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CAMPOBELLO
* * * * *
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH
BY
KATE GANNETT WELLS
For those who are desirous of exact knowledge concerning the "Story
of the Boundary Line," and the political history of Eastport and its
vicinity, there is no more comprehensive work than that by William Henry
Kilby, Esq., entitled, "Eastport and Passamaquoddy." To him, and also to
two friends who kindly gave me the names of a few of the Island flowers,
do I express my gratitude.
Campobello.
THE mysterious charms of ancestry and yellow parchment, of petitions to
the admiralty and royal grants of land, of wild scenery and feudal
loyalty, of rough living and knightly etiquette, have long clustered
round a little island off the coast of Maine, called on the charts
Passamaquoddy Outer Island, but better known under the more pleasing
name of Campobello.
=Its Discovery.= It belongs to the region first discovered by the
French, who, under Sieur De Monts, in the spring of 1604, sailed along
the shores of Nova Scotia, and gave the name of Isle of Margos (magpies)
to the four perilous islands now called The Wolves; beheld Manthane (now
Grand Manan); sailed up the St. Croix; and established themselves on one
of its islands, which they called the Isle of St. Croix. The severity of
the winter drove them in the following summer to Annapolis, and for more
than a hundred and fifty years little was known of this part of the
country, though the River St. Croix first formed the boundary between
Acadia and New England, and later the boundary between the Provinces of
Nova Scotia and Massachusetts Bay.
Campobello itself could scarcely be said to have a history till towards
the end of the eighteenth century. Moose roamed over the swamps and
looked down from the bold headlands; Indians crossed from the mainland
and shot them; straggling Frenchmen, dressing in skins, built huts along
the northern and southern shores, till civilization dawned through the
squatter sovereignty of two men, Hunt and Flagg. They planted the apple
trees whose gnarled branches still remain to tell of the winter storms
that howled across the plains, and converted the moose-yards into a
field of oats, for the wary, frightened animals vacated their hereditary
land in favor of these usurpers. Their mercantile skill taught them how
to use, for purposes of trade rather than for private consumption, the
shoals of fish which it was firmly believed Providence sent into the
bay.
=Post Office.= There were not enough inhabitants to justify the
maintenance of a post office till 1795; then the mails came once in two
weeks. Lewis Frederic Delesdernier was the resonant, high sounding name
of the first postmaster who lived at Flagg's Point (the Narrows). But
when a post office was opened in Eastport, in 1805, this little Island
one was abandoned, or rather it dwindled out of existence before the
larger one established by Admiral Owen at Welsh Pool.
=Welsh Pool.= The Narrows, because of its close proximity to the
mainland, was a favorite place of abode in those early days. Yet Friar's
Bay, two miles to the north, was a safe place for boats in easterly
storms; and thus, before the advent of the Owens, a hamlet had clustered
around what is now called Welsh Pool. A Mr. Curry was the pioneer. The
house opposite the upper entrance to the Owen domain was called Curry
House until it became "the parsonage," a name abandoned when the present
rectory was built. Curry traded with the West Indies, and owned, it is
said, two brigs and a bark.
People also gathered at the upper end of the Island, Wilson's Beach, and
on the road between Sarawac and Conroy's Bridge, where there were
several log houses.
=Garrison's Grandparents.= That some kind of a magistrate or minister
even then was on the Island is attested by the fact that William Lloyd
Garrison's grandparents, Andrew Lloyd and Mary Lawless, chanced to come
to Nova Scotia on the same ship from Ireland, and were married to each
other "the day after they had landed at Campobello, March 30, 1771."
Lloyd became a commissioned pilot at Quoddy, and died in 1813. His wife
was the first person buried in Deer Island. Their daughter Fanny was
Garrison's mother.
Many of the early inhabitants were Tories from New York. Some were of
Scotch origin, especially those who lived on the North Road.
=Captain Storrow.= Among these settlers was a young British officer,
Captain Thomas Storrow, who, while he was prisoner of war, fell in love
with Ann Appleton, a young girl of Portsmouth, N.H. In vain did her
family object, "British officers being less popular then than now; but
young love prevailed," and the marriage, which took place in 1777, "was
a happy one." Captain Storrow took his bride to England; but after a
while sailed for Halifax, where they remained "nearly two years." In
1785 they went to St. Andrews. Through the courtesy of their grandson,
Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the following extract is given from
a manuscript sketch of the life of Mrs. Storrow, prepared by her niece,
Mrs. Norman Williams:--
=False Sale.= "Soon after this (1785) they removed to Campobello, which
had been purchased by Mr. Butler and Captain Storrow. There were two
houses on the Island, one for each family, and here they lived very
happily and pleasantly. There was always a garrison at St. Andrews, and
a ship of war stationed near Campobello; so Captain Storrow had
congenial society, and they had many pleasant lady friends, and, as
their hospitality was unbounded, they were seldom without company at one
or the other of the houses.... All was bright and prosperous. But a
change came. In 1790 or 1791 the Butlers and Captain Storrow had gone to
Halifax on business, and Mrs. Storrow was left alone with her children
on the Island, when a notice was served to her that she must quit the
Island immediately, as it had been sold to them under a false title, and
the real owner had come to take possession. The Island had been granted
by William Pitt to his former tutor, David Owen, a hard man who would
not move from the position he had taken. Mrs. Storrow sent to my father,
who was her husband's lawyer, and he, with some other gentlemen,
chartered a sloop and brought the family to St. Andrews, where a house
was already prepared for them. Here they remained a year or more. But
Capt. Storrow's finances were so crippled by the loss of Campobello that
he and his family sailed for Jamaica, where he had a small estate."
=William Owen.= David Owen, to whom this manuscript referred, was a
cousin of William Owen, through whom the Island became connected by
royal gift and by romance with the fortunes of his immediate
descendants. As naval officer William Owen had been "in all the service
and enterprise where ships, boats, and seamen were employed," had
labored at Bengal for the re-establishment of the affairs of the East
India Company, and had fought under Clive. At the blockade of
Pondicherry he lost his right arm, and the Sunderland, to which he
belonged, having foundered, he was ordered to England. Broken in spirit
and weak in body, the copy of what was presumably his memorial to the
Admiralty in 1761 has a piteous sound. It begins:--
=His Petition.= "My Lord, permit me, with the most profound respect, to
lay by your Lordship a true State of my past service, with the accidents
that happened to me during the same, praying your Lordship not to judge
hard of me, in being reduced to the disagreeable necessity of doing that
myself which would appear in a much more favorable light were any of my
Friends in Town who could take the Liberty of Introducing me to your
Lordship." After recounting the services he rendered, and the injuries
he received, he ends with these words: "I beg you will be pleased to
represent to the Right Honorable the Lords of the Admiralty that I am
the person mentioned in Admiral Steuen's [the spelling is illegible]
Letter to have lost my Right Arm, when I had the Honor of Commanding one
of the Divisions of Boats ordered by him to cut out the Two French
Ships, La Baline and Hermione, from under the Guns of Pondicherry, on
the 7th of October last, and that I had been wounded before in that
country with a Musket Ball, which lodged in my Body above three years
and a half. My long service in the East Indies, together with the Wounds
I received, having greatly impaired my health, lays me under a necessity
to be the more urgent with you on this occasion, that I may the sooner
go into the Country to endeavor to re-establish the same, as well as to
see my Friends, from whom I have been above nine years absent. Let me,
therefore, Sir, entreat you to move their Lordships in my behalf, humbly
praying that they will be pleased to direct something to be done for me,
either by Gratuity, Pension, or Preferment, such as their Lordships may
deem me to deserve."
=Sir William Campbell.= In November of the same year he writes to Lord
William Campbell: "I arrived in London above four months ago. After long
attendance and great solicitations, I am at length put off with a
pitiful Pension, with which I am going to retire into the Country among
my Relations for the remainder of my days, unless somewhat unexpected
happens to enable me to obtain the promotion I think I have a right
to.... I have spent a great deal of money in Town, have no Fortune, and
want a sum soon on a very urgent Occasion.... I hope, notwithstanding
the disparity between us in point of Rank and Fortune, that your
Lordship will honor me with a Continuance of the Friendship and Regard
which I had reason to imagine subsisted between us during the five years
we Messed together."
This beseeching letter must have been effectual; for in course of time
he did receive, not only thanks and promise of promotion, but through
the intercession of his friend, Sir William Campbell, who was Governor
General of Nova Scotia, he obtained possession of the Island which Hunt
and Flagg had ruled.
=Royal Grant.= As it embraced more land than could then be granted to
one person, Owen induced others to join him in asking for the grant,
that the whole Island might eventually be under control of the Owen
family.
=Origin of Name.= Consequently, in 1767, the Island was deeded to
William Owen and his cousins, Arthur Davies, David and William Owen,
Jr., who, in grateful compliment to Campbell, changed its name from
Passamaquoddy Outer Island to Campobello, thus "punning on the donor's
name, and also expressing the beauty of the natural scenery." It was
like the Admiral to invent a name which should include both a joke and a
subtle allusion to his classical learning.
=First Colony.= William Owen immediately brought over from the mother
country a colony of seventy persons; stationed his ship at Havre De
Lute, a Franco-Indian corruption of Harbor of the Otter; and, having
settled his people according to his liking, returned to England; but
soon left it again on public service, and died with the rank of Admiral.
=David Owen.= David Owen acted as agent for the grantees, and was a
veritable lord of the Island, always interested in protecting the
fisheries. His house, near the site of the cottage now owned by James
Roosevelt, Esq., had even more roof than the usual sloping, barn-like
home of former days. He built a rude church, read the service, and
preached. What matter if the sermon was oft repeated, or now and then
was original! Could not he, though a layman, best tell the needs of his
congregation? He played the fiddle for dances, married the people,
scolded them as a self-constituted judge, and kept a journal of Island
events in microscopic chirography. He was an occasional correspondent of
the "Eastport Sentinel" on matters of British history and theological
controversy. "He had a fine library of old books, and was well versed in
scholastic subjects," said Dr. Andrew Bigelow, the first Unitarian
minister of Eastport, who often visited him.
=To "Hue and Cry."= Once David Owen committed to the gaol in St. Andrews
a Frenchman, for "feloniously taking and carrying away some fish from
flakes at Campobello." As the offender went on his way to gaol in his
own vessel, he threw overboard the deputy sheriff who accompanied him,
drew his dirk on the other man and compelled him to follow, and then
escaped himself with his own vessel. Therefore, Owen advertised in the
"Sentinel" of September 25, 1819, "To all officers and others to whom
the execution hereof may belong ... to search for the said Appleby [the
Frenchman], and therefore to '_hue_ and _cry_' after him as the law
directs." Signed "D. Owen, J.P."
When David died he left his share of the land to William Owen, Jr. This
younger Owen sold Campobello, which had now come into his sole
possession, to William Fitz-William, who, as the natural son of the Owen
of Pondicherry fame, could obtain possession only through purchase of
his father's grant.
=Primitive Life.= Island life was still very primitive. The people
raised stock, and the creatures fed on the wild grass and young hemlock.
But, as David had freely deeded the land to the settlers, the underbrush
was soon killed off and stock raising ceased. The Campobellians also
proved no exception to the rule that agriculture is seldom a favorite
occupation with those who can support themselves by the precarious life
of fishermen, even if that has its perils.
=Illness.= Here, too, as everywhere in pioneer life, the women suffered
as much as, if not more than, the men. When sickness came upon them they
endured it patiently, with that kind of meek despair which looks upon
illness either as fate or as the will of the Lord. Fortunately for them,
a young girl, who had been born on the Island, became at sixteen a
skilful nurse. She was sought from far and near, and taken out at night
when she had to be blindfolded on account of the storms. The description
of one of her visits must be given in her own words, as she told it when
she was eighty-four:--
=The Indian's Squaw.= "Once I and my husband were abed a howling night,
and I heard a knock. Says I, 'Jim, I bet that's for me; get up and see.'
And I sorter guessed it was a foreigner. And he came back and says, 'P.
(that's what he called me, short for Parker), it's an Indian from down
on the Narrows; and he's been for the doctor, and he's down at Robinson,
and won't be fetched 'cause he's having a good time.' So I got up and
dressed and went down with him; for the squaw's skin was as dear to her
husband as a white woman's is to her, and her heart may be just as good
to God. And when I got there I saw two squaws, and one was all in a
heap; and they made eyes at me, and I didn't know whether it meant
murder or not, only I guessed not. And I says, 'Sister, what is it?' And
she says, her husband tell her 'white doctor no come. You white woman
come and make his squaw live.' So I went to work. And when all was
right, they wanted me to take a blanket and lie down; but I could no way
make believe Indian, so I sits up till morning. Then the Indian asked me
what he should give me; and I told him my gineral price was three
dollars, but when folks was no better off than I, I turned in and asked
nothin'. And he says, 'We give five dollars if it's a girl, and three
dollars if it's a boy.' 'Well,' I says, 'sure enough it's a boy'; and I
come home. And next day he travels down here [to the Pool], and says me
better than man doctor, and wished he could give me twenty dollars."
Some sixty years after this incident had occurred, when Mrs. Parker was
driven up to the Narrows where the squaw had lived, and past the
Tyn-Y-Coed and cottages, that she might see the changes which time had
wrought, she exclaimed, "As the Bible says, now I can die in peace, for
mine eyes have seen the salvation, I will not say of the Lord, but of
Campobello."
=The Admiral.= The salvation, such as it was, came slowly; at first
through Admiral William Fitz-William Owen. His life was curious and
pathetic, from the time when a boy five years old, an inmate of the
artillery barracks, he replied, on being asked his last name, "I don't
know, mother can tell you," to his old age, when, dressed in admiral's
uniform, he paced back and forth on a plank walk, built out into the
bay, over the high cliffs of the shore, in memory of the quarter deck of
his beloved ship. Conceited and religious, authoritative and generous,
humorous and ceremonious, disputatious and frank, a lover of women more
than of wine, his fame still lingers in many a name and tradition.
=His Growth.= When very young, a friend of his father's took him away
from the barracks and from his mother, of whom he never again heard. He
was boarded and punished in various homes in North Wales, but as
recompense wore a cocked hat and a suit of scarlet made from an old coat
of his father,--"the first sensible mark of the earthly pre-existence of
some one who claimed to be my father" he had ever received, wrote the
Admiral, in his later days. He learned the catechism and collects,
repeated the Lord's prayer on his knees, and thought of raising the
devil by saying it backwards; but he never completed the charm, and for
four or five years after was self-punished by his fear that the devil
was waiting for him at the church door.
By degrees he learned something of his father, the William Owen of
Pondicherry fame, who had died while he was a baby. When about fourteen
he went to a mathematical academy, where his "progress was as remarkable
as it had before been in classics." Here religious instruction consisted
in going to church "to talk with our fingers to the girls of a school
who used the adjoining pew." As a boy, he "had no other distinct idea of
our Lord Jesus Christ than that he was a good man."
=His Dreams.= His belief in the direct interposition of the Creator on
his behalf frequently solaced him in these youthful days of loneliness
and misdemeanor. The literal and instant fulfillment of two dreams on
special and unthought-of subjects were convincing proof, to quote his
own words, that "they were sent by God Almighty himself, as a simple way
of assuring me that as I was under his eye he would himself take care of
me."
=Man-of-War Garden.= So he grew up to be presumptuous, adventurous,
resolute, and strong. In 1788 he became a midshipman in a line-of-battle
ship, in due course of time cruising in the Bay of Fundy. For three
years his man-of-war was stationed at Campobello. The crew often went
ashore in summer, tending a little garden at Havre de Lutre (Harbor of
the Otter), called Man-of-War Garden, which in turn gave its name to the
headland. The garden was brilliant with dahlias and marigolds, which
were presented in overweighted bouquets to the few Island belles, who,
in return for such unexpected courtesies, consented in winter to dance
on the ship's deck, regardless of their frozen ear-tips. Two of the
midshipmen were as dauntless in pedestrianism as in love, and for a
wager started on a perilous walk around icy cliffs which threw them
headlong. Their comrades buried them under the gay flowers, and sailed
away from the henceforth ill-omened garden. And the little store near
by, kept by one Butler, lost its customers and passed into tradition.
=The Boy as Midshipman.= With Owen's entrance into the naval service as
boy officer "commenced," he wrote in later years, "a public life which
may be said to have had no sensible intermission until the close of
1831, or forty-three years, during which I have served under every naval
man of renown, and was honored by the friendship of Nelson. From the
year 1797 I have held commands and been entrusted with some important
service, for the most part in remote parts of the world. My character,
if I may be allowed to draw it myself, contained much of good and bad.
The latter, perhaps, I contrived to veil sufficiently not to mar my
reputation; but, by the grace of God, he has not left me without his
spirit of self-conviction.... At forty-four I married [a Miss Evans, of
Welsh extraction]. I thought myself a tolerably religious man, but knew
myself to be as Reuben, unstable as water. At fifty-seven my worldly
ambition was barred by corruption in high places. At sixty-one I became
the 'Hermit.'"
=His Settlement at Campobello.= "The Quoddy Hermit,"--this was the name
he chose when, with the rank of admiral, he came back to Campobello to
live. He brought with him building material and the frame of a house
taken from Rice's Island, and erected his habitation where is now the
Owen. In the grove at the northern end of the present hotel he planted
two or three English oaks. He placed the sun dial of his vessel in the
garden fronting his house, and put a section of his beloved quarter deck
close to the shore, not far from the seedling oaks. There, pacing up and
down in uniform, he lived over again the days of his attack upon the
Spanish pirate. Proud as he was of the two cannon he then captured,
there is no one living to tell who bled or who swore, or whether the
Spanish galleon sank or paid ransom. He placed the cannon on the Point,
where they bid defiance to American fishing boats. In later years one
was taken to Flagstaff Hill whenever a salute was to be given in honor
of the Queen's birthday, or a fish fair, for such fairs were famous.
=Weddings.= The population of the Island increased, and the old man
married the boys and girls at church or at home, slowly or hastily, as
his humor bade him, always claiming the first kiss of the bride. A
certain sailor who had wooed a Campobello maiden was determined that
this privilege should not be allowed by her, and therefore tried to
salute his bride before the service was ended. "You are not married yet.
Back!" shouted the Admiral. Frightened, the sailor-groom turned his face
and his feet toward the minister-magistrate, who more and more slowly
repeated the words of the service, as he approached nearer to the lady,
till, with the last word, he snatched the first kiss. His most princely
gift as a wedding present is said to have been the Island of Pope's
Folly, a present conditioned on his performance of the marriage service,
which was gladly granted by the bride.
He widened the narrow roads along the bay, which David had broken out,
and in his heavy, lumbering coach of state went through snow and mud
from one tenant to another. The coach is still to be seen, and the
tenants' grandchildren bear the Owen surname as the universal Christian
cognomen. The Admiral would often stroll down to Whale-Boat Cove,--so
called from a large kind of row-boat used in the herring
fisheries,--which he persuaded the men to call Welsh Pool. Many a little
maiden counted her pennies by the Admiral's kisses, and many a poor
fisherman blessed him for allowing the house rent to run on from year to
year, though the Admiral invariably insisted on the rental from the
weirs; he well knew which was the more profitable.
=Family Life.= On other days he stayed at home and amused himself with
his books. At four o'clock the husband and wife dined with the family
and the frequent guests. The dinner of four courses was served in silver
and gold lined dishes, with wines from Jersey and game from the
Provinces. Silver candelabras shone upon the table; damask and India
muslin curtains shaded the many paned windows; heavy mahogany and
rosewood chairs, sofas, and tables furnished the apartments; great logs
on tall andirons burned in monster fireplaces; sacred maps hung around
the evening parlor; and the dining-room carpet was said to have been a
gift from the King of Prussia. The long curved mahogany sofa, the carved
chairs, and other pieces of furniture are now owned by the Islanders.
The library table and arm chair, with sockets in its arms for candles,
the Admiral's hat, pistols, and picture are carefully treasured by "The
Company" as relics.
After the dinner of an hour came tea at seven and a family rubber till
nine; then Scripture reading and worship, when the ladies and servants
retired, leaving the Admiral and his gentlemen friends, fortified with
cigars, whiskey, and water, to relate naval stories and discuss
religious themes till two or three o'clock in the morning.
=Theology.= Owen's three chosen intimates were designated Academicus,
Rusticus, and Theophilus. His library, which they frequently consulted,
was a sad medley of dictionaries and the theology of Oxford divines.
Methodism and Romanism were alike hateful to the hermit Admiral, who, in
quoting from Holy Writ, always rendered "the wiles" as "the methodisms"
of the devil. Every week he read to his neighbors two lectures "from
unexceptionable sources, yet so modified as to contain all that was
expedient to explain of his peculiar opinions." Often he held church
service in what was almost a shanty, omitting from the liturgy
whatsoever he might chance to dislike on any special Sunday.
=Family Prayers.= The day began and ended with prayers, which all the
household servants attended, the "maids," as the Admiral called
them,--"for we are all servants of God,"--bringing their work and sewing
throughout the service, except when the prayer itself was said. If some
one occasionally was disinclined to such steady improvement of the
devotional hour, the Admiral, with a benevolent smile, inquired, "My
dear, do you feel lazy to-night?"
Breakfast was served at nine. After that, the Lady Owen, clad in an
enormous apron, entered the kitchen and taught the mysteries of salads
and jellies.
=Lady Owen.= Lady Owen was queen as he was king; and never did a lady
rule more gently over store-room and parlor, over Sunday-School and
sewing-school, fitting the dresses of her domestics or of the Island
children. She was a handsome woman, with silver hair and pink and white
complexion, who, like her daughters, wore long trains and low corsages.
Sometimes the mother wrapped herself in a certain gold and black scarf
with such a courtly grace that its remembrance has never faded. Great
was the jubilee among the domestics when a box arrived from England,
with fabulous dresses ready made.
Once a year the maids and men of the great house had a ball, the ladies
playing for them even all night. Twice in the twelve months occurred
house-cleaning, when a dress was given each busy worker. The servants
were often reminded to take no more than was necessary on their plates;
for economy, though not parsimony, was the rule of the house. Guests
came from the mainland and from every vessel of war. Admiral Owen and
his house were the fashion for many long years.
Nowhere on the coast of Maine has there been a more curious mingling of
rank, with its investiture of ceremony, and of simple folk-life, of
loyalty to the Queen and her representatives and of the American spirit
of personal independence.
=Theatricals.= All the people were familiar with the great family, while
the better part of them were bidden to theatrical performances, for
which the Admiral composed songs. It is doubtful whether he chose as
early hours for his amateur shows as did the theatre manager of New
Brunswick; for on the first occasion of a dramatic performance in that
Province, March 28, 1789, the doors were opened at half-past five and
the play began at half-past six o'clock.
Other merry-makings occurred on the Island, justified, perhaps, by the
occasional homage of gifts sent to the mother country; for the Admiral's
diary bears record that "three large, eleven middle, and fourteen small,
masts were hoisted on board a vessel, and sent as a tribute to England."
Then, whenever a roof-raising occurred, he knew how to send the children
home to look after the chores, that their elders might join in the
merriment.
=Smugglers' Cave.= The inhabitants themselves were rather enterprising
in business; for rum and lumber were exchangeable quantities with the
venturesome Campobello captains, who traded with the southern ports and
West Indies, and carried Nova Scotia grindstones to the States. Bolder,
but the quieter in action, were the smugglers, who, deep amid the woods,
near the only fresh-water pond of the Island, alternately came and
vanished. Much of their spare time was spent in digging for an iron
chest of Spanish doubloons, buried by ancient buccaneers. The Admiral
and his family often rode through the woods to watch the men in their
hopeless work, and to obtain their share of treasure-trove if ever it
were found. One bright morning every digger had fled, leaving a deep
excavation in the ground; but far down on its side, marked out by the
iron rust which had clung to the earth, the outlines of a chest were
visible. A cart track and the ruins of four or five huts are all that
now remain of the site of this mysterious activity. With the departure
of these smugglers disappeared the steady excitement of years, the
perpetual topic of conversation. Thereafter the people could only
question each other about the strange wreck whose rotting timbers were
old a century before. Its last remnants have now been carved into love
tokens.
Saddest were the days when the Admiral strode up and down his imaginary
quarter-deck, his empire a fishing settlement, where boys' wages had
once been three cents a day. Eastport still owned the islands around it.
The people brought in their fish, and sold it for groceries and other
articles at stores where it was credited to them. The little vessels
crossing the bay made it gay for the Admiral's eyes. But his spirit
sank, as he fancied that some boat might be drifting around an inlet,
with its owner frozen to the mast amid the supplies he was bringing to
his family, who were waiting in vain for the father to return; or as he
thought of the burden of this ever-increasing debit and credit system,
or of the perils of the smugglers.
Later, when the duties were taken off by the United States, smuggling
disappeared, and Campobello business went down. Could it ever have been
said to exist? A few persons possessed enough ready money to build the
picturesque weirs which fringe the Island with their stakes, driven
three or four feet apart, and ribboned together with small round poles.
The dried foliage and the dripping seaweed clinging to them give a
ghastly beauty to this living mausoleum of the herring.
=The Bank.= Remittances did not always come promptly from England, and
money was needed in the Island; so the Admiral set up his own bank, and
issued one-dollar certificates, surmounted by the crest and his motto,
"Flecti non Frangi." But somehow the time never came when he was called
upon "to pay one dollar on demand to the bearer at Welsh Pool," and the
certificates remain, to be utilized, perhaps, under a new epoch of good
will and foolish trust.
=Titles.= The Island must have had some law and order before the advent
of the Admiral, for the town records for the parish of Campobello date
from April 15, 1824, James M. Parker, town clerk. At the general session
of the peace, holden at St. Andrews, the shire town of Charlotte County,
New Brunswick, thirty-two officers were chosen for the small population
of Campobello. As in the old German principalities, every Welsh Pooler
must have craved a title. There were commissioners and surveyors of
highways, overseers of poor and of fisheries, assessors, trustees of
schools, inspectors of fish for home consumption and for exports, for
smoked herring and boxes. There were cullers of staves, fence-viewers
and hog-reeves, and surveyors of lumber and cordwood, lest that which
should properly be used for purposes of building or export be consumed
on andirons or in kitchen stoves.
=Paupers.= In those days there was no poorhouse; though town paupers
existed, for one, Peter Lion by name, was boarded about for one hundred
dollars, and furnished with suitable food, raiment, lodging, and medical
aid. No one kept him long at a time, whether it was because others
wanted the price paid for his support, or because he was an unwelcome
inmate, is unknown. Prices depend on supply; therefore, it happened that
the next pauper was boarded for fifty dollars. Again, a lower price for
board brought about a lower tax rate for the householders; and, in
course of time, another pauper was set up at public auction, and the
lowest bidder was entrusted with his care and maintenance.
By 1829 the exports from the Island justified the creation of harbor
masters and port wardens,--more titles to be coveted.
=Ferryman.= A ferry was established from Campobello to Indian Island and
Eastport. The ferryman was "recognized in the sum of two pounds, and was
conditioned to keep a good and sufficient boat, with sails and oars, to
carry all persons who required between the appointed places, to ask,
demand, and receive for each person so ferried one shilling and three
pence, and no more." If any other than the appointee should have the
hardihood to make a little money by transporting a weary traveller, such
persons should be fined ten shillings, half of it to go to the informer
and half to the ferryman, unless he had previously arranged with the
licensee that he would afford him due and righteous satisfaction for
each person so carried.
As the population grew, the swine began to abound, and soon it was
decreed that "neither swine nor boar-pig should go at large, unless
sufficiently ringed and yoked, sucking pigs excepted, on pain of five
shillings for each beast."
=Sheep.= Then the sheep began to jump fences four feet high,--and their
descendants have increased in agility. They ate the young cabbages, and
standing at ease, defiantly and lazily nipped off the dahlia buds. The
town bestirred itself. Angry housewives, roused from their sleep by
waking dreams of depredations committed, drove the sheep away with stock
and stone. The following night the fisher-husbands, back from their
business, sallied forth in vain; they could not run as fast as the
women. And week after week the sheep took all they wanted. It became
necessary finally to establish the sublime order of hog-reeves, who were
privileged to seize any swine or sheep going at large which were not
marked with the proper and duly entered mark of the owner, and to
prosecute as the law directs; all cattle being ordered to be at home by
eight o'clock in the evening. But how could sheep be marked when their
fleece forbade their being branded? As notable housekeepers vie with
each other in receipts, so did each Islander try to invent striking
deformities for his sheep; only the sucking lambs retained their
birthrights till their later days. Because Mulholland made two slits in
the right ear and took off its top, Parker cut off a piece from the left
ear of his sheep, and Bowers made a crop under the left ear of his
animal, close to its head. Yet the sheep ran loose until the people were
directed to raise twelve pounds for building two cattle pounds, and
William Fitz-William Owen, the Admiral, was appointed to erect the same.
The poor rates had again lessened,--woe to the pauper boarder,--for the
Admiral wanted money for many another improvement on which his mind was
bent. The General Sessions of the peace dared not neglect any suggestion
which was made by a man who entertained all the distinguished guests who
came to Passamaquoddy Bay; for his fame had spread far and wide as host,
theologian, and magnate.
=Geese.= If it were difficult to restrain sheep and swine, still more
difficult was it to prevent the trespasses of geese; though many a bird
was clipped in its infancy, and in winter killed and put down amid
layers of snow, and sent to the Admiral as a peace offering or as
tribute.
Still the public troubles increased; until it was ordered that horses
and cattle should be impounded. Then peace by midnight and safety by day
rested over the Island. For it was even resolved "that all dogs of six
months old and upward should be considered of sufficient age to pay the
tax"; but in what manner they were compelled to offer their own excuse
for being remains unsolved. Perhaps no legal quibble was ever raised
concerning the wording of the statute.
=Bridges.= Admiral Owen was not only the magistrate for animals, but a
builder of bridges, letting out the work "at the rate of $1.12-1/2 per
man per day, the day being ten hours of good and conscientious work for
man or yoke of oxen."
=Nomination Day.= Very graphic is an account of "Nomination Day," given
by Mr. William H. Kirby, in the "Eastport Sentinel" of June 10, 1885. On
the results of this day depended honors and duties. "Four members are to
be chosen. Among those put in nomination is the Honorable Captain
William Fitz-William Owen, of Campobello, representative of the Island
and champion of the fisheries.
A poll being demanded, the real contest is postponed to a late day;
starting at St. Andrews, and proceeding from parish to parish, gathering
the votes of each neighborhood, until at the end of a fortnight Indian
Island is reached, and the voters of West Isles and Campobello have
their turn. This affords a good opportunity for curious Eastporters to
look in upon the time-honored election processes of the British Empire.
The surroundings of the hustings are rude and characteristic. On a
platform made by spreading a plank on the top of fish hogsheads the
sheriff of the county has established himself, with his clerks, the
candidates and their representatives ranged along. As this is Captain
Owen's own precinct, special efforts have been made to bring up his
vote, which has somewhat lagged in other parishes; some of the free and
independent electors, arriving by the numerous boats which line the
beach, wear badges with the motto, "Owen Roads and Bridges," and there
are signs that open houses are kept somewhere in the neighborhood. With
staunch friends, the Captain has bitter opponents. For the purpose of
increasing the income from his Island, he had not long before
established a system of pasturage which included a small annual sum for
geese, and it is said that at St. Andrews the other day a goose was
borne aloft in derision of his candidacy.
Each candidate having urged his claims in an address, the polls are
opened and the voting begins. As the elector comes forward, he is asked
for whom he votes. The reply is, "Captain Owen,"--"Thank you, sir," from
Captain Owen; and the same from Mr. Hill, Mr. Brown, Mr. Boyd, Mr.
Clinch, or some other candidate, in response to a vote for either. And
the clerk enters the several votes upon his record. Each elector can
vote for four candidates. Sometimes he names but one; this is a plumper,
and elicits cheers. Sometimes a man is asked on what he votes, and
replies "Freehold by heir," or something else. I believe that under
certain conditions a man could vote in half a dozen counties if he had
property.
Closing here, the sheriff, candidates, and special friends adjourn to
St. Andrews for the final proceedings. Numbers of votes have been
withheld for effective use in the final struggle. Some of the candidates
are already so far ahead that their success is assured, and others are
hopelessly behind, while for one or more places two or three candidates
are separated by only narrow margins, and this affords opportunity for
trades and combinations which add zest to the last spasmodic efforts.
Captain Owen was not successful this time, though he was chosen at a
later campaign, and was afterwards promoted to a seat in Her Majesty's
Council for the Province."
=Wilson's Claim.= The Admiral's life was embittered by the obstinacy
with which some of the people refused to pay him allegiance. They were
the descendants of one Wilson, who, in David's time, had squatted at
Head Harbor, and had built across the end of the Island a bush fence,
which was considered to give the sanctity of a written deed to Wilson's
claim. David Owen contested the validity of custom, and a lawsuit
followed, which was decided in favor of the squatter. This decision was
very embarrassing to David, who feared that through its effect he might
lose possession of another neck of land. So he hastened home from the
court, outstripping his rival, and told a squatter who lived on a second
point of the Island that, as the verdict in the Head Harbor case had
been rendered in the Owen favor, he had better sell out at once, or else
the law would make him do so. This reasoning, though illogical, was
convincing; and the terrified fisherman is reported to have made a
lawful deed of his possessions to David for a round of pork, an old gun,
and two or three other articles. When Wilson arrived, belated by the
wind and tide, the fraud or joke was discovered; but, as no remedy was
found for it, the Owens ruled all the Island, except the peninsula which
David and his coheirs and successors always called "Wilson's
Encroachment." There Wilson and his followers established a thriving
settlement, whose prosperity was a constant grievance to the Admiral
when he came to live at Campobello. Neither flattery or bribery could
induce them to become his vassals. Years after, in the American Civil
War, when Captain Robinson, the Admiral's son-in-law, demanded that
rents should be paid in English money, Campobello was impoverished,
while the people at Wilson's Beach had no rent to pay.
=The Cannon.= The cannon still remained as sentinels, till some one on
board the brig Sam French, which was going to California for gold, stole
them and carried them round Cape Horn. When the brig reached San
Francisco it fired a salute; but as the Admiral had forewarned the
Southern authorities of the capture of his guns, the timely or untimely
salute betrayed their presence, and the guns were seized and returned to
Campobello. After the removal of the Owen family to England, one of the
guns, which had been bought from them by Mr. Best, an Island resident at
that time, was given by him to General Cleaves, who placed it on one of
the islands in Portland harbor, where two or three years ago it exploded
and was shattered to pieces. The other gun was bought by George Batson,
Esq., and was placed in his store on the Island, where it became an
object of wonder to all newcomers.
=Schools.= The official dignities of the Admiral increased with his
longer residence on Campobello. He was overseer of the poor, postmaster,
and school trustee. For a long period there were only private schools;
but about fifty years ago the first public or parish school was built
near the Taylor House, now Hotel Byron. Four other schools were
established at various points; one at Curry's Cove, or Sarawac,--so
named by Admiral Owen after a fishing hamlet in Wales,--where Lady Owen
and her daughters maintained a vigorous Sunday School.
=The Mail.= The mails, which were brought by vessel from St. Andrews,
came twice a week in summer, and once a week in winter; though it was no
uncommon event to wait three weeks for a letter, if the weather were
stormy. The people from Indian and Deer Islands came to the Admiral's to
get their letters; but woe to any one who chanced to arrive too early in
the morning, before the noble postmaster had finished his breakfast.
=Survey Book.= A curious manuscript book with parchment covers is still
extant, labelled on one side, "Register Book, Deeds, Leases, etc., for
the estate of Campobello. The property of Captain W. F. W. Owen, R. N.
June, 1835." On the other side is written, "Survey Book." It contains
several early survey maps of the National Boundary, of the Narrows at
Campobello, and of Casco Bay. There are also leases of smoke-houses and
weirs. The latter then rented for fifty or sixty dollars a year, and a
system of ground-rent prevailed. The Admiral could not have anticipated
much income from his possessions; for he speaks of the people as
"fishermen, about four hundred in number, very few of whom are, I fear,
able to please turn over to pay rent otherwise than in produce,--that
is, dried fish and potatoes."
=Tyn-Y-Coed.= In this same record book he writes that the farm called
Tyn-Y-Coed, or The House in the Woods, is so named from "the estate in
Montgomery shire, late of Owen Owen, Esq., and Sir Arthur Davies Owen,
his son, and William Owen, the youngest son, let to John Gregg, for ten
years on his life, at the rate of (6-1/2 s.) six shillings and
sixpence." On the oldest map owned by the present Company, drawn by one
John Wilkinson, in 1830, the Tyn-Y-Coed and also Lake Glen Severn are
designated. The land opposite the Tyn-Y-Coed, where now is the Wells
Cottage, used to be called Mount Pleasant.
The Admiral's domains extended beyond Campobello to Head Harbor, Pope's
Folly, Sandy, Spruce, and Casco Islands. Since his reign some of these
islands have been sold, while Casco Island was given to Chief Justice
Allen, of New Brunswick, by Lady Owen. When the little fishing vessels
and ferry boats, which ply between these islands, and the big schooners
and large steamers, are now counted on any one summer day, it is
difficult to realize how comparatively uncrossed were these waters in
the Admiral's early years of Island life.
=First Steamboat.= The first steamboat in New Brunswick was not launched
till April, 1816, and then it went only as far as Portland; and a second
steamer was not added till 1825. The first New Brunswick newspaper
fortunately was issued in 1783, so that it must have been able to
announce this new maritime project with due sensational headlines.
=First Telegram.= Not until April 30, 1851, was the first telegram sent
from St. John to John Wilson. Curiously reads his answer from St.
Andrews: "Being the first subscriber to the Electric Telegraph Company,
I am honored by the first communication from your city announcing the
great and wonderful work God has made known to man by giving us the
control of the lightnings."
=The Church.= Neither steamboat, newspaper, nor telegram could make
Campobello aught but a narrow confine for the social and political
ambition of the Admiral. An exile because of poverty that compelled him
to accept the royal gift, he felt that he must devote himself to
controversial discussion and the erection of a new Episcopal church.
Before this day the people had been Baptists; personal loyalty
anglicized the religion of all those around Welch Pool.
=Wilson's Baptists.= The people at Wilson's, however, never abandoned
their Baptist tenets, which they brought with them from the neighboring
islands as they settled around Head Harbor. Those along the North Road
rowed over to the larger settlement for baptisms and Sunday services,
which were first held in the schoolhouse, for the church itself was not
built until some thirty-eight years ago.
=North Road Baptists.= At last the North Road residents had their own
church, to which they were devotedly attached. The land for it cost
forty dollars in gold paid down to Captain Robinson, as the proceeds of
the efforts of sewing-circles and ladies' teas. The great Saxby gale of
some twenty-five years ago blew it down. Two years after it was rebuilt
for $447, and finally finished ten years ago. The devoted Episcopalians
at Welch Pool have made no greater sacrifices for their church than did
the little band of zealous North Road Baptists. Though their regular
ministers have been few, their irregular preaching and their prayer
meetings have been constant.
Still it was but natural that, as the boys of the Baptist islands
married the girls of St. George and other New Brunswick towns where the
Church of England was the prescribed form of faith, Episcopalianism
spread itself, not only among the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, but at
Campobello.