|
[Privately published in 1951; this version updated with the
corrections noted in hand by SGB on what seems to have been his own review
copy. For this online transcription, readers may note some further editing
for clarity -- Sam wouldn’t mind!
CR]
While in this book,
the author does not attempt to give a complete history of the Orser
family, he has assembled much material which will be of interest to
all the descendents of Hartland’s first family. Much of the material
in this book has not heretofore appeared in print.
To all those who
assisted me in gathering the historical material I express my sincere
thanks.
S. G. Barter
CHAPTER
ONE
Ancestors of
the Orser family, the first settlers in what is now Hartland, lived
in Holland. The Dutch name was Van Auslin. When Holland owned New
York State they called it New Holland and New York City was called
New Amsterdam. Albany, New York was called Orange. The Dutch government
gave the Van Auslin family a plantation at what is now Ossining. When the British took the place from Holland
they confirmed the Dutch grants to the settlers. They became British
subjects, and the name became anglicized as Orser. The Van was discontinued
in the surname.
[Barbara E
Morgan, in her family tree on geneology.com, traces the Barter connection
to the Orsers back as far as 1580: Trecia Orser (born 1850 and married
to James A Barter); Samuel Bishop
Orser (1815-1892); William Aarse Orser (1763-1844); Jan [Jonas]
Orser (1723-1782); Evert Aertse Orser (1650-1716); Willem Aertzen
Orser (1650-1716); Aert Williemszen Orser (1605-1659); William ?
(born 1580). CR]
When the Americans
rebelled against British rule, the Orser family remained loyal,
and Captain Jonas Orser was a lieutenant in a company commanded
by Captain Abraham Ladieu in the month of July, 1776, at Tarrytown,
and was called out at various times during 1776-77 and 78 as commissioner
by Governor George Clinton. He was elected Overseer of the Poor
in April 1779, became a captain in 1778, and died on July 7, 1782.
His wife Elizabeth died in 1826, and was buried in the Old Dutch
Churchyard at Sleepy Hollow, where her memorial stone still stands.
Mrs Orser before her marriage was Miss Elizabeth Pugsley. They had
13 children: Talman, Deborah, William, Edward, Houneville, Jonas,
Elizabeth, Abraham, Mary, Joshua, Phoebe, Leah and Rachel. There
were several families of Orser besides Captain Jonas Orser and his
family.
Jonas Orser’s
six sons served in the British troops and I add a letter written
by (and saved as a souvenir of the Revolutionary soldiers at Tarrytown)
M D Raymond at Tarrytown, entitled The Surprise at Orser’s:
“Some of our men from Salem and Stephentown, who had been on a raid
collecting plunder from loyal families, wished to take the nearest
road back home and were anxious to leave. So, as we approached the
crossing, we agreed to all go to the Orser farmhouse, on the bank
of the North of Hudson River, and divide our plunder, refresh ourselves
and our horses. It was now 9 a.m.
“Our horses
were put in the barn and barnyard and fed, and we proceeded to sell
our spoil at auction. While these events were going on, the enemy
-- probably reinforced at both ferries -- renewed pursuit but pulled
up between Tarrytown and Sing Sing where they were informed by a
man named Curry (a cousin of the Orser boys) who had seen us as
we halted at Orser’s. He told the British where we were. They now
pushed on and when they approached Orser’s they sent a party of
about fifty men around a lane so as to get in our rear and lay in
ambush to cut us off so we could not retreat. This party by a circuitous
march occupied the ground north of Orser’s while the other party
of about 20 advanced on us from cover of the orchard. We lost the
rest of our loot and most of our horses.”
This letter
was written by one of the rebels and the British took them all prisoners
and away to New York city. After this capture in 1782, in the month
of May, Mr Orser’s buildings were burned because their sons were
in the British army and the parents took refuge in the British lines.
All the Orser families lived at, or near, Sing Sing and Tarrytown.
Sing Sing is now called Ossinging and the Orsers scattered from
Nova Scotia to Ontario, and many of their descendents in different
parts of the United States.
But when they
burned the Orser home, near where the capture of the Raiding Rebels
took place (described in the letter copied above), the Rebels took
3 men as captives as they wished to punish them for informing on
them and causing their capture. It is supposed -- but not sure --
that one was a Mr Curry. One son, William Orser, was arrested by
the Rebels and was confined with other Loyalists charged with giving
information to the British. Mr Orser and two others, names now unknown,
escaped and fled to the woods. The Rebels pursued then but did not
retake them. They kept in the woods as much as possible and traveled
by night when in the open. After a few days, they were going through
the woods and came to a small field, crossed it to the edge and
lie down to rest -- but fell asleep.
Mr Orser awoke
just as the sun was coming up; his two companions were asleep and
sitting on one of them was a little red bird (on his breast) looking
in his comrade’s face. Mr Orser wakened his two comrades and told
then of the little bird and at once his comrade said: “That means
I will be killed.”
They were lying
in a few bushes by a roadside and some Rebel horsemen were fast
approaching. They all sprang up and ran across the field to escape.
The horsemen opened fire on them and one man fell in the field.
It was the one the red bird had alighted on. Mr Orser and the other
comrade got to the wood, but as the Rebels dismounted and followed
them, they parted. Mr Orser never heard of his comrade after.
He continued
all day and the next, keeping to the woods, without food, but on
the morning of the third day he came to a small clearing with a
small house and barn, a road running through the clearing. He heard
someone threshing with a flail in the barn. He cautiously came to
the barn keeping a watch for anyone on the road… also keeping the
barn between himself and the house. There was a little door in the
big barn and he stepped in quickly and shut the door. With his back
to the door, and as the man threshing looked at him, Mr Orser said:
“I am cold and hungry but if you are a king’s man I am safe. If
not, God help me for I am all in.” The man came toward him and asked:
“Did anyone see you come?” Mr Orser answered: “No, I’ve been in
the woods two days and two nights. I’m a king’s man trying to get
away to safety.” The man said: “You are lucky for I am a king’s
man too. Come I’ll give you a place to rest and, if you trust me
and do as I say, I will get you food and help you escape.”
He had a hole
cut in the hay mow big enough for a man to lay down in and also
get up on his knees. Mr Orser crawled in and the man brought him
food and drink and Mr Orser was there two days and two nights. The
man kept him and told Mr Orser he had helped several Loyalists escape
that way.
On the third
day he supplied Mr Orser with food and told him the way to go and
bade him Godspeed, as he had found that no Rebels were near. Mr
Orser made good his escape and joined the British.
After the war,
he came to New Brunswick and was given a government grant of land
in Carleton County where the Town of Hartland is now situated. The
grant was officially given and is recorded as at the mouth of the
Becaguimic River.
CHAPTER
TWO
As near as
can be found, it seems William Orser’s father was imprisoned and
his property destroyed on the expulsion of the Loyalists who had
favoured the British. (I must say my daughter, Mrs Jane Barter Allen
who represents the Lepage Company of Gloucester, Massachusetts and
who travels in the New England States and New York State, has searched
the records of the early days of the United States and has found
a lot of information for me.) Mr Orser died in 1782 on board the
ship on which he was sailing to Canada. Mrs Orser, William’s mother,
died and was buried in New York State, in the Dutch Cemetery. Two
daughters, Phoebe and Lydia (both girls were nurses in the British
cause) were killed in service; nothing was known of John [Jonas?]
after the war, but William went to Saint John.
The Americans,
who by the aid of France, Holland and Spain, continued the war until
a treaty was made with the British government. Granting the independence
of the American States, there were certain conditions. One was that
the States were to reimburse the Loyalists for the property the
Rebels destroyed and livestock taken. In the book “American Loyalists”,
volume 22, page 213 (and which can be found in the Library in New
York), the account of losses sustained by Mr Orser’s heirs shows
the family in good standing and how they suffered. These losses
were never paid as the Americans never fulfilled their part of the
treaty which gave them their independence.
Mrs Orser placed
the following claim:
100 acres of
improved land at £5 an acre: £500
95 acres of
timber land: $427
An outhouse
not finished: £100
1 yoke of steers:
£12
8 cows at £6
each: £48
2 fine horses:
£40
8 cattle: £88
20 hogs: £15
33 sheep: £26
Household furniture
(New York pounds): £60
Damage to stone
dwelling house: £30
TOTAL: £1346
In 1951 dollars,
this would have been worth about $6,100.
By this we can
see what they lost and all they received was from the British -- the
Americans kept all! And what the Loyalists went through was far from
what one could expect for they were driven away from their homes.
One young man who had served with the Loyalists on leaving New York
City (just before the Loyalists took passage to New Brunswick and
Nova Scotia) went to see some of his people before he took ship. He
was beaten, daubed with tar, his eyebrows cut off, and used worse
than a negro slave.
William Orser
was born in 1762 and the next part of this story will give the family
history in New Brunswick.
CHAPTER THREE
William Orser
had married a Miss Craig and on coming to Saint John had applied for
land. A brother of Mrs Orser, a Mr James Craig, had married a Miss
Mary Blake [perhaps Black; 1772-1856. CR] who was said to be
the first English girl baby born on the Saint John River. Both families
came up by boat. Mr Orser was given a farm [settled 1797, granted
1809] which took in the land at the mouth of the Becaguimic River
and a little above its mouth, and down near the centre of the now
Town of Hartland. Mr Craig was given land a mile or more north of
Mr Orser’s land.
[According to
Carle A Rigby in his 1980 book, “A History of Hartland,” “Jacob (John)
Craig of Wakefield (across the river and south of Hartland) petitioned
for land at Upper Brighton in August 1789; in a petition of September
1799 he says he has a house and twelve acres cleared and had been
living there for four years… (The) Craigs were already settled about
a mile and a half upriver when the Orsers first set foot (in Hartland).”]
The Maliceet
Indians had a summer village or camp on the intervale and would come
up in the early Spring after the ice had run out, and plant corn and
pumpkins. In the Fall, they would gather the corn and pumpkins, peel
and slice the pumpkins, spread them out on sheets of bark and dry
them. Then they would pack the dried pumpkins and corn in baskets
and move back into the woods where the cold wind could not reach their
camps and they would hunt and trap until Spring opened again, then
move back for the Spring and Summer.
The Indians objected
to Mr Orser’s coming and called a pow-wow , or council, when they
came back in the Spring and found him in possession. They built a
big fire by the river and gathered around to discuss the matter. Mr
Orser went right down and talked to them, explaining how the Great
White Father had given him the land marked off and he must, and would,
stay. The Indians threatened and scowled but Mr Orser was firm and
said: “On my side of the line I stay, on your side of the line you
grow corn and pumpkins.” It was looking like trouble but Mrs Orser
was familiar with doctoring the sick children and many Indian children
were ill with some disease (measles, I think) and Mrs Orser went right
down and helped with the sick children. All because the children got
well, all were friends. Mr Orser and the Indians had no trouble --
they were good neighbours.
Mr Craig sickened
and died and Mrs Orser also died. Both families had six children.
In 1802, Mr Orser married the widow Craig. With Mrs Craig’s six children
and Mrs Orser’s six and then their six children, it made all together
18 children. A good family in those days where now one or two is the
average, and should there be more it’s called quite a family.
The Mohawk Indians
used to come down the Saint John River on Summer raids and the Maliceets
kept a guard on the hill where the Burtt house now stands (and where
the B.E.S. Legion are now establishing their hall) and they called
it petagomik -- meaning in the Indian tongue, “the place where
you look” or, in our language, “lookout.” Now it is spelled “Becaguimec.”
Always the Indians kept a guard there to warn the village if a number
of canoes were seen approaching from upriver, on the Saint John.
Mary Blake’s
father was killed by the Indians when she was a little girl, down
just above Saint John. The Indians were on a raid down the river and
the people on the east side of the river were on flat land, but the
west side was a steep bank and the people there all crossed the river
where they had a fortified place. But, as they did not see any Indians
the day after, Mr Blake said he was going over home to look after
his cattle. He went across by canoe and did not come back. Early the
next morning, the people who went over to see what kept him found
blood and bits of red hair on the stairs of his house (or cabin) but
he was never seen or heard of again. He was a redheaded man and it
looked as if he had been surprised by the Indians while in his house
and had taken his stand on the stairs.
Mr Orser’s children
by his first wife were, by name: William, Lydia, Marie, Phoebe, and
two died as babies. Children of the second marriage: Blake, Evard,
Stephen, John, George B (who died young), George W and Samuel Bishop
Orser to whom he left his home in Hartland.
CHAPTER FOUR
William Orser
lived on his farm in Hartland until he was an old man, over 70 years
old; and his children settled around mostly along the river. William,
the oldest son by his first wife, had the farm next above his youngest
brother, Samuel, but went to Ontario. He first settled on the farm
shown on a land grant map on file at the Crown Land Office in Fredericton
labeled as “William Orser, Jr.” and I have the original grant in my
possession now. Nothing was heard of this William Orser after he went
to Ontario. William was the only son who lived to marry, of his father
(William Orser) and his first wife, Mary Shaw. Of his second family
by his second wife (Mary Blake Craig) he had six sons who all lived
to marry; Evard married Abigail Shaw, Stephen married Jane McIsaac
(second marriage Sarah Foster), John Moses married Martha Hamilton,
George E. died young, George W. married Harriet Shaw, and Samuel D.
married Irene Shaw.
Mr William Orser,
the father, who came with his family to settle, built his first house
about where the present barber shop, or dwelling, where Roy Stevens
barbers now (1950), so as to be near the big spring (now having a
brick shelter over it for town purposes). Later a large house, or
addition, was built, before the railway was built into Hartland. The
first engines on the railway burned wood instead of coal, and as the
railway was built very near the back of Mr Orser’s house, sparks set
fire and burned the first old Orser home. Then Mr Orser built a home
up on the hill, back from the family cemetery on the up-ground back
of the village now, and still used for a cemetery and where a monument
has been placed for great grandfather and great grandmother and grandchildren
of the first William Orser and his son Samuel and many more of the
family are buried there. The cemetery is now owned by Neil and Allan
McLean, sons of Samuel D. Orser’s daughter, Frances, who married Allan
McLean, a native of Whycocomagh, Inverness County, Cape Breton, Nova
Scotia.
While Samuel
Orser lived he was anxious to see Hartland grow to be a real village
or town. He would give a lot of land to a blacksmith or person who
would start a business. There he and the boys farmed, cleared land
and lumbered; so did his brothers, and Samuel Orser had a permit from
the New Brunswick government to cut timber on the Aroostook River,
and was busy getting lumber there when the historic Aroostook War
broke out. When the Americans claimed the Aroostook was their land,
after Mr Orser had his lumber hauled to the banks of the Aroostook
River to drive it down to the St. John, the Americans seized his lumber
and used it to build the old fort which gave the town of Fort Fairfield
its name -- it was named Fairfield after the Governor of Maine at
that time, General Fairfield. The subsequent treaty by the British
and Americans gave the ground where Mr Orser’s logs had been cut from,
and were piled, to the Americans, so he lost his lumber. Mr Orser
lived to be 77 and then passed to his reward. Mrs Orser lived to be
well up in her eighties; she spent her last days at the home of her
daughter Frances at Bristol.
Frances Orser,
daughter of Mr and Mrs Samuel B Orser, married Allan J McLean who
was a blacksmith from Cape Breton, NS. He was a member of a Scottish
Highland family. They had four children: Neil McLean who is a Senator
in our Canadian House of Senate in Ottawa (he resides in Saint John
NB) and Allen, his brother, who lives at Black’s Harbour (they manage
the fish packing factory, the largest in Canada) and two daughters,
Annie who married George Caldwell and lives near Black’s Harbour and
her sister Hattie who married Garfield Larlee and resides in Fredericton,
NB where her husband is Assistant Treasurer of the NB Electrical Power
Commission.
Of the boys of
Samuel B Orser, Thomas Rainsford married Harriet A Britton, John married
Augusta Campbell (second wife Melissa Shaw), Samuel married Attie
Mooers, Charles married down in the state of Georgia, USA, and two
other sons, Ludlow and Ward, died in childhood.
George W Orser,
son of William Orser, and a brother of Samuel B Orser, began to preach
at the age of 15 years, was married to Miss Abigal [sic] Shaw at the
age of 20 and was ordained as a minister that same year. He was one
of the greatest ministers ever born, or ordained, in this province.
He had a son, Elijah, who was also a gifted minister of the Gospel.
Rev Charles H Orser, a son of Edward Orser, was also a minister of
the Primitive Church and wrote a good account of the life of George
W Orser; it is a book much loved by all members of the Primitive Baptist
Church.
George W Orser
was the father of twin boys, Enoch and Elijah; Enoch died young but
Elijah married Miss Margaret Mallory and they had five children: Mary
married William Cogswell, Annie Jane married Arthur Hooper (who died
and left her a widow, now living at Fort Fairfield, age over 90 years),
Lois married Fred Clark. Two sons, Whitfield and David lived in Florida.
Rainsford Orser
and his wife had a large family; they first lived at what is now Carlisle,
afterwards in Colorado. Their family was: Weston who married Minnie
Patterson, Adelia who married John Weed of Vermont, George R who married
Sarah Steel of Vermont, Hannah who married Moses Turner, May, twin
of Hannah, married Charles Laskey of Lowell Mass, Samuel who married
H M Good still lives in the State of Washington, USA, Eva Alberta
who married Frank Thomas, Trecia who married Joseph Babcock, Henry
Ward who married Wilhemina Evans, Jessie Louise who married Ralph
Burrough, Arthur who married Mary Wallman, Guy P who lives in the
New England States.
John Orser, son
of Samuel B Orser, and his first wife had three children: Oakley who
married Sophia Hanson, Georgia who married Murray Hill and Nettie
who married Manzer Day.
The children
of the second marriage were: Maude, married first to Eugene Day, second
to George Wallace and third to Rainsford Libby; Clara, married to
Herbert H Hanson; Allan J, married to Sadie Coffey; Lottie, married
to Harvey Jones first, second to Coley Craig.
Samuel Orser,
son of Samuel B Orser, married Attie Moores [Mooers ?] and they had
one daughter, Frances (Frankie) Orser who married Walter Whitney.
They live in Lowell, Mass USA, and have two daughters: Bertha who
married Al Frost (who was born in Knowlesville, NB), now they live
in Roslindale, Mass, and the other daughter, Barbara, is not married
yet but lives with her parents. Mr Samuel Orser died after Frankie
was born and his wife then married Edward Thomas of Lowell.
Samuel B Orser’s
first son, Fred, married Phoebe Bishop and their daughter, Annie,
married John Grant. She is now a widow but lives on their old farm
at Kilburn, NB.
CHAPTER FIVE
Samuel B Orser’s
daughter, Trecia H M Orser, married James A Barter
of Avondale. They first began married life on the North Branch of
the Becaguimac River, the settlement now known as Carlisle, but soon
returned to Avondale, his boyhood
home. (Mr Barter was a farmer and carpenter, the son of James M Barter
from West Saint John who helped found the village of Avondale. They
were the first settlers there in 1855.) James A and Trecia Barter
had 11 children; 3 died while young but 7 sons and one daughter lived
to marry (Charlotte L, James, Samuel, William, John, Allan, Percy
and Harry). James Barter passed away at 87 years and Mrs Barter at
67.
The youngest
son of Samuel B Orser, Charles, went south to Georgia and married
Miss Maggie Driggers. They had 5 children: Irene George Orser who
married James A Jones and lives in Fitzgerald, GA, Maggie Mary who
married Mr Reiner Heinen of New Orleans, LA, Maude Orser Youngblood
living in New Orleans, LA, Charles Ludlow who has a family of 4 sons
and 2 daughters, Ransford, living in Georgia, Henry, living in Alabama,
Charles (who lives in the ship-shaped house at St Simonds, GA) and
J D Orser, the fourth son, is unmarried (he served 4 years during
World War II in the US Navy).
His eldest daughter
died young. Inez married J A Henningsgard of Inglewood, CA. Irene
married James A Jones 49 years ago next October 20th and
they have three children: James Derrick Jones, living at Colorado
Springs, CO, who is married and has threes children (Nancy Margaret,
age 20, Patricia Louise, 16, and James, age 9 years). Joseph A Jones,
a captain in the US Army 97th Bomb Wing, Hq Texas, not
married, 35 years of age. Daughter Irene Louise Jones married Lee
Whitmire of Hendersonville, NC, and died April 6, 1932, leaving one
son Robert Lee who is learning to be a lawyer in college now.
CHAPTER SIX
We are all interested
in houses these days. A house that is different is owned by Charles
Orser of Georgia. Mr Orser is a great-great-grandson of William Orser…
[The account of this house in the shape of a ship, mentioned in
the previous chapter, goes on for another three pages and is not really
relevant to the rest of this story, so I will move on. CR]
CHAPTER SEVEN
I have given
in former parts of this history the early settlement of this family
and I was anxious to have it printed so the young of the family, and
the ones not yet born, might look back on their fore-parents. I have
carefully searched out the past history and I do not know any families
more closely connected by inter-marriage than the Orsers, Shaws and
Craigs, as this historical account shows.
The Orser family
is widely scattered as I find Samuel D Orser, son of the late William
Orser who first settled Hartland (yes, first white settler there)
on a visit to New York state about 1881; found Stephen Orser, the
warden of Sing Sing Prison. And to show that Orsers still live in
New York, I will add two items from New York papers:
“Funeral of Capt
Orser. Henry Orser’s funeral service in St Paul’s Church, with Rev
Lynwood Smith officiating, pallbearers: Major John J Burns, George
Ellis, Richard Nicolas, W D West. A large delegation of Masons attended.
The service at the grave was performed by Charles L Hutchins, Worshipful
Master. Capt Henry Orser died May 13, 1945.”
“William E Orser
of Millwood, NY, recently died in the hospital at Ossining, NY, at
the age of 60. Mr Orser was formerly president of Millwood Fire Department.
He leaves a widow, Mrs Edith Young Orser, 3 sons: Herbert, William
and Kenneth, and a daughter, Mrs Arthur Tompkins, of Ossining, NY.”
(Taken from the New York Times)
Ossining, NY
is the name of the town in which Sing Sing Prison is situated. The
above two death items bring to mind that the Orser Family is represented
largely in New York yet. The statement of Mr William E Orser’s death
ended by saying, “This will be of interest to many in New Brunswick
who are descendents of William Orser, a Loyalist who went to New Brunswick
in 1783 from Ossining, NY.”
I have written
this history realizing I am “up in years” and I am a great grandson
of William Orser, the first white settler at Hartland, and I felt
the younger generation of this sturdy old gentleman would appreciate
an account of their family -- also the Shaws, Craigs and others who
have inter-married and are descendents of this Orser family. I have
given a true account of the older ones of the family and each branch
can carry on their attachment of the family.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After carefully
studying the Orser family and feeling that, as the Craig and Shaw
families were so inter-mixed by marriage and birth, I should go back
and state some more particulars of the early history, mentioning shared
events.
To begin, when
our Orser forefather came as a Loyalist from New York to what
was Parrtown (later named Saint John as it was at the mouth of the
noble Saint John River), he found some settlers already there and
met a Miss Craig whom he married. Now this Craig family had come to
this place and by the records we find James Craig. His forefathers
were of Scots descent but came from the North of Ireland to Massachusetts
then, as Loyalists, came to New Brunswick. Mr Craig received a grant
of land (as No. 983) on August 14, 1784.
A Christopher
Blake had settled at Reed’s Point on the Saint John River and James
Craig married his daughter, Mary Blake. (She was born at Reed’s Point
in 1772.) They had six children. After Mr Craig died, she married
Mr William Orser whose first wife, Miss Craig (sister of Mrs Blake’s
first husband) had also died.
Now I will add
a fact of an historical event. Some 50 years ago, my brother James
and his wife (formerly Ida Dyer), as well as Edith, the sister of
my wife (formerly Lottie Wallace) and I had a hunting trip up the
Tobique River and on up to the Wapske River. Ten miles up the latter
river is a plain, about 20 acres of flat plain known as the Stewart
Plain, with here and there a large tree on the south side of the Wapske.
Old settlers
told us how it received its name. In the year 1780, the Indians raided
the settlers along the Saint John River down near Saint John and a
little girl (as near as I can find out she was the Mary Blake who
first married to Mr James Craig then to Mr William Orser) was lost:
no one knew where the child was or whether she was dead or alive.
A few years after she was lost, peace was made between the British
and the Americans (who had been granted their independence). The Indians
had a village just below the ferry between St Ann’s (now Fredericton)
and St Mary’s Ferry, so called, on the east side of the river.
Each spring the
up-river Indians would come down after the ice ran out and bring down
their furs to trade them out with the traders for things that they
needed. This particular year, a trader had opened a store on the east
side of the ferry. (To this day, the long made-road of stone that
led out for a long way from the east end of the ferry can be seen
plainly -- just above the bridge. There is a store there yet; I do
not know the name of the first trader but the Bowlin Bros now do business
there.)
When the Indians
had done most of their trading there and were about to go back up-river,
one of the chiefs came back to the store and wanted more liquor. But
he had only a Church of England prayer book (with silver caps on the
corners) and he held out the book saying “How much?” The trader took
the book and inside the cover saw the name written there -- the family
of the lost girl -- so he gave the Indian what he wanted for the book
and went over at once to St Ann’s and showed it to the officers there.
Nova Scotia had
once covered all that is New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. New Brunswick
had been formed into a province and the Government had been established
at what had been called St Ann but was now re-named Fredericton. A
Captain of the Rangers who had been granted land up there near the
new place of government at once advised the trader to return across
the river and to try and keep the Indians there for a few days more.
He would take a party of Rangers up the river and find the girl, if
possible, as it was quietly rumoured by friendly Indians that a young
white girl was up there. The Captain told the trader to tell the Indians
that his birthday was coming and he would like of them to stay and
help celebrate; he would pass out drinks. The Indians stayed and Capt
Stewart and his party departed up-river in a longboat.
They reached
the Indian village at the mouth of the Tobique River about night-time.
All the able-bodied Indians were still away. Capt Stewart made a good
look and enquiry for the missing girl but did not find her. There
was another village up the Tobique at the mouth of the Wapske, so
up went the captain but a young Indian runner had gone post-haste
overland and gave the alarm as that was where the girl was. So before
the Rangers reached the village, the girl was taken 10 miles up the
Wapske River to another village where the plain is.
Capt Stewart
left the big boat at Wapske mouth as that river was too shallow and
rapid a stream for it. Leaving a guard with the boat, he and a party
followed the Wapske up to the big plain crossing two brooks (the first,
Beaver Brook, and a mile or more over a raise of ground, Over Rock
Brook). There the Indians tried to stop the Rangers but as all the
older able-bodied men were away -- leaving only the old people, too
aged to go down-river, and children and women -- they soon brushed
the Indians away and there found the girl.
Down the Tobique,
they ran the Red Rapids but, as they approached the Narrows, they
had to prepare for trouble. The rock cliffs rise so high on both banks
of the Narrows that, if the Indians knew they had the girl, they could
stop them or hurl arrows, rocks or gunfire. So the Rangers had her
lay flat in the bottom of the boat and threw blankets, and what light
stuff they had, over her. When the Indians saw them approach, Capt
Stewart called to them, still asking about the girl. The Indians thought
he had not yet found her so they let the boat pass through the Narrows
ans they brought her down with them.
As near as I
can find out, she was Mary Blake and this is one reason that Mr and
Mrs Orser (who first came and settled at the mouth of the Becaguimac)
got along so well with the Indians. She knew their ways, could speak
to them and aid them. In the case of sickness with their children
and women, she helped and they looked up to her as one who was wise
while Mr Orser was stern and honourable with them.
There is a store
now at the same place in St Mary’s Ferry opposite Fredericton, and
some 50-odd years ago, I was acquainted with the gentleman who was
keeping store. I asked him if he ever heard the story about Capt Stewart
and he told me the same story as the old people at the mouth of the
Wapske. Mr Bowlin was about 70 years of age when he told me the story
and his sons still have the store.
CHAPTER NINE
William Orser
had one son, George, a Minister of the Gospel who was an able, eloquent
server of God and the founder of the Primitive Baptist Church. Rev
Moses P Orser (a son of J Moses Orser), Rev Charles Orser (son of
Edward Orser) and Rev George Elijah Orser (son of the Rev George W
Orser) make three ministers of the grandsons of the said William Orser.
To end this short
history of our Orser family, I will add a few items showing the family
is still taking part in our country’s affairs. A Neil McLean is a
Senator; Lorne and Ercel Orser (sons of Nevers Orser) run a garage
and farm implement branch at Hartland and Ercel Orser has been on
the Town Council, an alderman for many years. Percy C Barter (grandson
of Samuel B Orser) was taker of the Census for 1951 for the Town of
Hartland.
I have tried
to gather the history of the family so the young members of the Orser
family, and relatives, can look back on the history of their grandparents
-- to know who they were, and that they were Loyalists -- and can
tell their children of whom they have descended.
I thank my daughter
Jane B Allen, my cousin Annie McLean Caldwell and my cousin Irene
Jones for helping me get the facts for this family history. Mrs Annie
Southam, Hartland, daughter of Mrs Minnie Orser White and grand-daughter
of the Rev Moses P Orser, for the loan of the original grant from
the Crown to William Orser. My daughter, Florence Barter Lees, for
typing for me.
I ask pardon
of any I may have neglected to mention and would add that the cemetery
used by our first Orsers is still owned by the sons of Frances Orser
McLean (A Neil and Allan McLean). They have erected a memorial stone
in the cemetery and on it is engraved “In memory of William Orser, born in 1762,
died 1854; Mary Blake Orser, born 1772, died 1856”. Also at
Black’s Harbour, the Baptist Church was built and dedicated as a memorial
to Frances Orser McLean by her sons.
May this Short
History of the Orser Family be a memory of the writer, Samuel G Barter,
son of James A and Trecia Orser Barter. I am now over 80 years of
age and would like the younger descendents of this branch of the old
Orser family to have a history of our ancestors.
Samuel G Barter
Corrections to this story? Please email me.
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