Brunswick, Maine

“ It would be well if they borrowed from their neighbours, the Yankees, something more useful than their slang, which renders the vernacular of the province rather repulsive. The spirit of enterprise, which has done so much for the adjacent state of Maine, has not yet displayed itself in New Brunswick in the completion of any works of practical utility; and though the soil in many places has great natural capabilities, these have not been taken due advantage of. ”

“ The greater part of New Brunswick, the northern half of Maine, and adjacent parts of Canada, not to mention the northeastern part of New York and other tracts farther off, are still covered with an almost unbroken pine-forest.
But Maine, perhaps, will soon be where Massachusetts is. A good part of her territory is already as bare and commonplace as much of our neighborhood, and her villages generally are not so well shaded as ours. We seem to think that the earth must go through the ordeal of sheep-pasturage before it is habitable by man. ”

“ REMARKS. On the state of that part of ancient Nova-Scotia lying north of the Bay of Fundy, now in the Province of New-Brunswick, prior to the year 1754.
The French Government in defiance of former treaties continued to erect forts around the harbour of Saint John, and to send troops for the defence of this part of the country (considering it theirs) and to employ the natives to harass and murder the settlers in the district of Maine, thus for many years preventing the settlement of that part of the British dominions as far west as that district or province extended ”

“ The general commissioners met at St Andrews, N.B., in 1816, and in New York City in 1822, only to disagree; and when the king of the Netherlands, chosen as arbitrator in 1829 (under the Convention of 1827) rendered in 1831 a decision against which the state of Maine protested, the Federal Senate withheld its assent to his decision. In 1838–1839 the territory in dispute between New Brunswick and Maine became the scene of a border “war,” known as the “Aroostook disturbance” ”

“ In the ample forests of Maine or New Brunswick, rich in oak and maple and pine, abounding in deer, partridge, and other wild game, watered by crystal fountains springing from every acre of the soil, we naturally picture for our colonists a winter of robust health, physical comfort, and social enjoyment. The little island which they had chosen was indeed a charming spot in a summer's day, but we can hardly comprehend in what view it could have been regarded as suitable for a colonial plantation. ”

“ New Bruns'wick, a province of the Dominion of Canada, is a square, bounded on the south by the Bay of Pundy and an isthmus connecting it with Nova Scotia; on the east by the Gulf of St. Lawrence; on the north by the Bay of Chaleurs and Quebec; and on the west by Maine in the United States. It has an area of 27,500 square miles, little less than that of either Scotland or Ireland, and more than twice the size of Belgium. The proportion of land cultivable is much higher in New Brunswick than in Scotland, and about as high
as in Ireland. ”

“ Over opposite in Maine, as the strait between the two narrows, are dark, storm-worn crags, which end with a promontory bearing a conspicuously red and white-striped lighthouse tower. This is the termination of the coast of Maine and of the United States at Quoddy Head, and the entrance to St. Croix River to the northward, the boundary between New England and the Canadian Province of New Brunswick. Quoddy Head is a long peninsula, with Campobello Island directly in front. ”

“ The population in 1851 was 193,000, and it probably is not less now than 225,000 souls. The boastfulness of the Americans, and more especially of New Englanders, in all that relates to their country, causes us to overlook the progress of our own colonies, and we shall be surprised to find the increase of [314] people in New Brunswick has been greater than that of Vermont, Maine, or New Hampshire, by an average of 10 per cent. ”

“ When two years later the inhabitants of the State of Maine prepared to invade New Brunswick, the announcement was received with intense feelings of regard for the honor of the British Crown. The House, which was then sitting, voted £100,000, and 8,000 men to aid the New Brunswickers in repelling the invaders, and rising in a body gave three cheers for the queen, and three for their loyal brethren of the sister province. Long may the feeling continue to exist, and grow within our borders! ”

“ The railroad swerves close to the frontier at Aroostook Junction, and sends off a branch into Maine. The Aroostook Valley as far as Presque Isle, 34 miles from the Junction, belonged to New Brunswick for fifty years following the international boundary settlement of 1783. Consequent upon a show of arms in a border dispute that waxed hot enough to threaten the peace of two countries, the territory was conceded to Maine in 1839 by a complacent British commissioner. ”

“ In this last-mentioned respect the agreement looked to some further arrangement between Maine and New Brunswick. Through the agency of General Scott one was agreed to on the 23d and 25th of March following, by which Sir John Harvey bound himself not to seek, without renewed instructions to that effect from his Government, to take military possession of the territory or to expel from it by military force the armed civil posse or the troops of Maine. ”

“ Still, other interests may arise and create a demand sufficiently promising, in a remunerative point of view, to induce an individual, or joint investment, for the construction of such a boat as may be needed. The Grand Lake is some twenty-five miles in length from north to south, and from six to eight miles wide at its greatest breadth. An imaginary line, passing lengthwise, constitutes the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick, the eastern shore being within the limits of her majesty's dominions. Settlements to a large extent have already been made on the American side ”

“ C. B. Whiting.
Julius F. Brunswick.—Mr. Brunswick was born in Switzerland in 1826; came to this country in 1846, remained a year in Illinois, and came to Stillwater in 1848, where he engaged in lumbering, farming, merchandising, and dealing in pine lands. Mr. Brunswick applied himself closely to business and was successful. Feb. 29, 1859, he married Margaret Darms, of Stillwater. He died at his home in Stillwater in 1874, leaving a widow and seven children.
Henry McLean.—Mr. McLean was born in Washington county, Maine, in 1828, and in 1848 came to Stillwater, which has since been his home. ”

“ Canadians have always believed with reason that that portion of the present state of Maine, through which the Aroostook and other tributaries of the St. John flow, is actually British territory. If we look at the map of Canada we see that the state of Maine now presses like a huge wedge into the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec as a sequence of the unfortunate mistakes of 1796, 1835, and 1842, on the part of England and her agents. In these later times a "Canadian short line" railway has been forced to go through Maine in order to connect Montreal with St. ”

“ There would be but one or two falls, with short carrying-places, and we should go down the stream very fast, even a hundred miles a day, if the wind allowed; and he indicated where we should carry over into Eel River to save a bend below Woodstock in New Brunswick, and so into the Schoodic Lake, and thence to the Mattawamkeag. It would be about three hundred and sixty miles to Bangor this way, though only about one hundred and sixty by the other ”

“ CHAPTER XXIII TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS
“WELL,” Mr. Wood began: “I was brought up, as you all know, in the eastern part of Maine, and we often used to go over into New Brunswick for our sport. Moose were our best game. Did you ever see one, Laura?”
“No, uncle,” she said.
“Well, when I was a boy there was no more beautiful sight to me in the world than a moose with his dusky hide, and long legs, and branching antlers, and shoulders standing higher than a horse's. Their legs are so long that they can't eat close to the ground. ”

“ State rooms are provided and free passages given to all young females who desire to visit their homes and return, or who, being in the country, are going to the city for employment. It is true they are poor. In the lime and basswood districts of Maine, perhaps they never had a dollar in their “born days.” And the people down there are such a simple and uninitiated race, that these daughters of chastity have never had the least knowledge of this steamboat deviltry, or of earning money by the sale of their virtue, until it is whispered to them when it is too late to make escape. ”

“ Brunswick is an old and rather ugly town, with large and gloomy houses, an old church in full Gothic style, and a town hall even more Gothic. It is a great relief to find something really old after a succession of little capitals rebuilt without character or historical memory, with their tawdry modern ornamentation. I noticed a magnificent breed of 200 post horses and draught and military horses; they are splendid, strong and vigorous animals; I do not know whether the district produces them or if they are brought from Mecklenburg. ”

“ The grave and serious demeanour of these people is as different from the savage scowl of the discontented peasant, murmuring beneath the burthen of taxation and ill-remunerated toil, as from the free, light-hearted, and careless laughter, both of which characterise the rural groups in the fertile fields of England. New Brunswick is the land of strangers; even the first settlers, the "sons of the soil," as they claim to be, have hardly yet forgot their exile, a trace of which character, be he prosperous as he may, still hovers over the emigrant. ”

“ In New-Brunswick, a man with his axe and a few other simple tools, provides himself with a house and most of his implements of husbandry,—and while a European would consider himself as an outcast, he feels perfectly at home in the depth of the forest. In new countries likewise the mind acquires those ideas of self-importance and independence so peculier to Americans. ”

“ In this country we have a specimen of every climate at its utmost boundary of endurance; in summer we have breathless days of burning heat shining on in shadowless splendour of sunlight; but it is in the getting up of a winter's scene that New Brunswick is perfect. True, a considerable tall sample of a snow-storm can sometimes be enjoyed in England, but nothing to compare with the free and easy sweep with which the monarch of clouds flings his boons over this portion of his dominions. ”

“ The settlement of the site of Brunswick was begun by fishermen in 1628 and the place was called Pejepscot; in 1717 Brunswick was constituted a township under its present name by the Massachusetts general court, and in 1739 the township was regularly incorporated. The village was incorporated in 1836.
Brunswick is best known as the seat of Bowdoin College, a small institution of high educational rank. There are eleven buildings on a campus of about 40 acres, 1 m. ”

“ At one of the places near my native town, where I had given lectures, I met a gentleman who seemed very much interested in the soon-coming of the Lord, who [75] gave me an urgent invitation to visit Brunswick, Me. He stated that there had been no preaching on the subject in that part of the State, and that the Freewill Baptists, who were very numerous on the west side of the Kennebec river, from Augusta to Brunswick, would willingly give me a hearing. From that moment I felt inclined to make my course toward Brunswick. ”

“ The last class that I shall notice are the people of Colour, or Negroes.—These are found in considerable numbers in different parts of the Province. In some parts a number of families are settled together as farmers; but they do not make good settlers, being of a volatile disposition, much addicted to dissipation; they are impatient of labour, and in general fitter for performing menial offices about houses as domestics, than the more important, but laborious duties of farmers.—In their persons, the inhabitants of New-Brunswick are well made, tall and athletic. ”

“ In the course of its wanderings by earth and ocean it has become minus a foot, the loss of which is supplied by an unsmoothed block of pine, the two forming not an inapt illustration of their different countries. The polished oaken symbol of England receiving assistance in its hour of need from the rude but hardy pine emblem of New Brunswick. The room is cool and quiet; the young people being outside with a few who have lingered after the frolic. ”

“ The custom of calling people by colour-names from their personal appearance, or places after them, was clearly not peculiar to our own country. It is probable that the name Brunswick was derived from the brown complexion of its original inhabitants. The map published by Ripley, based on the official ethnological survey of Germany, shows that parts of the country near Brunswick have a higher percentage of brunettes than the districts further north. ”

“ As the creek goes onward to the river the intervale disappears, and the banks become grey and steep, crowned with the tall and slender stems of the spruce and cedar. New Brunswick is rich in minerals, and veins of coal and iron abound at this place; but many years must elapse ere mines are worked to any extent. A few are in operation at present; but while the pine waves the wealth of her green plumage to the lumber-man, or the new-cleared ground will yield its virgin crop to the farmer, the earth must keep her deeper treasures. ”