The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 5

Before the rebels had a chance to make a third attack, a sloop of war arrived in the Basin with four hundred men to reinforce the garrison.

Colonel Eddy seems not to have heard of the arrival of these troops.

Their presence, however, enabled Col. Gorham to take the offensive, and the rebel camp was attacked. Eddy did not wait to try the mettle of his men, but got away with the loss of one man. With as many of his followers as he could hold together he hastened toward Bay Verte. A short distance beyond the Inverma Farm, a squad took ambush in a thicket near a bridge, and when the regulars in pursuit were crossing the bridge the party fired a volley, killing several of the soldiers and wounding others. This so incensed the troops that they returned and set fire to Sheriff Allan's house, which was burned to the ground, together with a number of other buildings in the neighborhood. Mrs.

Allan and her children escaped to the woods, where they remained until hunger compelled them to come out. She was found some days after this by her father, Mark Patton, having lived for some time on baked potatoes picked up around the burned dwelling, and was taken to his home not far from the fort. Mrs. Allan was not allowed to remain long with her father, but was carried a prisoner to Halifax. She remained only in Halifax a few months when she was given her liberty and rejoined her husband at Machais.

Eddy, after going in the direction of Bay Verte for some time, finding he was not pursued, turned his steps toward Point Midgic, where he had called while on his march to Chignecto. From there he made his way back to Machais. Just what route he pursued, or how great the difficulties he met with in this long, tiresome journey, has never been given to the public. Machais, until the close of the war, was the rendezvous of privateers and all manner of adventurers, both before and after the arrival of Eddy and Allan. Colonel Eddy's escape from Chignecto ended the rebellion in that district so far as any hope remained of a successful attempt to hand over the government of the country to the New Englanders, but the differences of opinion among neighbors, the raids of rebel bands in the district, together with the burning of a number of buildings, created a strong feeling that it took years to allay.

Mr. James Dixon, in the "History of the Dixons," speaking of this period says:

"The rebels found more congenial employment in raiding the homes of the loyal and peaceable inhabitants, plundering them of such articles as they were in need of, and destroying or carrying away any guns or ammunition they might find. Mr. Dixon's home did not escape their unwelcome notice. His house was robbed of many valuable articles, some of which he kept for sale. For a considerable period the loyal inhabitants, notably the English settlers, were subjected to a state of anxiety, and lived in dread of a repet.i.tion of such unwelcome visits.

On one occasion, when some of these people were approaching the house, Mrs. Dixon hastily gathered up her silverware and other valuables and deposited them in a barrel of pig feed, where they quite escaped the notice of the visitors. On a later occasion, when somewhat similar troublous times existed, Mr. Dixon, with the aid of his negro servant, Cleveland, hid his money and other valuables in the earth, binding his servant by a solemn oath never to divulge to anyone the place of concealment."

Nor was all the destruction of property chargeable to the rebels. At this time a number of the loyal settlers, who, it is said, had been drinking freely, surrounded the house of Mr. Obediah Ayer, who was in sympathy with the rebels, and set fire to his place, intending to burn the inmates. Mrs. Ayer was warned by her neighbors and escaped to the woods with her baby in her arms. After the raiders departed she with her children found a temporary home with a neighbor. Her husband did not dare appear for many days, but hid in the woods by day and visited his family at night.

The raid of Allan on the St. John gave the Government uneasiness in that quarter for some time longer. As mentioned before, there were two Eddys, Jonathan and William. They owned adjoining farms in Fort Lawrence. The upper road leading from Fort Lawrence to Amherst still bears the name of the "Eddy Road." It was probably made through the Eddy grant, and the Eddys may have been instrumental in its construction.

It is related that William Eddy, after the rebellion, came back to Fort Lawrence to settle his business and take his wife and family out of the country. To escape being made a prisoner at that time he kept hid in a hay-stack in the day-time and visited his home during the night. One night the soldiers who were watching saw him enter the house and at once surrounded the place, sending in two of their number to bring out the prisoner. Mrs. Eddy would give no knowledge of her husband's whereabouts. The house was thoroughly searched, but the man could not be found. The soldiers were dumbfounded. The fact is, that when Mrs.

Eddy saw the soldiers coming, she told her husband to cover himself in a bin of grain in the chamber and place his mouth close to a crack on the side of the bin over which had been tacked a piece of list to prevent the grain from coming out. She would tear off the list and that would give him air to breathe. Her husband did as directed. When the officer who was making the search came to the grain-bin he thrust his sword into it, and said, "He is not there." Mr Eddy said afterwards that the sword went between his body and arm, so near was he being made a prisoner.

Inverma, the home of Sheriff Allan, is now owned, in part, by Councillor Amos Trueman, and is still called by that name. It consisted at that time of three hundred and forty-eight acres of marsh and upland and was no doubt part of the Allan grant of 1763. Besides the Sheriff's own house there were six or seven small houses occupied by Acadian families as tenants, also two large barns and four smaller ones.

Allan's wife was Mary Patton, the daughter of Mark Patton, who was at one time a large property-owner on the Isthmus. Patton Point, in the Missiquash valley, still goes by his name. His home farm joined the glebe lands of the parish, and was afterwards bought by William Trueman and given to his son, Thomas. I find the following entry in William Trueman's journal, referred to elsewhere:

"Old Mrs. Patton was buried at the burying-ground by Thomas Trueman, July 31st, in the 92nd year of her age."

This lady was no doubt Mrs. Allan's mother. She had continued to live at the old place after Thomas Trueman had taken possession, and as this was in the year 1808, she had lived thirty-two years after her daughter left the country.

The question has been asked, would it not have been better for the northern half of this continent if the Eddy rebellion had succeeded and what is now Canada had become one country with the United States? The name Americans could then fairly have been claimed by the citizens of the great Republic and a people whose interests and aspirations are identical, and whose religion, language and customs are the same, would have been united in carrying out the destiny of the Anglo-Saxon in America. This may sound very well, but events have transpired in the last hundred and twenty-five years that point unmistakably to the conclusion that the G.o.d of history intended this northern land called Canada to work out its own destiny independent of the southern Republic. At the period of the Eddy rebellion Nova Scotia was still in the cradle and had no grievances to redress. New Brunswick as a Province had no existence. Never in all history had a conquered country been treated so justly by the victors as had Quebec. Ontario at this time was but a western wilderness. It will thus be seen that there would have been no justification for the new settlers in this northern land to have joined hands with the thirteen older colonies.

Another preliminary objection can be found in the situation of the Loyalists of 1783, from the fact that one of the grandest band of exiles that was ever driven from fireside and country would have found no place on the continent to make new homes for themselves. This would have placed them in infinitely worse circ.u.mstances than that body of n.o.ble men and women of another race that twenty-eight years earlier in the century had been driven out as exiles to wander in hards.h.i.+p and want on that same New England coast. These Loyalists brought to Canada the sterling principle, the experience in local Government, the st.u.r.dy, independent manhood and business experience and energy which this northern land needed to make it one of the most prosperous and best governed countries in the world. To think what Canada would have been without the Loyalists helps one to see more clearly how fortunate it was that the Eddy rebellion was crushed.

The British Empire may owe more to the loyal Yorks.h.i.+re emigrants than has ever been fairly accorded to them. Canada as a coterie of colonies furnished Great Britain with a training school for her statesmen that she did not otherwise possess. In this way British North America has been the prime factor in placing Great Britain first among the nations of the world in the government of colonies. It is true English ministers and English governors made mistakes and had much to learn before the present system was fully adopted, but the descendants of the Loyalists and those who remained true to the Crown during the stormy years of the Revolution were not likely to stir up strife without a just cause. And is it claiming too much to say that to Canada's remaining loyal in 1776 is due to a very large extent the proud position Great Britain holds to-day as the mother of nations, the founder of the greatest colonial empire the world has yet seen?

There are those who believe that the principle of equality and fraternity, of government by the people and for the people, the freedom for which the Pilgrim Fathers faced the stormy Atlantic and for which Was.h.i.+ngton fought against such odds, has been worked out in fuller measure and juster proportions in Canada than in the United States.

Canada has helped greatly to emphasize the truth, only yet half understood by the world, that it makes little difference whether the chief ruler of a country is called president, king or emperor, or whether the government is called a monarchy or republic. These are but incidents. What is important, what is essential,if freedom is to be won and maintained, is that the people understand their rights and have the courage to maintain them at any sacrifice. It was the leaven of freedom working in the lump of the British people that gave the world the Magna Charta, Montford's rebellion, Cromwell and the Commonwealth, the Revolution of 1688,and the still greater Revolution of 1776.

This last event broke from the parent stem one of the strong branches of the Anglo-Saxon family, and gave each an opportunity to work out in different ways the ideals after which both were striving. And who will say that the descendants of Cromwellians and Quakers, Nonconformists and Churchmen, whose ancestors, from force of circ.u.mstances or love of country remained in their island home, are not to-day breathing the air of freedom as pure and unadulterated as their cousins on the banks of the Charles or in the valleys of the historic Brandywine. At any rate, we who live in this northern country, that escaped the cataclysm of 1776, feel that Canada has been no unimportant factor in helping to work out the great problem of government for and by the consent of the governed.

CHAPTER V

THE FIRST CHURCHES OF THE ISTHMUS.

THE spiritual interests of the people of old Chignecto have always been well-looked after. One of the first white men to visit the Isthmus with a view to settlement was a priest, and the man who wielded the largest influence in and around Fort Beausejour during the last years of the French occupation was a priest, the vicar-general of Canada. In more than one instance the a.s.sistance promised to the colonists in Acadia by the wealthy was provisional upon the conversion of the Indians to Christianity. During the French period three chapels were erected on the Isthmus--one at the Four Corners, Tantramar, one at Fort Beausejour, and one at Beauba.s.sin. These chapels were burned during the taking of Beausejour and the expulsion of the Acadians. The bell on the chapel at the Four Corners was buried by the Acadians at the intersection of two lines drawn from four springs to be seen in that locality yet. Some years after a party of Acadians, on getting the consent of Wm. Fawcett, who in the meantime had come into possession of the land, dug up the bell and carried it to Memramcook. The late Father Lefebre exchanged it for a larger one. It is believed that the bell from the Beausejour chapel is the one now used in St. Mark's church, Mount Whatley. This bell is ornamented with scrolls and fleur-de-lis and has the following inscription:

AD HONOREM DEI FECIT F.M. GROS, A ROCHEFORT, 1734.

The first Protestant ministers on the Isthmus were Episcopalians. Mr.

Woods, a clergyman of that denomination, was at Fort Lawrence in 1752, 1754 and 1756. In 1759 Rev. Thos. Wilkinson was at Fort c.u.mberland, and in 1760 it is recorded that Joshua Tiffs baptized Winkworth Allan at the fort. Between that date and the arrival of Rev. John Egleson no record has been found. Mr. Egleson was born a Presbyterian, and was educated for that Church. He was ordained, but afterwards changed his views, and joined the Anglicans. He was reordained by the Bishop of London, and sent, in 1769, to Chignecto, by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.

Reference is made in another part of this book to Mr. Egleson's capture by the Eddy rebels in 1776. He seems to have been the first to take possession of the glebe lands of the parish, and the farm was for many years called the "Egleson farm." The parish register containing the earliest records has been lost or destroyed, so that from the arrival of Mr. Egleson down to 1794 very little is known of the local history of the denomination.

In 1794 a meeting was held on the 27th February, at or near Fort c.u.mberland, and the following business was transacted: "Messrs. Gay, Siddall and Brownell were appointed a committee to prepare plans for a church, to be erected at once on the town plot, and to obtain subscriptions." The new church was to be 46 feet long and 34 feet wide, with 19-foot posts. Messrs. Gay, McMonagle and McCardy to be the Building Committee. This is the old St. Mark's Church, that stood so long at Mount Whatley. The first list of subscribers were:

William Allen, L3, in pine lumber.

Samuel Gay, L3, in timber.

Ralph Siddall, L3, in timber.

t.i.tus Knapp, L3, in drawing stone.

James Law, L3, in drawing stone.

Jerry Brownell, L1 10s., in timber.

The cost of the church, when finished, was L310. Of this amount the people subscribed L170. The Bishop of Nova Scotia gave L70, and there remained a debt of L70.

Having succeeded so well in building the church, a meeting was called, at the request of Rev. Mr. Willoughby, to provide a house for the clergyman. His request was granted, and in 1795, Mr. Milledge being then the resident minister, the church-wardens agreed to pay two-thirds of the amount of rent for the house in which he was living until the parsonage was built.

At a meeting of the vestrymen in 1796, the school lands of the parish were rented to Spiller Fillimore for L7 5s. These lands now bring an annual rental of $200. In 1810 the church-wardens of St. Mark's church were:

Amos Fowler. Samuel Gay.

James Ryan. John Trenholm.

Harmon Trueman. Chas. Oulton.

Samuel McCardy. Jas. Hewson.

William Copp. William Tingley.

Geo. Wells. Thos. Trueman.

Bill Chappell.

At a meeting held Nov. 2nd, 1818, it was resolved to take down the church and rebuild, making the width thirty feet. No reason is given for this strange proceeding. The contractors for the work were Wm.

Jones, Henry Chapman, and Thos. Trenholm. This building stood until 1880, when a new building of more modern architecture was erected on the same site, where it stands to-day. The names of the clergymen who have been resident or had the oversight of the church in Westmoreland since 1752, as far as can be found, are given below:

Mr. Wood, 1752-6. J. W. D. Gray.

Thos. Wilkinson, 1759. R. B. Wiggins, 1831.

Joshua Tiffs, 1760. G. S. Jarvis.

John Egleson, 1769. R. B. Wiggins.

Mr. Willoughby, 1794. Geo. Townshend.

John Milledge, 1795. Robert Donald Mr. Perkins, 1805. Richard Simonds.

Rev. C. Milner, 1822. Chas. Lee.

Donald Bliss, 1852-1902.

The following entries referring to church matters are from Mr. Wm.

Trueman's Journal:

"July 26th, 1803--Rev. Mr. Gray preached at the church, from Proverbs 6 c., 3v., 'Humble thyself and make sure thy friend.'" Mr. Gray was probably a visiting clergyman.

"July, 1806, Oct. 16th--William Allan was buried at the church-yard at Camp Hill, attended by a large concourse of people. Mr. Milledge preached a sermon."

"December 25th, 1806 (Christmas Day)--Mr. Bamford preached at Stone Meeting House (Methodist), and after, Mr. Perkins administered the sacrament. The house was full of people."

As far as is known there was not a resident Episcopal clergyman in Amherst until 1823. Christ Church was erected that year on the county courthouse ground. In 1842, through the efforts of Canon Townshend, a new church was built on the present site. Rev. J. W. D. Gray was the first clergyman. The Rev. Canon Townshend came to Amherst in 1834, and held the rectors.h.i.+p until his death.

METHODISTS.