Taken from a handwritten c1919
manuscript by Samuel G Barter and a 1952 paper written by Sam and his
daughter, Florence Lees. [I have added clarifying comments in brackets
like this.]
Avondale,
Carleton County, lies between the 3rd Tier Road on its east side and the
4th Tier Road to the west. The Little Presque Isle River flows through the
entire length of the settlement. [About an hour from Fredericton by
car, it is just west of the Saint John River and only minutes from the
Maine border.]
The Valley of Avondale, before
the land was cleared, was noted for the grand big pine trees which grew
there. As the farms were cleared, one could see in places large pine
stumps, showing where the trees had been cut -- stumps as large as oil
barrels and even some as large as the old time molasses "hogsheads". In
those days we did not have steamships and the British government had a
special claim on all pine trees fit for the making of masts for
ships.
To get those large pine logs for
the ships, a road was made to haul the logs out which started from the
Saint John River (just above where the Little Presque Isle empties into it
[near the Hugh John Flemming Bridge at Hartland, see photo above])
and passed along the north side of the Little Presque Isle River for a
short distance, going on west, coming out at the Alexander Rockwell farm
(on the 3rd Tier [in 1952]) and passing on west, then turning
northwest to Avondale and passing over the old Barter farm (now owned by
Mr Donald Palmer) and crossing the Little Presque Isle where Fred Hourihan
now lives [today the home of James Hourihan just northeast of The
Maples, the S G Barter home], then passing to the west but more in a
south-westerly direction clear to the foot of Williamstown Lake to the old
Buxton farm in Deerville. (The old corduroy road is to see yet
[1918] across the swamp on the James Barter
farm.)
Now this stream, the Little
Presque Isle -- said to be the best fish stream around -- was formerly
pronounced "Little Presteel". The old Melecite name was Preskeag meaning
"hidden mouth" according to an aged Indian, over 80 years old, called
Alexander (as an English name) who camped just above Upper Woodstock 65
years ago [the 1840s]. It was hidden because an island in the old
Saint John -- or as he called it, the Woolstook River -- hides the
mouth.
In the 1840s, settlers came in
over this old lumber road and took up land as squatters. About 1850,
George Close built a house right near where Fred Hourihan's home now
stands and on the same road, but just above where the old woodworking
factory used to be, a Mr Murphy settled as a squatter. [The 1918
version claims that the first house built in Avondale belonged to James
Whitney and remained in that family for three generations but perhaps it
is the same house.]
In 1854, James Martin Barter (who
was a master shipbuilder in West Saint John) moved up and obtained a farm
from the Bagley boys who had owned it but not occupied it. On May 10th,
1855 he moved in having built a log house. He was the first settler in
Avondale as true owner of his land. In a few years, Mr Close left the farm
he had squatted on and George Welch got that one.
James A
Barter, Sam's father, was a boy of 14 years when the family moved to
Avondale (mother, father and 5 children) and they had only the lumber
road. Food had to be carried in on one's back in Summer. But partridge was
plentiful and over 100 partidges were shot with a flint lock gun the first
year.
As the early surveyors had
considered the Valley of Avondale a swamp and the roads were laid out to
keep on higher land, there was no real road into Avondale. They bent the
3rd and 4th Tier Roads apart so that the 3rd Tier went east of Avondale
and the 4th Tier to the West with another road between these two running
just south of Avondale. However, on the taking up of farms, a road was
surveyed to Avondale and ran north on the east side of the Little Presque
Isle River. James Whitney (from Northumberland County, NB) took up the
farm where the new road started from the east-west road between the 3rd
and 4th Tiers, and the next farm north for his son John Whitney. This new
road was called Tier Blank at first.
View
larger image (100KB)
Samuel Walton took up the farm on
the west side of the road above John Whitney (where James Rosborough now
lives) and afterward got the next farm north for one of his sons as well
as the farm north of John Brown on the east side of the road for another
son.
Mr and Mrs Walton had five
daughters and three sons. Other new settlers came in -- mostly young men
-- and as they settled they got their wives from Mr Walton. First, William
Drake married Bella Walton, James Culberson married Eliza Walton, Joseph
Laskey obtained a farm from one of Mr Walton's sons and married Sarah
Walton. Stephen Shaw married Martha Walton and they succeeded her parents
on the "home" farm.
Israel Tracy (from Jacksonville)
got the farm Mr Murphy had squatted and he built on the east side of the
land just opposite James M Barter's home. James Barter obtained the farm
just north of his property for his son Charles. A Mr Seeley got the next
farm north of that.
For some reason (which I never
found out), a Dr Jacobs had received a grant of land being the north 600
acres in Avondale, 300 acres on either side of the road. George DeWitt
obtained the lower 100 acres on the west side, just above the Close farm
then held by George Welch. James Culberson had the next 100 acres above
DeWitt farm and Almon Rockwell got the upper 100 acres. On the east side
of the road, Mr Seeley had the south lot and Dell Hart got 200 acres
(across from the Culberson and Rockwell farms). That took up all the land
for settlement in Avondale. In 1860, Charles Edwin Clark and John E
McCready came to Avondale and bought out Mr Seeley.
The Little Presque Isle River
flows out from Williamstown Lake, through Lakeville, turning east for a
distance then south and through Avondale. On the Seeley land there,
beavers had built a dam and turned the three miles of the river between
Lakeville and Avondale into dead waters. In the old lumbering days, before
Avondale was settled, the lumbermen built a flood dam on top of the beaver
dam. [This on the same site as today's Ducks Unlimited
dam.]
Avondale's
Industrial Revolution
When Mr Clark and Mr McCready
came to Avondale, they formed a partnership and in 1868 built a saw mill
on the east side and a grist mill on the west of the original flood dam
and rebuilt the dam. Mr McCready had his home on the east side and Mr
Clark on the west side. (Both families boarded with J M Barter until their
homes and mills were built.) The grist mill had wheat flour stones, a
buckwheat run of stone and a stones for mashing grain. In the Fall and
Winter it ran all day and night; customers came from as far away as
Tobique NB and Bridgewater ME.
Mr McCready was Avondale's first
Postmaster in 1870 and Mr Clark was Avondale's first Justice of the Peace
or Magistrate. It was Squire Clark who picked the name of the place
formerly called Barter Settlement. About that time a young British prince
was given the title of Duke of Clarence and Avondale which was a small
town a little way from Dublin, Ireland.
Richard Titus came to Avondale in
the early 1870s from Kings County NB and built a general store (the
building later owned by Mrs Ferne Nason, 1918, then Mr and Mrs Tompkins,
1952). [The home just north of Weston Orser's old house.] Mr Titus
married one of Squire Clark's daughters, Evelyn.
Two brothers named Harrison came
in and started settling on land on the road from what is now Wilmot but
both became clergymen -- one a noted missionary. Then Alfred Shaw bought
the Harrison place and built a nice house. Mr Shaw married Mary Barter,
eldest daughter of J M Barter. He obtained land from Mr Barter and built
his home just opposite the schoolhouse, the latter having been built in
1871 on the southeast corner of the Tracy farm. Mary died soon after the
house was built and Alfred sold the farm. A Mr Connell had a claim on the
new building and he took possession.
In 1873 James Fisher, a master
tanner from England, established a tannery just below the grist mill of
Messrs Clark and McCready at the west end of the Avondale Bridge [near
the entrance lane to The Maples]. The tannery was a two-storey
building about 30ft X 45ft with a water wheel. Mr Fisher also built a nice
home up on high ground that he bought from George DeWitt. That house
[photo below] was bought later by S G
Barter.
Elmira Tracy, who had settled on
the farm opposite James Abel Barter (successor to J M Barter) went into
partnership with his brother-in-law, John Whitney, and his brother, Israel
Tracy and they built a shingle mill near where the Avondale Road forks and
crosses the river. After a few years, the partnership was dissolved and
Elmira kept his land from the Presque Isle east to the Avondale Road.
Israel got the shingle mill and John got the land west of the
river.
The first blacksmith shop was on
the corner near the mill. It was first operated by Rudolph Fowler and
later by Stephen Sherwood followed by Bradford DeLong (and it is now
[1918] occupied by his son William F DeLong). Mr Sherwood built a
new blacksmith shop (now the site of Weston Orser's home [1918])
and a store in the early 1880s. S G Barter bought the store and stock in
1891 and moved the building to The Maples. [It later became the village
post office and eventually a summer kitchen.] Avondale is now served
with mail by RR #1 from Lakeville and is the greatest producer of potatoes
for its size as any known place. The blacksmith shop was later owned by a
Mr McMurray [?], next William Wilson, Rennie Rockwell and George
Crandlemire who had it when it burned.
A cheese factory was built about
1885 where the bridge now is by James A Barter, John Whitney, James White
and Wilmot Clark. Nathan Strickland was secured to make cheese. [Their
cheese won a medal at the 1893 International Exhibition in Chicago.]
The factory burned on November 18th, 1894 and S G Barter built another in
1895 and made cheese until 1901.
James A Barter and his son James
E Barter built a woodworking factory on the old Tracy shingle mill site in
1897 and did a large business until fire wiped out the factory in 1906.
But the factory was re-built and afterward sold to Burpee & Wilson.
George Burpee had bought the McCready sawmill in 1885 and had added a
butter box business. A few years later, Joseph Estabrook purchased the
woodworking factory.
There was a company formed
[sometime before 1895] to build a railway from Woodstock to
Centreville; William Drysdale was President, James A Barter was
Secretary-Treasurer. Robert McCready [?], Wilmot Bullock [?], Harvard
White and Stephen Appleby were Directors. They secured a permit and had a
survey for a road to run up Long's Creek (Upper Woodstock) thence to
Jacksonville crosing the 3rd Tier Road up along the east side of Horseback
Hill -- a remarkable hill, steep up, steep down like a horse's back -- and
running from north Carleton County to Charlotte County. But they sold out
to the Connor & Lumlar [?] Co which started to build the Saint John
Valley Railroad intended to reach from Saint John to Grand Falls. This
company failed and New Brunswick gave a charter to another company headed
by a Mr Gould of Maine. They built a new line, quite different from
earlier planned routes, coming from Woodstock up to near Belleville and
cutting north-east coming across the 4th Tier to Avondale Road siding and
on to Lakeville and Centreville.
But the first business (after
logging) was the burning of charcoal by several of the settlers -- black
circular spots still show [in 1918] in fields. Charcoal was made
for the iron smeltery that was running at Upper Woodstock to melt ore from
the iron mine at or near Jacksonville.
And With
Progress Comes Social Development
The first school was built in
1871 and the first trustees were Almond Rockwell, John McCready and James
A Barter. A new school house was built on the same ground as the first by
John Whitney under contract in 1887.
At that time, Avondale had six
roads coming into the settlement which was three and a half miles long. A
road at the south branched east, one west. Mid-way up a road branched east
toward the Saint John River and one by the school house went west by a
woodworking factory and on to the Avondale railway siding. As the dead
water at the north blocked the Avondale road, it forked east to Wilmot and
west to the Catholic Church on the 4th Tier Road.
The Avondale Baptist Church was
organized in April 1871, the same year the first school was built, with
Rev G G Harvey (Moderator) giving the hand of fellowship to thirteen
members and Rev E C Cody (Clerk) delivering the sermon. John Edwin
McCready was chosen Deacon and Superintendent of the Sunday School. Church
services and Sunday School were held in the school house. The new Baptist
Church building was dedicated August 7th, 1898.
Deacons serving up to 1952: C
Albert Plummer, Levi Sherwood, Lemuel A W Brown, John Samuel Buxton, John
H Crandlemire and J Mills Buxton. Superintendents of the Sunday School:
James A Barter, Isaac Titus, Dell Hart, Levi Sherwood, Stephen Shaw, Miss
Lizzie Drake, Mrs Dealia Jones, Samuel Buxton, James Faulkner, Fred
Flewelling and L S W Brown. The Clerks for the church have been: James A
Barter, Richard Titus, C Albert Plummer, Fred Flewelling and Lemuel A W
Brown.
A Trip to
Avondale
Originally published in the
Woodstock (NB) Sentinel, c1895, author unknown
A short
time ago I visited Avondale for a few hours, and, as it had been several
years since I was there before, I was gratified by the improvement and
will briefly sketch some of its most prominent
industries.
Avondale is a small but busy
village, situated by the Little Presque Isle stream three miles below the
Williamstown Lake, and eight miles from where it empties its rippling
waters into the St John River at Middle Simonds.
The first place of industry I
visited was James A Barter's sled factory, which has a lot of machinery
run by horse power. Mr Barter [1841-1927] builds about thirty
long-sleds, etc, each winter. The sleds are bought by the waiting public,
and such firms as Daniel Grant & Co, Loane Bros, Woodstock, and
others. He always finds a ready sale for his sleds.
His son, S G Barter
[1871-1963], owns and operates a cheese factory at Avondale, and,
by the way, the cheese factory has one point of interest above the usual
factory, for it is the only factory in New Brunswick that has a complete
system of heating by steam. There is no stove in the building, and the
furnace is in a shed attached, and the steam is carried in pipes, warming
both the making and curing room.
The factory is new; was built
last April, and has had a good run this season. Took in between 300,000
and 400,000 pounds of milk, making 577 cheese, which would, at 9½ cents
per pound, which is a fair price for cheese this year, mean a production
of about $3200. There is but one store at Avondale. It is run by S G
Barter in connection with the cheese factory, and has, as the proprietor
told me, an ever increasing trade. The store is run on town prices, with
ten cents off for cash.
S W Sherwood is the village
blacksmith, and a good workman he is, if we are to judge from the thrifty
look of his place and the number of his customers.
Mrs Clark owns the grist mill,
and it would do your eyes good to see the large piles of grain piled
throughout the mill. Mr Levi Sherwood, formerly miller at the mill in
Woodstock, cares for and manages the mill for Mrs Clark, and, needless to
say, gives every satisfaction.
Geo F Burpee owns the large saw
mill, formerly owned by Clark & McCready. Mr Burpee has added many
improvements to the mill. He has just finished putting in a plainer and
reset his shingle machine, and now intends to put in a new improved cheese
box head cutter, which will be apt to take in a large share of the trade
of the cheese factories in this country. In the mill there is also a lath
and picket machine, and a saw and rotary.
The tannery is not at present
occupied; it is owned by James Boyer, of Victoria Corner [between
Hartland and Woodstock], and would be a good chance for an active
tanner.
Geo DeWitt, farmer at Avondale,
has for several years been active in the buying and fattening of cattle,
and has on hand as many as thirty head, so I
understand.
I also saw pile after pile of
railway ties bought by the Centreville & Woodstock Railway Company,
which looks as if we were surely going to get our railway at some future
time.
On all sides I saw nothing but
prosperity and comfort, which gladdens the heart of any traveller, no
matter how sane he may be.
Some of the farmers have gone in
for silos, others have dug cellars under their barns, which seems to have
taken the lead of the corn insilage at that place.
Avondale is a pretty place,
lacking one thing, a church, which will be added before long, I
hope.
Photo likely taken about
1920
Meanwhile...
|
1759 |
Wolfe captures
Quebec |
|
1767 |
Start of the Industrial
Revolution |
|
1776 |
American
Revolution |
|
1783 |
Landing of the Loyalists at
Saint John |
|
1784 |
New Brunswick
established |
|
1837 |
Victoria begins her
reign |
|
1840 |
Union of Upper and Lower
Canada |
|
1841 |
Responsible government in
Canada |
|
1861-65 |
American Civil
War |
|
1867 |
Confederation |
|
1871 |
NB free school system
established |
|
1885 |
Completion of the Canadian
Pacific Railway |
|
1896-1911 |
Government of Sir Wilfred
Laurier |
|
1914-18 |
World War
I |
 |
