The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 7

At W. Fawcett's, Sackville, January 9th, 1803."

"QUARTERLY MEETING.

"December 3rd, 1810.

"_Q_. Where shall a house be built for the circuit preacher? _A_. In Sackville, on the lands given by C. Dixon, Esq., and John Harris.

"_Q_. How shall the expenses be borne? _A_. By a subscription begun first in Sackville.

"_Q_. Of what material shall the said house be built? _A_. Of brick, except the cellar wall, which shall be made of stone.

"_Q_. Who shall be appointed to provide stone and timber during the winter previous to the next quarterly meeting? _A_. Charles Dixon and Rich. Bowser to see it provided out of the subscription. The said timber to be got for a house 34 by 24.

"_Q_. Shall the collections made in the Stone Chapel go to the discharging of the debt due to Mr. Trueman for the care of the said chapel? _A_. Yes, and also to the providing of wood for said chapel."

"QUARTERLY MEETING.

"SACKVILLE, March 9th, 1811.

"_Q_. Shall the minutes of Dec. Q. M., 1810, respecting preacher's house be agreed to by this Q. M.? _A_. Yes, we are agreed that the house shall be built upon the grounds given by Messrs. Dixon and Harris.

"_Q_. Who shall be the trustees of the said house? _A_. John Fawcett, Jr., Chas. Dixon, Jr., Edwin Dixon, Esq., Rich. Bowser and Thomas Roach, Esq.

"_Q_. Who shall we employ to build the house? _A_. Chas. Dixon, Jr., who has engaged to finish it in a workmanlike manner for L200, according to plan, N. B., 35 ft. by 24, one story and half high and of brick."

BAPTISTS.

In 1763 a Baptist church at Swansea, Ma.s.s., left in a body and settled in Sackville, bringing their pastor with them. They numbered thirteen members. Almost all of them returned to Ma.s.sachusetts in 1771. The Baptists were the first Protestant denomination in Sackville, but had no church building until about the year 1800. That year Joseph Crandall organized the church, and they at once proceeded to erect a building in which to wors.h.i.+p. The site chosen was at the Four Corners. The church which replaced this one in 1830 was called Beulah.

The first Baptist a.s.sociation for New Brunswick and Nova Scotia met in Sackville in 1810. Sackville was represented by Elders Jos. Crandall and Jonathan Cole, and by Messrs. Wm. Lawrence and Jos. Read. There were twenty-two elders and messengers present, representing fourteen churches. Amongst the representatives were Fathers Murray and Harding, and Peter Crandall, Nathan Cleveland and Elijah Estabrooks. A letter published in August, 1810, by Rev. David Merrill, in the AMERICAN BAPTIST MAGAZINE, reports his visit to the a.s.sociation, in Sackville, as a member of the Lincoln a.s.sociation, Maine. He is jubilant with hope for the new work and exclaims in triumph, "Babylon appears to be in full retreat." It is said that at a revival service in the Beulah Church, in 1822, conducted by Fathers Crandall, Tupper and McCully, twenty-five persons were immersed in Morris's millpond. During the service a woman stood up to exhort, handing her infant of six months to a bystander. The woman was Mrs. Tupper, and the infant the future Sir Charles Tupper. This must have been Sir Charles's first appearance in public life.

The Baptist Church in Amherst was organized about 1810, or perhaps a year or two earlier, by the Rev. Jos. Crandall. To the a.s.sociation in Sackville they sent two messengers, Thos. S. Black and Wm. Freeman, reporting a members.h.i.+p of fifteen. The Rev. Chas. Tupper was the first pastor, ordained in 1817. He had charge of the church, with occasional relief, until 1851.

The Baptists of Westmoreland did not erect a church building until 1825. The late Wm. Tingley, of Point de Bute, gave the site and also the largest subscription. The following clause in the subscription paper is worth transcribing, as showing the liberality in religious matters which existed at that time. The Presbyterians of Jolicure a.s.sisted in the building, and were given "the right to hold service in proportion to the amount they subscribed, and when it is not in use by either Baptists or Presbyterians, if wanted occasionally by other denominations of Christians, it shall be open and free for such service." Although the building was erected in 1825 there was no church organized until 1850.

The first minister was Rev. Willard Parker, and the deacons Rufus Fillimore and Henry Ward. The ministers who have been in charge from that date down to the present time are:

William Parker. Trueman Bishop.

John Roe. Chas. A. Eaton.

David Lawson. T. D. Skinner.

W. A. Coleman. J. D. Wilson.

G. F. Miles. H. Lavers.

David McKeen. D. A. Steele.

PRESBYTERIANS.

The Presbyterians were organized and had a church building in Amherst as early as 1788, but it was not until the Rev. Alexander Clark arrived, in 1827, that they had a regular minister stationed with them.

Previous to this several ministers had been with them, but only a very short time.

In the grant of the c.u.mberland towns.h.i.+p of 1763 land was given to the Presbyterian Church on which to build a manse, but there is no existing record to show that it was ever taken possession of by that body. The first church in the towns.h.i.+p was erected in Jolicure about the year 1830. The land was given by Thos. Copp, and the Brownells and Copps of that place were very active in the work of building. Rev. Alexander Clark, of Amherst, was the minister in charge of the congregation. Dr.

Clark spent his life in preaching the Gospel to the same people and to their children, with whom he began his mission when he first came to the country in 1827 or 1828. His circuit extended from Maccan to Pugwash, and from there along the Northumberland Straits to Shemogne, including Amherst, Jolicure, and Sackville. He was a fine type of the Scotch-Irish minister, who spoke what he believed was the truth, whatever the consequence might be.

EPISCOPALIAN.

The first Episcopal Church in the Sackville Parish was built at Westc.o.c.k in 1817. The rectors have been as follows:

John Burnyeot, 1818-1820.

Christopher Milner, 1820-1836.

John Black, 1836-1847.

T. DeWolfe, 1847-1860.

G. G. Roberts, 1860-1873.

David Nickerson, 1873-1875.

J. D. H. Brown, 1875-1878.

R. J. Uniacke, 1878-1879.

C. P. Mulvaney, 1879-1880.

C. F. Wiggins, 1880-

St. Paul's Church, Sackville, was commenced in 1856, and consecrated in 1858. The late Joseph F. Allison was largely instrumental in building this church. As the two churches, St. Paul's and St. Ann's, Westc.o.c.k, were in the same parish, they were under the charge of one rector.

CHAPTER VI

THE TRUEMANS.

WILLIAM TRUEMAN was born in Yorks.h.i.+re, England, in the year 1720, and emigrated to America with his family in the year 1775. They were probably pa.s.sengers in the s.h.i.+p JENNIE, Captain Foster, which came to Halifax that spring with a number of emigrants from Yorks.h.i.+re. The family consisted of William Trueman, his wife Ann, and their son William, an only child, a young man in his twenty-fourth year.

Billsdale* was the name of the towns.h.i.+p they left in the Old Country.

They were Methodists in religion, but had been members of the Episcopal Church and brought with them the prayer-books and commentaries of that communion.

[FOOTNOTE: *Billsdale, Westside Towns.h.i.+p, is a long moorland towns.h.i.+p of widely scattered houses on the west side of the Rye, extending from six to eight miles N. N. W. from Helmsley, and is mainly the property of the Earl Haversham. Its area is 4,014 acres; its land rises on lofty fells at Rydale Head. Hawnby parish includes the five towns.h.i.+ps of Hawnby, Arden, Billsdale, Westside, Dale Town, and Snillsby, the area of the parish being 24,312 acres. END OF FOOTNOTE]

In addition to his business as a farmer, William Trueman, senior, had taken the legal steps necessary in England to enable him to work as a joiner if he were so inclined. The son William had been engaged in the dry goods business a year or two before coming to Nova Scotia.

After landing at Halifax they came by schooner to Fort c.u.mberland, and very soon after settled about four miles from the fort at Point de Bute, then called Prospect.

There does not seem to have been many of the name left in Yorks.h.i.+re at this time, and those who were in Billsdale and vicinity shortly moved to other parts of the country. A nephew of the first William, named Harmon, moved to another towns.h.i.+p, married, and had a family of ten children. Mary, Harmon's youngest daughter, married a man named Brown, and they called one of their sons Trueman Brown. Charles, a son of Trueman, spent a year at Prospect in the eighties, and Harmon, a brother of Charles, visited the home in 1882-83. I have not been able to trace the family in Yorks.h.i.+re in any but this one branch. There is a photograph at Prospect of John Trueman, a son of the Harmon here mentioned, which shows a strong likeness to some of the family in this country.

A family of Truemans living in Ontario came to Canada about the year 1850, but we have not been able to trace any relations.h.i.+p.

The first purchase of land by the Truemans in Nova Scotia was from Joshua Mauger. This property was conveyed to William Trueman, sen. The deed reads: "I, Joshua Mauger, Esq., of London, in Great Britain, Esq.

member of Parliament, of the town of Poole, in the county of Dorsets.h.i.+re, for and in consideration of the sum of ninety pounds lawful money of the Province of Nova Scotia," etc., etc. This ninety pounds was paid for eighty acres of upland and fifty-four acres of marsh adjoining a wood lot on Bay Verte Road, and a right in the great division of woodland, so-called. The deed was signed at Halifax by the Hon. John Butler, as attorney for Joshua Mauger, on the 8th September, 1777, and the money paid the same day. Thomas Scurr and J. B. Dight were the witnesses, it was proved at Fort c.u.mberland on the 31st of Sept., 1777, by Thomas Scurr, and registered in New Brunswick by James Odell, May 3rd, 1785.

The next purchase of real estate was made from Thomas Scurr, the place now called Prospect Farm. Six hundred and fifty pounds lawful money of the Province of New Brunswick was the amount paid. Between the first and second purchase the Province had been divided, and that part of the towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland in which the Truemans settled had gone to New Brunswick. The number of acres in this last purchase was estimated at eight hundred, including nearly five hundred acres of wilderness land.

The deed was witnessed by Thomas Chandler and Amos Botsford. Mrs. Scurr did not sign the deed, and the following is the copy of a doc.u.ment found very carefully laid away among the old papers at Prospect:

"VIRGINIA, PRINCESS ANN COUNTY, "June 25th, 1789.

"On this day personally appeared before me, Dennis Dooley, Justice of the Peace of the said county of the commonwealth of Virginia, Elizabeth Scurr, and voluntarily relinquished her right of a dower in a certain tract or piece of land in the town of Westmoreland and Province of New Brunswick, viz.: Three eighty-acre lots, Nos. sixteen, eighteen and twenty, with the marsh and wilderness thereto belonging. All in division letter B, and described fully in a deed from Thomas Scurr to William Trueman and on record in Westmoreland, No. 142.

"Given under my hand and seal this day as above.

"DENNIS DOOLEY.

"The within Elizabeth Scurr doth hereby voluntarily subscribe her name to the within contents.

"ELIZABETH SCURR."

Dennis Dooley, Justice of the Peace of the commonwealth of Virginia in the year 1789, was a good penman.

James Law owned Prospect Farm before Thomas Scurr. The deed conveying the property from Law to Scurr is still among the doc.u.ments at Prospect. As Law was early in the country after the expulsion, it is probable he was the first to get possession after the removal of the Acadians.

Thomas Scurr, sen., left the country soon after selling Prospect Farm.

The old chronicles say he was a man very much esteemed for his piety.

He represented c.u.mberland towns.h.i.+p, for one session at least, in the Legislature at Halifax. In 1785, "in opposition to the advice of a friend against going from a place where was wanted to a place where he was not wanted," he removed to the South, and purchased an estate near Norfolk, Virginia. He repented too late, for nearly all the members of his large family fell victims to diseases peculiar to southern climates.