Taken from a manuscript by Samuel G Barter likely
written in the early 1930s and a later family history written in 1985 by
Charles
Herrick Barter. [I have added clarifying comments in brackets like
this.]
The Barter
family has been noted for stubborn independence and for feeling an equal
to any, rich or poor. There is a close resemblance between all members of
the Barter families wherever found -- and a clannishness as deep as that
of the Scottish Highlanders.
The Avondale, New Brunswick,
family originated in Devonshire, England, mostly around Totnes at the head
of the River Dart. On a visit to Devon you would be likely to find many
Barters still living there. But many followed the fortune of Drake,
Frobisher and other hardy seamen of the 17th and 18th centuries. Aside
from New Brunswick, Devonshire Barters are to be found in Newfoundland,
Indiana and Illinois.
One, James Barter (born c1750),
settled in Massachusetts Colony at Boston, and had two boys -- James
(c1775) and William -- and two girls -- Mary and Charlotte. Mary married a
Boston merchant, Thomas Page, and Charlotte married another merchant named
John Campbell. William was a seafaring man and drowned by shipwreck in the
Sandwich Islands. James Jr also followed the sea as a master cooper
[barrel-maker] on a whaler and was said to be a well-educated man -- a student in Latin and the
classics. He was wrecked in a
storm on the Banks of Newfoundland on return from Greenland waters about
1800. (All the crew were badly chilled and frozen and James had only one
toe on one foot and two on the other, all small, after his feet
recovered.) The survivors were rescued by a New Brunswick lumber vessel
and brought into Saint John harbour.
(There is another story with
several similarities reported in the Hartland NB Observer in 1969
stating that a cooper named James Barter arrived in Saint John, perhaps as
a Loyalist, on the ship Consul on 18 April 1783. He is said to have
settled in the Kingston NB area on Belleisle Bay.)
James Barter Jr promised God that
if he was rescued, he would never leave dry land again. As there was no
way to return to Boston by land, he settled in Saint John and married
Abigail Austin, daughter of Martin Austin (an
American settler) and Abigail Gale. To James and Abigail were born
three [perhaps four] sons -- Thomas Page, James Martin and John
Campbell Barter -- and three daughters -- Mary who married Bradbury Mills
of Tennant's Cove NB [maybe Mr Mills, the "leading man" mentioned in
the "witch"
story?], Priscilla who married Captain William [perhaps Thomas]
Pitt and Rebecca Levina [or Lavina] who married Dr Adina Paddock's
son, John, in 1838. [In a note dated 1967, Perce Barter thought it
might have been Dr Paddock himself or his
brother.]
James Barter Jr worked in the
shipyards of Saint John and in 1812 applied for a grant of 300 acres on
the Nerepis River west of the city. He was said to have wanted to leave
Saint John so that his sons would not be tempted to go to sea. There is no
record that he ever received the grant, but he eventually met a Mr and Mrs
Tennant of Tennant's Cove NB (near Evandale between Saint John and
Penniac). About 1816, James agreed to look after their farm and care for
the couple in return for inheriting the property after their deaths. After
James' death about 1818 (and Mr Tennant's death shortly before), Abigail
was left to take care of the farm, the children and "Granny" Tennant
who lived to be quite old.
James and Abigail's son Thomas
Page (1808-1856) married Mary Northrup (1812-1883, eldest daughter of Eli
Northrup and Nancy Mills of Belleisle Creek, near Sussex NB) in 1833 at
Springfield NB and had three sons -- John Campbell (1841-1862), Thomas
(1845-1847), James (1848-1870) -- and eight daughters -- Abigail
(1834-1838), Rebecca (1835-1875), Sarah (1837-1874), Nancy (1839-1895),
Mary (1843-1847), Elizabeth (1846-1849), Deborah (1851-1869 or 1877) and
Louisa (1853-?, m 1875). Two of these sons died unmarried: Thomas in
boyhood and James was killed by a falling log when the lumber camp in
which he was working burned.
John had one son by his wife,
Louise Carvell (widow of Ezekial Savage), also named John Campbell who
married Dorcas Charlotte Wade and settled on the Nashwaak River at Penniac
NB. They had one son, John Reud (who married Annie Brewer, a school
teacher, and had four daughters at the old farm at Penniac: Margaret
Theresa who married Howard Monteith, Louise Campbell, Elizabeth ["Bess"]
and Dorothy) and two daughters, Rana [or Rena] Volona (who married
Frank Collins of Lowell, MA) and Louise Campbell, always known as
"Brownie" (who married Robert Glasgow, an author and bookseller who
amassed a fortune). The Glasgows had four children.
James Martin
(1809-1898) married Mary Ann Mills (1810-1880), [eldest daughter of
Abel Mills and Mary Watts who had nine children] in 1836 [apparently after
retiring as a sea captain to become a ship builder] and lived on Tower
Street in West Saint John [Carleton as it was then called] from 1846.
They
had four sons -- Charles (1837-1869*), James Abel, (1841 [at Lower Kars NB
while his mother was at her sister's home]-1927, buried Waterville NB),
William Bradley Mills (1845-1846) and Moses (possibly Mases) Thomas
(1852-1868*) -- and two daughters -- Mary Abigail (see photo above;
1839-1871*, m 1858 Alfred Shaw) and Charlotte Elizabeth (1843-1865*). All
these children died unmarried except James and Mary but Mary died
childless shortly after her marriage to Alfred [perhaps James]
Shaw. James
Abel married Harriett Maria Trecia
(aka Theresa) Orser (1849-1915) of Hartland NB in 1865 (at Wakefield
NB near Hartland) and they had eleven children.
[* indicates death by consumption (tuberculosis) according to family
records]
James M Barter and his wife moved
to Avondale in
May of 1855 [possibly 1856], travelling from Saint John on the
river steamer Reindeer to Woodstock. They settled in a new home
built on 100 acres of wilderness land apparently purchased two years
earlier and were probably the first landowners to settle in Avondale. But
it took ten or eleven years to clear the land for
farming.
The Barters were not among the
Loyalists but Mary Ann Mills was a daughter of Loyalists from western
Virginia, now Kentucky. The Orser forefathers were Loyalists, notably
Grandma Orser, who was Irene Shaw (daughter of John Shaw and Mary
Burwell).
A Short
Sketch of the Life of James Abel Barter
By Samuel G Barter,
1927
J A Barter was born in Kings
County NB on Septemer 18th, 1841. His family moved to Saint John in 1846
where his father was a witness to the riot between the Catholics and the
Orangemen on July 12th, 1849. His father also experienced the opening of
the first suspension bridge over the Saint John Falls and the turning of
sod for the first railway in NB running from Saint John to Moncton. He
remembered well the rush to the Gold Fields of California in 1849 and the
Saint John cholera epidemic of 1854. The family moved to Avondale in
1855.
In 1869, James Abel was elected a
school trustee and was also made Secretary of Trustees, this being the
first Board for District No 7, Parish of Wilmot. He was Secretary for 25 years. [James was
Anglican, Trecia was Baptist, related to the founder of the Primitive
Baptist sect.]
In 1870, Mr Barter was appointed Secretary of
Rates for the Parish of Wilmot and served for seven years. He was elected
County Councillor in 1877. Elections were held every year then and he
continued in office until 1884. He was made a Justice of the Peace 40
years ago, and was also Labour Act Commissioner for Wilmot and Simonds for
30 years.
When the Woodstock and
Centreville Railway Company [later acquired by Canadian Pacific]
was organized in the early 1880s, eight men were directors: Harry Scholey,
Howard White, Wilmot Baloch of Centreville; Dr Robert McCrea of Lakeville;
J A Barter of Avondale; Randolf Ketchem, William Drisdale, Stephen Appleby
of Woodstock.
Mr Barter organized a company at
Avondale to build a cheese factory [about 1885] with John Whitney,
James White and Wilmot Clark. Nathaniel Strickland of South Paris ME was
hired to teach Mr Barter the art of making cheese after which he carried
on the business for nine years. His cheese won first prize at Saint John
in 1890 (said prize was $20) as well as a medal and diploma at the World's
Exhibition in Philadelphia [perhaps Chicago in 1893?]. [This
factory burned in 1894.]
Mr Barter was President of the
Liberal Association for the County of Carleton for several years during
the administration of Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier
(1896-1911).
He was married at age 23 (1864
[possibly 1865]) to Miss (Hariet M.) Trecia Orser (21 August 1848-18 April 1915) of Hartland NB when it
was known as Brighton. His wife passed away twelve years
ago.
View
later photo in new window
To bring to the minds of the
younger generation the loneliness of those who live like Mr Barter to be
85 years old, he is the only one living of all the Trustees he associated
with, the Assessors of Rates who worked with him have all passed away, not
a County Councillor now lives who sat with him, all the Railway Company,
his old partners in the cheese business, not one left of the old settlers
of Avondale but the widows of Charles Laskey and George
DeWitt.
Mr Barter is hale and hearty and
lives with his son, Allan A Barter at 685 Charlotte Street, Fredericton.
He has seven sons and one daughter living and usually makes a trip to
Carleton County each year.
[James A Barter died in
Fredericton NB on December 20, 1927 and is buried in the Waterwille
Cemetery on the Woodstock-Hartland portion of the Trans-Canada
Highway.]
First
telephones in Avondale?
Mrs
Donald Palmer who was a “Hello Girl” for the N.B. Telephone Central in
Hartland in 1917… remembers a story that James A. Barter of Avondale
attended a conference in Saint John in 1901 from which he came home
telling about the marvellous new invention called a telephone by which one
could talk to another person out of sight in another room. Soon his sons
Allen [Allan], Samuel, and Harry began privately connecting various
homes in Avondale… Mrs Palmer (nee Hazel Crandlemire) also remembers that
when she began work with N.B. Tel in 1917, the only telephone in Avondale
connected to the N.B. lines was that of George Burpee…
From “A
History of Hartland” by Carle A Rigby, 1980 (1988 printing), page
33
Children
of James A and Trecia Barter
George
Ludlow (1866-1867, burried Waterville,
NB)
Charles
Frederick (1867-1868, burried Waterville,
NB)
James
Edwin (1870-1935) m 1894 Ida Dyer (1879-1954) of Bristol NB:
two children, James Martin (1896-1977) and Martha Alberta
(1901-?)
Jim Barter owned a sporting
camp for many years on the Miramichi River near Juniper NB. He moved to
Saskatoon in 1911 and was in the land business. In 1912, he moved to
Vancouver. After army service in England and France during WWI he returned
to Vancouver and moved to Los Angeles CA in 1927 with his brothers William
and John where they formed a house-building partnership. He was killed in
an automobile accident and is buried at Inglewood Cemetery in Los
Angeles.
Samuel
Gilbert (1871-1963) m 1890 Laura B B McLean (1870-1897), m
1900 Charlotte (Lottie) Catherine Wallace (1877-1957) of Cloverdale NB:
seven children, Jane (Jennie)
Laura (1892-1983; m William L Allen, 1 October 1913), Florence
Nightingale (1893-1980), Lottie Beatrice (1897-1897), Susie Hill (1901-?),
Bettie (Bessie) May (1903-1978), Charles James (1906-1976), Trecia
Catherine (1908-1976)
Sam Barter spent most of his
life in Avondale where for many years he was a cheese maker, storekeeper
and postmaster. During WWI he served overseas with the Saint John
Battalion (later the Saint John Fusiliers). He kept a diary for most of
his years and wrote profusely of his family heritage including much of the
material in this section and his book A Short History of the Orser
Family published privately in 1951.
Charlotte
Louise (1873-1946) m 1894 Daniel Woodworth Kyle (1869-1945):
three children, Trecia (1895-1982), John James (1897-1976), Donald
Woodward (1908-1984)
Charlotte Kyle was an
organizer of the Order of the Eastern Star in New Brunswick (affiliated
with the Masons) and she became the first Grand Worthy Matron of the Order
for NB in 1930. When she married her husband, he was the manager of a
general store in Bath NB. They later moved to Woodstock and then to
Moncton. Both her sons worked for many years for the Canadian National
Railway.
Thomas
Ward (1875-1876)
William
Talmadge (1877-1958) m 1902 Catherine England (1882-1952):
three children, Beatrice Alberta (1903-?), William England (1904-1970),
Charlotte Trecia (1915-1975)
Will Barter moved to Vancouver
in 1911 and then to Los Angeles in 1928, joining his brother James and
John in the house building business. He returned to Canada in the late
1940s and retired to Gibson's Landing BC.
John
Campbell (1879-1964) m 1904 Annie Scholey (1883-1977): four
children, John Mills (1904-1957), Dorothy Scholey (1907-?), Mary Tyson
(1908-1908), Charles Herrick (b1922, d 2004)
John Barter was a partner in
the Avondale wood working fatory until it was destroyed by fire in 1906.
He moved to Regina to join his brother James and from they both went to
Vancouver and operated a garage. His family joined him in 1910. He served
from 1916-1918 in England and France with the 7th Battalion Canadian
Railway troops and with the Canadian Artillery. As a result of his
military service, he eventually became deaf. In 1923 he moved to Los
Angeles where he worked in a garage and later in the building trade with
his brothers Will and Jim. He and his wife retired to Vancouver in
1943.
Allan
Appleby (1882-1974) m 1904 Lois G Shaw (1887-1968), m 1970
Ethyl C Gorman (1894-?): seven children, Aubrey (1905-1907), Ward
(1906-1907), Mabel Olivia (1910-1987), Gertrude (1916-1953), Frank
(1919-1919), Basil (1923-1923), Gladys (1914-2004)
Allan Barter spent most of his
life in Avondale, Hartland and Fredericton NB. He was at first a school
teacher and then worked in wholesale. He joined his brothers in Los
Angeles in 1939. Returning to Canada in 1941 (almost 60 years old) to join
the army, he instead became a lumberjack. He spent several years with a
lumber company in Ontario and then operated a grocery store in New Liskard
ON until the 1950s when he moved to Toronto. After his second marriage, he
moved to his wife's home in Brown's Flat, near Saint John
NB.
Percival
Colburn (1884-1969) m 1908 Phoebe Golding (1885-1980): one
child, George Golding (1909-1969)
Perce Barter was for many
years a carpenter in Hartland before moving to Vancouver in 1908. After
returning to Hartland in 1915, he served with the 6th Siege Battery,
Canadian Artillery in England and France during
WWI.
Harry
Bismark (1886-1978) m 1907 Ruth Orser (1890-1969): four
children, James Colby (1908-1909), F Irene (1911- ), Laura Lillian (1919-
), E Jean (1921- )
Harry Barter managed his
father's farm in Avondale until 1909 when he and his wife moved to Lowell
MA, returning to Avondale about a year later. When the Barter farm was
sold [sometime during the years 1910-1919], they moved to Hartland where
they lived for the rest of their lives. There he joined a wholesale drug
company, Estey and Curtis.
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