The record, 26 juin 1986, Supplément 1

Bury Pionee tkc| IrBCIHitl Thursday, June 26 2 — Bury s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 Emigration terrible, but it was a time of upheaval no.Emigration a Remedy’ (1848) Land companies offered easy terms to early settlers.turc.», By Bernard Epps BURY — Emigration was a terrible thing.People who had spent all their lives where their fathers, grandfathers and greatgrandfathers had lived, who had never travelled more than 20 miles away from their birthplace, who knew almost nothing of the outside world and treated it with suspicion, people who lived in Norfolk in the early years of the nineteenth century, must have thought emigration a terrible thing.But it was a time of upheavals.Factories and mills, railways and steam carriages, were changing the face of William TV’s England as never before.Twenty years of war with France had driven up the price of grain and the Corn Laws kept it high.Open fields and commons continued to be enclosed while smallholders and tenant farmers were driven from the only lands they knew to make way for larger, more efficient farms.The largest landowner in Norfolk was Thomas William Coke of Holkam.When he came into his estates, the entire district was unenclosed but he began ‘improving’ his lands to grow wheat in a big way.By 1836 there were no more ‘commons’ and Coke had raised his rents tenfold.Macadam had improved the roads and new modes of transportation allowed villagers to buy factory goods much cheaper in the towns, so the local weaver, tailor, cobbler, harness-maker, miller and carpenter were forced out of business.England’s age-old self- A HAPPY BIRTHDAY & BEST WISHES ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY TO ONE AND ALL ROSAIRE ROY GROCER-BUTCHER BURY, Que.TEL: 872-3729 sufficient villages began to give way to huge manufacturing centres.In the first 30 years of the new century, the population of Great Britain jumped from 11 million to 16-and-a-half million, and more and more were faced with desperate decisions.Some moved from lovely villages to industrial slums to work for wages in ‘dark satanic mills’.Others chose to emigrate.Enter the British American Land Company.British financiers had bought vast tracts of land in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada and were looking for settlers.They offered easy terms of payment —one fifth down, the rest in three yearly installments — easy credit and the prospect of wages on company roads, bridges, mills and asheries.They would even clear the land of trees and build houses and barns for any settler who could afford to have the work done for him.And at the end of a few years of hard work, a man could own his own farm — something he could never do in Norfolk — and no landlord could ever trouble him again.-UNRIVALLED BEAUTY’ The company’s prospectus was signed by George Richard Robinson, chairman of the board, and Nathaniel Gould, deputy governor.In the faraway township of Bury, they were building a village named Robinson and another in the next township named Gould (Moffatt and McGill Lakes were named for the Canadian com missioners of the company) which the prospectus called “a country of unrivalled beauty, and unequalled in this Province for fertility of soil, and salubrity and purity of air and water.” For a variety of reasons, a variety of people tore out their roots and boarded a ship in Yarmouth harbour in June, 1836, to begin anew in the township of Bury.Charles Francis was 44 when he signed up with his wife, three children and four step-children.Sampson Coates signed with his wife and infant son.James Tite of Barnham brought his son, Dennis, age 13.John Downes was just 20, John Bennett 18, Ebenezer Sharman only 12.There was Robert Batley, Frank Martin, Henry Joice and a host of others.They sold or gave away all they had, said good-bye forever to everything they knew and set sail for Canada.DIRTY QUARTERS The ship would have had other ports of call before venturing out into the Atlantic and the passen- gers had plenty of time to get to know each other.They would have shared what little information they had of Canada, talked of Red Indians and bears, of woods full of game, streams full of trout and salmon, all free for the taking.June turned to July, July became August and still the Norfolk emigrants were crowded aboard that ship in dark and dirty quarters.Many would have been ill, tempers would have flared, children would have cried and adults would have worried every hour over shipwreck, ship fever and Asiatic Cholera.That disease had decimated emigrants two summers before and, in 1832, killed 20,000 in Canada alone.But they sailed safely up the St.Lawrence in the beginning of September, stopped at the Grosse Isle quarantine station while medical officers came aboard, and then passed up the river to Port St.Francis where the company had built a 500-foot wharf, storehouses, stables, carriage sheds, offices, a tavern and six lodging houses for the reception of the immigrants.LOADED BAGGAGE Here they would have been welcomed by a company agent, been disappointed by their first sight of Red Indians, and impressed by the vastness of the conifer forest pressing in on all sides.A four-horse stage made the 72-mile trip to Sherbrooke for $4 each passenger.A caleche or spring buggy and horse could be hired to make the trip in two days for $8.A cart to carry 900 pounds of baggage could be had for $6 and most of the immigrants loaded their baggage, spouses and children aboard carts, and walked south along the river road.The company had straightened and shortened this road and it would have been good to stretch the legs after 10 weeks at sea.They would have been three or four days on the journey, passing through the meagre villages of Drummondville and Richmond, stopping occasionally at roadside inns—ninepence a bed, a shilling a meal — until they crested the last hill and came in sight of Sherbrooke.SHERBROOKE VILLAGE The judicial seat of the Inferior District of St.Francis and headquarters of the British American Land Company would have been another disappointment to the Norfolk immigrants.The towns and villages they had known all their lives each had hundreds of years of history behind them.The countryside they had grown up with had been shaped and tamed by their ancestors for almost as long, yet Sherbrooke had been wilderness 40 years before.It contained 75 rough houses and a population of 350.Most were Americans but a few were Irish and the important people, of course, were English.On the highest hill, a flagstaff flew the Union Jack, the courthouse beside it.A small Roman Catholic church for the Irish stood nearby.On the other side of the roaring Magog — the mist could clearly be seen above a high woo- den bridge — stood the Episcopal Church, an academy and a three-storey brick jail with a picket fence in front.The company had built a woollen mill, a sawmill and grist mill, storehouses and its headquarters on Market Street.PAPER WORK The procession would have descended Bridge Street, passed through the company’s long covered bridge across the St.Francis, and climbed through the village to the arched verandah of the company offices.There they may have met Arthur C.Webster and his 19-year-old clerk, Alexander Tilloch Galt.There would have been paper work to complete on the last details of their lots in Bury and they would have spent a night or two in Sherbrooke.The Hotel Magog had opened that summer near the high bridge over the falls and Francis Loomis had a restaurant and bakery nearby.C.L.Ball kept a large boarding house, so did Arms, and there were two taverns — Asabel Adams’ British North American, and King’s.There was a watchmaker, a tailor, two blacksmiths, four shoemakers who undoubtedly also produced harnesses, and a tannery to supply them with leather.There was a weekly newspaper, The Farmers’ Advocate and Townships Gazette, four pages, five columns, appearing each Monday.The editor, Joseph Soper Walton, was an American and the subscription was $2 per year — payable in cash or in grain, produce or ‘clean cotton or linen rags’.The rags were needed to make the paper.Judge John Fletcher, another English immigrant, ran the courthouse with a heavy — and often arbitrary — hand.William Bowman Felton was the local squire with a manor house on his huge estate at Belvidere.His brother was the court clerk, his brother-in-law the sheriff.A number of lawyers in town made litigation both endless and lively.ROBINSON VILLAGE Men and carts would have left Sherbrooke for the company’s vast St.Francis Territory almost every day and the Norfolk immigrants would have gone with them.The CONGRATULATIONS BURT ON TOUR 1501b THE BURY FISH HATCHERY Continued on next page The world of 1836 BURY — In 1836, the national debt of the 24 United States was $336,957.the Alamo was beseiged from Feb.23 to March 6.Rev.Lucius Doolittle began a grammar school in Lennoxville that became Bishop’s College School.John L.Macadam, inventor of‘macadamized’highways, died at the age of 80.Cancan dancers scandalized — and titillated — Paris.Charles Dickens, 24, published Sketches by Boz.Santa Anna’s Mexican army was defeated at San Jacinto on April 21 to shouts of ‘Remember the Alamo!’ .Seminole Indians began battling against forced removal from Florida.27-year-old Abraham Lincoln was re-elected to the Illinois legislature.Canada’s first passenger train ran on the Champlain & St.Lawrence on July 21.Catherine Parr Traill published a collection of letters entitled The Backwoods of Canada.Martin Van Buren of New York was elected president of the United States.Captain Frederick Marryat published Mr.Midshipman Easy.California declared itself independent of Mexico.— Bernard Epps Bury's Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday.June 26, 1986 — 3 Robinson no more than a cluttered handful of houses Continued from last page company had built a new covered bridge across the Eaton River at Cookshire (it is still there) and beyond that, the ‘wastelands of the Crown’ were only occasionally broken by clearances.The village of Robinson was no more than a handful of houses clustered around the company gristmill and ashery on Salmon Creek, a tavern, and a scattering of rude cabins in the woods.The company had been cutting roads, making clearings and throwing up cabins at the rate of one day that summer for the population was to jump by almost 2000.Their agent in Robinson was 21-year-old Lemuel Pope Jr., one of a very few native Townshippers — his father had been born in Hereford.His experience and advice would have been invaluable to the Norfolk settlers.SPLIT CEDAR The company’s road continued another 10 miles past Robinson to the ‘Great Falls’ on the Salmon River where they had erected the village of Victoria.They’d built a sawmill there, a church, a school, a store, warehouses, offices and a hundred houses.This was to be the headquarters for the entire St.Francis Territory extending another 50 miles into the wilderness.Immigrantfamilies were settled in this village, along both sides of the Victoria Road at Canterbury, in Robinson and in Brookbury.The cabins in the clearings would have been 16 by 24 feet with one window and one door, roofed with split cedar, floored with logs hewn flat on top.Those that had chimneys would have made them with sticks plastered inside with clay and lime but most had a simple stone hearth at one end with a hole in the roof to let the smoke out.Near the hearth, the immigrants would dig a pit for storing potatoes and turnips throughout the winter.FLIES GONE September was considered the best time of year to begin homesteading in Canada because the flies were gone from the woods and the warm dry days of autumn gave time to chink the cabin, cut the winter’s fuel and store supplies.Salmon may still have been spawning in the creek and many Norfolk youngsters knew a thing or two about poaching salmon.Most knew how to make a rabbit snare and those with guns would have been «r i/,.to m -mm A Factory work was a common job for children.interested in partridges, pigeons, deer and moose.The company provided oatmeal and potatoes sufficient for the winter, ample credit at the company store, tools with instructions for use and sometimes employment on the roads, in the mill or the ashery.Each family was provided with a large iron pot that wmuld be the most versatile utensil of all.It could hold the family wash, cook meals, render lard, boil sap in the spring and leach ashes into lye.Some of that lye, mixed with lard, would be boiled into soap in the same pot.Once the walls of the cabin were chinked, the inside hewn flat with a broadaxe, the few bits of furniture brought in a picture or a sampler hung up to brighten the place, most cabins would be just as comfortable — just as dark and just as draughty — as those left behind in Norfolk.In later years, however, the pioneers would tell their children how very hard they had it — just as those children would tell their children how very hard they had had it right down to our own time.HAPPY BIRTHDAY BURY HAPPY CANADA DAY CANADA DAY ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION Wishes To Invite All Veterans To Participate in CANADA DAY PARADE JUNE 30th Meet at Bury at 11 a.m.for exact details.Medals should be worn.Memphremagog Elizabeth District No.7 Children who worked in factories picked through garbage to supplement their meagre diet.BEST WISHES ON CANADA DAY FROM A TRUE FRENCH CANADIAN AND MAY GOD BLESS US ALL STATION SERVICE Y.P.G.INC.Y von Roy, Prop.GENERAL MECHANICS Free estimates on all repairs or Electrkal Work.Route 108.BIRCHTON, TEL 875-3754 4 — Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 fcThey ought to be called the Southern Townships’ By Bernard Epps BURY — In England, The British American Land Company published a pamphlet to attract settlers to the Townships.It said: “The EASTERN TOWNSHIPS (or as they ought to be called, from their geographical position, rapid vegetation, mild and healthy climate, the SOUTHERN TOWNSHIPS,) of Lower Canada are situated inland, between Quebec and Montreal, on the South side of the River St.Lawrence, and comprise one of the most flourishing portions of British North America.“The country undulating and picturesque is traversed throughout with streams of the purest water abounding in fish ; the roads are excellent, and the soil equal in fertility to that of any part of the American Continent, producing, under proper cultivation, every description of grain and root grown in Great Britain ; and for grazing purposes pre-eminent over other parts of Canada — cattle, horses and sheep being reared with profit for the supply of the two cities of Quebec and Montreal.” DRY, SERENE The pamphlet continued, “The climate of the EASTERN TOWNSHIPS is dry, serene, and remarkably healthy ; the winter is less broken than in the Upper Province, giving thereby facilities for travelling, and carrying produce to the mill or market during that season.The Township Farmer also enjoys the superiority of a country abundantly productive in hay and potatoes, which enables him to lay in a sufficient and ample winter provision for his stock.The ground is again fit to receive the seed between the 10th of April and the 1st of May, when vegetation springs up with the quickness of magic; early potatoes arrive at maturity in little more than two months, barley nine weeks from sack to sack, the whole face of the country being in a very short time HAPPY CANADA DAY & 150th ANNIVERSARY DONAT CHAPDELAINE INC.GRAIN DEALER BUILDING SUPPLIES SHUR-GAIN BALANCED RATIONS TEL.: 875-3321 COOKSHIRE covered with the most luxurient verdure.“The ST.FRANCIS TERRITORY, a largely uncleared block belonging to the Company in the county of Sherbrooke, comprises about 600,000 acres.On this property, the settlement of VICTORIA, founded by the Company in 1836, now contains a thriving population, principally British agriculturalists; three villages with mills, stores, taverns, &c.The distance from Sherbrooke is about thirty miles, by a good road made by the Company, which they are now continuing in the direction of Quebec.” CROP FAILED The truth of the matter, however, was that the peopling of the company’s Garden of Eden was in desperate trouble.The settlement of the three St.Francis villages — Robinson, Gould and Victoria — had begun favorably with almost 2,000 people in 1836 but then ran into difficulties.The wheat crop failed that year; the winter was unusually severe.Eighteen-thirty-seven saw a financial panic in Britain and the U.S.that virtually ended investment in land companies and the outbreak of rebellion in Lower Canada frightened many immigrants away.Worse, some who had already been brought to the Townships at company expense, were now moving out — leaving their debts behind them.Others, suddenly lacking wages from work on company roads, mills, bridges and asheries could not pay the installments on their land.By 1838, the company bookkeepers reported it had spent 176,000 pounds in the Townships, owed another 90,000 — and had earned 1500 pounds.ALEXANDER GALT A company clerk in the Sherbrooke office, Alexander Tilloch Galt, 23, was commissioned in 1840 to make a tour of the company lands to collect long overdue debts for lands sold and supplies advanced.He found some of the roads growing up with brush four feel high.The village of Victoria — far from containing a ‘thriving population, principally British agriculturalists’ — was deserted by all but one family.The sawmill on the ‘Great Falls’ was silent.The company stores had been pilfered and its books neglected.At Gould, where the company had built a grist mill and an ashe-ry, its storehouses were falling into ruin and only three or four Irish Continued on next page 14 XA8TBP.lT townships gazkttbir.THE BRITISH AMERICAN LANS COMPANY.Incorporated and Established tiy Royal Charter and Act of .Parliament, 1834 ALEXANDER GILLESPIE ROBERT JOHN BAGSHAW, Esq.SIR JOHN P.BOILEAU, Bart.JOHN HACKBLOCK, Esq.WILLIAM HARTRIDGE, Esq.Ijiwrtow.MAJOR-GENERAL ALEXANDER, Govrrnob.Esq., Dxpott Governor.MAJOR WILLIAM INGLIS.FREDERICK HALSEY JANSON, Esq.ROBERT McCALMONT, Esq.HENRY PAULL, Esq., M.P.Udiditon GEORGE A.F.CAVENDISH BENTINCK, Esq., M.P.JAMES DOWIE, Esq.JOSEPH SEBAO, Esq.JïoHdtor.CHARLES BISCHOFF, Esq.ftommiMiontr in Canada.R.W.HENEKER, Esq.jhatintÿ.Mr.a.H.BROWN.ganlwrj.MESSRS.GLYN, MILLS, CURRIE & CO.Canadian Offices—Sherbrooke, Canada East.London Offlces- -35i New Broad Street, E.C- THE COMPANY OFFER FOR SALE NEARLY 500,000 MM ACRES OF LAND, SITUATED IN THE ranm m cumi, In quantities to suit all Classes of Settlers, from 50 Acres upwards.Th® Lands are easy of ACCESS TO THE RAILROAD, are traversed by GOOD ROADS, and have all the advantage of OLD SETTLEMENTS.* ¦ r TkC price o5 G?°£ LAND, is.THREE DOLLARS per Acre, payable one-flfth m Cash, and the remainder m Five yearly instalments.^ For farther pwticaUn apply to k R.W.HENEKER, Esq.COitMISSIONER, SHERBROOKE, CANADA EAST.COME & CELEBRATE CANADA DAY WITH US AND OUR 150th ANNIVERSARY CAISSE POPULAIRE BURY,QUE.TEL: 872-3288 HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA & BEST WISHES BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY RUSSELL PERKINS DIGGING SNOW REMOVAL LEVELLING MAPLE PRODUCTS GRAVEL CRUSHED STONE TOP SOIL Oxygène Ampw limit Rep.BURY, QUE.TEL: 872-3330 Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 — 5 The blacksmith’s forge was cold, the grist mill a ruin Continued from last page families remained.At Robinson, the tavern keeper had departed in despair, the blacksmith’s forge was cold, the grist mill — on which the company had spent a thousand pounds — was falling into ruin.Only four families remained in the village and Lemuel Pope, once invaluable for his experience and advice, had quit the company a year before.In 1841, 28,000 immigrants landed at Quebec.Only 400 of them could be persuaded to try the Eastern Townships.FOR BURNING Most of the pioneers at Canterbury, Brookbury and Crossbury, however, were far too busy to worry about financial panic in London or patriote rebellions along the Richelieu.They would have begun chopping as soon as their cabins were comfortable that first winter and kept at it until sugaring time in the spring.They would have been advised first to measure off as many acres as they could cultivate that year — clear too much and it would swiftly grow back into brush and fireweed and have to be cleared all over again — and to mark the boundary with blazed trees.They’d then begin on the underbrush, cutting everything six inches or less and laying it in windrows for burning.After the underbrushing, they’d begin on the trees, laying the worthless softwoods on the windrows, cutting the hardwood into 14 or 16 foot lengths.A logging bee would bring the neighbors and a team or two of oxen to drag these great logs into heaps and then they would be set on fire.Thirty or 40 fires all going at once, night and day.made an impressive sight.BLACK SEDIMENT The hardwood ashes — elm was the most productive — were raked into heaps while hot, let cool, then layered in a flour barrel with racks of brush.Water w'ould be poured on top to purcolate through, dissolving the ‘salts’ and dripping out through a hole in the bottom to be collected and boiled in the orr.ni- By 1840 only four families remained in the village of Robinson (above), near where Bury stands today.The British American Land Company had its regional headquarters at Sherbrooke (below).t.TiS r j—luk.1ZM* ¦ ***’• awhv present black iron kettle until only a black sediment remained.This ‘ potash’ could be sold to the compa- Continued on next page CONGRATULATIONS BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY & BEST WISHES ON CANADA DAY BURY CASSE-CROÛTE SNACK BAR_____________ HAPPY CANADA DAY & BEST WISHES ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY Marché Croteau Market Beer & Wine Grocer — Butcher B.B.Chicken Main St.BURY, QUE.Tel: 872-3655 Open 7 days a week.COME TO BURY & CELEBRATE OUR 150th ANNIVERSARY J0VI PRANGLEY & CO.LICENSED GENERAL STORE Prop: Galen Morrison Tel: 872-3303 BEST WISHES BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY & A HAPPY CANADA DAY AUCTIONfctR ENCANTtUR HARRY GRAHAM JR.Bilingual Auctioneer Complete Auctioneer Services: Farm - Household - Antiques Buiy Soles Born, Auction Every Monday At 2:00 p.m.Bury Auction Tel: 872-3316 Residence: Tel: 889-2726 CONGRATULATIONS BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY ROYAL CANADIAN LEGION BURY-BRANCH 48 Invites All Legionnaires, Veterans & Friends To Join Them In The CANADA DAY PARADE JUNE 30 FLOAT WILL BE PROVIDED FOR VETERANS UNABLE TO MARCH.BAR IN BASEMENT SAT.SUN.& MONDAY BINGO: JUNE 30th 2:00 p.m.to 5:00 p.m. 6 — Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 Snake fences kept wild animals out of the garden Continued from last page ny asheries at Robinson and Gould — or Lebourveau’s private ashery at Cookshire — for $5 a hundredweight.The asheries purified it into ‘pearlash’ and shipped it to Port St.Francis where it was sold for $12 to $14 a hundredweight.It was used in the manufacture of glass, soap and a host of other things.DIPPING CANDLES While the men and boys were chopping, the women and girls would have had plenty to do in and around the cabin.There was always cooking, washing, carding, spinning and weaving, making soap or dipping tallow candles — and looking forward to spring.In spring, they would start their kitchen garden in the rich, black leafmold among the stumps, the acidity neutralized somewhat by the softwood ashes which were no good for anything else.They would have planted potatoes and turnips, cabbages and peas, Indian corn, beans and pumpkins.And, coming from England, most would have found time for a few flowers to soften their rude cabins and civilize the wilderness.The best logs would have been saved from the ‘logging-up’ to be split into fence rails — cedar was best.These would be built into snake fences to keep wild and domestic animals out of the vegetables.A cow and a few chickens around the place would have been a very tangible sign of approaching prosperity.GALT’S REPORT Alexander Galt, meanwhile, had reported to London on the lamentable condition of the company and made specific recommendations for saving it.He suggested giving up on the unsold portions of the St.Francis Territory and returning it to the Crown.Port St.Francis and the village of Victoria should be abandoned and the company should concentrate instead on developing the industrial power of its Sherbrooke property and selling the scattered Crown Reserves already surveyed and sometimes among improved lands.lie suggested drastically liberalizing payment terms.The current system of one-fifth down and the rest in three yearly installments deprived the settler of capital just when he needed it to develop his holdings.He recommended no down payment and only interest payable for the first 10 years.Then the company should accept payment in cattle or grain, even offe- ring higher prices than could be ab-tained elsewhere for the sake of future prosperity and further payments.DUMPING GROUND And, he pointed out, the company had been attracting the wrong sort of settlers.Their lands should not be a dumping ground for Bri-tish paupers because those brought up under the Poor Laws were out of the habit of looking af ter themselves.Withou* wages, they were helpless.Far better the French Canadian or the stubborn and independent American settler.The company was so impressed by this young man that they sent him back to Sherbrooke and appointed him commissioner with broad powers to implement his recommendations.He threw himself into the task with such energy and such success that the company paid its first dividend in 1851.Instead of painting a picture of paradise, Galt’s information to prospective settlers was brutally frank; “A settlement in the backwoods of Canada, however romantic and pleasing may be the accounts generally published of it, has nothing but stern reality and hardship connected with it.Alone in the woods in his log cabin with his family, tired with his day’s work, and knowing that the morrow brings but the same toil, the emigrant will find but few of his fancies realized.Instead of the certain and luxuriant crop he has looked to as assu- red, he may find that either his own unskillfulness, the quality of the seed, or the premature severity of the season, has reduced his harvest within a narrow compass.His cattle may die or he and his family may be afflicted with sickness.” FOR HIMSELF’ Explained Galt, ‘An observation of seven years and an intimate acquaintance with most of the new settlements of the Eastern Townships, has satisfied the writer that for the first years the emigrant to succeed must work as hard and suffer perhaps greater privations than if he remained in Great Britain, but he has throughout the consciousness that he is working for himself and that while meantime he does not want for food, he will soon be possessed of the same comforts and enjoy the same independence as his older neighbors around him.” BURY PROSPERS Bury began to prosper.New settlers came and planted roots.Lemuel Pope became the first mayor of the Township, the first postmaster and justice of the peace.By 1858, the village of Robinson could boast 100 souls and the Canadian Directory described it as: “A small Village in the Township of Bury, County of Compton, and District of St.Francis.A mail stage from Cookshire, distant 8 miles, arrived daily, fare 40c, and twice a week proceeds to Gould, 12 Continued on next page Ai John Henry Pope of Cookshire: Early agriculture minister was the guiding light behind the St.Francis and Megantic International Railway.Cover photo: Alexander Galt * „ aShu'.V.’' • **** Yarmouth, Norfolk: Waiting on the beach for a ship to Canada.HAPPY CANADA DAY LES ENTREPRISES ORVIL ANDERSON INC FUEL WOOD TEL: 872-3252 BURY, QUE.HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BURY HAPPY CANADA DAY W CONCORD WOODWORKING CO.LTD.BURY, QUE.JOB 1J0 Tel: 072-3308 James A.McVetty Gen, Manager________________ PARTICIPATE IN THE BURY DAY CELEBRATIONS & BURY'S 150th ANNIVERSARY ST.PAUL'S REST HOME We Are Serving For Breakfast: PANCAKES & SAUSAGES SERVED 8:30 a.m.to 12 Noon FLEA MARKET BURY, QUE.Tel: 872-3356 Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 — 7 Pope was asked to return home and organize militia Europe’s lower classes lived in neighborhoods of squalid tenements.mm-i g mu • •• V.* I'.- !',l mm L* 'hi V iii 'i!.¦'III.l' ¦'.'iii1 iiiU iifi : 1 ' ««'•«I ü’trs.' .-A - , ''ll1.¦ '"I nt ¦ ¦ r V-.-r S-i' Continued from last page miles distant, fare 40c.” The stage was driven by Nathaniel Ebbs who was also a carpenter and town secretary.Rev.John Kemp presided over the Church of England, William Best kept school, Theodore Gilbert ran the re-opened tavern and John Cummins was the company agent.Lewis Mclver and Cornelius H.Tambs each kept stores and there were two cobblers, a blacksmith, two joiners and a cabinetmaker.Bury was on its way.The Eastern Townships Gazetteer of 1867 called Robinson “A thriving village in the township of Bury, Compton county, containing a population of 180.” That meant it had almost doubled in nine years.“A small creek, called Salmon Bank, runs through the village.In the place are church of England, and Methodist church, Town Hall, model school, grist and saw-mills, &c.” VOLUNTEER COMPANIES Lemuel Pope was still mayor and his son, Fred, was the 20-year-old captain of a local militia unit.He’d attended Bishop’s College and then gone to Military School in Montreal.There he was asked to return home and organize militia companies in Compton County.He did just that — the first volunteer companies in the region and the beginning of the 58th Battalion of which he became Lieutenant Colonel.Robert Wright kept the Bury Hotel & Stage House at Confederation, Daniel Berwick, Charles Patton and J.R.Smith ran stores while the Church of England minister was Rev.Thos.Richardson.There were shoemakers, harnessma-kers, and blacksmiths, carpenters, CONGRATULATIONS BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY LET'S ALL CELEBRATi CANADA'S BIRTHDAY Army, Navy A Afar Fore* Unit 311 The Hut joiners and carriagemakers — even a bailiff.Dr.G.J.Bompas, M.D.came to Bury from England in 1860 but not to practise medicine.Instead, he taught botany and art at Stanstead Academy and Bishop’s College and did a great many paintings of the Eastern Townships.One of his views of Robinson was reproduced in the Canadian Illustrated News of February 11, 1871.He was the son of a London barrister reportedly the model for Dickens’ Sarjeant Buzfuz, and brother to William Bompas, the most famous Anglican missionary in the Northwest.He died in Len-noxville on June 23, 1889.RAIL LINK The railway arrived in Bury on July 15, 1875, and dramatically changed the nature of the Township.There had been some peripheral prosperity when Galt brought the railway to Sherbrooke in 1852— it needed ties, telegraph poles and laborers—but now new houses and a big hotel sprung up beside the station and the village turned its back on the grist mill.The station was called Bury, after the township, and Robinson gradually lost its original name.John Henry Pope of Cookshire was the guiding light behind the St.Francis and Megantic International Railway which was intended to link Sherbrooke with New Brunswick across the state of Maine.Pope and MacDonald were both out of office, however, after | the revelation of the Pacific scandal and the railway ended at Bury for some time.Sir John A.MacDonald came to the end of the line for a political picnic in 1877 — it rained — and was swent back into office the following year.Pope went with him and the railway got moving again.CENSUS The 1891 census gave Bury township a population of 1,621 — 64 of them French-Canadians.The 1892 Eastern Townships Business and Farmer's Directory lists the heads of 299 families — a boon to genealogists — and many of the original Norfolk emigrants were still present and prospering.The Downes’, for example, were now seven families, the Coates’ six, the Tite’s six and there were no fewer than 10 families of Bennetts in Canterbury, Brookbury and Robinson.The 1896 History of Compton County, composed by the founder of the Sherbrooke Daily Record, is yet another gold mine for genealogists and says of the village: “Robinson, or Bury as the railway station is called, is one of the prettiest villages in the county.It embraces quite a large tract of land within its limits, but the houses are much scattered.The largest part is on a level plain, with pretty homes on each side of the street.” The same may be said today.CONGRATULATIONS BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY AND BEST WISHES TO THE ORGANIZERS FROM THE TOWN OF EAST ANGUS BEST WISHES BURY ON YOUR 150th ANNIVERSARY FROM THE MUNICIPALITY OF THE COMPTON TOWNSHIPS Mayor: Eugene Naylor Councillors: Georges Barette André Laprise (Mrs.) Gertrude Paquette Claude Lafond Therese Shaheen Nil Veilleux ______________Sec.André Gagnon_______ _____ 8 — Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 ‘Wastelands of the Crown’ virtually uninhabited BURY — Bury’s first permanent settlers arrived 150 years ago but the township already had a history.All the ‘wastelands of the Crown’ between the American border and the French seigneuries along the St.Lawrence were virtually uninhabited before the Constitutional Act opened them to English Protestant settlement in 1791.The terms of that settlement were made known in Sir Alured Clarke’s Proclamation of February 7, 1792, and the land was divided into townships approximately 10 miles square, the townships divided into ranges, the ranges into lots.One-seventh of these lots were reserved for the Crown, another seventh for the Protestant church and the rest was to be granted to such people as would settle and cultivate them.MAN OF MEANS But each township had first to be surveyed and the government would not bear the cost of such surveys.Consequently, a system of ‘leader and associates’ evolved with the leader, a man of means, providing the initial outlay in return for extra grants of land.The leader who asked for Bury Township was Calvin May.He hired dep-ty surveyor Nathaniel Coffin at St.Armand on Oct.1, 1794, and Coffin's Field Book and Journal has survived to tell us about it : “St Armand October 1st 1794 “Requested this Day by Calvin May to engage a party and proceed AUCTIONS OF ALL KINDS FARM, ANTIQUES AND FURNITURE ART BENNETT AND ROSS BENNETT BILINGUAL AUCTIONEERS AUCTION BARN FOR FURNITURE & ANTIQUES AT SAWYERVILLE SAWYERVILLE Tel: 889-2272 - 889-2840 to the Survey and Subdivision of the Township of Bury, Engaged accordingly George Hogle, Robert Gordon, Aaron Ward, Danl Ward, Wm Vaughn and wrote to Mr.Dame to meet me at Lake Mem-phremagog as Chain Bearer.” The next few days were spent in procuring supplies and a team of horses and they set off on Sept.5.Their first stage through the woods was to Nicholas Austin’s clearing at Gibralter Point on Memphrema-gog, then to Gilbert Hyatt’s where Sherbrooke now stands, finally to Josiah Sawyer’s clearing in Newport Township.It was Oct.19 and already snowing by the time they had all their supplies assembled at Sawyer’s.GOT MUCH WET' “20h Octr.— Employed in drying our provisions which got much wet yesterday and in baking our Flour into Biscuit — “21h Octr — Raining and very disagreeable weather — “22d Octr—Set off with the party in order to run a road out to Bury, that the provisions might go out with more ease and less time, as also to enable me to get the rest of my provisions sent me without loss of time.“23d Octr — Returned with my party and sent them back loaded, with instructions to cut a road through a swamp in the N.E.corner of Eaton which we were not able to finish yesterday — find all the flour backed (baked?) — “23h Octr—Fell about Six Inches of snow last night, set off with Mr.Sawyer with the provisions.Stopped for the night at the Six Mile Camp on the line between Eaton and Newport, snowed most of the day about one foot of snow fell —” TO CLAIM GRANT Josiah Sawyer, who had fought alongside his father against the British at Bunker Hill, had blazed the first trail eastward from Mis-sisquoi alongside Gilbert Hyatt, a loyalist.He’s made his Newport clearing just the year before with Edmund Hurd, then put up a house in Eaton Township (at today’s Sa-wyerville) to validate his claim to that grant.He’d brought his family out that summer of 1793.Continued on next page mv.>2f: »• .•A—,.*- 4 * In Britain the lower classes had to pay rent to the lord of their manor but few were tempted early to move to Lower Canada.Wi m t j- ¦ CANADA DAY CELEBRATIONS SALLE JEAN PAUL BURY FRIDAY: JUNE 27, SATURDAY: JUNE 28 SUNDAY: JUNE 29 9:30 to 1:30 a.m.BOB LASENBA & THE NASHVILLE CATS SALLE JEAN PAUL, BURY 872-3249 HAPPY 150th ANNIVERSARY BURY BEST WISHES ON CANADA DAY DEALER OF Radio /hack TOSHIBA 0 HITACHI CONSULT THE ELECTRONIC SPECIALISTS Consult the electronic specialists Centre Electronique de Cookshire Inc.(Prévost T V.Service) 10, rue Bibeau, Cookshire, 875-3810 Bury's Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 — 9 Bury was remote and no settlement was made Land Co.promised Continued from last page “26th Octr — Arrived at the One Mile Post on the North line of Eaton, the going extremely bad the snow melts fast — Made a small Lodge House for our provisions — “28th Octr — Began one Mile from the North East corner of Eaton at a Cedar post marked to the South Eaton & to the North Bury .” This is actually Westbury today.Coffin’s 10-man team, two of them Indians hired at Hyatt’s Mills, struggled on but the weather did not improve.On Nov.13, six inches of snow fell and they spent the next two days trying to cross the St.Francis on a raft.It stormed all the time and there was so much ice in the river that Coffin gave up.HAD TO BE SETTLED “23d Novr — Finding it impossible to pass the River St.Francois, being nearly out of Provisions, snow getting deep and two of the Men not well was obliged to cone lude to return, it not being possible to finish the Subdivision of Bury, returned to Newport, and arrived after much difficulty at Mis-sisquoi Bay on the 2d December on the 3d discharged the party, giving them one Day to go home.” A quarter of the townships was eventually surveyed and that por- tion granted to Calvin May and nine associates on March 15, 1803.Under the terms of that grant, the land had to be settled before the grantee could take title and, although the land was good, Bury Townships was remote from roads and mills and no settlement was made.The lands reverted to the Crown.The Crown sold the entire township to the British American Land Company in 1834.The company bought 1,094,272 acres that year — Crown Reserves and the unsettled and unsurveyed St.Francis Territory stretching from Bury to Lake Megantic and comprising almost 600,000 acres.The price agreed upon was about 60 cents an acre — payable in 10 yearly installments — but half of that money was to be paid into an 'improvement fund’ for "high roads, bridges, canals, market houses, school houses, churches and parsonage houses, and any other works undertaken and calculated for the common use and benefit of His Majesty’s subjects.” It was this fund that had built Port St.Francis, straightened the road to Sherbrooke, built the Aylmer Bridge, the Cookshire Bridge, the mills, the villages of Victoria and Robinson.— Bernard Epps American By Nina Rowell BURY — Anglicans here have been very busy for the past few months preparing for the 150th anniversary of the Anglican Mission here.St.Paul’s Church has undergone a major cleaning and polishing to add to its unique beauty, and a new sound system has been added.The history of the Anglican Mission dates back to 1836 when the first settlers arrived from England, with the promise by the British American Land Company which had encouraged them to come — that they would be provided with churches, schools, suitable houses and roads.Four Anglican churches were built in the Township of Bury; St.Paul’s, in the village then called Robinson; St.Thomas in the Bown neighborhood; St.John’s in Brookbury; and later Christ Church in Canterbury.Records of St.Paul’s Church date back to 1838, when the Rev.William Arnold was appointed the first resident clergyman.Previous to this services were conducted by Church of England ministers from Eaton.CLASSIC DESIGN At first, services were held in the village school house.The first St.Paul’s Church was started in 1844, and consecrated July 3, 1864.It burned Jan.18, 1903.Foundations for a new church were started that same year, and it was completed the following year.During this time, services were held in the old Methodist Church.The present St.Paul's Church is a fine structure of classic design, with beautiful interior furnishings, memorials and magnificent stained glass windows.Several of these windows were saved from the old church that burned.The three windows at the altar are in memory of the late Thomas Ri- chardson, and the window on the right side of the choir, in memory of the little daughter of the late Rev.H.S.Fuller.This church was consecrated on Sept.18,1910.Fifty-four candidates were confirmed at the service that same evening The parish hall and Sunday school room were co pleted and dedicated at the 100th anniversary service in Sept.1937.Thisisabeau- Continued on next page St.John's Church, Brookbury - SERVING THE COMMUNITY WITHIN 25 MILE RADIUS WE HAVE A FULL LINE OF ULTRAMAR PRODUCTS INCLUDING: ALL GASES & DIESEL FUELS FURNACE & STOVE OIL (FURNACE INSURANCE PLANS AVAILABLE) COMPLETE LINE OF MOTOR OIL FOR FARM & COMMERCIAL USE BURY, QUE.TEL: 872-3322 COATES GARAGE REG'D • GAS GENERAL REPAIRS OIL CHANGE GAS & ELECTRIC WELDING BATTERIES ÜIFGoodrich tires HOURS 'MOfi-THURS: 7 30 - 6 o in FRI.7 30 - 7 p.m .SAT.8:00 - 5 p.m.WINDSHIELD REPLACEMENTS (through your Insurance Co.) GASBEC PRODUCTS AVAILABLE FOR YOUR WELDING NEEDS BURY, QUE.TEL: 872-3222 12 — Bury’s Pioneers — THE RECORD — Thursday, June 26, 1986 RCA AT SEARS WHILE QUANTITIES LAST! WHEN THEY’RE GONE, THEY’RE GONE! / ^ x.No lower price this season! RCA 20" color TV features built-in converter and 17-button remote.Automatic picture control, automatic fleshtone correction, mooe ’Now available at Sears Retail stores.Price in effect while quantities last your money is worth.and more SATISFACTION OR WE SERVICE WHAT SEARS CARD.CANADA’S #1 HOME OF KENMORE MONEY REFUNDED WE SELL COAST-TO-COAST DEPARTMENT STORE CREDIT CARD DIEHARD, CRAFTSMAN Sears Canada Inc.'Reg.' or ‘was’ refer to Sears prices.Open 9:30 a.m.to 5:30 p.m.Monday to Wednesday and until 9:00 p.m.Thursday and Friday, and 9:00 a.m.to 5:00 p.m.Saturday.Sherbrooke: Carrefour de l'Estrie, 563-9440 Copyright Canada, 1986, Sears Canada Inc.