CHAPTER XVIII.
St. John and its Business One Hundred and Forty Years Ago.
The circumstances under which the trading company of Blodget, Simonds, Hazen, Peaslie, White and Richard Simonds was organized in 1764 have been already described. The original contract is yet in existence and in a very excellent state of preservation. It is endorsed “Contract for St. Johns & Passamaquodi.”[70] A fac-simile of the signatures appended to it is here given.
Signatures
A short account may be given of each member of the partnership.
Samuel Blodget was a Boston man, somewhat older than the other members of the company, careful and shrewd, possessed of some money and little learning. He had been associated with William Hazen in contracts for supplying the troops on Lake Champlain in the recent French war; there seems to have been also a remote family connection between Samuel Blodget and James Simonds. Mr. Blodget’s connection with the company lasted a little more than two years. During this time a considerable part of the furs, fish, lime and lumber obtained by Simonds and 189 White at the River St. John were consigned to him at Boston. In return Blodget supplied goods for the Indian trade and other articles needed, but his caution proved a source of dissatisfaction to the other partners and Hazen & Jarvis at the end of the first year’s business wrote to Simonds & White, “Mr. Blodget tells us that he never expected to advance more than a quarter of the outsets. We think in this he does not serve us very well, as we can’t see into the reason of our advancing near three-quarters and doing more than ten times the business and his having an equal share of the profits. Pray give us your opinion on that head. You may rest assured that we will not leave one stone unturned to keep you constantly supply’d and believe, even if we should not have the requisite assistance from Mr. Blodget, we shall be able to effect it.” To this James Simonds replies, “With respect to Mr. Blodget’s not advancing more than precisely ¼ part of the outsets is what I never before understood; I am sure by his situation that he can do but a little part of the Business and therefore think he ought to excell in his proportion of Supplys rather than to fall short.”
A second year of the partnership passed and Samuel Blodget became exceedingly serious about the ultimate outcome of the venture. He wrote a letter on the 18th March, 1766, to Simonds & White of which the extract that follows is a part:
“I have been Largely concerned in partnerships before Now but Never so Ignorant of any as of the present, which I am willing to Impute it to your hurry of Business, But Let me Tell you that partners are in a high degree guilty of Imprudence to Continue a Large Trade for Two years without Settling or knowing whether they have Lost a hundred pounds or not—although they may be ever so Imersed in Business, for the Sooner they Stop the better, provided they are Losing money—as it seames in Mr. Hazen’s oppinion we have Lost money—perhaps you may Know to the Contrary. But then how agreable would it be to me (who have a Large Sum in your hands) to know as much as you do. Pray Suffer me to ask you, can you wonder to find me anxious about my Interest when I am so Ignorant what it is in? I am sure you don’t Gent’n. I am not in doubt of your Integrity. I think I know you Both Two well. But common prudence calls Loudly upon us all to adjust our accounts as soon as may be. I have not the Least Line under yours and Mr. White’s hands that the Articles which we signed the first years, which was dated the First of March, 1764,—which was but for one yeare—should Continue to the present Time, nor do I doubt your onour, but Still mortallety Requiyers it to be done and I should take it Coind to Receive Such a Righting sent by both of you.”
Mr. Blodget’s uneasiness as to the outcome of the business was set at rest very shortly after he wrote the above, for on April 5th Hazen and Jarvis tell their partners at St. John:—
“We have purchased Mr. Blodget’s Interest, for which we are to pay him his outsetts. We are in hopes that we shall be able to carry on the Business better without than with him. * * We must beg you would be as frugal as possible in the laying out of any money that benefits will not be immediately reaped from, and that you will make as large remittances as you possibly can to enable us to discharge the Company’s debt to Blodget, for we shall endeavor all in our power to discharge our obligations to him as we do not chuse to lay at his Mercy.”
Thus it appears that if Samuel Blodget’s two years connection with the company was not greatly to his advantage, it did him no material injury. From this time he ceases to have any interest for us in the affairs at Portland Point.
James Simonds, whose name is second among the signers of the business contract of 1764, may be regarded as the founder of the first permanent settlement at the mouth of the River St. John. His most remote ancestor in America was William Simonds of Woburn, Massachusetts. This William Simonds married Judith Phippen, who came to America in the ship “Planter” in 1635. Tradition says that as the vessel drew near her destination land was first described by Judith Phippen, which proved to be the headland now called “Point Judith.” Among the passengers of the “Planter” were the ancestors of many well known families in America, bearing the familiar names of Peabody, Perley, Beardsley, Carter, Hayward, Reed, Lawrence, Cleveland, Davis and Peters. In 1643 Judith Phippen became the wife of William Simonds. The house in which they lived at Woburn, Mass., and where their twelve children were born, is probably yet standing—at least it was when visited a few years since by one of their descendants living in this province. William Simonds’ tenth child, James, was the grandfather of our old Portland Point pioneer. He married Susanna Blodget and their sixth child, Nathan, was the father of James Simonds, who came to St. John. Nathan Simonds married Sarah Hazen of Haverhill, an aunt of William Hazen, and their oldest child James (the subject of this sketch) was born at Haverhill, December 10, 1735.
James Simonds, as mentioned in a former chapter, served in “the old French war” and was with his cousin Captain John Hazen in the campaign against Fort Ticonderoga. His subsequent career we have already touched upon and he will naturally continue to be a leading character in the story of the early history of St. John. He was evidently a man of stout constitution and vigor of body, for he not only survived all his contemporaries who came to St. John, but he outlived every member of the first New Brunswick legislature and every official appointed by the crown at the organization of the province. He passed to his rest in the house he had built at Portland Point at the patriarchal age of 95 years. His widow Hannah (Peabody) Simonds died in 1840 at the age of 90 years.
Of James Simonds’ large family of fourteen children several were prominent in the community. Hon. Charles Simonds was for years the leading citizen of Portland. He was born the same year the Loyalists landed in St. John, and was a member for St. John county in the House of Assembly from 1821 until his death in 1859, filling during that time the positions of speaker and leader of the government. Hon. Richard Simonds, born in 1789, represented the county of Northumberland in the House of Assembly when but twenty-one years of age and sat from 1810 to 1828, when he was appointed treasurer of the province. He filled for a short time the position of speaker of the assembly, and from 1829 until his death in 1836 was a member of the Legislative Council. Sarah, one of the daughters of James Simonds, married (Sept. 10, 1801) Thomas Millidge, the ancestor of the Millidges of St. John; her youngest sister Eliza married (Aug. 9, 1801) Henry Gilbert, merchant of St. John, from whom the members of this well known family are descended.
William Hazen, the third of the signers of the partnership contract, was born in Haverhill July 17, 1738. His great-grandfather, Edward Hazen, the first of the name in America, was a resident of Rowley, Massachusetts, as early as the year 191 1649. By his wife Hannah Grant he had four sons and seven daughters. The youngest son Richard, born August 6, 1669, inherited the large estate of his stepfather, George Browne, of Haverhill. This Richard Hazen was grandfather of James Simonds as well as of William Hazen; he married Mary Peabody and had a family of five sons and six daughters (one of the latter was the mother of James Simonds.) The third son, Moses Hazen was the ancestor of the Hazens of New Brunswick.
The wife of Moses Hazen was Abigail White, aunt of James White who came to St. John. Their sons John, Moses and William have a special interest for us. John, the oldest distinguished himself as a captain of the Massachusetts troops in the French war. He married Anne Swett of Haverhill, and had a son John, who came with his uncle William to St. John in 1775 and settled at Burton on the River St. John, where he married Dr. William McKinstry’s daughter, Priscilla, and had a family of twelve children. J. Douglas Hazen, of St. John, M. P. P., for Sunbury County, is one of his descendants.
Moses Hazen, the second son has been mentioned as commander of one of the companies of the Fort Frederick garrison in 1759; he became a Brigadier General in the American army in the Revolutionary war.
William Hazen, the third son and co-partner of Simonds and White, was born in Haverhill, July 17, 1738. He married, July 14, 1764, Sarah Le Baron of Plymouth.
Their family was even larger than that of James Simonds and included sixteen children. Of these Elizabeth married the elder Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the time of his death in 1824 administrator of government; Sarah Lowell married Thomas Murray (grandfather of the late Miss Frances Murray of St. John, one of the cleverest women the province has ever produced) and after his early decease became the wife of Judge William Botsford—their children were Senator Botsford, George Botsford and Dr. Le Baron Botsford; Charlotte married General Sir John Fitzgerald; Frances Amelia married Col. Charles Drury of the imperial army, father of the late Ward Chipman Drury.
Among the more distinguished descendants of William Hazen by the male line were Hon. Robert L. Hazen—popularly known as “Curly Bob”—recorder of the city of St. John, a very eminent leader in our provincial politics and at the time of his death a Canadian senator; also Robert F. Hazen who was mayor of St. John and one of its most influential citizens.
The elder William Hazen died in 1814 at the age of 75 years. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Chipman, died at the Chipman House May 18, 1852, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists and her son, Chief Justice Chipman, died November 26, 1851, the sixty seventh anniversary of the organisation of the first supreme court of the province. The widow of Chief Justice Chipman died the 4th of July, 1876, the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. And finally a William Hazen, of the fourth generation, died June 17, 1885, the same day on which his ancestor left Newburyport for St. John one hundred and ten years before.
The first three signers of the articles of partnership under which business was undertaken at St. John in 1764, viz. Samuel Blodget, James Simonds and William Hazen, had each one-quarter interest in the business, the junior partners, Robert 192 Peaslie, James White and Richard Simonds had only one-twelfth part each. The articles of partnership provided that James Simonds and the three junior partners should proceed to St. John as soon as possible, and there do what business was necessary to be done during the co-partnership, and that Samuel Blodget and William Hazen should remain at Boston an Newburyport to forward supplies and receive what might be sent from St. John or elsewhere by the company. For some reason Robert Peaslie did not go to St. John. He married Anna Hazen, a sister of William Hazen, and settled in Haverhill, retiring not long afterwards from the company. Another of the junior partners, Richard Simonds, lost his life, as already stated, on the 20th January, 1765, in the defence of the property of the company when the Indians were about to carry it off.
In the autumn of the year 1764, Leonard Jarvis, then a young man of twenty-two years of age, entered into partnership with William Hazen at Newburyport and became, by common consent, a sharer in the business at St. John. He was a man of ability and education. The accounts kept at Newburyport in connection with the business are in his handwriting, and he conducted the correspondence of Hazen & Jarvis with Simonds & White in a manner that would do no discredit to a modern business house. In a letter of the 3rd April, 1765, Mr. Jarvis informs James Simonds that “Mr. Peaslie has determined to settle down in Haverhill and to leave this concern, and as by this means and the death of your Brother, in which we sincerely condole with you, one-eighth part of the concern becomes vacant, we propose to let Mr. White have one-eighth and to take three-eighths ourselves—this you will please consult Mr. White upon and advice us. * * * We must beg you will send all the accts. both you and Mr. White have against the Company, and put us in a way to settle with Mr. Peaslie.”
James White, the fifth signer of the articles of partnership, was born in Haverhill in 1738, and was a lineal descendant of the Worshipful William White, one of the well-known founders of the place. He served as Ensign or Lieutenant in a Massachusetts regiment, but after the fall of Quebec retired from active service and entered the employ of William Tailer and Samuel Blodget, merchants of Boston, at a very modest salary, as appears from the following:—
“Memorandum of an agreement made this day between William Tailer & Co., with James White, that we, the said Tailer & Co., do allow him the said James White twenty dollars pr. month as long as the said White is in their service at Crown Point as Clark.
“William Tailer & Co.
“Test: Geo. Willmot.
“Crown Point, July 1st, 1762.”
James White’s papers, now in possession of a gentleman in St. John, show that he was engaged in the business of Tailer and Blodget at Crown Point continuously from September, 1761, to July, 1763; consequently the statement, commonly made, that he came to St. John with Francis Peabody, James Simonds, Hugh Quinton and their party in 1762 is a mistake.
In the early part of 1764 James White was employed by Samuel Blodget in business transactions in Haverhill, New Salem and Bradford. The first occasion on 193 which he set foot on the shores of St. John was when he landed there with James Simonds and the party that established themselves at Portland Point in the month of April, 1764. The important part he played in the early affairs of St. John will abundantly appear in these pages. He was one of the most active and energetic men of his generation and filled several offices in the old county of Sunbury, of which county he was sheriff. This office seems to have had special attractions for the White family, for his son James was sheriff of the city and county of St. John for more than thirty years, and one of his daughters married Sheriff DeVeber of Queens county. Mr. White was collector of customs at St. John when the Loyalists landed. The emoluments of this office were small, for in the year 1782 only a dozen vessels entered and cleared at St. John, the largest of but 30 tons burden. James White spent the closing years of his life on his farm at the head of the marsh about three miles from the City of St. John. His residence was known as Gretna Green, from the fact that a good many quiet weddings were celebrated by the old squire, who was one of the magistrates specially commissioned to solemnize marriages. He died in 1815 at the age of 77 years.
Having now spoken of the individuals composing St. John’s first trading company, the nature of the business pursued claims a little attention. The task that lay before James Simonds and James White was no easy one. Difficulties, many of them entirely unforseen, had to be faced and the great diversity of their business rendered their situation arduous and sometimes discouraging. At one time the fishery claimed their attention, at another bartering with the Indians, at another the erection of houses for themselves and their tenants, at another the dyking of the marsh, at another the erection of a mill, at another the building of a schooner, at another laying out roads and clearing lands, at another the burning of a lime-kiln, at another furnishing supplies for the garrison at the fort, at another the building of a wharf or the erection of a store-house.
Communication with New England in these days was slow and uncertain and often the non-arrival of a vessel, when the stock of provisions had run low, caused a good deal of grumbling on the part of the hands employed. This was particularly the case if the supply of rum chanced to run out. The wages of the laborers employed by the company were generally 2s. 6d., or half a dollar, a day and they boarded themselves. As a rule the men took up their wages at the store and the item most frequently entered against their names was New England rum. The writer had the curiosity to examine the charges for rum in one of the old day books for a period of a month—the month selected at random—when it appeared that, of a dozen laborers, four men averaged half a pint each per day, while with the other eight men the same allowance lasted three days. Tea, the great modern beverage, was rather a luxury and appears to have been used sparingly and rum, which retailed at 8 pence a pint, was used almost universally. Human nature was much the same in the eighteenth as in the twentieth century. The men often drank to excess, and some of them would have been utterly unreliable but for the fact that Simonds and White were masters of the situation and could cut off the supply. They generally doled out the liquor 194 by half pints and gills to their laborers. On one occasion we find Mr. Simonds writing, “The men are in low spirts, have nothing to eat but pork and bread, and nothing but water to drink. Knowing this much I trust you will lose no time in sending to our relief.”
At various times the privations were exceedingly great and even after the little colony had been for some years established at Portland Point they suffered for lack of the necessaries of life. Mr. Simonds thus describes their experience in the early part of 1770:
“Most difficult to remedy and most distressing was the want of provisions and hay. Such a scene of misery of man and beast we never saw before. There was not anything of bread kind equal to a bushel of meal for every person when the schooner sailed for Newbury the 6th of February (three months ago) and less of meat and vegetables in proportion—the Indians and hogs had part of that little.”
He goes on to say that the flour that had just arrived in the schooner was wet and much damaged; no Indian corn was to be had; for three months they had been without molasses or coffee, nor had they any tea except of the spruce variety.
In one of his letters, written a few months after the commencement of operations at St. John, Simonds urges the careful attention of Blodget and Hazen to their part of the business, observing: “I hope if I sacrifice my interest, ease, pleasure of Good Company, and run the risque even of life itself for the benefit of the Company, those who live where the circumstances are every way the reverse will in return be so good as to take every pains to dispose of all effects remitted to them to the best advantage.”
The first year of the Company’s operations was in some respects phenomenal. On the 30th September, 1764, a very severe shock of an earthquake occurred at St. John about 12 o’clock, noon. The winter that followed was one of unusual severity with storms that wrought much damage to shipping. Leonard Jarvis wrote to James Simonds on April 3, 1765, “There has not been in the memory of man such a winter as the last and we hope there never will be again.” Mr. Simonds in his reply says “The winter has been much here as in New England.”
In the same letter just referred to Mr. Jarvis says: “We hope in future, by keeping the schooner constantly running between this place and yours, that we shall be able to surmount our greatest difficulties. At present we can only say that nothing shall be wanting on our parts (and we are well assured that you will continue to endeavour) to make this concern turn out in the end an advantageous one. It would give us great pleasure could we ease you of part of your burden and know what difficulties you have to go through * * We have sent you by this schooner some table linen and what other table furniture we thought you might have occasion for. If there is anything more wanting to make you not only comfortable but Genteel, beg you would advise us and we will furnish you with it by the return of the schooner Wilmot.”
In reply to this Mr. Simonds writes, “I am obliged to you for sending some furniture, for truly none was ever more barely furnished than we were before. Gentility is out of the question.”
The business of Simonds and White was not confined to St. John, they had quite an important post for the Indian trade and the fishery on an island adjacent 195 to Campobello, now known as Indian Island. And it may be observed in passing that this was an island of many names. James Boyd, a Scotchman who lived there in 1763, called it Jeganagoose—evidently a form of Misignegoos, the name by which it is known to the Indians of Passamaquoddy. A French settler named La Treille lived there in 1688, and this explains the origin of the name Latterell Island, applied to it in early times. In the grant of 1765 it is called Perkins Island. This place owing to its proximity to New England had been the first to attract Mr. Simonds’ notice. The smaller vessels of the Company, such as the sloops “Bachelor” and “Peggy & Molly” and the schooners “Eunice” and “Polly,” were for several years employed in fishing at Passamaquoddy from April to October. The masters of the vessels received £4 per month for their services. The crews employed were for the most part engaged by Hazen and Jarvis and at the close of the season returned to their homes in New England. It was the custom for a year or two for one of the partners, Simonds or White, to attend at Passamaquoddy during the fishing season. From 1765 to 1770 Isaac Marble of Newburyport was their principal “shoresman.” The partners had a keen eye to business; on one occasion they purchased a whale from the Indians and tried out the oil, but this seems to have been merely a stray monster of the deep for, in answer to the query of Hazen & Jarvis, James Simonds writes, “With respect to whaling, don’t think the sort of whales that are in Passamaquada bay can be caught.”
It was from Passamaquoddy that the first business letter extant of the company’s correspondence was written by James Simonds to William Hazen on the 18th August, 1764. The business was then in an experimental stage, and Mr. Simonds in this letter writes, “If you & Mr. Blodget think it will be best to carry on business largely at St. John’s we must have another house with a cellar; the latter is now dug and stoned & will keep apples, potatoes & other things that will not bear the frost, for a large trade; this building will serve as a house and store, the old store for a Cooper’s shop. If the lime answers well we shall want 150 hogsheads with hoops and boards for heads; also boards for a house, some glass, etc., bricks for chimney and hinges for two doors. I think the business at St. John’s may be advantageous, if not too much entangled with the other. We can work at burning Lime, catching fish in a large weir we have built for bass up the river at the place where we trade with the Indians, trade with the Soldiers and Inhabitants, etc. Next winter we can employ the oxen at sleding wood and lime stone, Mr. Middleton at making casks; don’t think it best to keep any men at Passamaquada [for the winter].”
It was the intention of Simonds & White to bring the hands employed at Passamaquoddy to St. John in a sloop expected in the fall with goods and stores, but on the 16th December we find Mr. Simonds writing to Blodget & Hazen, “Have long waited with impatience for the arrival of the sloop; have now given her over for lost. All the hopes I have is that the winds were contrary in New England as they were here all the fall; that detained her until too late and you concluded not to send her. We had a fine prospect of a good trade last fall, and had the goods come in season should by this time have disposed of them to great advantage; but instead of that we have missed collecting the greater part of our Indian 196 debts, as they expected us up the river and have not been here on that account.... I have not heard from Passamaquada for six weeks, but fear they have little or no provisions, and am sure they have no hay for a cow that is there. She being exceeding good, shall endeavor to save her life till you can send hay for her. I shall go there as soon as the weather moderates (it has been intensely cold lately) and employ the men there as well as I can, as they are confined there contrary to intention for the winter, and return here as soon as possible.”
The non-arrival of provisions for the men and of hay for the oxen Mr. Simonds deplores as likely to overthrow all pans for the winter. They had intended to use the oxen to sled wood and lime-stone—a much easier way than carting in the summer. He says, “We have stone dug for 500 hogsheads of lime and near wood enough cut to burn it; that must now lay till carting, and we shift as well as we can to employ our men so as not to have them run us in debt. * * can think of nothing better than to make a resolute push up the river with our men, employ some of them at making lumber, others at clearing land and fitting it for grain in the spring.”
The Company had some formidable rivals at Passamaquoddy for the next spring we find James Simonds telling Hazen & Jarvis, “There is such a number of traders at Passamaquoddy that I don’t expect much trade there this spring: have prevailed with the Commandant at Fort Frederick to stop them going up this river: there has been no passing the falls till now (May 27th) by reason of the freshet. Shall go over this afternoon and proceed directly to Ocpaque, an Indian village eighty miles up the river.”
Notwithstanding the favor shown them by the commandant of the garrison, Simonds & White found rivals in the Indian trade even an the River St. John. Among the earliest were John Anderson and Captain Isaac Caton. The minutes of the council of Nova Scotia show that on August 9, 1763, license was granted Mr. Anderson to occupy 50 acres of any lands unappropriated on the St. John river, and under date June 7, 1765, we have the following:—
“License is hereby granted to John Anderson to traffick with the Tribes of Indians on St. John’s River and in the Bay of Fundy, he conducting himself without Fraud or Violence and submitting himself to the observance of such regulations as may at any time hereafter be established for the better ordering of such commerce. This license to continue during pleasure.”
Anderson selected as his location the site of Villebon’s old Fort at the mouth of the Nashwaak, where he obtained in 1765, a grant of 1,000 acres of land, built himself a dwelling house and established a trading post convenient to the Indian village of Aukpaque, a few miles above. He had the honor to be the first magistrate on the River St. John, his commission dating August 17, 1765; the next appointed was colonel Beamsley P. Glacier, on 15th October, same year. John Anderson obtained his goods and supplies of Martin Gay, merchant of Boston, and one Charles Martin was his bookkeeper and assistant. He called his place “Monkton,” a name it retained for many years.[71] Early in 1768 Anderson had the misfortune 197 198 to lose a vessel laden with goods for the India trade. James Simonds mentions this incident in a letter to Hazen & Jarvis and remarks: “We imagine the loss of Mr. Anderson’s vessel will cause more trade to come to us than we should have had if she had gone safe.”
Captain Isaac Caton was granted a licence “to traffick with the Indians on Saint John’s river and the Bay of Fundy,” on Nov’r. 9, 1765. He probably made his headquarters at the old French trading post on the historic Island of Emenemic, in Long Reach, of which he was a grantee about thus time, and which has since been called Caton’s Island.
Simonds and White did not find the Indian trade entirely to their liking and after a few years experience wrote (under date June 20, 1767), “The Indian debts we cannot lessen being obliged to give them new credit as a condition of their paying their old debts. They are very numerous at this time but have made bad hunts; we have got a share of their peltry, as much as all the others put together, and hope soon to collect some more. There is scarcely a shilling of money in the country. Respecting goods we think it will be for our advantage not to bring any Toys and Trinkets (unnecessary articles) in sight of the Indians, and by that means recover them from their bankruptcy. They must have provisions and coarse goods for the winter, and if we have a supply of those articles, by keeping a store here and up the River make no doubt of having most of the Trade. Shall have a store ready by September next, and hope to have it finished by the last of that month.”
ICE-JAM ABOVE GOVERNMENT HOUSE, FREDERICTON, MARCH, 1902.
The store was built near the site of Government House and according to Moses H. Perley it was carried away by one of those periodical ice-jams for which the vicinity of St. Ann’s Point has been noted from time immemorial. See illustration on preceding page of a recent ice-jam at this place.
Another store was built and Benjamin Atherton took charge of it. In addition to trade with the Indians he did business with the white settlers under the name and title of Atherton & Co. Furs and produce were frequently transported to St. John from the post at St. Anns in summer in gondolas and in the winter on ice by means of horses and sleds.
The volume of business in the aggregate was quite large for those days. In addition to the exportation of furs and peltry to the value of $40,000, the company sent to New England and the West Indies large quantities of pollock, mackerel and codfish taken in the Bay. The gasperaux fishery at St. John was also an important factor in their trade; in the seven years previous to the Revolutionary war Simonds & White shipped to Boston 4,000 barrels of gasperaux valued at about $12,000. They also shipped quantities of bass, shad, salmon and sturgeon. Perhaps their profits would have been even greater had not many of the men who were at other times in their employ engaged in fishing on their own account. The community was not an ideal one for Mr. Simonds writes: “In the spring we must go into the Weirs every tide to keep our men from selling bait to the fishermen for rum, which is not only attended with the loss of the fish so sold, but of the men’s time who would drink so to excess as not to be able to do anything.”
In the Champlain’s map of St. John harbor and its surroundings a lake or pond is shown at the spot where the Union depot and freight sheds stand today. At the outlet of this pond a dam and tide mill were built by Simonds and White in the year 1766. The mill was put in operation the next season and from that day to this lumber has been one of St. John’s staple articles of export. Primitive as was this saw-mill some difficulty was experienced in procuring proper hands to run it. James Simonds in his letter of June 20, 1767, to Hazen & Jarvis writes:
“The sloop Bachelor did not return from up the River before this morning. We have but few fish; the men that undertook the weirs were very slow and unfaithful, and not only neglected the fisheries but the Mill also, for which reason we have not a full load for the Sloop. The Mill we have not nor shall be able to keep at work without more and better hands; have four less than we ought to have for different branches of work, if all of them was good boys, and with those that are bad must make a bad figure. We have promised 30 to 40 hogsheads Lime to Mr. Best of Halifax and hourly expect a vessel for it, and have encouragement of a contract for the King’s works there; expect nothing but to disappoint him as that rascal negro West cannot be flattered or drove to do one fourth of a man’s work; shall give him a strong dose on Monday morning which will make him better or worse, no dependence can be put on him. * * We want three men, one that understands tending a mill and two teamsters, which we beg you will send in next vessel.”
The correspondence of the partners shows that the manufacture of lime continued to engage their attention. The first kiln was built in rear of the store and dwellings at Portland Point near the base of Fort Howe hill. When James Simonds visited Halifax in September, 1764, he wrote a very interesting letter to Samuel Blodget in which he says: “I have been with the King’s chief Mason; have shewn him a sample of our lime; he likes it well and gives me encouragement that he will take all of me that he wants either for public or private use (he is the only dealer in town) at a rate that will net at St. John’s three dollars or more pr. hogshead.”
Several coopers were sent from Newburyport by Hazen & Jarvis to manufacture hogsheads for the lime business, one hogshead being considered about as much as a man could make in a day. With the view of securing a more desirable class of employees the company began at this time to take into their service married men with families for whose accommodation they built comfortable log houses. Yet even here there were disappointments, as we learn from another of Mr. Simonds’ letters in which he says: “Our help mostly failed us last fall, and the hay season was the wettest that was ever known, which prevented our having a sufficient quantity of lime-stone dug and wood cut to employ the teams to good advantage. * * Old Abbot (the cooper) did not do one day’s work for sixty days after his wife arrived; no dependence can be placed on him, and as Stevens goes a fishing in the Spring on his own account we shall want another cooper and three labourers. It will make a material difference if these men are of a tractable disposition.”
The lime manufactured was shipped to Halifax, Boston and the West Indies, and on one occasion a cargo was sent to Newfoundland.
There is in possession of the Hazen family an inventory of the property 200 of the company at St. John, dated the 12th of February, 1767, which will give the reader some little idea of the nature of the Company’s business and the condition of their trading post at Portland Point at this time. The inventory is as follows:
LIST OF COMPANY EFFECTS AT ST. JOHN.
| Dwelling House 19 by 35, part finished | £ 90. 0.0 | |
| 1 | Building 16 by 40, Rough boarded, improved for Cooper’s Shop & Kitchen | 15. 0.0 |
| 1 | Log Store 20 by 30, without floor | 20. 0.0 |
| 1 | Barn 24 by 35 | 16. 6.0 |
| 1 | Log house 14 by 18, occupied by Black | 6.12.0 |
| 1 | House 16 by 20, occupied by Bradley | 7.10.0 |
| 1 | Well 15 feet deep | 1.10.0 |
| 1 | Necessary House | 1.10.0 |
| 1 | Lime Kiln | 14. 0.0 |
| 1 | Gondalo | 10. 0.0 |
| 1 | Wherry | 1. 0.0 |
| 2 | Large Seines | 14. 0.0 |
| 1 | Cart 100s., 2 Sleds, 18s. | 5.18.0 |
| 1 | Drag 9s., 1 Harrow 15s. | 1. 4.0 |
| 2 | Iron bars 20s., 1 Crow-bar 10s | 1.10.0 |
| 3 | Stone Hammers @ 7s. | 1. 1.0 |
| 4 | Spades @ 6s. 8d., 3 Shovels @ 3s. | 1.15.8 |
| 1 | Broad Axe 12s., 6 Narrow Axes @ 6s. | 2. 8.0 |
| 15 | Old Axes @ 3s. | 2. 5.0 |
| Whipsaw 40s., 1 Cross cut do. 30s. | 3.10.0 | |
| 4 | Augers 12s., 3 chisels 6s. | 18.0 |
| 2 | Iron Squares, 8s., 3 pitch forks 12s. | 1. 0.0 |
| 7 | Hoes @ 2s. 8d. | 18.8 |
| 1 | Set Cooper’s Tools | 2. 5.0 |
| 2 | Nail hammers 3s., 1 plough 18s. | 1. 1.0 |
| 2 | Scythes @ 6s., 2 pick axes @ 5s. | 1. 4.0 |
| 7 | Chains | 4.10.0 |
| 1 | Beetle 1s. 6d., 2 Wedges 3s. | 4.6 |
| 160 | Hogsheads Lime stone at ye Kiln @ 5s. 4d. | 42.13.4 |
| 50 | Hogsheads at the Quarry dug @ 1s. | 2.10.0 |
| 50 | Cords wood at Kiln @ 3s. 6d. | 8.15.0 |
| 80 | Cords wood in ye Woods & 1s. 6d. | 7. 6.8 |
| Wire 60s., Spruce Logs at the Water 80s. | 7. 0.0 | |
| 84 | Pine logs at the falls worth | 22. 8.0 |
| 119 | Pine logs scattered in ye River @ 3s. | 17. 7.0 |
| 8 | Oxen worth at St. John | 60. 0.0 |
| 3 | Cows | 14. 8.0 |
| 1 | Pair 3 year old steers | 9. 0.0 |
| 1 | Bull 54s., 1 do. 30s. | 4. 4.0 |
| 6 | Sheep @ 18s., 7 Hogs @ 16s. | 11. 0.0 |
| 1 | Burch Canoe | 1. 0.0 |
| 2 | Carpenter’s adzes @ 7s., 2 drills @ 6s. | 1. 0.0 |
| 4 | Pairs Snow Shoes @ 7s. 6d. | 1.10.0 |
| 2 | Steel plated handsaws @ 8s. | 16.0 |
| 1 | Set mill irons | 7. 0.0 |
| 2 | M Staves shaved and joined | 4.16.0 |
| £451.4.10 |
There is also an inventory of the goods in the company’s store at this time, which were valued at £613. The goods were such as were needed by the white settlers up the river as well as for the Indian trade. There was quite a varied assortment, yet the many deficiencies indicate the simplicity of living then in vogue.
The list of household goods and chattels, the property of Simonds and White, was a very meagre one indeed. The more common and necessary articles of furniture such as bedsteads, tables, benches, etc., were probably manufactured on the premises by means of the carpenter’s axe, adze, hammer and saw. In addition they had a small supply of bedding, 6 camp chairs, 1 desk, 1 writing desk, 1 lamp, 4 iron candlesticks, 1 ink stand.
Dishes—4 pewter plates, 2 pewter platters, 2 pewter porringers, 2 metal teapots, 8 stone plates, 1 stone platter, 1 stone jug, 1 earthen teapot, 3 china cups and saucers, 2 quart basons, 2 punch bowls.
Cutlery, etc.—1¼ doz. case knives and forks, 1½ doz. spoons, 1 large spoon, 6 silver tea spoons. Kitchen utensils—2 frying pans, 2 tea kettles, 1 chafing dish, 1 cullender, 4 iron pots, 1 brass kettle, 2 quart pots, 2 two-quart pots, 3 pints, 2 tin kettles, 1 pail, 1 pair dogs, 1 shovel and tongs, 1 tea-chest, 1 coffee mill, 2 pairs steel yards, 1 beam scale, 2 sets weights.
The total value of household articles was but £33, 17, 5, and it is doubtful whether the personal belongings of Simonds and White would have added much to the common stock. No wonder James Simonds observed with grim humor, as he described life at St. John in those days, “gentility is out of the question.”
William Hazen was afraid the business during the first year had been unprofitable, and at the end of the year called for a settlement of accounts in order to find out the exact state of affairs. James Simonds wrote: “We are sensible of the necessity of settling our accts. soon, but have always been obliged to work so much abroad as not to be able to have our books posted up, besides the necessity of taking an exact acct. of all goods on hand and making an exact computation of the cost of all buildings and works cannot be hurried over and would require time. We could have had all those things ready, but must have neglected completing preparations for the winter’s work, which we think would be far greater damage to us than the accts. remaining unfinished for a few months and for us to finish them in the winter evenings.”
Doubtless the winter evenings were entirely at their disposal. There were no social engagements to fill, no societies to attend, no places of amusement to while away the hours. The church, the lodge room, the club were reserved for coming generations. Even the satisfaction to be derived from good, general reading was wanting for an inventory of household effects made in 1775 shows that Mr. Simonds owned a Bible and Prayer Book and Mr. White a Bible and a copy of Watt’s psalms and hymns, and the only other book of which mention can be found is an almanac. It would seem that one at least of the partners was fond of fiction, for Samuel Blodget writes in a letter to James White—the latter then at Crown Point—Dec. 8, 1762: “I confess I was a little surprised att your opinion of Roderick Random, for it is allowed by all that I ever heard judg of it, that it is a well wrote Novell.”
No account of the business of St. John during the period of the operations of its finest trading company, would be complete without some mention of its shipping. Naturally it was the day of small things with the future “winter port” of Canada. The ship that bore de Monts and Champlain to the Bay of Fundy in the month of June, 1604, was a little vessel of 150 tons, smaller than some of our coasting schooners of today; but the vessels employed in the business of Hazen, Simonds and White and their associates, were smaller still, ranging from ten to eighty tons burden.
The qualities essential to successful navigation—pluck, enterprise and skill—were admirably displayed by the hardy mariners of New England, the pioneers of commerce in the Bay of Fundy. In their day there were no light houses, or beacons, or fog-horns and even charts were imperfect, yet there were few disasters. The names of Jonathan Leavitt and his contemporaries are worthy of a foremost place in our commercial annals.
The following list of the vessels owned or chartered by Hazen, Simonds and White in their business at St. John, A. D. 1764–1774, is probably as complete as at this distance of time it can be made:
Names of Vessels and Masters.
| Schooner Wilmot, | William Story. |
| “ | Polly, Jon. Leavitt, Jas. Stickney, Henry Brookings. |
| “ | Eunice, James Stickney. |
| “ | Betsy, Jonathan Leavitt. |
| “ | Seaflower, Benjamin Batchelder, Jonathan Leavitt. |
| “ | Sunbury, Jonathan Leavitt, Daniel Leavitt. |
| “ | Essex; Isaac Marble. |
| Sloop Bachelor, | William Story. |
| “ | Peggy & Molly, Henry Brookings |
| “ | Merrimack, Jon. Leavitt, Samuel Perkins, Daniel Leavitt. |
| “ | St. John’s Paquet, Richard Bartelott, Hen. Brookings, Joseph Jellings. |
| “ | Speedwell, Nathaniel Newman |
| “ | Dolphin, Daniel Dow. |
| “ | Woodbridge, David Stickney. |
| “ | Sally, Nathaniel Newman. |
| “ | Deborah, Edward Atwood. |
| “ | Kingfisher, Jonathan Eaton. |
Of the vessels enumerated the schooners Wilmot, Polly, Eunice and Betsy and the sloops Bachelor, Peggy & Molly, Merimack and St. John’s Paquet were owned by the company.
For some years the company paid insurance at the rate of 3 per cent. on the vessels and their cargoes, but the insurance was obtained with difficulty and after a time was discontinued on the ground that the business would not bear the expense.
When the partnership was formed in 1764, the company owned the schooner 203 Polly of 20 tons, the sloop Bachelor of 33 tons, and the sloop Peggy & Molly of 66 tons. The same year Isaac Johnson of Newburyport built for them the schooner Wilmot of 64 tons and James Simonds paid £180 as his share of her hull. Samuel Blodget purchased in Boston a quantity of yarns, strands and cordage, which were delivered by Wm. Hazen to Crocker, a ropemaker of Newburyport, to be worked up for the schooners Polly and Wilmot, the sloop Bachelor and the sloop Peggy & Molly. The company afterwards bought or built the schooners Eunice and Betsy and the sloops Merrimack and St. John’s Paquet. The sloop Merrimack was a square sterned vessel of 80 tons, built at Newburyport in 1762. She was hired for the company’s service in 1767 and purchased for them in 1771 by Hazen & Jarvis for £150. James Simonds says she was then a mere hulk entirely unfit for sea, but after being repaired was employed in coasting to St. John and in carrying lumber to the West Indies. William Hazen and his family had good reason to remember the Merrimack, for it was in this vessel they embarked for their new home in St. John in the month of May, 1775. They were cast away on Fox Island and in addition to the discomfort experienced, many of theirs personal belongings and some valuable papers connected with the company’s business were lost. The crew and passengers were rescued and brought to St. John in a sloop of Captain Drinkwater’s, the captain consenting to throw overboard his load of cordwood to make room for the rescued party and their possessions. Most of Mr. Hazen’s valuables and the rigging and stores of the Merrimack were saved.
The sloop St. John’s Paquet was another vessel that had an unfortunate experience. She made occasional voyages from St. John to St. Croix in the West Indies. In the year 1770 she sailed from St. John with a cargo of lime for Newburyport, having on board William Hazen, who had been on one of his periodical business trips to St. John. Simonds and White asked to have the sloop and cargo insured, but Hazen says the reason they gave, namely, that the paquet was “an unlucky vessel,” did not make any impression on the minds of himself or Mr. Jarvis, and, as it was a good season of the year, they did not effect it. The vessel unfortunately proved true to her reputation. She got on the shoals at Newburyport and taking “a rank heel” got water amongst her lime, which set her on fire. The sloop and her cargo were sold in consequence for £300 where she lay. The vessel was afterwards hired by Hazen & Jarvis and again sent to St. John to load for the West Indies.
The Wilmot proved unfit for the company’s business and on May 23, 1766. Hazen & Jarvis wrote their partners: “We have purchased a very good and valuable cargo for the schooner Wilmot. It consists of oxen, cows, calves, flour, cyder, boards and bricks, and we have sent her under care of Captain Beck to Newfoundland for sale. We hope we will get a good price for her.” This hope was not realized, for the schooner lost her deckload of cattle in a storm and the voyage was unprofitable.
During the earlier years of the partnership the schooners Eunice and Polly, sloop Peggy & Molly and other small vessels were employed from April to October in fishing in the Bay of Fundy and at Passamaquoddy. The correspondence 204 of the company contains many references to this important branch of business, a few of which are to be found in the footnotes below.[72]
The company, finding the fishing at Passamaquoddy declining on account of the multitude of their rivals in that locality, determined to dispose of some of their smaller vessels, and Mr. Jarvis writes to Simonds & White, under date May 23, 1766: “If you think we would be likely to sell the “Peggy & Molly” at Halifax, please to advise us * * * We look upon it in general to be the better way to, sell all vessels when they come to be old and crazy, as we find by experience that old vessels are great moths. Therefore if you can dispose of the sloop Bachelor and schooner Polly, we think you had better do it, provided you can obtain their worth, and we could build such vessels as you shall think will be most advantageous.”
Hazen and Jarvis sold one half of the Eunice for £133 to a Frenchman named Barrere, who sailed with her to the West Indies, where he was detained until the outbreak of the Revolution in America, and this was the last of her so far as the Company was concerned.
Of all the company’s vessels none seems to have done more excellent service than the little schooner Polly. For twelve years she bore an almost charmed life, and in that time was employed in a great variety of ways. At one time a fishing at Annapolis or Passamaquoddy, at another trading with the Indians up the River St. John, at another transporting settlers and their effects from Massachusetts to Maugerville, at another on a voyage to the West Indies.
Hazen & Jarvis for the accommodation of their trade had hired the Long Wharf at Newburyport and the stores on it at an annual rental of £70. In the month of March, 1765, Leonard Jarvis writes of the occurrence of a tremendous gale which was as severe as was ever known and which did great damage to the wharves and shipping. He adds: “We had the schooner Polly drove on one of the wharfs from whence we had to launch her.”
While returning from the West Indies in July, 1776, the Polly was taken by an American privateer sailed by one O’Brien and sent to Newburyport. She was claimed by William Hazen and after some little delay restored to her owners and 205 brought to St. John where she discharged her cargo. Not long after she was again captured and carried to Falmouth, where her super-cargo Peter Smith again succeeded in obtaining her release.
The first vessel built and launched at St. John was the little schooner “Betsy,” the construction of which was undertaken by Simonds & White at Portland Point in 1769. Little did her designers and builders imagine that they were the pioneers of an industry that would one day place St. John in the fourth place among the cities of the British empire as a shipowning port and lead her to claim the proud title of “the Liverpool of America.” And we may note in passing, that at the time of the turning of the first sod of the Intercolonial railway in 1853, employes from seventeen shipyards—1,090 men in all—marched in the procession and shipbuilding had not then attained its greatest development. It was an important industry indeed in its day.
The materials used in building, the Betsy were cut almost upon the spot, and the rigging was sent from Newburyport by William Hazen, while about half the iron was taken from one of the company’s old vessels. One Michael Hodge agreed to build the schooner for 23 1–3 shillings per ton. Adonijah Colby was his assistant. The schooner was launched in the autumn of the year 1769 and named the Betsy in honor of Miss Elizabeth Peabody, who about this time was married to James White. The little vessel sailed for Newburyport with her first cargo on the 3d of February following, Jonathan Leavitt going in her as master. She was sold the next year for £200, and Mr. Simonds expressed his satisfaction at the price as better than he had expected.
This first venture in the line of shipbuilding was followed in due course by others. Jonathan Leavitt and Samuel Peabody in 1773 built a schooner which they called the “Menaguash,” in honor of the old Indian name of St. John, and the following year William Hazen made an agreement with James Woodman and Zebedee Ring to build a vessel at St. John, Woodman’s wages to be art the rate of 4 shillings a day, and the payment in part to be one hundred acres of land at two shillings an acre. The land referred to was situated in the old township of Conway opposite the Indian House—probably at Pleasant Point.
With a view to pursuing the business of shipbuilding William Hazen at the time he settled at Portland Point brought with him one John Jones, a master ship-builder. The outbreak of the Revolutionary war put a stop to every kind of business, but it is said that Mr. Jones’ employers paid his wages for some time in order to retain his services under the expectation that the war would soon be over and they would be able again to build ships. Mr. Jones improved the waiting time by taking to himself a wife, Mercy Hilderick, who had come to St. John on a visit to her sister, the wife of Samuel Peabody. There being no clergyman at hand the ceremony was performed by Gervas Say, a Justice of the Peace for the county of Sunbury, who then lived on the west side of the Harbor in the Township of Conway.