A History Of Abandoned Settlements in Charlotte County

A History of Abandoned Settlements in Charlotte County

The Saint Croix Courier Wednesday, April 11, 1984

By Llewellyn Spinney and Anita Grearson

Contributions from the Charlotte County Historical Society

Editor Notes: This addition to Contributions from the Charlotte County Historical Society was awarded the 1981 Certificate of Achievement of the Society. The award was presented to honor the memory of Llewelyn Spinney and for the work of her daughter, Anita Grearson put into the article.

Introduction

Many communities our county were settled by refugees form the southwest during the late 1700's following the rebellion of the thirteen of Great Britain's North American Colonies. For a time, these vigorous people thrived here but by the late 1800's many began to desert the lands their forbears had settled.

This depopulation was slow but nonetheless thorough and nature soon began to reclaim her own. Abandoned buildings of homesteads crumbled or burned and fields and roads were encroached on by the forest. This obliteration process was completed many years ago in communities that were the first to be deserted. As a result, many of their sites are unrecognizable today and are not shown on modern maps. In communities that were deserted more recently, obliteration is still underway and may be observed in its various stages in many parts of the country.

If you ask why people deserted these settlements you will get various answers. Some will tell you that the younger generations got too much education, ceased to value the independence of the pioneer's way of life and were too lazy to work as hard as their parents did. Others will tell you that these people had to move away or starve because their farm lands were 'worked out", that their fields had lost their productivity because of erosion and poor husbandry and that their farm woodlots were giving low yields because of poor methods of forest management.

However, the purpose of this paper is not to determine the causes of the exodus or to discuss its effects. What concerns me now, and what has concerned me for many years, is the fact that these changes have been going on without being recorded. Most people are curious to learn about their forbears. Where did they live? How did they make their living? I believe that what we have put down here will answer some of these questions for some people who have that kind of curiosity.

That was my main reason for assembling the information and for persuading my daughter and co-author, Anita (Spinney) Grearson, to assist me in the task of preparing this paper. Another reason is that I wanted to get these things straightened out in my own mind for my own satisfaction and the best way to do that is to write them all down in an orderly way.

I have been working on this compilation since 1937 and have supplemented my own information by drawing heavy on the reminiscences of the four elderly and knowledge gentlemen while they were still alive and sound in mind and body. Their names, ages and dates of birth, addresses and times I interviewed them are as follows:

Howard Trynor 87 born 1850 Utopia, 1937

Harry Craig 81 born 1889 Seconds Falls, 1960

William Bowden 93 born 1868 Second Falls, 1961

Douglas Spinney 96 born 1858 Utopia, 1954.

I am indebted to these gentlemen for their assistance. My co-author helped arrange my notes and typed the first draft of this paper. Special thanks to Dr. Carl Medcof, Chairman of our society's research and publications committee for encouraging our efforts and for his editorial efforts in helping us bring our documents through successive draft stages into final form. He also authored much of this introduction which is based on our discussions of the first draft.

I am indebted to Mr. Frank Cunningham of St. Andrews for figures one and two which he prepared for us from my ancient photographs. My first maps were large-scale free-hand drawings and it was on these that I first plotted identified sites of homesteads, schools, etc. This was not too difficult because I have been familiar with these parts of Charlotte County for many years. It was more difficult however, to plot them on 8 1/2 " X 11" sections of smaller-scale maps that could be bound with the text of this paper. I began that work in January 1972 when Dr. Medcof supplied me with three maps prepared by Canada Department of Mines and Technical Surveys for its National Topographic Series (1 1/4" equals 1 mile). These were St. George sheets 21G/2, East Half, and 21G/2, West Half, and McDougal Lake sheet 21G/7, West Half. Our maps, numbers 2, 3, & 4 will be excerpts from these sheets.

Map 1

Upper L'Etang

This settlement straddled the upper parts of the L'Etang which is a tidal river with a small inflow of freshwater. As its name suggests, it was first occupied by the French but it was not settled in the true sense of the word until late in 1781. My comments deal mostly with the westward part of this settlement (map 2).

Resources

The L'Etang river itself was a great natural resource. In the first place it was a highway for the settlement's wooden sailing vessels. Although these depended primarily on wind for propulsion, sailing times were arranged so as to take advantage of tidal flows in ascending and descending the river. The river was also a food source yielding soft-shell clams, scallops, lobsters, mussels and several species of fin-fish in abundance.

Originally the shores and surrounding land were heavily wooded with valuable evergreens such as pine, spruce and fir. Deciduous species were less valuable but they too were cut and shipped to Eastport and Portland, Maine where they were used for burning lime.

They sold for 60 cents to $1.50 a cord

When the land was cleared of its forest and cultivated it yielded good crops for food and commerce and fine pastures for grazing animals

Wharves

Wharves and access roads to them were among the first constructions by the Upper L'Etang settlers. These were vital. They were the only means of getting trade goods to and from the settlements. Four wharves are known to have been built on the Upper L'Etang - three on the main stream and one on the creek that joins it from the southwest (map 2).

1) George R Spinney's wharf (W1) on the west side of the river just below Pull-and-be-dammed narrows, was a driven pile wharf and is still standing. The new section of N.B Provincial Highway No. 1(not shown in Map 2) includes a causeway across Pull-and-be-dammed Narrows. From this causeway the George Spinney Wharf may be seen to the south. The access road can still be traced and is shown by a broken line in the map

2) Simeon Spinney's Wharf (W2) was on a creek that enters the river from the south and west about one mile above the George Spinney wharf. Its access road was a contribution of the St. George Road that follows the line of original Peter Clinch grant as its runs eastward past Poor House Hill.

3) The most northerly wharf on the river (W3) had an access road that ran south from Spinney's corner. I have heard that at one time there was a "carrying place" (portage) that began near this wharf and crossed the isthmus that separates Woodbury Cove on Lake Utopia form L'Etang River. I am not sure where this may have been.

4) Oliver Spear's Wharf (W4) was on the north side of the uppermost part of the river and only a short distance from the old route of N.B Highway Number one. A public road used to lead from the highway to this wharf across now owned by Fred Cook.

Settler's Homesteads

Bracketed numbers following family names mentioned below refer to the sites of homesteads of settlers as indicated by corresponding numbers in Map 2. No doubt there were other settlers I have not heard of. The earliest names known to me were Ferguson (1), Davidson (15), Thorp (18), McLaughlin (19), and Hamilton (20). These were all gone long before my time and I was born in 1896. On the Thorp property there is a marble stone standing alone and engraved, 'In memory of Ann Hatt, wife of Windsor Hatt; born 1797, died Aug 20, 1851."

New names, new homesteads and a cemetery (7), appeared as later settlers arrived - Gage (2), Radley (3), Brown (4), Simeon Spinney (5), George Stein (6), Murray (8) Crozier (9), Stewart (11), Spires (12), James Spinney Sr. (16)

Industries

George R. Spinney (16) ,son of James Spinney Jr (16) ,had a large farm of about 75 acres and in partnership with Wash and Will Stewart. They did custom threshing of grain, first with a horse-powered treadmill and later with a gas engine. This kept them busy from September until February. They were also dealers in feed grains for horses and supplied three St. George livery stables and lumber camps along Magaguadavic River and New River.

Tobias Spinney (17) son of James Spinney Sr.., was a farmer but also played the fiddle, giving the neighbors many evenings of toe-tapping music. Isaac Spinney (14) son of Simeon, was the blacksmith for the area and had a farm of about 60 acres. Horatio Spinney (13) another son of Simeon, had a farm but died quite young.

James Spinney Jr. (16) (father of Oliver Spinney, now of St. George) built his house from the last lumber sawed at Mill Lake

On a private road off the Poor House Hill Road and on land now owned by William Spinney is a small cemetery (7) where Stephen and Ellen Spinney [Ellen Spinney was buried elsewhere with her second husband] was buried in 1847. They had three sons, Nelson, who settled at Musquash, Alfred, who settled on the Old Saint John Coach Road which runs through what is now Camp Utopia land (Map 2) and my grandfather James, who lived in Pennfield. They also had one daughter who married a man by the name of Bullock.

There was a small schoolhouse (S) on the Upper L'Etang Road (Map 2) but it was closed in 1940 and torn down. At one time it served 18 homes with 42 children in Upper L'Etang. Now there is only one house and only one man lives there, Jack Brown (4)

Spear's Mill

The Spear's Mill Settlement was scattered along what is now known as the Old Saint John Coach Road and its branches. Most of its people worked at the mill. The coach road runs eastward from Spinney's Corner where Highway No 1 turns south (Map 2). The Coach Road rejoins Highway 1 at Lepreau. Most of the area along the Coach Road was bought by the government at the start of World War II and became Camp Utopia.

Settlers

The first houses in this district were those of Douglas Spinney (1) right at the corner (Map 2).

Levi Godeill [Goodeill] (2) lived on the Wren Road that runs north from the Coach Road to Roix Lake. Wren Road takes its name from Christopher and Julius Wren who homesteaded there but were not permanent residents.

Further east on the Coach Road were Alfred Mealy (3), Robert Armstrong (4), and further on James Boyle (5), Charles Boyle (6) and Daniel Hunter (7). The Charles Boyle property was subsequently owned by the late Howard Trynor.

The Spear Road (Map 2) cuts north from the Coach Road at the corner where the Minimum Security Building (Army Fire Hall), now stands. Hugh McHugh (8) lived on the east side of the Spear Road just north of the Spear railway crossing. The schoolhouse (9) was next on the left.

John Boyle's house and barn (10) and Alex Spear's home (11) were on a branch road running northwest from the Spear Road. Hay was cut on the meadows to the west of the Alex Spear homestead as late as 1908. Half a mile further north along the Spear Road a second branch road runs off to the right with farms owned by Alfred Spinney (12), Hugh McPike (13) and Clements (14). Also in this area were homesteads of H. Flarity on property known as Vinegar Hill (site unknown) and of a Boyd (site unknown). All these properties were 100-acre lots

A short distance beyond the second branch road, the Spear Road turns sharply to the northwest, skirts the foot of Spear Mountain and crosses Messenette Stream (formerly called Trout Brook) Here there was a milldam and the George Spear sawmill (15) a boarding house (16) and large barns nearby.

The mill was run by water power from Messenette Stream and to get enough water to operate it in dry times a ditch half a mile long was dug by hand to bring water from Hugh's Lake to the head pond above the dam. The course of this ditch can still be traced. The George Spear Mill was at its best about 1870.

Beyond the mill the Spear Road continued north and north eastward along the west bank of Messenette Stream and joined the McCready Road just north of Spear Mountain.

If you turned eastward onto the McCready Road you came to a dead end and to the property of Jim Troke(17) who built churns, cradles, wagon wheels and other wooden articles.

If you turned westward, the McCready Road took you out to Mill Lake where there was another sawmill. Homesteaders on this road were Dan McCready (18) and Bonnie (19). Dan Cameron (20) and Robert White (21) both lived close to the junction of the McCready and Mill Lake Roads.

Industries

Lumbering and farming were the main industries of the Spear Mill Settlement. Boxwood and lathwood were shipped to the Seacoast Co. at Eastport, Maine U.S.A and pilings in large quantities were shipped to Rockland, Maine, by sailing vessels. One of these was Gold-Finder, Charles Trynor, Captain. Weir materials were also cut in large amounts for local fisherman.

Making barrel hoops was a source of income that required hardwood poles five to seven feet long and one and a half inches at the butt. These were split on a splitter, shaved with a draw knife and tied in bunches of 100 that netted the maker 50 cents a bunch. The main buyer was a Simon Boyd who kept a store at his some in nearby Pennfield. The hoops were used for lime and flour barrels.

Wood products were hauled to the water, loaded at local wharves and shipped mostly to Maine. The vessels brought back loads of pork and kerosene.

The first pulpwood produced in the Spear's Mill Settlement area was cut in 1943 by T.A Sullivan on the Joe Brine property just west of the land formerly owned by Dan Cameron (20), and Robert While (21). (Map 2).

Roads

As time went on, the roads improved, Wagons were used more and more and ships less and less for moving products. Local commissioners were appointed to maintain the roads.

One of the first road commissioners in the Spear's Mill area was Alfred Mealey (3) who lived on Old Saint John Coach Road near its junction with the now abandoned Wren Road about half a mile east of Spinney's Corner (Map 2). Mealey's section of road extended westward from Lepreau to Digdeguash. Like all roads in those times, it was maintained by a system called "statue labour", that is, bidding in a price for maintenance of a section of road or bridge, etc. After a snowstorm the roads were opened by horses and men with shovels as a community effort for which there was no recompense. In spring the roads were impassable for considerable periods due to mud and washouts.

Road improvement was a slow process. Even in the early 1900's roads were still poor and narrow - hardly fit for a horse and buggy.

The culverts were make of poles and bridges of stone. The only thoroughfare eastward from St. George was still the Coach Road. That part of Provincial Highway No. 1 that runs south from Spinney's Corner (Map 2) and now called " The Shore Route" was then impassable in the Musquash area during times of extra high tides.

Central Bonny River

Another settlement that thrived in the 1800's was Central Bonny River (no map included here). It was on the River Road about five miles north of St. George and on the west bank of the Magaguadavic where Bonny River enters it from the northwest. In those days it supported a hotel and store, a C.P.R station, livery stables, a school, post office, many homes, a warehouse, and Todd's large water-powered lumber mill and a bunkhouse and cookhouse for mill workers.

Then came the disastrous fire of June 3, 1903, when 22 buildings were burned in this and the area southward to Winder Stream (formerly known as Linton Stream) and northward towards Second Falls.

Buildings burned included the John E. Moore Mill and Company Store, a large cookhouse and bunkhouse on the hill, the post office, Sullivan's Hotel and store, barns and storehouses, livery stable, school, C.P.R Station, Second Falls Church, McLean house and barn, Gillmor's house and mill at Winder Stream, houses belonging to Henry Matheson, Thorot Goss, Jim Campbell, Mr. Condle, Mr. Gow and Jonas Stewart.

Besides buildings, the fire destroyed two million feet of sawn pine lumber and all the boxcars on the siding, some empty and some loaded.

Many of the buildings were reconstructed but gradually they too have disappeared along with the Bonny River-St Stephen railway service in 1935, the railway station and tracks including the "y" to Saint George in 1954 and finally the school in June 1967. A few private homes and a church are the sole remains of this once populous settlement.

Red Rock

Red Rock Road runs eastward from the river Road at Second Falls, eight miles north of Saint George (Map 3). It crosses the Magaguadavic River by a covered bridge and leads to Red Rock and McDougal Lakes. On this road there were formerly twelve farms and a school. Only one homestead (7) is inhabited today. The sites of several others are used as hunting camps.

Names of settlers were Garnett(1) ,Nixon (2) ,Dean (3) ,McCarten (4) ,Red Rock School (5), White (6) ,Milliken (Ham Lee now has a hunting camp on this site) (7) ,Hannigan (8) ,Sherwood (9), and Brockall (10) .The name of the first settler on site (13) is unknown but George Matheson now uses it as a hunting camp. Sites (12) and (13) are not shown on Map 3 but are close together and approximately one mile north of the point where the Red Rock Road crosses Seely Brook (Map 3).

Industries

Besides working on their farms, settlers of this area cut wood for sawmills and took part in river-driving of saw logs. There were many lumber camps along the Magaguadavic River, each with about 35 men and 50 horses. Camps were made of logs and tar paper, conditions were very primitive and the food was poor. The men worked long hours for $20 to $30 a month. Good axemen were plentiful then and they took great pride in their work. The horses in their teams were nicely matched and there was much rivalry as to which driver could haul the most logs and still have the fattest team "come spring".

The spring river drives provided work for many men. The pay was best for experienced drivers who could run logs in "white water". Many skilful men went from here to Maine and New Hampshire to work on river drives.

A story is told of a contractor Ham Lee, who operated at Red Rock. A young man came to him looking for work and Lee gave him a job building a camp for the men. After a day or so the young man went to Mr Lee and said 'There are no window's in the camp' Ham replied 'It won't make any difference to you son, you won't see daylight at the camp anyway' That described the length of working in those times

Lee and Cox Settlements

Lee Settlement was scattered along three roads. The first road branches north eastward from the River Road at a point about three miles north of Second Falls (Map 3).[note; reverse the order of the numbers for the settlers on the west side of the river] It passes a school (S) then intersects with the second road which parallels the Magaguadavic River on its west bank. It continues eastward, crosses the river by a covered bridge and ends at its junction with the third road which parallels the river on its east bank.

The road along the river's western bank has 10 homesteads: T. Beanie (1), J. Ash (2), L. Ash (3), D. Cox (4) ,O'Neill (5) ,J. Lee (6), W. Beanie (7), Dougherty (8) ,R. Lee (9), and G. Lee (10)[note; reverse the order of the numbers for the settlers on the west side of the river].

The road on the east bank runs south eastward from the junction with the first road to the 'Meadow farms'. It continues past these and finally joins the Red Rock Road. Northward from the junction with the first road it passes through Cox Settlement. For convenience in description, I am lumping the meadow farms and Cox Settlement. Taken together there were 10 farmsteads in these two east-bank communities; Gillmor (11), John Lee (12), Anderson (13), original settler on the site (14) unknown, Sullivan (15), H. Lee (16), Essensa (17), Stewart (18), Cox (19), and Murdock(20). There is a cemetery between (16) and (17).

Today only the one of these homesteads is occupied.

River Road Settlement

This settlement was scattered along the River Road on the western bank of the Magaguadavic. It began about one and a half miles south of Turnover Island and extended northward to where the River Road meets the Great Road from Fredericton to St. Andrews, and included 12 houses and a school. (Map 3) (Map 4).

These were Duncan (1, Map 3)) settlers' name unknown (2) ,Paul Lee (3) ,Tom Lee (4), Robert Radley (5) ,Radley School (6), Oliver Purdy (7), Will Murdock (8), John Garnett (9), John Freeman (10, Map 3) John Mills (11, Map4) Pat Waters (12), and Waters School (S). Only one of these houses is occupied today.

Piskahegan

This is the last of the settlements I am describing. It was scattered along the Great Road eastward of its junction with the River Road which is less than a quarter of a mile southwest of Pomeroy Bridge( Map 4).

Right at the junction stood a blacksmith shop (1) and the house of the blacksmith, David Stewart (2). Originally he set up there to service the army blockhouse (3), which was on the southeast side of the road to the northern end of Pomeroy Bridge and near to the confluence of the Magaguadavic River and Kedron Brook. The Gillmor homestead (4), was on the west side of The Great Road just beyond the blockhouse.

A now abandoned road runs southeast from the Great Road opposite the Gillmore Property. Along it were the homesteads of Campbell (5), Hillard [Hilyard] (6), and an unknown family (7).

A short distance beyond Gilmor's another abandoned road runs north westward from the Great Road. On this side road there are two cellar holes (8) and (9) marking sites of homes whose owners are now unknown.

Three miles northeast of Pomeroy Bridge was the Morrison homestead (10) on the north side of The Great Road after it crosses the Piskahegan River.

Three miles to the northeast of the Morrisons there was a cluster of settlers including Corning (11), said to have been a forbear of Corning Glass Family. The house was on a side road that leads to the modern Mount Pleasant Mine (12),and the forestry fire tower (13) on Pleasant Mountain.

The cart track that continues northward from the road junction mentioned above, is probably part of the original Great Road, and there were other homesteads and landmarks along it. - Kinney (14), schoolhouse (S) a cemetery (15) where there are still a few gravestones, A Campbell (16), Sam Lord (17), and Bryant (18), close to Lower Niles Brook.

Conclusion

The work involved in preparing this report was not easy because few official records were available to me and because there were so few surviving old people who knew the history of the settlements.

Those I was able to talk to were willing and patient in helping me get my records straight. Anita and I hope that we have not missed many of the older families in working up my notes. If we have missed some, please tell us so we can add their name and sites of their homesteads to our lists and maps.

We realize that a whole paper might have been written on each of the seven settlements we have described and that much more could of been said abut the industries of each - farming, fishing, lumbering and shipping. Because of my life-long interest in lumbering I may have over-stressed that particular industry.

Perhaps someone whose family originally came from each settlement will be spurred on by our efforts to write more detailed accounts of their parents' or grandparents' activities in these and other settlements in our county.

Literature Cited

Spinney, Llewellyn and Anita (Spinney) Grearson, 1965 History of St. George. Contributions from Charlotte Co. Historical Soc. No 21, 28 pp. & 5 figures

Medcof, J. C 1965 Maintaining Charlotte County Bye Roads in 1847. Contrib. Form Char Co. Hist Soc. No 19, 5 pp

Written by permission of the Saint Croix Courier. Transcribed by Judy Philips.

This is the Key Map 1

Map 2

Map 3

Map 4

Back to St. George History

Back to St. George Index