Glimpses of the Past Part 23

The goods kept in the store at Portland Point for the Indian trade included powder and shot for hunting, provisions, blankets and other "necessaries" and such articles as Indian needles, colored thread, beads of various colors, a variety of b.u.t.tons--bra.s.s b.u.t.tons, silver plated b.u.t.tons, double-gilt b.u.t.tons, scarlet b.u.t.tons and blue mohair b.u.t.tons--scarlet blue and red cloth, crimson broadcloth, red and blue stroud, silver and gold laced hats, gilt trunks, Highland garters, silver crosses, round silver broaches, etc., etc.

The old account books bear evidence of being well thumbed, for Indian debts were not easy to collect, and white men's debts were harder to collect in ancient than in modern days. In point of fact the red man and the white man of the River St. John ran a close race in their respective ledgers. For in a statement of accounts rendered after the operations of the company had lasted rather more than two years, the debts due were as follows: From the English 607 11s. 9d. and from the Indians 615 7s. 9d. Old and thumb-worn as the account books are, written with ink that had often been frozen and with quill pens that often needed mending, they are extremely interesting as relics of the past, and are deserving of a better fate than that which awaited them when by the merest accident they were rescued from a dismal heap of rubbish.

In their business at Portland Point, Simonds and White kept four sets of accounts: one for their Indian trade, a second for their business with the white inhabitants, a third for that with their own employees, and a fourth for that with the garrison at Fort Frederick.

In glancing over the leaves of the old account books the first thing likely to attract attention is the extraordinary consumption of West India spirits and New England rum. This was by no means confined to the Company's laborers, for at that time the use of rum as a beverage was almost universal. It was dispensed as an ordinary act of hospitality and even the preacher cheerfully accepted the proffered cup. It was used in winter to keep out the cold and in summer to keep out the heat. It was in evidence alike at a wedding or a funeral. No barn-raising or militia general muster was deemed to be complete without the jug, and in process of time the use of spirits was so habitual that Peter Fisher was able to quote statistics in 1824 to prove that the consumption of ardent liquors was nearly twenty gallons per annum for every male person above sixteen years of age. While the use of rum may be regarded as the universal custom of the day, at the same time tobacco was not in very general use. The use of snuff, however, was quite common.

In the course of a few years the variety of articles kept in stock at the company's store increased surprisingly until it might be said they sold everything "from a needle to an anchor." The paces at which some of the staple articles were quoted appear in the foot note.[68] Among other articles in demand were fishing tackle, blue rattan and fear-nothing jackets, milled caps, woollen and check shirts, horn and ivory combs, turkey garters, knee buckles, etc. Among articles that strike us as novel are to be found tin candlesticks, bra.s.s door k.n.o.bs, wool cards, whip-saws, skates, razors and even mouse traps. Writing paper was sold at 1s. 3d. per quire. The only books kept in stock were almanacks, psalters, spelling books and primers.

[68] Flour pr. bbl., 2 2 6; Indian corn pr. bushel, 5 shillings; potatoes do., 2s. 6d.; apples do., 2s. 6d.; b.u.t.ter pr. lb., 9d.; cheese pr. lb., 6d.; chocolate pr. lb., 1s.; tea per lb., 7s.; coffee per lb., 1s. 3d.; pepper pr. lb., 3s.; brown sugar 7d., per lb.; loaf sugar, 1s. 2d. per lb.; raisins, 9s. per lb.; tobacco, 7d. per lb.; salt, 10d. per peck; mola.s.ses, 2s.

6d. per gallon; New England rum, 1s. 6d. per quart; West India do., 2s. 6d. per quart; beef, 4d. per lb.; pork, 6d. per lb.; veal, 3-1/2d. per lb.; cider, 12s. to 18s. pr. bbl.

Boots, 20s.; men's shoes, 6s.; women's do., 5s.; men's pumps, 8s.; mittens, 1s. 6d. hose, 4s.; beaver hat, 20s.; black silk handkerchief, 6s. 9d.; check handkerchief, 2s. 6d.;.

broadcloth, 10s pr. yd.; red stroud, 8s. per yd.; scarlet German serge, 8s. per yd.; scarlet shalloon, 3s. 9d. per yd.; English duck, 1s. 9d. pr. yd.; white blanket, 13s. 3d.; 1 oz.

thread, 6d.; 1 doz. jacket b.u.t.tons, 7-1/2d.; pins, 1 M., 9d.

Axe, 6s. 3d.; knife, 1s.; board nails. 1s. 2d. per C.; ten penny nails, 50 for 8d.; double tens, 1s. 7d. per C.; shingle nails, 6d. per C.; 1 pane gla.s.s (7 by 9), 6d.; pewter porringer, 1s. 8d.; looking gla.s.s, 16s.; steel trap, 15s.; powder, 2s. 6d. per lb.; shot, 5d. per lb.; buckshot, 1s. 3d.

per lb.; 6 flints, 6d.

Still though the variety at first glance seems greater than might have been expected, a little further inspection will satisfy us that the life of that day was one of extreme simplicity, of luxuries there were few, and even the necessaries of life were sometimes scanty enough.

One hundred and forty years have pa.s.sed since James Simonds and James White set themselves down at the head of Saint John harbor as pioneers in trade to face with indomitable energy and perseverance the difficulties of their situation. These were neither few nor small, but they were Ma.s.sachusetts men and in their veins there flowed the blood of the Puritans. The determination that enabled their progenitors to establish themselves around the sh.o.r.es of the old Bay States upheld them in the scarcely less difficult task of creating for themselves a home amidst the rocky hillsides that encircled the Harbor of St.

John.

Today the old pioneers of 1764 would hardly recognize their ancient landmarks. The ruggedness of old Men-ah-quesk has in a great measure disappeared; valleys have been filled and hills cut down. The mill-pond where stood the old tide mill is gone and the Union depot with its long freight sheds and maze of railway tracks occupies its place. "Mill" street and "Pond" street alone remain to tell of what has been. The old grist mill near Lily Lake and its successors have long since pa.s.sed away. It certainly was with an eye to business and not to pleasure, that Hazen, Simonds and White built the first roadway to Rockwood Park. Could our pioneers in trade revisit the scene of their labors and note the changes time has wrought what would be their amazement? They would hardly recognize their surroundings. Instead of rocks and crags covered with spruce and cedar, with here and there an open glade, and the wide spreading mud flats at low tide they would behold the wharves that line our sh.o.r.es, the ocean steamships lying in the channel, grain elevators that receive the harvests of Canadian wheat-fields two thousand miles away, streets traversed by electric cars and pavements traversed by thousands of hurrying feet, bicyclists darting hither and thither, squares tastefully laid out and adorned with flowers, public buildings and residences of goodly proportions and by no means devoid of beauty, palatial hotels opening their doors to guests from every clime, inst.i.tutions for the fatherless and the widow, the aged, the poor, the unfortunate, the sick the insane, churches with heaven directing spires, schools whose teachers are numbered by the hundred and pupils by the thousand, public libraries, courts of justice and public offices of nearly every description, business establishments whose agents find their way into every nook and corner of old-time Acadie, railways and steamboats that connect the city with all parts of the globe, splendid bridges that span the rocky gorge at the mouth of the St. John where twice in the course of every twenty-four hours the battle, old as the centuries, rages between the outpouring torrent of the mighty river and the inflowing tide of the bay.

A few years since the writer of this history in an article in the New Brunswick Magazine endeavored to contrast a Sat.u.r.day night of the olden time with one of modern days.[69]

[69] New Brunswick Magazine of October, 1898, p. 190.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A COTTAGE OF TODAY.]

"Sat.u.r.day night in the year 1764--The summer sun sinks behind the hills and the glow of evening lights the harbor. At the landing place at Portland Point, one or two fishing boats are lying on the beach, and out a little from the sh.o.r.e a small square sterned schooner lies at her anchor. The natural lines of the harbor are clearly seen. In many places the forest has crept down nearly to the water's edge.

Wharves and shipping there are none. Ledges of rock, long since removed, crop up here and there along the harbor front. The silence falls as the day's work is ended at the little settlement, and the sound of the waters rushing through the falls seems, in the absence of other sounds, unnaturally predominant. Eastward of Portland Pond we see the crags and rocks of the future city of the Loyalists, the natural ruggedness in some measure hidden by the growth of dark spruce and graceful cedar, while in the foreground lies the graceful curve of the "Upper Cove" where the forest fringes the waters edge. We may easily cross in the canoe of some friendly Indian and land where, ten years later, the Loyalists landed, but we shall find none to welcome us. The spot is desolate, and the stillness only broken by the occasional cry of some wild animal, the song of the bird in the forest and the ripple of waves on the sh.o.r.e.

The shadows deepen as we return to the Point, and soon the little windows of the settlers' houses begin to glow. There are no curtains to draw or blinds to pull down or shutters to close in these humble dwellings, but the light, though un.o.bstructed shines but feebly, for 'tis only the glimmer of a tallow candle that we see or perhaps the flickering of the firelight from the open chimney that dances on the pane.

In the homes of the dwellers at St. John Sat.u.r.day night differs little from any other night. The head of the house is not concerned about the marketing or telephoning to the grocer; the maid is not particularly anxious to go "down town;" the family bath tub may be produced (and on Monday morning it will be used for the family washing), but the hot water will not be drawn from the tap. The family retire at an early hour, nor are their slumbers likely to be disturbed by either fire alarm or midnight train. And yet in the olden times the men, we doubt not, were wont to meet on Sat.u.r.day nights at the little store at the Point to compare notes and to talk over the few topics of interest in their monotonous lives. We seem to see them even now--a little coterie--nearly all engaged in the company's employ, mill hands, fishermen, lime-burners, laborers, while in a corner James White pores over his ledger posting his accounts by the light of his candle and now and again mending his goose-quill pen. But even at the store the cheerful company soon disperses; the early-closing system evidently prevails, the men seek their several abodes and one by one the lights in the little windows vanish. There is only one thing to prevent the entire population from being in good time for church on Sunday morning, and that is there is not any church for them to attend.

Then and now! We turn from our contemplation of Sat.u.r.day night as we have imagined it in 1764 to look at a modern Sat.u.r.day night in St.

John. No greater contrast can well be imagined. Where once were dismal shades of woods and swamps, there is a moving gaily-chattering crowd that throngs the walks of Union, King and Charlotte streets. The feeble glimmer of the tallow candle in the windows of the few houses at Portland Point has given place to the blaze of hundreds of electric lights that shine far out to sea, twinkling like bright stars in the distance, and reflected from the heavens, serving to illuminate the country for miles around. Our little knot of villagers in the olden days used to gather in their one little store to discuss the day's doing; small was the company, and narrow their field of observation; and their feeble gossip is today replaced by the rapid click of the telegraph instruments, the rolling of the steam-driven printing press and the cry of the newsboy at every corner; the events of all the continents are proclaimed in our streets almost as soon as they occur.

And yet from all the luxury and ease, as well as from the anxiety and cares of busy modern days, we like sometimes to escape and get a little nearer to the heart of nature and to adopt a life of rural simplicity not far removed from that which once prevailed at Portland Point, content with some little cottage, remote from the hurry and din of city life in which to spend the good old summer time."

CHAPTER XVIII.

ST. JOHN AND ITS BUSINESS ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY YEARS AGO.

The circ.u.mstances under which the trading company of Blodget, Simonds, Hazen, Peaslie, White and Richard Simonds was organized in 1764 have been already described. The original contract is yet in existence and in a very excellent state of preservation. It is endorsed "Contract for St. Johns & Pa.s.samaquodi."[70] A fac-simile of the signatures appended to it is here given.

[70] The contract was drawn with much care and has been preserved in the Collections of the N. B. Historical Society, Vol. I., p.

187.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Signatures]

A short account may be given of each member of the partnership.

Samuel Blodget was a Boston man, somewhat older than the other members of the company, careful and shrewd, possessed of some money and little learning. He had been a.s.sociated with William Hazen in contracts for supplying the troops on Lake Champlain in the recent French war; there seems to have been also a remote family connection between Samuel Blodget and James Simonds. Mr. Blodget's connection with the company lasted a little more than two years. During this time a considerable part of the furs, fish, lime and lumber obtained by Simonds and White at the River St. John were consigned to him at Boston. In return Blodget supplied goods for the Indian trade and other articles needed, but his caution proved a source of dissatisfaction to the other partners and Hazen & Jarvis at the end of the first year's business wrote to Simonds & White, "Mr. Blodget tells us that he never expected to advance more than a quarter of the outsets. We think in this he does not serve us very well, as we can't see into the reason of our advancing near three-quarters and doing more than ten times the business and his having an equal share of the profits. Pray give us your opinion on that head. You may rest a.s.sured that we will not leave one stone unturned to keep you constantly supply'd and believe, even if we should not have the requisite a.s.sistance from Mr. Blodget, we shall be able to effect it." To this James Simonds replies, "With respect to Mr. Blodget's not advancing more than precisely 1/4 part of the outsets is what I never before understood; I am sure by his situation that he can do but a little part of the Business and therefore think he ought to excell in his proportion of Supplys rather than to fall short."

A second year of the partnership pa.s.sed and Samuel Blodget became exceedingly serious about the ultimate outcome of the venture. He wrote a letter on the 18th March, 1766, to Simonds & White of which the extract that follows is a part:

"I have been Largely concerned in partnerships before Now but Never so Ignorant of any as of the present, which I am willing to Impute it to your hurry of Business, But Let me Tell you that partners are in a high degree guilty of Imprudence to Continue a Large Trade for Two years without Settling or knowing whether they have Lost a hundred pounds or not--although they may be ever so Imersed in Business, for the Sooner they Stop the better, provided they are Losing money--as it seames in Mr. Hazen's oppinion we have Lost money--perhaps you may Know to the Contrary. But then how agreable would it be to me (who have a Large Sum in your hands) to know as much as you do. Pray Suffer me to ask you, can you wonder to find me anxious about my Interest when I am so Ignorant what it is in? I am sure you don't Gent'n. I am not in doubt of your Integrity. I think I know you Both Two well. But common prudence calls Loudly upon us all to adjust our accounts as soon as may be. I have not the Least Line under yours and Mr.

White's hands that the Articles which we signed the first years, which was dated the First of March, 1764,--which was but for one yeare--should Continue to the present Time, nor do I doubt your onour, but Still mortallety Requiyers it to be done and I should take it Coind to Receive Such a Righting sent by both of you."

Mr. Blodget's uneasiness as to the outcome of the business was set at rest very shortly after he wrote the above, for on April 5th Hazen and Jarvis tell their partners at St. John:--

"We have purchased Mr. Blodget's Interest, for which we are to pay him his outsetts. We are in hopes that we shall be able to carry on the Business better without than with him. * * We must beg you would be as frugal as possible in the laying out of any money that benefits will not be immediately reaped from, and that you will make as large remittances as you possibly can to enable us to discharge the Company's debt to Blodget, for we shall endeavor all in our power to discharge our obligations to him as we do not chuse to lay at his Mercy."

Thus it appears that if Samuel Blodget's two years connection with the company was not greatly to his advantage, it did him no material injury. From this time he ceases to have any interest for us in the affairs at Portland Point.

James Simonds, whose name is second among the signers of the business contract of 1764, may be regarded as the founder of the first permanent settlement at the mouth of the River St. John. His most remote ancestor in America was William Simonds of Woburn, Ma.s.sachusetts. This William Simonds married Judith Phippen, who came to America in the ship "Planter" in 1635. Tradition says that as the vessel drew near her destination land was first described by Judith Phippen, which proved to be the headland now called "Point Judith." Among the pa.s.sengers of the "Planter" were the ancestors of many well known families in America, bearing the familiar names of Peabody, Perley, Beardsley, Carter, Hayward, Reed, Lawrence, Cleveland, Davis and Peters. In 1643 Judith Phippen became the wife of William Simonds. The house in which they lived at Woburn, Ma.s.s., and where their twelve children were born, is probably yet standing--at least it was when visited a few years since by one of their descendants living in this province. William Simonds' tenth child, James, was the grandfather of our old Portland Point pioneer.

He married Susanna Blodget and their sixth child, Nathan, was the father of James Simonds, who came to St. John. Nathan Simonds married Sarah Hazen of Haverhill, an aunt of William Hazen, and their oldest child James (the subject of this sketch) was born at Haverhill, December 10, 1735.

James Simonds, as mentioned in a former chapter, served in "the old French war" and was with his cousin Captain John Hazen in the campaign against Fort Ticonderoga. His subsequent career we have already touched upon and he will naturally continue to be a leading character in the story of the early history of St. John. He was evidently a man of stout const.i.tution and vigor of body, for he not only survived all his contemporaries who came to St. John, but he outlived every member of the first New Brunswick legislature and every official appointed by the crown at the organization of the province. He pa.s.sed to his rest in the house he had built at Portland Point at the patriarchal age of 95 years. His widow Hannah (Peabody) Simonds died in 1840 at the age of 90 years.

Of James Simonds' large family of fourteen children several were prominent in the community. Hon. Charles Simonds was for years the leading citizen of Portland. He was born the same year the Loyalists landed in St. John, and was a member for St. John county in the House of a.s.sembly from 1821 until his death in 1859, filling during that time the positions of speaker and leader of the government.

Hon. Richard Simonds, born in 1789, represented the county of Northumberland in the House of a.s.sembly when but twenty-one years of age and sat from 1810 to 1828, when he was appointed treasurer of the province. He filled for a short time the position of speaker of the a.s.sembly, and from 1829 until his death in 1836 was a member of the Legislative Council. Sarah, one of the daughters of James Simonds, married (Sept. 10, 1801) Thomas Millidge, the ancestor of the Millidges of St. John; her youngest sister Eliza married (Aug. 9, 1801) Henry Gilbert, merchant of St. John, from whom the members of this well known family are descended.

William Hazen, the third of the signers of the partnership contract, was born in Haverhill July 17, 1738. His great-grandfather, Edward Hazen, the first of the name in America, was a resident of Rowley, Ma.s.sachusetts, as early as the year 1649. By his wife Hannah Grant he had four sons and seven daughters. The youngest son Richard, born August 6, 1669, inherited the large estate of his stepfather, George Browne, of Haverhill. This Richard Hazen was grandfather of James Simonds as well as of William Hazen; he married Mary Peabody and had a family of five sons and six daughters (one of the latter was the mother of James Simonds.) The third son, Moses Hazen was the ancestor of the Hazens of New Brunswick.

The wife of Moses Hazen was Abigail White, aunt of James White who came to St. John. Their sons John, Moses and William have a special interest for us. John, the oldest distinguished himself as a captain of the Ma.s.sachusetts troops in the French war. He married Anne Swett of Haverhill, and had a son John, who came with his uncle William to St. John in 1775 and settled at Burton on the River St. John, where he married Dr. William McKinstry's daughter, Priscilla, and had a family of twelve children. J. Douglas Hazen, of St. John, M. P. P., for Sunbury County, is one of his descendants.

Moses Hazen, the second son has been mentioned as commander of one of the companies of the Fort Frederick garrison in 1759; he became a Brigadier General in the American army in the Revolutionary war.

William Hazen, the third son and co-partner of Simonds and White, was born in Haverhill, July 17, 1738. He married, July 14, 1764, Sarah Le Baron of Plymouth.

Their family was even larger than that of James Simonds and included sixteen children. Of these Elizabeth married the elder Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the time of his death in 1824 administrator of government; Sarah Lowell married Thomas Murray (grandfather of the late Miss Frances Murray of St. John, one of the cleverest women the province has ever produced) and after his early decease became the wife of Judge William Botsford--their children were Senator Botsford, George Botsford and Dr. Le Baron Botsford; Charlotte married General Sir John Fitzgerald; Frances Amelia married Col.

Charles Drury of the imperial army, father of the late Ward Chipman Drury.

Among the more distinguished descendants of William Hazen by the male line were Hon. Robert L. Hazen--popularly known as "Curly Bob"--recorder of the city of St. John, a very eminent leader in our provincial politics and at the time of his death a Canadian senator; also Robert F. Hazen who was mayor of St. John and one of its most influential citizens.

The elder William Hazen died in 1814 at the age of 75 years. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Chipman, died at the Chipman House May 18, 1852, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists and her son, Chief Justice Chipman, died November 26, 1851, the sixty seventh anniversary of the organisation of the first supreme court of the province. The widow of Chief Justice Chipman died the 4th of July, 1876, the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. And finally a William Hazen, of the fourth generation, died June 17, 1885, the same day on which his ancestor left Newburyport for St. John one hundred and ten years before.

The first three signers of the articles of partnership under which business was undertaken at St. John in 1764, viz. Samuel Blodget, James Simonds and William Hazen, had each one-quarter interest in the business, the junior partners, Robert Peaslie, James White and Richard Simonds had only one-twelfth part each. The articles of partnership provided that James Simonds and the three junior partners should proceed to St. John as soon as possible, and there do what business was necessary to be done during the co-partnership, and that Samuel Blodget and William Hazen should remain at Boston an Newburyport to forward supplies and receive what might be sent from St. John or elsewhere by the company. For some reason Robert Peaslie did not go to St. John. He married Anna Hazen, a sister of William Hazen, and settled in Haverhill, retiring not long afterwards from the company. Another of the junior partners, Richard Simonds, lost his life, as already stated, on the 20th January, 1765, in the defence of the property of the company when the Indians were about to carry it off.