Seventy Years of New Brunswick Life; Autobiographical Sketches

I .-;,;-,.!..,. ...:,. j..,, ..,;.^,. : : :i ggrcHTT 1 """Utt* A A A A A SEVENTY YEARS OF New Brunswick Life. T T T T !! LIEUT. COLONEL WILLIAM T. BALRD. SEVENTY YEARS OF §fe» >UT0BI0GpHIC>L SKETCHES BY WILLIAM T. BAIRD, LIEUTENANT COLONEL, Paymaster of Military District No. 8, Dominion of Canada, from the Confederation of the British Provinces to the year IS87, Superintendent of Stores at St. John, New Bruns- wick, from the year 1879 to the year 1887. ,,c U[his is mine oton, mn uatibc lanb.'V\ ST. JOHN, N. 13. : I'ttKSS OF GEO. K. DAY, GERMAIN ST. 1890. of the Parliament of Can- [Entered, according to the Act ada, in the year one thousand eight hundred and in the office of the ninety, l.y William T. Baird, Ministei of Agriculture, at Ottawa.] PREFACE, ,/jJHESE PAGES, prepared at different times in moments of were J> leisure, orig- inally intended for perusal by my children, friends or others who, in later years, might have a desire to learn something of pioneer life in New Brunswick. At the re- quest of friends, some portions of this book have already been given to the press, notably "Sparks from a Camp -Fire" and some of the Historical Sketches, and from their favorable reception by the public, they are, with other unpublished matter, now given in a more permanent form. The experiences of a life extending over a period of more than three score years, ob- tained by contact with the ever -varying VI PREFACE. phases— social, commercial, political and military — incidental to the growth of a young Colony, should enable one tolerably observ- ant, to present much that would be interest- ing and instructive to the general reader. The training of a young mind in log cabin life in the back-woods has a tendency to ma- ture and ripen the understanding and cause a higher appreciation of the blessings and enjoyments of a more cultivated society. The foundation has ever much to do with the reared superstructure thereon ; and whatever may be the result of an internecine struggle on this Continent (which will surely come), New Brunswickers will be recreant indeed if not found in the front rank in de- fence of the sacred trust committed to them by their fathers. In the discharge of my duty as Paymaster in Military District No. 8, for nearly twenty years, I have met with men representing the PREFACE. Vll three arms of the service in the Dominion in every section of the Province where assem- bled, and am fully satisfied it is not the pay, the equipment, the readiness to meet at Headquarters the reasonable demands of either officers or men, that has supplied the quota annually for drill, but the unflinching loyalty of the New Brunswick soldier. In my treatment of public men and their acts I shall give a simple relation of facts as bearing upon the individual or public weal, which every unit in the mass electorate a to if has right do ; and but one atom be " removed from the political "Augean stable there will be an atom less in the general cleansing. Thrusting out my frail bark on the great " sea of liteiature, I can only say, Waft, gentle breezes." W. T. B. Woodstock, N. B., January 1st, 1890. CONTENTS, Chapter I. PAGE The Baird Family — Ancestors in Ireland — My Parents, 10 Chapter II. Two Years in the Wilderness — Moose Hunt —Woman and Bear, 19 Chapter III. Return to Fredericton — Great Fire of 1825 — Field Sports — Training, 29 Chapter IV. Choice of a Business — Latin School — Smith Executed — Frigid Warfare, 46 Chapter V. Early Navigation of the River St. John Benjamin Tibbetts, 54 X CONTENTS. Chapter VI. PAGE Become a Soldier — Affairs of Honor — L. A. Wilmot—Salamanca, 73 Chapter VII. Some Odd Characters — Electrical Society — Waterloo Row — Hotels, 84 Chapter VIII. Disputed Territory — Aroostook War — Fred- ericton Volunteers — Madawaska, . 9G Chapter IX. Commence Business in Woodstock — Marriage —Institute — Indian Dance, 109 Chapter X. Early History of New Brunswick Indians — First Settlers of Woodstock, 133 Chapter XL Carleton County Militia — Town of Houlton — Bangor — Halifax — Deer Hunt, . 152 Chapter XII. Smuggling — Orange Riot, 1847 — Prohibit- ory Liquor Law-;— R. S. March, . 1G6 CONTENTS. XI Chapter XIII. PAGE" Children and Amusements — Schools — Con- crete House — Trapping a Horse Thief, 178 Chapter XIV. Old Indian Trail — Financial Disasters, 1854 —Cholera in Woodstock — Otter Hunt, 194 Chapter XV. Great Fire in Woodstock, 1860 — Renfrew — . House Cold Friday — Trent Affair, . 209 Chapter XVI. Prince of Wales at Fredericton—Duke of Edin- burgh at Woodstock — Governor Gordon, 223 Chapter XVII. Military Commission — Camp of Instruction, 241 Chapter XVIII. Fenians— with St. — Correspondence Downing— Prince Arthur at Woodstock Fire, . 252 Chapter XIX. Confederation — Letters from Gen. Doyle and Hon. Arthur Gordon — George, .. .. 268 Xll CONTENTS. Chapter XX. PAGE Lord Dufferin at Woodstock — Woodstock Fire — Visit to Ottawa and Quebec, . 281 Chapter XXI. " Remove to St. John — Sparks from a Camp " Fire — North-West Rebellion — Domin- ion Army, 310 Chapter XXII. Work in St. John — Retirement — 50 Years' Service (Telegraph)—Official Correspond- ence, 331 Chapter XXIII. Squa-took Lakes — The Sea ! The Sea ! — Fort La Tour 352 Chapter XXIV. Return to Woodstock — Presentation —Wood- stock in 1890, 358 SEVENTY YEARS OF NEW BRUNSWICK LIFE. QThapter I. The Baird Family. 1870 a book was published in London for §Nmembers of the Baird family, and reprinted from the original MS. of William Baird, Esq., 11 now preserved in the Advocates Library, Edin- burgh, by which it seems that in 1578 a union of two families of Bairds took place, one representing, through the female line, the family of Ordinhnivas, an heiress, Lillias Baird, who married Gilbert Baird, the third of Auchmeddan. They had thirty-two sons and daughters. Three sons went to Ireland as adventurers in the beginning of the reign of James the First of England Two of them settled in the Province of Ulster, north of Ireland, from whom are descended the families on the St. John River, other parts of Canada and the United States. The other son went to the south of Ire- land and from him are descended those of the name in Westmorland, New Brunswick, Amherst and other parts of Nova Scotia. In the death of John Baird, my great grand- 2 SEVENTY YEARS OF father, terminated a three-lives' lease of land, in the County of Monaghan, town of Graffa. He had seven sons, viz., John, William, David, George, Adam, Joseph and Thomas, who occupied seven houses and farms adjoining each other and were known as the Bairds of Graffa. The period of possession—nearly two centuries — having lapsed, the land was taken into an estate and its occupants compelled to leave the home of their ancestors, and my grandfather accepted an invitation from my father and came to America. He spent some of his time with us in Frederic- ton and died about the year 1840 in the Parish of Kent. The fourth son of my great grandfather, George, came also to this country, bringing his family with him, excepting his eldest son, Henry, who pre- ceded him, and settled on a farm purchased from my father in the Parish of Kent. The old people found on their arrival a com- fortable home and lived to see their children well and respectably settled in life. Several farms adjoining, owned by the brothers, Henry (known as Squire Baircl), Adam and George, form the well known settlement and Post " Office station of Bairdsville." George T. Baird, son of the last named, is now a member of the Local Parliament for the County of Victoria. NEW BRUNSWICK LIFE. 3 MY FATHER. John, son of William Baird and Susan Teel, was born in the town of Graffa aforesaid in the year 1795. He received his first instruction at the school of Mr. Farmer, in Graffa; and later attended a school in the town of Monaghan, three miles distant. When by age and education sufficiently advanc- ed, he entered the Seminary for School Masters in the County of Kildare. Printed and written in my father's Prayer Book (Church of England) in my possession, may be found the following : "The Association Incorporated for Discountenancing "Vice and Promoting the Knowledge and Prac- " tice of the Christian Religion, " Adjudged this Premium "to "JOHN BAIRD, "For superior merit at examination in the Principles of " the Christian Religion and the Knowledge "of the Gospel, held in " THE SEMINARY FOR SCHOOL MASTERS, "On the 13th day of March, 1816. "The Rev. Samuel Jones, Examiner." About this time the 74th Regiment quartered in Dublin, —with its ranks depleted by foreign, 4 SEVENTY YEARS OF active service, —the commander, Colonel French, entered one day and the young men of the Semin- ary, being formed—in line, the Colonel addressed them as follows: "I want a young man to join . " my Regiment and go out to America as a teach - " er. He will have the rank and pay of a Ser- " geant, with some perquisites, and in this case the " term of service will be but seven (7) years, at u the close of which he will be entitled to a grant " of land from the crown of 200 acres, with some "privileges thereto attached." My father was the first to step to the front, and being well recommended, was accepted and joined the regiment. Arriving safely in New Brunswick, the regiment was stationed at Fredericton, the Capital, where he completed his term of service, having for a time as his assistant teacher the late Robert Cowan. He then proceeded to possess his land, which was situated on the west bank of the River St.

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