The Chignecto Isthmus and its first settlers Part 8

There was another Thomas Scurr in the country at this time, probably a son of Thomas Scurr, sen., who married Elizabeth Cornforth, of Sackville, in August, 1787. Mrs. Scurr lived only a week after giving birth to a son. The boy was called Benjamin, and was taken care of by his aunt, Mrs. Jonathan Burnham. Thomas Scurr, after the death of his wife, left Sackville with the intention of going to the West Indies, and was never heard from after. It was supposed he was lost at sea. The Scurrs in Sackville are descendants of the boy Benjamin.

William Trueman, sen., was above the average height, and rather stout, with head, shoulders and face that indicated strong character. In personal appearance his grandson Robert much resembled him. He was fifty-five years of age when he came to Nova Scotia. His wife was eight years his senior. She, too, was tall, with a countenance showing a great deal of reserve power.

William, the son, was a small man, with round features and dark hair.

His son John was said to resemble him closely. He must have retained his youthful appearance well into mature life, for after he had been in this country some years he went to Fort Lawrence to poll his vote and was challenged for age by the opposing candidate. His youthful appearance had led to the belief that he had not arrived at the age to ent.i.tle him to exercise the franchise. His left arm was partially withered, or had not grown to its full size, from an injury received in childhood through the carelessness of a nurse. The family brought with them from England some furniture. There is still the old arm-chair at Prospect, and the old clock keeps good time for the fifth generation.

There is no record of the impression the new country made upon the family, but judging from a letter received by William Trueman, sen., the year after his arrival, and copied below, it must have been favorable:

"SNILLSWORTH, February 9th, 1776.

"DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER,-- "These are with our love to you and to let you know that we are in a tolerable state of health at present.

"We have many of us been poorly, but are much better. We received a letter from you last November, which gave a great deal of satisfaction of mind on your account, because we had been informed that you had nowhere to settle in, but as you have given us a particular account concerning your situation and how you were settled and that you liked Nova Scotia and was all in good health of body it was much to our satisfaction, and I hope you will let us hear more particularly from you how your chattle and corn answers thee, and how and what product your ground doth bring forth, and what sort of grains your ground answers best for, and what chattle you keep, and what you can make of your chattle and how much milk your cows give and what is the most profitable things you have.

"Now, dear brother, let me know the truth and nothing but the truth when you write.

"I desire that you would let me hear from you at any opportunity whenever it suits your convenience for I think we shall never have the opportunity to see each other's face any more here below, but I desire to hear from thee and I hope thee will do the same by me as long as our lives shall be on this side eternity.

"Farewell, I conclude with my love. Sarah Bently and John Bakers are in good health and send love to you all."

The following extract from another letter received at Prospect about the same time, will be interesting to some:

"SNILLSWORTH, Feb. 19th, 1776.

"DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER AND NEVY,-- "These are salutations of love to you all, expecting they may find you in good health as they leave us at present.

"We received your letter November last and was glad to hear from you, but more especially that you were all in good health of body and that you like 'Nove' (Nova Scotia) very well because we have had many slight accounts that you were in a very poor situation, but heard nothing to our satisfaction, and that you would have returned back to Old England but had nothing to pay your pa.s.sage with, which gave us both me and my wife a great deal of distraction of mind. So we consulted with sister Sarah Bently and more of our friends that we would raise money to pay your pa.s.sage to Old England, but dear brother and sister, as we have had a few lines from your own hand that you like the country well, so it has put and end to that consultation."

It would be difficult to answer at once some of the questions asked in these letters. They had only arrived in America the previous summer, and unless thy purchased cows on their arrival, they could not at this date have had much experience in dairying, and it would be the same with grain. There is a tradition that the stock, ten cows and a number of other cattle, were purchased with the Scurr farm, but this farm was not bought until some years after. The Truemans probably followed the course taken by many of the first settlers at that time, which was to lease a farm for a term of years, in that way gaining experience in the country before finally purchasing land themselves. After the family had been two years in the country, William Trueman, jun., married Elizabeth Keillor, a daughter of Thomas Keillor, of c.u.mberland Point, or No. 1, now called Fowler's Hill. The Keillors came from Skelton, Yorkshire, to Nova Scotia in 1774, and settled on the farm at present occupied by a great-great-grandson, Charles Fowler.

It was near the date of this marriage that the Eddy rebels were terrorizing the settlers around Fort c.u.mberland, and shortly after the event Mr. and Mrs. Trueman went to Mr. Keillor's to spend the Sabbath.

During the day the house was surrounded by the rebels, and the inmates kept prisoners until the next day, when the rebels dispersed, and the young couple made their way home as quickly as possible, to relieve the anxiety at Prospect.

The Keillors and Truemans had been friends in England, and were related in some degree. Elizabeth Keillor was but nineteen when she consented to take charge of a home of her own, and, as subsequent years proved, well did she discharge the duties that devolved upon her in that relationship. Though below medium size, she had a nervous force and will-power that enabled her to accomplish more than many of stronger build. It is told of her that on a Sabbath, when the family were all at church, she noticed something wrong with the cattle, and on going to see what caused the trouble, she found a cow so badly injured by some of the larger animals, that to make the carca.s.s of any value it would have to be slaughtered at once. Mrs. Trueman went to the house, got the butcher-knife, and bled the cow to death.

Nervous force, like any other force in man or woman, has its limit, and if used too fast it will not be there when wanted in old age. Mrs.

Trueman did not live to be very old, and her last years were full of suffering. Overtaxed nature had given way, and the penalty had to be paid.

The family never separated, but all moved into the house on the Scurr farm, and began in earnest to face the battle of life in the New World.

Halifax was at that time the market for b.u.t.ter and beef, so after the wants of the settlers and the commissariat at Fort c.u.mberland had been supplied, such produce as could be sent by schooners to Halifax was forwarded in that way, and the cattle, for beef, were driven overland-- a long and tedious journey.

Mills for sawing lumber or making flour were scarce. The stones are yet to be seen in Sackville with which grain was ground by hand-power.

The Truemans soon began to experiment in mill building. Their first venture was a mill driven by horse-power. A windmill followed, and was located on the high ground at the corner where the Point de Bute road turns at right angles, leading to Jolicure. This must have been an ideal spot for such a structure. There is no record of how long this mill stood, but it could not have been long.

There was a good stream on the farm for a water-mill, but it was not utilized for this purpose for some years, probably for the want of means. Their first work in this line was the building of a small mill on the brook that formed the ravine at the south-west side of the farm.

A dam was thrown across the stream at the head of the ravine, and the water carried in a flume some distance farther down the brook; the great fall of water enabling them to use a large over-shot water-wheel.

It is only quite recently that the main shaft of the wheel has disappeared.

A long dam was built across the stream that leads to what is now called the Upper Mill, for the purpose of turning the water to the new mill, and also forming a reserve pond. This dam can be plainly seen at the present time, although covered with quite a growth of timber. The mill in the ravine did not stand long either, and the next move was to dam the water on the main brook, now called the Trueman Mill Stream, and put up a large and substantial grist-mill, that proved a great convenience to the whole country for many years.

Beside this large expenditure in mills, most of which was made in the lifetime of the senior William, there was a large outlay made for dyking and aboideau building. Piece by piece the marsh was being reclaimed from the tide and made to yield its wealth of hay and pasture for the support of flocks and herds.

I find a record showing there were seventeen cows on the farm in 1790, and for the benefit of some of the members of the younger generation who live on farms, here are their names: Cerloo, Red-heifer, Spotty, Debro, Beauty, Madge, Lucy, Daisy, White-face, Mousie, Dun, Rose, Lady Cherry, Black-eye, s.p.u.n.k and Roan.

The following letter, received at Prospect in 1789, tells of a more cheerful spirit in business in England, but shows that they had floods and troubles of that kind then as now:

"HELM HOUSE BILSDALE, Augt. ye 15th, 1789.

"DEAR COUSINS,-- "I received two letters from you in the course of the last year, and am exceeding glad to hear from you and that you do well and are well, and tho I have long delayed writing yet it is not want of respect, but it was long before I could have any certain inteligence from Mr. Swinburn, So I now take the oppertunity to let you know how I and my Sisters are situate. I married h.e.l.ling the daughter of Richard Barr, by whom I have had 3 boys and 2 girls all liveing and healthfull. Aylsy is married to John the son of James Boyes and lives at Woolhousecroft, has no children. Sally is married to John Cossins and lives at Hawnby where Robt. Barker lived. She has 3 children the two last were twins they were born about Candlemas last and one of them is a very weakly child, my mother is married to old Rich'd Barr my wife's father and lives at Huntington nigh York. I think we most of us live pretty well. Mr. ----- has advanced his land a great deal but since the peace the times are pretty good we have this summer a very plentiful crop and we have a fine season for Reaping the same, but in the beginning of haytime we had an excessive flood as almost ever was known so that much hay was swept away and much more sanded. Many bridges were washed down and in some places much chattle drowned. My cousin John Garbut is married to James Boyes' widow and lives at Helm house. So I shall conclude with my and my wife's duty to my unkle and aunt and our kind love to you and your wife and children and subscribe ourselves your very affectionate cousins, "JOHN AND h.e.l.lING TRUEMAN."

There was no break in the family by death until 1797. That year William Trueman, sen., died, aged seventy-seven years, twenty-two of which he had spent in America. The Mauger farm, his first purchase, was left to Harmon, his eldest grandson. The family of his son William had grown by this time to six sons and two daughters, and success financially, in some measure at least, had been achieved.

With milling, dyking and general farming, there was work at Prospect to keep all the members of the family busy, besides a large force of hired help.

It was decided this year (1797) to build a new house and barn, and the site fixed upon was about one hundred yards south of the Scurr house, where they had lived since the place came into their possession. The barn was put up the next year, and measured eighty feet long by thirty- three wide, with thirteen foot posts. A part of this barn is still used for a stable. In 1799 the house was built, the main portion being made of brick burned on the marsh near by. It fronted due south, and was twenty-seven feet by thirty-seven feet, and two stories high, with a stone kitchen on the west side. The cost of building was eight hundred pounds. This was before the days of stoves, there being six fire-places in the main house and large one in the kitchen.

In 1839 the stone kitchen was pulled down and one of wood built on the north side. In 1879 an addition was made, and now (October 2nd, 1900), it is as comfortable a dwelling as it has ever been. Five generations have lived in it. Three generations have been born and grown to manhood and womanhood within its four walls, and they have never known the death of a child, nor, with but one exception, the death of a young person.

On the 29th January, 1800, Mrs. Trueman, sen., died in the eighty- eighth year of her age. Although sixty-two years old when she came to America, she lived to see the birth of nine grandchildren.

In 1801, Thompson, the youngest son, was born. The family now numbered seven sons and three daughters. This year William Black, known in Methodist history as Bishop Black, was one of the family at Prospect from November 17th, 1801, to April 13th, 1802. One week of this time was spent in Dorchester, for which a rebate was made in the board bill.

The bill was made out at the rate of five shillings per week.

In 1802, Mr. Trueman began to keep what he calls "a memorandum of events." The records chiefly refer to home work, the weather and neighborhood happenings. As a record of the weather, before thermometers and barometers were in general use, it must be as perfect as possible. As a record of farm work it is quite minute, and gives the reader an almost exact knowledge of what was done on the farm each week of the twenty years.

To those who live in the age of steam and electricity, when it is possible to be informed at night of the doings of the day on the other side of the planet, it is hard to realize how little interest was taken a century ago in anything outside of the community in which one lived.

This accounts in part, no doubt, for the scant references in this journal to public events. Only very rarely is an election mentioned, even in the writer's own county. Only once is there reference to war, although the war of 1812 and the battle of Waterloo took place during the years of the record, and must have had a marked effect upon the trade of the Provinces at that time.

Mr. Trueman made several trips to Halifax each year, and met, while there, many of the leading Methodist men of the city. The Blacks and the Bells were his friends. His house was the home of the ministers of his church during all his life, and many of the public men who visited c.u.mberland were his guests at different times.

The first entry in the journal is dated May 5th, 1802, and reads: "wind N.W.; cold stormy day. Planted some apple trees; frost not out of the ground.

"May 6th--Wind N.W.; ground covered with snow two inches thick; disagreeable.

"May 8th--Wind N.W.; cold, backward weather. Mr. Marsdon preached his farewell sermon at the Stone Church."

"July 5th--This day was appointed by the Government as a day of thanksgiving for the blessings of peace. Mr. Bennet preached at Amherst Court House, from Psalm 12, 1st verse, to a crowded and very attentive audience.

"July 12th--Started for Halifax with thirty oxen. Returned on the 22nd; had a very good time."

(Ten days was the usual time taken on these trips. The drovers would start some hours, or perhaps a day, in advance of Mr. Trueman. He would go on horse-back, in knee breeches, and with the old fashioned saddle- bags.)

"Sept. 28th--Started to Halifax with twenty-four cattle.

"Oct. 2nd--Arrived at Halifax Sunday night. Wm." (his son) "taken sick with measles. Monday, and Tuesday, very sick. Wednesday, some better.

Thursday, walked the streets. Friday, started for home.

"Oct. 13th--High winds; very high tides; marshes much flooded.

"Sept. 14th, 1803--Stephen Millage died of shock of palsy. Mr.

Oliphant, Methodist minister, arrived this month at our house.

"Nov. 12th, 1803--Election at Dorchester. Mr. Knapp goes in without opposition."