Jonathan Leavitt gives an interesting synopsis of the business carried on at St. John under the direction of Simonds and White: “The Company’s business included Fishery, Fur trade, making Lime, building Vessels and sawing Lumber, and they employed a great number of laborers and workmen in cutting wood, burning lime, digging stone, cutting hoop-poles, clearing roads, clearing land, curing fish, cutting hay and attending stock. The workmen and laborers were supported and paid by the partnership and lived in the outhouse and kitchen of the house occupied by Simonds and White. There was a store of dry goods and provisions and articles for the Indian trade.”
When he was at St. John, Leavitt lived in the family of Simonds and White who lived together during the greater part of the ten years he was in the Company’s employ, and when they separated their families he staid sometimes with one and sometimes with the other. Simonds and White were supplied with bread, meat and liquors for themselves and families from the store, and no account was kept whilst they lived together, but after they separated they were charged against each family; the (workmen also were maintained, supported and fed from the joint stock of the store, as it was considered they were employed for the joint benefit of the company, but liquors and articles supplied on account of their wages were charged against the individual accounts of the men. Part of the workmen and laborers were hired by William Hazen and sent from Newburyport, others were engaged by Simonds and White at the River St. John.
About the year 1772 Jonathan Leavitt married Capt. Francis Peabody’s youngest daughter, Hephzibeth, then about sixteen years of age, and thus became more closely identified with James Simonds and James White, whose wives were also daughters of Capt. Peabody.[66]
When Jonathan and Daniel Leavitt had for several years been engaged in sailing the company’s vessels, it is said that they became discouraged at the outlook and talked of settling themselves at some place where there was a larger population and more business. James White did his best to persuade them to remain, closing his argument with the exhortation, “Don’t be discouraged, boys! Keep up a good heart! Why ships will come here from England yet!” And they have come.
In addition to the Leavitts and the masters of some of the other vessels, who were intelligent men, nearly all at St. John were ordinary laborers: however, the company from time to time employed some capable young fellows to assist in the Store at the Point. One of these was Samuel Webster, whose mother was a half-sister of James Simonds. He remained nearly four years at St. John, during which time he lived in the family of Simonds and White. While he was at St. John goods were shipped to Newburyport and the West Indies by the Company in considerable quantities. There were he says at times a very considerable number of workmen and laborers employed, and at other times a smaller number, according to the time of year, and as the nature of the employment required. The laborers were fed, supported and paid out of the store, and lived in a house only a few rods from Mr. Simonds’ house. Emerson spent most of his time in the store, buying and selling and delivering small articles. He generally made the entries in the Day Book.
Another lad, Samuel Emerson, of Bakerstown, Massachusetts, came to St. John with James Simonds in April, 1767, as a clerk or assistant in the store, and remained nearly four years in the Company’s service.
At the expiration of the first year several changes occurred in the Company. Richard Simonds had died on the 20th January, 1765. Robert Peaslie seems not to have come to St. John, although it was stipulated in the contract that he should do so, and early in 1765 he withdrew from the Company. In the autumn of 1764, Leonard Jarvis, a young man of twenty-two years of age, became associated with William Hazen as co-partner in his business in Newburyport and became by common consent a sharer in the business at St. John. So far as we can judge from his letters, Mr. Jarvis was a man of excellent business ability. The accounts kept at Newburyport in connection with the Company’s business are in his handwriting and he attended to most of the correspondence with the St. John partners.
The writer of this history has among his historic documents and papers a number of account books in a very fair state of preservation, containing in part the transactions of the company during the years they were in business at St. John. One of these, a book of nearly 100 pages, ordinary foolscap size with stout paper cover, is of special interest for it contains the record of the initial transactions of the first business firm established at St. John a hundred and forty years ago. At the top of the first page are the words
Day Book No. 1.
1764. St. Johns River.