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20 - History of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher · History of New Brunswick

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty of History of New Brunswick. This LibriVox recording
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  Speaker 1: is in the public domain recording by Roger Moline. History
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  Speaker 1: of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher, Section twenty. Some notes
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  Speaker 1: regarding Peter Fisher, the first Historian of New Brunswick by
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  Speaker 1: Reverend W. O. Raymond L l D. Peter Fisher's claim
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  Speaker 1: to be the first of our historians rests upon two
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  Speaker 1: little books, both printed by a well known publishing firm
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  Speaker 1: in Market Square in the city of Saint John in
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  Speaker 1: the early years of the last century. The first of
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  Speaker 1: these books appeared in eighteen twenty five. It comprises one
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  Speaker 1: hundred ten pages, written in excellent literary style, and, considering
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  Speaker 1: mister Fisher's limited sources of information, is remarkably accurate. In
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  Speaker 1: the preface, he observes, this work, however imperfect, must be
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  Speaker 1: useful as giving the first general outline of the province
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  Speaker 1: and interesting to every person who possesses a feeling for
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  Speaker 1: his own fireside. The other book, Notitia of New Brunswick,
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  Speaker 1: comprises one hundred thirty six pages and was printed in
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  Speaker 1: eighteen thirty eight. In the advertisement at the beginning, the
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  Speaker 1: author states that circumstances have compelled him to relinquish in
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  Speaker 1: part his original plan and to contract the scope of
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  Speaker 1: the publication. Since the times do not warrant any great
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  Speaker 1: outlay on works of this description. The two books are
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  Speaker 1: really pamphlets in yellow paper covers, and are now so
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  Speaker 1: rare as to be much sought for by collectors of Canadiana.
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  Speaker 1: Both books are written under the nom de plume of
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  Speaker 1: an inhabitant, and the motto that follows is the same
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  Speaker 1: in each, namely, whatever concerns my country interests me, I
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  Speaker 1: follow nature with truth my guide. Before proceeding to consider
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  Speaker 1: the personality of our first historian, and to speak further
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  Speaker 1: of his writings, it will be of interest to speak
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  Speaker 1: of his antecedents. His father, Lewis Fisher, served in the
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  Speaker 1: War of the American Revolution on the side of the
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  Speaker 1: Crown in the New Jersey Volunteers, a brigade commanded by
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  Speaker 1: Brigadier General Courtland Skinner, the last Royal Attorney General of
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  Speaker 1: New Jersey. The corps was sometimes known as Skinner's Greens.
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  Speaker 1: It was numerically the largest organization of British Americans in
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  Speaker 1: Howe's Army. Officers and men were mostly natives of New Jersey.
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  Speaker 1: New York and Pennsylvania. One of the original six battalions
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  Speaker 1: was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. Abraham Van Buskirk, and
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  Speaker 1: it contained a large Dutch element. Among the officers were
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  Speaker 1: Major Van Cortland, Captains William van Allen, Peter Rutten, Samuel Ryerson,
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  Speaker 1: Jacob Van Buskirk and Waldron Blond. Lieutenants Martin Ryerson, John
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  Speaker 1: van Norden, John Heslop, John Simonson and yost Or Justice
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  Speaker 1: earl Ensigns Colin mcveen, Xenophon Jewett, Malcolm Wilmot, William Cerell
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  Speaker 1: and Frederick Handroff. Among the men in the ranks, many
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  Speaker 1: of whom came to New Brunswick and settled near Fredericton,
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  Speaker 1: we find such names as Van Horne, Van der Beck,
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  Speaker 1: Ackerman Fisher, Burke, Staff, Swim, Ridner, Van Wert, Willey, etc.
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  Speaker 1: By the settlement of so many men of this corps
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  Speaker 1: in New Brunswick, the same thrifty knickerbocker element that figured
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  Speaker 1: in the development of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania
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  Speaker 1: was planted in this province. Lewis Fisher joined the New
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  Speaker 1: Jersey Volunteers on December seventh, seventeen seventy six. He was
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  Speaker 1: taken prisoner a few weeks later, together with his brother
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  Speaker 1: Peter and fifteen others. After an absence of a year
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  Speaker 1: and nine months, he affected his escape and returned to
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  Speaker 1: his duty on October Tewod seventeen seventy eight. He was
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  Speaker 1: thenceforth stationed, chiefly at Staten Island, where his three oldest children, Eliza, Henry,
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  Speaker 1: and Peter, were born. When the war closed, the New
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  Speaker 1: Jersey Volunteers were quartered at Newtown, three miles east of
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  Speaker 1: Brooklyn on Long Island, New York. In the earlier muster
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  Speaker 1: rolls we find Fisher's name entered as low Rudwick Fisher,
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  Speaker 1: but later he adopted the English form Lewis Fisher. His wife, Mary,
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  Speaker 1: was probably of English parentage. She was the mother of
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  Speaker 1: a very large family and a woman of resolute spirit,
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  Speaker 1: which she transmitted to her descendants. The New Jersey Volunteers
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  Speaker 1: never numbered more than fifteen hundred of all ranks. They, however,
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  Speaker 1: rendered essential service in New Jersey and in the defense
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  Speaker 1: of Staten Island. One of the battalions, under Lieutenant Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Isaac Allen, was conspicuous for its gallantry in the campaigns
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  Speaker 1: in Georgia and South Carolina. At the close of the war,
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  Speaker 1: the original six battalions had been consolidated into three under
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  Speaker 1: command of Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Delancey, Lieutenant Colonel Isaac Allen,
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  Speaker 1: and Lieutenant Colonel Abraham van Buskirk. The war may be
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  Speaker 1: said to have ended with the surrender of the army
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  Speaker 1: under Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown on October nineteenth, seventeen eighty one,
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  Speaker 1: and little attempt at recruiting was made subsequently. Consequently, the
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  Speaker 1: regiments continued to dwindle until at the evacuation of New
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  Speaker 1: York two years later, they were not more than one
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  Speaker 1: third of their original strength. The New Jersey Volunteers, a
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  Speaker 1: year after their arrival in New Brunswick, were mustered by
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Knox under the supervision of Colonel Edward Winslow. The
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  Speaker 1: return is dated at Fort Howe, September twenty fifth, seventeen
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  Speaker 1: eighty four, and the number of those then on their
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  Speaker 1: lands and for whom the Royal Bounty of Provisions was furnished,
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  Speaker 1: was as follows. First New Jersey Volunteers one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: fifty eight men, fifty seven women, fifty seven children, over
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  Speaker 1: ten thirty nine children under ten nine servants total three
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  Speaker 1: hundred twenty Second New Jersey volunteers one hundred thirty two men,
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  Speaker 1: forty five women, forty four children over ten, thirty eight
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  Speaker 1: children under ten fourteen servants total two hundred seventy three.
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  Speaker 1: Third New Jersey Volunteers one hundred seventy three men, sixty
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  Speaker 1: four women, forty seven children over ten, forty two children
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  Speaker 1: under ten six servants total three hundred thirty two. Total
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  Speaker 1: four hundred sixty three men, one hundred sixty six women,
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  Speaker 1: one hundred forty eight children over ten, one hundred nineteen
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  Speaker 1: children under ten twenty nine servants total nine hundred and
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  Speaker 1: twenty five. The commander of the third Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Van Buskirk, did not come with his men to the
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  Speaker 1: River Saint John, but settled in Shelbourne, where he was
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  Speaker 1: the first mayor of the town. The troops for Saint
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  Speaker 1: John sailed in charge of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hewlett as
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  Speaker 1: senior officer, with Lieutenant Colonel Gabriel de Weber second in command.
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  Speaker 1: They left New York on September fifteenth, seventeen eighty three,
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  Speaker 1: and arrived safely in Saint John Harbor on the twenty sixth,
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  Speaker 1: with the exception of the transports Martha and Ester. The
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  Speaker 1: former was wrecked near Yarmouth and more than half of
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  Speaker 1: her passengers were lost. The Ester, in which Van Buskirk's
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  Speaker 1: battalion had embarked, got off her course in the fog
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  Speaker 1: and narrowly escaped destruction, arriving at day or two behind
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  Speaker 1: her sister ships. As Peter Fisher was born on Staten
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  Speaker 1: Island on June ninth, seventeen eighty two. He was a
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  Speaker 1: very young loyalist, indeed, at the time of his arrival
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  Speaker 1: in Blue Nosed Land, being in point of fact, less
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  Speaker 1: than sixteen months old. Sir Guy Carleton's orders were that
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  Speaker 1: the several corps should proceed at once to the places
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  Speaker 1: allotted for their settlement, directions having been given to Captain
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  Speaker 1: John Colville, assistant Agent of all small Craft at the
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  Speaker 1: Saint John River, to afford every assistance in his power
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  Speaker 1: to the corps in getting to their destinations. Three days
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  Speaker 1: after their arrival, the troops disembarked and encamped above the
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  Speaker 1: falls near the Indian House. Hewlett wrote Sir Guy Carleton
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  Speaker 1: that he feared the want of small craft would greatly
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  Speaker 1: delay their progress. He writes again on the in the
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  Speaker 1: thirteenth October seventeen eighty three, that the troops had been
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  Speaker 1: disbanded and were getting up the river as fast as
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  Speaker 1: the scarcity of small craft for conveying them would admit.
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  Speaker 1: I shall pause here to relate an incident which will
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  Speaker 1: indicate the source from which Peter Fisher derived the information
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  Speaker 1: he gives us concerning the arrival of the Loyalists at
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  Speaker 1: Saint Anne's and their subsequent hardships. About twenty five years ago, William,
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  Speaker 1: the youngest son of Peter Fisher, read to me in
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  Speaker 1: his apartments in the Old Park Hotel in Saint John
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  Speaker 1: a manuscript which contained the recollections of one of his
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  Speaker 1: sisters of her various conversations with her old grandmother Mary Fisher,
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  Speaker 1: concerning the coming to New Brunswick and the subsequent experience
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  Speaker 1: of her family at Saint Anne's. Mister Fisher did not
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  Speaker 1: entrust the manuscript to my hands, but allowed me to
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  Speaker 1: make full notes. Afterwards, at my request, reread the whole
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  Speaker 1: in order that I might make sure of my facts.
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  Speaker 1: The story which now follows is of course not quoted
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  Speaker 1: from the lips of the first narrator, but is based
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  Speaker 1: upon the notes made by her granddaughter, in which are
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  Speaker 1: embodied the recollections of the conversations she had with her grandmother.
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  Speaker 1: The Grandmother's Story. We sailed from New York in the
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  Speaker 1: ship Ester with the fleet for Nova Scotia. Some of
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  Speaker 1: our ships were bound for Halifax, some for Shelbourne, and
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  Speaker 1: some for Saint John's River. Our ship, going the wrong track,
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  Speaker 1: was nearly lost. When we got to Saint John, we
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  Speaker 1: found the place all in confusion. Some were living in
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  Speaker 1: log houses, some building huts, and many of the soldiers
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  Speaker 1: living in their tents at the lower Cove. Soon after
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  Speaker 1: there we landed. We joined a party bound up the
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  Speaker 1: river in a schooner to Saint Anne's. It was eight
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  Speaker 1: days before we got to Arimacto. There the captain put
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  Speaker 1: us ashore, being unwilling on account of the lateness of
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  Speaker 1: the season or for some other reason, to go further.
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  Speaker 1: He charged us each four dollars for the passage. We
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  Speaker 1: spent the night on shore, and the next day the
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  Speaker 1: women and children proceeded in Indian canoes to Saint Anne's
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  Speaker 1: with some of the party. The rest came on foot.
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  Speaker 1: We reached our destinations on the eighth day of October,
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  Speaker 1: tired out with our long journey and pitched our tents
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  Speaker 1: at the place now called Salamanca, near the shore. The
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  Speaker 1: next day we explored for a place to encamp, for
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  Speaker 1: the winter was near and we had no time to lose.
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  Speaker 1: The season was wet and cold, and we were much
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  Speaker 1: discouraged at the glue Me prospect. Before us, those who
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  Speaker 1: had arrived a little earlier had made better preparations for
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  Speaker 1: the winter. Some had built small log huts. This we
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  Speaker 1: could not do because of the lateness of our arrival.
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  Speaker 1: Snow fell on the second day of November to the
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  Speaker 1: depth of six inches. We pitched our tents in the
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  Speaker 1: shelter of the woods and tried to cover them with
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  Speaker 1: spruce boughs. We used stones for fireplaces. Our tent had
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  Speaker 1: no floor but the ground. The winter was very cold,
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  Speaker 1: with deep snow, which we tried to keep from drifting
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  Speaker 1: in by putting a large rug at the door. The snow,
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  Speaker 1: which lay six feet around us, helped greatly in keeping
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  Speaker 1: out the cold. How we lived through that awful winter,
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  Speaker 1: I hardly know. There were mothers that had been reared
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  Speaker 1: in a pleasant country, enjoying all all the comforts of life.
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  Speaker 1: With helpless children in their arms, they clasped their infants
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  Speaker 1: to their bosoms and tried by the warmth of their
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  Speaker 1: own bodies to protect them from the bitter cold. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: a part of the family had to remain up during
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  Speaker 1: the night to keep the fires burning so as to
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  Speaker 1: keep the rest from freezing. Some destitute people made use
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  Speaker 1: of boards which the older ones kept heating before the
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  Speaker 1: fire and applied by turns to the smaller children to
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  Speaker 1: keep them warm. Many women and children, and some of
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  Speaker 1: the men died from cold and exposure. Graves were dug
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  Speaker 1: with axes and shovels near the spot where our party
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  Speaker 1: had landed, and there, in stormy winter weather, our loved
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  Speaker 1: ones were buried. We had no minister, so we had
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  Speaker 1: to bury them without any religious service besides our own prayers.
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  Speaker 1: The first burial ground continued to be used for some
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  Speaker 1: years until it was nearly filled. We called it the
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  Speaker 1: Loyalist Provincials Burial Ground. The site of this old graveyard
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  Speaker 1: is on the Ketchum Place at Salamanca, just below Fredericton,
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  Speaker 1: near the shore. Some rude headstones may perhaps yet be
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  Speaker 1: found there. The late Adolphus G. Beckworth told me that
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  Speaker 1: he remembered, when a boy to have seen a number
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  Speaker 1: of pine head boards, much decayed, but still standing in
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  Speaker 1: this old cemetery. The painted epitaphs or inscriptions were, in
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  Speaker 1: some cases fairly well preserved. He remembered he said that
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  Speaker 1: many of the names seemed to be German or Dutch,
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  Speaker 1: a statement which I hardly credited at the time, but
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  Speaker 1: which is entirely in harmony with the old Grandmother's story.
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  Speaker 1: Continuing her narrative, she says, among those who came with
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  Speaker 1: a to Saint Anne's, or who were there when we arrived,
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  Speaker 1: were Messrs swim Burke, Staff, mccomiskey, three named Ridner, Woolley, Bass, Payne,
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  Speaker 1: Ryers Acker, Lounsbury, Ingraham, Buchanan, Ackerman, Donley, Vanderbeck, Smith, Essington,
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  Speaker 1: and some few others. Here again, the grandmother's story is
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  Speaker 1: confirmed by the muster rolls of the New Jersey volunteers,
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  Speaker 1: lately placed by our Historical Society in the Dominion Archives
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  Speaker 1: at Ottawa for safe keeping. Nearly all the names she
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  Speaker 1: mentions are to be found there. In Captain Waldron Blond's company,
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  Speaker 1: we find John Swim, Vincent Swim, Moses mccomiskey, David Burkestaff,
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  Speaker 1: Frederick Berkstaff in Colonel Van Buskirk's company. We find Abraham Vanderbeck,
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  Speaker 1: Conrad Ridner, Abraham Ackerman, Maurice Ackerman and Marmaduke Ackerman in
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  Speaker 1: Captain Edward Earl's company, Ludwick Fisher, Peter Ridner and Peter
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  Speaker 1: Smith in Captain Ryerson's company, Samuel Buchanan in Captain Jacob
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  Speaker 1: Buskirk's company. James Ackerman. Benjamin Ingraham mentioned above was a
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  Speaker 1: sergeant in the King's American Regiment. He served in the Carolinas,
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  Speaker 1: where he nearly died of yellow fever and was severely
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  Speaker 1: wounded in the Battle of Camden. He arrived at Saint
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  Speaker 1: Anne's in a row boat in October seventeen eighty three
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  Speaker 1: and built a small loghouse in the woods, into which
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  Speaker 1: he moved on the sixth of November, at which time
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  Speaker 1: there was six inches of snow on the ground. The
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  Speaker 1: story now continues. When the Loyalists arrived, there were only
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  Speaker 1: three houses standing in the old Saint Anne's plain. Two
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  Speaker 1: of them were old frame houses, the other a log house,
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  Speaker 1: which stood near the old Fisher place. There were said
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  Speaker 1: to have been two bodies of people murdered here. It
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  Speaker 1: could not have been long before the arrival of the
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  Speaker 1: loyalists that this happened. Many of the loyalists who came
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  Speaker 1: in the spring had gone further up the river, but
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  Speaker 1: they were a little better off for provisions than we
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  Speaker 1: were at Saint Anne's. Supplies expected before the close of
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  Speaker 1: navigation did not come, and at one time starvation stared
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  Speaker 1: us in the face. It was a dreary contrast to
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  Speaker 1: our former conditions. Some of our men had to go
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  Speaker 1: down the river with hand sledge or toboggans to get
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  Speaker 1: food for their famishing families. A full supply of provisions
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  Speaker 1: was looked for in the spring, but the people were
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  Speaker 1: betrayed by those they depended upon to supply them. All
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  Speaker 1: the settlers were reduced to great straits and had to
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  Speaker 1: live after the Indian fashion. A party of loyalists who
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  Speaker 1: came before us late in the spring had gone up
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  Speaker 1: the river further, but they were no better off than
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  Speaker 1: those at Saint Anne's. The men caught fish and hunted
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  Speaker 1: moose when they could. In the spring we made maple sugar,
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  Speaker 1: We ate fiddleheads, grapes, and even the leaves of trees
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  Speaker 1: to allay the pangs of hunger. On one occasion, some
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  Speaker 1: poisonous weeds were eaten along with the fiddleheads. One or
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  Speaker 1: two died, and doctor Earle had all he could do
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  Speaker 1: to save my life. As soon as the snow was
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  Speaker 1: off the ground, we began to build log houses, but
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  Speaker 1: were obliged to desist for want of food. Your grandfather
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  Speaker 1: went up the river to Captain mc kay's for provisions,
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  Speaker 1: and found no one at home but an old colored
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  Speaker 1: slave woman, who said her master and his man had
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  Speaker 1: gone out to see if they could obtain some potatoes
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  Speaker 1: or meal, having in the house only half a box
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  Speaker 1: of biscuits. Some of the people at Saint Anne's who
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  Speaker 1: had planted a few potatoes, were obliged to dig them
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  Speaker 1: up and eat them again. A few comments will show
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  Speaker 1: the reliability of the old lady's narrative. The three houses
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  Speaker 1: she mentions on the site of Fredericton were those of
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  Speaker 1: Benjamin Atherton, built about seventeen sixty seven at the upper
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  Speaker 1: end of the town, near the site of the old
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  Speaker 1: Government House, Philip Weeds, which stood on the river bank
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  Speaker 1: in front of the cathedral, and Oliver Thibodeau's an Akkadian,
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  Speaker 1: whose loghouse was at the lower end of town. The
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  Speaker 1: tradition regarding the massacre of some of the first settlers
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  Speaker 1: at Saint Anne's refers doubtless to the destruction of the
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  Speaker 1: French settlement there by McCurdy's New England Rangers in February
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  Speaker 1: seventeen fifty nine. As is described at page two forty
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  Speaker 1: two in Doctor Raymond's Saint John River History, the party
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  Speaker 1: of loyalists who had gone further up the river in
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  Speaker 1: the late spring of seventeen eighty three were the King's
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: American dragoons who settled in Prince William. Resuming once more
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  Speaker 1: the narrative, the grandmother says, in our distress, we were
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  Speaker 1: gladdened by the discovery of some large patches of pure
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  Speaker 1: white beans, marked with a black cross. They had probably
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  Speaker 1: been originally planted by the French, but were now growing wild.
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  Speaker 1: In our joy at the discovery, we called them at
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  Speaker 1: first the Royal Provincial's bread, but afterwards the staff of
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  Speaker 1: life and hope of the starving. I planted some of
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  Speaker 1: these beans with my own hands, and the seed was
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  Speaker 1: preserved in our family for many years. There was great
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  Speaker 1: rejoicing when the first schooner arrived with corn meal and rye.
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  Speaker 1: In those days, the best passages up and down the
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  Speaker 1: river took from three to five days. Sometimes the schooners
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  Speaker 1: were a week or ten days on the way. It
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  Speaker 1: was not during the first year alone that we suffered
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  Speaker 1: from want of food. Other years were nearly as bad.
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  Speaker 1: The first summer after our arrival all hands united in
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  Speaker 1: building their log houses. Doctor Earles was the first that
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  Speaker 1: was finished. Our people had but few tools, and those
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  Speaker 1: of the rudest sort. They had neither bricks or lime,
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  Speaker 1: and chimneys and fireplaces were built of stone laid in
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  Speaker 1: yellow clay. They covered the roofs of the houses with bark,
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  Speaker 1: bound over with small poles. The windows had only four
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  Speaker 1: small panes of glass. The first store was kept by
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  Speaker 1: a man named Cairns, who lived in an old house
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  Speaker 1: on the bank of the river, near the gate of
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  Speaker 1: the first church built in Fredericton, in front of the
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  Speaker 1: present cathedral. He used to sell fish at one penny
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  Speaker 1: each and butternuts at two for a penny. He also
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  Speaker 1: sold tea at two dollars per pound, which was to
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  Speaker 1: us a great boon. We greatly missed our tea. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: we used an article called labrador, and sometimes steeped spruce
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  Speaker 1: or hemlock bark for drinking, but I despised it. There
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  Speaker 1: were no domestic an animals in our settlement at first,
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  Speaker 1: except one black and white cat, which was a great pet.
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  Speaker 1: Some wicked fellows who came from the States killed, roasted,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: and ate the cat, to our great indignation. A man
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: named Conley owned the first cow. Poor Conley afterwards hanged himself,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: the reason for which was never known. For years, there
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: were no teams, and our people had to work hard
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: to get their provisions. Potatoes were planted among the black
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: stumps and turned out well. Pigeons used to come in
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: great numbers and were shot or cut by the score
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: in nets. We found in their crops some small round beans,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: which we planted. They grew very well and made excellent
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: green beans, which we ate during the summer. In the wintertime,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: our people had sometimes to haul their provisions by hand
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: fifty or one hundred miles over the ice or through
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: the woods. In summer they came in slow sailing vessels.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: On one occasion, doctor Earle and others went up the
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: river to Canada on snow shoes with hand sleds returning
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: with bags of flour and biscuits. It was a hard
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and dangerous journey, and they were gone a long time.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: For several years we lived in dread of the Indians,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: who were sometimes very bold. I have heard that the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: Indians from Canada once tried to murder the people on
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the Saint John River. Coming down the river, they captured
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: an Indian woman of the Saint John tribe, and the
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: chief said they would spare her if she would be
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: their guide. They had eleven canoes in all, and they
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: were tied together and the canoe of the guide attached
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: to the hindermost. As they drew near the Grand Falls,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: most of the party were asleep, and the rest were
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: deceived by the woman, who told them that the roaring
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: they heard was caused by a fall at the mouth
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: of the stream, which here joined the main river. At
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the critical moment, the Indian woman cut the cord which
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: fastened her canoe to the others and escaped to the shore,
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: while the Canada Indians went over the fall and were lost.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: In the early days of the settlement at Saint Anne's,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: some fellows that had come from the States used to
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: disturb the other settlers. They procured liquor at Van Horn's
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: tavern and drank heavily. They lived in a log cabin,
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: which soon became a resort for bad characters. They formed
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: a plot to go up the river and plunder the settlers,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: provisions being their chief object. They agreed that if any
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: of their party were killed in the expedition, they should
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: prevent discovery of their identity by putting him into a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: hole cut in the ice. While they were endeavoring to
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: effect an entrance into a settler's house, a shot fired
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: out of a window wounded a young man in a leg.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: The others then desisted from their attempt, but cut a
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: hole in the ice and thrust the poor fellow in
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: who had been shot. Although he begged to be allowed
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: to die in the woods, and promised, if found alive,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: not to betray them, but they would not trust him. Here,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: the story of the Old Grandmother comes abruptly to an end. Enough, however,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: is preserved in these extracts to indicate the source of
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: a good deal of the very valuable information concerning the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: early experience of the Loyalists in the New Brunswick Wilderness,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: which appears in mister Fisher's sketches of New Brunswick. Doubtless
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: what he has related on this topic in his little
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: book is based upon what he learned from the lips
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: of his mother to her care and devotion in all
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: human probability he owed his preservation during the first eventful
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: winter spent under canvas on the old Saint Anne's plane,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: Peter Fisher acquired a pretty good education for those days.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: A facsimile of his signature is here given, which shows
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: that his penmanship was excellent and compared more than favorably
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: with that of his son and namesake, Louis Peter Fisher,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: who was for some thirty odd years Mayor of Woodstock
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: and the leading barrister of that place, and whose signature
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: is also here given for comparison. The advantages of education
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: were not great in the elder Peter Fisher's day, but
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: he had a pretty competent instructure in an English Schoolmaster
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: Bealing Stephens William who was born in Cornwall in seventeen
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: fifty four and came to Nova Scotia a clerk in
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the Navy in seventeen seventy nine. He settled in Cumberland,
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Nova Scotia, where he taught school and was married, removing
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: to Fredericton in seventeen ninety, where he again taught school
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: for nearly forty years. He was an accomplished penman and
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: an expert in arithmetic and the elementary mathematics. There can
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: be no doubt I think that Fisher was indebted to
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: this gentleman for an education that was very fair. Indeed,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: in the then circumstances of the country, Fisher unquestionably possessed
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: a good deal of natural ability and was something of
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: a philosopher, as will appear when we come to consider
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: his writings. He carried on quite an extensive business in lumbering.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: At one time he was noted as a hireless pedestrian,
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: and there were few even among his juniors, who could
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: keep pace with him in a walk of fifty miles,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: which he thought nothing of. He married on August fifteenth,
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: eighteen oh seven, Susannah Stevens Williams, the Reverend George Pigeon,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Rector of Fredericton, officiating at their wedding. Their family was
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: a large one, seven sons and four daughters. The late
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: Judge Charles Fisher, who was born September sixteenth, eighteen o eight,
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: was the oldest, another son, Henry Fisher, was Chief Superintendent
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: of Education of New Brunswick. Louis Peter Fisher, a younger son,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: was for years Woodstock's most prominent citizen and a very
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: eminent lawyer. Another son, William Fisher, was for some years
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Indian Commissioner. One of them the daughters was the wife
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: of Honorable Charles Cannell, Postmaster General at one time in
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: the local government and a member of the First Dominion
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Parliament for the County of Carlton. At least three of
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: the sons of Peter Fisher were actively interested in education.
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: Of these, Charles Fisher, received the degree of BA at
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: King's College now the University of New Brunswick in eighteen thirty.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: His was the first class to graduate after the incorporation
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: of the college by Royal Charter under the name of
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: King's College, with the style and privileges of a university.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: He read law with Judge Street, then Advocate General, was
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: admitted attorney in eighteen thirty one and barrister in eighteen
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: thirty three. He spent a year at one of the
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: inns of Court in England. His alma mater conferred on
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: him the degree of dcl in eighteen sixty six. Judge Fisher,
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: during his public life, was a warm friend of the
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: College at Fredericton. At the session of the provincial legislature
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty nine, he moved the bill under which
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: the Old King's College was transformed into the University of
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: New Brunswick. He was later a member of the Senate
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: of the University. Henry Fisher has already been mentioned as
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: one of the early chief superintendents of education. His portrait
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: may be seen in the office of doctor W. S. Carter,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: Chief Superintendent of Education in Fredericton. Louis Peter Fisher of
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: Woodstock was for years an active trustee of the Carlton
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: County Grammar School and a strenuous advocate of free school education.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: He had no children. By his will, he left his
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: large fortune to establish a number of institution of an
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: educational and philanthropic character in the town of Woodstock, the
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: affairs of which he had long ably administered as mayor.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: These institutions include the Fisher Memorial Hospital, established at a
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: cost of fifty thousand dollars, Fisher Memorial Public School sixty
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: thousand dollars, Fisher Vocational School, forty eight thousand dollars, Fisher
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Free Public Library fifty thousand dollars total two hundred and
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: eight thousand dollars. This is the largest individual benefaction to
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: any community in New Brunswick, if not in the Maritime provinces.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: The memorial buildings are all situated within the limits of
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: the town of Woodstock, and with the exception of the hospital,
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: are handsome subsists stantial brick buildings. In addition to the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: gift of the buildings and their equipment, the estate contributes
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: from time to time to their maintenance under the capable
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: administration of the trustees A. B. Connell, k C. And
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: Colonel F. H. J. Dibley. It will thus be seen
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: that although the late Mayor of Woodstock left no child
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: to perpetuate his name, his memory will be kept green
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: for future generations. As a philanthropist and a man of
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: high ideals. Space will not admit of any extended reference
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: to the descendants of our first provincial historian. A short
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: sketch of the life of the Honorable Charles Fisher will
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: be found in Lawrence's Judges of New Brunswick and Their Times,
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: pages five twenty eight to five thirty two. As a
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: man who in his day rendered essential service to his
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: native of Provence. Charles Fisher deserves a more extensive biography
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: than has hitherto been attempted by any writer. Footnotes. It
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: is of interest to know that this legend was told
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: by the Indians to the English settlers shortly after their arrival.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: The name of the Indian heroine is given as Melobiana
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: or Malabim. I am pretty certain that Susannah Stephens Williams
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: was a daughter of Bealing Stephens Williams, the schoolmaster W. O. Raymond.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: End of Section twenty recording by Roger Moline. End of
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: History of New Brunswick by Peter Fisher