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Saint Croix Courier, St. Stephen, NB
February 1, 1894

GLIMPSES OF THE PAST

Contributions to the History of Charlotte County and the Border Towns.

CII – THE SEVENTY-FOURTH ASSOCIATION-Continued.

The tract at Schoodic Falls, ‘formerly called the Indian Lands,’ seems to have been laid out for the Seventy-Fourth Association early in 1785.  Aug. 12, 1785, is the date of the Indian reserve, comprising about 200 acres in the centre of the present town of Milltown, which was granted later (in 1802) to the church corporation of the parish of St. Stephen and is still known as the glebe.

The grant of March 26, 1790, to Donald Grant and associates, is the earliest grant of the Indian Lands on record.  Thirty-five of the forty-six farm lots in the tract were then granted as follows:-

Division A.

Lots fronting on the river, from the present westerly line of the town of Milltown to the Indian reserve at Salmon Falls:

1 Donald Grant
2 Angus Rankin
3,4 William Anstruther
5 Hugh McPhail
6 John McDougall
7 Neil Brown

Lot No. 6 includes what is now the principal business part of Milltown.  No. 7 is an extension of No. 1, running out along the point now known as Hill’s point.

Division B.

Extending northwestward from the rear of the river lots was a range of eighteen lots of 91 acres each, the first two of which, now lying within the limits of the town of Milltown, were apparently granted later to one Angus Strachan.  The grantees of other lots in this range were:

Robert Cowey James Pendlebury
David Marple John Campbell
Samuel R Marple John McPhail
Roderick McLellan Mark Lumsdane

Division C.

Lots fronting on the river from the Indian reserve to the head of Libby’s Cove:

1 Neil Brown
2 John McCallum
3 Peter McCallum
4 Hugh Campbell
5 Duncan Campbell

The first three of these lots are in Milltown; the other two in Queen’s ward, St. Stephen.  They run farther back than those of the first division, so that No. 1 of another range of 91-acre lots, (D,) running back from their rear line, and including what are now known as the Getchell Settlement lots, is opposite No. 3 of the range above mentioned.

Division D.

The names of the grantees of this division were:

John Campbell Enoch Trafton
Duncan McColl Jacob Libby
Northrop Marple William Maybee
Jones Getchell Robert Lindsay
Robinson Crocker Daniel Hill, Jr
Mark Milberry Angus Rankin

The names in the Donald Grant grant; like those in the Archibald Williamson grant, were not in all cases those of the original claimants.

In May, 1785, one John Fairweather sold to Robert Sellars his claim to No. 7 B, which the latter sold to Robert Sim; and in July of the same year John Boyd sold the adjoining lot, No. 8, to James Piercy, who afterwards sold it to William Swain.  These are the lots granted to David and Samuel R. Marple.  Other transfers were recorded before the date of the grant, but they give no new names, unless it may be those in the next paragraph.

There is a deed on record, dated in December, 1785, conveying from Robert Sellars to Richard Brown a lot of 200 acres, described as No. 20 A, on the ‘River Saint Croyick’s,’ which ‘said Robert Sellars drawed in the Seventy-fourth Association’; and one in July following which conveys from Alexander Jeffreys to Robert Cowie 200 acres, described as No. 13 C, on ‘Cheputnatecook river,’ ‘laid out for me as disbanded from his majesty’s late said Seventy-fourth regiment of foot.’  It is quite impossible to place these lots, as they do not agree, either in number or in acreage, with any of the Donald Grant lots.

William Swain, probably the same man who built the first house on the Maine side of the river,1 and who is said also to have built the first mill on that side, purchased six lots in Division B, from James Piercy, Mark Lumsdane, Robert Cowie, Dugald Campbell and Roderick McLellan, in the winter of 1785 and 1786; but these lots, or some of them, at least, appear to have returned to their original owners before the issue of the grant.


1Article lii.


CORRECTIONS.

Article lii.-In second paragraph, for ‘Jeremiah Frost’ read ‘James Frost.’

Article xcii.-In eighth paragraph, the same.
Jeremiah Frost received from Sarah Frost, the widow of James Frost, after she had left Schoodic Falls, a deed of lot No. 1, in the second tract of the grant to Nehemiah Marks and 14 others, called the ‘Old Settlers’ grant; and in a document of later date he mentions it as ‘where my father James Frost and others lays buried.’

Article xcviii.-It was the 82nd, not the 74th, which was known as the Hamilton regiment, (having been raised by the Duke of Hamilton in 1777 or 1778, for immediate service in America,) and it was to the staff of General McLean, who had command of the six companies of the Hamilton regiment sent to Castine, that Lieut. Moore, afterwards the distinguished Sir John Moore, was attached.  The last two sentences of the third paragraph would therefore read more correctly: ‘Lieut. Moore, …….. was attached to Gen. McLean’s staff.  He also acted as paymaster in the 82d, or Hamilton regiment, and returned with that regiment to Halifax in 1779.’  The following paragraph properly refers to the Argyle Highlanders, and should have contained no mention of Lieut. Moore.


Correction: Article CIII contains the following correction to this one: "Erase the sentence following the list of grantees of Division A; or change it to read, 'The Indian reserve adjoining lot No. 6 includes &c.'