Compiled by Kate Gannett Wells

Published in the Saint Andrews Beacon, St. Andrews, N.B., September 10, 1891

Transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson, C.G. (Canada). Converted to html by Heather Waddingham.

The history of the island of Campobello in Passamaquoddy Bay, off Eastport, Maine, still presents peculiar features of interest to those who care for romance in history. It possessed singular picturesqueness, unproductiveness and courtly rule - for here was maintained even till 1857, an almost feudal rule. William Owen of Wales, admiral, achieved distinction a century ago at the battle of Pondicherry in India, under Lord Clive, and when old and wounded asked for a pension or gratuity. Through the intercession of Sir William Campbell, Governor General of Nova Scotia, the English government in 1767, granted Passamaquoddy Outer Island to the Admiral and his cousins, for it was a larger territory than could be deeded to any one individual; and Owen in gratitude changed its name to Campobello. David Owen lived here as agent for the others, and as all of the original four owners died, the land became the property of William FitzWilliam Owen. The young admiral, as he was called, was the hero of the land, and of the hearts of the girls, during the first half of the century. He was a man of iron will, strong affections and sundry caprices. As a boy he was isolated from his family by military rule and brought up in barracks. When asked his name at five years of age, he answered `I don't know; mother can tell you.' From the barracks he went the round of boarding schools; sometimes, when he had been very good, being allowed to wear a cocked hat and a suit of scarlet made from an old coat of his fathers'. Like all English boys he learned the catechism and collects. If wearied with repeating the Lord's Prayer, he wished he dared say it backwards, yet he feared that by doing so he might raise the devil, and then it would be a long time before he would be allowed to wear again his favorite coat and hat.

He was a naughty boy in little ways though full of fun and of generosity, liking to argue and generally gaining his point in discussion with the other lads, especially if it was about the subject of religion. When he had been unusually obstinate, he comforted himself by his faith that God would interpose on his behalf and make him have a good time after all, in spite of the punishments he was called upon to bear and the business that crept over him. Moreover, his dreams assured him that he was a special favorite of the Almighty.

In 1788 the boy became a midshipman in the line-of-battle ship, and in the due course of time cruised in the Bay of Fundy, helping in its survey. For three years his man-of-war must have been stationed at Campobello. His crew often went ashore in summer, tending a little garden in Havre de Lutre and carrying the dahlias, for which the Island has always been famous, to the pretty girls and Owen ladies at Welshpool, who in return, in the winter to many a dance on board his ship.

The boy grew into the middle aged man and when 61 years old, with the rank of Admiral, came back to Campobello to live. Soemwhere in that long time he had captured two cannon from a Spanish pirate and carried them away to his American home. Proud as he was of them, there is no one living to tell who bled or who swore or whether the Spanish galleon sank or paid a ransom. He placed them high on Calder's Hill overlooking the Bay, where they bid defiance to American shipping boats - for Campobello belongs to New Brunswick. He planted the sun-dial of his vessel in the garden fronting his house and put a section of his beloved quarter-deck in the grove close to the shore. There, pacing up and down in uniform, he lived over again the days of his attack upon the pirate ship. He went back and forth over the Island, marrying and commanding the people. He kissed the girls when he married them and took fish and game as rent from their husbands. Now and then he gave a ball; oftender he held church service in what was almost a shanty, ommitting from the liturgy whatsoever he might chance to dislike on any special Sunday.

Lady Owen was queen as he was king and never did a lady rule more gently over store-room and parlor, over Sunday school and sewing school. The brass andirons shone like gold. The long curving mahogany sofa and the big leathern arm-chair, with sockets in the elbows for candles, still tell the primitive splendor of those days. Religion was discussed over water and whiskey and the air thick with markiness from the clay pipes, recalled the smoke of the naval battles.

Remittances did not always come promtly from England and money was needed in the Island; so the admiral set up his own bank and issued one dollar certificates surmounted by his crest and his motto `Flecti no Frangi'. But somehow the time never came when he was called upon `to pay one dollar on the demand of the bearer at Welshpool' and the certificates remain to be utilized perhaps under a new financial epoch of good will and foolish trust.

The island must have had some law and order before the advent of the admiral, for the town records for the parish of Campobello date from April 15, 1824, James M. Parker, town clerk. At the general session of the peace holden at Saint Andrews, the shire town of Charlotte County, N.B., 32 officers were chosen for the small population at Campobello. As in the old German principalities, every Welshpooler must have craved a title; there were commissioners and surveyors of highways, overseers of the poor and of fisheries, assessors, trustees of schools, inspectors of fish for home consumption and for export, for smoked herring and boxes. There were cullers of staves, fence-viewes and hog reeves. and surveyors of lumber and cordwood, lest that which should properly be used for purposes of building or export be consumed on andiron or in kitchen stoves.

In thos days there was no poorhouse, though town paupers existed, for one, Peter Lion by name, was boarded about for one hundred dallars and furnished with suitable food, raiment, lodging and medical aid. No one kept him long at a time, whether because others wanted the price paid for his support, or because he was an unwelcome inmate is known. Prices depend on supply; therefore it happened that the next pauper was boarded for fifty dollars. Again a lower price for board brought about a lower tax rate for the householders and in course of time another pauper was set at public auction and the lowest bidder was intrusted with his care and maintenance. By 1829 the exports from the island justified the creation of harbor masters and port wardens - more titles to be coveted. A ferry was established from Campobello to Indian Island and Eastport. The ferryman was `recognized in the sum of two pounds and was conditioned to keep good and sufficient boat, with sails and oars, to carry all persons who required [passage] between the appointed places to ask, demand and receive for each and every person so ferried one shilling and three pence and no more. If any other than the appointee should have the hardihood to make a little money by transporting a weary traveller, such person should be fined ten shillings, half of it to go to the informer and half to the ferryman, unless he had previously arranged with the licensee that he would afford him due and righteous satisfaction for each person so carried.

As the population grew, the swine began to abound and soon it was decreed that `neither swine nor boar-pig should go at large unless sufficiently ringed and yoked, sucking pigs accepted, on pain of five shillings for each beast.' Then the sheep began to jump fences four feet high - and their descendants have increased in agility. They ate the young cabbages and standing at ease defiantly and lazily nipped off the dahlia buds. The town bestirred itself. Angry house wives, roused from their sleep by waking dreams of depredation committed, drove the sheep away with stick and stone. The following night the fisher-husbands, back from their business, sallied forth in vain. They could not run as fast as the women and week after week the sheep took all they wanted. It became necessary finally to establish sublime order of hog reeves, who were privileged to seize any swine or sheep going at large which were not marked with the proper and duly entered mark of the owner, and to prosecute as the law directs.

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