Glimpses of the Past Part 34

Showing that Mr. Burpee obtained 68 lbs. of pork as the result of his bargain.

David Burpee taught school one winter, receiving 4s. per month for each pupil. The tuition fees were paid in a great variety of ways; in work, in grain, leather, musquash skins, rum, hauling hay and making shoes; he only handled 10s. in cash for his entire winter's work.

In the year 1770 Mr. Burpee kept a diary which, while it contains some facts of interest, serves on the whole to show how narrow and monotonous was the life of the early settlers on the St. John. On Sundays they attended religious services held at the houses most convenient for the purpose and in the winter there was some social visiting. However, we are now to speak of more stirring events.

Many were the trials and tribulations of the dwellers on the St.

John--particularly of those living at the mouth of the river--during the American Revolution. Most of their calamities might have been avoided had an efficient garrison been maintained at Fort Frederick, but the troops were withdrawn from that post in 1768 and sent to Boston in consequence of disturbances there, and for five or six years the care of the fort and barracks was entrusted to James Simonds.

Lord William Campbell reported, about the close of 1771: "Since Fort Frederick at the entrance of St. John's river has been dismantled and the garrison, which formerly consisted of an officers' command, reduced to a corporal and four privates, he had had frequent complaints of the Indians on the river." The presence of a half dozen soldiers was of little utility at any time and of no utility whatever after the Revolution began. It was not until the erection of Fort Howe that adequate steps were taken for the protection of the inhabitants.

The year 1774 was an extremely busy one at St. John. Our old pioneers James Simonds, James White and William Hazen were making strenuous efforts to place settlers upon their lands in the towns.h.i.+p of Conway, while at the same time Mr. Hazen's house was being finished at Portland Point, an aboideau was being built to reclaim the "great marsh," and the business of the fishery, lime-burning and general trade was being vigorously prosecuted. Troublous times were now at hand.

The situation of Hazen, Simonds and White when hostilities arose between the old colonies and the mother country was very embarra.s.sing.

By birth and early a.s.sociation they were New Englanders and most of their old time friends and neighbors were hostile to the crown.

Ma.s.sachusetts was practically the cradle of the Revolution, and the vast majority of its inhabitants were bitterly opposed to the King and his government. But while Simonds, White and Hazen were Ma.s.sachusetts men they now held various official positions under the government of Nova Scotia and had sworn true allegiance to the King. Very likely they would have gladly a.s.sumed a neutral att.i.tude in the approaching contest, but alas for them the force of events left no room for neutrality.

It is clear that at the beginning of the war the people of Ma.s.sachusetts hoped for the cordial support of the settlers on the River St. John. This is probably the reason why the small colony at Portland Point was not molested during the early stages of the war and that William Hazen was able on two occasions to obtain the release of the company's schooner "Polly" after she had been taken by American privateers. But as the war progressed considerate treatment gave place to acts of vandalism, and the sentiments of the settlers at St. John towards their old compatriots of Ma.s.sachusetts became intensely bitter. Their tenants in the towns.h.i.+p of Conway were driven from their homes and obliged to seek refuge up the river, and those living at Portland Point suffered equal hards.h.i.+ps.

When the Loyalists arrived in 1783, it was proposed that the towns.h.i.+p of Conway should be escheated for their benefit. James Simonds protested stoutly against this, representing the expense that had been incurred in the endeavor to settle the towns.h.i.+p and the losses and sufferings of the tenants who were for a long time unprotected against the depredations of the enemy. He adds, "Instead of our being stripped of our rights to make amends for the losses of the Loyalists, who were plundered in New York or elsewhere, we have at least as weighty reasons as they can possibly offer to claim rest.i.tution from Government for the value of all the property taken from us, our distress by imprisonment, etc. They had a numerous British army to protect them, we had to combat the sons of darkness alone. In a word we had much less than they to hope for by unshaken loyalty and incomparably more to fear."

The statement of Mr. Simonds is confirmed by Major Studholme who wrote to Gov'r. Parr, "Messrs. Hazen and Simonds, two of the original proprietors of Conway, have at different times placed a number of settlers on the lands of that Towns.h.i.+p and have used every effort on their parts to comply with the terms of their Grant, but the continual robberies committed by the Rebel boats during the war, to which these settlements have been exposed, obliged a number of their tenants to remove. However, as every exertion was used by them I take the liberty to recommend their claims on that Towns.h.i.+p to your consideration."

During the earlier stages of the Revolution the att.i.tude of the people of Machias on the one hand, and of the inhabitants of the towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland on the other, proved a matter of concern to the dwellers on the River St. John. Machias was settled in 1763 by a colony from Scarborough, one of the oldest towns in Ma.s.sachusetts. During the war it was the asylum of disloyal spirits who fled thither from various parts of Nova Scotia. The towns.h.i.+p of c.u.mberland included a considerable portion of what is now the county of Westmorland. The inhabitants were mostly natives of New England, and many of them warm sympathizers with the revolutionary pasty. Jonathan Eddy was their representative in the Nova Scotia House of a.s.sembly in 1774, and John Allan in 1776. Eddy and Allan, aided by William Howe and Samuel Rogers, succeeded in stirring up an active rebellion in c.u.mberland, which called for prompt action on the part of the Government of Nova Scotia. The leaders fled to Machias and a reward of 200 was offered for the apprehension of Eddy and 100 for each of the others.

The att.i.tude of the Indians was another matter of serious concern to the settlers on the River St. John. Immediately after the Declaration of Independence the American congress authorized Was.h.i.+ngton to call forth and engage the Indians of Nova Scotia, St. John and Pen.o.bscot to take up the hatchet and fight against the English. With strange inconsistency Congress a few days later, in an address to the people of Ireland, denounced the King of England on the ground that "the wild and barbarous savages of the wilderness have been solicited by gifts to take up the hatchet against us, and instigated to deluge our settlements with the blood of defenceless women and children."

The Micmacs seem to have been reluctant to take sides in the contest and in answer to John Allan's solicitations they said, with quiet dignity, "We do not comprehend what all this quarreling is about. How comes it that Old England and New England should quarrel and come to blows? The father and the son to fight is terrible! Old France and Canada did not do so; we cannot think of fighting ourselves till we know who is right and who is wrong."

The style of argument employed to induce the simple minded natives to side with the Americans is seen in the letter addressed to them by the agent of the Congress of Ma.s.sachusetts (May 15, 1775), in which the following statements occur: "The ministry of Great Britain have laid deep plots to take away our liberty and your liberty; they want to get all our money and make us pay it to them when they never earned it; to make you and us their servants and let us have nothing to eat, drink or wear but what they say we shall; and prevent us from having guns and powder to kill our deer and wolves and other game or to send to you to kill your game with so as to get skins and fur to trade with us for what you want. * * * We want to know what you our good brothers want from us of clothing or warlike stores, and we will supply you as fast as we can. We will do all for you we can and fight to save you at any time. * * * The Indians at Stockbridge all join with us and some of their men have enlisted as soldiers and we have given each of them a blanket and a ribbon, and they will be paid when they are from home in the service, and if any of you are willing to enlist we shall do the same for you. * * * Brothers, if you will let Mr. John Preble know what things you want he will take care to inform us and we will do the best for you we can."

In consequence of the inducements of Allan and the other agents, Pierre Tomah and Ambroise St. Aubin, leading chiefs of the Maliseets of the River St. John, went to the trading post the Americans had established at Pen.o.bscot, and signed an agreement to the following effect: "We heartily join with our brethren the Pen.o.bscot Indians in everything that they have or shall agree with our brethren of the colony of Ma.s.sachusetts, and are resolved to stand together and oppose the people of Old England that are endeavoring to take your and our lands and liberties from us. * * * We desire that you will help us to a priest that he may pray with us to G.o.d Almighty, etc., etc." The Indians agreed to bring their furs and skins to Pen.o.bscot and to procure their provisions, goods and ammunition there. Many of them were heavily in debt to Simonds & White, so that the prospect of a new trading post with no old scores to settle appeared to them particularly inviting.

Was.h.i.+ngton honored the Indians with letters accompanied by belts of wampum, after the approved Indian fas.h.i.+on. A delegation from the St.

John river, Pierre Tomah at its head, went soon afterwards to Was.h.i.+ngton's headquarters on the Delaware, where they received a flattering welcome and were sumptuously entertained. On the 24th December, 1776, Was.h.i.+ngton thus addressed them:

"Brothers of the St. John's tribe: It gave me great pleasure to hear by Major Shaw that you keep the chain of Friends.h.i.+p, which I sent you in February last from Cambridge, bright and unbroken. I am glad to hear that you have made a treaty of peace with your brothers and neighbors of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay. My good friend and brother, Gov'r Pierre Tommah, and the warriors that came with him shall be taken good care of, and when they want to return home they and our brothers of Pen.o.bscot shall be furnished with everything necessary for their journey. * * * Never let the King's wicked counsellors turn your hearts against me and your brethren of this country, but bear in mind what I told you last February and what I tell you now."

Was.h.i.+ngton's overtures were not without effect. This is evident from the fact that the Maugerville people in May, 1776, reported that Gen.

Was.h.i.+ngton's letter had set the Indians on fire, and they were plundering all people they thought to be Tories, and that perhaps when the supply of Tories was exhausted others might share the name fate.

"We think it necessary," they added, "that some person of consequence be sent among them." The Indians had always been allies of the French and had never fully accepted the change of owners.h.i.+p on the River St.

John. They were disposed to view the cause of the Americans with favor, more particularly when the French became their allies.

John Allan was by far the most active and energetic agent of Congress in dealing with the Indians. He was born in Edinburgh and when four years of age accompanied his parents to Halifax when that city was founded by Cornwallis. At the commencement of the Revolution he lived near Fort c.u.mberland, on the New Brunswick side of the isthmus of Chignecto and carried on an extensive Indian trade visiting all the villages as far west as the Pen.o.bscot river. His estimate of the Indians is not particularly flattering. He says: "The Indians are generally actuated according to the importance or influence any one has who lives among them. They are credulous to a degree, will listen to every report, and generally believe it and think everything true that is told them."

We shall presently see that Allan was able to make good use of his knowledge of the weaknesses of Indian nature. He was appointed superintendent of the Eastern Indians in 1777 by the Ma.s.sachusetts Congress, with the military rank of Colonel. He was the most persevering and troublesome antagonist the British had in Eastern New England. Had it not been for his exertions it is probable the Americans would have lost their outpost at Machias, and it is possible that the English would then have held the country as far west as the River Kennebeck.

CHAPTER XXIV.

AFFAIRS ON THE ST. JOHN DURING THE REVOLUTION.

In the year 1775 armed vessels were fitted out in several of the ports of New England to prey on the commerce of Nova Scotia. Many of these carried no proper commissions and were manned by hands of brutal marauders whose conduct was so outrageous that even so warm a partizan as Col. John Allan sent a remonstrance to congress regarding their behaviour: "Their horrid crimes," he says, "are too notorious to pa.s.s unnoticed," and after particularizing some of their enormities he declares "such proceedings will occasion more Torys than a hundred such expeditions will make good."

The people of Machias were particularly fond of plundering their neighbors, and that place was termed a "nest of pirates and rebels" by General Eyre Ma.s.sey, the commandant at Halifax.

Early in the summer of 1775 it was rumored that Stephen Smith of Machias, one of the delegates to the Ma.s.sachusetts congress, had orders to seize Fort Frederick, and the Governor of Nova Scotia recommended the establishment of a garrison there to prevent such an attempt. But the military authorities were too dilatory and in the month of August a party from Machias, led by Smith, entered St. John harbor in a sloop, burned Fort Frederick and the barracks and took four men who were in the fort prisoners. The party also captured a brig of 120 tons laden with oxen, sheep and swine, intended for the British troops at Boston. This was the first hostile act committed in Nova Scotia and it produced almost as great a sensation at Halifax as at St. John. The event is thus described by our first local historian, Peter Fisher, in his Sketches of New Brunswick:--

"A brig was sent from Boston to procure fresh provisions for the British army, then in that town, from the settlements of the river Saint John. The same vessel was laden with stock, poultry, and sundry other articles mostly brought from Maugerville in small vessels and gondolas, all of which had been put on board within about fifteen days after the brig had arrived. While she was waiting for a fair wind and clear weather an armed sloop of four guns and full of men from Machias came into the harbor, took possession of the brig, and two days after carried her off to Machias; the first night after their arrival the enemy made the small party in the Fort prisoners, plundered them of everything in it, and set fire to all the Barracks, but at that time they did not molest any of the inhabitants on the opposite side of the river."

The burning of Fort Frederick seems to have been made known at Halifax by James Simonds and Daniel Leavitt, who went to Windsor in a whale boat to solicit to protection of government. Their report caused a mild sensation on the part of the military authorities, and they began to take measures for the defence of the province, although it was more than two years before any adequate protection was afforded the settlers at St. John. Being apprehensive that the company's effects in the store at Portland Point might be carried off by marauders, Mr.

Simonds a few weeks afterwards carried a portion of the goods to Windsor in the schooner "Polly" and disposed of them as well as he could.

The next year was a decidedly uncomfortable one for the people living at Portland Point. In the month of May two privateers entered the harbor, remaining more than a week. Their boats proceeded up the river as far as Maugerville and informed the people that the province would soon be invaded from the westward, that privateers were thick on the coasts and would stop all manner of commerce unless the settlers joined them. They threatened, moreover, that should the Americans be put to the trouble and expense of conquering the country all who sided with the mother country must expect to lose their property and lands.

About this time some Indians arrived with letters from General Was.h.i.+ngton, and it was believed that the whole tribe was about entering into an alliance with the Americans, as they showed a decided predilection in their favor and even threatened to kill the white inhabitants unless they would join the "Boston men." There can be little doubt that the majority of the people on the River St. John were at this time not indisposed to side with the Revolutionary party.

A public meeting was held on the 14th of May, 1776, at the meeting house in Maugerville, at which a number of highly disloyal resolutions were unanimously adopted. One of the leading spirits at this meeting was the Rev. Seth n.o.ble, who had already written to Gen'l. Was.h.i.+ngton to represent the importance of obtaining control of western Nova Scotia, including the River St. John. Jacob Barker, Esq'r., was chosen chairman and a committee, consisting of Jacob Barker, Israel Perley, Phineas Nevers, Daniel Palmer, Moses Pickard, Edward Coy, Thomas Hartt, Israel Kinny, Asa Kimble, Asa Perley, Oliver Perley and Hugh Quinton, was appointed to prepare the resolutions which were subsequently adopted by the meeting. One of the resolutions reads:--

"Resolved, That it is our minds and desire to submit ourselves to the government of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay and that we are ready with our lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however G.o.d in his providence may order it."

The resolutions adopted were circulated among all the settlers on the river and signed by 125 persons, most of them heads of families. The committee claimed that only twelve or thirteen persons refused to sign, of whom the majority lived at the river's mouth. If this statement be correct, the resolutions certainly could not have been submitted to all the inhabitants, for there is evidence to show that at least thirty families outside of the towns.h.i.+p of Maugerville were steadfastly and consistently loyal to the government under which they lived. The names of these people are as deserving of honor as the names of the Loyalists, who came to the province from the old colonies in 1783. In the towns.h.i.+p of Maugerville the sentiment of the people was almost unanimous in favor of the Revolution and we have no data to determine who were loyalists--if any. But at St. Anns we have Benjamin Atherton and Philip Weade; in the towns.h.i.+p of Burton, John Larley, Joseph Howland, and Thomas Jones; in Gagetown Zebulon Estey, Henry West, John Crabtree, John Hendrick, Peter Carr and Lewis Mitch.e.l.l; on the Kennebecasis Benjamin Darling; in the towns.h.i.+p of Conway, Samuel Peabody, Jonathan Leavitt, Thomas Jenkins, John Bradley, Gervas Say, James Woodman, Peter Smith, and Christopher Cross; at Portland Point, James Simonds, James White, William Hazen, John Hazen, William G.o.dsoe, Lemuel Cleveland, Robert Cram, John Nason, Moses Greenough, Christopher Blake and most of the men in the employ of Hazen, Simonds & White.

A number of Acadians too were loyal to the government of Nova Scotia and should be mentioned in this connection. Louis Mercure and his brother Michel Mercure rendered good service to the Governor of Nova Scotia in carrying dispatches to and from Quebec during the war period. Of the Martin family, Jean, Simon, Joseph, Francois and Amant were warmly commended by Major Studholme for their fidelity and active exertions on various occasions. Members of the Cyr family also rendered important services as guides or pilots, Oliver, Jean Baptiste and Pierre Cyr being employed in that capacity by Major Studholme and Lieut. Governor Michael Francklin.

At this distance of time it is difficult to determine the number of people on the river who were disposed to be actively disloyal. That they had many inducements to cast their fortunes with their friends in Ma.s.sachusetts is undeniable. At Maugerville the powerful influence of the pastor of the church, Rev. Seth n.o.ble, and of the leading elders and church members was exerted in behalf of the American congress.

Jacob Barker, who presided at the meeting held on the 14th May, was a justice of the peace and ruling elder of the church. Israel Perley and Phineas Nevers were justices of the peace and had represented the county of Sunbury in the Nova Scotia legislature. Daniel Palmer, Edward Coy, Israel Kinney and Asa Perley were ruling elders of the church. Moses Pickard, Thomas Hartt and Hugh Quinton were leading church members. The gentlemen named, with Asa Kimball and Oliver Perley, were appointed a committee "to make immediate application to the Congress or General a.s.sembly of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay for relief under the present distressed circ.u.mstances."

At the Maugerville meeting it was unanimously agreed that the committee, whose names have just been mentioned, should have charge of all matters civil and military until further regulations should be made, and that all who signed the resolutions should have no dealings with any person for the future who should refuse to sign them. The tone of several of the resolutions was that of open defiance to the const.i.tuted authority of Nova Scotia, the signers pledging themselves to support and defend the actions of their committee at the expense, if necessary, of their lives and fortunes. One of the resolutions reads:

"Resolved that we will immediately put ourselves in the best posture of defence in our power; that to this end we will prevent all unnecessary use of gunpowder or other ammunition in our custody."

Asa Perley and Asa Kimball, two of the committee, were sent to Boston to interview the Ma.s.sachusetts congress on behalf of the people living on the river. The commissary general there was directed to deliver them one barrel of gunpowder, 350 flints and 250 weight of lead from the colony's stores; they were also allowed to purchase 40 stand of small arms.

So far all seemed favorable to the promoters of rebellion, but bitter humiliation was in store, and within a year the vast majority of those who had pledged themselves to the people of Ma.s.sachusetts as "ready with their lives and fortunes to share with them the event of the present struggle for liberty, however G.o.d in His providence may order it," were compelled to take the oath of allegiance to His Majesty King George the Third for the defence of the province of Nova Scotia against all his enemies.

An impartial review of the situation on the St. John at this stage of the American Revolution would seem to show that the sympathies of a large majority of the settlers were with the revolutionary party, at the same time many of the people were much less enthusiastic than their leaders and if left to themselves would probably have hesitated to sign the resolutions framed by their committee. The presence of the privateersmen, who came up the river at the time the meeting at Maugerville was held, was an incentive to many to sign the resolutions and the att.i.tude of the Indians was a further inducement to stand in with the people of Ma.s.sachusetts, who had lately entered into an alliance with the savages.

During the autumn of this year (1776) the Bay of Fundy was so infested with pirates and picaroons that the war vessels Vulture, Hope and Albany were ordered around from Halifax. They were not entirely successful in their endeavor to furnish protection, for the privateers frequently managed to steal past the large s.h.i.+ps in the night and in fogs and continued to pillage the defenceless inhabitants.

Another hostile act was now undertaken by the people of Machias of a more ambitious kind than the destruction of Fort Frederick. This was nothing less than an attempt to capture Fort c.u.mberland, where Lieut.

Col. Joseph Goreham was in command with a detachment of the Royal Fencible Americans. This attempt was in the end a miserable fiasco, but it occasioned much alarm at the time and was the cause of some distress to the loyal inhabitants of that region.

The leader of the expedition against Fort c.u.mberland was Jonathan Eddy, who had lately been commissioned a lieutenant colonel by the Ma.s.sachusetts congress. He was a native of Norton (Ma.s.s.), and had settled in c.u.mberland about 1763, but early in the Revolution returned to Ma.s.sachusetts. About the time of the Declaration of Independence, in July, 1776, Eddy set out from Boston in company with Jonathan Rowe (lately a resident at St. John) and proceeded to Machias. He left that place about the middle of August in a schooner with only 28 men as a nucleus of his proposed army. At Pa.s.samaquoddy a few people joined him. The party did not meet with much encouragement on their arrival at St. John, although Hazen, Simonds and White from motives of prudence refrained from any hostile demonstration. Proceeding up the river to Maugerville Eddy met with greater encouragement. "I found the people," he writes, "to be almost universally hearty in our cause; they joined us with one captain, one lieutenant and twenty-five men, as also sixteen Indians." The captain of the St. John river contingent was probably Hugh Quinton[101] who has as his lieutenant one Jewett of Maugerville. Others of the party were Daniel Leavitt, William McKeen, Elijah Estabrooks, Edward Burpee, Nathan Smith, John Pickard, Edmund Price, Amasa Coy, John Mitch.e.l.l, Richard Parsons, Benjamin b.o.o.by and John Whitney. The rest of the party lived in Maugerville but their names are not known.

[101] Hugh Quinton is called Captain Quinton by the rebel Col. John Allan in his diary, printed in Kidder's "Military Operations in Eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the Revolution." The report of Major Studholme's exploration party in 1783 states that "Quinton was one of the c.u.mberland party, but since hath taken the Oath of Allegiance to his Majesty and behaved in a loyal manner; turned out sundry times and fought the rebel parties."

On his arrival at c.u.mberland Jonathan Eddy was joined by many of the settlers there who, like himself, were originally from New England.

His whole force probably did not exceed 200 men, badly equipped and without artillery. The Indians of the St. John were under the leaders.h.i.+p of Ambroise St. Aubin, one of their chiefs, and Eddy says they "beheaved most gallantly."[102] However, the expedition failed to achieve anything of importance. The rebels plundered some of the loyal inhabitants, seized one or two small provision sloops and captured several prisoners, including the Rev. John Eagleson, acting chaplain of the garrison. All attempts to take the fort were futile, and the arrival of Major Batt and Captain Studholme with reinforcement from Windsor rendered Eddy's situation exceedingly precarious. On the 28th November his forces were utterly routed by Major Batt and hastily retired to the River St. John. They suffered great hards.h.i.+ps on the way and arrived at that place in a very miserable condition. Unwelcome as they had proved to the people of Portland Point on the occasion of their advance they were still more unwelcome visitors on their return.