near the place where J. L. Black’s store now stands. The new building served its purpose for twenty-eight years. Then another was built at Crane’s Corner, on the same site as the present church.
The following extracts from the Sackville Circuit Book of 1801-1811 may prove interesting:
“QUARTERLY MEETING.
“POINT DE BUTE, August 28th, 1802.
“(1) _Q_. Who is the general steward for the circuit? _A_. William Trueman. Elected.
“(2) _Q_. Who is steward for Sackville? _A_. John Fawcett. Elected. “(3) _Q_. Who is steward for Dorchester? _A_. John Weldon. Elected. “(4) _Q_. Who is steward for Amherst and the Rivers? _A_. Thomas Roach. Elected.
“(5) _Q_. How shall Mr. Bennett’s expenses to New York be paid? _A_. Let it be approved by the next Conference. “(6) _Q_. When and where shall the next quarterly meeting be held? _A_. 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, Mass., left in a body and settled in Sackville, bringing their pastor with them. They numbered thirteen members. Almost all of them returned to Massachusetts 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 worship. The site chosen was at the Four Corners. The church which replaced this one in 1830 was called Beulah.
The first Baptist association 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 Association, in Sackville, as a member of the Lincoln Association, 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 Association in Sackville they sent two messengers, Thos. S. Black and Wm. Freeman, reporting a membership 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 assisted 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 Cumberland township 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 township 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 Westcock 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, Westcock, were in the same parish, they were under the charge of one rector.
CHAPTER VI
THE TRUEMANS.
WILLIAM TRUEMAN was born in Yorkshire, England, in the year 1720, and emigrated to America with his family in the year 1775. They were probably passengers in the ship JENNIE, Captain Foster, which came to Halifax that spring with a number of emigrants from Yorkshire. 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 township 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 Township, is a long moorland township 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 townships 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 Cumberland, 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 Yorkshire 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 township, 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 Yorkshire 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 relationship.
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 Dorsetshire, 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 Cumberland 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 township of Cumberland 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 document 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 documents 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 Cumberland township, 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.
There was another Thomas Scurr in the country at this time, probably a son of Thomas Scurr, sen., who married Elizabeth Cornforth, of Sackville, in August, 1787. Mrs. Scurr lived only a week after giving birth to a son. The boy was called Benjamin, and was taken care of by his aunt, Mrs. Jonathan Burnham. Thomas Scurr, after the death of his wife, left Sackville with the intention of going to the West Indies, and was never heard from after. It was supposed he was lost at sea. The Scurrs in Sackville are descendants of the boy Benjamin.
William Trueman, sen., was above the average height, and rather stout, with head, shoulders and face that indicated strong character. In personal appearance his grandson Robert much resembled him. He was fifty-five years of age when he came to Nova Scotia. His wife was eight years his senior. She, too, was tall, with a countenance showing a great deal of reserve power.
William, the son, was a small man, with round features and dark hair. His son John was said to resemble him closely. He must have retained his youthful appearance well into mature life, for after he had been in this country some years he went to Fort Lawrence to poll his vote and was challenged for age by the opposing candidate. His youthful appearance had led to the belief that he had not arrived at the age to entitle him to exercise the franchise. His left arm was partially withered, or had not grown to its full size, from an injury received in childhood through the carelessness of a nurse. The family brought with them from England some furniture. There is still the old arm-chair at Prospect, and the old clock keeps good time for the fifth generation.
There is no record of the impression the new country made upon the family, but judging from a letter received by William Trueman, sen., the year after his arrival, and copied below, it must have been favorable:
“SNILLSWORTH, February 9th, 1776.
“DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER,–
“These are with our love to you and to let you know that we are in a tolerable state of health at present.
“We have many of us been poorly, but are much better. We received a letter from you last November, which gave a great deal of satisfaction of mind on your account, because we had been informed that you had nowhere to settle in, but as you have given us a particular account concerning your situation and how you were settled and that you liked Nova Scotia and was all in good health of body it was much to our satisfaction, and I hope you will let us hear more particularly from you how your chattle and corn answers thee, and how and what product your ground doth bring forth, and what sort of grains your ground answers best for, and what chattle you keep, and what you can make of your chattle and how much milk your cows give and what is the most profitable things you have.
“Now, dear brother, let me know the truth and nothing but the truth when you write.
“I desire that you would let me hear from you at any opportunity whenever it suits your convenience for I think we shall never have the opportunity to see each other’s face any more here below, but I desire to hear from thee and I hope thee will do the same by me as long as our lives shall be on this side eternity.
“Farewell, I conclude with my love. Sarah Bently and John Bakers are in good health and send love to you all.”
The following extract from another letter received at Prospect about the same time, will be interesting to some:
“SNILLSWORTH, Feb. 19th, 1776.
“DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER AND NEVY,– “These are salutations of love to you all, expecting they may find you in good health as they leave us at present. “We received your letter November last and was glad to hear from you, but more especially that you were all in good health of body and that you like ‘Nove’ (Nova Scotia) very well because we have had many slight accounts that you were in a very poor situation, but heard nothing to our satisfaction, and that you would have returned back to Old England but had nothing to pay your passage with, which gave us both me and my wife a great deal of distraction of mind. So we consulted with sister Sarah Bently and more of our friends that we would raise money to pay your passage to Old England, but dear brother and sister, as we have had a few lines from your own hand that you like the country well, so it has put and end to that consultation.”
It would be difficult to answer at once some of the questions asked in these letters. They had only arrived in America the previous summer, and unless thy purchased cows on their arrival, they could not at this date have had much experience in dairying, and it would be the same with grain. There is a tradition that the stock, ten cows and a number of other cattle, were purchased with the Scurr farm, but this farm was not bought until some years after. The Truemans probably followed the course taken by many of the first settlers at that time, which was to lease a farm for a term of years, in that way gaining experience in the country before finally purchasing land themselves. After the family had been two years in the country, William Trueman, jun., married Elizabeth Keillor, a daughter of Thomas Keillor, of Cumberland Point, or No. 1, now called Fowler’s Hill. The Keillors came from Skelton, Yorkshire, to Nova Scotia in 1774, and settled on the farm at present occupied by a great-great-grandson, Charles Fowler.
It was near the date of this marriage that the Eddy rebels were terrorizing the settlers around Fort Cumberland, and shortly after the event Mr. and Mrs. Trueman went to Mr. Keillor’s to spend the Sabbath. During the day the house was surrounded by the rebels, and the inmates kept prisoners until the next day, when the rebels dispersed, and the young couple made their way home as quickly as possible, to relieve the anxiety at Prospect.
The Keillors and Truemans had been friends in England, and were related in some degree. Elizabeth Keillor was but nineteen when she consented to take charge of a home of her own, and, as subsequent years proved, well did she discharge the duties that devolved upon her in that relationship. Though below medium size, she had a nervous force and will-power that enabled her to accomplish more than many of stronger build. It is told of her that on a Sabbath, when the family were all at church, she noticed something wrong with the cattle, and on going to see what caused the trouble, she found a cow so badly injured by some of the larger animals, that to make the carcass of any value it would have to be slaughtered at once. Mrs. Trueman went to the house, got the butcher-knife, and bled the cow to death.
Nervous force, like any other force in man or woman, has its limit, and if used too fast it will not be there when wanted in old age. Mrs. Trueman did not live to be very old, and her last years were full of suffering. Overtaxed nature had given way, and the penalty had to be paid.
The family never separated, but all moved into the house on the Scurr farm, and began in earnest to face the battle of life in the New World.
Halifax was at that time the market for butter and beef, so after the wants of the settlers and the commissariat at Fort Cumberland had been supplied, such produce as could be sent by schooners to Halifax was forwarded in that way, and the cattle, for beef, were driven overland– a long and tedious journey.
Mills for sawing lumber or making flour were scarce. The stones are yet to be seen in Sackville with which grain was ground by hand-power.
The Truemans soon began to experiment in mill building. Their first venture was a mill driven by horse-power. A windmill followed, and was located on the high ground at the corner where the Point de Bute road turns at right angles, leading to Jolicure. This must have been an ideal spot for such a structure. There is no record of how long this mill stood, but it could not have been long.
There was a good stream on the farm for a water-mill, but it was not utilized for this purpose for some years, probably for the want of means. Their first work in this line was the building of a small mill on the brook that formed the ravine at the south-west side of the farm. A dam was thrown across the stream at the head of the ravine, and the water carried in a flume some distance farther down the brook; the great fall of water enabling them to use a large over-shot water-wheel. It is only quite recently that the main shaft of the wheel has disappeared.
A long dam was built across the stream that leads to what is now called the Upper Mill, for the purpose of turning the water to the new mill, and also forming a reserve pond. This dam can be plainly seen at the present time, although covered with quite a growth of timber. The mill in the ravine did not stand long either, and the next move was to dam the water on the main brook, now called the Trueman Mill Stream, and put up a large and substantial grist-mill, that proved a great convenience to the whole country for many years.
Beside this large expenditure in mills, most of which was made in the lifetime of the senior William, there was a large outlay made for dyking and aboideau building. Piece by piece the marsh was being reclaimed from the tide and made to yield its wealth of hay and pasture for the support of flocks and herds.
I find a record showing there were seventeen cows on the farm in 1790, and for the benefit of some of the members of the younger generation who live on farms, here are their names: Cerloo, Red-heifer, Spotty, Debro, Beauty, Madge, Lucy, Daisy, White-face, Mousie, Dun, Rose, Lady Cherry, Black-eye, Spunk and Roan.
The following letter, received at Prospect in 1789, tells of a more cheerful spirit in business in England, but shows that they had floods and troubles of that kind then as now:
“HELM HOUSE BILSDALE, Augt. ye 15th, 1789. “DEAR COUSINS,–
“I received two letters from you in the course of the last year, and am exceeding glad to hear from you and that you do well and are well, and tho I have long delayed writing yet it is not want of respect, but it was long before I could have any certain inteligence from Mr. Swinburn, So I now take the oppertunity to let you know how I and my Sisters are situate. I married Helling the daughter of Richard Barr, by whom I have had 3 boys and 2 girls all liveing and healthfull. Aylsy is married to John the son of James Boyes and lives at Woolhousecroft, has no children. Sally is married to John Cossins and lives at Hawnby where Robt. Barker lived. She has 3 children the two last were twins they were born about Candlemas last and one of them is a very weakly child, my mother is married to old Rich’d Barr my wife’s father and lives at Huntington nigh York. I think we most of us live pretty well. Mr. —– has advanced his land a great deal but since the peace the times are pretty good we have this summer a very plentiful crop and we have a fine season for Reaping the same, but in the beginning of haytime we had an excessive flood as almost ever was known so that much hay was swept away and much more sanded. Many bridges were washed down and in some places much chattle drowned. My cousin John Garbut is married to James Boyes’ widow and lives at Helm house. So I shall conclude with my and my wife’s duty to my unkle and aunt and our kind love to you and your wife and children and subscribe ourselves your very affectionate cousins,
“JOHN AND HELLING TRUEMAN.”
There was no break in the family by death until 1797. That year William Trueman, sen., died, aged seventy-seven years, twenty-two of which he had spent in America. The Mauger farm, his first purchase, was left to Harmon, his eldest grandson. The family of his son William had grown by this time to six sons and two daughters, and success financially, in some measure at least, had been achieved.
With milling, dyking and general farming, there was work at Prospect to keep all the members of the family busy, besides a large force of hired help.
It was decided this year (1797) to build a new house and barn, and the site fixed upon was about one hundred yards south of the Scurr house, where they had lived since the place came into their possession. The barn was put up the next year, and measured eighty feet long by thirty- three wide, with thirteen foot posts. A part of this barn is still used for a stable. In 1799 the house was built, the main portion being made of brick burned on the marsh near by. It fronted due south, and was twenty-seven feet by thirty-seven feet, and two stories high, with a stone kitchen on the west side. The cost of building was eight hundred pounds. This was before the days of stoves, there being six fire-places in the main house and large one in the kitchen.
In 1839 the stone kitchen was pulled down and one of wood built on the north side. In 1879 an addition was made, and now (October 2nd, 1900), it is as comfortable a dwelling as it has ever been. Five generations have lived in it. Three generations have been born and grown to manhood and womanhood within its four walls, and they have never known the death of a child, nor, with but one exception, the death of a young person.
On the 29th January, 1800, Mrs. Trueman, sen., died in the eighty- eighth year of her age. Although sixty-two years old when she came to America, she lived to see the birth of nine grandchildren.
In 1801, Thompson, the youngest son, was born. The family now numbered seven sons and three daughters. This year William Black, known in Methodist history as Bishop Black, was one of the family at Prospect from November 17th, 1801, to April 13th, 1802. One week of this time was spent in Dorchester, for which a rebate was made in the board bill. The bill was made out at the rate of five shillings per week.
In 1802, Mr. Trueman began to keep what he calls “a memorandum of events.” The records chiefly refer to home work, the weather and neighborhood happenings. As a record of the weather, before thermometers and barometers were in general use, it must be as perfect as possible. As a record of farm work it is quite minute, and gives the reader an almost exact knowledge of what was done on the farm each week of the twenty years.
To those who live in the age of steam and electricity, when it is possible to be informed at night of the doings of the day on the other side of the planet, it is hard to realize how little interest was taken a century ago in anything outside of the community in which one lived. This accounts in part, no doubt, for the scant references in this journal to public events. Only very rarely is an election mentioned, even in the writer’s own county. Only once is there reference to war, although the war of 1812 and the battle of Waterloo took place during the years of the record, and must have had a marked effect upon the trade of the Provinces at that time.
Mr. Trueman made several trips to Halifax each year, and met, while there, many of the leading Methodist men of the city. The Blacks and the Bells were his friends. His house was the home of the ministers of his church during all his life, and many of the public men who visited Cumberland were his guests at different times.
The first entry in the journal is dated May 5th, 1802, and reads: “wind N.W.; cold stormy day. Planted some apple trees; frost not out of the ground.
“May 6th–Wind N.W.; ground covered with snow two inches thick; disagreeable.
“May 8th–Wind N.W.; cold, backward weather. Mr. Marsdon preached his farewell sermon at the Stone Church.”
“July 5th–This day was appointed by the Government as a day of thanksgiving for the blessings of peace. Mr. Bennet preached at Amherst Court House, from Psalm 12, 1st verse, to a crowded and very attentive audience.
“July 12th–Started for Halifax with thirty oxen. Returned on the 22nd; had a very good time.”
(Ten days was the usual time taken on these trips. The drovers would start some hours, or perhaps a day, in advance of Mr. Trueman. He would go on horse-back, in knee breeches, and with the old fashioned saddle- bags.)
“Sept. 28th–Started to Halifax with twenty-four cattle.
“Oct. 2nd–Arrived at Halifax Sunday night. Wm.” (his son) “taken sick with measles. Monday, and Tuesday, very sick. Wednesday, some better. Thursday, walked the streets. Friday, started for home.
“Oct. 13th–High winds; very high tides; marshes much flooded.
“Sept. 14th, 1803–Stephen Millage died of shock of palsy. Mr. Oliphant, Methodist minister, arrived this month at our house.
“Nov. 12th, 1803–Election at Dorchester. Mr. Knapp goes in without opposition.”
These extracts from the journal will show the character of the record.
In March, 1804, there was a three days’ snowstorm–“fell nigh two feet.” An attempt was made this year to aboideau the Aulac River, where it runs through the farm now owned by R. T. McLeod.
The Aulac at that time was one of the largest of the rivers emptying into the Cumberland Basin. It was a great undertaking to dam its waters with an aboideau, and to make matters worse, the place chosen proved to have a quicksand bottom, which made it almost impossible to build a firm foundation. For nearly four years they worked at this aboideau, and finally had to abandon it. Dated Dec. 27th, 1808, there is this entry in the journal: “Working at the aboideau. Storming in the morning. Snow six inches deep.
“Dec. 28th–Working at byto; very fine day. The hole nigh filled up.”
On March 20th, he writes: “Concluded to give up the Byto.” There is a reckless disregard of rules in spelling the word “aboideau,” but doubtless the pronunciation was as varied then as now. Being obliged to let this work go must have been a great disappointment and a great loss as well. It was not till 1829, more than twenty years after, that the aboideau, now known as the “Trueman Byto,” was built.
A night’s experience during the building of the first aboideau was long remembered by the family at Prospect. The following is the only reference made to it in the journal: “June 7th, 1804–The sluice went adrift; was up to Nappan.” On the 9th: “Got back as far as Cumberland; wind favorable in coming back.”
The sluice referred to is a large wooden box or waterway, which is placed near the centre of the aboideau and as near as possible in the bed of the river. The great height of the tides, and the rapid current that runs up and down the stream twice in twenty-four hours, make it a most difficult operation to get one of these sluices bedded. The sluice would be about fifty feet long, fifteen feet wide, and five or six feet deep.
The men were hard at work after the sluice had been got into its place, trying to make it secure with the weight of mud, but the tide coming too quick for them lifted it out of its bed. Four of the Trueman boys sprang on the sluice as it floated down the river, in the hope of saving it in some way. It proved, however, to be a most unmanageable craft, and they could do little to stay their course down the river, and in spite of every effort were carried out into the Basin. Night came on and their only chance of safety was, if possible, to stick to the plank box in the hope that the currents might carry them to some point where they could get safely to shore. Next day their unwieldy craft grounded near Nappan, and they at once landed and were hospitably entertained at a farm-house near by. After getting supplies and sending word to Prospect of their safety, they again boarded their strange vessel and succeeded that day in getting back to the mouth of the river, and finally back to their starting point.
Mrs. Trueman never wholly recovered from the nervous shock of that night. There was little hope in the minds of any that the men would ever get safely to land.
Thirty years had passed since the family had left England. The letter given below shows how warm an interest the friends there still had in them:
“DEAR COUSIN,–We received yours dated Jan. 15, but not till late in September, 1804, and we are glad to hear that you and your family are all in good health and enjoying prosperity in your affairs of life. We had heard by your last letter of the death of your mother. My kind husband died something more than six years since. Your Aunt Sarah Bently died some time before my husband. Your Aunt Mary Flintoft is yet alive and enjoys as good health as can be expected, her age considered. Your Aunt Ann Trueman is yet alive and well as can be expected. Your Cousin Harmon married and is doing very well. He lives at Kelshaw, in the west of Yorkshire, and has a large family and keeps a public house. Alice is married and lives at Woodhouse Croft and has only one son. Ann and Sarah both live at Hornby and enjoy good health. I and my eight children live yet at the old habitation, namely at Helmhouse, and enjoy a sufficiency of the necessaries of life. Jane Chapman and Ann are both alive and enjoy as good health as most people at almost 80 years of age, and desire their kind love to you and your wife. James Hewgill and wife do the same. They never had any children. The last summer’s crop of corn was poorly laden, so that wheat is now from ten to fifteen shillings per bushel, and is like to be more, as war being carried on makes taxes very high; but still, thanks to a kind Providence, industrious people may yet live above want. And soon shall all worldly calamities be over, and then if we are prepared for death we shall know woes and calamities no more. Pray write again when opportunity serves. “I remain your very loving cousin,
“ELINOR TRUEMAN.
“Helmhouse, Billsdale.
“March 7th, 1805.”
The first marriage in the family at Prospect was in July, 1805. The entry in the journal is: “Thomas and Mary were married by Rev. Mr. Perkins.” Mr. Perkins was a minister of the Episcopal Church.
In 1806 I find this entry: “Mr. Bamford preached in the Stone Church, and Mr. Perkins administered the sacrament.” This must have been before the Methodist minister was allowed to administer the sacrament.
Mr. Trueman was evidently mistaken in the name of Thomas’s wife. He calls her Mary. Her name was Policene Gore; but as she was always called Polly, the mistake no doubt occurred in that way.
From a letter received from Rev. Wm. Black at this time, the following extract is taken:
“I give you joy on the marriage of your son Thomas, and as I hear John is on the point of being married, too, I also wish you the same blessing on him. It would afford me much joy to hear that all your children were made acquainted with the saving benefits of religion. For parents to see their children well settled in this world and seeking the world to come must, I apprehend, be an unspeakable satisfaction. Oh, let us pray more and advise them to turn to the Lord with all their hearts.
“Please to remember me kindly to all the family. I do feel a sincere regard for you all and wish to meet you in the Land of God. “Farewell,
“From your unworthy friend,
“WM. BLACK.”
Policene Gore’s mother had a more than ordinarily eventful life. Her grandson Edward writes:
“My grandmother was born in the United States, then the New England colonies. Her first husband was Captain Ward; their home was near the garrison on Grattan Heights. Captain Ward arrived home from sea with his vessel the day before Arnold made his attack on the garrison, and, joining in the defence, was fatally shot. Mrs. Ward’s next husband was my grandfather Gore, who was also a sea-captain. Some years after they were married Captain Gore took his wife to Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia, where they had friends, and her husband returned with his vessel to make another voyage, but was never heard from after. It was supposed the vessel was lost with all on board.”
After living some years in widowhood, Mrs. Gore married a Mr. Foster, a school-teacher. They lived for a time in a house on the school lands in Jolicure. The schoolmaster did not live long to enjoy his married life. His successor was a Mr. Trites, of Salisbury. He only lived a few months after marriage. Mrs. Trites’ fifth and last husband was a Mr. Siddall, of Westmoreland Point. After his death Mrs. Siddall lived with her daughter, Mrs. Trueman, where, in the words of her grandson, “she lived eighteen years, a happy old woman and a blessing in the family.” She was in her eighty-fourth year at the time of her death.
Mrs. Siddall’s house was the only one in the village not burned during the battle of Grattan’s Heights. It is still kept in repair, and called the Gore House. Harmon, a grandson, visited the Heights a few years ago, and was present at the one-hundredth anniversary of the battle. Recently a letter came into the possession of Edward Trueman, written by his great-grandmother to his grandmother. Among other things, she writes: “I hear that you are married again, and that Policene is also married. I have not heard either of yours husbands’ names; do write, and let me know them.”
Policene Gore was born in 1788, and Thomas Trueman in 1786, which would make them seventeen and nineteen years old when the marriage knot was tied–a young couple to start out in life.
John married Nancy Palmer, September 12th, 1805, William married Jane Ripley, January 22nd, 1806, and Harmon, the first-born, married Cynthia Bent, June 8th, 1807. The four eldest sons were married within the year and a half, and on April 14th, 1808, Sallie, the eldest daughter, entered the matrimonial haven. This was thinning out the old home pretty fast. The sons, however, all settled near Prospect, and were several years getting finally located in their own homes. Harmon took the Mauger farm left him by his grandfather; Thomas, the Patten farm, joining the glebe. John settled at Mount Whatley; Willie took the mill property and farm now in possession of his grandsons, Amos and Johnston Trueman.
The drain on the home place to start for themselves so many of the family, and in so short a time, must have been considerable. Harmon had a house, and barn to build. Several entries in the journal refer to his getting out timber. On July 16th, 1806, Harmon raised his house. This house, yet one of the most comfortable in the place, is at present the property of A. C. Carter. Mrs. Carter is a granddaughter of Harmon.
April 22nd, 1806, I find this entry: “Robert Dickey and Nellie Chapman married. Started to frame the new mill.”
“May 3rd–Saw mill and barn raised.”
No mention is made of building a house for Willie, so probably there was one on the place. John and his wife lived for a time in the Scurr house, and for a time with Willie, before finally settling at Mount Whatley. Sallie married Gilbert Lawrence, of Westmoreland. It is said Sallie had an admirer who lived in Halifax, and occasionally visited Cumberland, and who in later years became a prominent official in the executive of that city.
In the early days and admirer a hundred miles distant was at a great disadvantage, and the “Fooler lad,” as Sallie’s mother called young Lawrence, won the prize.
Amos Fowler, of Westmoreland, or Fowler’s Hill, married Miss Keillor, a sister of Mrs. Trueman. He was a Loyalist, and after living in this country some years, he visited the old home in New England, and on his return to New Brunswick brought with him his nephew, Gilbert Lawrence. After his marriage Gilbert settled at Amherst Point, and from there moved to Maccan, now called Southampton, where he was a very successful farmer for many years. He left the Maccan farm to a son a few years before his death, and bought a farm in Nappan. Here he spent the last years of his life, honored and respected for his sterling character.
CHAPTER VII
EXTRACTS FROM JOURNAL AND LETTERS.
Some extracts from the journal as a beginning to this chapter will, I hope, be interesting to some of the descendants:
“Aug. 2nd, 1802–Richard Lowerison’s barn burned. “Aug. 7th–Mr. Milledge preached at church. Got upland hay all up. Have 60 tons good hay in barn and in stock. “Aug. 28th–Quarterly meeting at our house. “Sept. 10th–Mr. Albro dined at our house.” (Mr. Albro was a Halifax man who traded in cattle.)
“Dec. 28–John McCormick, apparently in good health, died instantly at night.
“May 10th–Mr. Marsden started to-day for the Conference. “June 26th–Mr. Bent arrived at our house to-day and went over to Tantramar.
“June 27th–Mr. Bent preached his first sermon in Tantramar. “May 3rd, 1803–William Bennet started for Conference. “Dec.–Mrs. McMonagle’s house was drawn from the plain to Mount Whatley.
“Jan. 9th, 1806–W. Wood Fillmore was married to Nancy Patterson, of Cole’s Island.
“April 5th, 1806–Tolar Thompson brought a large birch log across the marsh on the ice, and also a load of grain to the mill and returned the next day.
“June 16th–Harmon had the old shop drawn to his house, had 17 yoke of oxen.
“William Allen was buried at the churchyard at Camp Hill, attended by a large concourse of people. Mr. Mitchell preached the sermon. “Nov. 29th–Mr. Roach lost his vessel; the Capt. and two men were drowned; 515 firkins of butter saved.
“Jan. 12th, 1806–This day Wm. McKenzie was found dead, sitting in his chair, supposed to be frozen to death.
“June 3rd, 1808–Wm. Black came to our house and Mrs. Black and son, Martin Gay. Mr. Black preached at Stone Chapel.
In February of same year, “Mr. Foster came to mill in a cart and John Patterson from Cole’s Island with a sled.” “Jan. 19th, 1808–Mr. Bamford moved to our house. “Jan. 25th–A meeting to confer about the Byto*; nothing was done.” “Jan. 3rd, 1809–Martin Black married to Fanny Smith.”
[FOOTNOTE: *This, I suppose, was the aboideau that had to be abandoned, to which reference has been made. END OF FOOTNOTE]
On the 8th of that month “William Black preached at Sackville, and on the 11th at Mr. Roach’s in Lawrence; on the 16th William Black started for Halifax.”
“Feb. 23rd, 1809–Went to the Supreme Court. “Feb. 29th, 1810–Mrs. Roach, of Fort Lawrence, died to-day after a short sickness. Rev. Mr. Knowlton preached the funeral sermon from Psalms; a very solemn time; about five hundred people present. “In June, 1811, Robert Bryce purchased a lot of cattle and some butter in Cumberland.
“June 28th–Went to Bay Verte with a drove of cattle and some sheep, put 32 cattle and 116 sheep on board vessel for Newfoundland. “July 8th–Started ten oxen for Halifax. John Trueman raising his house and barn, July 6th, 1811.
“July 24th–Pulled the old mill down. A son of John Harper’s was badly hurt at the mill brook.”
I notice in the journal that “muster day” was in Sackville this year. It seems to have been a very prosperous year for the farmers of Cumberland. Shipments of cattle and sheep were made to Newfoundland and the usual supply sent to Halifax. The price paid must have been satisfactory; it would, at any rate, be so considered by our farmers now.
The following letter sent to Messrs. Reed and Albro, dated Sept. 6th, 1811, gives one an idea of the condition of the cattle trade at that time:
“WESTMORELAND, Sept. 6th, 1811.
“MESS. REED & ALBRO.
“Sir,–Recd. Your letter by Thomas Roach, Esq., respecting cattle; have been looking around for some cattle, cannot buy for less than 6d. (10c.). Mr. —–, of Westmoreland, has some good cattle unsold at present. If you wish me to purchase you some cattle you may depend on my doing the best in my power for you. Wishing your answer as soon as possible, as the good cattle may be picked up. I wish you would send me the weights of the different lots of Beeves. I cannot settle with the people I purchased from for want of the weights. Have given two drafts on you, one on Saml. Holsted for L200, payable on the 20th July, and one on A. Fowler for L100, payable on the 28th July. “You will oblige me much by calling on Wm. Allan and take up a mortgage deed belonging to Thomas King, of Westmoreland. “There is, he thinks, about L50 or a little more due on it. Send it to me and I shall get the money paid me on sight, as I want a letter. And in so doing you will much
“Oblige your well wisher,
“WM. TRUEMAN.
“P.S.–Thomas Roach, Esq., will furnish you with ten cattle at 6d, delivered in Halifax. If you accept his offer, send a boy to Windsor to meet the cattle. Please to write the first opportunity and inform me what I shall do. Do you want a few firkins of butter this fall? I have given Harmon Trueman an order on you bearing date of 7th Sept. “I am your humble servant,
“WM. TRUEMAN.”
The following letter, a copy of which is among the papers at Prospect, also adds some information about trade at that time:
“WESTMORELAND, March 7th, 1812.
“MR. JOHN ALBRO:
“Dear Sir,–I hope these lines will find you and Mrs. Albro and family enjoying health and every other blessing. I take this opportunity to inform you that I expect to have 12 or 14 oxen to dispose of this summer. I wish you to have the preference. If you wish to have them shall be glad to have a line from you by Mr. Gore, as also what you think the price will be.
“I want no more than the market price. “Remain your humble servant,
“WM. TRUEMAN.
“N.B.–John Keillor, Esq., hath four good oxen he wishes you to have with mine. They are four fine oxen. They are likely to be good by July 15th.”
In addition to the buyers from Halifax, Newfoundland was this year sending to Westmoreland for a part of its beef supply. The letter below refers to the trade with that colony:
“WESTMORELAND, 30 Oct., 1811.
“MESSRS. JOHN & ROBERT BRYNE,– “I sent you a few lines Sept. 4th. Thinking it a chance whether you received it or no, I take the liberty to send you a second. I think it will be a great advantage to you to have some hay purchased and drawn to the place in winter.
“If you wish to have any purchased I will do it for you, only let me know the quantity you wish to have. Cattle have been as low as 4 pence or 5 pence in the spring. It is uncertain what the price may be, but I see no prospect of them being very high, as there is great plenty of cattle in the country. Should you want any in the spring you can rely on my doing the best in my power to serve you. “Remain your most humble servant,
“WM. TRUEMAN.”
Mr. Bryne had been in Westmoreland that summer and purchased a drove of cattle and sheep, which were shipped on June 28th, as noted previously.
On April 25th, 1811, Mrs. Keillor, Mrs. Trueman’s mother, who had been living at Prospect since 1806, died. Her husband, Thomas Keillor, a stonemason by trade, died some years earlier. There is at Prospect a copy of a power of attorney given by Mrs. Keillor to her “trusty friend,” Stephen Emmerson, to act for her in collecting rents and selling claims in Skelton, England, in connection with the property owned by her late husband.
This document was copied by Amos Botsford and witnessed by Wm. Botsford and Henry Chapman, jun., and dated Oct. 30th, 1810.
Mrs. Keillor was buried on the old farm at Fowler’s Hill beside her husband in a small burying-ground that was formerly surrounded by a stone wall, part of which is still standing.
Mrs. Keillor’s maiden name was Mary Thomson. She and two other married sisters–Jane, the wife of John Carter, and Ann, the wife of William Trueman–came with the Yorkshire emigration. These sisters left one brother at least in England, as the letter following, in reply to one received from George Thomson, will show:
“PROSPECT, March 29th, 1811.
“DEAR UNCLE AND AUNT,–Received your welcome letter of March 29th, and was glad to hear from you and of your wellfare, and hoping these lines will find you and yours enjoying the same blessings of health and happiness.
“I have to tell you of the death of my mother-in-law. She departed this life April 22nd. Your sister Jane is very well at present. “The rest of your family are all well. If you see fit to come out in the spring your friends will be glad to see you. It will be best for you to get a lumber vessel if you can. There hath been two vessels from Hull and one from Newcastle this summer. Respecting goods and merchandise, lay in well for common clothing. Bring some home-made linens and checks. Ox-chains and horse-traces and bridles. Everything in wood will be expensive.
“You ask what bills I propose. Good bills on Halifax answer, but nothing will answer like cash here, as it may be some trouble to get them cashed. Mechanics of all kinds are wanted. Carpenters, 7 shillings 6 pence per day. We pay 4s. and 4s. 6d. for making a pair of shoes. A good tailor is much wanted. We pay 6s. for shoeing a horse. Bring a few scythes of the best quality. Baie Verte is the best place to land at; if you cannot make that out, St. John or Halifax. There may be some difficulty in getting a passage from Halifax by water. Shall look out for a place for you with a house on it.
“May the Lord direct you and prosper your undertaking. Give my best respects to George Swinburne and wife. Let him know my wife and my ten children and myself are well.
“I have nothing more at present to write. May the Lord direct you in all your ways, so prays your affectionate nephew and niece, “WM. AND ELIZABETH TRUEMAN.”
Mr. George Thompson did not emigrate to Nova Scotia as he expected when he wrote to his uncle and aunt. The following letter, written by his son five years later, explains why:
“DURHAM, Sept., 1816.
“DEAR COUSINS,–You probably would think it very strange our not writing to you for so long a time, but I can assure you it was not for want of affection or respect, but merely inadvertence; and no doubt you would think it strange, after my father wrote to inform you he intended setting out for America, that he never went, but the principal reason was that on second consideration he thought himself too far advanced in years to undertake so long a voyage, and the rest of the family except myself were not very willing. Consequently he immediately after that took a large farm, which I had principally to manage, otherwise I would have gone at that time. However, it is my wish to set out next spring, and have not written to inform you it, in order that I may have your answer before that, stating all particulars of the country, and if there be a good prospect for me. There is also an acquaintance of mine, a threshing machine maker and cartwright, has a desire to accompany me; therefore be so good as to say what prospect there is for such a man as he is.
“All my brothers and sisters are married and settled, and my father and mother are very well and now live by themselves, retired from farming. “Hoping you and all friends are well, I shall conclude with kindest love to all,
“And remain, dear cousin,
“Yours affectionately,
“GEORGE THOMPSON.
“P.S.–Have the goodness to write the first opportunity, and direct to me at
“Harbour House,
“Durham.”
It is quite possible the above letter did not receive a reply. A good deal of trouble had been taken to send full information to the father, and five years were allowed to pass before any acknowledgement was made. At all events, there is no record of a letter being sent to the son, and it is certain he did not come to this country.
The subjoined communication helps to show the depressed condition in England at that period, and that many were looking to America in the hope of bettering their condition:
“May 14th, 1819.
“DEAR COUSIN,–I hope these lines will find you all well, as they us at present. We thank God for it.
“I intend to come over to America this spring If it should please God, For the state of England are very bad, Land has got so very dear that a livelihood cannot be got in England, and the taxes that Government lays on are very heavy, till they reduce so many to a lower class that the land will hardly support the poor. I hope you are in a better situation in America.
“We understand in England that the States of America are very flourishing at present. I intend to set off to America the first of June. If it should please God that I should get over safe, I hope to get to your house as soon as I can. All your cousins are in good health at present. Thank God for it, and they wish to be remembered to you and all your family.
“So I remain your most obedient cousin, “JAMES BOYES,
“of Bilsdale.
“N.B.–By the wishes of one of your cousins, of the name of Harman Wedgwood, a son of Benjamin Wedgwood, a tailor, he would like to hear from you. He thinks you will give him some information of your country. “He wants to come to live in your country, and if you please to give him some intelligence of tailors’ wages in your country. “So he remains your most obedient cousin. “HARMAN WEDGWOOD,
“Hawnby.”
“N.B.–If you please to write to him you must direct as follows: “‘HARMAN WEDGWOOD,
“‘Hawnby,
“‘Near Helmsley, Blackmoor,
“‘Yorkshire, England.'”
There was no change in the family at Prospect after Sallie’s marriage in 1808 until 1817. On Jan. 17th of the latter year Robert married Eunice Bent, of Fort Lawrence, a sister of Harmon’s wife, and in October Amos married Susanna Ripley, a sister of Willie’s wife.
Robert settled on a farm adjoining the homestead. His house was not built until the summer following his marriage. James, his eldest child, was born 30th October, 1817, in the Brick House at Prospect Farm. Amos settled at the head of Amherst (now called Truemanville). The following letter, written by his youngest daughter, Mrs. Sarah Patterson, is very interesting, as giving some idea of the experiences of that time:
“When my father first came to live in the place now called Truemanville it was a dense forest. In summer the only road was a bridle path. In winter, when the snow was on the ground, they could drive a pair of oxen and a sled along the road.
“The winter my father was married, as soon as there was enough snow and frost, he and one of his brothers and another man set out to build a house.
“They loaded a sled with boards, doors and windows, and provided themselves with bedding and provisions to last till the house was finished. They then hitched the oxen to the sled and started on their twenty-mile journey and most of the way on a trackless path. “When they arrived at their journey’s end, they erected a rude hut to live in and commenced building a house. They did not have to go far for timber–it was standing all around the site chosen for the house. “They built a very nice log house, 15 ft. by 18 ft. Their greatest trouble in building was, the stones were so frosty they could not split them. They had to kindle a huge fire of brushwood and warm the stones through, when they split finely.
“After they had built the house they returned home, having been absent about three weeks.
“My father and mother then moved to their new home, and father began to build a saw mill and grist mill.
“Their nearest neighbors were one and a half miles distant, unless we count the bears and foxes, and they were far too sociable for anything like comfort. Sheep and cattle had to be folded every night for some years.
“After father had built his grist mill he used to keep quite a number of hogs. In the fall of the year, when the beechnuts began to drop, the men used to drive them into the woods, where they would live and grow fat on the nuts. One evening when my mother was returning from a visit to one of the neighbors she heard a terrible squealing in the woods. She at once suspected that bruin designed to dine off one of the hogs. She hastened home to summon the men to the rescue, but darkness coming on they had to give up the chase. However, bruin did not get any pork that night; the music was too much for him, and piggie escaped with some bad scratches.
“A short time after this, ominous squeaks were heard from the woods. The men armed themselves with pitchforks and ran to the rescue. What should they meet but one of my uncles coming with an ox-cart. The wooden axles had got very dry on the long, rough road, and as they neared my father’s the sound as the wheels turned resembled very closely that made by a hog under the paws of bruin. “Imagine the way of travelling in those days! I have heard my father say there were only two carriages between Point de Bute and Truemanville. Their principal mode of travel was on horseback. My father and mother visited Grandfather Trueman’s with their three children. Mother took the youngest on one horse, and father took the two older ones on another horse; and yet we often hear people talk of the ‘good old times.’
“My father was a man of generous disposition. The poor and needy always found him ready to sympathize and help them. He often supplied grain to them when there was no prospect of payment. He would say, ‘A farmer can do without many things, but not without seed grain.’ That reminds me of an incident I will tell you, of our Grandfather Trueman. About thirty- five years ago my mother was visiting at Stephen Oxley’s, at Tidnish, where she met an old lady whose name I forget; but no matter. When she heard my mother’s name she began talking about Grandfather Trueman. She said she would never forget his kindness to her in her younger days when she and her husband first came from the Old Country and began life among strangers in very straightened circumstances. After passing through a hard winter in which food had been very scarce they found themselves in the spring without any seed wheat or the means of buying any.
“Her husband was almost in despair. She tried to cheer him up by telling him that if she went to Mr. Trueman she thought he would help them. So her husband agreed to let her try her chance, and she mounted a horse and set out for Prospect Farm. Just as she arrived there another woman came in and asked Mr. Trueman to sell her some wheat, telling him she had money to pay for it. Grandfather said he had very little wheat to sell but he could let her have a bushel or two. The old lady said her heart almost sank within her; she thought her case was hopeless. However, she told him she, too, had come for seed wheat, but she had no money nor the means of getting any at present, and they were entirely without seed. Grandfather turned to the other woman and said, ‘You have money’ go to Mr.—– (a neighbor), you can get as much as you want, and I will give this woman the grain.’ Oh, how glad she felt! Words were too poor to express her thanks, and she went home rejoicing. In after years, when Providence had favored her with a goodly share of this world’s goods, she could not tell this experience without the tears running down her cheeks. How true it is, ‘The memory of the just is blessed.'”
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 Butter, I would state it as my opinion that it is likely to command about 14d. A considerable quantity of Irish Butter 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 Yorkshire, 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 Dickson, three Dumfrieshire 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 shilling 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. Passages were secured on the ship ABIONA, bound for Miramichi, at which port the young men were safely landed early in May. John Steele was also a passenger in this vessel. He went to Cumberland and settled on the gulf shore near Wallace. Rev. Dr. Steele, of Amherst, is a grandson of John Steele. George Moffat also went to Cumberland, 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 godly 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 Mass., 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 Sussex, King’s County. Her mother was Margaret Wells, daughter of Williams Wells, of Point de Bute.
The Freezes came from Yorkshire to Cumberland in the DUKE OF YORK, the first vessel that landed Yorkshire 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 passage 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 Cumberland until the first of the present century, and then removed to Sussex, 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 Petitcodiac 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 altitude 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 Petitcodiac. 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:
“SUSSEX, 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 shipping 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 God 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.
“If, hereafter, you have beef to sell, and wish to take advantage of the St. John market, let me know, and I will get a butcher’s letter what he will do, and if that suits, you can drive your cattle, but I did not get your letter in time to get an answer and send it back to you by the first of March.
“S. F.”
A son of Samuel Freeze was sheriff of the county of King’s, N.B., for a quarter of a century, and a grandson is at present acting as deputy sheriff in that county.
Polly Freeze left her home in Sussex to take care of her grandmother in Point de Bute, and was married there. She had visited her before, making the journey of eighty miles on horseback, in company with a friend. A great part of the way was through the woods, with no road but a bridle-path for the horses.
Thompson brought his bride to Prospect on the 11th of March, 1823. The marriage certificate reads:
“I hereby certify that Thompson Trueman, Bachelor, and Mary Freeze, Spinster, both of Point de Bute, co’ty of Westmoreland, were married by license this eleventh day of March, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-three by me,
“CHRIS’N MILNER,
Missionary at Sackville.
“In the presence of:
“JOSEPH AVARD,
“WM. TRUEMAN.”
Rev. Mr. Bamford was the Methodist minister on the Sackville Circuit, which also included Point de Bute, but a Methodist minister had not the right, at that time, to solemnize marriage. In 1822, the year before Thompson was married, a Methodist minister, writing of the Trueman family, says:
“It consists of an old gentleman, his wife and ten children, eight of whom are married, making twenty souls. Of this number only two are not members of Society, and they live so far from the means that they cannot attend. Eighteen of the family, and for anything that can be seen to the contrary, the whole family, are doing well, both as to this world and that which is to come. Nearly all those who are in our Society meet in one class at their parents’, who are just tottering into the grave ripe for eternity, and they have lately subscribed one hundred and fifty pounds towards the erection of a chapel in their neighborhood.”
This chapel was erected that year, and used for a place of worship till 1881, when it was superseded by the present church, built at Point de Bute Corner in that year.
I find the following entry in the journal, dated Oct. 2nd, 1820: “Picking apples; had twenty-one grandchildren to dinner; picked about 100 bushels; very dry weather.” The last entry is dated June 21st, 1824: “Apples trees in full bloom; fine growing weather.”
The date when the apples trees were in bloom was scarcely ever omitted in the twenty years’ record, and it varied from the fourth of June to the twenty-first, which was the extreme limit. There is scarcely any change noticeable in the handwriting from the first entry to the last, and he would be seventy-two years of age when the last entry was made.
On April 22nd, 1825, Mrs. Trueman died, in the sixty-eighth year of her age. She had lived to see all of her ten children married and the birth of more than a score of grandchildren. The last years of her life were years of suffering. Her husband outlived her a year and a half, passing away on the 9th September, 1826, in his seventy-fifth year. William Trueman and Charles Oulton, of Jolicure, died at nearly the same hour, and both were laid away in the old burying-ground at Point-de-Bute.
Prospect Farm was left to Thompson. He has been managing it for some years, and the business was settled without much trouble. Little change was necessary, as all the other members of the family has been provided for. There were legacies to pay, of course. Ruth and Albert, Thompson’s two eldest children, were born before their grandfather’s death.
The routine life at Prospect for the next ten or twelve years was without much change. Two sons and two daughters were added to the family. There was sickness, but the doctor’s visits were not frequent. Mr. Trueman suffered at times from acute rheumatism, often so severe could not turn himself in bed.
In 1829 another attempt was made to aboideau the Aulac River, and this time it was successful. What proved good ground was found less than a half mile below the place chosen in 1805. Work to the amount of L 1,096 15s. 6d. in the construction of this aboideau is credited to the following persons. I do not know that this is the full cost of the work.
Harmon Trueman L 311 14s. 9d.
Joseph D. Wells 142 3 5
William Trueman 104 7 5
Robert K. Trueman 202 7 9
Thomas Trueman 64 15 4
Thompson Trueman 110 6 10
William Trenholm 100 0 0
William Hewson 60 0 0
This aboideau was superseded in 1840 by the Etter aboideau, which was thrown across the Aulac about two miles nearer the mouth of the river. This latter work was very expense to maintain. The foundation in one place seemed to be resting on quicksand, and was constantly settling. In 1860 it was decided to abandon the structure and build a new one about two hundred yards higher up the river. Two years were taken to finish the new work, and in the meantime the old aboideau was kept in repair, which gave much better facilities for working at the new one.
When the Eastern Extension Railroad was constructed, a right of way was secured by the company over the new aboideau, and later, when the road came into the hands of the Dominion Government, an arrangement was made with the commissioners of the aboideau for maintaining the work that has proved very satisfactory to both the owners of the marsh and the Government.
In the decade between 1830 and 1840 the price of farm produce had dropped very much below what it was in the earlier years of the century. I find Hugh Hamel bought at Prospect 559 lbs. of butter for 9d., or 15c., per lb., and 1,198 lbs. of cheese for 6d., or 10c. The next year, 1834, a sale of cattle was made to George Oulton for 4d. per lb., weight estimated. In 1811 the same description of beef brought ten cents.
In 1839 Rev. Mr. Bennet was for some months member of the home at Prospect, and later Rev. Mr. Douglas and Mrs. Douglas and Rev. Mr. Barrett spent some time here in the order of their occupancy of the Point de Bute Circuit.
In 1840 an influenza, much like la grippe, passed through the country and caused a great many deaths. The family at Prospect were nearly all down with it at once, but all recovered.
The saddest visitation that ever came to this home was in the year 1845. On the evening of the 28th July death came a sudden and unexpected guest. The day had been fine, and farm work was going on as usual. Mr. Trueman had been at the grist mill all day. The family had gathered for supper, and a horse stood saddled at the door. There was to be a trustee meeting at the church that evening, and Mr. Trueman was on of its members. Supper over, he mounted his horse to ride to the church. Ten minutes had not passed when the horse was seen without a rider, and Mr. Trueman was found a short distance from the house, where he had fallen, to all appearance, dead. He was quickly carried in and medical aid summoned, but all was of no avail. It was a heavy blow. Mrs. Trueman could not look upon life the same afterwards, and she never recovered from the great sorrow. There were seven children, the eldest, Ruth, twenty-one years of age, and the youngest, Mary, eighteen months.
Thompson Trueman was in his forty-fifth year. He was a heavy man, quite different in build from his brothers. The writer was but eight years old at that time, and so has learned about him mainly from others. He seems to have made a great many friends, and was looked upon as an upright man. One who knew him well said, when he heard of his death, this passage of Scripture came to his mind: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth, and the faithful fail from among the children of men.”
The years that followed were trying ones at Prospect. The blight that ruined the potato crop in 1846, and the loss of the wheat crop a few years later by the weavil, were felt more keenly because of the loss of the controlling mind. To give an idea of the financial loss, I may mention the fact that in 1843 two thousand bushels of potatoes were grown on the farm, and in 1847 not enough were grown to supply the table. In addition to the great failure in these two staple crops, at that time the price of beef, pork and butter went down to a very low point. A pair of oxen that would girth from six to six and a half feet could be bought for forty-five or fifty dollars. Pork went down to 4 and 4 1/2 cents per lb., and butter to 12 1/2 cents, or a York shilling. In one of the best settlements in Nova Scotia a majority of the farms were mortgaged to carry their owners over these hard years. Those who remember the period in New Brunswick history will not be inclined to complain to-day.
Samuel Davis, with the help of Mrs. Trueman, managed Prospect Farm until the sons were able to take charge. Mr. Davis was a most faithful and kind-hearted man, and is remembered with the liveliest feelings of gratitude by the writer for the numberless ways in which he tried to make up to him a father’s loss.
It is doubtful if the saw-mill, which was built in 1843, was ever a paying investment.
In 1849 a stone kiln and machinery for making oatmeal were added to the mill property. The loss of the wheat crop had lead the Government of the Province to encourage the use of oatmeal by offering a bonus of L 25 to anyone who would build an oat-mill. This led to the addition, and oats were made into meal for a large district of country for a good many years; but the expense of keeping the dam up, and the frequency with which it was carried away by the freshets, must have absorbed most of the profits of the business.
Up to this time agriculture had been the principal industry on the Isthmus. The farmer was the prominent man in the neighborhood, and the aim of every young man was to get a farm of his own. Now, however, there came a change. In 1848 gold was discovered in California, and in 1849 and the early 50’s numbers of our young men left for the gold- fields. Then came the telegraph service, which called for bright, intelligent young men. Ever since that date agriculture has declined relatively in the Maritime Provinces. As the years went by the products of the western wheat-fields came into competition with the home-grown article, and the result was soon felt in the milling business here. Since 1872 the grist-mill at Prospect, with its three run of stones, and the saw-mill as well, have been allowed to go to decay.
In 1856 Hiram Thompson married Tryphena Black, of Prince Edward Island, and settled on the second farm north of the old place. Later he sold this farm and moved to Searletown, Prince Edward Island. In 1857, Eliza, the second daughter, married William Avard, of Shemogue.
In 1860, April 11th, Mrs. Trueman died, in the sixty-second year of her age, and after fifteen years of widowhood. She had a large circle of friends, and was always ready to help those who were in need. After her husband’s death she kept up the family altar, and few mothers have been more earnest in looking after the moral and spiritual welfare of their children.
In 1863, Howard, the third son, married Agnes Johnstone, of Napan, Miramichi, and remained at the old home. In January, 1864, Margaret, the third daughter, was married to George M. Black, of Dorchester. The same year, in May, Mrs. Howard Trueman died. In July, 1867, Howard married Mary Jean Main, of Kingston, Kent County, daughter of John Main, of that place. Mary, the youngest daughter, was married to William Prescott, of Bay Verte, in 1873.
The following minutes of a meeting held at Prospect January 4th, 1875, will be of interest:
“The meeting was organized by the appointment of David Lawrence as Chairman, and Howard Trueman as Secretary.
“The chairman stated the object of the meeting was to take steps to celebrate in some fitting way the arrival of the first Trueman family in Nova Scotia, which took place just a hundred years ago.
“On motion of S. B. Trueman, seconded by Edward Trueman, Resolved, that there be a gathering of the Trueman descendants at the old homestead sometime during the summer of 1875.
“Moved by John A. Humphrey, and seconded by Martin Trueman, and carried, that a committee be appointed to carry out the above resolution, said committee to consist of representatives from each branch of the family.
“The following were named as a committee: “Martin Trueman. “Edward Trueman.
Henry Trueman. Benjamin Trueman.
Thompson Trueman. John Glendenning. David Lawrence. R. T. McLeod.
Harman Humphrey. Albert Trueman.
“Howard Trueman.
“It was also decided to number the descendants and have written out a short history or genealogy of the family; also to place a marble monument to make the last resting-place of those who first came to America.”
The celebration was held at Prospect Farm on the 14th July, 1875, and took the form of an all-day picnic. A programme was given, consisting of music and addresses. The invitations were not confined to the immediate connection. Friends of the family were included. It was estimated that about five hundred were present, many coming from widely different points. The social intercourse was greatly enjoyed, and was looked upon as one of the best features of the reunion.
The following census of the family to day (1875) was given out at that Meeting:
Born.Dead.Living. MR. WILLIAM TRUEMAN (2ND), MARRIED TO
ELIZABETH KEILLOR,1777-
Children 10 10 0
HARMAN TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 10 5 5
Grandchildren 28 3 25 Great-grandchildren 23 3 20 61 11 50
WILLIAM TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 11 1 10
Grandchildren 72 23 49 Great-grandchildren 99 22 77 182 46 136
JOHN TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 10 3 7
Grandchildren 30 7 23 Great-grandchildren 2 0 2
42 10 32
THOMAS TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 13 7 6
Grandchildren 52 12 40 Great-grandchildren 42 10 32 107 29 78
SARAH LAWRENCE’S FAMILY–
Children 11 3 8
Grandchildren 51 12 39 Great-grandchildren 51 7 44 113 22 91
AMOS TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 9 3 6
Grandchildren 47 4 43 Great-grandchildren 17 0 17 73 7 66
ROBERT TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 3 1 2
Grandchildren 8 3 5 Great-grandchildren 2 1 1
13 5 8
MARY A HUMPHREY’S FAMILY–
Children 7 4 3
Grandchildren 20 3 17 Great-grandchildren 1 0 1
28 7 21
BETTY GLENDENNING’S FAMILY–
Children 6 3 3
Grandchildren 13 0 13 Great-grandchildren 1 0 1
20 3 17
THOMPSON TRUEMAN’S FAMILY–
Children 7 0 7
Grandchildren 18 1 17 Great-grandchildren 0 0 0
25 1 24
Total in the ten families 664 141 523
RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS
Presby- Episco-
FAMILY OF Methodists Baptists terians palians Total
William Trueman 78 24 22 12 136 Thomas Trueman 45 33 78
John Trueman 32 32 Harmon Trueman 50 50
Mary Ann Humphrey 15 6 21 Betty Glendenning 9 8 17
Amos Trueman 16 50 66 Sarah Lawrence 80 11 91
Robert Trueman 8 8 Thompson Trueman 24 24
Total 357 63 91 12 523
OCCUPATIONS
Tele- Tin- Assay Student Mill FAMILY OF Farm/Mech/graph/smith/Carp/ /Teach/AtLaw/Rail/Own/Agt
William Trueman 16 1 1 1 3 1 1 Thomas Trueman 6 7 2 1 1
John Trueman 1 1
Harmon Trueman 3 3 2 1 1 Mary A. Humphrey 1 1 1 Betty Glendenning 1
Amos Trueman 8
Sarah Lawrence 6 3 1 1 Robert Trueman 1 1
Thompson Trueman 3
Total 46 15 1 1 8 1 5 1 1 1 1
So much was this celebration enjoyed that the decision was quite unanimous that a similar reunion should be held at a future time. This was kept in mind, and in 1891, seventeen years afterwards, invitations were sent from Prospect for another gathering of the clan. This time, however, the scope of the celebration was extended. The Historical Society of Sackville was associated in the event, and all were welcome who cared to be present.
This gathering was called the Yorkshire Picnic, and anyone of Yorkshire blood was especially welcome. An effort was made to get the names of all visitors recorded, but it was not entirely successful. About three hundred, however, wrote their names below the following, written by Judge Morse.
“Visitors to Prospect Farm, July 14th, 1891, on the occasion of the reunion of the Trueman family, combined with a picnic of the Historical Society of Sackville, in commemoration of the coming into the country of the Yorkshire settlers,
“WILLIAM A. D. MORSE,
“Judge County Court,
“Nova Scotia.”
The following is a report of that gathering as given in the Chignecto POST at that time:
“YORKSHIRE PICNIC.
“A LARGE GATHERING AT PROSPECT FARM–A SUCCESSFUL HISTORICAL MEETING.
“On Tuesday last, in response to invitations, upwards of five hundred persons gathered at Prospect Farm, Point de Bute, the residence of Messrs. Howard and Albert Trueman, to commemorate the arrival of the Yorkshire settlers in this country. The descendants of the Yorkshiremen had invited the Chignecto Historical Society, recently formed, to be present, and the formal proceedings of the day were under the auspices of the latter.
“After dinner, Judge Morse, as president of the Historical Society, in a neat speech spoke of the objects of the Chignecto Historical Society. It was their desire to find out who were the early settlers, and where they came from, and to collect all valuable information concerning the early history of this vicinity. He was pleased to see so many descendants of the original settlers of our country present, and see among them the most prosperous of our people. Mr. W. C. Milner, Secretary of the Society, then read an interesting paper on the expedition from New England to capture Fort Cumberland in 1776, under the command of Col. Eddy, and the influences that led to its defeat, notably the firm stand taken by the Yorkshire Royalists against the troops of the Continental Congress, and in favor of the Mother Land and the Old Flag. A good many facts connected with this episode in local history, which has been instrumental in shaping the destiny of the Province of New Brunswick, were for the first time made public. As it will be published in full in an early issue of the POST, together with other papers of the Chignecto Historical Society, it is unnecessary to reproduce it now.
“Judge Morse delivered an interesting address upon the Yorkshire settlers. The condition of our country in 1763 was one of constant strife between the French on the one side and the English on the other. But in 1763 the latter were victorious, the French driven back, and the country then thrown open for settlement by the English. In 1764 Governor Franklyn proposed to settle the very fertile land at the head of the Bay of Fundy with the proper class, and after some correspondence with Earl Hillsboro, Lord of the Plantations in England, he paid a personal visit to Yorkshire, where lived the thriftiest farmers in all England, induced in 1772-3-4 a large number of families to try their fortunes in the New World. In April and May the first arrivals landed on the bleak and rocky coast near Halifax, and surrounded as they were with every discomfort, it was no wonder that they felt discouraged. With their wives the men passed on to Windsor, where they first got a glimpse of the budding orchards left by the French settlers. Here a division was made in the party. The women and children were sent to the head of the Bay by a series of ferries, and the men pushed on to Annapolis, and later joined their families at Chignecto. To the pluck, loyalty, and industry of the Yorkshiremen Judge Morse paid many a tribute. To them do we owe our present connection with the Mother Country. When this country from north to south was rent by the rebellion, when the rivers ran blood, and when the prestige of English arms in Northern America seemed to totter, it was the Yorkshire immigrants who remained firm, and although compelled to suffer untold hardships and privations, yet they remained loyal to that old flag, whose folds he was pleased to see floating in the breeze to-day. The speaker gave fully in detail various particulars of the settlement, of the persons interested, and the location of several important landmarks. The Yorkshiremen have done three great acts: They made the country; they preserved the flag; and they, through the efforts of Preacher Black, founded in this country the principles of Methodism, which has made such steady progress, and which has been the prominent religion for over a century. He closed by asking all who had any historical relics in their possession to communicate with the officers of the society, and allow them to inspect such. Judge Morse was followed by Mr. A. B. Black, Amherst; J. L. Black, Sackville; W. C. Milner, and the host of the day, Mr. Howard Trueman, who spoke upon the valuable features of the Historical Society.
“Among those present were Sheriff McQueen, J. A. McQueen, M.P.P., W. J. Robinson (Moncton), Col. Wm. Blair, Hon. Hiram Black, J. L. Black, Wm. Prescott, Jas. Trueman, Esq. (St. John), W. F. George, Dr. A. D. Smith, Dr. H. S. Trueman, Rev. Mr. Crisp, Rev. Mr. Bliss, Couns. Copp and Trueman.
“The house at Prospect Farm is one of the oldest in the Province, having been completed on June 14th, 1799.”
The following is an account of the one hundredth anniversary of the “Brick House,” taken from the Moncton TIMES of July, 1899:
“On Friday, Prospect Farm, the residence of Howard Trueman, Esq., the old Trueman homestead at Point de Bute, was the scene of an anniversary that called together representatives of the various branches of the Trueman family that came to this country in 1775. The centenary of their settlement here was celebrated by a big picnic twenty-four years ago, and the present one was connected with the building of the old house one hundred years ago–a fine English house built of brick and overgrown with ivy and climbing rose. The site is one of the most commanding and beautiful in the country, and is justly a spot cherished by all the Truemans with pride and affection.
“The afternoon was charming, though threatening, and the numerous gathering, old and young, male and female, enjoyed themselves to the utmost.
“The oldest member of the family present was the venerable Martin Trueman, of Point de Bute, aged eight-four years, still hale and vigorous, and enjoying life as well as the youngest. The next oldest was Thompson Trueman, of Sackville, father of Mrs. (Senator) Wood, aged eighty-three, also a very vigorous man. Within a few weeks Mr. Joseph Trueman, also of the same generation, the father of Judge Trueman, of St. John, has passed to his rest. Mr. Henry Trueman, father of Mrs. James Colpitts, was prevented by the infirmities of age from being present. Amongst others of the same generation were Mrs. Eunice Moore, of Moncton, and Mrs. Amelia Black, of Truro, N.S. Others belonging to the older generation were James Trueman, of Hampton; Alder Trueman, of Sackville, and Benjamin Trueman of Point de Bute.
“A younger generation embraced Judge Trueman, of Albert; Pickard Trueman, James Amos Trueman, ex-Coun. Amos Trueman and George Trueman. There was a large representation present of those connected with Mr. Trueman by marriage or blood, as Squire Wm. Avard, Bristol; Collector Prescott, Bay Verte; Albert Carter, C. F. McCready, Sheriff McQueen, ex-collector James D. Dickson, George M. Black, I. F. Carter, James Main, Botsford; John Glendenning, Cumberland; Geo. W. Ripley, Mrs. J. M. Trueman, Thorndale, Pa; Gilbert Pugsley, Rupert Coates, Nappan; Hibbert Lawrence, Gilbert Lawrence, Burgess Fullerton, Southampton; Mrs. Sarah Patterson, Linden; Alex. Smith, Nappan; Dr. Chapman, James Colpitts, Point de Bute; J. L. Black, ex-M.P.P., Sackville; Mrs. Burke, Toronto; E. E. Baker, Fort Lawrence.
“Amongst the visitors were: R. Robertson, W. S. Blair, Experimental Farm, Nappan; Dr. W. F. Ganong, W. C. Milner, W. Fawcett, Charles George, W. F. George, John Roach, Thomas Roach, Nappan; Frank Beharrel, Lowell, Mass.; Dr. Allison, President Mt. Allison; Dr. Smith, Dr. Brecken, Prof. Andrews, Sackville; Rev. Mr. Batty, Amherst; Douglas Fullerton, Leonard Carter, J. H. Goodwin, Point de Bute; Hiram Copp, F. A. Dixon, Sackville; George Copp, James Fillmore, Bay Verte.
“A platform was erected under the shade of the vine-covered walls, and interesting speeches made. Dr. Chapman presided. In his introductory remarks he said he was pleased with his Yorkshire descent, and was very sorry that Mr. Batty, who was to tell sometime of Yorkshire at the present day, was not present. Mr. Howard Trueman, who was then called upon, told something of the settlement of the Truemans, the building of the house, the clock two hundred years old that was still keeping good time, the chair that came out from England with the family, and the bench there on the platform that came from the first Methodist church built in Canada, a stone church that stood by the Point de Bute Cemetery.