SEPTEMBER 2025
Editorial
Dear Friends,
In this issue, David McKellar presents us with the history of a house: Botsford House, in Westcock. Individual houses are interesting in themselves but equally compelling are those families who built and lived in them. In this case, David expands on that “house history” to include the community and the families of Westcock. Get your notebooks ready, because David has not left any details out! The families Cole, Estabrooks, Millidge, Milner and, of course, Botsford, among others, figure prominently. The Mud Bank Farm (as the Botsford house was known), along with the former Marine Hospital built by Amos Botsford in 1790, were notable properties in the Westcock area; this article not only features these historic properties but especially the people who lived there. David’s account is filled with local stories and facts. Be prepared for an exciting trip into Westcock’s past!
Enjoy!
—Peter Hicklin
The House on Botsford Lane, September 2025
The House on Botsford Lane
and the Families that Lived There
In memory of Maurice “Jake” Parkin Fisher, 1924-2011
by David Graham McKellar
In a secluded corner of Westcock sits the House on Botsford Lane, a house that, over the years, has been home to a Speaker of the Legislature, a High Sheriff, a sea captain, a judge, a master mariner, a druggist, a foundry manager and a blueberry farmer.
Botsford Lane is located off the Old Hospital Loop Road, named after the old Marine Hospital that burned down in 1945, a hospital for sick and disabled mariners landing at the old Port of Sackville. Prior to that, it was the Westcock House (“Acacia Grace”) built by Amos Botsford. The Old Hospital Loop Road has two entrances off Highway #935. There are two marsh roads that run off the bottom of the loop. The one closest to town is Botsford Lane and the other is Westcock Marsh Road. Today neither has a signpost.
This is a multigenerational story of the families that lived on this historic property at “Mud Bank Farm” – Sarah ‘Fanny’ Botsford (1849-1918) memorialized this name in the attic of the house in the mid-1860s.
Sarah Botsford’s inscription in the attic of the house.
Westcock
The geographical name Westcock was probably derived from the Mi’kmaq name of Oakshaak which may mean ‘high ground overlooking a marsh.’ Many readers may not be aware that Westcock had been an Acadian settlement for many generations before the arrival of the Planters in the early 1760s. Acadians apparently called it Veska and a “port de mer” or seaport that allowed convenient water access to Port Royal.1
There is a record of a voyage in 1731 by Robert Hale where he makes reference to seeing a “wigwam on the beach” and, at about 2 miles distant, a small village of three to four French houses called Worshcock up the Tantramar River.2,3 It is possible that a Mi’kmaq summer village may have been located at Wood Creek which divides Wood Point and Westcock. Historically this is a known trackway up through Frosty Hollow and on to Memramcook. Bill Hamilton wrote a related article on the significance of these portage routes.4
A 1755 sketch by J. Hamilton entitled ‘View of the Point of Beausejour and Bute of Roger with a Distant View of Weskawk’ depicts several dwellings and a cleared area. As well, a 1755 map by Capt. Lewis portrays seven houses in Westcock.
In 1755, General Monckton was engaged in the ‘Grand Dérangement’ at Chignecto, and he sent a corps of New Englanders to destroy the Acadian dwellings at Tantramar. The conflagration of the homes of the unhappy Acadians extended to Westcock and Wood Point so that when the work of destruction was done, only heaps of ashes remained of the Acadian homes.5
Other spellings of the area include Worshcock (1731), Ouaskoc (1746), Wascok (1747), 8eehekak (1751), Westqua (1755), Westcock (1756) West Coup (1756) and finally Westcock (1792).6
In 1762 when the Sackville Township was created, it was divided up in three sections: Westcock Village, Middle Village and Upper Village. Various historical maps indicate a Sackville Town Platt was envisaged within Westcock and its remnants can still be seen in the property boundaries today.
Westcock Landing
The earliest records indicate that this area was the location of a major landing location on the (then) Tantramar River. We also know that a small boat ferry was operated from here to Westmorland Point, now Aulac, as the primary method of traversing the marsh.7 There may have been a French road from Fort Beauséjour across the Tantramar Marsh to Westcock Landing. This marsh road was likely used as an alternate route when weather conditions were such that the exposed coastal route was too dangerous. The ferryman would take you directly across the river and the traveller would have to walk across the marsh.8 We also know that the first store for provisioning ships was located here. The earliest grant maps show the Westcock Landing as a unique one-acre lot. The surrounding parcel of land was integral to the Landing and would have probably consisted of several buildings and dwellings.
Isaac Cole
Isaac Cole (1726-1771) was one of the original grantees and had married Sarah Estabrooks (1728-1770), a sister of Valentine Easterbrooks, on the 25th of September, 1746. Apparently, Isaac Cole and his wife Sarah never came to the Sackville area.
The first-mentioned land transaction for this property was noted in “Sackville Land Sales” where it was recorded that “Isaac Cole of Warren in the County of Bristol and the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England, Gentleman, sold to Valentine Easterbrooks [Estabrooks] of Sackville in the County of Cumberland in the Province of Nova Scotia [which became New Brunswick in 1784], Gentleman, land in Sackville, June 9th 1769.”9
Valentine Estabrooks
Valentine was born in Swansea Massachusetts on 13th of September 1722 and married Tabitha Dorcas Beverly (1724-1818) on the 18th of December 1747 in Rhode Island. Valentine arrived in Nova Scotia from Newport, Rhode Island, in the sloop “Sally” (or “Lydia”?) with other settlers in May 1760.10
Valentine was appointed a member of the committee authorized to partition the Township of Sackville. He took part in five meetings of this committee but there is no record that he built or lived in Westcock. There are documents indicating that he purchased the Right of Isaac Cole and he also settled on a Right granted to James Olney as his tenant. Valentine died eight years later on the 23rd of October 1770 and is buried in the Four Corners Burying Ground in Upper Sackville.
Recently, the current owner of the House on Botsford Lane discovered a buried 1757 King George II 6 pence silver coin. Was this dropped by Valentine or by an unknown English officer?
James “Squire Jim” Estabrooks
Squire Jim was born in 1757 in Rhode Island of Dutch-English ancestry. After his education, James engaged in farming and ran the General Store (may have been the store at Westcock Landing). The first record of the store is when Amos Botsford bought it from Jonathan Burnham in 1792. He became one of the leading and most influential citizens within the community. He served the County of Westmorland as a Justice of the Peace and a Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas. Estabrooks sat continuously for eighteen years in the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly.
On April 26,1790, James Estabrooks deeded to Amos Botsford for 10 pounds 10 shillings “all my marshland in Westcock Marsh in said Sackville, being one and one half shares originally granted to James Olney, and purchased from his heirs, also one other Right or Share granted to Isaac Cole and sold by him to my late father, Valentine Easterbrooks Esq., the whole being distinguished by Rights number 23, 38 and 40 in Letter A Division, and also one Town Lot late of my father No. 55 in the Town Platt in said Sackville.”11
James Estabrooks was married first to Cynthia Seaman (1764-1784), the daughter of Gilbert Seaman and Martha Alger on the 8th of May, 1783, in Sackville Township. Cynthia was 20 years of age when she died in 1784. James then married Sarah Lawrence (1767-1810), daughter of William Lawrence and Sarah Hulda Seaman, between 1784 and when their first son Valentine was born in 1787 in Sackville Township. James and Sarah had three sons and five daughters. Sarah died in 1810 in her 43rd year. His 3rd wife was Mary Brewer whom he married on the 18th of June 1821.
It appears that James lived in Westcock prior to 1790 but we know he eventually lived in the Easterbrooks House on Folkins Drive in Upper Sackville in the early 1800s.
Amos Botsford
United Empire Loyalist Amos Botsford was a lawyer, judge, landowner and political figure in New Brunswick. He was born in Newton, Connecticut Colony, in 1743. He studied law, was admitted to the bar and taught law at Yale. In 1770, he married Sarah Chandler (1752-1820). Because Botsford remained loyal to Britain, his property was confiscated and, in July 1779, he left Connecticut. In 1782, he was sent to Nova Scotia with a group of Loyalists from New York state where Botsford, as a Loyalist Agent, helped identify possible areas in the region for Loyalist settlements. In 1784, he moved to Dorchester, New Brunswick. Botsford was named Clerk of the Peace, judge for the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and registrar of deeds for Westmorland. He was chosen as Speaker for the first legislative assembly and performed that function until his death in Saint John in 1812.
He first lived on Botsford Island, later known as Dorchester Island, for six years, from 1784 to 1790. Then he moved to his newly acquired property in Westcock, where he built Acacia Grace. It was a grand New England style “manor” surrounded by swaths of agricultural lands with sweeping vistas of the Bay of Fundy.
Amos Botsford’s 1796 map of Sackville Town Plat with sketches of dwellings.
Stephen Millidge
Stephen Millidge (1761-1803) was a son of Major Thomas Millidge (1727-1816) and Mercy Barker (1729-1820) who settled in Digby, Nova Scotia, where they received a large land grant. This was thanks in no small part to the efforts of family friend and fellow Loyalist, lawyer Amos Botsford.12,13 Stephen arrived in Westcock as early as 1787 from Digby; Millidge was a merchant-trader, storekeeper, High Sheriff, and Deputy Crown Surveyor.
Amos Botsford had two daughters, Ann and Sarah. Sarah married Stephen Millidge in 1790 and they had six daughters and one son: Ann, Mary, Elizabeth, Caroline, Jane, Phoebe and William. The Millidges had a provision store at the ‘Landing’ below the House on Botsford Lane on the Tantramar River. Various maps show the location of the ‘Landing’ as the small square one-acre lot owned by Sarah’s father Amos Botsford. It was the store Amos Botsford bought from Jonathan Burnham. Stephen and Sarah were the storekeepers, but the building seems to have remained in Amos’ name.
We know that Stephen Millidge, Amos Botsford’s son-in-law and his family lived in an earlier house just to the north and closer to the Landing. The inspection of modern-day LiDAR done by the New Brunswick provincial government reveals what could be the original foundations of this house. This confirms the information shown on the copy of the 1796 Sackville Town Plat plan where the owner (Amos Botsford?) drew in key dwellings.
Stephen built their new house in the location of the current House on Botsford Lane in 1801 but all that is left today is probably the foundations for the house and chimneys and some structural parts of the west ell or wing of the current house. The main part of the house would have been probably 1½ stories, as was common in the early 1800s, with a main door facing east towards Fort Beauséjour. Sixty some years later in the mid-1860s, Blair Botsford made major house renovations.
Stephen Millidge died in 1803 “from a cold” [stroke?] taken during a long winter drive. The widow and only son went to Digby in 1807 to attend some law business. As they were landing from the ship into a small boat, it capsized and they were both drowned. The wail that arose when the poor girls heard the news was heart-rendering. Their uncle and aunt did all that was possible to comfort them. Room was made for them at Westcock and there they remained until provided with homes of their own.”14,15 The daughters ranged in age from 5 to 16 when their mother died. In the span of just a few years they had lost both their father, mother and brother.
The epitaph on Stephen’s gravestone in Westcock Cemetery reads: Departed this Life in the Blessed Hope of a Joyful Resurrection, Stephen Millidge Esq, who died Sept. 16th, 1803, in the 42nd Year of his age leaving an affectionate wife and seven children. Erected by Jane F and Eliza Millidge as a tribute of grateful respect to the memory of a Beloved and Lamented Father.
Location of Stephen Millidge house prior to 1800 and later house on Botsford Lane.
William Botsford
William Botsford (1773-1864) was a very successful lawyer in Saint John and the only son of Amos Botsford and his wife Sarah ‘Sally’ Chandler.
The relationship between William and his father was known to be strained and it was only with great reluctance that William relocated to Westcock in the summer of 1807. Perhaps William Botsford lived initially in the Millidge house in 1807 after the tragic death of his sister Sarah that same year. Maybe after the death of his father Amos in 1812 William and his family relocated to the family home.
We know that William in 1831 inherited the estates in Westcock from his father’s estate. The 1851 census has William aged 78 living with his sons William Hazen (aged 48) and Amos (aged 46), his nieces Francis Murray and servants Amelia Thompson and R. Stuart. In the 1861 census, William (88) is living with his sons William (58; farmer), Amos (55; speculator), Fanny (25; gentlewoman), Mary Berr (40; housekeeper), labourers Joseph Atkinson (58) Robert Russ (19), William Wegmore (18) and domestics Joanna Edgass (18) and Elizabeth Cook (17).
Judge William Botsford and his wife lived on his country estate in Westcock where he assumed the role of country squire and gentleman farmer. He died on his family estate on the 8th of May 1864.
Blair Botsford
On the 3rd of June, 1843, William Botsford and his wife Sarah Lowell Hazen deeded the property on Botsford Lane to their youngest son Blair Botsford (1821-1887) who was 22 years of age at the time. The total property was 300 acres “being near the head of the Great Marsh in Sackville”. The Walling Map of 1862 shows the homestead with Judge B[otsford] printed beside it – it is known that the map consisted of data collected from the 1840s to when it was published in 1862. Blair and Sarah had seven children: Sarah ‘Fannie’ (born 1849), LeBaron (born 1850), Mary (born 1852), Elizabeth (born 1859), Maud (born 1861), Murray (born 1864) and Alice (born 1866).
Blair Botsford was the High Sheriff of Westmorland County for 30 years. The 1851 census indicates that they were living in Dorchester. It shows Blair and Sarah with two of their children, Sarah age 2 and LeBaron age 1, along with two domestics, Catherine Atkinson age 20 and Susan Perr age 14. By the 1861 census, the family was still in Dorchester and had grown to five children and they had one domestic, Mary Mahoney aged 20. The 1871 census shows all seven children plus his mother-in-law Alice Cogswell living in Westcock. In July 1880, Blair became the first Warden of Dorchester Penitentiary. I expect the family decided to sell the Westcock house in early 1879 while the prison was being built. The 1881 census has the family living in Dorchester with only three children still at home: Maud (age 19), Alice (age 14) and Murray (age 16), as well as Sarah’s mother Sarah ‘Alice’ Cogswell (age 85) and one domestic Rebecca Campbell (age 68).
Blair in the mid-1860s undertook a significant renovation of the original house built by Stephen Millidge. The main part of the house was transformed to a more modern design which included a full second floor and the addition of a full 3rd floor attic. The main entrance was moved to the south side of the house from the side facing the Westcock Marsh which resulted in a very large entry hallway and 2nd floor landing which were probably the size of rooms in the original house design.
Paul Bogaard and Ben Phillips plan to publish a separate article on the dendroarchaeological dating of the Botsford/Fisher House and will have a more detailed analysis of the house construction and renovations. The present-day house was constructed no earlier than 1866.
Blair Botsford died in 1887 and his wife went to live with her son Murray Botsford (1864-1991) and his wife Lena Chipman (1870-1956) in Halifax.
William Milner
William was born in Wood Point in 1832. He was the son of William Milner (1802-1832) and Amy Snowdon (1808-1892) of Wood Point. William’s father died the year he was born and it appears that his mother remarried to Simon Outhouse. William lived with his uncle Joseph Milner and aunt Elizabeth Snowdon who had no children of their own.
He married his first wife Dorcas Clark of Wood Point in 1852. They had 2 children: Ida May (born 1870) and George (born 1857). Dorcas died in 1858 at age 32. In 1864, he married Dorcas’ younger sister Eliza Clark. He and Eliza had two children: Thomas K (born 1865) and William E (born 1870). Eliza died at age 34.
In 1874, William married Helen Chapman, a widow living in Rockland. The Milners had nine children: Thomas (born 1866), William (born 1871), Mary (born 1875), George (born 1878), Amy (born 1879), Laura (born 1881), Frances (born 1884), Lyle (born 1888) and Constance (born 1890).
On the 23rd of July, 1879, Blair Botsford and his wife Sarah Cogswell sold their homestead on Botsford Lane to Capt. William Milner and his wife Helen Clarice Chapman for $4000. They were listed on the deed as lot numbers 19, 29, 30, 35 and 36 on the Palmer Plan. In 1881, William sold his home in Wood Point to his former brother-in-law Stephen Clark and purchased the House on Botsford Lane from Blair’s estate for $1,190.16
The 1881 census shows that the family settled in their new homestead in Westcock along with one domestic, Mary Snowden aged 15. By the 1891 census, sons Thomas and William had left home. The 1901 census shows that the daughter Mary and son George had moved out of the family homestead and that their daughter Laura (then aged 20 years) was living with her parents along with her 1 year old twin sons Irvin and Roy. Her husband Roy Ford may have died by that time.
William was both a Master Mariner and a farmer. He was the ‘master’ and owner of multiple ships. When he retired, he moved to a home on Squire Street in the town of Sackville. He died in 1913 at age 91 and is buried in the Westcock Cemetery.
Mary Crane Milner
Mary Crane Milner (1875-1943) was the eldest daughter of Capt. Willam Milner (1832-1913) and his wife Helen Clarice Chapman (1845-1933). The Crane connection is from Mary’s maternal grandmother Mary Jane Crane (1820-1904), daughter of William Crane (1785-1853), who worked first as a clerk to Stephen Millidge at the “store” at Westcock Landing.
Mary married Angus McQueen Avard on the 4th of October 1891; she was 24 years old. In 1902, William Milner bought the old Marine Hospital through a special grant from the provincial government. This had been originally built by Amos Botsford in 1790. A few months later he sold the hospital to his son-in-law Angus Avard. It is possible that the Avards lived there for a time. On the death of her father in 1913 the House on Botsford Lane became hers.
The 1901 census shows Mary and her husband and one son Gordon living in Sackville. By the 1911 census, the family was at the Botsford Lane homestead and had two domestics: Thomas Litteer (age 16) and Philip Essey (age 63). Mary and Angus had four children: Gordon (born 1900), Lewis (born 1902), Helen (born 1904) and Angus (born 1909). The names of these children can still be read on the attic walls of the House on Botsford Lane.
In the 1921 census, Mary and Angus are living with their daughter Helen and son Angus, James Avard (Angus’s brother) and a servant, Cynthia McKing aged 75. The 1931 census has Mary and Angus along with James Avard, Angus’s brother, and servant Marion Tower living in the house. Mary died on the 18th of June 1943 and, prior to her death, she sold the Botsford House on the 26th of March, 1943, to Joseph B. Gass and his wife Clara.
Joseph ‘Joe’ Blair Gass
Joe Gass (1892-1980) was born on the 20th of September 1892, in Sackville Parish, the son of William Arthur Gass (1868-1954) and Edna May Patterson (1866-1901). In both the 1921 and 1931 censuses, his occupation was shown as a drug clerk. We know that Joe’s first cousin was Dr. Charles Leon Gass who bought the Corner Drug Store in Sackville in 1923. Perhaps, as a drug clerk, he was an employee of Dr. Gass.
Joe married Hazel Jane Hicks (1895-1919) about 1918. They had one son Arthur William Gass in 1919 who died in infancy and it appears that Hazel may have also died in childbirth (?). Joe’s second wife was Clara Christina Bury (1901-1998); they married on the 20th of September 1922 in Moncton. They had two children James Henderson Gass in 1923 and Mary Ruth Gass in 1933.
The Gass family purchased the House on Botsford Lane on 26th of March, 1943, a few months prior to Mary Crane Milner’s death.
Jake Fisher and his children at the family home.
Maurice “Jake” Parkin Fisher
Jake was born on the 21st of April 1924 in Sackville, the son of Charles Maurice Parkin “CMP” Fisher (1891-1983) and Mary Kathleen “Kay” Fawcett (1894-1974). Jake’s grandfather was William Shives Fisher (1854-1931) who was married to Mabel Shaw (1860-1940). William Shives Fisher owned the Enterprise Foundry in Sackville. The Fishers were a Loyalist family. Lewis Fisher (1740-1816) and Mary Barbara Till (1749-1841) arrived in Fredericton (St. Anne’s Point) in September 1783 with their three children: Eliza (1777-1850), Henry (1780-1855) and Peter (1782-1848). Peter wrote the original “First History of New Brunswick” in 1825.
Jake married Margery Ross Campbell (1925-2005) the daughter of Samuel ‘Sam’ Ross Campbell (1882-1970) and Marion Davidson Goldsworth (1891-1956). Jake and Margery married on the 18th of March 1950 in Montreal (Westmount) and had five children: Judith (born 1951), Michael (born 1952), Susan (born 1954), Alan (born 1956, died 1976) and Ian born in 1959. All the children were born on Park Street in Sackville. When the House on Botsford Lane was bought in 1962 by Jake and his wife Margery, it had been abandoned and had no electricity nor plumbing. The old dug well can still be seen outside the kitchen door covered by a huge grindstone, probably quarried at Wood Point.
Susan Ross Fisher and her siblings also left their mark in March 1966 in the attic of the House on Botsford Lane (see below left).
Margery passed away on the 11th of June, 2005, and Jake died on the 13th of August 2011.
The Fisher siblings’ mark in the attic.
Zackery ‘Zack’ Fisher
Zack was born in 1991 and is the son of Malcolm Fisher and Debbie Doncaster. Zack’s 2nd great-grandfather is William Shives Fisher. Zack bought the House on Botsford Lane in 2012. Zack and his wife Joanna Wilkin have done considerable renovations to the house and yet retained the original architecture of the place. They have two sones, Weston and Jay.
List of Owners and Occupancy of Mud Bank Farm
1672-1755 Acadians
1760-1769 Isaac Cole and Sarah Estabrooks
1769-1770 Valentine Estabrooks and Tabitha Beverly
1770-1790 James “Squire Jim” Estabrooks and Sarah Lawrence
1790-1790 Amos Botsford and Sarah Chandler
1790-1803 Stephen Millidge and Sally Botsford
1803-1807 Sally Botsford
1807-1843 Judge William Botsford and Sally Chandler
1843-1879 Blair Botsford and Sarah Hazen
1879-1913 William Milner and Helen Chapman
1913-1943 Mary Crane Milner and Angus Avard
1943-1962 Joe Gass and Clara Christina Bury
1962-2011 Jake Fisher and Margery Campbell
2012-present Zack Fisher and Joanna Wilkin
Historical Significance
Mud Bank Farm played a key maritime and agricultural role from the earliest days of Westcock which included indigenous people, Acadians, Planters and finally the Loyalists. Equally important are the people who lived both on this farm as well as in the House on Botsford Lane and this was their story.
Via the Tantramar Heritage Trust’s Alec R Purdy History and Genealogy Research Centre, the Trust maintains an extensive library of genealogy and local history and is located at the Anderson Octagonal House on Queens Road. Those interested in researching your family history can check out the Research Centre website https://tinyurl.com/ymvb4cjf.
The Trust maintains an Ancestry family tree “Descendants of Early Tantramar Families” which is publicly available through Ancestry – https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/tree/159890669/. All the families mentioned in this article can be found in this family tree maintained by the Tantramar Heritage Trust. Any errors or omissions in this family tree please email the Trust at tantramarheritage @gmail.com. The main structure of this tree is based on the genealogical research done by Ken Tower and his father over many, many years.
Acknowledgements
I’d like to recognize Marilyn Keller (née Wheaton), a volunteer genealogist with the Trust, for her assistance in ensuring that the family history of these families is as accurate as possible and for her encouragement. A special “thank you” to my multiple reviewers who helped me craft this article in memory of Maurice “Jake” Parkin Fisher (1924-2011) and The House on Botsford Lane.
Endnotes
1. Atlas of the Acadian Settlement of the Beaubassin 1660 to 1755: Tintamarre and Le Lac by Paul Surette, 2005, Tantramar Heritage Trust.
2. Journal of a Voyage to Nova Scotia made in 1731 by Robert Hale of Beverly, Historical Collections of the Essex Institute Vol. XLII, No. 3, page 231, July 1906.
3. Extracts from Journal of a Voyage to Nova Scotia in 1731, The White Fence #109, April 2024.
4. Paddling Through History: The Portage Routes of Siknikt/Chignecto by Bill Hamilton.
5. History of Sackville New Brunswick by Dr William C Milner (1934).
6. Geographical names of New Brunswick by Alan Rayburn for Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names, 1975, page 287.
7. A Westmorland County ‘Ferry’ Tale by Eugene Goodrich, Westmorland Historical Society, Vol 57, Issue 1.
8. The Old French Road Across the Tantramar Marsh by Colin MacKinnon, The White Fence #35, April 2007, Tantramar Heritage Trust.
9. New Brunswick Museum Archives.
10. “The Rhode Island Emigration to Nova Scotia” by Ray Greene Huling, The Narragansett Historical Register, vol. 7:2, April 1889. pp. 101-136.
11. Westmorland County Record, Volume A-1.
12. Letters to Sally: An Early Sackville Love Story by W. Eugene Goodrich, The White Fence #58, December 2012.
13. Stephen Millidge: The Surprising Story of a Sackville Loyalist by W. Eugene Goodrich, Tantramar Heritage Trust.
14. Memoir of LeBaron Botsford by His Niece Francis Elizabeth Murray, 1892.
15. Dendroarchaeological Dating of the Botsford/Fisher House by Paul Bogaard and Ben Phillips, unpublished draft manuscript.
16. The Wood Point Sea Captains by Bill Snowdon, unpublished draft manuscript.
References
The Struggle for Sackville by Amy Fox and Paul Bogaard, 2012. Tantramar Heritage Trust.
The Botsford Men of Westmorland County by Lorna Milton Oulton, Tantramar Heritage Trust.
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY
Interested in Becoming a Museum Guide with the Tantramar Heritage Trust?
The Tantramar Heritage Trust is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to be trained Museum Guides at our museums: Boultenhouse Heritage Centre and Campbell Carriage Factory Museum.
Who can be a Museum Guide?
Anyone who has a passion for history and is a good communicator can apply. Membership in the Tantramar Heritage Trust is encouraged but not necessary.
What will you do?
You’ll work with other guides to meet and greet visitors and show them around the museums. At the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre you’ll explain the significance of our complex of three historic buildings, relive the era when Sackville was a busy seaport and shipbuilding centre, guide them through the “Makers and Sellers” exhibit heralding Sackville’s industrial and commercial past, share the story of the founding of Sackville Township and the seafaring Anderson family, introduce them to our ever expanding Research Centre along with viewing special exhibits. At the Campbell Carriage Factory Museum you’ll guide them through the only Carriage Factory Museum in Canada, a unique museum and an exceptionally fine example of 19th century manufacturing. All aspects of manufacturing of wagons and sleighs can be explained, along with the fully functioning blacksmith shop.
When and Where?
Additional guides are most often required in spring and fall at both museums when school groups and groups of seniors visit. The Campbell Carriage Factory Museum is seasonal, usually open from mid May to the end of October, but our summer staff is only available for part of that time. It would be nice to have the museum open for one or two days weekly during the shoulder season, particularly in September and October.
Commitment
The amount of time you volunteer is completely up to you. Our Executive Director Karen Valanne will be coordinating deployment of guides as needed. A likely scenario is for her to have a listing of volunteers that could be “on call” when needs arise.
Benefits to you
• Gain an in-depth knowledge of local history and historical interpretation
• Be part of our dedicated museum team
• Help educate our visitors about our Town’s unique history
• Receive training and access to our museums interpreter’s guidebooks
• Receive a volunteer name badge
Interested?
If you’re interested in becoming a Museum Guide, please contact Karen Valanne, Executive Director, by email tantramarheritage@gmail.com or phone 506-536-2541or drop by the Trust’s office at 29B Queens Road, Sackville, NB.
Announcements
EXHIBIT OPENING
Tracing the Ghosts of Rockport by Kellie Mattatall
Friday, September 19, 7-9 pm
Boultenhouse Heritage Centre, 29 Queens Rd
This fall, the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre will host Tracing the Ghosts of Rockport by artist Kellie Mattatall. Through a series of semi-abstract oil paintings and luminous cyanotypes, the exhibition reimagines the abandoned homesteads of Rockport, NB, weaving together memory, place, and history.
These works breathe life into vanished houses and explore the traces they leave behind in the landscape and in community memory.
Drop by to meet the artist and enjoy light refreshments. (Afterwards, go next door to Marshview Middle School to view the Fall Fair fireworks at 9 pm!)
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Blacksmithing Demonstrations
Saturday, September 20, 10 am to 5 pm
Campbell Carriage Factory Museum
The Campbell Carriage Factory will be open for tours and blacksmithing demonstrations. This is our last official open day this season, but you can contact us to arrange a visit until early November.
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Annual “Taste of History” Fundraising Dinner
Sunday, September 21, 6:30 pm
Sackville Legion
The theme for the Trust’s annual dinner is “Sackville’s Earliest Houses.” The meal is a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Tickets are $50, which includes a $25 tax receipt. Seating is limited and you can purchase your ticket by contacting Karen at 506-536-2541 or tantramarheritage@gmail.com.
