Steamboat Days On The St. John 1816 - 1946
Grampy enjoyed telling a supposedly
true
story. But tonight, I thought he was really stretching the truth with
the
one about building river boats by the bridge in Hampton. Then he
rambled
off vessel names such as the Hampton, Hampstead and the Clifton.
According to the book “Steamboat Days On The St. John 1816 - 1946"
by Dr. George MacBeath and Capt. Donald F. Taylor, Grampy was really
telling
us the truth about shipbuilding on the Kennebecasis. I was even more
surprised to find, the Water Witch, an 87-ton vessel with a
length of 120 feet
was built in Kingston in 1836.
Furthermore, as early as 1765, sloops owned by Simonds, Hazen and White
were using the St. John River to take supplies inland.
The Loyalists, who flocked to our province in 1783, found a country
without roads and bridges. Due to necessity, they chose to settle on
the banks of rivers and streams that could be navigated by boats. Hence
the waterways became
their highways.
The first venture into a commercial transportation business between St.
Ann’s, now Fredericton and Maugerville was made in 1783 by Nehemiah
Beckwith
of Maugerville, who built a scow boat fitted with a mast and sail.
In the spring of 1784, Asher Vail of Gagetown built a 18-foot row boat
that would carry a dozen passengers the 50 miles to and from Saint John.
In July of 1786, the schooner ‘Four Sisters’ announced the
sailing
from the Indian House at Saint John to Fredericton every Tuesday, when
the
wind and weather permitted. Four years later Alphoneus Pine and James
Segee
set up a business to carry freight and passengers between the two
settlements
on the St. John River.
When the Duke of Kent visited Fredericton in 1794, he travelled the
river in Governor Carleton’s sloop.
Among the first inns on the river were, the Blizzard House on
Long Island, Kings Head Tavern at Grimross Neck, Vanhorn’s Tavern at
Fredericton and Queens Head Tavern at Evandale.
The General Smyth, the first steamboat of the river, took
sixty-two
passengers to Fredericton on its voyage in 1816 under Captain Segee, a
Loyalist.
Peter Stewart, the engineer, had come from Scotland to install the
machinery.
One of the competing boats for the river business was a 100-foot
side-wheeler ‘horse boat’ built by William Peters at Hampstead. Its
twelve horsepower engine
was powered by twelve horses moving in a circle around the capstan
which
rotated the paddle wheels.
“Steamboat Days On The St. John 1816 - 1946" by Dr. George
MacBeath
and Capt. Donald F. Taylor, provides us with not only information on
the
river boats, their owners, promoters, captains, pursers, cooks,
stewards
and stewardesses but lets us paddle back in time to the days when the
river
was the highway of travel thus providing information on many folk
connected
in one way or another to the river.
You will find this book in most research institutions in New Brunswick.
A recent reprint has been done of this 1983 publication and is
available
at several book stores.
By the way, the Saint John
Branch
of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society will be meeting at 7:30 p.m.
on
November 24, 2004 at the Lion’s Den of the Loch Lomond Villa for their
Christmas
Party. Everyone is encouraged to bring a treasured Christmas card and
to
share its story. There will also be a book sale of genealogical related
material.
Query 1231
Brown - Fraser: Samuel Fawls Brown was born
in1801 in Fermanagh County, Northern Ireland and married in 1830 in
Cavan,
Ireland to Catherine Fraser, who was born 1801 in Cavan, and died in
1886
in Pine Ridge, New Brunswick, where Samuel also died in 1889. I am
seeking
information to enable me to trace the family back to their connections
in Ireland.
R. BROWN
57 Bellevista Drive
Dartmouth, NS
Canada, B2W 2X4
E-mail roblen@eastlink.ca
Query 1232
Terris - Gorman: I am looking for information on
the following two Terris families who were in Saint John prior to 1900
- Joseph John Terris, born July 12, 1873 who went on to found Terriss
Beverages on City Road, and William John Terris, born May 9, 1870 who
married Margaret Gorman in Saint John. Were they brothers and if so
what was their heritage?
GREG BROWN
25 Nicol St
Miramichi, N.B.
E1N 3N5
E-mail browngr@nb.sympatico.ca
Query 1234
Jonah - Briggs: Arther Briggs was born in 1828.
His parents were probably John Briggs born 1800 and Rosannah Jonah born
1804 in Coverdale, New Brunswick. In the 1880 US Census, he is living
in Minnesota, with wife Mary, born in Nova Scotia and children, Phebe
and
Lilly. Need proof of the parents of Arther Briggs.
Joan Bowen
204 Virginia Avenue
Warner Robins
GA, 31088, USA
E-mail JoBow@aol.com
New and Used Genealogical
and Historical books of New Brunswick for sale.
|
Ruby M. Cusack is a
genealogy buff living in New Brunswick, Canada. Send your New Brunswick
genealogical queries to her at: rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca.
Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of the readers of
the newspaper who do not have access to E-mail but could have
information to share with you. Please put "Yesteryear" followed
by the surnames in your query. For more information on
submitting queries, visit http://www.rubycusack.com/Query-Instructions.html
Ruby
contributes a "Family History" column to the Telegraph-Journal on
Tuesdays
