataquis River by water, and thence he took the stage to Boston. From Boston he proceeded to Was.h.i.+ngton's headquarters, giving New York, which was then in possession of the British, a wide berth. He dined with Was.h.i.+ngton, and talked over the situation. On the 4th of January he was introduced to the Continental Congress, where he made a full statement of matters in Nova Scotia.

After some deliberation, Congress appointed him Superintendent of the Eastern Indians and a colonel of infantry. He received his instructions from Hon. John Hanc.o.c.k, and left at once for Boston. While there he urged upon the members in council the necessity of protecting the eastern part of Maine, and showed the advantage it would be to the rebels if, by sending out an armed force, they could take possession of the western part of Nova Scotia. This the Council promised to do.

After giving this advice, Allan himself set out to show what could be done by raiding the loyal settlers on the River St. John. This expedition was not very successful, and Colonel Allan was glad to get back to Maine, and take up the duties of his new position as Superintendent of the Eastern Indians. He made Machias his headquarters, and to the end of his life, which came in the year 1805, he remained a resident of the State of Maine.

Beamish Murdoch, the historian of Nova Scotia, in a letter to a relative of Colonel John Allan, says: "If the traditions I have heard about John Allan are correct, he could not have been much over twenty- one years old in 1775. As he had no New England ancestors, his escapade must be attributed to ambition, romance, or pure zeal for what he thought was just and right. For the feelings against the Crown in Nova Scotia in 1775 were confined to the Acadian French, who resented the conquest, the Indians who were attached to them by habit and creed, and to the settlers who were emigrants from New England."

Mr. Murdoch was mistaken in the age of Allan. John Allan was born in Edinburgh Castle at about "half after one" of the clock, on January 3rd, 1746 (O. S.), and was baptized on the 5th by Mr. Glasgow. He thus must have been in his 30th year when he joined the Eddy rebels.

After Colonel Eddy's interview with Colonel Allan in Machias Bay, he pushed on to c.u.mberland, and landed in Pet.i.tcodiac. His little army had increased considerably since he left Machias. At the mouth of the Pet.i.tcodiac River he stationed a small force to watch for any reinforcements that might be coming to Fort c.u.mberland. With the main body of his followers he started overland for Chignecto, after he had supplied his commissariat from the loyal settlers along the river.

They crossed the Memramcook well up to the head of that river, and took a straight course for Point Midgic. Then going through the woods above the Jolicure Lakes, they came to the home of Colonel Allan, in Upper Point de Bute. Mrs. Allan and her children were still there, and there was no disposition on the part of the inhabitants of Jolicure to interfere in any measure against the rebels.

At Allan's it was learned that a vessel with provisions had been seen in the bay, heading for Fort c.u.mberland. Eddy sent a number of scouts down, with instructions to capture the vessel. Under the cover of darkness and a thick fog,they were able to locate the sloop in c.u.mberland Creek without being seen by the men on the look-out. In the early morning, when the leader of the scouts suddenly levelled his gun at the one man on deck, and called out, "If you move you are a dead man," the surprise was complete, and the man obeyed orders. The rebels boarded the sloop, and soon had all hands in irons. As it grew lighter, and the fog cleared away, Captain Baron and missionary Egleston from the fort came down to the vessel, suspecting nothing, and were both made prisoners. Egleston was taken to Boston, and remained a prisoner for eighteen months. As soon as the tide turned the vessel floated out of c.u.mberland Creek, and headed for the Missiquash. The Union Jack was hauled down and the Stars and Stripes run up in its place.

This capture greatly elated the rebels, furnis.h.i.+ng them, as it did, with supplies, of which they probably stood in considerable need. The sloop could run up the Missiquash near to the farms of the Eddys, Jonathan and William, who at the time owned most of the upper part of Fort Lawrence.

Colonel Eddy now decided to lose no time, but attack the fort at once.

His army camped at Mount Whatley, near where the residence of David Carter now stands. Mount Whatley was called Camp Hill for a number of years after this.

While these things were being done by the rebels the English were not idle. A hundred and fifty regulars, under Colonel Gorham, had been sent to a.s.sist the garrison and strengthen the defences of the fort. When all was ready in the rebel camp, Colonel Eddy sent the following summons to Lieutenant-Colonel Gorham, demanding his surrender:

"To Joseph Gorham, Esq., Lieut.-Colonel Commandt. of the Royal Fencibles Americans, Commanding Fort c.u.mberland:

"The already too plentiful Effusion of Human Blood in the Unhappy Contest between Great Britain and the Colonies, calls on every one engaged on either side, to use their utmost Efforts to prevent the Unnatural Carnage, but the Importance of the Cause on the side of America has made War necessary, and its Consequences, though in some Cases shocking, are yet unavoidable. But to Evidence that the Virtues of humanity are carefully attended to, to temper the Fort.i.tude of a Soldier, I have to summon you in the Name of the United Colonies to surrender the Fort now under your Command, to the Army sent under me by the States of America. I do promise that if you surrender Yourselves as Prisoners of War you may depend upon being treated with the utmost Civility and Kind Treatment; if you refuse I am determined to storme the Fort, and you must abide the consequences.

"Your answer is expected in four Hours after you receive this and the Flag to Return safe.

"I am Sir, "Your most obedt. Hble. Servt., "JONA EDDY, "Commanding Officer of the United Forces.

"Nov. 10, 1776."

He received the following reply:

"SIR, "I acknowledge the receipt of a Letter (under coular of Flagg of Truce) Signed by one Jonan Eddy, Commanding officer, expressing a concern at the unhappy Contest at present Subsisting between Great Britain and the Colonys, and recommending those engaged on either side to use their Endeavors to prevent the too Plentiful effusion of human Blood, and further Summoning the Commanding officer to surrender this garrison.

"From the Commencement of these Contest I have felt for my deluded Brother Subjects and Countrymen of America, and for the many Innocent people they have wantonly Involved in the Horrors of an Unnatural Rebellion, and entertain every humane principle as well as an utter aversion to the Unnecessary effusion of Christian Blood. Therefore Command you in His Majesty's name to disarm yourself and party Immediately and Surrender to the King's Mercy, and further desire you would communicate the Inclosed Manifests to as many of the Inhabitants you can, and as Speedily as possible to prevent their being involved in the Same dangerous and Unhappy dilemma.

"Be a.s.sured, Sir, I shall never dishonour the character of a Soldier by Surrendering my command to any Power except to that of my Sovereign from whence it originated. I am, Sir, "Your most hble servt, "JOS. GORHAM, "Lt.-Col., Com'at, R. F. A., "Commanding Officer at Fort c.u.mberland."

The following is Colonel Eddy's own account of the first attack on Fort c.u.mberland, given in "Eastern Maine" (Kidder, p. 69): "Upon Colonel Gorham's Refusal to surrender we attempted to storm the Fort in the Night of the 12th Nov. with our scaling Ladders and other Accoutrements, but finding the Fort to be stronger than we imagined (occasioned by late Repairs), we thought fit to Relinquish our Design after a heavy firing from their Great Guns and small Arms, with Intermission for 2 Hours, which we Sustained without any Loss (except one Indian being wounded), who behaved very gallantly, and Retreated in good Order to our Camp."

Previous to the first attack on the place, Eddy had arranged with an Indian to sneak into the fort and open the main gate; he would have his men ready to rush in and take the place by a.s.sault. While the attack was in progress the Indian got into the place and was in the act of unbarring the gates when he was discovered by Major d.i.c.kson. The major spoiled the little scheme by slas.h.i.+ng the Indian's arm with his sword, which left him maimed for life. The a.s.sailants soon after this retreated without any very serious loss.

In another attack, made a few days later,the large barracks on the south-east side of the fort were set on fire, in the hope that it would communicate with the magazine. It is said a traitor in the rebel camp warned the English of the second attack. This also failed, but the barracks and a number of houses near the fort were burned.