SOME EARLY RELIGIOUS TEACHERS ON THE RIVER ST. JOHN.
Our knowledge of affairs on the River Saint John down to the period of
English occupation is largely derived from the correspondence of the
Jesuit missionaries, the last of whom was Charles Germain. After his
retirement the Acadians and Indians remained for several years without
any spiritual guide, a circumstance that did not please them and was
also a matter of concern to the Governor of Nova Scotia, who in
December, 1764, informed the Secretary of State that a promise had
been made the Indians of the River St. John to send them a priest,
which the Lords of Trade had now forbidden. The governor regrets this
as likely to confirm the Indians in their notion that the English "are
a people of dissimulation and artifice, who will deceive them and
deprive them of their salvation." He thinks it best to use gentle
treatment in dealing with the Indians, and mentions the fact of their
having lately burned their church[90] by command of their priest
detained at Quebec, as a proof of their zealous devotion to their
missionaries.
[90] This statement is corroborated by Charles Morris, who writes in
1765, "Aughpack is about seven miles above St. Anns, and at
this place was the Indian church and the Residence of the
French missionary; the church and other buildings about it are
all demolished by the Indians themselves."
In the summer of 1767, Father Charles Francois Bailly came to the
River St. John and established himself at Aukpaque, or, as he calls
it, "la mission d'Ekouipahag en la Riviere St. Jean." The register of
baptisms, marriages and burials at which he officiated during his
year's residence at Aukpaque is still to be seen at French Village in
the Parish of Kingsclear, York county. The records of his predecessor,
Germain, however, were lost during the war period or while the mission
was vacant. That there was a field for the missionary's labor is shewn
by the fact that in the course of his year's residence on the River
St. John he officiated at 29 marriages, 79 baptisms and 14 burials.
His presence served to draw the Indians to Aukpaque, where there were
also some Acadian families who seem to have been refugees of the
expulsion of 1755. The older Indian village of Medoctec was now
deserted and the missionary ordered the chapel there to be destroyed,
seeing that it served merely as a shelter for travellers and "was put
to the most profane uses." The building had been standing for fifty
years and was much out of repair. The ornaments and furnishings,
together with the chapel bell,[91] were brought to Aukpaque.
[91] This chapel bell was most unfortunately destroyed by fire when
the chapel at French Village was burned early in March, 1904.
An illustration and some account of the bell will be found in
a previous chapters. See pages 75, 76 ante.
For some reason the presence of the Acadians at Aukpaque and its
vicinity was not acceptable to the authorities of Nova Scotia, and
Richard Bulkeley the provincial secretary, wrote to John Anderson and
Francis Peabody, Esqrs., justices of the peace for the county of
Sunbury, under date 20th August, 1768: "The Lieut. Governor desires
that you will give notice to all the Accadians, except about six
Families whom Mr. Bailly shall name, to remove themselves from Saint
John's River, it not being the intention of the Govern-ment that they
should settle there, but to acquaint them that on their application
they shall have lands in other parts of the Province."
It is remarkable with what persistence the French clung to the
locality of Aukpaque in spite of repeated attempts to dispossess them.
The New Englanders under Hawthorn and Church tried to expel them as
long ago as 1696, but Villebon repulsed the attack on Fort Nachouac
and compelled them to retire. Monckton in 1759 drove the Acadians from
the lower St. John and destroyed their settlements, but the lowness of
the water prevented his ascending the river farther than Grimross
Island, a little above Gagetown. A little later Moses Hazen and his
rangers destroyed the village at St. Ann's and scattered the Acadians,
but some of them returned and re-established themselves near the
Indian village at Aukpaque. The governor of Nova Scotia apparently was
not willing they should remain, hence his orders to Anderson and
Peabody in 1768.
What these magistrates did, or attempted to do is not recorded, at any
rate they did not succeed in effecting the removal of the Acadians for
we find that the little colony continued to increase. The missionary
Bailly wrote from Aukpaque, June 20, 1768, to Bishop Briand, "There
are eleven Acadian families living in the vicinity of the village, the
same ones whom your Lordship had the goodness to confirm at St. Anne.
* * It is a difficult matter to attend to them for they live apart
from one another during the summer on the sea shore fishing and in the
winter in the woods hunting." It appears that these poor people were
reduced to the necessity of leading almost an aboriginal life to save
themselves from starvation, yet they clung to the locality.
Major Studholme sent a committee of four persons to explore the River
St. John in July, 1783.[92] The committee reported sixty-one families
of Acadians settled in the vicinity of Aukpaque. There were in these
families 61 men, 57 women and 236 children. About twenty-five families
lived on the east side of the river, most of them near the mouth of
the Keswick; the others lived not far from the Indian village on the
west side of the river, and there were in addition two or three
families at St. Anne's Point. In their report to Major Studholme the
committee describe the Acadians as "an inoffensive people." They had a
considerable quantity of land under cultivation, but few, if any, of
them had any title to their lands save that of simple possession.
Those who claimed longest residence were Joseph Martin who came in
1758 and Joseph Doucet who came in 1763. The settlement began to grow
more rapidly after the arrival of the missionary Bailly, for out of
the sixty-one heads of families included in the Committees report to
Studholme nine came in 1767, thirteen in 1768, ten in 1769 and four in
1770. All of these enjoyed the ministrations of l'Abbe Bailly. The
missionary seems to have remained a year in residence and then at the
instance of the Governor of Nova Scotia was sent to the Indians and
Acadians of the peninsula to the eastward of Halifax. He, however,
paid occasional visits to the River St. John as is shown by the
records of the baptisms, marriages and burials at which he officiated
when there.[93] He is heartily commended by Lord William Campbell, the
governor of Nova Scotia, for his tact in dealing with the Indians and
his loyalty to the constituted authorities of the province. It is not
probable that there was very much ground for the complaint of Simonds
& White in their letter of June 22, 1768, in which they say, "We have
made a smaller collection of Furrs this year than last, occasioned by
the large demands of the Priest for his services, and his ordering the
Indians to leave their hunting a month sooner than usual to keep
certain festivals, and by our being late in getting to their village,
the reason of which we informed you in our last. * * It's expected
that there will be a greater number of Indians assembled at Aughpaugh
next fall than for several years past." The extract quoted serves to
show that the Abbe Bailly's influence was felt while he lived on the
St. John river. He returned to Canada in May, 1772, and was afterwards
consecrated Bishop Co-adjutor of Quebec.
[92] The members of the committee were Ebenezer Foster, Fyler
Dibblee, James White and Gervas Say. The first two were
Loyalists,the others old English settlers. Ebenezer Foster was
one of the first members for Kings county in the House of
Assembly. Fyler Dibblee was an attorney-at-law and agent for
settlement of the Loyalists. James White and Gervas Say were
justices of the peace in the old county of Sunbury and have
already been frequently mentioned.
[93] One of the Abbe Bailly's registers is preserved at French
Village in York county and another, which seems a continuation
of the first, is at Caraquet, Gloucester county.
During the year of his sojourn on the River St. John and in his
subsequent visits the Abbe Bailly baptized, married and buried many of
the Acadians as well as Indians. The names of a good many individuals
occur in his register whose descendants are numerous in Madawaska,
Bathurst, Caraquet, Memramcook and other places in the province. Among
them may be mentioned Joseph Martin, Jean Baptiste Martin, Louis
Mercure, Michel Mercure, Jean Baptiste Daigle, Olivier Thibodeau, Jean
Thibodeau, Joseph Terriot, Ignace Caron, Joseph Cyr, Pierre Cyr, Jean
Baptiste Cyr, Paul Cyr, Francois Cyr, Pierre Pinette, Francois
Violette, Joseph Roy, Daniel Godin, Paul Potier, Francois Cormier,
Jacques Cormier, Jean Baptiste Cormier, Pierre Hebert, Joseph Hebert,
Francois Hebert, Louis Le Jeune, Joseph Mazerolle, and Jean Baptiste
Vienneau.
Of these families the Cormiers, Cyrs, Daigles and Heberts came from
Beaubassin at the head of the Bay of Fundy; the Martins from Port
Royal (or Annapolis), the Mercures and Terriots from l'Isle St. Jean
(or Prince Edward Island); the Violettes from Louisbourg, and the
Mazerolles from Riviere Charlesbourg.
It is worthy of note that despite the hardships and misfortunes
endured there are instances of marvellous longevity among the old
French settlers. Placide P. Gaudet, who is by all odds the best
authority on this head and whose wonderful knowledge of Acadian
genealogy has been attained by years of hard study and patient
research, gives a striking instance of this fact amongst his relatives
of the Vienneau family. The ancestor of this family was one Michael
Vienneau, who with his wife Therese Baude were living at Maugerville
in 1770: both were natives of France. The husband died at Memramcook
in September, 1802, at the age of 100 years and 3 months; his widow in
March, 1804, at the age of 96 years. Their son Jean died at Pokemouche
in August, 1852, at the extraordinary age of 112 years, leaving a son
Moise who died at Rogersville in March, 1893, aged over 96 yeas. The
united age of these four individuals--father, mother, son and
grandson--are equivalent to the extraordinary sum total of 404 years.
In the course of a year or two after the arrival of the Loyalists the
greater portion of the Acadians living on the St. John river above
Fredericton removed--either from choice or at the instigation of
government--to Madawaska, Caraquet and Memramcook. A few, however,
remained, and there are today at French Village, in York county, about
31 families of Acadian origin numbering 149 souls, and 17 families in
addition reside at the Mazerolle settlement not far away. The most
common family name amongst these people is Godin; the rest of the
names are Mazerolle, Roy, Bourgoin, Martin and Cyr. The influences of
their environment can hardly be said to have had a beneficial effect
upon these people, few of whom now use the French language. And yet
the fact remains that from the time the valley of the River St. John
was first parcelled out into seigniories, in the year 1684, down to
the present day--a period of 220 years--the continuity of occupation
of some portion of the soil in the vicinity of St. Ann's has scarcely
been interrupted, and the records of the mission on the River St. John
may be said to have been continuous for about the same time. The
missionaries as a rule spoke well of the people of their charge.
Danielou said that there were 116 Acadian inhabitants in 1739 and that
Monsieur Cavagnal de Vaudreuil, governor of Trois Rivieres, was
"Seigneur de la paroisse d'Ekoupag." He claims as a special mark of
divine favor that in the little colony there was "neither barren woman
nor child deformed in body or weak in intellect; neither swearer nor
drunkard; neither debauchee nor libertine, neither blind, nor lazy,
nor beggar, nor sickly, nor robber of his neighbor's goods." One would
almost imagine that Acadia was Arcadia in the days of Danielou.
It may be well, whilst speaking of the remarkable continuity of the
French occupation of the country in the vicinity of St. Anns, to state
that after Chapter VII. of this history had been printed the author
chanced to obtain, through the kindness of Placide P. Gaudet, some
further information relating to the brothers d'Amours, the pioneer
settlers of this region.
The brothers d'Amours, Louis, Mathieu and Rene, were residents on the
St. John as early at least as the year 1686, when we find their names
in the census of M. de Meulles. A document of the year 1695[94] shows
that their claims to land on the St. John river were rather
extravagant and hardly in accord with the terms of their concessions.
Louis d'Amours, sieur de Chauffours, claimed as his seigniory at
Jemseg a tract of land extending two leagues along the St. John,
including both sides of the river two leagues in depth. He also
claimed another and larger seigniory, extending from a point one
league below Villebon's fort at the Nashwaak four leagues up the river
with a depth of three leagues on each side. His brother Rene d'Amours,
sieur de Chignancourt, lived on this seigniory a league or so above
the fort.
[94] This document is entitled "Memoire sur les concessions que les
sieurs d'Amours freres pretendent dans la Riviere St. Jean et
Richibouctou." A copy is in the Legislative Library at
Fredericton.
The statement made in a previous chapter that Rene d'Amours was
unmarried and lived the life of a typical "coureur de bois" is
incorrect. The census of 1698 shows that he had a wife and four
children. His wife was Charlotte Le Gardeur of Quebec. The names of
the children, as they appear in the census, are Rene aged 7, Joseph 5,
Marie Judith 2, and Marie Angelique 1. While fixing his residence in
the vicinity of Fort Nashwaak, Rene d'Amours was the seignior of a
large tract of land on the upper St. John extending "from the Falls of
Medoctek to the Grand Falls," a distance of more than ninety miles.
After the expiration of eleven years from the date of his grant, Rene
d'Amours seems to have done nothing more towards its improvement than
building a house upon it and clearing 15 acres of land. Even in the
indulgent eyes of the Council at Quebec, of which his father was a
member, this must have appeared insufficient to warrant possession by
one man of a million acres of the choicest lands on the St. John
river. He made rather a better attempt at cultivating the land near
his residence upon his brother's seigniory, for the census of 1695
shows that he had raised there 80 minots [bushels] of corn, 16 minots
of peas, 3 minots of beans. He had 3 horned cattle, 12 hogs and 60
fowls; two men servants and one female servant; three guns and a
sword.
The seigniory of Mathieu d'Amours, sieur de Freneuse, lay between the
two seigniories of his brother Louis at Jemseg and Nashwaak, extending
a distance of seven leagues and including both sides of the river.
Both Louis and Mathieu made far greater improvements than Rene, having
a large number of acres cleared and under cultivation, together with
cattle and other domestic animals. They had a number of tenants and
eight or ten servants.
The census of 1695 contains the following interesting bit of
information: "Naxouat, of which the Sr. Dechofour is seignior, is
where the fort commanded by M. de Villebon is established. The Sr.
Dechofour has there a house, 30 arpents [acres] of land under
cultivation and a Mill, begun by the Sr. Dechofour and the Sr. de
Freneuse."
The reference to a mill, built by the brothers Louis and Mathieu
d'Amours in the neighborhood of Fort Nashwaak, may serve to explain
the statement of Villebon in 1696, that he had caused planks for
madriers, or gun platforms, to be made near the fort.[95] This mill at
any rate ante-dates by the best part of a century the mill built by
Simonds & White at St. John in 1767 and that built by Colonel Beamsley
Glacier's mill wrights at the Nashwaak in 1768. Doubtless it was a
very primitive affair, but it sawed lumber, and was in its modest way
the pioneer of the greatest manufacturing industry of New Brunswick at
the present day.
[95] See Murdoch's Hist. of Nova Scotia, Vol. I., p. 223.
Among the contemporaries of the brothers d'Amours on the River St.
John were Gabriel Bellefontaine, Jean Martel,[96] Pierre Godin,
Charles Charet, Antoine Du Vigneaux, and Francois Moyse. The author is
indebted to Placide P. Gaudet for some interesting notes regarding
the family of Gabriel Bellefontaine. Mr. Gaudet has satisfied
himself in the course of years of genealogical research, that the
Godins now living on the River St. John and in the county of
Gloucester, the Bellefontaines of the county of Kent, and the
Bellefontaines and Beausejours of Anichat and other parts of Nova
Scotia all have a common origin, and that in each case the real family
name is Gaudin, or Godin. To any one conversant with the practice
of the old French families of making frequent changes in their
patryonymics this will not appear surprising. The common ancestor
of the Gaudin, Bellefontaine, Beausejour and Bois-Joly families in
the maritime provinces was one Pierre Gaudin, who married Jeanne
Roussiliere of Montreal, Oct. 13, 1654, and subsequently came to
Port Royal with his wife and children. Their fourth child, Gabriel
Gaudin (or Bellefontaine) born in 1661, settled on the St. John
river in the vicinity of Fort Nashwaak. He married at Quebec in
1690, Angelique Robert Jeanne, a girl of sixteen, and in the census of
1698 the names of four children appear, viz., Louise aged 7, Louis 5,
Joseph 3, Jacques Phillipe 7 months. Of these children the third,
Joseph Bellefontaine, spent the best years of his life upon the St.
John river and his tribulations there have been already noticed[97]
in these pages. He was living at Cherbourg in 1767 at the age of 71
years, and was granted a pension of 300 livres (equivalent to
rather more than $60.00 per annum) in recognition of his losses and
services which are thus summarised:
[96] Martel and Bellefontaine have been mentioned already. See page
57 ante.
[97] See Chapter xiii., p. 135
"The Sieur Joseph Bellefontaine or Beausejour of the River St. John,
son of Gabriel (an officer of one of the King's ships in Acadia) and
of Angelique Roberte Jeanne, was commissioned Major of the militia of
the St. John river by order of M. de la Galissonniere of 10th April,
1749, and has always done his duty during the war until he was made
prisoner by the enemy. He owned several leagues of land there and had
the sad misfortune of seeing one of his daughters and three of her
children massacred before his eyes by the English, who wished by such
cruelty and fear of similar treatment to induce him to take their
part, a fate that he only escaped by fleeing to the woods, bearing
with him two other children of the same daughter."
Notwithstanding all their misfortunes and persecutions the Acadians
living on the St. John continued gradually to increase. After the
return of the missionary Bailly to Canada they were without a priest
until the arrival of Joseph Mathurin Bourg in September, 1774. This
intrepid missionary was the first native of Acadia to take holy orders
and as such is a subject of especial interest. He saw the light of day
at River Canard in the district of Mines on the 9th of June, 1744. His
father, Michel Bourg, and his mother, Anne Hebert, with most of their
children, escaped deportation at the time of the Acadian expulsion in
1755 and sought refuge at the Island of St. John [Prince Edward
Island], from which place they were transported by the English to the
northern part of France. Young Joseph Mathurin became the protege of
the Abbe de l'Isle-Dieu, then at Paris. He pursued his studies at a
little seminary in the Diocese of St. Malo and on the 13th of
September, 1772, was ordained priest at Montreal by Monseigneur
Briand. After a year he was sent to Acadia as missionary to his
compatriots of that region. He took charge of his mission in
September, 1773. It at first extended from Gaspe to Cocagne, but in
August, 1774, the Bishop of Quebec added the River St. John (including
"Quanabequachies," or Kennebeccasis) and all the rest of Nova Scotia
and the Island of Cape Breton. The bishop also appointed the Abbe
Bourg his grand vicar in Acadia. Almost immediately afterwards he
visited the River St. John and the little settlement at French Village
near the Kennebeccasis where, early in September, he baptized a
considerable number of children, whose names and those of their
parents are to be found in the register which is still preserved at
Carleton, Bonaventure Co., in the province of Quebec.
[Illustration: (Signature) Joseph Mth. Bourg pretre Grand. V.]
The missionary made his headquarters at Carleton (on the north side of
the Bay of Chaleur) but from time to time visited different parts of
his immense mission. During the Revolutionary war he paid special
attention to the Indians on the River St. John, who largely through
his efforts were kept from taking the warpath and going over to the
Americans. The raids made by the Machias rebels under Jonathan Eddy
and John Allan, in 1776 and 1777, interfered in some measure with the
visits of the missionary, for Col. Michael Francklin in his interview
with the Maliseets at Fort Howe in September, 1778, assured them that
Mons'r. Bourg would have visited them sooner but for the apprehension
entertained of his being carried off by the rebels.
The chapel at Aukpaque was not entirely disused during the absence of
the missionary. We learn from John Allan's narrative that while he was
at Aukpaque in June, 1777, a number of Acadians came on Sundays to
worship at the Indian chapel and that he and his prisoners, William
Hazen and James White, also attended. While there they witnessed the
funeral of an Indian girl. The ceremony was a solemn yet simple one.
The body was borne into the chapel, the bell tolling the while; after
a short prayer they sang funeral hymns, that done some of the chiefs
bore the coffin to the grave where there was another prayer followed
by a funeral hymn. The coffin was then deposited in the grave and a
handful of earth cast upon it by the relatives and friends of her sex.
Immediately afterwards the family wigwam was struck and removed into
the thickest part of the village that the parents might be the better
consoled for the loss of their child.
The important services rendered by Father Bourg to government during
the American Revolution will be told in another chapter.
The first clergyman of the Church of England to visit the River St.
John was the Rev'd. Thomas Wood, a native of the town of New Brunswick
in the then British province of New Jersey. Mr. Wood went to England
in 1749--the year of the founding of Halifax--to be ordained by the
Bishop of London. He bore with him testimonials declaring him to be "a
gentleman of a very good life and conversation, bred to Physick and
Surgery." He became one of the missionaries of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel and was transferred from New Jersey to Nova
Scotia in 1753. Halifax and Annapolis were destined to be the chief
scenes of his labors, but he made frequent tours amongst the new
settlements.
Mr. Wood was an excellent French scholar and his gifts as a linguist
were of no mean order. While at Halifax he lived on terms of
friendship and intimacy with Antoine Simon Maillard, the missionary of
the Indians and Acadians. In the year 1762 Mr. Wood attended the Abbe
Maillard for several weeks during his last illness, and the day before
his death, at his request, read the Office for the Visitation of the
Sick in the French language in the presence of a number of Acadians,
who were summoned for the occasion by the venerable missionary. Mr.
Wood also officiated at the burial of M. Maillard, reading over his
remains in French the burial service of the Church of England in the
presence of "almost all the gentlemen of Halifax and a very numerous
assembly of French and Indians."
As the Indians were for the time being without any religious teacher
Mr. Wood resolved to devote much attention to them. He applied himself
diligently to the study of their language, in which he had the
assistance of the papers left him by the Abbe Maillard and by devoting
three or four hours daily to the task he made such progress that upon
reading some of M. Maillard's morning prayers the Indians understood
him perfectly and seemed themselves to pray very devoutly. He resolved
to persevere until he should be able to publish a grammar, dictionary
and translation of the Bible. He writes in 1764, "I am fully
determined that nothing but sickness or the Bastille shall impede me
in this useful service." Two years later he sent to England the first
volume of his native grammar, with a Micmac translation of the Creed,
Lord's Prayer, etc. He was now able to minister to the Indians in
their own language.
In July, 1767, the Indians attended a special service held in St.
Paul's church, Halifax, at which there were present, the Governor of
Nova Scotia, Lord William Campbell, the officers of the army and navy
and the principal inhabitants. The service was in the Micmac tongue.
An anthem was sung by the Indians at the beginning and again at the
close. On the 12th of August in the same year Mr. Wood married Pierre
Jacques, an Indian, to Marie Joseph, eldest daughter of old Thoma, who
deemed himself "hereditary king of the Mickmacks." There were present
at the wedding, besides the Indians, Sir Thomas Rich--an English
baronet, and other gentlemen. After the ceremony Mr. Wood entertained
the company at his own house.
It was in the summer of the year 1769 that Mr. Wood made his first
tour up the River St. John. Lord William Campbell provided him with a
boat and party of men, under the direction of Capt. William Spry of
the Engineers. Capt. Spry will be remembered as one of the active
promoters of the settlement of the townships on the St. John river,
where he had large land interests. His knowledge of the river made him
an excellent guide.
The English missionary arrived at St. John harbor on the 1st day of
July, and the day following, which was Sunday, held the first
religious service conducted by an English speaking minister at
Portland Point.
The account books of Simonds & White suffice to show that no business
was transacted at their establishment on Sunday, and doubtless the day
was honored as a day of rest, but up to this time there had been no
opportunity for church-going. Among those who heard the first sermon
preached at St. John in English were in all probability, the Messrs.
Simonds & White and their employes, Edmund Black, Samuel Abbott,
Samuel Middleton, Michael Hodge, Adonijah Colby, Stephen Dow, Elijah
Estabrooks, John Bradley, William Godsoe, John Mack, Asa Stephens, and
Thomas Blasdel. To these may be added the wives of James Simonds, of
Black, Abbott and one or two other workmen; also a few settlers living
in the vicinity. It may be observed in passing that Edmund Black was
foreman in the lime burning; Abbott, Middleton and Godsoe were
employed in making hogsheads and barrels for lime and fish; Hodge and
Colby were shipwrights engaged in building a schooner for the company;
the others were fishermen and laborers. Doubtless the service held by
Mr. Wood was a very simple one, and if there were any hymns they were
sung from memory, for there is reason to believe that there was not a
single hymn book in the community, with the exception of a copy of
Watt's psalms and hymns owned by James White.
Notwithstanding the difficulties of the situation, the Rev'd. Thomas
Wood on the occasion of his first Sunday at St. John established a
record which, after the lapse of nearly a century and a half, remains
unequalled for interest and variety. In the morning he held divine
service and preached to the English settlers and baptized four of
their children. In the afternoon he conducted a service for the
benefit of a number of Indians, who chanced to be encamped there,
baptized an Indian girl and addressed them in their own language. In
the evening, many of the French inhabitants being present, he held a
third service and preached in French, the Indians again attending as
many of them understood that language. These French people were
chiefly Acadians living at what is now called French Village, in Kings
county. They were at that time employed by Simonds & White in building
an aboideau and dykeing the marsh. In one respect the Indians perhaps
did better than the English or the Acadians, for at the close of their
service Mr. Wood desired them to sing an anthem which, he says, "they
performed very harmoniously."
The next day the missionary sailed up the river, visiting the settlers
in their homes as he proceeded. At Gagetown he baptized Joseph and
Mary Kendrick, twin children of John and Dorothy Kendrick. Mr. Wood
says the children were born in an open canoe on the river, two leagues
from any house, a circumstance that illustrates the exigencies liable
to arise in a region so sparsely inhabited as the valley of the River
St. John then was.[98]
[98] Major Studholme in 1783 states that John Kendrick was a good
subject, an old soldier and very deserving. He lived near
Gagetown with his wife and five children. He settled there
about the year 1768.
On Sunday the 9th of July Mr. Wood held service at Maugerville, where
he had a congregation of more than two hundred persons but, owing to
the fact that the people were chiefly "Dissenters from New England,"
he baptized only two infants. He thought, however, if a prudent
missionary were settled among them their prejudices against the Church
of England would speedily vanish. He speaks in his letter to the S. P.
G. of the rising townships of Gagetown, Burton and Maugerville as a
most desirable field for a missionary and commends the Indians to the
special consideration of the society. After making a call at
Morrisania, a little below Fredericton, where two children were
baptized, Mr. Wood and his companions proceeded to "Okpaak" which he
terms "the farthest settlement upon the River." He thus describes the
reception they met with on their arrival:
"The Chief of the Indians came down to the Landing place and
handed us out of our boat, and immediately several of the Indians,
who were drawn out on the occasion, discharged a volley of
Musketry turned from us, as a signal of receiving their friends.
The Chief then welcomed us and introduced us to the other Chiefs,
and after inviting us to their Council Chamber, viz. their largest
wigwam, conducted us thither, the rest of the Indians following.
Just before we arrived we were again saluted with their musketry
drawn up as before. After some discourse relative to Monsieur
Bailly, the French Priest that Government have thought proper to
allow them, finding them uneasy that they had no priest among them
for some time past, I told them that the Governor had employed him
to go to the Indians to the eastward of Halifax and had sent me to
officiate with them in his absence. They then seemed well enough
satisfied, and at their desire I began prayers with them in
Mickmack, they all kneeling down and behaving very devoutly. The
vice concluded with an anthem and the blessing."
Mr. Wood says that although there were then at Aukpaque Indians of
three different tribes, Micmacs, Maliseets and Caribous,[99] they all
understood the Micmac language, and he expresses regret that he had
not been sent among them two years before, being satisfied that he
could have gained their confidence and good will.
[99] Probably Canibas or Kennebec Indians.
The Reverend Thomas Wood closed a laborious and successful ministry of
thirty years at Annapolis, where he died December 14, 1778.
Some account has already been given, in the chapter descriptive of the
progress of the settlement at Maugerville, of the first religious
teachers in that locality, Messrs. Wellman, Webster and Zephaniah
Briggs. We shall have something more to say of their first resident
minister, the Rev'd. Seth Noble, when we come to deal with events on
the river at the time of the American Revolution. As already stated
the first Protestant church on the river was erected at Maugerville in
the year 1775. This building was at first placed on a lot the title of
which was afterwards in dispute, and regarding the possession of which
there was rather a bitter quarrel between the old inhabitants and the
Loyalists. In consequence the building was removed to the lot in
Sheffield where the Congregational Church now stands. An interesting
account of this incident is given in the narrative of the Rev. Joshua
Marsden, a Methodist pioneer missionary on the St. John river, who
says:--
"The Presbyterian [i. e. Congregational] chapel at Sheffield, was
a church-like building of frame-work, with a spire steeple and a
spacious gallery. This chapel had been drawn down upon the ice of
the river more than five miles: it had first been erected at
Maugerville, upon a litigated lot of land, which the society, not
choosing to bring to the issue of a law-suit, they determined to
remove the chapel bodily to their own glebe, five miles lower down
the river. The whole settlement, men, horses and more than one
hundred yoke of oxen, were present to assist in this more than
herculean enterprise. The chapel was raised from its stone
foundation by immense lever screws. Prodigious beams of timber
were then introduced under the whole length of the building; into
these were driven large staples, to which the oxen were yoked with
strong chains of iron. When all things were ready for a movement,
at a given signal, each man standing by his horse or oxen, this
great building, capable of holding eight hundred persons, was
drawn along and down the bank of the river to its appointed place,
where another foundation having been prepared, it was again raised
by levers upon it with very little damage. Not a single pew in the
gallery or bottom having been removed in the process. In this
emigrated chapel, I had the satisfaction of preaching the gospel
of the kingdom to a large congregation. Perhaps you will wonder
how the ice of this mighty river bore upon its bosom so ponderous
a body; but your surprise will cease when I inform you that in the
depth of winter, it is from two to three feet in thickness, making
a bridge of aqueous crystal capable almost of bearing up a whole
town."