Glimpses of the Past: History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784

The intercourse between the Maugerville people and the smaller colony at the mouth of river was so constant that it is difficult to speak of the one without the other. For a few years the people living on the river were in a large measure dependent for supplies upon the store kept by Simonds and White at Portland Point, and the names of the following Maugerville settlers are found in the ledger of Simonds and White in the year 1765 and shortly after, viz.: Jacob Barker, Jacob Barker jr., Thomas Barker, Jeremiah Burpee, David Burbank, Moses Coburn, Thomas Christie, Zebulun Estey, Richard Estey, jr., John Estey, Col. Beamsley Glacier, Joseph Garrison, Jonathan Hart, William Harris, Nehemiah Hayward, Samuel Hoyt, Ammi Howlet, Daniel Jewett, Richard Kimball, John Larlee, Peter Moores, Phinehas Nevers, Elisha Nevers, Samuel Nevers, Capt. Francis Peabody, Samuel Peabody, Israel Perley, Oliver Perley, Daniel Palmer, Humphrey Pickard, Hugh Quinton, Nicholas Rideout, Jonathan Smith, John Shaw, Gervis Say, Isaac Stickney, Samuel Tapley, Alexander Tapley, Giles Tidmarsh, John Wasson, Jonathan Whipple and Samuel Whitney.

In return for goods purchased the settlers tendered furs, lumber, occasionally an old piece of silver, sometimes their own labor and later they were able to supply produce from their farms. Money they scarcely ever saw. Very often they gave notes of hand which they found it hard to pay. The furs they supplied were principally beaver skins at five shillings (or one dollar) per pound. They also supplied martin, otter and musquash skin, the latter at 4½ pence each. The lumber supplied included white oak barrel staves at 20 shillings per thousand, red oak hogshead starves at 20 shillings per thousand, “Oyl nut” (Butternut) staves at 16 shillings per thousand, clapboards at 25 shillings and oar rafters at £2 per thousand feet. Considering the labor involved—for the manufacture was entirely by hand—prices seem small; but it must be borne in mind that 2s. 6d. was a day’s pay for a man’s labor at this time.

The Indians had for so long a time enjoyed a monopoly of the fur trade that they regarded the white hunter with a jealous eye. Indeed in the year 1765 they assembled their warriors and threatened to begin a new war with the English. The settlers an the river were much alarmed and the commandant of Fort Frederick, Capt. Pierce Butler, of the 29th Regiment, doubled his sentries. Through the persuasion of the commandant, assisted by Messrs. Simonds and White and other leading inhabitants, the chiefs were induced to go to Halifax and lay their complaints before the Governor. One of the most influential inhabitants on the river accompanied them, whose name is not stated but it was very probably James Simonds, at least he writes to his partners at Newburyport in November of this year, “The dispute with the Indians is all settled to the satisfaction of the government as well as the Indians.”

One of the results of the conference seems to have been the reservation to the Indians in the grant of the Township of Sunbury of “500 acres, including a church and burying ground at Aughpack, and four acres for a burying ground at St. Ann’s Point, and the island called Indian Island.” The well known Maliseet chief, Ambroise St. Aubin, was one of the leading negotiators at Halifax as appears by the following pass furnished to him by Governor Wilmot:

When the attention of James Simonds, was directed to the River St. John, by the proclamation oaf Governor Lawrence inviting the inhabitants of New England to settle on the vacant lands in Nova Scotia, he was a young man of twenty-four years of age. His father had died at Haverhill; August 15th, 1757. The next year he went with his uncle, Capt. Hazen, to the assault of Ticonderoga, in the capacity of a subaltern officer in the Provincial troops, and shortly after the close of the campaign proceeded to Nova Scotia in order to find a promising situation for engaging in trade. The fur trade was what he had chiefly in mind at this time, but the Indians were rather unfriendly, and he became interested along with Captain Peabody, Israel Perley and other officers of the disbanded Massachusetts troops in their proposed settlement on the River St John. His future partners of the trading company formed in 1764 were, with the exception of Mr. Blodget, even younger men than himself. William Hazen, of Newburyport, had just attained to manhood and belonged to a corps of Massachusetts Rangers, which served in Canada at the taking of Quebec. Samuel Blodget was a follower of the army on Lake Champlain as a sutler. James White was a young man of two-and-twenty years and had been for some time Mr. Blodget’s clerk or assistant. Leonard Jarvis—afterwards Wm. Hazen’s, business partner and so incidentally a member of the trading company at St. John—was not then eighteen years of age.

While engaged in his explorations, James Simonds obtained from the government of Nova Scotia the promise of a grant of 5,000 acres of unappropriated lands, in such part of the province as he should choose, and it was under this arrangement he entered upon the marsh east of the city of St. John (called by the Indians “Seebaskastagan”) in the year 1762 and cut there a quantity of salt marsh hay and began to made improvements.

Mr. Simonds says in one of his letters: “The accounts which I gave my friends in New England of the abundance of Fish in the River and the convenience of taking them, of the extensive Fur trade of the country, and the natural convenience of burning Lime, caused numbers of them to make proposals to be concerned with me in these branches of business, among whom Mr. Hazen was the first that joined me in a trial. Afterwards, in the year 1764, although I was unwilling that any should be sharers with me in the Fur trade, which I had acquired some knowledge of, yet by representations that superior advantage could be derived from a Cod-fishery on the Banks and other branches of commerce, which I was altogether unacquainted with, I joined in a contract for carrying it on for that year upon an extensive plan with Messrs. Blodget, Hazen, White, Peaslie and R. Simonds.”

The following is a copy of what is probably the first document extant in connection with the business of Hazen and Simonds:—

Passamaquada, 26th July, 1763.

Sir,—Please pay unto Mr. Ebenezer Eaton the sum of Five pounds one shilling & four pence Lawfull money, half cash & half Goods, and place the same to the acct. of,

Yr. Humble Servant,
 Jas. Simonds.

To Mr. William Hazen,
 Merchant in Newbury.

The success of their first modest little venture encouraged Hazen and Simonds to undertake a more ambitious project, namely the formation of a trading company to “enter upon and pursue with all speed and faithfulness the business of the cod fishery, seine fishery, fur trade, burning of lime and every other trading business that shall be thought advantageous to the company at Passamaquoddy, St. Johns, Canso and elsewhere in or near the province of Nova Scotia and parts adjacent.”

Evidently the project was regarded as in some measure an experiment, for the contract provided, “the partnership shall continue certain for the space of one year and for such longer time as all the partys shall hereafter agree.” Examination of the document shows that when first written the period the contract was to continue was left blank and the word “one” inserted before “year,” evidently after consultation on the part of those concerned.

Shortly before the formation of the trading company, James Simonds went to Halifax to procure a grant of land at St. John and a license to trade with the Indians, but did not at this time succeed in obtaining the grant. However the governor gave him the following license to occupy Portland Point:

“License is hereby granted to James Simonds to occupy a tract or point of land on the north side of St. John’s River, opposite Fort Frederick, for carrying on a fishery and for burning lime-stone, the said tract or point of land containing by estimation ten acres.

[Signed] “MONTAGU WILMOT.”

“Halifax, February 8, 1764.

Upon this land at Portland Point the buildings required for the business of the company were built. The partnership was in its way a “family compact.” Samuel Blodget, was distantly related to Wm. Hazen and the latter was a cousin of James and Richard Simonds; Robert Peaslie’s wife was Anna Hazen, sister of Wm. Hazen, and James White was a cousin of Wm. Hazen. It was agreed that Blodget, Hazen and James Simonds should each have one-fourth part in the business and profits, the remaining fourth part to be divided amongst the juniors, Messrs. White, Peaslie and Richard Simonds.

It is evident that the plans of our first business concern at St. John were not drawn up without due consideration.

There is no evidence to show that any of the partners except the brothers Simonds had been at St. John previous to the year 1764. The statement has been frequently made that James White visited the harbor in 1762 in company with James Simonds and Capt. Francis Peabody, but his own papers which are still in existence clearly prove that he was almost constantly engaged in the employ of Samuel Blodget at Crown Point during that year.

William Hazen and James Simonds were undoubtedly the prime movers in the formation of the trading company that began its operations at St. John in 1764. By their joint efforts they were able to organize a firm seemingly happily constituted and likely to work together harmoniously and successfully. As a matter of fact, however, the company had a very chequered career and at length the war of the Revolution seemed likely to involve them in financial ruin. This seeming calamity in the end proved to be the making of their fortunes by sending the Loyalists in thousands to our shores. But of all this more anon.

The financial backers of the company at the first were Hazen and Blodget, who carried on business at Newburyport and Boston respectively. These towns were then rising into importance and were rivals in trade although it was not long until Boston forged ahead. The goods required for trade with the Indians and white inhabitants of the River St. John and the military garrison at Fort Frederick were conveniently supplied from Newburyport and Boston, and these places were good distributing centres for the fish, furs, lumber, lime and other products obtained at St. John. The furs were usually sold in London; the other articles were either sold in the local market or sent to the West Indies.

The Company’s schooner, with William Story as master, sailed from Newburyport about the 10th of April, arriving at Passamaquody on the 14th, and at St. John on the 18th. The men set to work immediately on their arrival, and the quietude that had reigned beneath the shadow of Fort Howe hill was broken by the sound of the woodsman’s axe and the carpenter’s saw and hammer. Among the first buildings erected were a log store 20 feet by 30 feet, a dwelling house 19 feet by 35 feet, and a building adjoining it 16 by 40, rough boarded and used as a cooper’s shop, kitchen and shelter for the workmen.

Portland Point lies at the foot of Portland street at the head of St. John harbor—the locality is better known today as “Rankin’s Wharf.” Before the wharves in the vicinity were built the Point was quite a conspicuous feature in the contour of the harbor. The site of the old French fort on which James Simonds’ house was built, with the company’s store hard by, is now a green mound unoccupied by any building. The place was at first commonly called “Simonds’ Point” but about the year 1776 the name of “Portland Point” seems to have come into use. Nevertheless, down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783, the members of the company always applied the names of “St. Johns” or “St. John’s River” to the scene of their operations, and it may be said that in spite of the attempt of the French governor Villebon and his contemporaries to perpetuate the old Indian name of Menaquesk, or Menagoeche, and of Governor Parr in later years to affix the name of “Parr-town” to that part of our city to the east of the harbor, the name given by de Monts and Champlain on the memorable 24 June, 1604, has persisted to the present day. The city of ST. JOHN, therefore, has not only the honor of being the oldest incorporated city in the British colonies, but traces the origin of its name to a known and fixed date three hundred years ago. Indeed as regards its name St. John is older than Boston, New York, Philadelphia or any city of importance on the Atlantic coast as far south as Florida.

However the first English colonists who established themselves on a permanent footing at “St. John’s” thought little of this historic fact. It was not sentiment but commercial enterprise than guided them.

Jonathan Leavitt gives an interesting synopsis of the business carried on at St. John under the direction of Simonds and White: “The Company’s business included Fishery, Fur trade, making Lime, building Vessels and sawing Lumber, and they employed a great number of laborers and workmen in cutting wood, burning lime, digging stone, cutting hoop-poles, clearing roads, clearing land, curing fish, cutting hay and attending stock. The workmen and laborers were supported and paid by the partnership and lived in the outhouse and kitchen of the house occupied by Simonds and White. There was a store of dry goods and provisions and articles for the Indian trade.”

When he was at St. John, Leavitt lived in the family of Simonds and White who lived together during the greater part of the ten years he was in the Company’s employ, and when they separated their families he staid sometimes with one and sometimes with the other. Simonds and White were supplied with bread, meat and liquors for themselves and families from the store, and no account was kept whilst they lived together, but after they separated they were charged against each family; the (workmen also were maintained, supported and fed from the joint stock of the store, as it was considered they were employed for the joint benefit of the company, but liquors and articles supplied on account of their wages were charged against the individual accounts of the men. Part of the workmen and laborers were hired by William Hazen and sent from Newburyport, others were engaged by Simonds and White at the River St. John.

When Jonathan and Daniel Leavitt had for several years been engaged in sailing the company’s vessels, it is said that they became discouraged at the outlook and talked of settling themselves at some place where there was a larger population and more business. James White did his best to persuade them to remain, closing his argument with the exhortation, “Don’t be discouraged, boys! Keep up a good heart! Why ships will come here from England yet!” And they have come.

In addition to the Leavitts and the masters of some of the other vessels, who were intelligent men, nearly all at St. John were ordinary laborers: however, the company from time to time employed some capable young fellows to assist in the Store at the Point. One of these was Samuel Webster, whose mother was a half-sister of James Simonds. He remained nearly four years at St. John, during which time he lived in the family of Simonds and White. While he was at St. John goods were shipped to Newburyport and the West Indies by the Company in considerable quantities. There were he says at times a very considerable number of workmen and laborers employed, and at other times a smaller number, according to the time of year, and as the nature of the employment required. The laborers were fed, supported and paid out of the store, and lived in a house only a few rods from Mr. Simonds’ house. Emerson spent most of his time in the store, buying and selling and delivering small articles. He generally made the entries in the Day Book.

Another lad, Samuel Emerson, of Bakerstown, Massachusetts, came to St. John with James Simonds in April, 1767, as a clerk or assistant in the store, and remained nearly four years in the Company’s service.

At the expiration of the first year several changes occurred in the Company. Richard Simonds had died on the 20th January, 1765. Robert Peaslie seems not to have come to St. John, although it was stipulated in the contract that he should do so, and early in 1765 he withdrew from the Company. In the autumn of 1764, Leonard Jarvis, a young man of twenty-two years of age, became associated with William Hazen as co-partner in his business in Newburyport and became by common consent a sharer in the business at St. John. So far as we can judge from his letters, Mr. Jarvis was a man of excellent business ability. The accounts kept at Newburyport in connection with the Company’s business are in his handwriting and he attended to most of the correspondence with the St. John partners.

The writer of this history has among his historic documents and papers a number of account books in a very fair state of preservation, containing in part the transactions of the company during the years they were in business at St. John. One of these, a book of nearly 100 pages, ordinary foolscap size with stout paper cover, is of special interest for it contains the record of the initial transactions of the first business firm established at St. John a hundred and forty years ago. At the top of the first page are the words

Day Book No. 1.
1764. St. Johns River.

The book is intact and very creditably kept. The entries are in the hand writing of James White. The accounts during the continuance of the partnership were kept in New England currency or “Lawful money of Massachusetts.” The letters L. M. were frequently employed to distinguish this currency from sterling money and Nova Scotia currency. The value of the Massachusetts currency was in the proportion of £1 sterling to £1. 6s. 8d. L. M.; the Nova Scotia dollar, or five shillings, was equivalent to six shillings L. M. It is a fact worth recording, that the Massachusetts currency was used in all ordinary business transactions on the River St. John down to the time of the arrival of the Loyalists in 1783. This fact suffices to show how close were the ties that bound the pre-loyalist settlers of the province to New England, and it is scarcely a matter of surprise that during the Revolution the Massachusetts congress found many sympathizers on the River St. John.

While accounts were kept according to the currency of New England, the amount of cash handled by Simonds and White was insignificant. For years they supplied the settlers on the river with such things as they required often receiving their payment in furs and skins. In securing these the white inhabitants became such expert hunters and trappers as to arouse the jealousy of the Indians and to give rise to the pseudo-nym “the bow and arrow breed,” applied to them by some of the half-pay officers who settled among them at the close of the American Revolution. With the Indians the trade was almost entirely one of barter, the staple article being the fur of the spring beaver.

The fur trade assumed large proportions at this period. The account books of Simonds and White that are now in existence do not contain a complete record of all the shipments made from St. John, but they show that during ten years of uninterrupted trade from the time of their settlement at Portland Point to the outbreak of the Revolution, they exported at least 40,000 beaver skins, 11,022 musquash, 6,050 Marten, 870 otter, 258 fisher, 522 Mink, 120 fox, 140 sable, 74 racoon, 67 loup-cervier, 8 wolverene, 5 bear, 2 Nova Scotia wolf, 50 carriboo, 85 deer, and 1,113 moose, besides 2,265 lbs. of castor and 3,000 lbs of feathers, the value of which according to invoice was £11,295 or about $40,000. The prices quoted are but a fraction of those of modern days and by comparison appear ridiculously small. Other traders were engaged in traffic with the Indians also, and if Messrs. Simonds and White sent on an average 4,000 beaver skins to New England every year, it is manifest that the fur trade of the river was a matter of some consequence.

Today the old pioneers of 1764 would hardly recognize their ancient landmarks. The ruggedness of old Men-ah-quesk has in a great measure disappeared; valleys have been filled and hills cut down. The mill-pond where stood the old tide mill is gone and the Union depot with its long freight sheds and maze of railway tracks occupies its place. “Mill” street and “Pond” street alone remain to tell of what has been. The old grist mill near Lily Lake and its successors have long since passed away. It certainly was with an eye to business and not to pleasure, that Hazen, Simonds and White built the first roadway to Rockwood Park. Could our pioneers in trade revisit the scene of their labors and note the changes time has wrought what would be their amazement? They would hardly recognize their surroundings. Instead of rocks and crags covered with spruce and cedar, with here and there an open glade, and the wide spreading mud flats at low tide they would behold the wharves that line our shores, the ocean steamships lying in the channel, grain elevators that receive the harvests of Canadian wheat-fields two thousand miles away, streets traversed by electric cars and pavements traversed by thousands of hurrying feet, bicyclists darting hither and thither, squares tastefully laid out and adorned with flowers, public buildings and residences of goodly proportions and by no means devoid of beauty, palatial hotels opening their doors to guests from every clime, institutions for the fatherless and the widow, the aged, the poor, the unfortunate, the sick the insane, churches with heaven directing spires, schools whose teachers are numbered by the hundred and pupils by the thousand, public libraries, courts of justice and public offices of nearly every description, business establishments whose agents find their way into every nook and corner of old-time Acadie, railways and steamboats that connect the city with all parts of the globe, splendid bridges that span the rocky gorge at the mouth of the St. John where twice in the course of every twenty-four hours the battle, old as the centuries, rages between the outpouring torrent of the mighty river and the inflowing tide of the bay.

The shadows deepen as we return to the Point, and soon the little windows of the settlers’ houses begin to glow. There are no curtains to draw or blinds to pull down or shutters to close in these humble dwellings, but the light, though unobstructed shines but feebly, for ’tis only the glimmer of a tallow candle that we see or perhaps the flickering of the firelight from the open chimney that dances on the pane.

Then and now! We turn from our contemplation of Saturday night as we have imagined it in 1764 to look at a modern Saturday night in St. John. No greater contrast can well be imagined. Where once were dismal shades of woods and swamps, there is a moving gaily-chattering crowd that throngs the walks of Union, King and Charlotte streets. The feeble glimmer of the tallow candle in the windows of the few houses at Portland Point has given place to the blaze of hundreds of electric lights that shine far out to sea, twinkling like bright stars in the distance, and reflected from the heavens, serving to illuminate the country for miles around. Our little knot of villagers in the olden days used to gather in their one little store to discuss the day’s doing; small was the company, and narrow their field of observation; and their feeble gossip is today replaced by the rapid click of the telegraph instruments, the rolling of the steam-driven printing press and the cry of the newsboy at every corner; the events of all the continents are proclaimed in our streets almost as soon as they occur.

And yet from all the luxury and ease, as well as from the anxiety and cares of busy modern days, we like sometimes to escape and get a little nearer to the heart of nature and to adopt a life of rural simplicity not far removed from that which once prevailed at Portland Point, content with some little cottage, remote from the hurry and din of city life in which to spend the good old summer time.”

A short account may be given of each member of the partnership.

A second year of the partnership passed and Samuel Blodget became exceedingly serious about the ultimate outcome of the venture. He wrote a letter on the 18th March, 1766, to Simonds & White of which the extract that follows is a part:

“I have been Largely concerned in partnerships before Now but Never so Ignorant of any as of the present, which I am willing to Impute it to your hurry of Business, But Let me Tell you that partners are in a high degree guilty of Imprudence to Continue a Large Trade for Two years without Settling or knowing whether they have Lost a hundred pounds or not—although they may be ever so Imersed in Business, for the Sooner they Stop the better, provided they are Losing money—as it seames in Mr. Hazen’s oppinion we have Lost money—perhaps you may Know to the Contrary. But then how agreable would it be to me (who have a Large Sum in your hands) to know as much as you do. Pray Suffer me to ask you, can you wonder to find me anxious about my Interest when I am so Ignorant what it is in? I am sure you don’t Gent’n. I am not in doubt of your Integrity. I think I know you Both Two well. But common prudence calls Loudly upon us all to adjust our accounts as soon as may be. I have not the Least Line under yours and Mr. White’s hands that the Articles which we signed the first years, which was dated the First of March, 1764,—which was but for one yeare—should Continue to the present Time, nor do I doubt your onour, but Still mortallety Requiyers it to be done and I should take it Coind to Receive Such a Righting sent by both of you.”

Mr. Blodget’s uneasiness as to the outcome of the business was set at rest very shortly after he wrote the above, for on April 5th Hazen and Jarvis tell their partners at St. John:—

“We have purchased Mr. Blodget’s Interest, for which we are to pay him his outsetts. We are in hopes that we shall be able to carry on the Business better without than with him. * * We must beg you would be as frugal as possible in the laying out of any money that benefits will not be immediately reaped from, and that you will make as large remittances as you possibly can to enable us to discharge the Company’s debt to Blodget, for we shall endeavor all in our power to discharge our obligations to him as we do not chuse to lay at his Mercy.”

Thus it appears that if Samuel Blodget’s two years connection with the company was not greatly to his advantage, it did him no material injury. From this time he ceases to have any interest for us in the affairs at Portland Point.

Of James Simonds’ large family of fourteen children several were prominent in the community. Hon. Charles Simonds was for years the leading citizen of Portland. He was born the same year the Loyalists landed in St. John, and was a member for St. John county in the House of Assembly from 1821 until his death in 1859, filling during that time the positions of speaker and leader of the government. Hon. Richard Simonds, born in 1789, represented the county of Northumberland in the House of Assembly when but twenty-one years of age and sat from 1810 to 1828, when he was appointed treasurer of the province. He filled for a short time the position of speaker of the assembly, and from 1829 until his death in 1836 was a member of the Legislative Council. Sarah, one of the daughters of James Simonds, married (Sept. 10, 1801) Thomas Millidge, the ancestor of the Millidges of St. John; her youngest sister Eliza married (Aug. 9, 1801) Henry Gilbert, merchant of St. John, from whom the members of this well known family are descended.

The wife of Moses Hazen was Abigail White, aunt of James White who came to St. John. Their sons John, Moses and William have a special interest for us. John, the oldest distinguished himself as a captain of the Massachusetts troops in the French war. He married Anne Swett of Haverhill, and had a son John, who came with his uncle William to St. John in 1775 and settled at Burton on the River St. John, where he married Dr. William McKinstry’s daughter, Priscilla, and had a family of twelve children. J. Douglas Hazen, of St. John, M. P. P., for Sunbury County, is one of his descendants.

Moses Hazen, the second son has been mentioned as commander of one of the companies of the Fort Frederick garrison in 1759; he became a Brigadier General in the American army in the Revolutionary war.

William Hazen, the third son and co-partner of Simonds and White, was born in Haverhill, July 17, 1738. He married, July 14, 1764, Sarah Le Baron of Plymouth.

Their family was even larger than that of James Simonds and included sixteen children. Of these Elizabeth married the elder Ward Chipman, Judge of the Supreme Court, and at the time of his death in 1824 administrator of government; Sarah Lowell married Thomas Murray (grandfather of the late Miss Frances Murray of St. John, one of the cleverest women the province has ever produced) and after his early decease became the wife of Judge William Botsford—their children were Senator Botsford, George Botsford and Dr. Le Baron Botsford; Charlotte married General Sir John Fitzgerald; Frances Amelia married Col. Charles Drury of the imperial army, father of the late Ward Chipman Drury.

Among the more distinguished descendants of William Hazen by the male line were Hon. Robert L. Hazen—popularly known as “Curly Bob”—recorder of the city of St. John, a very eminent leader in our provincial politics and at the time of his death a Canadian senator; also Robert F. Hazen who was mayor of St. John and one of its most influential citizens.

The elder William Hazen died in 1814 at the age of 75 years. His eldest daughter, Mrs. Chipman, died at the Chipman House May 18, 1852, the sixty-ninth anniversary of the landing of the Loyalists and her son, Chief Justice Chipman, died November 26, 1851, the sixty seventh anniversary of the organisation of the first supreme court of the province. The widow of Chief Justice Chipman died the 4th of July, 1876, the centennial of the Declaration of Independence. And finally a William Hazen, of the fourth generation, died June 17, 1885, the same day on which his ancestor left Newburyport for St. John one hundred and ten years before.

In the autumn of the year 1764, Leonard Jarvis, then a young man of twenty-two years of age, entered into partnership with William Hazen at Newburyport and became, by common consent, a sharer in the business at St. John. He was a man of ability and education. The accounts kept at Newburyport in connection with the business are in his handwriting, and he conducted the correspondence of Hazen & Jarvis with Simonds & White in a manner that would do no discredit to a modern business house. In a letter of the 3rd April, 1765, Mr. Jarvis informs James Simonds that “Mr. Peaslie has determined to settle down in Haverhill and to leave this concern, and as by this means and the death of your Brother, in which we sincerely condole with you, one-eighth part of the concern becomes vacant, we propose to let Mr. White have one-eighth and to take three-eighths ourselves—this you will please consult Mr. White upon and advice us. * * * We must beg you will send all the accts. both you and Mr. White have against the Company, and put us in a way to settle with Mr. Peaslie.”

James White, the fifth signer of the articles of partnership, was born in Haverhill in 1738, and was a lineal descendant of the Worshipful William White, one of the well-known founders of the place. He served as Ensign or Lieutenant in a Massachusetts regiment, but after the fall of Quebec retired from active service and entered the employ of William Tailer and Samuel Blodget, merchants of Boston, at a very modest salary, as appears from the following:—

“Memorandum of an agreement made this day between William Tailer & Co., with James White, that we, the said Tailer & Co., do allow him the said James White twenty dollars pr. month as long as the said White is in their service at Crown Point as Clark.

“William Tailer & Co.

“Test: Geo. Willmot.
 “Crown Point, July 1st, 1762.”

James White’s papers, now in possession of a gentleman in St. John, show that he was engaged in the business of Tailer and Blodget at Crown Point continuously from September, 1761, to July, 1763; consequently the statement, commonly made, that he came to St. John with Francis Peabody, James Simonds, Hugh Quinton and their party in 1762 is a mistake.

Having now spoken of the individuals composing St. John’s first trading company, the nature of the business pursued claims a little attention. The task that lay before James Simonds and James White was no easy one. Difficulties, many of them entirely unforseen, had to be faced and the great diversity of their business rendered their situation arduous and sometimes discouraging. At one time the fishery claimed their attention, at another bartering with the Indians, at another the erection of houses for themselves and their tenants, at another the dyking of the marsh, at another the erection of a mill, at another the building of a schooner, at another laying out roads and clearing lands, at another the burning of a lime-kiln, at another furnishing supplies for the garrison at the fort, at another the building of a wharf or the erection of a store-house.

At various times the privations were exceedingly great and even after the little colony had been for some years established at Portland Point they suffered for lack of the necessaries of life. Mr. Simonds thus describes their experience in the early part of 1770:

“Most difficult to remedy and most distressing was the want of provisions and hay. Such a scene of misery of man and beast we never saw before. There was not anything of bread kind equal to a bushel of meal for every person when the schooner sailed for Newbury the 6th of February (three months ago) and less of meat and vegetables in proportion—the Indians and hogs had part of that little.”

He goes on to say that the flour that had just arrived in the schooner was wet and much damaged; no Indian corn was to be had; for three months they had been without molasses or coffee, nor had they any tea except of the spruce variety.

In one of his letters, written a few months after the commencement of operations at St. John, Simonds urges the careful attention of Blodget and Hazen to their part of the business, observing: “I hope if I sacrifice my interest, ease, pleasure of Good Company, and run the risque even of life itself for the benefit of the Company, those who live where the circumstances are every way the reverse will in return be so good as to take every pains to dispose of all effects remitted to them to the best advantage.”

The first year of the Company’s operations was in some respects phenomenal. On the 30th September, 1764, a very severe shock of an earthquake occurred at St. John about 12 o’clock, noon. The winter that followed was one of unusual severity with storms that wrought much damage to shipping. Leonard Jarvis wrote to James Simonds on April 3, 1765, “There has not been in the memory of man such a winter as the last and we hope there never will be again.” Mr. Simonds in his reply says “The winter has been much here as in New England.”

In the same letter just referred to Mr. Jarvis says: “We hope in future, by keeping the schooner constantly running between this place and yours, that we shall be able to surmount our greatest difficulties. At present we can only say that nothing shall be wanting on our parts (and we are well assured that you will continue to endeavour) to make this concern turn out in the end an advantageous one. It would give us great pleasure could we ease you of part of your burden and know what difficulties you have to go through * * We have sent you by this schooner some table linen and what other table furniture we thought you might have occasion for. If there is anything more wanting to make you not only comfortable but Genteel, beg you would advise us and we will furnish you with it by the return of the schooner Wilmot.”

In reply to this Mr. Simonds writes, “I am obliged to you for sending some furniture, for truly none was ever more barely furnished than we were before. Gentility is out of the question.”

It was from Passamaquoddy that the first business letter extant of the company’s correspondence was written by James Simonds to William Hazen on the 18th August, 1764. The business was then in an experimental stage, and Mr. Simonds in this letter writes, “If you & Mr. Blodget think it will be best to carry on business largely at St. John’s we must have another house with a cellar; the latter is now dug and stoned & will keep apples, potatoes & other things that will not bear the frost, for a large trade; this building will serve as a house and store, the old store for a Cooper’s shop. If the lime answers well we shall want 150 hogsheads with hoops and boards for heads; also boards for a house, some glass, etc., bricks for chimney and hinges for two doors. I think the business at St. John’s may be advantageous, if not too much entangled with the other. We can work at burning Lime, catching fish in a large weir we have built for bass up the river at the place where we trade with the Indians, trade with the Soldiers and Inhabitants, etc. Next winter we can employ the oxen at sleding wood and lime stone, Mr. Middleton at making casks; don’t think it best to keep any men at Passamaquada [for the winter].”

The non-arrival of provisions for the men and of hay for the oxen Mr. Simonds deplores as likely to overthrow all pans for the winter. They had intended to use the oxen to sled wood and lime-stone—a much easier way than carting in the summer. He says, “We have stone dug for 500 hogsheads of lime and near wood enough cut to burn it; that must now lay till carting, and we shift as well as we can to employ our men so as not to have them run us in debt. * * can think of nothing better than to make a resolute push up the river with our men, employ some of them at making lumber, others at clearing land and fitting it for grain in the spring.”

The Company had some formidable rivals at Passamaquoddy for the next spring we find James Simonds telling Hazen & Jarvis, “There is such a number of traders at Passamaquoddy that I don’t expect much trade there this spring: have prevailed with the Commandant at Fort Frederick to stop them going up this river: there has been no passing the falls till now (May 27th) by reason of the freshet. Shall go over this afternoon and proceed directly to Ocpaque, an Indian village eighty miles up the river.”

Notwithstanding the favor shown them by the commandant of the garrison, Simonds & White found rivals in the Indian trade even an the River St. John. Among the earliest were John Anderson and Captain Isaac Caton. The minutes of the council of Nova Scotia show that on August 9, 1763, license was granted Mr. Anderson to occupy 50 acres of any lands unappropriated on the St. John river, and under date June 7, 1765, we have the following:—

“License is hereby granted to John Anderson to traffick with the Tribes of Indians on St. John’s River and in the Bay of Fundy, he conducting himself without Fraud or Violence and submitting himself to the observance of such regulations as may at any time hereafter be established for the better ordering of such commerce. This license to continue during pleasure.”

Captain Isaac Caton was granted a licence “to traffick with the Indians on Saint John’s river and the Bay of Fundy,” on Nov’r. 9, 1765. He probably made his headquarters at the old French trading post on the historic Island of Emenemic, in Long Reach, of which he was a grantee about thus time, and which has since been called Caton’s Island.

Simonds and White did not find the Indian trade entirely to their liking and after a few years experience wrote (under date June 20, 1767), “The Indian debts we cannot lessen being obliged to give them new credit as a condition of their paying their old debts. They are very numerous at this time but have made bad hunts; we have got a share of their peltry, as much as all the others put together, and hope soon to collect some more. There is scarcely a shilling of money in the country. Respecting goods we think it will be for our advantage not to bring any Toys and Trinkets (unnecessary articles) in sight of the Indians, and by that means recover them from their bankruptcy. They must have provisions and coarse goods for the winter, and if we have a supply of those articles, by keeping a store here and up the River make no doubt of having most of the Trade. Shall have a store ready by September next, and hope to have it finished by the last of that month.”