The White FenceNo. 84

December

2018

ISSN 1913-4134 N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E T A N T R A M A R H E R I T A G E T R U S T

Tantramar Heritage Trust29B Queens RoadP.O. Box 3554

Sackville, NB E4L 4G4

(506) 536-2541tantramarheritage@gmail.com.

heritage.tantramar.com

Tantramar Heritage Trust, Inc.

Executive Directors 2017-2018President Barbara JardineVice-President Geoff MartinSecretary Rebekah CantTreasurer Paul Bogaard

Staff MembersExecutive DirectorKaren ValanneBookkeeperSandra Niles

Editorial-Over the years, numerous friends andmembers of the Trust have been generous with donations of artifacts thatthey considered significant to Tantramarhistory. In this issue, read about a chancediscovery in the nearby state of Mainewhich resulted in a significant donation to the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre. Al Smith relates to us the homecoming ofa Boultenhouse sampler returned to itsrightful home about 150 years after itscreation. As you will likely agree, we allowe a great debt of gratitude to Ken andAnita Upton! This is followed by a fascinating article researched and pennedby Colin MacKinnon and of particularinterest to me. In the fall of 1972, I tooka course at Mount Allison Universityentitled “Land Use Ecology,” taught byDr. H. Harries of the Biology Depart-ment. In late September/early October of that year, Dr. Harries led us on a fieldtrip to the High Marsh Road, where hediscussed the transformation of thisancient intertidal marsh habitat into modern agricultural land, primarily forthe production of hay. Prior to hearingDr. Harries’ explanation, I recall beingsomewhat confused as to why the dirtroad passing through an extensive collec-tion of pastures and hay fields was calledthe “High Marsh” Road. Where was themarsh? We all stood on the road near theintersection to Midgic where Dr. Harriespointed to old dykes which no longerfunctioned as such but were laterreplaced by much larger, newer dykestructures along the Tantramar River.Clearly, the early dykes were constructedto prevent the intrusion of brackish/saltwater that flowed into the TantramarRiver from the great tides of the Bay ofFundy. Before dyke construction, this

land would have consisted of expanses ofsalt/brackish marsh along the river edgesand accompanying tidal creeks. It was alandscape that I had difficulty visualizingas Dr. Harries described the natural habitat that once was. As I listened, a singular question remained with me: whywas it important to direct so much time,effort and energy to “reclaim” this landfrom the Fundy tides in order to producehay? If we recall our history in the 18th

and 19th centuries, horses were the majormeans of transport and of primaryimportance to accomplish the necessaryfarm work in order for a family to surviveand, similarly, cattle provided milk andmeat. And, in those years (as now!), horses and cattle required hay for energy,especially through the winter months. Asyou keep these issues in mind, read belowthe fascinating research accomplished byColin MacKinnon on “dykeland agricul-ture” in the late 18th century toward theproduction of Tantramar hay and theassociated technology created to allow forits transportation, storage and export.You will see how hay in those days was ofconsiderable value and will come to viewthe trading and selling of hay at that timeas almost analogous to today’s dealings inenergy stocks! Technology was as relevantthen as it is today. Hay was certainly avaluable commodity and would have contributed significantly to the economyand growth of the Sackville township.Read on and the next time you driveacross the High Marsh Road, think of thevalue of technological advancements suchas Hay Screws and consider those farmerswho created the new natural landscape we fondly know as The Tantramar. Thatdrive across the High Marsh Road maynever be the same.—Peter Hicklin

Boultenhouse SamplerReturns “Home”page 2

Late 18th Century Dykeland Agriculturepage 3

Membership Renewalspage 11

Obituary:Brian Campbellpage 12

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Ken and Anita Upton at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre with the 1833 Marrimettee Boultenhouse sampler, August 15, 2018.—Al Smith photo

Boultenhouse Sampler Returns “Home”

Since opening the BoultenhouseHeritage Centre in September

2006, the Tantramar Heritage Trusthas received hundreds of donations ofhistorical items related to the historyof the Tantramar Region. However,very few of those many significantitems can be directly traced to theBoultenhouse family. Therefore it was with great excitement whenAnita Upton of Manchester, NewHampshire, contacted the Trust office on July 10, 2018, advising usthat she had two items made by aBoultenhouse family member andthat she and her husband Ken wishedto donate them to the HeritageCentre. Anita forwarded photos of a beautiful sampler as well as a crocheted child’s bonnet made byeleven year old MarrimetteeBoultenhouse in 1833. The samplerwas especially precious as it containeda genealogical listing of her directBoultenhouse family along with themore traditional elements of samplersfrom that time.

Marrimettee Boultenhouse was bornin Westcock, New Brunswick, in1822. She was the third child of John Boultenhouse (1795-1873) andAnn Evans (1794-1868) and the nieceof Christopher Boultenhouse.Marrimettee (also referred to asMary) was never married and livedwith her parents. She died on July 19,1875 at the age of 56 years and isburied in the Westcock Cemeteryalong with her parents and othermembers of her family. Her youngerbrother John Edmond was featured in the article Mrs. Boultenhouse Down a Well in Issue #81 of The White Fence.

True to their word, the Uptons traveled up from New Hampshireand met with an excited group ofTrust Board Members on the morn-ing of August 15, 2018, and donatedthe two items into the collections ofthe Boultenhouse Heritage Centre.Interestingly, Ken and Anita Uptonare not related to the Boultenhousefamily (as far as we have been able todetermine). Anita discovered thesampler neatly folded under a bottomslat of an old seaman’s trunk in herhusband’s family home in Maine over40 years ago. She had the sampler

cleaned and framed and it has hung in their home ever since with noknowledge of who this person withthe strange name of MarrimitteeBoultenhouse was. Her daughter discovered the Boultenhouse HeritageCentre while searching the internetand thus the contact with the Trustwas made.

Marrimettee’s unique and originalsampler now proudly hangs in theWry Room of the Heritage Centrealong with the 1831 Martha Barnessampler and a third one from the Wry collection. All are wonderful

By Al Smith

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 3

settlement by New England plantersand the Yorkshire and United EmpireLoyalists that followed in the lastdecades of the 18th century.Considering the paucity of survivingagricultural records from theTantramar before 1800 and, as anattempt to extract some details ofdykeland activities from a largelyuntapped resource, I have reviewednearly two thousand deeds, memori-als and Wills in Letter Books A (372pages), B (364 pages) and C (519

pages), registered between 1785 and1800, in the Westmorland Countyland records. Within these documents,containing sometimes near-illegiblescript, I have focused on the occur-rence of the terms “Hay Screws”,“Hay Screws Landing” and “HayScrews aboiteau” (see Appendix I).This wording only occurs as part ofthe description of parcels situatedwithin the tier of sixty five, four acremarsh lots, Division Letter A, locatedsouth of and parallel to the High

The harvesting of hay on theTantramar Marsh, although nowheavily mechanized, has always beena time-consuming and laboriousprocess (Figure 1). Dykes andaboiteaux had to be built and main-tained, drainage ditches dug, crossdrains (or laterals) cleared, and alldone with the diminutive dykingspade. Hay, either so-called “Englishhay” (generally Timothy, Red Topand Red Clover), or “Broadleaf”(Spartina pectinata) was harvested,dried, transported and stored and allthe work being done mostly by hand.In the “hay days of the Tantramar”(not heyday as used in the usual definition), a virtual small army ofpeople must have spent weeks on themarsh and an old Tantramar refrain“gone haying on the big marsh”,when asking about someone’s where-abouts, would more often than nothave been an accurate response.

We still have a rather poor under-standing of dykleland farming duringthe time immediately following

Haying, Hay Screws and Late 18th Century Dykeland Agricultureon the Tantramar Marsh, New BrunswickBy Colin M. MacKinnon

examples of how young women ofthe time practiced their skills in fancyneedlework. It is also most likely thatMartha Barnes and Marimettee wouldhave known each other in the smallcommunities of Westcock and Wood Point and now their labours ofyesteryear are forever preserved andpresented to the public who visit theBoultenhouse House Museum.

How did this sampler, so painstaking-ly made by young Marimettee, end upin Maine we can only speculate. Herolder brother Bedford Boultenhouse(1816-1870) was a shipbuilder at hisfather’s shipyard at Westcock in the1840s and then became a MasterMariner and moved to Portland,Maine, with his wife Cynthia Barnes(1810-1905). Possibly it was a littletreasure from home that Bedford took

with him and the seaman’s trunk thatAnita found in the old Upton homemight have been his. This is purespeculation, but possible!

The Trust is most appreciative of the very significant donation by theUpton’s and as Anita Upton aptlycommented “How many of these little lady’s samplers now actuallyhang in the home of their relatives? I would guess not too many.”

Figure 1. Load of loose hay being taken across the old covered bridge on the Tantramar River, Bridge Street,Sackville, New Brunswick in the early 1900s. (Courtesy Carmel (Wry) Miller, author’s collection)

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Marsh Road, east of the TantramarRiver (Figures 2 and 3). Also associat-ed with the “Hay Screws” are otherfeatures of interest called “Ward’saboiteau”, “Broken Bridge”, “DeadCreek” and “Schurman’s Pond”(Figure 4). Of particular note, “HayScrews” are first mentioned in a saleof 4 acres of land from WilliamOlney to William Cornforth for £4 on23 July 1776 (although the deed wasnot registered until 26 September,1785). Known as lot No.7, this parcelis referred to as being “situate on theGreat Marsh to the westward of theBoito [Aboiteau] by which the HayScrews now Stands.” I think theimportance of this document is that it says “by which the Hay Screws nowStands”, implying that this structure,or structures, is (are) relatively new.The wording “Hay Screws” (or just“screws”) was found in 11 deeds from1776 to 1806 (see Appendix I fordetails). But, what are “Hay Screws”?

In the never-ending quest forimprovements and mechanization inagriculture, hay that was compacted(pressed) could be more easily trans-ported, took up less storage space,and maintained its quality followingtransportation to market. The screwpress is an ancient device, a coarse-cut thread on a wooden pillar which,when turned like a bolt through anut, was used for pressing a widevariety of produce such as apples andgrapes to make juice. The same tech-nology, with modifications, was alsoused to press hay and early referencestend to use the plural wording of“Hay Screws” to describe the device.Horse power was used to turn thescrew to press the hay. Loose haywould have been forked into anenclosed box situated beneath thescrew. Horses, as many as four insome examples, were harnessed toarms leading to the screw and, bywalking in a circular direction, this

arrangement could raise or lower thepress device. A screw press, made in1857 by George Penman, an earlypioneer in the Mohawk Valley, is ondisplay in the heritage barn at the

South Yuba River State Park, Penn Valley, California (Figure 5).Presumably the press that was oncesituated on the Tantramar resembledthis type of device.

Figure 2. The “Great Marsh”, south of the High Marsh Road and on the east side of the Tantramar River,Sackville, New Brunswick. The “old Coles Island Road” is marked by a dashed line, ending at “Ward’sAboiteau” (WA). Note the tier of 65, “Four acre Marsh Lots, Division, Letter A.” (Portion of the 1791 Sackville township map drawn by Stephen Milledge, Mount Allison University Archives,donated by Richard “Dick” McLeod)

Figure 3. The approximate location of the various grant divisions as depicted on the 1791 grant map for the Sackville Township as overlayed on a 2001 aerial photograph. This area is within the main body of theTantramar Marsh, Sackville, New Brunswick (see Figure 2). The area of four acres lots, immediately northand south of the High Marsh Road (H.M.R.) contained some of the higher quality and most valuable agricultural lands within this area. (Aerial photograph DNRE01512 385 07/29/2001)

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 5

Early references for hay screws arerelatively rare. Historian ReginaMarchi reported that in 1760 an EastBoston (Noddle’s Island) resident,Henry Howell Williams, purchased astate-of-the-art screw press for balingsaltmarsh hay. She further notes thatthis “was the only such use of thistechnology in America at the time”(Marchi, 2015, p. 107). This may ormay not have been the very first ofsuch device in the region as we alsofind in an account on the early historyof Boston: “A True Account of theLoss Sustained by Jacob Bucknam inthe late Great Fire in Boston in 1760:“210 hundred of Screwed Hay at 22/6£236” and “1 horse £20 and 1 pairHay Screws & tackling £45” (in AVolume of Records relating to the

early history of Boston containingMiscellaneous Papers, Boston,Municipal Printing Office, 1900, page 61) (Note: 1 hundredweight =112 pounds). This reference is of particular interest as it mentions thecost of a pair of Hay Screws.

During the American RevolutionaryWar (1775-1783), cattle (and thushay), was vital to the war efforts onboth sides of the conflict. GraemeWynn (1979) in his paper on lateeighteenth-century agriculture on theBay of Fundy marshlands, noted,“Market conditions improved in thelate 1770s, when British troops inBoston, and later Halifax, raised the demand for all types of fresh produce, and clandestine trade withthe American colonists flourished”(Wynn, 1979, page 88). That NovaScotia, and particularly the rich farm-lands bordering the Bay of Fundy,supplied much of these needs, includ-ing hay, is well established. Althoughwar also placed New England farmersin a difficult position, Nova Scotiawas still seen as the traditional andbest source of hay for their livestock.In a letter from Machias, Maine, bypatriot Stephen Parker to theHonorable Council of the Colony ofMassachusetts Bay (13 May, 1776) we read: “…if I could proceed to the Bay in Nova Scotia & procure a quantity of hay it would be of emi-nent service to our people, as a largestock of cattle must die if no haycould be obtained but what was cut in the place, we being supplied withhundreds of Tons from Nova Scotiayearly” (Baxter, 1910, page 347).

In Baxter (1910, pages 262-263),there is an interesting account in aletter from William Shirrif, D.Q.M.G.(Deputy Quarter Master General),dated at Boston, 29 May, 1775, andaddressed to Thomas Williams Esq.,keeper of the King’s ordnance at

Annapolis, Nova Scotia (In the following extract from letter, thesalient text is in italics): “The Haywill be most Acceptable and I hopesCaptain Princes Vessel has taken apart on Board As he promised me heshould return immediately, and I willsend you another one, as soon as possible. I shall want three or fourThousand Tons of Hay and I wish withall my heart poor Annapolis couldfurnish it – but all it can furnish I willtake, and if they are Industrious theymay get a great deal of Money fortheir Vegetables Poultry Butter Eggs&c…..” and further in letter “I havewrote Messrs Day & Scott at Halifaxrespecting Forage, and have desiredthem to Consult with you about theQuantity that may be procured atAnnapolis, as they are to furnish theremainder from Windsor, & thatNeighbourhood. Procure Hay screws at any rate, and the whole should becarried to a particular place most convenient for that purpose as Also forShiping of it.” William Shirriff signsthe letter and then adds “P/ S If youcan possibly add to the Quantity ofOld Hay pray do and don’t mind theExpence – W.S” [Note: 4,000 tons of hay at ~ 2-2½ tons/acre wouldrequire approximately 1,600 to 2,000acres of land]. The above request forhay, and need for “Hay Screws” fromthe Bay of Fundy dykelands in early1775 is of particular interest as thefollowing account suggests the importance of the Tantramar in supplying this demand for hay andpossibly even the above request.

In The Documentary History of theState of Maine (page 315), the following orders were issued toCaptain Isaac Danks in October of1775. Keep in mind that Isaac Danks(1748-1819; buried in OnondagaValley Cemetery, New York) was theson of Benoni Danks who lived atWestmorland Point (the family

Figure 4. Detail of the tier of “Four Acre MarshLots Division Letter A.”, situated south of theHigh Marsh Road and immediately east of theTantramar River, site of the “Hay Screws”. Notethat Lot No. 32, to Caleb Schurman, is presumablythe location of Schurman’s Pond (SP). Ward’saboiteau was located at number 20 above. See text and Appendix I for details of numbered lots identified above.

Figure 5. A Screw Press on display in the heritagebarn at the South Yuba River State Park, PennValley, California. It was made in 1857 by GeorgePenman, an early pioneer in the Mohawk Valley(Photograph by Herb Lindberg). South Yuba River Park Adventures,http://www.syrpa.lindberglce.com/barn/haypress.htm

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dwelling was close to present-dayFort Beausejour/Fort Cumberland).Isaac’s father, leader of Dank’sRangers, was to side with theAmerican cause and lost his life in1776 following the failed raid on Fort Cumberland by supporters ofJonathan Eddy. In 1784, Isaac sold hisfather’s home lot and other lands toHenry Stultz for £170 (Book A1,Deed No. 196, page 201). The following letter addressed to CaptainDanks is clearly in response to thedemand for hay by William Sherriff,the Deputy Quarter Master Generalat Boston, as provided by Halifaxmerchants Day & Scott. Note the“Bundles of Hay” (presumablypressed hay) specified in the cargo.An extract of the letter follows andsalient points are underlined:

“Captain Isaac Danks, you are to proceed Immediately with yeSchooner Falmouth Packet now underyour Command, to Boston, takingCare to keep Under the protection ofthe Man of War, who Convoys you;When at Boston you are to wait onWilliam Sherriff Esq. the DeputyQuarter Master General, WhoseOrders you are afterwards Implicitlyto follow. Respecting the Cargo, onBoard of you, please to Observe thefollowing Instructions — 1stly EightBundles of Hay Stowed in the Holdand two Barrels of Potatoes, are to be Delivered to Daniel Chamier EsqCommissary General. 2dly TheFifteen Oxen together with theRemainder of the Hay are to beDelivered to the Order of MajorSherriff. 3dly Two Barrels of Potatoesare to be Delivered to Major Martinof the Royal Artillery. 4thly ThePotatoes and Turnips which are loseIn the Hold you are to AcquaintMajor Sherreff thereof and Deliverthem to his Order; provided he wantsthem, either for him-self, Friends orHospital; If he Does not want them

you must dispose of them, and paythe proceeds Into the Hands of MrArchibald Cunningham.

I sincerely wish you _ prosperousVoyage and _ your Real friend_ Day & ScottOctober 20th 1775 Cumberland”

In confirmation of Isaac’s home port,we note the following reference: theschooner Falmouth Packet of 50 or60 tons “from Fort Cumberland, inNova Scotia, Isaac Danks, master,bound for Boston laden with cattle,butter, cheese, roots, etc” was seizedby John Bunker of Mount DesertIsland, Maine on the 24th November,1775 (Forces, 1843, page 1255).

The link between the above docu-ments and the “Hay Screws” on theTantramar is somewhat conjectural.From the references, we see that therewas a huge demand for Nova Scotiahay in 1775 and the need for “HayScrews” to press the product for shipment. The location of where thescrews were erected is not specified.Further, as a Tantramar link, CaptainIsaac Danks who, as previously noted,hailed from the Chignecto Isthmus,was one of the charters to have thishay delivered to New England. It wasalso on 23 July, 1776, when WilliamOlney sold 4 acres of land to WilliamCornforth that was described as “situate on the Great Marsh to thewestward of the Boito [Aboiteau] bywhich the Hay Screws now Stands.”As Hay Screws were a comparativelyexpensive item, they were thus notlikely an abundant mechanism in thelate 1700s. I make no assertion thatthe screws requested to be erected byShirrif in 1775 are the same as thosementioned in the deed of 1776; thetiming and connections may be purelycoincidental. However, what is clear is the demand for large quantities ofhay would likely have been the impetus for the construction of

“Hay Screws” on the “Bend of theRiver Marsh” at the east side of theTantramar River, by the summer of 1776.

Loose ends

A few other place-names have beenuncovered during this research thathave been lost to us and their additionhere rounds out our understanding ofthe landscape in the vicinity of the“Hay Screws” in the late 1700s.About 500 m north of the “HayScrews” a large, once tidal, creekenters the east side of the TantramarRiver. Where the dykes once crossedthis creek lies the site of “Ward’saboiteau” (Figure 2). This aboiteauwas presumably named afterNehemiah Ward, an early marshowner in that area. Furthermore anold trail, beginning just east of thecovered bridge, followed a sinuouscourse parallel to the river untilreaching “Ward’s aboiteau”. This isstill known locally as the “Old Cole’sIsland Road”. The records are notclear, but the site of “Ward’saboiteau” may have also been close toa feature mentioned in old deeds asthe “Broken Bridge”. The road past“Ward’s aboiteau” is now barely dis-cernable and there is an inexplicablebreak in the depiction of this lane onthe 1791 map with only a short seriesof dots connecting the gap (see Figure2 and in Figure 4; note the row of dotsimmediately below the number 20 onthis map). I wonder if this break represents the location of the “Broken Bridge”. At one time theroad continued southerly until it eventually crossed the “Hay Screwaboiteau” at which point it veeredeasterly and connected with the modern “Coles Island Road”. At thisintersection, the continuation of the“Old Cole’s Island Road” became the“Sunken Island Road”.

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Figure 6. Highly conjectural sketch of the Tantramar “Hay Screws”, “Hay Screws Landing” and “Hay Screws aboiteau” as they may have looked in the late 1700s onthe “Bend of the River Marsh”, Tantramar River, New Brunswick.

Some of the place-names encounteredin early legal documents describewhat once must have been easily rec-ognizable features on the landscape.One of these was “Schurman’sPond”, likely named after earlyTantramar settler Caleb Shurman.This lost wetland was presumably situated in the vicinity of Lot No. 32within the tier of four-acre lots(Deed, Titus Thornton to JohnHarris, Book B, Page 154, No. 700;see Appendix I). Of biological inter-est, Schurman’s pond may suggest thepast existence of a brackish or bogpond such as are still frequently foundat the head of tide in the upper Bayof Fundy.

Another structure of interest depictedon the 1791 map is the “Cross Dyke”that divides the higher quality dykedlands to the north from the un-dyked

saltmarsh, or “Out Marsh”, to thesouth. This dyke extended from thewestern bulge of Sunken Island, following the northern edge of theSunken Island ditch, and on crossingthe present day “Coles Island Road”,connected with the eastern bank ofthe Tantramar River (Figure 3).Remnants of this old feature haverecently been lost due to agriculturalimprovements in the area.

The value of agricultural improve-ments to saltmarshes, through dyking,ditching and draining, is well repre-sented in land transactions of theperiod (Table 1) and the differences invaluations between saltmarsh anddyked-lands was specifically noted byRobinson and Rispin as part of theirinvestigative journey through NovaScotia in 1774: “They value theirmarsh land that is diked in, and their

best cleared land, at three pounds anacres, and their undiked marshes atone pound [per acre]” (Robinson andRispin, 1774, page 12). For compara-tive purposes, they further note that,“a pretty good Cow and Calf is valued at £5.10 or £6” (Robinson andRispin, 1774, page 24).

Conclusion

Surviving records point to the existence of “Hay Screws” on theTantramar Marsh in the late 18th

century as well as an emphasis on the economic importance of thedykelands throughout this period.Although no specific details of the“screws” survive, we are left with animpression of a substantial mechani-cal device, possibly associated with astorage facility (barn?) as well as amodest dock, or even a brush-worklanding on the river bank, to facilitate

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loading of bailed hay onto small shipsor scows that could be navigated upthe circuitous Tantramar River(Figure 6). As erosion continuouslyalters the route of rivers, it is impor-tant to emphasize that the specific siteof the “Hay Screws” may now be lost(Figure 7). Remnants of an oldaboiteau survives today that could be the original, or later rendition, of the “Hay Screws aboiteau” (seeAppendix II for details on this struc-ture). Furthermore, the resurrectionof once commonly referenced place-names that surround the “Hay Screws”, (such as “Hay Screwsaboiteau”, “Wards aboiteau”,“Broken Bridge”, “Old Coles IslandRoad” and “Schurman’s Pond”)enhances the richness of ourTantramar landscape.

Literature Cited

A Volume of Records relating to theearly history of Boston containingMiscellaneous Papers, Boston,Municipal Printing Office, 1900, Page 61.

Baxter, James P., Ed. 1910.Documentary History of State of

Table 1. Comparison of land prices within the tier of Four Acre Marsh Lots,Division Letter A, from 1776 to 1806, Tantramar Marsh, Sackville, New Brunswick.

YEAR Lot No. (acres) Price Price per acre (decimal £)

1776 7 (4 acres) £4 £1

1787 27 (4 acres) £7 £1.75

1789 ½ 21 (2 acres) £1 10 £0.75

1790 10 (4 acres) £5 £1.25

1791 23 (4 acres) £9 £2.25

1791 35 & 36 (8 acres) £14 £1.75

1796 26 & 29 (8 acres)* £25 £3.13

1800 2 & 3 (8 acres) £20 £2.5

1805 22 & 23 (8 acres) £60** £7.5

1806 11 (4 acres) £15 £3.75

* Located by Shurman’s Pond

** The large price of £60 for 8 acres (Lots 22 and 23) may suggest some otherimprovement to the parcel or missing data in the deed.

Figure 7. General location of where the “Hay Screws” likely stood on the banks of the Tantramar River in the late 1700s.

Maine containing the BaxterManuscripts, Vol. XIX, The MaineHistorical Society, Portland Lefavor-Tower Co.

Force, Peter. 1843. American Archives(Fourth series), A DocumentaryHistory of the English Colonies inNorth America from The King’s message to Parliament, of March 7,

1774, to the Declaration ofIndependence by the United States.

Marchi, Regina. 2015. LegendaryLocals of East Boston, ArcadiaPublishing, page 107.

Robinson, J., & Rispin, T. 1774. A journey through Nova-Scotia, containing, a particular account of the country and its inhabitants: ...

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By John Robinson, farmer atBewholm, in Holderness, and ThomasRispin, farmer at Fangfoss, both inthe County of York. York: Printed forthe authors, by C. Etherington. SouthYuba River Park Adventures,http://www.syrpa.lindberglce.com/barn/haypress.htm(Accessed on 2 February, 2018)

Wynn, Graeme. 1979. LateEighteenth-Century Agriculture on theBay of Fundy Marshlands. Acadiensis8, 2: 80-89.

APPENDIX I

Details of property sales from withinthe tier of “Four Acre Marsh LotsDivision Letter A.” Parcels are listedin chronological order from date ofsale (the registry date in some casesmay be years later). Individual lotnumbers, as shown in Figure 4, areunderlined and in bold in the follow-ing accounts. Salient notes of landfeatures have been underlined.

William Olney to WilliamCornforth, Book A1, Page 20,Signed, 23 July 1776 (Registered 26 September 1785), Price £4

“One four Acre lot of land be it moreor less No. 7 lying on Sackville firstDivision Letter A belonging to theright No. 52 and is situate on theGreat Marsh to the westward of theBoito by which the Hay Screws nowStands.”

Jonathan Cole (under power ofattorney from Benjamin Thurber ofProvidence, Rhode Island) to DanielFletcher (Labourer), Book A1, Page205, Signed 8 June 1786 (Registered12 March 1789). Price £34.

Various lots, including: One four acre lot on the Great Marsh, being number one westward of the OldHay-Screws landing, all belonging tonumber seventeen aforesaid.”

Joseph Brown to Mark Patton, Book A, Page 118, No. 73. Signed 28 June 1786 (Registered 21 August 1787). Price £10.

Two lots of marsh land containingfour acres each and laying on theGreat marsh, one lot laying nigh theScrews Aboideau and a crofs DeadCreek the other by the side of theCrofs Dyke, be them more or less, sit-uated laying and being in the DivisionLetter A. so called in the Township ofSackville aforesaid being the lotsknown by the numbers Twenty anddrawn by me Joseph Brown”

Jonathan Eddy to WilliamCornforth, Book A, Page 129, No. 96. Signed 26 March 1787(Registered 24 August 1787). Price £7.

“One Lot of Marsh Land containingby estimation four acres, be it more orless, lying on the Great Marsh nearDead Creek, numbered TwentySeven, and belonging to the Right orShare number Twenty Eight in LetterA. Division.”

John Barns to William Fawcett,Book A, Page 204, No. 189, Signed17 February 1789 (Registered 12 March 1789), Price £1. 10. 0.

One half lot of marsh Land contain-ing two Acres and laying on the Greatmarsh laying near the Screws crossingthe dead Creek and bounded Westerlyby No. 20. Be it more or less, situatedlaying and being in the Division ofLetter A. so called in the Township ofSackville aforesaid being the one halfof the four acre lot known by thename of No. 21 and granted toAndrew Waterman”

Charles Dixon Esq. to JonathanBurnham Esq., Book B, Page 132,No. 688, Signed 19th August 1790(Registered 5 April 1796). Price £5.

One four acre lot upon the GreatMarsh known by number ten inLetter A Division laying a little to theWest of the place known by the HayScrews.

Hezekiah King to Gideon Smith,Book A, Page 307, No. 347. Signed 2 May 1791 (Registered 10 May 1791). Price £9.

“One four acre lot of land lying onthe Great Marsh and belonging to theRight or Share and half numbertwenty five in Letter A. Division insaid Sackville and lying across deadcreek drawn by the number twentythree.”

Jonathan Barlow (Yeoman) toThomas Anderson (Farmer), Book B, Page 121, No. 666, Signed1st November 1791 (Registered 5 April 1796). Price £14

Two lots of land containing four acreseach more or less, agreeable to thePlan of the Township belonging tonumber ten in Letter A Division onthe Great Marsh now numbered thirty five and thirty six laying bothtogether in the Tier of Lots leadingfrom the Hay Screws.

Titus Thornton to John Harris,Book B, Page 154, No. 700. Signed 11 March 1796 (Registered 5 September 1796). Price £25.

A lot and half of marsh land lying onthe Great Marsh and by a Pondknown by the name of Shurman’spond and a half lot laying near theScrews at the South end known by thenumber twenty six the whole lotknown by the number twenty ninethe other half lot known by numbertwenty six the whole lot drawn byWilliam Alverson containing eightacres more or less.”

Page 10 The White Fence

Thomas and James Easterbrooks toMichael Grace, Book B, Page 174,No. 736, Signed 9 August 1796(Registered 11 April 1797). Price £21.

“Two half lots of Marsh lands number twelve, one laying betweenthe Screws Aboideau and Ward’sAbyto and the other near cross Dike”.Letter A. Division.

Gideon Smith to John Fawcett, Book B, Page 363, No. 1056. Signed 23rd March 1800 (Registered 20 June 1801). Price £20

Two four acre lots of land on theGreat Marsh numbers two and threein letter A. Division in the bend ofthe river near the Screws.”

Gideon Smith (Blacksmith) to JohnFawcett Jr. and William Fawcett Jr.,Book C, Page 200, No. 1375. Signed5th September 1805 (Registered 27th Jan., 1806). Price £60

Two four acre lots situate and layingand being on the Great marsh inSackville aforesaid known by thename of numbers twenty two andtwenty three laying together in letterA. Division butting on Tantramardivision and laying across the ScrewsAbt [Aboiteau] creek containing eightacres more or less.” [Note that thehigh price of £60 for these eight acresparcel may suggest some otherimprovement on the property ormissing data in the deed].

Thomas Anderson Sr. and JohnAnderson to Jonathan Cole, Book C, Page 212, No. 1393, Signed 3rd Feb. 1806. Price £15.

“One four acre lot of land on theGreat Marsh number eleven in theletter A. Division of said Township ofSackville situate in the Screws bend ofthe river so called, bought by IraHicks and Gideon Smith.”

Remains of an old aboiteau in the area of the “Hay Screws landing” on the “Bend of the River Marsh”, Tantramar River, New Brunswick. Although missing theflapper gate, the wooden aboiteau is still largely intact (sluice interior, inset at right, 18" x 33" ). Note the treenails (wooden pegs – see arrow, inset at left) used inconstruction of the aboiteau.

APPENDIX II

Remains of an old aboiteau in the area of the “Hay Screws landing” on the “Bend of the River Marsh”,Tantramar River, New Brunswick.

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 11

Details of aboiteau construction (seephotograph and schematics below).Dimensions are given in inches toreflect the units likely used in theoriginal construction. The tide/flapgate is missing and the entire exposedstructure has suffered considerablewear from ice scour. Constructionconsists of a rectangular box-likepipe. Surviving length of the aboiteauis about 28 feet. Sides are built fromtwo 8" x 9" squared timbers that havebeen stacked one on top of the otherand then joined together with 2"diameter treenails (dowels). This larger dowel (only one example visible) does not appear to projectthrough the top and bottom planking.The top and bottom planking, 2" x10½" x 49", is affixed to the sides by1" diameter treenails that are off-setfrom the centre line of the plank aswell as apparently being staggered intheir position on each plank (thisobservation is based on two visibledowels as well as one dowel hole).Note that of the six planks measured,widths varied from 9½" (one), 10"(two) and 10½" (three). These 1"diameter dowels extend through the

planking and go only about half waythrough (4") of one of the 8" x 9" sidetimbers. The bottom of the structureis supported on two large planks (3" x 10") that appear to run alongboth sides of the bottom of theaboiteau. There were no metal fasteners used in the construction.

I don’t know the age of this work. As wood survives for a very long time when buried in marsh mud, this remnant likely dates to the mid 1800s and could conceivable be contemporary with the late 18th

century Hay Screws.

Schematics for the old aboiteau in the area of the “Hay Screws landing”, “Bend of the River Marsh”,Tantramar River, New Brunswick. See text for details.

Attention!2019 MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

It’s that time of year again! Don’t miss an issue of The WhiteFence by renewing your THT membership. It’s only $30.00for a family and $20.00 per individual. In addition to thenewsletter, you get free admission to the museums, free use ofthe Alec R. Purdy Research Centre and a vote at our Annual

General Meeting (AGM). You can renew online using PayPal(http://heritage.Tantramar.com/thtabout.html), over the phonewith a credit card (call Karen at 506-536-2541) or in person at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre (29B Queen’s Road,Sackville). Thanks for your support!

Page 12 The White Fence

April 10, 1981–November 15, 2018

It is with profound sadness that weannounce the sudden passing of BrianCampbell on Thursday, November 15,2018 in Calgary, AB. Brian passedaway unexpectedly, following a briefillness, at the age of 37. Born inMoncton, N.B. on April 10, 1981,Brian was the son of Barbara (Rees–Potter) Campbell and the late William Ronald Campbell.

Brian attended local schools inSackville, NB. Upon graduation fromTantramar Regional High School,Brian first attended Bishop’sUniversity and then transferred toMount Allison University, graduatingwith a Bachelor of Arts in PoliticalScience and Economics in 2005. After graduating from MtA, Brianheaded west to Alberta where heworked for several years in the oil andgas industry. Brian held a number ofmanagement positions and worked onmany significant pipeline projects atCanadian Natural Resources Ltd.,Fluor Corporation and EnbridgePipelines Inc.

In 2013 Brian returned to the East Coast to attend law school inFredericton. He was a summer lawclerk at Cox & Palmer in Saint John in2016 and he obtained his MBA andhis Law Degree from the Universityof New Brunswick in 2017. After hegraduated from law school, Brianreturned to Alberta where he articledwith Stikeman Elliott in Calgary.

After being admitted to the AlbertaBar in September 2018, he joinedStikeman Elliott as an AssociateLawyer.

In recent years, Brian was involvedwith the family business, Campbell'sFuneral Home in Sackville. He wasextremely proud of his family historyin the community and his NewBrunswick heritage.

Mild–mannered, even–keeled, kindand funny, Brian had a positive impacton everyone he met. His strength ofcharacter, perseverance and quietintelligence were an inspiration to hisfamily, many friends and colleagues.Brian loved cats, in particular, Rosieand a crazy Bengal named AudreyCatburn. Following in his father’sfootsteps, Brian had a passion for old vehicles, including restoring vintage Corvettes.

Brian will be deeply missed by hismother, Barbara (Rees–Potter)Campbell; his sister, Erin MorganCampbell; his niece, Avery ReesCampbell, all of Sackville; his girl-friend, Caroline McAvity, Saint John,NB; his Aunt, Mary Campbell,Riverview, NB; his Uncle, David(Carolyn) Rees–Potter, Perth, ON; his Godmother, Susan Jenkins(Beverly Smith), Rexton, NB; several cousins and other extendedfamily in the Maritimes, England andAustralia, as well as by many greatfriends across the country.

Brian was predeceased by his father,William Ronald Campbell in 2000, aswell as by his maternal and paternalgrandparents.

Arrangements were handled by thefamily business he loved, Campbell’sFuneral Home, 89 Bridge Street,Sackville, N.B. (506) 364–8188. Acelebration of Brian’s life was held onSaturday, November 24, 2018 at 2 pmat the Mount Allison UniversityChapel, 63B York Street, Sackville,when individuals shared memoriesand words of gratitude for Brian’slife. A reception followed at TweedieHall, located in the Wallace McCainStudent Centre.

If so desired, donations in memory ofBrian may be made to the CampbellCarriage Factory Museum (throughthe Tantramar Heritage Trust Inc.) or to the charity of one’s choice.Online condolences may be forwardedto the family through the websitewww.campbellsfuneralhome.com orby visiting the funeral home Facebookpage @campbellssackville.

We were deeply saddened to hear about the recent passing of Brian Campbell.Preserving the Campbell family heritage through the Campbell Carriage FactoryMuseum is a main focus of the Tantramar Heritage Trust. The reconstruction ofthe factory compound, and the continuing work to tell the stories of carriagefabrication in the Tantramar region, is a project that was dear to Brian’s heart.We send our sincere condolences to Brian’s family and friends, and especially to Barbara, Erin and Avery.

OBITUARY Brian Campbell