The Odd Fellows' Hall--The fire in Horsfield Street--The Sweep
along Germain Street--The old Baptist Church--Some early
Ministers--Two fiery ordeals--The Brick Church--The Ruins--The
Bay View Hotel--An old Landmark gone--The blazing Barracks--St.
James's--The Hazen House--St. Malachi's Chapel--The first Roman
Catholic Church.
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a very numerous and widely
respected body in St. John. Its roll of membership embraces many of the
best names in the city, and the order has grown from a very humble
beginning to quite an influential position in the community. It is only
a few years ago that some zealous members of the order banded themselves
together and formed Pioneer Lodge, No. 9. In a little time the lodge
grew so rapidly that it became too cumbersome to work, and new lodges
had to be made--first it was Beacon, then Peerless, and latterly Siloam,
in this city alone; besides, the order is strong in Moncton and also in
Fredericton. An encampment, too, flourishes, and is largely adding to
its membership. The Odd Fellows' Hall was pleasantly situate in what
used to be No. 5 Engine House. The hall was commodious and neatly
furnished, and the ante-rooms were convenient and well adapted for
carrying on the exercises of the order. The ground flat and second story
were occupied by Mr. Richard Welch, and the Odd Fellows met in the room
immediately overhead. The loss by fire to the order was quite
extensive, though a good deal of the regalia and paraphernalia were
saved through the forethought of some of the members who managed to get
into the building in time. The fire swept both sides of Horsfield
Street, and carried along with it the dwelling of P. Besnard, Esq., and
the house where James Hannay, the historian, lived. Mr. Hannay, who was
at Oakpoint during the conflagration preparing his history of Acadia,
lost a number of valuable books, including some high-priced and scarce
volumes.[G] Some two or three hundred pages of his history were printed,
but these were destroyed in the printing houses where they were kept.
Fortunately Mr. Hannay had with him one copy of the sheets as far as
printed, so the loss is not irretrievable. A portion of the unprinted
manuscript, however, shared the common fate of everything that came in
contact with fire on that fatal day, and this the historian had to
re-write. In this street the old Theatre[H] once stood, in which
professionals and amateurs read Shakspeare and Massinger to admiring
audiences. Among the amateurs, some of our readers may remember, were
the late Richard Seely, who was accounted a good actor in his day, and
the late Col. Otty, whose Othello was a really creditable performance.
While the fire was rendering desolate this street, the other wing of it
was ruthlessly invading Germain Street, to the very water's edge. Otis
Small's corner house, the Thomson House, some of the inmates of which
had to flee in small boats, the residences of the Messrs. McMillan,
father and son, the old Bayard House, the Seed's property, the former
residence of W. O. Smith, Esq., No. 119, and then in the occupancy of
the inmates of the Home for the Aged, some of whom got away in hardly
enough time to save their lives.
Mr. Carey's Parsonage was on fire very soon after this, and all efforts
to save it or the old Baptist Church next door, proved unavailing. In a
short time only a blackened wall of smouldering ruins stood there to
tell in more eloquent language than words could relate, of the sad havoc
which the fire-king had made. For many years this church was to the
Baptists, what Trinity, St. Andrew's, and Germain Street Chapel were to
their denominations. It, too, had a history of its own, as dear to the
people who Sunday after Sunday sat within its walls and heard the word
of God spoken, as the historic data which filled every niche and corner
of the first English Church in the city. It was first built of wood
three score years ago, on the old site where the brick church stood, a
period ago since, and such men as John M. Wilmot, Thomas Pettingill, and
Jeremiah Drake, were the leading pillars and supporters of a body of
Christians distinguished alike for their charity, faithfulness, and
liberality. The church was organized in 1810, ground was broken in 1818
and the large frame building was opened for service July 12th of the
same year. Wm. Stenning and Thomas Harding purchased the site, and the
former gentleman superintended the building of the edifice. For many
years this was the only meeting-house which the Baptists had, and there
are men living to-day who remember the struggles and trials which the
denomination experienced in trying to plant a foothold in the sparsely
populated district which St. John then was. The pastors of this church
were known far and wide as earnest and faithful men, and such names as
Samuel Robinson, Casewell, Bill, Henry Vaughan, and G. M. W. Carey, live
in the hearts of all people and add lustre to any faith. When the
question of tearing down the old structure which had withstood the
storms of nearly half a century, and the replacing of it with a new one
to be built of brick was proposed, there were many in the congregation
who had grown up with the church through the long decades of time, and
who had watched the building step by step, advance to its completion,
and proudly take its place among the sacred edifices of the street of
churches. These men opposed the measure, but the march of new ideas
prevailed, and in 1863, the last of the old church was borne away and a
handsome brick building was begun. The former vestry was converted into
a parsonage, and the Rev. Henry Vaughan, son of the late Simon Vaughan,
of St. Martin's, was the minister in charge. The church cost forty
thousand dollars. Mr. Vaughan died in 1864. When Mr. Carey, the present
pastor, arrived in St. John in 1865, the church was being built and he
preached for a while in the basement, and in December, 1866, the first
sermon in the church proper was preached by the same eloquent minister.
A tablet was erected to the memory of his predecessor in the church. In
1873 this church was partially destroyed by fire, but the enterprising
congregation soon had it up again. Thus has this edifice passed through
two ordeals of like character. The church had just begun to recover from
its first disaster. The liberality of its people had placed it out of
debt, and while in the enjoyment of a splendid prosperity it was
stricken down before the very eyes of the powerless people who loved it
most. No one could do anything but watch the rapid demolition, and
behold the rafters swing and the building rock and shake, and observe
the long sinewy flames grapple with the walls and hurl them to the
earth. There were strong men that day who wept when they witnessed the
destruction. And when the sad work was done, some gathered near the
ruins and looked down upon the site that had held a church while they
were yet babes, and old gray-haired veterans who had worshipped here all
their lives, felt that death would not be so bitter now since church and
home were gone forever. The insurance on this church was very light and
the loss is very heavy. The pastor saved literally nothing of his own
effects and his fine library and the intellectual labour of twenty
years, passed from his gaze with the rapidity of the whirlwind.
The fire next crossed the street, and attacked Mr. Harding's houses,
destroying his residence, and that of Mr. Joseph Allison. Queen Street
shared the common fate; and on the side of Germain Street opposite the
church, in the building where Mrs. Crane had her seminary for young
ladies, the inmates were forced to escape in the International steamer,
and get away from the fire by water. The street was impassable, and all
hope of getting through to a locality which had not yet been reached by
the flames had to be abandoned. Terror seized the ladies for the moment,
but the courage which sometimes comes with despair, made them cool
enough to think of the water. The strength of iron came to them, and in
a moment they were saved. It was before this house that a woman fell on
her knees and offered up prayer; and here it was that another woman,
fearing the judgment day at hand, gave utterance to loud wails and
cries, that sent a pang to every heart. In the melee, an old lady
belonging to the Home for the Aged was lost, and her feeble sisters in
adversity moaned and mourned for her all through the night. The next day
she was found, and joy came to some hearts that had known no like
emotion for several years. Those kindly old ladies living so long
together were as one family, and a vacant chair at the table cruelly
reminded them of the broken homes they had too often seen. The houses
across Queen Street, on this same side of Germain Street, were not long
in following. Pagan Place, the old residence of the late Edward Allison,
Stephen Blizard's house on the other side, John W. Cudlip's residence,
in Germain Street, seemed to burn at the same time. The Bay View
Hotel--a valuable structure that reminded the spectator of the old
feudal time, when castles were residences of the great, was erected in
the year 1819, by Henry Wright, Collector, and used as a private
residence up to about twelve years ago. It was built by day's work, and
in those days the workmen received every Saturday night their pay in
Spanish doubloons. Change was very scarce, and there was no paper money.
Mr. Henry Wright died in 1829, and the house then fell into the
occupancy of the late Wm. Wright, Advocate General, and John Boyd, M.D.
Mr. Wilson was its lessee latterly, and it became an hotel under his
management. It held a commanding position, and looked far out to sea.
Strangers always paused to look up to the splendid front and defiant
head, which reminded them of the old strongholds which render historic
every inch of the old land across the blue water. And to-day, the ruins
look even more picturesque and grand than the building did in its
proudest days. Another landmark has been taken away, and it did not long
survive those who dwelt in its spacious halls in the days of the long
ago.
But while the fire was busy with this portion of the City, it was also
extremely active and equally destructive in the lower part of St. John.
The barracks were even burned down long before it was deemed likely that
the Victoria Hotel would go. The sparks travelling in this direction
with great rapidity, soon communicated with the long, low building which
was built for the troops in 1819.[I] The fire, when it reached here had
full scope. Nothing stood in its way, and it really spent its greatest
strength here. The majority of the houses in this quarter were composed
of wood, and so many of them were close together, that four or five
houses were burned to the ground in about the same space that in
ordinary times would be spent in consuming one. The burning of the
barracks was witnessed by several thousand persons, and, for a while
there were some who fancied that the blaze would cease with the
destruction of this property. But, alas, for the fallacy of human hopes.
The great headway of the flame was made, and nothing could stop it, till
from sheer exhaustion, it spent itself. But the eager wind kept fanning
it into fury whenever it shewed signs of abatement and not until it
reached the barren banks along the water's edge did it relinquish its
grasp on men's household goods and homes. Even then it did not stop at
once, for small scrubs of trees, bits of shrubbery and grass fed it for
a while. Indeed the fire may be said to have taken a new lease of life
in those back places, and the rookeries of whole streets were swept into
ruin and their inmates hurried into greater misery than they had ever
known before. In Main Street, St. James (Episcopalian) Church was
burned; it caught very soon from a flying spark. This church was erected
in the summer of 1850 by Trinity Church. The parish was set off from
Trinity in 1852, but the church was built two years before; the dividing
line of the parish was south of Queen Street; the first rector was the
Rev. John Armstrong who was succeeded by his son, Rev. Wm. Armstrong who
held the rectorship nearly twenty years. The building was of the
Gothic cruciform style of architecture and Mr. M. Stead was the
architect. It had no tower. The first wardens were the late John R.
Robinson, Esq., father of the agent in this city of the Bank of Nova
Scotia, and the late Wm. Wright. The church was situate on the south
side of Main Street, between Sydney and Carmarthen Streets and the lots
ran through to Sheffield Street. The Sunday-school building was built in
the rear.
The Sheffield Street Mission House and the Carmarthen Street Mission
House (Methodist) were structures of late origin, and for a while did
much good in the locality where they were placed. The fire visited them
very soon and they were burned in a short time. All along Carmarthen
Street the flames sped quickly, completely encircling every house with
which it came in contact, and whenever they met a crossing street the
fire drove through it with seeming greater fury and impetuosity. The
lately erected Adam's terrace--a row of comfortable dwellings just
finished within the year--burned with a tremendous roar that was heard
above the din, for blocks away. In these houses were the families of
Robt. Turner, Fred. R. Fairweather and W. C. Watson, Esqs., and so
quickly did the flames spread that hardly a stick of furniture was
saved, and hundreds of valuable books were burned. Judge Watters's
residence, the home of Attorney-General King, Henry A. Austin's, Madame
Caritte's, and the Henderson houses, hardly lived thirty minutes in the
winding sheets of flame. The fire came up Carmarthen Street, up
Princess Street, up Leinster Street, up Duke Street, up Orange Street,
to the rear of those streets and down King Street east and also in its
rear on a portion of the south side. Many believed and there seemed good
grounds for that belief, that but for the torch of the incendiary,
Leinster Street would have been preserved. No one doubts but that it was
set on fire by some miscreant either through madness or through the hope
of gain. This is beyond dispute. The fire was going in the opposite
direction, nothing could bring it up towards King Square and the head of
Leinster Street. It was out of all reason to suppose that the sparks
could be carried to these points for the wind was opposite, and the open
square had, till late in the evening, kept the flames away and broke the
connection. The old[J] Hazen House built by Dr. Thomas Paddock, which is
still standing to-day, and passed safely through the fire, stood
invincible at the head of a column of buildings. The fire was confined
to its own seething territory, and this block between Leinster and East
King Street, and the whole of King Square were safe. But as the night
advanced,[K] a house far away from the reach of flying cinders, was
observed on a sudden to be throwing out flames, and from that moment all
knew the eastern portion of the city was doomed to destruction.
Christian Robertson's mammoth stable, with its splendid livery
appointments, and large stock of feed and hay, representing large value,
was only a plaything of the moment. Old St. Malachi's Chapel, the first
Roman Catholic Church in the city, caught from the sparks which were
borne on the breeze from the stable. Its destruction was complete. The
first service held by a clergyman of the Faith in St. John, was in the
City Hall, Market Square, 1813, by Rev. Charles French. St. Malachi's
Chapel was opened by that gentleman, October 1st, 1815. Among the
priests who succeeded him in that place were Father McQuade, who in
1819, had thirty women and thirty-five men for a congregation, and
Fathers Macmahon, Carrol, and Dumphy. Mr. Carrol came from Halifax, and
was the nephew of the first Roman Catholic Bishop of the Maritime
Provinces--Bishop Burk. Of late years St. Malachi's was used for school,
lecture, bazaar, and other purposes. Some of the most eloquent efforts
of J. C. Ferguson and R. J. Ritchie, have been delivered from the
platform of this Hall, on temperance and other topics. St. Malachi's was
used as a church until the cathedral was opened under Bishop Connolly's
charge. The St. Vincent De Paul Society met in this hall for several
years, as well as those other excellent institutions, the C. T. A. and
St. Joseph's Societies.
FOOTNOTES:
[G] Smith's History of Virginia, Ed. of 1627, on large paper:
Smith's History of New York, large paper edition, 1758, presentation
copy to Governor Ellis, of Georgia: and a very valuable historical
library on New England and Acadian History.
[H] This was the old Friary.
[I] Before this the troops lived on Fort Howe Hill, and the
artillery at Hare's Wharf.
[J] The lot where the Hazen House now stands (King Square) was
bought in 1790, by Mr. Thomas Horsfield for L6 5s., and sold by him five
years later for L5, to a number of gentlemen who erected a grist mill
there. In 1800, they abandoned the enterprise, and in 1818, the spot was
used as a barracks at the time when one-third of the militia were called
out for a few months, when war with the United States was threatened. A
day or two after the fire in June, 1877, the Bank of New Brunswick
opened a temporary office there for a few days, and a soldier of the
97th regiment kept guard over the building at night. Some of the 62nd
also did duty here.
[K] The fire broke out in rear of Dr. Boyle Travers' residence.