Once upon a time in Avondale

Shortly after the birth of my daughter, a very talented and caring cousin wrote of his own childhood memories at The Maples. Jim Morrison was editor of The Bugle (Woodstock NB) and this was his weekly column for 21 November 1984. Re-reading it, I was, yet again, moved and wishing he was still with us.

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N^o.1 and I were having a candlelight dinner one evening last week, a very special occasion as we welcomed a beautiful new addition to the family, so to speak. [Baby "M"], only a few weeks old now, was the centre of attention.

To tell the truth, N^o.1 and I are surrogate grandparents to MM, a role we accepted with enthusiasm and considerable pride.

But this isn't a story about the newest addition to the family. It's a "once upon a time" story, one of memories of earlier years. The mood was sparked by the candlelight dinner and the fact that the evening was spent in the old homestead where I had lived for a number of years while attending the one-room school in Avondale.

A Halloween story from Sam

Barter gravestones, Waterville cemetery

It was late last fall that I was coming home through the old Mill Road at about midnight. The damp wind was sighing and moaning through the fences awakening in me thoughts of weird ghosts and hob-goblins and more ghastly things that are supposed to be abroad on such sombre nights.

The darkness was becoming more intense and as the clouds got denser, raindrops began to spatter the road. As I hurried along, I heard voices ─ Oh, so death-like! ─ and a rattling as if someone was dragging a box over the dirt road. My hair stood on end and my nerves quaked but, seeing some figures moving towards me, I stepped aside to let them pass as they came closer.

Avondale rail station re-created by toy enthusiast

"It is a busy day in the Avondale yard. Rail fans were pleasantly surprised this week to see a very short passenger train stop briefly at the Avondale station on the way to the Carleton Railway's shops in Nortondale, York County.

"Those covered hoppers on track 5 are part of the westbound Newbridge Turn that has just arrived from South Newbridge and the caboose that is almost out of sight on track 6 is at the rear of the Aroostook Local leaving for Monticello, Maine."

This terrific image and fantasy-inspired text are from a blog the setting for which is rural Carleton County; the year is 1965. The model railway enthusiast is in Saint John but there seems to be no way to contact him. When you visit the page from which this photo was taken, search for other mentions of Avondale as well.

A turn-of-the-last-century boomtown!

This early history of Avondale, New Brunswick is an abridged version of a handwritten c1919 manuscript by Samuel G Barter (my great grandfather).

The hamlet of Avondale, population about 100, is located just off the Trans-Canada Highway near Hartland, famous for its covered bridge. Avondale is about an hour’s drive from Fredericton NB and not far from the start of Interstate 95 in Houlton, Maine.

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The family of Laura BB McLean, Sam Barter's first wife

Sam and Laura with daughters Jane (at left)
and Florence about 1897

I'm gradually going through the boxes of old family records and came across this undated note from Sam Barter, addressed to his daughters Jane and Florence, about his first wife's family.

Your mother was Laura Belle Botsford McLean. We were married on December 31st, 1890. I was 19 years of age and Laura was 20. She died August 20, 1897 of a complication of diseases.

The McLeans were Scottish Highlanders from the Isle of Skye who came to Canada and settled at Grand Lake NB where they were seafarers in the days of "wind jammers", the sailing vessels of the period [from the 1870s to about 1900]. Captain John McLean, Laura's grandfather, settled at Cumberland Point, on Grand Lake in Queen's County, and married a Miss Ferris. They raised a large family.

The farm was left to Allan Fay McLean who married Hannah Thomson. She was of Scottish descent as well. Allan and Hannah had four children, one of whom was Laura Belle Botsford. She was born in Saint John NB on August 9,1870 just as a fine little schooner, the Laura Belle, was being launched. Dr Botsford, the attending physician, said he would help name "so bright a baby" and the name Laura Belle Botsford was given. The other children were Sophronia Alexandria (named for an aunt, in the first instance, and the Queen Consort of King Edward VIII), Elida May and Charles Allan McLean.

The British Home Child program

Between 1869 and the early 1930s, as many as 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain under a well-intended child welfare program that ultimately had very mixed results. It was thought that commonwealth countries such as Australia and Canada could provide a chance for a brighter future for the underprivileged thereby sparing overburdened parish resources in the UK and the possibility of a child being put into a workhouse.

Typically, these children were housed and trained in schools, mostly outside London, that were operated by the 50 or so organizations that took part in this huge social experiment. One such school was operated by the Shaftesbury Homes at Bisley, Surrey and that's where my father and his brother ended up after having been orphaned.

Secrets of an 1873 house

In the summer of 2010, I started renovating the four-bedroom house of roughly 1600 square feet that Sam Barter bought in 1898 and that I inherited from my grandmother, Jane Allen. In the English fashion, Sam named the house "The Maples" and there are still a lot of old maples here. The house itself is a balloon-framed two-and-a-half-storey clapboard dwelling built 1873 by or for James Fisher who also operated a tannery on the same property. The exterior features a simple, vernacular style that seems pure and elegant in its wooded environment -- a 1.25-acre lot that borders the Little Presque Isle Stream where one can swim and fish for trout.

At the outset of this adventure, when I was investigating the possibility of restoring the house, I was delighted to find that the structure was extremely solid (despite my many years of neglect) and with the exception of a few sloping floors, quite square. Although a partial basement was installed sometime in mid-last-century, I had a concrete foundation poured in 2010 to stabilize the house which was in danger of sinking into the wet ground.

Barter plaque in the Waterville Cemetery

A while back, I wrote that some of the Barter gravestones in the Waterville Cemetery were in bad shape and asked for donations to erect a marker for all those buried there. Here's the plaque that so many family members -- and kind friends of Bill Kyle who donated in his memory -- generously supported and it's now in place. Thank you all!

A cousin's 1962 visit to The Maples

My cousin Jo Ann from Victoria BC has sent me some memories of a summer visit with my grandmother Jane Barter Allen some 50 years ago. Aged 17 at the time of her visit, Jo Ann's great-grandmother, Nina Orser, was a second cousin to Trecia Orser, Sam Barter's wife.

Jane playing the "grand" piano (left to her by a friend and later sold for $1000
to the Pentecostal church in Hartland) with her own Kleber upright behind her.

"We really enjoyed Jane when we spent the night at The Maples. I had never seen a lady her age [70 years old] with so much make-up on -- she really fascinated me!  She showed us all the things that my great-grandfather [Peter Appleby] had made... One particularly interesting piece was a beautifully carved arch which formed the entrance to the living room...

"The furniture in the study had belonged to a doctor [James Dixon of Portsmouth NH]... several of the pieces were manufactured in New England and the manufacturers wanted them for their museum.

Sam's the man

Sam Barter driving with cousin Wood Kyle at right

One my cousins wrote to me a while back with some childhood reminiscences that demonstrate my great grandfather Barter's kindness to and interest in children.

"I remember visits from and, particularly, to Great Uncle Sam. It was a great treat to visit Hartland, where I was allowed, even encouraged, to tinker for hours with the gun collection. I guess it kept me from becoming even more of a nuisance than I otherwise would have been. I remember vainly trying to explode a .303 cartridge by flinging it into a rock pile, each time diving into the lawn clutching a steel helmet to my head.

"On a visit to Hopewell Cape, Sam once instructed me at some length on the manly art of bar-room or barrack fighting. He carefully explained that it was not good form to ever commence hostilities but also good not to finish second. Among the techniques he had found useful, was to "Get the other fellow's feet off the ground. Then you can deal with him any way you want." I can report that this is a sound and practical principle, one I never forgot.

"He was also an authority on marksmanship and would talk extensively on the subject. I understand that he put together a company of sharpshooters from Carleton County which distinguished itself during the Great War... You may also know that he and his brothers presented their little sister with a 1894 model Winchester rifle for her wedding present. It was cal. 32-40. I used to be allowed to play with that too, in Black's Harbour.

"Sam was very good with kids. One remembers that over the years. So few adults have the gift for taking little people seriously, that they manage to make lasting impressions."

Margaret Reynolds reminisces

Sorting through a few boxes of books, I came upon a "grandparent's book" wherein my mother, Margaret (Peg) Reynolds, had recorded some of her life moments for the benefit of her grand-daughter in 1985. Here are some lightly edited excerpts that help flesh out some of the Barter family history explored in Stories from Sam.

Born 1914, I was brought up by my grandparents from the age of two. Betty brought me to Avondale on the train from Fredericton after my parents separated. The children of my grandfather's second marriage were like brothers and sisters to me -- Sue, Betty, Charlie, Trecia.

We moved back to Fredericton in 1923 when Charlie was going to Normal School. After grade school, my mother insisted that I was to go to Netherwood School for Girls in Saint John but I was equally insistent that I didn't want to go! So my grandfather intervened for me and it was agreed that I could go to live with Sue and [her husband] Herman in New Glasgow NS for high school from 1928 to 1931.

Chicago, 1893

James A Barter was awarded this fine certificate for his cheese at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. It mustn't have been easy to get a cheese from rural New Brunswick all the way to Chicago way back then.

Download Stories from Sam

Stories from Sam: 
The Barters of Avondale and the 
Orsers of Hartland, New Brunswick
By Samuel G Barter, et al

This 90-page compilation of tales and memoirs by my great-grandfather, Samuel G Barter (1871-1963), paints a vivid portrait of early days in Carleton County.

The chapter on the history of Avondale NB has been expanded to include excerpts from a 1972 CBC Radio interview with Sam's daughter Jane in which she recalls her childhood (at the turn of the last century) in what was then a bustling little village. "We had straw rides and we had skating parties. We'd go down to the pond... and have torch parades on the ice and have logs on the edge of the pond to sit on for seats. The boys would help us with our skates and we'd take a lunch down sometimes if we could sneak it out of the house."

An abridged and updated version of Sam's A short history of the Orser family, last published in 1951, is included as well. Sam's mother was Trecia Orser. (And, by the way, an Orser relative wrote me a while back saying "The first record of the family goes back to a single man [and his subsequent spouse] at approximately 1637.")

Family home delivers "Stories from Sam"

Excerpts from the Bugle-Observer (Woodstock NB) 13 August 2010

Charles Reynolds' book shares tales of his great-grandfather and the history of his home and community

By Liz Foster

Charles Reynolds doesn't need a museum or a genealogy expert to take a glimpse into his family's history. He only has to look around his Avondale home. "The house is a virtual treasure trove," Reynolds said.

The house, built in 1873, has been in Reynolds family for five generations.

"My grandmother never threw anything away," he said. "There are thousands of pictures, diaires and journals. Everything is stuffed away in boxes, desks and corners."

The bulk of those diaires and journals belonged to Reynolds' great-grandfather, Sam Barter. The diaries contained a detailed description of Barter's life beginning in 1871 and ending in 1963, his family history and the history of his home community of Avondale.

In pursuit of the Totnes Barters

Well sure enough, the rolling countryside of Devon was beautiful in October and Totnes was remarkable for its architecture -- especially Tudor -- and narrow streets. On the main drag, I found the Family Study Centre quite by accident and got a bit more information on Totnes area Barters.

According to Sam Barter, "The Avondale, New Brunswick, family originated in Devonshire, England, mostly around Totnes at the head of the River Dart. One, James Barter (born c1750), settled in Massachusetts Colony at Boston, and had two boys -- James (c1775) and William -- and two girls -- Mary and Charlotte."

Who says the Barters are from Devon?

I'm heading off to England next week and I plan to spend some time in Totnes, Devon where Sam says the Barters originated. I've always wondered what this belief was based on and today I came across a 1985 letter from my cousin Charles Herrick Barter (now deceased).

He says: "Uncle Sam held that we sprang from Totnes and had visited Barters there [after] the first World War. [CR: An image from a set of souvenir postcards is at the top of this post.] There is no evidence of them there now [CR: actually there are a number of Barters in the telephone directory] but, in fact, Barters are widely and thinly found in most of the southwest of England ie. Devon, Dorset, Wiltshire and Somerset. An American Barter from Colorado has traced two branches of his family to farms near Totnes so there is a chance that Uncle Sam had met a family who had moved to town (ie. Totnes) but the 'root stock' probably lies in the country."

So I suppose that the family tradition handed down parent-to-child was that the Barters are from Devon or at least the southwest of England -- and that is probably correct. However there is a record of a James Barter and Anne Kingston marriage in 1729 at Berry Pomeroy near Totnes. According to the parish historian, "There were Barters in the early records but these are very difficult to read and... Many of the headstones in Berry Pomeroy are now missing [and] many are unreadable... Totnes is only a couple of miles away and a larger town where the people did seem to move to live and work." So I'll do a bit of digging in Totnes later this month.

The softer side of Sam's war

The book, Stories from Sam, is now available but I had to cut one of Sam Barter's WWI stories written in 1918 so I'll add it here because it's cute.

Chappie, my pet ferret

On July 2, I was coming toward the recreation room and saw three or four French kids and a half dozen of our soldier boys peering into a deep safety trench and throwing sticks. As I drew near, one of the boys called "Come here Barter. You're a hunter and you can name this animal." I looked inside and saw a small animal about as large as a big red squirrel... So I jumped in... [and] saw at once that it was badly hurt so I took it by the back of the neck... it was a baby ferret and one of the sticks had injured its back so that it could not draw its hind feet back to step [so] it could not walk.

This is the new home of CharlesReynolds.ca

I have set up this blog to host news and updates for the 2009 book, Stories from Sam, about the Barters and the Orsers of Carleton County, New Brunswick, Canada.

The book, in print, is priced at $25 and is also availble in PDF format. 

Enquiries to chasinchelsea # yahoo.com {remove # and replace with@} are most welcome.

One of my old websites, with much of the same information but some different photographs, may still be available.