History of New Brunswick

SOME NOTES REGARDING PETER FISHER

Peter Fisher's claim to be the first of our historians rests upon two little books, both printed by a well known publishing firm in Market Square, in the City of St. John, in the early years of the last century. The first of these books appeared in 1825. It comprises 110 pages, written in excellent literary style and, considering Mr. Fisher's limited sources of information, is remarkably accurate. In the preface he observes: "This work, however imperfect, must be useful, as giving the first general outline of the Province, and interesting to every person who possesses a feeling for his own fireside."

The other book, "Notitia of New-Brunswick," comprises 136 pages, and was printed in 1838. In the advertisement at the beginning, the author states that "circumstances have compelled him to relinquish in part his original plan, and to contract the scope of the publication, since the times do not warrant any great outlay on works of this description."

The two books are really pamphlets in yellow paper covers, and are now so rare as to be much sought for by collectors of "Canadiana." Both books are written under the nom de plume of "An Inhabitant," and the motto that follows is the same in each, namely: —

"Whatever concerns my country, interests me; I follow nature, with truth my guide."

Before proceeding to consider the personality of our first historian and to speak further of his writings, it will be of interest to speak of his antecedents. His father, Lewis Fisher, served in the war of the American Revolution, on the side of the crown, in the New Jersey Volunteers, a brigade commanded by Brigadier General Cortlandt Skinner, the last Royal Attorney-General of New Jersey. The corps was sometimes known as "Skinner's Greens." It was numerically the largest organization of British Americans in Howe's army. Officers and men were mostly natives of New Jersey, New-York and Pennsylvania. One of the original six battalions was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Abraham Van Buskirk and it contained a large Dutch element. Among the officers were Major Van Cortlandt, Captains William Van Allen, Peter Ruttan, Samuel Ryerson, Jacob Van Buskirk and Waldron Blaan; Lieutenants Martin Ryerson, John Van Norden, John Heslop, John Simonson and Joost (or Justus) Earle; Ensigns Colin McVean, Xenophon Jouett, Malcolm Wilmot, William Sorrell and Frederick Handroff.

Among the men in the ranks – many of whom came to New Brunswick and settled near Fredericton – we find such names as VanHorne, Vanderbeck, Ackerman, Fisher, Burkstaff, Swim, Ridner, VanWoert, Woolley, etc. By the settlement of so many men of this corps in New-Brunswick, the same thrifty "Knickerbocker" element that figured in the development of New-York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania was planted in this province.

Lewis Fisher joined the New Jersey Volunteers on December 7, 1776. He was taken prisoner a few weeks later, together with his brother Peter and fifteen others. After an absence of a year and nine months he effected his escape and returned to his duty on October 2, 1778. He was thenceforth stationed chiefly at Staten Island, where his three oldest children – Eliza, Henry and Peter – were born. When the war closed the New Jersey Volunteers were quartered at Newtown, three miles east of Brooklyn, on Long Island, N.Y.

In the earlier muster rolls we find Fisher's name entered as Lodewick Fischer, but later he adopted the English form Lewis Fisher. His wife, Mary, was probably of English parentage. She was the mother of a very large family and a woman of resolute spirit, which she transmitted to her descendants.

The New Jersey Volunteers never numbered more than 1,500, of all ranks. They, however, rendered essential service in New Jersey and in the defence of Staten Island. One of the battalions under Lieut. – Col. Isaac Allen, was conspicuous for its gallantry in the campaigns in Georgia and South Carolina. At the close of the war the original six battalions had been consolidated into three, under command of Lieut. – Col. Stephen deLancey, Lieut. – Col. Isaac Allen and Lieut. – Col. Abraham VanBuskirk.

The war may be said to have ended with the surrender of the army under Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, on October 19, 1781, and little attempt at recruiting was made subsequently; consequently the regiments continued to dwindle until, at the evacuation of New-York, two years later, they were not more than one-third of their original strength. The New Jersey Volunteers, a year after their arrival in New-Brunswick, were mustered by Thomas Knox, under the supervision of Col. Edward Winslow. The return is dated at Fort Howe, September 25, 1784, and the number of those then on their lands, and for whom the Royal bounty of provisions was furnished, was as follows: —

The commander of the 3rd Battalion, Lieut. – Col. VanBuskirk, did not come with his men to the River St. John but settled in Shelburne, where he was the first mayor of the town. The troops for St. John sailed in charge of Lieut. – Col. Richard Hewlett as senior officer, with Lieut. – Col. Gabriel DeVeber second in command. They left New-York on September 15, 1783, and arrived safely in St. John harbour on the 26th, with the exception of the transports "Martha" and "Esther." The former was wrecked near Yarmouth and more than half of her passengers were lost. The "Esther," in which VanBuskirk's battalion had embarked, got off her course in the fog and narrowly escaped destruction, arriving a day or two behind her sister ships.

As Peter Fisher was born on Staten Island, on June 9, 1782, he was a very young Loyalist indeed at the time of his arrival in Blue-nose Land, being, in point of fact, less than sixteen months old.

Sir Guy Carleton's orders were that the several corps should proceed at once to the places allotted for their settlement, directions having been given to Captain John Colville, assistant agent of all small craft at the St. John River, to afford every assistance in his power to the corps in getting to their destinations. Three days after their arrival the troops disembarked and encamped above the Falls, near the Indian House. Hewlett wrote Sir Guy Carleton that he feared the want of small craft would greatly delay their progress. He writes again on the 13th October, 1783, that the troops had been disbanded and were getting up the river as fast as the scarcity of small craft for conveying them would admit.

I shall pause here to relate an incident, which will indicate the source from which Peter Fisher derived the information he gives us concerning the arrival of the Loyalists at St. Ann's and their subsequent hardships.

About twenty-five years ago William, the youngest son of Peter Fisher, read to me in his apartments in the old Park Hotel, in St. John, a manuscript which contained the recollections of one of his sisters of her various conversations with her old grandmother, Mary Fisher, concerning the coming to New-Brunswick and the subsequent experience of her family at St. Ann's. Mr. Fisher did not entrust the manuscript to my hands but allowed me to make full notes, and afterwards at my request re-read the whole, in order that I might make sure of my facts. The story which now follows is, of course, not quoted from the lips of the first narrator, but is based upon the notes made by her granddaughter in which are embodied the recollections of the conversations she had with her grandmother.

We sailed from New-York in the ship "Esther" with the fleet for Nova-Scotia. Some of our ships were bound for Halifax, some for Shelburne and Rome for St. John's river. Our ship going the wrong track was nearly lost. When we got to St. John we found the place all in confusion; some were living in log houses, some building huts, and many of the soldiers living in their tents at the Lower Cove. Soon after we landed we joined a party bound up the river in a schooner to St. Ann's. It was eight days before we got to Oromocto. There the Captain put us ashore being unwilling on account of the lateness of the season, or for some other reason, to go further. He charged us each four dollars for the passage. We spent the night on shore and the next day the women and children proceeded in Indian canoes to St. Ann's with some of the party; the rest came on foot.

We reached our destination on the 8th day of October, tired out with our long journey, and pitched our tents at the place now called Salamanca, near the shore. The next day we explored for a place to encamp, for the winter was near and we had no time to lose.

The season was wet and cold, and we were much discouraged at the gloomy prospect before us. Those who had arrived a little earlier had made better preparations for the winter; some had built small log huts. This we could not do because of the lateness of our arrival. Snow fell on the 2nd day of November to the depth of six inches. We pitched our tents in the shelter of the woods and tried to cover them with spruce boughs. We used stones for fireplaces. Our tent had no floor but the ground. The winter was very cold, with deep snow, which we tried to keep from drifting in by putting a large rug at the door. The snow, which lay six feet around us, helped greatly in keeping out the cold. How we lived through that awful winter I hardly know. There were mothers, that had been reared in a pleasant country enjoying all the comforts of life, with helpless children in their arms. They clasped their infants to their bosoms and tried by the warmth of their own bodies to protect them from the bitter cold. Sometimes a part of the family had to remain up during the night to keep the fires burning, so as to keep the rest from freezing. Some destitute people made use of boards, which the older ones kept heating before the fire and applied by turns to the smaller children to keep them warm.

Many women and children, and some of the men, died from cold and exposure. Graves were dug with axes and shovels near the spot where our party had landed, and there in stormy winter weather our loved ones were buried. We had no minister, so we had to bury them without any religious service, besides our own prayers. The first burial ground continued to be used for some years until it was nearly filled. We called it "The Loyalist Provincials Burial Ground."

The site of this old grave-yard, is on the Ketchum place at Salamanca, just below Fredericton, near the shore. Some rude headstones may perhaps yet be found there. The late Adolphus G. Beckwith told me that he remembered when a boy to have seen a number of pine "head-boards," much decayed, but still standing in this old cemetery. The painted epitaphs, or inscriptions, were in some cases fairly well preserved. He remembered, he said, that many of the names seemed to be German (or Dutch), a statement which I hardly credited at the time, but which is entirely in harmony with the old grandmother's story. Continuing her narrative, she says:

Among those who came with us to St. Ann's, or who were there when we arrived were Messrs. Swim, Burkstaff, McComesky, three named Ridner, Wooley, Bass, Paine, Ryerse, Acker, Lownsberry, Ingraham, Buchanan, Ackerman, Donley, Vanderbeck, Smith, Essington and some few others.

Here again the grandmother's story is confirmed by the Muster Rolls of the New Jersey Volunteers, lately placed by our Historical Society in the Dominion Archives at Ottawa for safe-keeping. Nearly all the names she mentions are to be found there. In Captain Waldron Blaan's Company, we find John Swim, Vincent Swim, Moses McComesky, David Burkstaff, Frederick Burkstaff. In Col. VanBuskirk's Company we find Abraham Vanderbeck, Conrad Ridner, Abraham Ackerman, Morris Ackerman and Marmaduke Ackerman. In Captain Edward Earle's Company, Lodewick Fisher, Peter Ridnor and Peter Smith. In Captain Samuel Ryerson's Company, Samuel Buchanan. In Captain Jacob Buskirk's Company, James Ackerman.

Benjamin Ingraham, mentioned above, was a sergeant in the King's American Regiment; he served in the Carolinas, where he nearly died of yellow fever, and was severely wounded in the battle of Camden. He arrived at St. Ann's in a row-boat in October, 1783, and built a small log house in the woods into which he moved on the 6th of November, at which time there was six inches of snow on the ground.

The story now continues:

When the Loyalists arrived there were only three houses standing on the old St. Ann's plain. Two of them were old frame houses, the other a log house (which stood near the old Fisher place). There were said to have been two bodies of people murdered here. It could not have been long before the arrival of the Loyalists that this happened.

Many of the Loyalists who came in the spring had gone further up the river, but they were little better off for provisions than we were at St. Ann's. Supplies expected before the close of navigation did not come, and at one time starvation stared us in the face. It was a dreary contrast to our former conditions. Some of our men had to go down the river with hand-sleds or toboggans to get food for their famishing families. A full supply of provisions was looked for in the Spring, but the people were betrayed by those they depended upon to supply them. All the settlers were reduced to great straits and had to live after the Indian fashion. A party of Loyalists who came before us late in the spring, had gone up the river further, but they were no better off than those at St. Ann's. The men caught fish and hunted moose when they could. In the spring we made maple sugar. We ate fiddle heads, grapes and even the leaves of trees to allay the pangs of hunger. On one occasion some poisonous weeds were eaten along with the fiddle heads; one or two died, and Dr. Earle had all he could do to save my life.

As soon as the snow was off the ground we began to build log houses, but were obliged to desist for want of food. Your grandfather went up the river to Captain McKay's for provisions, and found no one at home but an old colored slave woman, who said her master and his man had gone out to see if they could obtain some potatoes or meal, having in the house only half a box of biscuits. Some of the people at St. Ann's, who had planted a few potatoes, were obliged to dig them up and eat them.

Again a few comments will show the reliability of the old lady's narrative. The three houses she mentions on the site of Fredericton were those of Benjamin Atherton, built about 1767 at the upper end of the town, near the site of the old Government House; Philip Weade's, which stood on the river bank in front of the Cathedral, and Olivier Thibodeau's, an Acadian, whose log house was at the lower end of town. The tradition regarding the massacre of some of the first settlers at St. Ann's refers doubtless to the destruction of the French settlement there by McCurdy's New England Rangers in February, 1759, as is described at page 242 in Dr. Raymond's "St. John River History." The party of Loyalists, who had gone further up the river in the late Spring of 1783, were the King's American Dragoons, who settled in Prince William. Resuming once more the narrative, the grandmother says:

In our distress we were gladdened by the discovery of some large patches of pure white beans, marked with a black cross. They had probably been originally planted by the French, but were, now growing wild. In our joy at the discovery we called them at first the "Royal Provincials' bread," but afterwards "The staff of life and hope of the starving." I planted some of these beans with my own hands, and the seed was preserved in our family for many years. There was great rejoicing when the first schooner arrived with corn-meal and rye. In those days the best passages up and down the river took from three to five days. Sometimes the schooners were a week or ten days on the way. It was not during the first year alone that we suffered from want of food, other years were nearly as bad.

The first summer after our arrival all hands united in building their log houses. Dr. Earle's was the first that was finished. Our people had but few tools and those of the rudest sort. They had neither bricks or lime, and chimneys and fireplaces were built of stone laid in yellow clay. They covered the roofs of the houses with bark bound over with small poles. The windows had only four small panes of glass.

The first store was kept by a man named Cairns, who lived in an old house on the bank of the river near the gate of the first Church built in Fredericton [in front of the present Cathedral]. He used to sell fish at one penny each and butternuts at two for a penny. He also sold tea at $2.00 per lb. which was to us a great boon. We greatly missed our tea. Sometimes we used an article called Labrador, and sometimes steeped spruce or hemlock bark for drinking, but I despised it.

There were no domestic animals in our settlement at first except one black and white cat, which was a great pet. Some wicked fellows, who came from the States, killed, roasted and ate the cat, to our great indignation. A man named Conley owned the first cow. Poor Conley afterwards hanged himself, the reason for which was never known.

For years there were no teams, and our people had to work hard to get their provisions. Potatoes were planted among the black stumps and turned out well. Pigeons used to come in great numbers and were shot or caught by the score in nets. We found in their crops some small round beans, which we planted; they grew very well and made excellent green beans, which we ate during the summer. In the winter time our people had sometimes to haul their provisions by hand fifty or a hundred miles over the ice or through the woods. In summer they came in slow sailing vessels. On one occasion Dr. Earle and others went up the river to Canada on snowshoes with hand sleds, returning with bags of flour and biscuits. It was a hard and dangerous journey, and they were gone a long time.

For several years we lived in dread of the Indians, who were sometimes very bold. I have heard that the Indians from Canada once tried to murder the people on the St. John River. Coming down the river they captured an Indian woman of the St. John tribe, and the chief said they would spare her if she would be their guide. They had eleven canoes in all, and they were tied together and the canoe of the guide attached to the hindermost. As they drew near the Grand Falls, most of the party were asleep; and the rest were deceived by the woman, who told them that the roaring they heard was caused by a fall at the mouth of the stream which here joined the main river. At the critical moment the Indian woman cut the cord which fastened her canoe to the others and escaped to the shore, while the Canada Indians went over the fall and were lost.1

In the early days of the settlement at St. Ann's, some fellows that had come from the States used to disturb the other settlers. They procured liquor at Vanhorne's tavern and drank heavily. They lived in a log cabin which soon became a resort for bad characters. They formed a plot to go up the river and plunder the settlers – provisions being their chief object. They agreed that if any of their party were killed in the expedition they should prevent discovery of their identity by putting him into a hole cut in the ice. While they were endeavoring to effect an entrance into a settler's house, a shot, fired out of a window, wounded a young man in the leg. The others then desisted from their attempt, but cut a hole in the ice and thrust the poor fellow in, who had been shot, although he begged to be allowed to die in the woods, and promised, if found alive not to betray them, but they would not trust him.

Here the story of the old grandmother comes abruptly to an end. Enough, however, is preserved in these extracts to indicate the source of a good deal of the very valuable information concerning the early experience of the Loyalists in the New Brunswick wilderness, which appears in Mr. Fisher's "Sketches of New-Brunswick." Doubtless what he has related on this topic in his little book is based upon what he learned from the lips of his mother. To her care and devotion, in all human probability, he owed his preservation during the first eventful winter spent under canvas on the old St. Ann's plain.

Peter Fisher acquired a pretty good education, for those days. A fac simile of his signature is here given, which shows that his penmanship was excellent, and compared more than favorably with that of his son and name-sake, Lewis Peter Fisher, who was for some thirty odd years mayor of Woodstock, and the leading barrister of that place, and whose signature is also here given for comparison.