FOUR SCORE & THREE YEARS AGO

REMEMBRANCES
Of early trips to Cape Sable Island – by boat, then train, then ferry – to a very different world for a very little girl.


We took the boat to Yarmouth from Rowes wharf in Boston – “Rose wharf – what a pretty name for a wharf”, said I. The train ride from Yarmouth was so exciting that I left my favorite be-ribboned bonnet behind. At Barrington we caught the ferry to the island – no causeway approach at that time.

My greatgrandfather and greatgrandma owned the Seaview Hotel and I admired the stone dogs that guarded the steps – was amazed to see spittoons strategically placed in the front rooms. And my happy day when my bonnet arrived, found and returned from the train. I remember curling up in a rocking chair and looking at things to buy in the dream book (Sears Roebuck catalog) with greatgrandma. A puzzle – everyone called them Aunt Ruth and Uncle Lennie, but to me it had to be grampa and gramma. Different from my grandmother I called Nana and my grandfather I called Pampa.

Now there were many things to be seen and to learn about in visits over the next seven years – the house across the street, built by grampa with living quarters upstairs, postoffice and grocery store below.(Grampa was also postmaster for about fifty years altogether). There was also a blacksmith shop, a barn and oh my that barn was scary when I was just three years old – I walked very quickly and carefully to pass the cows that would kick and swish their tails – there was a pig, a horse and at the very end two very large oxen! I learned to milk the cows when I got older and braver – and what fun to squirt some warm milk right into my mouth. Back at the hotel, later run by greatuncle Rob and aunt Lo there were hens and geese – the latter to be avoided as they hissed, nipped and chased me. But what fun learning to churn butter with aunt Lo.

Among last year’s archives you will find “Four Generations” with information about those mentioned above . . . and as I think of all the many changes in life style and activities over the years – stay with me for a bit and there will be more to come.

FOUR GENERATIONS

This is an introduction of me and the three generations preceeding me (yes, I am the baby on my father’s knee in this 1930’s photograph). All will be seen in more detail from time to time.
.
Barbara Mae (VanAmburg) Delorey : more than you want to know is on my web page www.barbmvd.com
Robert Archibald VanAmburg: b. 6 Nov 1904 Clarks Harbor, Cape Sable Island, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia; d 22 Jul 1991, Yarmouth, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
Ruth (Smith) Nickerson : b 2 Jun 1848 at West Head, Cape Sable Island; d 23 Oct 1939
James Lendall Nickerson: b 16 May 1847; d 5 Sep 1940 in Clarks Harbor

Ruth and James were affectionately known as Aunt Ruth and Uncle Lenny, a source of puzzlement for a very young great-granddaughter! Uncle Lenny owned the Sea View Hotel and was a longtime postmaster in Clarks Harbor, Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia . . . much more to come about them and the Nickerson branch..

AND I RECALL:

Funny how memories are triggered - working on the computer to examine an enlarged photograph reminded me of a very young ME, helping Dad develop film and to print photographs in a cellar darkroom in our Whitney Rd, Medford home. Dad was an avid photographer, and the chemical process of developing and printing films was fascinating to me.The room was in the corner, next to the coal bin, long benches on each side with trays of chemicals, the big enlarger at one end. As the process began, the light in the room was changed to the one with the red bulb - it seemed like magic to watch. I can still see it!

MORE 18th Century WOMEN . . . .

A Dauntless Spirit:
Jenny Andrews was the wife of William Andrews, a farmer from Edinburgh. In 1796 the couple settled on a 200 acres grant at Upper Woods Harbor, Nova Scotia.

She was a woman of quality who married against her parents will. Jenny had a large frame and a dauntless spirit. William’s skill with the flute relieved the loneliness of their home for they had no children and few neighbors.

About 1824 William died, and Jenny, having tested her endurance by walking to Shelburne for a doctor, now carried his body in her arms to Halifax for burial in consecrated ground.

Wriggler:
Mlle Clairon was the stage name of Claire Joseph Lerys who was thoroughly disreputable and made a career of it. In Paris her ardors were famous. According to a police report dated 18 September 1748 “This woman is known to have a strong and passionate temperament and to be lascivious in the extreme. She shouts so loudly when she makes love that the neighbors have to close the windows”.

She was so successful that she aroused envy, and as many more eminent people of the day, Clairon was attacked inn obscene pamphlets and songs, printed abroad and smuggled in. From The Hague, where there was no censorship came a brochure entitled “History of Mlle. Cronel [anagram of the misspelled Clairon] called Fretillon [wriggler] written by herself”. It was an immediate hit.

Epitaph of a Female Soldier:
St. Nicholas’ Churchyard, Brighton, England
In Memory of Phoebe Hessel who was born at Stepney in the Year 1713.

She served for many years as a private soldier in the 5th Regt of Foot in different parts of Europe and in the year 1745 fought under the command of the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy where she received a bayonet wound in her arm.

Her long life which commenced at the time of Queen Anne extended to the reign of George IV by whose munificence she received comfort and support in her later years.
She died at Brighton where she had long resided 12 December 1821 Aged 108 years.

18thc WOMEN: Known - Unknown - Little Known

A CAPE COD WOMAN:
Elizabeth Smith was born in Chatham, Massachusetts on 15 May, 1735. On the 16th of July in the year 1752 she married Archelaus Smith. The following account is of their coming to Nova Scotia to take up land.

Archelaus had sent for his family to come from the Cape to Barrington in Nova Scotia. Reports about the Indians caused him to send a message to Elizabeth to postpone her trip, and then Archelaus headed for home, departing through the west passage.

As he left, Elizabeth and her four children were already heading through the east passage in Captain Eldad Nickerson's vessel. Finding herself quite alone she sought the assistance of some fishermen who made her a log shelter and left what provisions they could when they went away.

Archelaus was storm-stayed and unable to get back that winter with food and their house frame, but Elizabeth and her four were helped from time to time by some of the Indians and she fought off the bears with fire brands.

TO STAND ALONE:
Ruth Parker, wife of thirty-four year old Nathaniel Parker of Pepperell, Massachusetts watches her husband as he stares moodily into the fireplace. Does Nathaniel see a battlefield in the glowing coals? In four months he will lie dead in the trenches of Breeds Hill. Ruth will stand alone beside their five children, facing her own battlefield.

RED JEAN
The following obituary appeared in the Inverness Journal of 17 July 1812. "Died lately in the Parish of Knocklando, County of Elgin, an eccentric character known as Red Jean, or Jean Roy. She disliked her own sex, and always pretended to be a man, weariing a kilt, jacket and blue bonnet. She generally worked as a day laborer."