Chapter 1

The Reids of Ireland

1. Origin of the Reid name

There are several independent Scottish, English, and Irish origins of the Reid name. In Scotland, the Islay (southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides) name MacRory, Mac Ruaraidh in Gaelic, became Reid, and the name Ruadh, meaning red, also became Reid.  The name MacInroy, or Mac Iain Ruaidh in Gaelic—"son of Red John"—a sept (division) of Clan Donnachie, was changed to both Reid and Roy.  Tradition says that the progenitor of the Reid sept of  Clan Robertson is 'Robert the Red' (Rob Roy) of Scotland. In both England and Scotland the names Reid, Reed, and Read can derive from the word for "red" implying that the progenitor of the family name was someone with red hair or a ruddy complexion. 

Reid is among the 100 most common names in Ireland and among the 40 most common in Ulster.  It is particularly common in the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, and Tyron.  In Ulster, the name Ó Maoildeirg or Mulderrig, meaning "descendant of the red warrior" became Reid.  A sept of the O'Muldergs of Antrim was anglicized to Reid, among other names.  Also, the Roscommon County name Mulready occasionally became Reid. (taken from the internet)

2. Reid Beginnings

The earliest known Reid in my ancestral line is George Reid, my 2^nd great-grandfather, who was born in Scotland in the late 18^th century. No information about George’s life in Scotland has surfaced to date. Details of his life only begin to emerge after his emigration to Ireland as a young man.

George is said to have been a descendant of the Robertson clan by virtue of the name Reid. Based on this one supposition passed down from earlier generations, one can only theorize about George’s—and his descendants’—Scottish ancestry, perhaps within the framework of the following information.

The word Clan means family or offspring and was no doubt originally applied to a certain number of families, who claimed a common descent and lived in the same district. The clan was therefore just a tribe which was the patriarchal form of society and universal in primitive times.

The Reids, who are numerous in Atholl, are of the Robertson clan. The Stewarts and Robertsons are the two largest Atholl Clans. Today, the village of Blair Atholl is located about 10 miles northwest of Pitlochry in the Grampian Highlands of Scotland.

The origin of the Robertson family is doubtful. An attempt has been made to trace their descent from the old Celtic Earls of Atholl, but evidence does not support it. By tradition the Robertsons are said to be Macdonalds and to have as their ancestor Duncan, a son of Angus, who was Lord of the Isles in the reign of William, The Lion, 1165 to 1214. The Robertsons, in the thirteenth century, are to be found occupying large tracts of land in Atholl, which had belonged to the Celtic Earls. The Robertsons held their lands as vassals of the Earls of Atholl till 1451, when a Crown Charter was obtained as a reward for apprehending two of the murderers of James 1. The Robertsons, who were previously known as the Clan Donnachie, and sometimes as Duncanson, got their name from Robert of Atholl, who obtained the Crown Charter. They are not mentioned in the list of Clans drawn in 1450, unless they were included under the Macdonalds.¹  

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3. Scotland to Ireland

George Reid, born in Scotland about 1785,² emigrated to Ireland, and later emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada. Nothing much is known of George’s life in Scotland, nor has any information been discovered about his parents or of any siblings. Family history states that George was a linen weaver by trade.³  At what age George became a weaver is uncertain, but we know that weaving was a common male occupation in both Scotland and Ireland.

George emigrated to Ireland before the year 1809.⁴ There is no evidence to suggest whether George emigrated with his family or traveled with anyone else. Regardless, George landed in Ireland, and in so doing had to face the rigors of crossing the twenty-mile North Channel between Scotland and Ireland. It is unknown whether he first landed in the Belfast area or Londonderry: this writer’s guess is that he first arrived in the Belfast area.

Map 2 shows the Scottish Lowlands and possible routes to Ireland. Ports in Scotland may have been at Campbeltown, Ayr and Stranraer. Ships may have arrived at Larne or Carrickfergus in Ireland. If George landed on the east coast, one can only wonder how, when and why he ended up in Tamnaherin near Londonderry.

One can not be absolutely sure why George emigrated. Perhaps George’s father was a Scottish farmer with older sons at home, leaving little room for George on the farm; or, perhaps George had been taught how to weave by his father, and was then lured to Ireland by the domestic linen industry which was flourishing in most of Ulster at the beginning of the 19th century.⁵ It seems reasonable to this author that George may have thought Ireland offered a more promising future than did Scotland, and that a young man’s thirst for adventure would be assuaged by the pursuit of that goal.

4. George Reid and Elizabeth Buchanan

George Reid met and married Elizabeth—she may have been called Betsy—Buchanan in Ireland about 1809, or earlier.⁶ George would have been about 24, and Elizabeth 20 in 1809. Elizabeth, born Nov 9, 1789 in Londonderry County, Ireland,⁷ was the daughter of John Buchanan. She had two younger brothers; John, born in 1793, and James, born in 1796, both born in Londonderry County, Ireland. There seems to have been no connection between the Reid family and the Buchanan family in Scotland, since the Buchanans had to have been living in Ireland as early as 1789, Elizabeth’s birth year. This writer has no further knowledge of the Buchanan family’s years in Ireland.

George and Elizabeth lived in Ireland until 1840 when, at that time, they emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada. Between the years of 1808 and 1826, Elizabeth gave birth to seven children: John, born about 1810; Elizabeth, born in 1813; William, born in 1814; Daniel, born in 1816; James, born in 1819; Robert, born in 1820; and Thomas, born in 1826. Life could not have been easy for the Reid family during those years.

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5. Historical Research Associates in Belfast

Until 1995, all that was known about the Reids was that they had come from Lower Cumber in Londonderry County, Ireland.

In 1995, I, William Reid,⁸ George and Elizabeth’s 2nd great-grandson, contracted with Historical Research Associates in Belfast⁹ to have the Reid name researched. Joan Phillipson, professional genealogist of HRA, was provided with two pieces of information: 1) George and Elizabeth were Protestants, and 2) Jack Reid’s information indicating that the Reids came from Lower Cumber, Ireland.¹⁰  I did not ask Ms. Phillipson to research the Buchanan name. After many hours of research conducted between January 1995 and March 1996, at a cost of £163, or $260 (rate: £19 per hour), Joan found two records providing information about the George Reid family.

Record 1                Cumber Lower  Church of Ireland  marriage record – 29 December 1835   

T679/377       Daniel Reed and Mary Gallagher – banns – Rev. John Hayden

Record 2                Faughanvale – Presbyterian Church - Baptisms - 21 December 1826

Microfilm                Thos, son of George Reid and Elis Buchanan of Tamnearen -

1P/1890                 Born  23 November.   

                                               (Tamnaherin [spelling different] is a small village in Lower Cumber)

These two records tell us:

• The Reids were members of the Presbyterian Church in Faughanvale since their youngest son, Thomas, was baptized there.

• In the year 1826 the Reids were living in the village of Tamnearen/Tamnaherin in the Parish of Lower Cumber in Londonderry County (see map 2 & 3). It seems reasonable to presume that Elizabeth Buchanan’s family lived in the same area. Faughanvale is located about 8 miles northeast of Londonderry, while Lower Cumber is located about 8 miles southeast of Londonderry (see maps 3 & 4).

• Thomas was born on November 23, 1826, and baptized on December 21, 1826.

• Daniel, George and Elizabeth’s son, and Mary Gallagher were married on December 29, 1835 in the Church of Ireland, and the banns had been read as required.¹¹

It is interesting to note that besides Elizabeth and her two brothers, other Buchanans were also living in Tamnaherin in 1826, although no connection is apparent. Alexander Buchanan is listed in Griffiths Valuation of Ireland: townland of Tamnaherin, Cumber Lower, County Derry. Other Buchanans are listed in Microfilm1P1890.¹²  In the 1831 Census for Londonderry County, parish of Lower Cumber, a John Buchanan is listed. Is this the father of Elizabeth, John and James?¹³

One of the townlands in Lower Cumber adjacent to Tamnaherin is Gortinreid (Gortin Reid) (See Map 4). Gortinreid means “gort or field of the bridge.”¹⁴  Is it merely circumstantial that one of George’s grandsons (this writer’s grandfather) was named Charles Gordon Reid?

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6. Living Conditions in Ireland around 1800

Although we have no knowledge of the Reid family’s specific living conditions while they were in Ireland, living conditions in Ulster during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have been well documented. One can obtain a fairly clear picture of how the Reids may have lived by referring to that information.

In the early 1800s Irish families lived in cottages mostly of stone. At one end of the scale were the tiny one-roomed houses, often described as hovels. In many cases, a two roomed cottage often housed a family of ten or more—with no internal plumbing or sanitation whatsoever…and where a spring well was the only source of clean water, often being shared with neighbors who had no wells on their land.

Dwellings of the Irish were rarely watertight, properly glazed, or properly ventilated. In the north, where the linen industry flourished, flax thatch was common. An integral feature of many Irish cottages was the traditional half-door. Its advantages were great, especially when the windows were so small and in many cases, not able to be opened.

The half-door allowed both daylight and fresh air to filter into the house—at the same time keeping hens and other animals out, and crawling babies in. For those inside, seated by the fire or at their dinner, the half-door also gave a fine view of any approaching visitors.

Frequently, the only bedstead consisted of bog timber supported by large stones, with a bundle of straw or rushes for a pallet. A canvas sheet covered the straw with a blanket made of tow yarn and woolen yarn as a cover. It was at one time common for whole families to sleep in one big bed... some at the head and some at the foot. An overnight visitor might have been given a shake-down bed by the kitchen hearth. This was nothing more than a bundle of hay or straw teased out. When hay or straw was in short supply, rushes made do.

The ordinary diet of the laboring class consisted chiefly of potatoes—one acre of potatoes could feed four people; one acre of crops could feed two people—and buttermilk, with eggs or salt herrings at dinner and supper. Some endeavored to have porridge for breakfast in summer; many, however, had to subsist on potatoes throughout the year, with sour milk in summer and gruel, onions, salt, salt herrings or eggs in winter. Middling farmers could sometimes afford a little beef or bacon.¹⁵

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7. Tamnaherin

Tamnaherin, during the time of the Reid’s residency in the early 1800s, was under the proprietorship of the Grocers’ Company.¹⁶ Tamnaherin, in 1826, consisted of 790 acres, 3 roods, 37 perches (l acre = 4 roods, 1 rood = 40 perches). Elevation ranged from 200 – 655 feet. The land use was devoted to 19% tillage, 67% bog waste and mountain pasture, 11% pasture, the remaining use was for plantation and roads. Of the farms, 4 were under 10 acres, 6 under 20 acres, 10 under 50 acres and 4 over 50 acres. The smaller farms were farmed wholly for subsistence.¹⁷

During the same period in Tamnaherin there were 17 working farmers, 23 family males, 22 family females, 78 male and 33 female occasional laborers, 13 ploughs, 14 harrows, 16 carts, 20 horses 56 spinning wheels. There were six independent looms for weaving linen.¹⁸

Today, Tamnaherin (Irish: Tamhnach Caorthainn; meaning Field of the rowan trees) is a small village in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 123 people. Tamnaherin is situated in Derry City Council area.

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8. Social Stratification in Nineteenth-Century Ireland¹⁹

Several levels of tenant-landlord relations existed in pre-famine Ireland. Relationships between British or Anglo-Irish landowners, middlemen, tenant farmers, and cottiers and landless peasants show a surprising contrast in relations between peasant classes.

Landlords
Some landlords (but only a few) were absentee - they rarely visited their estates but lived in luxury in Dublin or London employing agents or middlemen to run their estates and collect rents from the tenant farmers.

Large Tenant Farmers
Rented over thirty acres. They had a lease or contract with the landlord which stated that as long as they paid their rent they would not be evicted or thrown off their land. Their families were well fed on a diet of meat, potatoes, vegetables and milk. They could afford to have their sons educated while their daughters helped their mothers at home. They hired labourers to help with the work on the farm. Some of them were middlemen who sub-let land to smaller farmers.

Small Tenant farmers
They rented between 5 and 30 acres from the landlord, his agent or sub rented from large farmers. They lived in a one or two roomed thatched cottage which contained little furniture. Their diet consisted of potatoes, milk and sometimes fish such as herring. Christmas was the only time they ate meat. On the farm they grew crops to pay the rent and potatoes to feed the family. They also kept some pigs and a cow or a few goats.

Cottiers
These were agricultural labourers who worked for a large farmer. In return they were given an acre of ground upon which to build a cabin and grow potatoes. The rent could be as much as £5 per year and would be taken out of their wages. They lived in a one roomed mud cabin with a thatched roof, little or no furniture, sleeping on straw on the floor. They would have lived all the year round on potatoes with sometimes some milk.

Spalpeens
These were travelling labourers who found work wherever they could. Frequently unemployed they lived in extreme poverty in falling down hovels.

Tradesmen
These came in somewhere on a level with small tenant farmers. Stone masons, Carpenters, Black Smiths etc. They would have lived in stone walled houses rented from the landlord. This category would probably include linen weavers.

George Reid would probably have been considered a small tenant farmer and a linen weaver.

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9. Linen Weaving and George Reid

Although there is no evidence to suggest that George Reid was anything but a linen weaver while living in Ireland, he, like many weavers, may have rented a small farm owned by the Grocers Company in Tamnaherin. He may have grown his own flax, and most probably grew potatoes and other crops to help feed and support a large family. The average rent per acre of land in the parish of Lower Cumber was 1 pound 2s; for second quality land, 15s; third quality land, 10s; and for course land, 2 to 6 s per acre. Rents were paid in money.²⁰ 

The preparation of an acre of flax for the spinning wheel required 8 days’ work, at different intervals, utilizing 4 men and 8 women, and two horses. The profit resulting from an acre of flax land, sowing the crop and converting it at harvest into 11 webs of linen was about 6 pounds. It was the most expensive of all crops, particularly in wet seasons.²¹

The making of linen in Ulster was a domestic industry, carried on in the country home, and was organized within the family hierarchy. The father wove, did the marketing and any business associated with it, and trained his sons when they were of an appropriate age. The men also did some supplementary farming or fishing, depending on the locality and circumstances. The mother looked after the house, spun the flax, taught the younger children to prepare it for her, and in due course trained her daughters in her skills.²²

It’s safe to assume that all family members were expected to work within the home structure, and to also venture out when old enough, finding work wherever it was available. In 1826, the ages of George and Elizabeth’s children were: John, 16; Elizabeth, 13; William, 12; Daniel, 10; James, 7; Robert, 6 and Thomas, infant.

10. Laborers

Young men who worked as laborers in the employment of farmers  received in summer half-year, 10d (10 pence) a day, and for the winter half-year, 8d.²³ Those who had constant employment with farmers, when dieted by them, received 5d ha’penny a day. Those who were free to work for whom they pleased received in the harvest or turf-cutting season, 1s a day, with diet; putting out the crops in spring  and digging out the potatoes in autumn, 9d a day and diet. If not dieted they received 1s a day in all working seasons.²⁴ The average sum that a laborer could realize by constant employment,  embracing all chances of harvest, turf cutting, spring labor, and road-making, from the beginning of April to the middle of November, was from 7 to 8 pounds.²⁵

A village might employ two adults as herders. They could receive throughout the year 10d a day, including Sundays. Young herders were sometimes partially employed, males and females indiscriminately, who tended the cattle in the summer in the moss and mountain farms. They were from 10 to 16 years old, and were paid for that half-year from 15s to 21s.

In the winter they returned to their parents, who were burthened (burdened) with their support from November to May. In many instances the boy thus employed in summer was sent to school in winter and as many as possible of the females were sent out to some kind of service. They received for the season, from 3s to 8s for nursing, assisting in kitchen work, etc. If no service could be procured they either went to school or stayed at home to spin.²⁶

The Reid family was probably somewhat better off than a cottier and his family would have been. (A cottier was a person who hired a small cottage, with or without a plot of land. Cottiers commonly aided in the work of the landlord's farm.) Table 1 below compares a cottier’s average annual income and expenditures between the years of 1832-1838. One can see that it was difficult for a cottier and his family to even subsist, since, in this example, the cottier’s total annual expenditures exceeded his total average annual earnings.

11. The Beginning of the Exodus

During the first half of the 19^th century the greatest social problem in Ireland was the problem of poverty, as illustrated in Table 1. Large areas of land were under the control of landowners living in England. Much of this land was rented to small farmers who, because of a lack of capital, farmed with antiquated implements and used backward methods. For those people who were weavers in Ireland, the pressures of a growing population were reinforced by new economic pressures. More and more linen had to be turned out to the rising rents. Competition for subsistence became intense.²⁸

By 1836 it was estimated that the number of laborers who were unemployed for thirty weeks of the year was not less than 585,000. The average wage for farm laborers in Ireland was eight pence (8d) a day. This was only a fifth of what could be obtained in the United States, and those without land began to seriously consider emigrating to the New World.²⁹

Despite a persistent lobby of support, a major scheme for state-aided emigration was not attempted. A very modest experiment in 1823-5 (about 2,000 were sent to Canada at a cost to the government of over £20 a head) caused misgivings about the prohibitive costs of such schemes, and in any case the increasing flow of voluntary emigration suggested that State intervention was not needed.³⁰

Rev. William Odbur Raymond in the old Woodstock Dispatch³¹ (Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada) had this to say:

“1815 is the first significant time marker of wide-scale migration from Ireland, a wave spurred by economic factors. By 1829, a growing shortage of tenant farms for the younger generation and the promise of land ownership in the New World lured the Irish from their beloved homeland in growing numbers. In the 1830s and early ‘40s, religious strife and a decline in the linen industry prompted many more to consider immigration to the Maritimes—which for some was simply a temporary stop-over point en route to Boston.”

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12. The Effect of Emigration on the Parish of Lower Cumber

An excerpt taken from, Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Volume 28, Parishes of  County Londonderry IX 1832-1838; Page 50, states:

From January 1833 to August 1834 there have emigrated to various parts of America from the parish of Lower Cumber, 170 of both sexes and of all ages, chiefly young men and maids, and not of the poorest class, as those in narrow circumstances have not the means of emigrating and consequently have to content themselves by awaiting better opportunities, though with reluctance. For certain it is that one-half of the working class particularly are obliged to remain in their native land for want of ample means to take them to some other country, where they could expect to provide better maintenance for themselves and family, and relieve themselves from the bondage oppression and destitution they have so long endured.³²

13. Meanwhile, in Canada

The War of 1812 attracted attention to the necessity for a larger population in Canada, particularly of people with British sympathies. Consequently, the policy of encouraging emigration was adopted. Free grants of land were provided, also subsistence during the period of preparing the land for cultivation. Grants of land were also made to persons who agreed to place settlers on the land. Distressed weavers, particularly from Scotland and the north of England, were also assisted to settle in Canada. Assistance was also given to emigrants from Ireland. All this ushered in a period of active emigration to Canada.

The British Passenger Acts attempted to deflect the immigration from the British Isles to Canada instead of the U.S., making the fare a cheap 15 shilling compared to the 4 or 5 pound fare to New York. Many Irish, therefore, found it convenient to take the affordable trip to Canada.

The year 1819 was a notable one as regards Irish immigration. There arrived no less than fifty vessels at the port of St. John alone with over 7,000 immigrants of whom 4,542, or nearly two thirds of the whole number, came from Londonderry, and 1,217 from other Irish sea ports.

The average ocean voyage that season was about 45 days; the best passage being that of the ship Marcus Hill, which arrived from Londonderry May 5th after a passage of 27 days with 272 emigrants "all well." Some vessels took more than 60 days in crossing. A few years later the Marcus Hill brought over a most unwelcome importation, namely, small pox! Her Captain was convicted of having willfully concealed the disease and a fine of £220 imposed. The disease spread over a considerable portion of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, destroying many lives and creating general consternation.

Immigration reached its height in 1833, when 66,339 emigrants entered. From 1825 to 1846, 626,628 immigrants landed at Canadian ports. The vast majority of Pre-Famine emigrants were young men and women, alone or with siblings, cousins or friends. Many of the emigrants rather than remaining in Saint John found their way up the St. John River, some of them even walking great distances.³³

For a detailed account of the emigration process, the reader is referred to the Appendices.

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Chapter Two

The Buchanan Emigration

14. JOHN BUCHANAN

John Buchanan, the older of Elizabeth’s two brothers, was the first of the Buchanans and Reids to emigrate to New Brunswick, Canada. This occurred sometime between 1822 and 1825.¹ He was accompanied by his wife, Margaret Cochrane—whom he had married in Ireland about 1821—and their daughter, Mary, who was born about 1822 in Ireland.

They would have walked the 6 miles from Tamnaherin to Londonderry, a walled city, situated on the west side of the River Foyle. After crossing the river, they would have continued a short distance through the city, finally reaching the Guildhall. Behind the Guildhall was the quay from which hundreds of thousands of Irish emigrants sailed to a new life in the New World. Here they would say goodbye to any family members who had accompanied them, leaving behind the only home they had ever known, and perhaps some family and friends whom they would never see again. (See Map 3)

One can picture John and Margaret, with Mary held tightly in her arms, standing on the ship’s deck, peering through their tears and waving to those on shore as the ship begins to ease itself from the dock; the figures, already blurred, now becoming smaller and smaller as the ship heads for the open sea.

John and Margaret would have been at sea for about six weeks before landing at Saint John in New Brunswick, and its quarantine station called Partridge Island, a "scrap of earth and rock" which guarded—and still does—the entrance to the harbor.

After landing in Saint John, they—at some point—would have made their way upriver (St. John River) to an area north of Fredericton where they eventually settled. The distance following the river was about 85 miles. It’s unknown whether John and Margaret made the journey all at one time. Transportation options were limited: There was a steamboat that could cover the distance from Saint John to Fredericton in about three days; horse and wagon was a possibility, and there was always the option of walking.² Certainly, walking while being burdened with a baby and with just a few possessions would have been arduous and problematical. (See Map 5)

One anonymous writer had this to say about her ancestors:

“Some immigrants were fortunate to have money in their pockets to purchase land or apply for the free land that they had heard would be theirs to hold forever and ever. I really never gave much thought as to how my Irish ancestors made their way in the1820s from the Port of Saint John to their grant of land at Millican Settlement.

“Edward ____ from Limerick arrived in Chatham with his wife, six children and a grandchild. He sought work for more than a month. With nowhere to live and no prospects, he set off on foot with his family on a two-week journey of a hundred miles to Fredericton. Three of his sons found work on farms along the way, but Edward himself found nothing and was reduced in Fredericton to begging.”

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In 1825 John Buchanan and John Starrat (Starrett) submitted a petition to the Lieutenant Governor of York County for a land grant.³ The name of James Buchanan appears on the petition along with the aforementioned names, but according to Wanda Rodney, James’s name was actually crossed out on the petition. One explanation is that perhaps James’s anticipated arrival had been delayed. This writer has not found any record of a land grant being awarded to either of the two Johns.

Between the years of 1825 and 1854, John and Margaret may have lived with, and worked for, another family. They may have rented or purchased a farm, or purchased land on which to establish a farm. On Aug 23, 1854, John Buchanan purchased 330 acres of land in York County,  described in the York County land records as being located in the parish of Kingsclear (just a few miles upriver from Fredericton), second tract on the south side of Hanwell Road, known as lot three (3) of the first tier of Southwestern Range of Hanwell Settlement.

John and Margaret Buchanan spent their remaining years in York County. Margaret died in 1858, age 64, and John died in 1864, age 71. They are buried in Lower Pokiok Cemetery, Pokiok Settlement, New Brunswick, a few miles north of Fredericton, NB. This writer has visited the cemetery, and has taken photos of their graves as well as the graves of their daughter Mary and her husband Ritchie McGirr.

Ritchie McGirr purchased land in York County, November 18, 1853, described as being located in the parish of Prince William in Lake George Settlement, the rear part of lot twelve.

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15. James Buchanan

James Buchanan followed his brother John to New Brunswick, arriving in 1825 as a single man. It seems plausible that James intended to join his brother John following his arrival; however, it appears that that did not happen until some time later. James was living in Sheffield, Sunbury County in 1827, and it was August 2^nd of that year that he married Elizabeth Dwyer. Had James found work in Sheffield—maybe working for Elizabeth’s father, Thomas Dwyer—before ever reaching John and Margaret who lived another 40 or so miles beyond Sheffield? James and Elizabeth did not remain in Sheffield very long before moving upriver to Prince William in York County where they were closer to John and Margaret, and where their son James was born in 1834.

Another possible scenario would have James emigrating along with John and Margaret, and then remaining in Sheffield while John and Margaret continued onward.

In the 1851 census for Carleton County, James and Elizabeth are shown as living in the Parish of Simonds. The Buchanan farm was located on the Centreville-Florenceville Road. James and Elizabeth had five children born between the years of 1829 and 1836. It’s likely that all five children may have been born in Prince William.

Following are three newspaper articles concerning James Buchanan that may be of interest to the reader.

1. Appearing in the Carleton Sentinel April 11, 1854:

       "Sir:  I noticed in the C. S. of the first of April a communications signed S. A. .... listening to the ___ but as yet he had not heard a single reason _____ matter.  If the individual who wrote that article will come out over his own proper name I will reply and show him up as an utterer of falsehood, so far as I am concerned.  The Bye Road Commissioners are doubtless able to take care of themselves."

Signed: James Buchanan

Presquile  April 11, 1854

*                      *                      *

2. Appearing in the Carleton Sentinel 25 September,1855:

                                    “Farm for sale or to Let

The subscriber offers to sell that excellent and well known farm on which he resides in the Presquile Settlement, Parish of Simonds, containing 100 acres of superior land, in an excellent state of cultivation: cuts between 30 and 40 tons of hay, and is provided with a good dwelling house and barn.  Otherwise he will let it for a term of years. Particulars may be learned by application to the _____ on the premises."

James Buchanan

Presquile Settlement

September 25, 1855

*                      *                      *

3. Appearing in the Carleton Sentinel 17 Nov. 1855:

                   Williamstown and Greenfield Presbyterian Meeting House

       We are pleased to learn that the zealous Presbyterians in the above named settlements have recently erected a Frame for a Meeting House which they expected to have boarded this week.  It is being built on a very desirable situation so as to accommodate the two settlements.  The site was given, we understand, as a donation by Mr. James Buchanan, who has subscribed liberally for the completion of the building.  The building is 32 feet by 36 feet, and when finished will certainly be creditable to the energy of our friends in that quarter .....

James Buchanan died without a will at his son-in-law's, Isaac Perkins, in Centreville, on March 01, 1879 at the age of 83. It seems that Elizabeth had died earlier, but after 1836.

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Chapter 3

Centreville, New Brunswick

Including excerpts from History of Centreville

by Clark A. McBride

Before returning to George and Elizabeth Reid and their children, some consideration will be given to Centreville, New Brunswick. The entire Reid family that came to Canada from Ireland settled in the Centreville area.

Clark A. McBride (1873-1967), a long-time resident of Centreville, wrote a short historical booklet—believed to have been written around 1930, now out of print—entitled History of Centreville. Excerpts from that book are presented here to provide the reader with some understanding of life in a rural New Brunswick community in the mid 1800s—that area in which the Reids settled upon arriving in Canada.

Centreville - Early Settlement and Settlers

After the settlement of the Empire Loyalists at Saint John in 1783, and a little later at Fredericton, settlements were gradually extended along the St. John river, and about the year of 1800 the first settlers began to arrive in Woodstock. About l815, settlements were made at Jacksonville and Jacksontown. Disbanded regiments of soldiers had been given grants along the banks of the St. John River as far north as Grand Falls and Mada­waska.

The first pioneer settler in what is now Centreville, was Mr. Thomas Johnston, who was born in Ireland about the year 1798. He came to Saint John, N. B. in 1821 being nine weeks crossing the ocean. His wife was formerly Miss Esther McGee. The following is the copy of  “a letter of recommendation,” which she brought out with her from Ireland —

“I do certify that the bearer, Miss Esther McGee was born in the parish of  Drunguin County of Tyrone, Ireland, that her parents were sober and industrious, and that she always supported an honest character, that she was extremely attentive to the religious duties of the Sabbath, being a member of the Presbyterian congregation, and from the general tenor of Omagh, I know no reason why she should not be admitted to the church, and to the privileges

and liberties enjoyed by any sect of Christians.

 

Dated at Omagh, the 26th day of April 1821,
Samuel Cuthberson,
Presbyterian Minister”

 
On June 6, 1824, she was married to Thomas Johnston at Saint John. In 1829 he  blazed a trail with his axe through what was then “the forest primeval, the murmuring pines and the hemlocks” from Florenceville, or “Buttermilk Creek”, as it was first called, and built a camp in what is now the village of Centreville (the distance being about 4-5 miles). Later he brought his wife and three children, after he had made a small clearing and built a log house, near

where the United Baptist church now stands.

 

Mr. Johnston owned 200 acres of land, including all the land between the Gregg Settlement road and the Knoxford road and where the United Baptist, United Church of Canada and St James’ Anglican Church now stand. Another of the first settlers, Mr. Daniel McGrath, owned 200 acres, including all the land on what is now called Mill Street on the western side of the village and along the banks of the Presque Isle. Mr. Richard Perkins, who came to Centreville about 1846, also owned 200 acres from the Florenceville road

south to the Presque Isle stream.

 

Other early settlers who had farms in Centreville, or the near vicinity, or who were engaged in business pursuits included: Isaac Perkins, James Nichols, who

gave his name to the hill coming into Centreville from Williamstown, William Reid, William Gabriel Leith, who lived to be 102 years old, Daniel Reid, Thomas Reid, Charles A West, and Dr. Edmund C. Hovey. These early settlers of the 1830s and 1840s would have faced the same hardships as did Mr. Johnson.

Getting Started in Early to Mid 1800s

Once land was procured, a location for building a house and raising crops had to be selected. Next, a log house had to be constructed before winter set in. The cutting of trees for logs at the same time aided in clearing the land. The average man could clear an acre of land in six days.

Most of the furniture in the home, as well as farm tools were handmade, and remained such until a carpenter’s or blacksmith’s shop was set up in the neighbourhood. Candles, soap, butter, and bacon were all made at home. Lye for making soap was obtained by pouring water over a barrel of ashes and collecting the liquid as it drained from holes bored in the side. Candles were made from the tallow of animals. Clothes were also fashioned at home; father made and repaired the footwear, usually very rough rawhide moccasins. Most families had their own spinning wheel or hand loom which was used to spin yarn from flax or wool. Mother’s task was to produce the coarse cloth, linen or flannel for clothes or blankets to cover the straw tick beds. Life was especially trying for the womenfolk who were the wives and mothers.

Before matches were available, fires had to be kept going or at least the coals kept hot. If a fire went out, hot coals were borrowed from a neighbor or else another was started by striking a spark from a flint.

Uncleared Land/acre        5 shillings                    Cleared Land/acre           10 shillings

Log House                                           10 pounds                     Hay/ton                                                               3 pounds

Cart Horses                                          25 pounds                     Yoke of Oxen                            25 pounds

Milk Cow                                                           7 pounds                     Sheep/score                                           15 pounds

Breeding Sow                             3 pounds                     Flour/barrel                                              2 pounds

Waggon                                                           12 pounds                     Plough                                                    3 pounds 10 shillings

Harrow                                                              2 pounds                     Farm Labourers/day         4 shillings

Mens Shoes                                         10 shillings

          Table 2: From the 1841 Hand Book for Emigrants

Farming

With just a glimpse at the list of prices for farm supplies one can see that farm items were very costly. Therefore farming in those days was carried on with only a few tools and deep sweat of brow. Buckwheat flour was a staple food, just suited for the hardy lives these sturdy pioneers lived and was to them what oatmeal was to the Scotchman. There was some corn raised and ground for meal, and “husking bees” were common, shelling the corn, with jokes, laughter and a jolly evening for the young folks. Some of the first potatoes grown were called “Bluenoses”, because the seed end was a bluish purple tint. The maple trees furnished them with sugar.

Oxen were used for ploughing. Grain was cut by what was called a “cradle”, a scythe with a set of wooden teeth attached which caught the grain as it fell and laid it in rows ready for binding into sheaves, by a man following behind. The first mowing machine was called the “Buckeye”, and sold for about $45. The first single waggon came about 1860, and was called the “Thoroughbrace”. It had a straight up and down back to the seat, a high box and leather springs, made like the tugs of harness. The first wheel rakes had two rows of 3 straight wooden teeth, which moved around until they were full of hay, when a hand lever dumped the contrivance. The first settlers used sickles, and it is said the Irish women could reap as fast as the men.

Sheep furnished the wool for about all their clothing. The old handloom and the busy spinning wheel were in every home. Everybody wore homespun clothes, and the girls had homespun “frocks” of which they were very proud. The majority did not possess overcoats, but wore homespun “jackets”. Children sometimes wore old boots, which had the legs cut off, for moccasins.

Supplies

The first friction matches were made in New Brunswick about 1850, and cost 10 cents a single bunch, One quarter gross sold for $2.00. For lights in olden days they had firelight, pitch-pine torches, tallow candles and a contrivance known as a “slut”, consisting of a dish with a rag in it for a wick. Lanterns used around the barns were made of tin, generally in the form of a cylinder, and cut full of holes, a piece of tallow candle lighted and put inside the lantern furnished a feeble light, unless the tin door was open, and then the least wind would blow out the light and leave the bearer in the dark. Also the

old brass candlesticks did faithful service.

 

Those were the days of the big pines and cedars. Pine timber was sold by the ton. A ton contained 40 cubic feet. A stick 40 feet long that would square 48 inches, contained 9 tons. Big cedar trees grew in abundance of 4 and 5 feet diameter, and it is related that 100,000 shingles could be made from the cedars on one-half acre of ground! The first shingles were shaved by hand.

Settlers walked to Woodstock (about 30 miles), Hartland (about 15 miles) and Florenceville (about 5 miles), carrying groceries, butter and eggs, flour, ploughs etc., while bears and wolves roamed through the woods, killing large numbers of their sheep.

John Bradley kept a store at “Buttermilk Creek”; the following advert published in the “Carleton Sentinel,” Feb. 25, 1857, describes his business:

 

“The subscriber has in store a large supply of oats, buckwheat meal, cornmeal flour, fish, pork, etc., which he is prepared to sell as low as such articles are sold in Woodstock. The subscriber also begs to call the attention of his customers and the county generally, to his extensive and well assorted stock of Dry Goods, Boots and Shoes, Hats, Groceries, Hollowware, Crockeryware,

Iron, Steel, etc., and Liquors of all kinds.”

 

The following were the prices paid for farm produce In October 1856:—
Potatoes per bushel,     2 shilling 6 pence —60 cents.
Turnips per bushel,       1 shilling—24 cents.
Oats per bushel,                       1 shilling 9 pence —42 cents

Butter per lb.,                           10 to 11 pence 20 to 22 cents.
Cheese per lb.,                                     7 1-2 —15 cents.
Beef per lb.                                          3 to 3 1-2 —6 to 7 cents.
Eggs per dos.                           7 1-2 —15 cents.
Buckwheat meal                       10 shillings—$2.40

Dwellings, Shops and Stores

The first settlers did most of their trading at a store kept by Mr. John Bradley at Florenceville called at that time, “Buttermilk Creek,” because at that place a lively stream emptied into the Saint John River. There is no record of just when the first store was started in Centreville, but it was kept by Mr. John Raymond. Mr. John Pryor also kept a store.

Centreville (Village) in 1861 contained 12 dwelling houses. There was a small store kept by John Raymond. There were 25 additional dwellings within a distance of about half a mile going in four directions. There were four stores, two waggon and blacksmith shops, harness shop, tin shops, tannery, mill, one church, Baptist, and school house.

The first general store in Centreville was established by Mr. George W. White, in 1862. He built flat bottom boats to transport produce down the Saint John River to Fredericton and to freight his goods up river. Horses were taken down stream on the boat and made to do duty in propelling the cargo up river to its destination. He lost one boat, which was sunk in the Meductic, and one in the

Presque Isle rapids.

 

Some of the prices paid for farm produce in 1866 and the prices of goods sold at that time: one bushel of oats, 30 cents; one thousand shaved shingles, $2.00, 11 sticks of birch timber, $20.00; 1 1-2 bushels of timothy seed, at $3.25 a bushel; 1 barrel of flour, $11.00; 1-2 pound tobacco 28 cents; 1 gallon molasses, 60 coats; 2 yards cotton at 16 cents; 1 pound hard soap, 16 cents; 1 pound tea, 60 cents; 1-2 gallon kerosene, 45 cents: 6 paper collars, 13 cents; I bushel beans, $3.00: 1 pair shoes, 85 cents.

Decimal coinage was established in Canada in 1868.

 

Churches in Centreville

During the first half of the nineteenth century—from 1800 to 1850—most of the missionary and religious instruction carried on in Carleton County was done by the Church of England, through its traveling medical missionaries. These men traveled by canoe or on horse back, and were the pioneers of church work in the first settlements.

The first church congregation organized in Centreville was the Baptist, organized in 1843 and the first Baptist church was dedicated August 14, 1853. Included in the membership were James and Elizabeth Buchanan. Reproof and discipline were often administered to “backsliders” in those days.

 Some years after Mr. George W. White came to Centreville in 1861, he built a hall over his store, and here services were held by the Methodists and Anglicans until 1884. A Methodist church was erected in Williamstown about 1845 and, some from Centreville attended this church. The erection of a Methodist church in Centreville was begun in 1883 and it was completed in 1884 at a cost of $2000. St. James Church of England was built in 1884. Previous to the erection of the church, services were held in G. W. White’s hall.

 

Schools

The first school house was built in Centreville about 1845. It was a log structure, erected where Mr. Rudolphus Reid¹  now resides. About 1864 a frame building was erected on the same site. At a school meeting held Nov. 27, 1886, the erection of a new schoolhouse on Mill Street was authorized at a cost of $1,200. School began in the new building, January 9, 1888.

Hotels

The first hotel in Centreville was built about 1845 and kept by Mr. George Wheeler. About 1862 Mr. John Baird built a hotel. In 1866 Mr. John Owens and Mr. Moses Cluff took over the house known as the Wheeler stand and were fitting and preparing it for a “House of Entertainment”. In December 1865 the new Hall opened to the public by a concert. On March 26, 1886, the Baird hotel was taken over by Mr. David Gray and was called the “International House.”

Conclusion

The early years were marked by struggles and privations; when primitive methods and machinery prevailed and “mud” roads and long, tiresome days of travel with waggons and sleds, loaded with farm produce, wood and lumber were the lot of the farmers.

But Centreville, situated in the heart of one of the richest and most productive agricultural sections of New Brunswick, became—from the days of the first settler in 1829, and early pioneers, into the 1900’s—the trading centre and commercial entrepot of about 250 farmers, owning some 40,000 acres of the best potato, hay and grain land in Carleton County. Roads from the surrounding communities of Williamstown, Tracey Mills, Long Settlement, Good Corner, Royalton, Knoxford, Greenfield, East Centreville, Gregg Settlement and Charleston all led to Centreville. 

The end of excerpts from

History of Centreville by Clark A McBride  

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Centreville got its name from being in the centre of the parish at that time. It was also known as “Perkins’ Corner” and “Wheelers Corner” in early times. Knoxford got its name from one of the first settlers, George Knox, families of Tracey’s, Long’s, Good’s and Gregg’s, gave their names to Tracey Mills, Long Settlement, Good Corner, and Gregg Settlement. Tracey Mills was also known as “Sloats’ Mills” in early times. Centreville was founded in 1855 and was so named because of its central location.

The era of small farms in Centreville lasted for about three generations; about 110 to 120 years—from about the mid 1830s until the mid to late 1950s. These years saw most of the first settlers acquiring about 100 acres of wilderness land and then literally carving a place for themselves out of that wilderness: at first clearing just enough land on which to build a simple dwelling and to plant enough vegetables to provide food for their subsistence. Then enough land was eventually cleared to allow for the development of a viable farm consisting of cattle, milking cows, other animals, crops of potatoes and grain, and more.

The village of Centreville became the hub of commerce for the community, providing for the business, educational, religious and social needs of the surrounding community.

Farms passed from one generation to the next over the years, continuing into the 1950s, and in many instances they became third generation enterprises.  

It was during the mid 1950s that times began changing. Farming was becoming less profitable due to a variety of reasons: buildings were aging and in need of repair; old equipment needed replacing with new and expensive machinery; and many of the next generation either went off to college or sought other employment, leaving aging parents to carry on as best they could. The only viable choice for many owners was to sell the farm.

Many of the small farms were bought by large farming enterprises such as G. Green & Sons.² Land was cleared and most of the farm buildings were razed to accommodate large-scale farming with its huge machinery. Small farms that had been in the same family for several generations were swallowed up, and many of the familiar landmarks disappeared as a result. Although some of the farmhouses were left standing with just a bit of land surrounding them, most of the farmers sought smaller homes elsewhere, taking with them their belongings, photographs and memories. Sadly, this phenomenon was happening not only in New Brunswick, but in other parts of Canada and the United States as well.

~

Chapter 4

The Reids of Centreville, New Brunswick

George and Elizabeth Reid, and each of their seven children, settled just south of what became the village of Centreville, and south of the Big Presque Isle. The following two maps will help the reader visualize the location where each member of the family settled.

The approximate locations of the Reid properties are indicated by the white colored rectangles on Map 7. More specific information is found on the cadastral map, Map 8.

16. The First Arrivals

 John and James Buchanan had been settled in New Brunswick for about nine years before any of the Reids began to arrive. But arrive they did beginning with John and William, the two oldest sons of George and Elizabeth Reid.

On Saturday, April 26, 1834, the Derry Quay in Londonderry was once again the site of another sad farewell—a scene that would be repeated two, possibly three, more times in the next six years. Now it was John and William Reid standing at the ship’s rail, waving goodbye to those family members who may have been there to see them off: their parents, George and Elizabeth, age 49 and 45 respectively; brothers Daniel, 18; James, 15; Robert, 14; and Thomas, 8; and their sister Elizabeth, age 21, and her husband, Tom Kennedy. This had to be a very emotional event: the first break in the family coupled with the uncertainty of not knowing if or when they would ever be reunited.  

John, 24, and William, 20, sailed aboard the brig Ambassador, leaving Londonderry, Ireland on Saturday, April 26, 1834 and arriving in Saint John, New Brunswick on June 4-5, 1834, a journey of 41 days, one day shy of 6 weeks. They were two of the 179 passengers on board.²

The immediate whereabouts of John and William after arriving in Saint John are uncertain. They most likely proceeded to York County—perhaps working along the way—where they were welcomed by their uncles, John and James Buchanan.

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The Reid pioneers will now be discussed in the order of their arrival in New Brunswick:

John Wesley Reid (John and William arrived together)

William Reid

Daniel & Mary (Gallagher) Reid

James Reid

George & Elizabeth (Buchanan) Reid

Thomas Reid (Thomas and Robert arrived with George & Elizabeth)

Robert Wendell Reid

Elizabeth (Reid) & Thomas Kennedy

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17. John Wesley Reid

The exact date of John Wesley Reid’s birth cannot be verified. According to the censuses of 1871 and 1881, John was born in 1810. The passenger list of the Ambassador, the ship in which he and William sailed to Canada in 1834, gives his age as 24. This also indicates that he was born in 1810. A newspaper report states that John died in 1882 at the age of 74 which would place his date of birth in 1808.  This writer feels that John’s age at the time of his death was probably 72, not 74, and therefore the year 1810 will be accepted as the correct date of John’s birth.

It seems that both John and William were unmarried at the time of their arrival in Canada. There is no evidence to indicate that they traveled with anyone other than each other. Wanda Rodney has suggested that John was married in Ireland or perhaps on board ship, but there are no records to support that assertion. No information regarding a marriage of John Reid was discovered by Joan Phillipson of Historical Research Associates in Belfast during her research of the Reid name, nor does his name appear in the list of marriages performed on board passenger ships shown on TheShipsList website.³

Although we know that John married a Margaret, her maiden name remains a mystery.  Is it possible that John traveled with his future wife, or met her on board the Ambassador en route to Canada? There were three unmarried females with the name of Margaret aboard ship.⁴

Margaret Sample, age 23, a spinster from Co. Tyrone

Margaret Ingram, age 20, a spinster from Co. Donegal

Margaret McGee, age 25, a spinster from Co. Derry

Perhaps one of these three young women became the wife of John Wesley Reid. Margaret McGee, being from Derry, as was John, may have already known him, and would seem to be the most logical person.

Till now, it has been assumed that John and Margaret were married in 1831, but careful scrutiny seems to show that that date is incorrect. Their first child, George D. Reid, was born in New Brunswick on October 12, 1835. He would have been conceived about January 12, 1835. It seems more likely that John and Margaret were married between the time of John’s arrival in New Brunswick, June 4-5, 1834, and January 12, 1835, the assumed date of George’s conception.

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The records show that John Reid petitioned for a land grant in 1838, but there is no record of his receiving one.⁵ John and Margaret were living in Carleton County in 1842—if not before—because their daughter, Elizabeth, was born there on July 15 of that year.

In 1845, 100 acres of land were conveyed by Hugh McHugh to John Reid.⁶ The land is described as being Lot #8E, Tier 4, and was originally a grant from the Crown to Hugh McHugh. (See Map 8.) The property was across the road (Centreville/Williamstown Road, Route 560) and one lot to the north of William’s property. It was bounded to the south by his brother Daniel’s property. It was here that John and Margaret lived on their farm and raised a family of nine children.

At the time of the conveyance, three of John’s younger brothers—William, Daniel and James—had already purchased and settled on properties located in the Centreville area. The properties of John, William and Daniel—and within a few years, George, Thomas and Robert—were located along the road (Route 560) between Centreville and Williamstown. This area would become known informally as “Reidtown”.

The 1851 census shows nine children at home with John and Margaret: George D. (14), Robert (12), Elizabeth (11), Sarah J. (9), John (8), Margaret (6), Mary Ann (4), Marjory (1), William A. (infant). (The ages may not be exact.)

In 1871, there were three children at home with John and Margaret: Mary Ann (22), Marjory (20) and William A. (18). (Again, the ages listed are subject to question.)

By 1881, John (70) and Margaret (68) were living on their farm with their son William Alexander who was married to Elizabeth "Lizzie" Ramsay. They had two children; Edmund (4) and Earnest (2).⁷

John died in 1882, age 72, and Margaret died in 1884, also age 72. This writer believes that the ages of John and Margaret at the time of their deaths were reported incorrectly in the following notices:

John Reid’s death was reported, 1 May 1882, in The Daily Telegraph (St. John) –

d. Williamstown, Carleton Co., 8th Ult.,  John Reid, 74th year, consistent member of the Methodist Church. According to Budd Reid, John died June 8, 1882.

Margaret Reid’s death was reported April 19, 1884 in The Daily Telegraph –

d. Richmond (Carleton Co.) 10th inst., Margaret REID relict of John REID, age 84.

Wanda Rodney states in her notes: “… because the report states that Margaret died in the Parish of Richmond, she may have gone to live with her son, John Henry, after her husband’s death in 1882.  John Henry and his family may have been living in that area at the time.”

It has been assumed by some family historians that John and Margaret are buried in Pioneer Cemetery, (aka the Old Methodist Burying Ground. See Map 7.) in Williamstown since they are listed as Methodists in the 1871 census. It’s a reasonable assumption although no evidence has been found to support that belief.⁸

It appears that at some time before the 1881 census William Alexander, John and Margaret’s youngest son, had taken over the farm, since he and his wife Elizabeth were listed as Heads of Household. The farm eventually passed on to Blair Reid, William and Elizabeth’s  youngest son. Blair Reid, and his wife, Janet Curtis, farmed on the homestead until the mid to late 1950s. In 1960 they left the farm and moved to the village of Centreville.

The house and any remaining buildings, Number 3019 on Route 560, were razed about the year 2005. Sadly, nothing much remains to identify the property.

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18. WILLIAM REID

There has been a question about William Reid’s date of birth. The inscription on his gravestone states that he died on May 16, 1887, age 77 (See Photo 10). Thus, his date of birth would be 1810. However, according to Carleton County, New Brunswick censuses, his date of birth varies:

The 1851 census - age 37.........................  thus DOB 1814

The 1861 census - age 45 ........................  thus DOB 1816

The 1881 census - age 62 ........................  thus DOB 1819

The passenger list of the Ambassador, the ship in which William and John sailed to Canada in 1834, gives his age as 20. This indicates that his birth occurred in 1814 as does the 1851 census. Since these two records were recorded while William was still young, perhaps they are less apt to be inaccurate because of poor memory recall. Therefore, this writer accepts the year of 1814 as being the year of William’s birth, and that he was 73 at the time of his death.

William Reid, who became known as “Squire Bill,” was the first of the Reids to purchase land in the area between what is now Centreville and Williamstown. He purchased all of Lot #9 (200 acres), Tier 3, in Simonds Parish, Carleton County, March 12, 1842, at the age of 28. He was still unmarried at the time. The seller was Bernard Carroll who had received the land as a grant from the Crown in 1837.

William, at the age of 34, married Eleanor "Elly/Ella" Ann Leith (aka Annie, or Elly Ann) April 6, 1848. She was the oldest child of Gabriel and Ann Jane (Campbell) Leith, and was 12 years younger than William. Eleanor gave birth to 12 children between the years 1849 to 1868. Two of Eleanor’s younger sisters would marry two of William’s younger brothers.

~                      ~                      ~

Gabriel Leith came to New Brunswick from Ireland in 1818 at the age of 37, and as a single man.  He received a grant of land from the Crown in the year 1824,⁹ on the south side of the Southwest branch of the Rusagonis Stream in Sunbury County, NB—a few miles south of Fredericton. Gabriel married Ann Jane Campbell on January 15, 1827 in the parish of Burton, County of Sunbury, NB. He was 46, and she was 21. The Leiths were living in Greenfield, in the third tier of Wicklow Parish in Carleton County by the year 1828 because their second daughter, Mary Jane, was born in Greenfield in that year. Other settlers from Sunbury County had arrived in Greenfield about 1827. After Ann Jane died in 1863 at the age of 57, Gabriel, 82, went to live with his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Reid. There he resided until his death on November 24, 1874.

New Brunswick newspapers—the Daily Telegraph (St. John) and the Carleton Sentinel (Woodstock)—had this to say about Gabriel Leith at the time of his death: “The oldest man in this county, and probably the province, died at Wicklow (Carleton Co.) last week at the age of 104. The deceased, Gabriel Leith, was a native of Ireland, but for many years a resident of this province.”

~                      ~                      ~

William Reid sold the north half of Lot #9 (100 acres) to his younger brother Robert, in 1850, keeping the south half for himself. Robert had arrived in Canada in 1840.

In 1861, William employed two women and two men. He had 100 acres, 50 of which he had improved. The cash value of the farm was $1,400 and the implements $120. He had 3 horses, 5 milch cows (cattle reared for their milk), 2 oxen, 8 other cattle, 12 sheep, 6 swine, 800 slaughtered pork. He produced 150 lbs. of butter, no cheese, no honey, no bee’s wax. He produced 15? wool and 15 tons of hay from ten acres. He grew no wheat, barley, Indian corn, timothy, buckwheat or barley. He grew 280 bushels of oats from 7 acres and 15 bushels of rye from ½ acre.¹⁰

William Reid died May 16, 1887 at the age of 73 - not 77, as inscribed on his gravestone. His wife Elly Ann—Annie on the 1901 census—lived on the homestead with her son and daughter-in-law, Howard and Victoria (Merrithew), until her death May 18, 1911. She was 84. William and Annie are buried in the Saint James Anglican Cemetery in Centreville, NB.

Howard Reid, William’s youngest son, remained on the homestead all his life, one of the county's most successful farmers according to reports. Howard was a member of the United Church in Centreville. It was most likely Howard and his wife Victoria who built the new, large farmhouse adjacent to the old house. Three years after Howard’s death in 1934, his widow, Victoria, sold the farm to Frank C. Reid—Howard’s first cousin once removed, and this writer’s uncle—in 1937. Frank Reid sold the property to G. Green & Sons in August, 1955. The old house was razed around the late 1950s along with the other outbuildings. Only the newer house, with its attached woodshed, and garage remain. The property is now number #2990 on the Williamstown Road, Route 560. [Note: This house was razed in January of 2007.]

This writer, Bill Reid (and his brother Bob), spent several summers during the late 1940s and early 1950’s with Uncle Frank and Aunt Lottie. I recall exploring the old farmhouse with a sense of fascination and awe. Back then I did not realize that I had any personal connection to the old house. Uncle Frank probably assumed I had no interest in the house’s history, and regrettably, he never said much about it. Therefore, about all I knew at the time was that it was “the old house.” Uncle Frank stored a few items in the room just inside the front door, and he had a workbench in the same room. Once or twice each summer I would enter the house and look around, but I never ventured past that first room. Not only was it unsafe to do so, but to a young boy the silent emptiness of the old house was disquieting and foreboding.

 Daniel Reid

 As has been noted earlier, Daniel Reid and Mary Gallagher were married December 29, 1835 in Cumber Lower, Londonderry, Ireland.¹¹ At the time of their marriage Daniel was 19, and Mary was 23. To determine when they emigrated to Canada, one has to look at the available facts and then make some assumptions.

Their first child, John, was born on October 6, 1836 at Bear Island, York County, New Brunswick, which means that he was conceived around January 6, 1836. For John to have been born in New Brunswick, Daniel and Mary would  have had to leave Ireland at least six weeks or more (six weeks being the average time for a ship to cross the Atlantic in those days) prior to the date of John’s birth, i.e. by the middle of August. Therefore, they would have started their journey on a day that fell between December 29, 1835—the date of their marriage—and the middle of August. It seems likely that Daniel’s brother, James, may have been with them. Family records state that James arrived in New Brunswick in May 1836; he was 17 at the time. That would indicate that Daniel and Mary also arrived in May 1836.

Regardless of the exact time of their sailing, Mary would have been pregnant during the crossing. A departure in January, February or March meant that they would have had to endure wintry conditions, while a later crossing meant that Mary would be further along in her pregnancy.

Despite the hardships they had to endure, Daniel and Mary arrived safely in Saint John, New Brunswick, They first settled at or near Bear Island, York County, New Brunswick near Daniel’s uncles, John and James Buchanan (see map 5).

In addition to John, their next three children were born at Bear Island. Their fourth child, James, was born at Bear Island on May 12, 1842. We know that not long afterwards, Daniel and Mary left Bear Island because their fifth child, Jane, was born in Carleton County Mar 29, 1844.  

Daniel, at the age of 27—Mary was 31—petitioned for, and received on November 19, 1843, an original land grant from the Crown. The property was described as being 110 acres in Tier 4, 9 North, located just at the top of the hill leaving the village of Centreville on the Williamstown road. The land had no improvements on it. In his petition Daniel asked that he be allowed to purchase the property for two shillings and six pence per acre, and agreed to “settle himself upon it and improve the same.”¹²

Daniel’s property was located across the road from his brother William’s property, and perhaps Daniel and his family lived with William—who was still unmarried at the time—until Daniel had built a dwelling on his own property.

Daniel and Mary had three more children for a total of eight. Their youngest son, William R. Reid, may have remained on the homestead. (Not sure about this) According to family history, William was referred to as “Humpy Bill” for whatever reason. Other Reids were known by such monikers as “Squire Bill,” “Jolly Bob,” and “Black Bill”. Unfortunately, no explanations of the nicknames have been passed down.

Daniel lived to the age of 60 when an unfortunate accident ended his life on Dec 13, 1876. Newspapers reported his death as follows… 

“Daniel Reed, an aged father (farmer?) of Williamstown, died on Wednesday morn, from the effects of a kick received from a horse on the previous day.” (18 Dec 1875 Dispatch Newspaper - Woodstock)

“In the death of Daniel Reed of Centreville, whose death occurred on Dec 13th last, a lesson in industry, integrity and perseverance is to be learned.  Forty years ago, Mr. Reed and his wife, without any capital, settled in this wooded wilderness and made a substantial home for themselves, where they raised a large family, subsequently, buying at different times, 600 acres more of land.” (Carleton Sentinel - Woodstock)

Budd Reid, Daniel’s great grandson, has said this about Daniel’s death: “I often wonder about Daniel Reid being kicked by a horse and dying the following day. Did he get kicked in the head or perhaps in the abdomen where he could possibly have bled to death internally?  Who knows... Just another mystery.”

Mary continued to live on the homestead with her son William after Daniel’s death. Mary’s death occurred on Dec 20, 1884 at the age of 72. Her death was reported as follows…

“Mrs. Daniel Reed died Saturday morning at her son's residence, Centreville.  She was buried Monday afternoon in the old burying ground of the Methodists at Williamstown.” (Daily Telegraph & Carleton Sentinel – Woodstock)

An article published in the Hartland, New Brunswick Observer on September 21, 1950 entitled "In Memorandum - Biographical Sketches - The Reids of Centreville" by Clark A. McBride included the following:

“Daniel was born in Ireland; when 19 years old, came to Centreville Canada, in 1836. He died December 13, 1876.  He raised a large family and bought, at different times, 600 acres of land which he divided among his sons.  They were: John, George, James and William.”

Daniel and Mary Reid are buried in Pioneer Cemetery, also known as the old burying ground

of the Methodists in Williamstown. Their daughter Eliza is buried in the same grave, having died in 1860 at the age 19.

In 1943 the farm was bought by Arthur “Lee” Kilpatrick. Living with Lee were his two sons, Roger and Bob, his sister Nellie, and his mother, Annie (Lamoreau) Kilpatrick. Lee’s wife had died in childbirth in 1933. Lee sold the farm in 1964 and the family then moved to Ontario. The house was razed after 1987. (See photos next page)

              Pioneer Cemetery (Old Methodist Burying Ground)

    Photo 14.   Above:  Pioneer Cemetery is located on the northeast corner of

    Route 560 and McKeaghan Road in Williamstown, New Brunswick. Budd Reid,

    unofficial caretaker, can be seen leaving the cemetery. Photo: Oct. 2000 (wcr).

20. James Reid

James Reid arrived in New Brunswick in May 1836 according to family records. He was 17 at the time, and perhaps he traveled with his brother Daniel and Mary. Like the Reids who had preceded him, he no doubt spent those first years with his Buchanan relatives in York County, at least until 1843. From the York county Marriage Records we read the following:

James Reid of Prince William Parish and Sarah McGurr of same parish were married by license with consent of parents, this 1st day of September, 1842, by D. McCurdy, Presbyterian Minister.  Witnesses: John Adams and John Buchanan.

Sarah McGirr was the sister of Richie McGirr who was the husband of Mary Buchanan. The consenting parents were those of Sarah and Ritchie, i.e. William and Jennie (Ritchie) McGirr. 

At the time of their marriage, James was 23. Family records have Sarah’s date of birth as being about 1827. This means that she would have married at age 16. Perhaps she was born earlier.

James received a land grant of 50 acres, tier 4, but located south of the river and west of the village of Centreville, and quite inland towards Long Settlement see Map 7.¹³  It was here that their six children were born. Their son, Richard, received a land grant of 50 acres in 1875. The property abutted the north boundary of James’s property. Is it possible that Richard’s and his father’s properties were operated as one farm, since the 1881 census shows Richard living with his father.

Sarah died January 28, 1880. The notice in the Carleton Sentinel read:

Feb. 7, 1880 - Carleton Sentinel; d. Wilmot (Carl. Co.), 28th Jan, age 53, Sarah REED, w/o James REED

After Sarah’s death, living with James were his unmarried children: Richard, whose wife, Annie Holmes, had died in 1880; David, age 28; Mary Jane, age 25; and Georgie, age 2, Richard’s daughter. By 1891, James had gone to live in Wilmot with his nephew Robert “Jolly Bob” (John Wesley’s son) and Robert’s wife (Mary Ramsey) and their children.

The following newspaper account describes James’s passing:

Date: February 14, 1894
Newspaper: The Daily Sun, Saint John

 

Centreville (Carleton Co.) Feb. 12 - James REED, one of the pioneers who obtained government land in this county and became a prosperous farmer, died 10th inst. For three weeks prior to his death he took no nourishment. He leaves three sons and one daughter. He was a good neighbor and worthy member of the F.C. Baptist Church.

❖

21. George & Elizabeth Reid, Robert and Thomas

George, age 55, and Elizabeth, age 51, arrived in Canada with their two youngest sons; Robert, age 19 yrs. 9 mos., and Thomas, age 14 ½ , in May of 1840. They left behind in Ireland the last of the Reid family, daughter Elizabeth (27), her husband Tom Kennedy (27), and three grandchildren, James (4), George (2) and Elizabeth Jane “Lizzie” (1).

Undoubtedly, George, Elizabeth and the two boys found their way up the Saint John River past Fredericton to where they were reunited with Elizabeth’s two brothers, John and James Buchanan. Most likely George and Elizabeth’s older sons—John, William, Daniel and James—were still living in York County. What a celebration they must have experienced!

One by one, the Reid families moved to Carleton County, settling on properties lying between Centreville and Williamstown (see Map 7). The specific whereabouts of George and Elizabeth from May 1840 until the time of the 1851 census is unknown. The 1851 census for Simonds Parish shows George, 66, Elizabeth, 62, and Thomas, age 25, occupying their own property. The Land Grant records show that George received a land grant January 13, 1862.¹⁴  At that time he was 77 years old. It appears that the land on which they were living in 1851 was the same land granted to George by the Crown in 1862.

The land grant farm given to George Reid was Lot 9 South in Tier 4, consisting of 110 acres and was adjacent to the farm of Daniel Reid and backing onto the farm of John Toms in Long Settlement.

George and Elizabeth lived relatively long lives; Elizabeth lived to be about 75, and George was about 78 when he died (the exact date is unknown). At the time of their deaths, they had been living in New Brunswick for nearly 24 years.

In an article written in the Observer newspaper in Hartland N.B. on September 21, 1950, entitled "In Memorandum - Biographical Sketches - The Reids of Centreville," historian and Centreville resident, Clark A. McBride, wrote:

"The Reids of Centreville - Prominent and prosperous farmers, leading members, active workers, staunch supporters of Church and Sunday school; school trustees and pioneer settlers. Descendants of George Reed, Sr., who was a linen weaver in Londonderry, Ireland. The sons of George were: Daniel, James, John, Robert, Thomas and William."

Wanda Rodney, in her notes, comments, “It’s interesting to note that daughter Elizabeth is not mentioned in the article.”

Jack Reid told many stories about the boys—the sons of George & Elizabeth—and Eliza.

One story was that the Reid boys loved to race their horses, and would do this on the road which is the one below Centreville, known as the Williamstown Road (on which they lived). At that time there was no bridge and they would splash through the (Big Presque Isle) Stream.

Elizabeth’s death, April 5, 1864, was noted as follows: 

Williamstown Settlement, 5th inst., Mrs. Elizabeth Reid, age 74, native of County Londonderry, Ireland, died. (8 April 1864, Religious Intelligencer, Saint John).

There are no records of where George and Elizabeth are buried. Searches of local cemeteries, including Pioneer Cemetery in Williamstown, have failed to reveal their burying place.

❖

22. Thomas Reid

Thomas—and his older brother Robert—accompanied his parents, George and Elizabeth, from Ireland to New Brunswick. Thomas was 14 ½ at the time (May 1840).¹⁵  Unlike Robert, Thomas remained with his parents and grew up on George’s land grant farm.

At the time of the first census in Carleton County, NB, in 1851, Thomas (his age according to the census was listed incorrectly as 22—he was actually about 25) was living with his parents, George, age 66, and Elizabeth, age 62, on George's land grant farm. It is presumed that Thomas, being the son at home, inherited his parent’s farm.

Thomas married Elizabeth Leith of Wicklow Parish on July 15, 1862. Thomas was 36 and Elizabeth 20. This was the third marriage involving the Reid Boys and the Leith Girls. Previously, William Reid had married Eleanor Anne Leith, and Robert had married Margaret Leith.

The marriage announcement appeared in the Woodstock Carleton Sentinel Newspaper

on October18, 1862:
    m. By same, Thomas REED, Simonds (Carleton Co.) / Miss Elizabeth LEITH, Wicklow.

Thomas and Elizabeth had eight children born between the years of 1862 and 1878. The oldest child, Ella Blanche Reid, born in 1862 is the grandmother of Reid family historian Paul Tracey, deceased.

Clark A. McBride in his "History of Centreville," Chapter 3, in describing the boundaries of the Centreville School District Number 4, as established in 1871, refers to Thomas Reed’s southern line. This indicates that Thomas owned and was living on his farm in 1871. McBride also states on page 24 that Mr. Thomas Reid made and repaired carriages over C. A. West’s shop on Mill Street in Centreville. It appears the year was 1876. Had Thomas stopped farming? He would have been 50 years old at the time.

The 1871 Census shows that Gabriel Leith (Elizabeth’s father), age 99, was living with Thomas and Elizabeth. Gabriel had gone to live with his daughter and son-in-law after his wife, Ann Jane, had died in 1863. He resided with Thomas and Elizabeth until his death in 1874.

Thomas and Elizabeth moved to Maine in 1896, their son, T. Havelock having gone in 1894.  On the 1900 census for Maine, they were all living together, along with daughter, Ode. One would have to consult the land records to determine if the Centreville farm passed out of the family at the time of this move, or whether it had been sold previously. It is known that others—outside of the family—subsequently owned the property, but the exact dates are uncertain.

In a conversation this writer had in 2002 with his first cousin, Bina (Reid, Boone) Burtt, (2^nd great-granddaughter of George and Elizabeth), she recalled that the George Reid house had been occupied by a Gartlee family in the early to mid 1900s. The farm may also have been

owned by a family named Letson before Reginald “Reggie” Smith bought it in the 1940s. Reggie and Helen (Crawford) Smith lived on the property into the 1950s.

Thomas died on August 7, 1908 at the age of 82; Elizabeth predeceased her husband in June 1904 at the age of 62. Thomas is buried in Pierce Cemetery, Mars Hill, Maine. According to Wanda (Reid) Rodney, Thomas’s headstone gives his birth date as May 1824 which is obviously off by two years.

❖

23. Robert Reid

Robert was three months shy of his twentieth birthday when he, his brother Thomas, and his parents, George and Elizabeth, arrived in Canada in May 1840. George, Elizabeth and Thomas, after first staying with the Buchanans in York County, moved on to Centreville. Robert did not accompany his parents, but instead found work in Prince William, York County, at a farm owned by a Mr. Jones.

Frank Cyrus Reid, Robert's grandson, related—in the 1950s—how Robert traveled from Saint John up the St. John River to an area just north of Fredericton. He pointed out a stone house in which Robert probably lived while working on the Jones’s farm. The house, referred to as the Jones House, was moved to Kings Landing Historical Settlement where it remains today.

Bill & Peggy Reid along with Budd & Idella Reid visited King's Landing in August of 2005. Bill was told that the Jones House had been built around 1828 alongside the road—now Highway #2—in "Holy Hollow" just north of the Pokiok Settlement Road in Prince William. The house was moved to its present location because of the road flooding over.

It is unclear how long Robert remained in Prince William. He most likely moved to Centreville some time before 1850—probably living with one of his brothers—because on March 25, 1850 he bought one hundred acres of land from his brother William, and his wife Eleanor, for $25. The land was the north half of Lot #9, third tier and was part of William’s original purchase from Bernard Carroll in 1842. This property (now #3006 on the Williamstown Road, Route 560) passed on to Robert’s son, Cyrus Mark Reid, and then to Cyrus’s son, Wendell Robert Reid.¹⁶

The newspaper announcement of the sale is included here for the reader’s amusement.

(See my underlining – WR)

Carleton S. S. Be it Remembered that on the twenty-fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and fifty personally appeared before me Asa Upton Esq., one of Her Majestys justices in and for said County appeared the before named William Reed and Elenor his wife who acknowledged that they executed the above Deed freely for the uses and purposes therein named and the said Elenor being examined by me separate and apart from her said husband acknowledged that she executed the same freely and voluntarily and without fear or dread of her said husband or of his displeasure.

Asa Upton Justice Peace.

Registered the thirtieth day of March one thousand eight hundred and Fifty.

Robert, no doubt, was extremely busy during the year following his land acquisition, clearing land and building a dwelling, because on Mar 31, 1851 he married Margaret Leith (age 20). Robert was 31. Margaret— born in 1830, and ten or eleven years younger than Robert—was the daughter of Gabriel and Ann Leith. Margaret’s older sister Eleanor had married Robert’s older brother, William, three years earlier.

Margaret made her mark “x” on the marriage document, as had her sister, Eleanor, on the land deed a year earlier. Apparently, neither one could write her name. Wanda Rodney asks why this couple married with consent of friends when all four parents were still living. The reason is not forthcoming.

From Carleton County, Marriage Records:

Robert Reid of the parish of Simonds, county of Carleton, farmer, and Margaret Leith of Wicklow, county of Carleton, spinster, were married by License with consent of friends, this 31st day of March, 1851, by John Hunter.  Witnesses: James McAuley & Jane McCain

Robert and Margaret had eight children between the years of 1852 and 1864 including this writer’s grandfather, Charles Gordon Reid. Margaret died on Feb 14, 1869 at the age of 39—five years after the birth of her daughter, Ada Matilda. She left behind her husband and eight children.

The 1871 census shows Robert, age 49, living with his eight children:  Eliza, 19; Elly Ann, 17; George, 16; William, 13; Charles, 12; Robert, 10; Cyrus, 9; and Ada, 7. Since there is no one listed as a domestic in the census, the older girls undoubtedly assumed the responsibilities of mother, and housekeeper. Charles, Robert and Cyrus are shown as school attendees. The older boys were probably needed to work on the farm.

Ten years later, the 1881 census shows all but Eliza, the oldest daughter, still living at home. (Eliza married in 1876). By 1891, only the two youngest children, Cyrus, 27, and Ada, 25, remained on the farm with their father, now 71.

Robert died on August 10, 1891, at the age of 71 and was buried in the Old Burying Ground of the Methodists in Williamstown—Pioneer Cemetery.  He was buried from the Methodist Church in Williamstown age 71. While searching the New Brunswick Provincial Archives web site, this writer discovered the following death notice in The Database of Vital Statistics from New Brunswick Newspapers, by Danny Johnson: Robert died on August 10, 1891.

Date: August 17, 1891

County: Saint John

Place: Saint John

Newspaper: The Daily Telegraph

Centreville (Carleton Co.) 7th inst., after a lingering illness caused by a bruised ankle, Robert REID, age 71, left four sons, three daughters. (He actually left five sons and three daughters -WR)

Budd Reid, after being informed of this new revelation about Robert Reid’s death, had this to say:

“I am surprised too that you found the details on Robert Reid in respect to his death due to a bruised ankle. It is hard for us to imagine dying of a bruised ankle, but it is possible there was not even x-ray equipment in the area at that time, and there were no antibiotics or penicillin. It seems when I was a kid the only thing used for infection was iodine, saltpeter, mustard plasters, etc., and many times without much success.  I remember of my Dad telling of him, and his neighbours, sittting up with his friend while he died of Consumption (TB), and because of the terrible odour coming from him, he was firstly moved to the verandah and later to an outbuilding where he eventually died. There was not even Tylenol, etc., available at that time.”

A very poignant obituary appeared in Saint John’s The Daily Sun on August 12, 1891.  

          Arrives Home From Colorado, Just in Time To Receive His Father's Blessing.

10 August 1891.   Robert Reid, aged 72, a respected member of society passed peacefully away to his rest on Friday 10, deeply lamented by his children and a large circle of relatives and friends.

     His son, John, about a year ago went to Denver, Colorado. As his father felt he was drawing near to his earthly career, he had a great wish to see him. John was sent for and he telegraphed that he would start immediately and probably reach home Thursday night 6th inst.  The father, brothers and sisters anxiously looked for his coming. Thursday night came and went and no John arrived, much to the disappointment of his friends, particularly so when it was observed that the old gentleman was fast passing away and losing the power of recognizing his friends.

     On Friday morning at 10 o'clock John arrived and much to the satisfaction of all, his father recognized him saying, "Oh, John!",  shook hands with him and thanked him for making such speed, gave him his blessing, spoke no more and departed this life at 1o'clock.  On Sunday  P. M., he was carried to his long home with between 80 and 90 teams being in the procession.

     Rev. Mr. Fiske buried him in the OLD BURYING GROUND of the Methodists in Williamstown beside the remains of his wife who departed this life 23 years ago, and preached from the words found in Titus 1: 2.¹⁷ The Methodist church was full to overflowing.

     The deceased will be very much missed.  He was more than ordinarily intelligent, and was looked up to by a great number of relatives with respect and consideration.  He told the SUN correspondent a short time before he died, 'I love all at the corner'. ( Note: "the corner" was referring to Centreville, which was known, at one time, as Perkins Corner.)

24. Elizabeth “Eliza” (Reid) Kennedy

 Elizabeth Reid married Thomas Kennedy in Ireland about 1833. Thomas is thought—by Mari Anne (Vanderleur) Hussen—to have been born on Mar 20, 1813 in Belfast, Ireland. Elizabeth was born about the same year, 1813—most probably in Lower Cumber Parish in County Londonderry since her older brother, William, was born there—so they both were about twenty years old when they married.   

Thomas and Elizabeth did not emigrate to Canada until 1853, thirteen years after Elizabeth’s parents had left Ireland in 1840. According to Jack Reid, there was a rumor that circulated within the Reid family blaming the delay on the family’s dislike of Thomas Kennedy because he was originally a Catholic. Budd Reid—who has done a considerable amount of research on the Kennedy line within the past few years—does not place any credence in the rumor.

It was in 1853 that Tom and Eliza Kennedy, with their seven children, bid farewell to Ireland and set sail for New Brunswick aboard the "Mary Ann".  The J J Cooke Ships Passenger List for the Mary Ann, sailing from Ireland to St. John, New Brunswick in1853, shows the Kennedy family as being from Muff. Muff is located about 7 miles east of Londonderry, and about the same distance north of Tamnaherin (see Maps 3 & 4).¹⁸

                         From the J J Cooke Ships Passenger List

The village of Muff, as was Tamnaherin, was under the propriortyship of the Grocer’s Company. It may be that Thomas worked in one of the several mills in the Muff area since the New Brunswick census record states that he was a miller.

The Kennedys settled in Tier 5, Lot 20, in, or just north of, Long Settlement (See Cadastral map). The rear of their land of 110 acres abutted the rear of Richard Reid’s property and a small portion of James Reid’s property (James being Elizabeth Kennedy’s brother).

Elizabeth and Thomas had three more children after their arrival in New Brunswick. The 1871 Carleton County Census for Wilmot Parish shows Thomas (19), Alexander (18), William (14) and Margery (12) living at home with their parents. (Note: the name Kennedy is misspelled as Canada.) The 1881 Carleton County Census for Wilmot Parish shows Thomas and Eliza living alone. By this time all the children had left home.

Thomas died between the years of 1801 and 1891 since his name does not appear on the 1891 census. It is thought that Elizabeth died between the years of 1881 and 1901 since Eliza’s name couldn't be found on the 1901 census.

~

This concludes the narrative of The Reids of Centreville New Brunswick by William C. Reid. Subsequently, the author plans to write an historical narrative of the descendants of his great grandfather, Robert Wendell Reid. 

Notes

Dedication

1.         John Raymond "Jack" Reid, 1896-1986, great-grandson of George Reid. 

John Raymond "Jack" Reid⁴, John William³, Robert Wendell², George.¹

2.         While in Centreville, NB, attending our Aunt’s (Velma B. Reid) funeral in October 1967, my brother Bob and I stayed with Jack and Leota Reid. During that short visit Jack reminisced about our Reid ancestry. Realizing that I had a strong interest in the Reid family history, Jack wrote a letter to me in December 1967 in which he included all that he knew about the Reid family history. The letter was accompanied by several pages of family records.

Chapter One

1.         Internet web site: http://www.visitdunkeld.com/atholl-family.htm

2.   At the time of the first census in Carlton County, New Brunswick in 1851, George Reid is

listed as age 66, and his wife Elizabeth, age 62. (1851-66=1785)

3          Jack Reid states, “George was a weaver by trade.”       See DEDICATION, page iii.

Also: From an article written in the Observer newspaper in Hartland, NB on September 21, 1950 entitled "In Memorandum - Biographical Sketches - The Reids of Centreville" by Clark A. McBride, Williamstown, NB...

"The Reids of Centreville - Prominent and prosperous farmers, leading members, active workers, staunch supporters of Church and Sunday school; school trustees and pioneer settlers.  Descendants of George Reed, Sr., who was a linen weaver in Londonderry, Ire.

4.         George and Elizabeth Reid’s eldest son, John, was born in Ireland about 1810, therefore it

can be assumed that George and Elizabeth were married perhaps a year earlier in 1809. Since, according to family history, they were married in Ireland, George would have arrived in Ireland some time before 1809. In 1809 George would have been 24 years old.

5.  Liam de Paor, The Peoples of Ireland from Prehistory to Modern Times, Hutchinson & Co., 1986.    “Scotland in 1800 was largely an agricultural society, but its economy was static. Agriculture itself had undergone profound changes in the Lowlands with fewer farms and fewer people working on the land than in the 18th century. The relative decline in the number of people living on the land was encouraged by the growth of the textile industry, particularly cotton weaving. There were estimated to be 25,000 handloom weavers in 1780, and 58,000 in 1800.  Weavers could work out of their own homes or in a ‘loom shed’ with other weavers. Hand-loom weavers often worked as fishermen or farmers during the summer.”

Also, page 215: “The craft of weaving had been brought to Ireland by planters, both Scottish and English, and weaving, especially of linen, became important in Ulster in the late eighteenth century. Much of the weaving was done in cottages throughout the area, where the looms, worked by men, women and children, were active from first to last light.”      

6.   Since Elizabeth was born in Ireland in 1789, she and George had to have met and married in Ireland. George and Elizabeth Reid’s eldest son, John, was born in Ireland about 1810, therefore it can be assumed that George and Elizabeth were married at least a year earlier in 1809.

7.   The source for the exact date of Nov 09, 1789 is Wanda Rodney. This writer cannot verify its accuracy. Also: From Vital Stats from NB Newspapers, Williamstown Settlement, 5th inst., Mrs. Elizabeth Reid, age 74, native of County Londonderry, Ireland, died. (8 April 1864.  Religious Intelligencer). This places her birth date as 1789/1790.

8.   William Charles Reid,⁵ Hovey W. Reid,⁴ Charles G.,³ Robert,² George¹

9.  Historical Research Associates, Glen Cottage, Glenmachan Road, Belfast BT4 2NP, N. Ireland. Established in 1984 by Joan Phillipson and Jennifer Irwin.

10.  The name Cumber, the original appellation of the parish now divided and distinguished as Lower and Upper, is not of ecclesiastical origin, but a topographical application. The word in Irish signifies literally “a meeting of streams or rivers.” Source: Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 58.

11.  Ryan, James G.; Irish Records – Sources for Family and Local History. Published by Ancestry. 1997. Page 23. 

Although Daniel undoubtedly was a Presbyterian as were his parents, marriages in Presbyterian churches or kirks were not recognized until 1845; thus, many Presbyterian marriages took place in the Church of Ireland.

The banns of marriage were required in areas under British rule. The banns consisted of an announcement in church for three Sundays prior to the wedding. This prevented people from marrying in haste and also gave any who might object time to learn of the match. Banns had to be read in the parish church of both parties to the marriage, as well as in the church where the marriage ceremony was to take place (where this is different). Omission of this formality rendered the marriage void.

12.   From research by Joan Phillips of Historical Research Associates

Microfilm 1P/1890, Faughanvale Presbyterian Church – baptisms searched from 1819 to 1836

There were a number of Buchanan entries some from the same place Tamnearon/Tamnaheren. I shall list them for your information -

10 May            1824                Alexander of Samuel Buchanan and Martha Dougherty of Tamnearon

29 Apr 1828                Samuel son of John Buchanan and Ann Cowan of Tamneanon  born 20 Apr

29 June            1830                Ester daughter of Thomas Buchanan and M Jamison of Tamnearon 

born 20 June

10 May            1823                Daniel of Thomas Buchanan - mother’s name not recorded

1          Nov  1824       David Buchanan and Isabella Glebe of Faughanvale

13. According to Mari Anne (Vanderleur) Hussen—George Reid’s 4th great-granddaughter—who has researched the Buchanan, Kennedy and Reid family lines, the earliest known Buchanan is John Buchanan. This writer had previously designated him as "First Buchanan". It is not clear whether Mari Anne was referring to the father of Elizabeth, James and John, or to the brother of Elizabeth and James.

14.  Ordinance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838

The Institute of Irish Studies. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Publ. 1995. Page 60, 62

15.  Source: Internet article.

16.  https://sites.rootsweb.com/~irlkik/ihm/ire1600.htm.  In 1608 almost all the land in the six counties of Tyrconnell (Donegal), Coleraine, Fermanagh, Tyrone, Armagh and Cavan was confiscated by the crown, and therefore available for plantation. The plantation was to be carried out by "undertakers", who could only take Scottish and English tenants, and servitors who were often ex-soldiers but could take Irish tenants. About a quarter of the land was to be retained by the "deserving" Irish who had not been implicated in the just concluded rebellions. In 1613 County Coleraine was planted by London companies (including Clothworkers, Drapers, Fishmongers and Grocers) and was renamed County Londonderry.

17.  Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 58.

18.   Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, Vol. 28. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 58.

19.  Ann Marie Zilic, “Discovering the Lost History of Irish Tenant Farmers…,” Senior Thesis,  May 6^th, 2002. http://www.soa.ilstu.edu/anthropology/theses/amzilic/thesispaper.htm

20.  Ordinance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838

The Institute of Irish Studies. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Publ. 1995. Page 50.

21.  Ordinance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of Co. Londonderry XIV, 1833-4, 1836, 1838; Faughanvale; Vol. 36; The Institute of Irish Studies. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Publ. 1995. Page 16, 17.

22.  History of the Irish Parliament; Ulster Historical foundation; http://www.ancestryireland.com/

23. Before 1971, when it was decided that the UK and Ireland should adopt a decimal currency system, three common monetary units were in use: penny/pence (d), shilling (s), and pound (£)    1s = 12d;  20s = £1;  240s = £1.

24.  Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838,

Vol. 28. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 23.

25.  Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, Vol.

        28. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 23.

26.  Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, Vol. 28. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 23.

27. Table 1 is taken from: Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland; Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX; 1832-1838; The Institute of Irish Studies; The Queen’s University of Belfast; Published 1995; Page 23.

28.  The Peoples of Ireland from Prehistory to Modern Times, Liam de Paor, Hutchinson & Co., Publ. 1986

29.  Gearoid O. Tuathaigh; Ireland Before the Famine 1798-1848; Gill and MacMillan Ltd.; Page 108, 114.  (First published 1972 as Volume 9 of The Gill History of Ireland) 

30.  Gearoid O. Tuathaigh; Ireland Before the Famine 1798-1848; Gill and MacMillan Ltd.; Page 108, 114.  (First published 1972 as Volume 9 of The Gill History of Ireland) 

31.  This information, written by Rev. William Odbur Raymond, appeared as a series of columns in the old Woodstock 'Dispatch' between 1894 and 1896. Dr. Raymond clipped the columns and pasted them in a scrapbook.  The entire 'Scrapbook’ was published in 1983 by Poverty Press.

32.  Ordinance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co. Londonderry IX, 1832-1838, Vol. 28. The Institute of Irish Studies, The Queen’s University of Belfast, Page 50.

33.  This information, written by Rev. William Odbur Raymond, appeared as a series of columns in the old Woodstock 'Dispatch' between 1894 and 1896. Dr. Raymond clipped the columns and pasted them in a scrapbook.  The entire 'Scrapbook’ was published in 1983 by Poverty Press.

Notes

Chapter Two

1.         Although there is no record of the exact date, John Buchanan had to have arrived in New Brunswick between the years of 1822 and 1825, since Daughter Mary was born in Ireland about 1822, and John filed a land grant petition in New Brunswick in 1825.

2.         Steam Navigation on the Saint John River, New Brunswick, Canada.

http:// www.unb.ca/web/transpo/mynet/mtx96.htm.

The first steamboat in the province was built at Portland, Saint John, and launched in April, 1816. It was named General Smyth. At first it made one trip to Fredericton and back in a week. The second steamer followed in 1825.

3.  The 1825 land petition is on file at the Provincial Archives in Fredericton. Listed in York County Land Petitions, Microfilm F4202, under John Starrat and John Buchanan. Other names on the petition are, James Alcorn and James Buchanan.

Provincial Archives, Bonar Law - Bennett Building, 23 Dineen Drive, UNB Campus, Fredericton, NB, Canada.   http://www.lib.unb.ca/gddm/data/panb/panbintro.html

 Land Grants record the distribution of Crown Land and give the receiver of the grant (grantee) a legal document authorizing possession of the land. The land were for land located in the area which makes up present day New Brunswick.

The land grant, that is the document itself, was essentially the final step in the process to acquire land. When an individual applied for a grant of Crown land, they were required to follow certain procedural guidelines and fulfill certain obligations before being given legal rights to the property.

The first step in the land grant process was the applicant's submission of a petition to the Lieutenant Governor. For the early settler, the petition usually described himself, his need, his family, and any service he rendered to the Crown which might entitle him to reparations (i.e. land). Next, the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council, acting as a Committee of Council on Land, would either approve or deny the petition. If the petition was approved, an Order/Warrant of Survey was issued to the deputy-surveyor who established the boundaries of the grant to be issued. Information gathered from the survey was then used to draw up a land grant document which served as the official record and final authority of granted Crown Land. Finally, a copy of the grant was issued to the petitioner as his proof of ownership. There were as many as three copies of this grant, one for the grantee, one for the Crown Land Office and one for the Provincial Secretary as the record keeper for the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Council. Each could be considered an 'original'.

❖

Notes

Chapter 3

1.         Robert Rudolphus Reid, known in the immediate family as “Uncle Dolph”, is this writer’s (William C. Reid) granduncle. His house was located on the west side of the Centreville-Williamstown Road just south of the Big Presque Isle stream.

2.  Frank Reid sold his farm G. Green & Sons in to and moved to Ontario in 1955. The farm was the original William Reid property. Frank was the third generation of Reids to have owned the property. The Wilmot Reid property of 100 acres, adjacent to Frank’s property, was also sold to G. Green & Sons in 1955.

Chapter 4

1.         A cadastral map is a map showing boundaries and ownership of land. Some cadastral maps show, as well as boundaries and ownership details, such details as survey district names, Block numbers within each survey district, acreage, etc.

Cadastral maps or Grant Reference Plans
The reason for the maps was to show size, ownership and value of land for taxation.  Period covered appears by the Carleton County maps seems to be the mid-1800s but probably drawn much later, based on the land grants up to an unknown cutoff date.  Granted land marked with an  * (asterisk) on maps. Often neighbours would migrate together, settle near each other in the new communities and be related by marriage. From:

Land Records for Carleton Co., New Brunswick, Canada

https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nbcarlet/land.htm

2.  TheShipsList website, online since August 1999

http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/ambassador1834.htm

Brig Ambassador sailed from Londonderry April 26th 1834 / arr. June 4th - 5th 1834
Port of Londonderry - A List of the crew and of such persons as have contracted to take their passage on board the brig Ambassador of Saint John, N.B., 196 tons per Register. Thomas Vaughan Master, and bound for St. John, New Brunswick. Saint John, N.B.

179 Passengers, 10 crew members.

3.         TheShipsList website, online since August 1999

http://www.theshipslist.com/Forms/marriagesatsea.html

4.  TheShipsList website, online since August 1999

http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/ambassador1834.htm

5.         Provincial Archives, Bonar Law - Bennett Building, 23 Dineen Drive, UNB Campus, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/GovRecs/RS108/Search.aspx?L=EN

6.         Carleton County Land Records, Woodstock, NB. Reference: 32-318, 2/17/1868; also, 38-36, 6/24/1857.

7.         1881 Census:  Wilmot , Carleton, NB

                                    William A. Reed                       Male                Irish                  30                    NB                   Farmer

                                    Lizzie                Reed                Female Scottish            28                    USA                           

                                    Edmund                        Reed                Male                Irish                  4                      NB

                                    Earnest             Reed                Male                Irish                  2                      NB

                                    John                             Reed                Male                Irish                  73                    Ireland            Farmer Wesleyan Methodist

                                    Margret                        Reed                Female Irish                  66                    Ireland                                      Wesleyan Methodist

8.   Pioneer Cemetery, also referred to as the “Old Methodist Burying Ground,” is located in Williamstown, on the northeast corner of the intersection of the Williamstown road, Route 560, and  McKeaghan Road. The Methodist church that was on the site burned down around 1870 and a new church was built in 1877 on the opposite side of the road and farther south. That church was razed about 2005. Among the Reids known to be buried there are: Daniel and Mary Reid, and daughter Eliza; Robert and Margaret Reid; and Mary M. Reed, d/o William & Elly A. Reed. It is believed that John and Margaret Reid, and perhaps George and Elizabeth Reid are buried here, but there are no stones to substantiate that assumption.

Reginald “Budd” Reid of Centreville, great grandson of Daniel and Mary, has been caring for the cemetery for the past dozen years. He has cleared the cemetery of brush, reconditioned gravestones and restored them to their proper position. Budd has documented all those known to be buried there: John A. Anderson; Charles J. Emery; Robert & Margaret Reid; Daniel & Mary Reid and daughter Eliza; William & Jane Starrett and sons Henery & William; Andrew Lee; Jane w/o James D. Page; Annie L. Page; Ida Jane Gray; Charles H. Gray, Atwood Gray; William J. McEgan; Ida A. Reed & Mary M. Reed, d/o William & Elly A. Reed; Jacob Carvell; Isabella Bridges.    

9.         Provincial Archives, UNB Campus, Fredericton, NB, Canada.

RS686 - Index to New Brunswick Land Grants [1784 - 1997]

            Name               Leeth, Gabriel

            Volume            7; Page 157; Microfilm F16311

            Grant Number  1744

            Place: Kingsclear; York County; Acres: 100

            Date: 21/09/1824                                

            Other Names on this Record:

COLTER, Joseph                                                200 acres

FREEBORN, James                                200 acres  

MORRISON, William                 200 acres 

10.  This information came from Wanda Rodney, great granddaughter of William Reid, and a major Reid family historian.

11.  Historical Research Associates, Glen Cottage, Glenmachan Road, Belfast BT4 2NP, N. Ireland. Established in 1984 by Joan Phillipson and Jennifer Irwin. See page 4 in this document.

12.  The Grant book Database:

Reed, Daniel

Volume: 28, page 52, Grant number 3045

Original province of registration: New Brunswick

New Brunswick registration date: 1843/07/19

13.  Provincial Archives Fredericton, NB
RS686 - Index to New Brunswick Land Grants [1784 - 1997]
Reed, James

Volume 28, page 164, Grant number 3157

Place: Simonds, Carleton County

Date: 30/12/1843

Acres: 50

14.  The Grant book Database:

Reed, George

Volume: 61, page 0, Grant number 10201

Original province of registration: New Brunswick

New Brunswick registration date: 1862/01/13

Acreage: 110 acres

Place and County: Simonds, Carleton County

15.  From Public Record Office in Belfast, Microfilm 1P/1890-Faughanvale Presbyterian Church-Baptisms (1819-1836):

21 Dec 1826,  Thomas, s/o George Reid and Elis Buchanan of Tamearen - born November 23.

16.  Deed Sale of Land (North half of Lot #9, Third Tier) 25 March 1850

WILLIAM REED & WIFE TO ROBERT REED      No. 4664.        Page 237

Know All men by these Presents that I William Reed in the Parish of Simonds County of Carleton, Farmer, and Elenor his wife for and in consideration of the Sum of Twenty five Pounds of lawful money of New Brunswick to me in hand well and truly paid at or before the ensealing and delivery these Presents by Robert Reed Parish and County aforesaid the receipt whereof  I do hereby acknowledge have Granted, Bargained and sold, and by these Presents Do grant, bargain and sell unto the said Robert Reed his Heirs and assigns All and singular the following described premises to wit One half of the lot Number nine third Tier Presque isle Settlement Blairs survey being the north half of said Lot bounded on the North by land occupied by Arthur Nicholson on the south by William Reed containing by estimation one hundred acres more or less and also all Dowry right and title of Dowry Interest property claim and demand whatsoever of in to one of the above described premises with the appurtenances to Have and to Hold the above bargained and sold premises with the appurtenances to the said Robert Reed his Heirs and assigns and to his and their only use, benefit and behoof  Forever. And I, the said William Reed do for myself my and each and every of my heirs, Executors and Administrators covenant with the said Robert Reed his and each and every of his Heirs, and assigns that I am seized of the premises as a good indefeasible Estate of Inheritance in fee simple free of all manner of  Incumbrances whatsoever, Rents, dues conditions reservations and services due and reserved to the Queen only excepted and that 1 have a good right full power and lawful authority to grant, bargain and sell the same in manner and form as above written. In Witness Whereof 1 the said William Reed and Ellenor my wife hereunto set our hands and seals this twenty fifth day of March one thousand eight hundred and fifty and in the Thirteenth year of Her Majestys Reign.

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of

Asa Upton                           William Reed                                   L. S.

Thomas McWaid                 Ellenor  X (her mark) Reed

17.  Titus 1:2 (King James Version)

          “In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began”

18.   These Irish passenger lists and more can be found in D.2892/1/1-14 Passenger Books of J & J Cooke, Shipping Agents. Sailings from Londonderry to Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Quebec, St. John New Brunswick & New Orleans Louisiana, 1847-71 (see also MIC.13) in the PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE of NORTHERN IRELAND

J J Cooke Ships Passenger List Mary Ann, Ireland to St. John, New Brunswick 1853

http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/jj_maryann53-stj.shtml

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Dearborn, Dorothy and Watts, Ana Dearborn. An Anecdotal History of York and Sunbury Counties of New Brunswick. Neptune Publ. Co., Ltd. Hampton, NB. 2002.

De Paor, Liam, The Peoples of Ireland from Prehistory to Modern Times, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, Indiana;Hutchinson & Co., Ltd. 1986.

Familia, Ulster Genealogical Review. Number 22.  2006. Publ., Ulster Historical Foundation.

Knox, W. W.  A History of the Scottish People, Patterns of Employment in Scotland, 1840-1940,  http://www.scran.ac.uk/scotland/pdf/SP2_2Employment.pdf?PHPSESSID=...

Leyburn, James G., The Scotch-Irish – A Social History. Chapel Hill,  The University of North Carolina Press. 1962. Pages xv, xvi.

McBride, Clark A., History of Centreville, c. 1930.

O’Grada Cormac; Ireland A New Economic History 1780-1939; Clarendon Press, Oxford; Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York; 1994

Ordinance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of County Londonderry IX, 1832-1838; Vol. 28; The Institute of Irish Studies. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Publ. 1995.

Ordinance Survey, Memoirs of Ireland. Parishes of County Londonderry XIV, 1833-4, 1836, 1838; Faughanvale; Vol. 36; The Institute of Irish Studies. The Queen’s University of Belfast. Publ. 1995

Raymond, Rev. William Odbur, appeared as a series of columns in the old Woodstock 'Dispatch' between 1894 and 1896. Dr. Raymond clipped the columns and pasted them in a scrapbook.  The entire 'Scrapbook’ was published in 1983 by Poverty Press.

Roulston, William J. Researching Scots-Irish Ancestors, The Essential Genealogical Guide to Early Modern Ulster, 1600-1800. Ulster Historical Foundation. 2005.

Ryan, James G.; Irish Records – Sources for Family and Local History. Published by Ancestry. 1997

Tuathaigh, Gearoid. O; Ireland Befopre the Famine 1798-1848; Gill and MacMillan Ltd; Hume Avenue, Park West, Dublin 12; First published 1972 as Volume 9 of The Gill History of Ireland

Vital Statistics From New Brunswick Newspapers by Dan Johnson in several research institutions.  To learn of Dan Johnson's Extract and Search Service visit https://sites.rootsweb.com/~nbcarlet/nb_newspapers.htm

REID FAMILY GENEALOGISTS

Wanda (Reid) Rodney, 2^nd great-granddaughter of George Reid, has devoted most of her adult life to researching and recording data on the Reid family. Her books on the Reid family are on file in the Hartland, New Brunswick library. Wanda is currently a resident of Richmond Hill, Ontario.

Wanda Audrey Rodney⁵, Harold Emerson Reid⁴, William Elder³, William², George Reid¹

Reginald “Budd” Reid, 2^nd great-grandson of George Reid. Budd was born in Knoxford, NB and currently resides  with his wife, Idella, in Centreville. Budd has done an exhaustive amount of research including personal interviews and cemetery searches, and he personally explored, restored, and maintains the Pioneer Cemetery in Williamstown, NB.

Reginald “Budd” Reid⁵, Addison Earle⁴, James L.³, Daniel², George Reid¹

Pamela Wheeler, 3rd great-granddaughter of George Reid, lives in Hartland, NB. Pam worked closely with Wanda Rodney helping to organize Wanda’s material using a computer software program, and conducting research at the provincial archives in Fredericton, NB.

Pam Wheeler⁶, Lester Wheeler⁵, Vera Reid⁴, William E. Reid³, William Reid², George Reid¹

Mari Anne (Vanderleur) Hussen, 3^rd great-granddaughter of Elizabeth (Reid) Kennedy, although not a significant contributor to this work, has been involved in Reid family genealogy.

Mary Anne Vanderleur⁷, Ann May Canam⁶, Lee Howard Canam⁵, Lottie T. Pomphrey⁴, 

    Elizabeth Jane "Lizzie" Kennedy³, Elizabeth "Eliza" Reid², George Reid¹

John Raymond "Jack" Reid, 1896-1986, great-grandson of George Reid, lived in Centreville, NB his entire life. He was the primary Reid family genealogist. Jack had hand-written several pages of family records which he passed on to all who were interested. 

Jack Reid⁴, John William³, Robert Wendell², George Reid¹

Paul Tracey (deceased), 2^nd great-grandson of George Reid, was born in Tracey Mills, NB. He conducted much of his research in St. John, NB. He consulted frequently with Leanette Reid of Centreville, NB

Paul Tracey⁵, Zoren Douglas Tracey⁴, Ella Blanche Reid³, Thomas², George Reid¹

Other Family historians

Leanette and Velma Reid, both deceased, aunts of this writer and with whom several summers were spent in Centreville during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Jack Reid and Ada Reid were frequent visitors, and of course the conversations often centered on family history.

Bina Burtt (deceased), lifelong resident of Centreville, and this writer’s first cousin.

About the WRITER

William Charles Reid was born in Portland, Maine, and educated at the University of Connecticut and the University of Hartford. He has been interested in his ancestry since the days of his childhood when his father would entertain him with stories of his experiences of growing up on a farm in Centreville, New Brunswick. The author relived some of his father’s experiences while spending several summers on the very same farm during the late 1940s and early 1950s. During those summer days on the farm, his aunts and uncles often spoke of their aunts and uncles, and it was these conversations that provided a greater interest in family history. A Reid family reunion held in Centreville (Knoxford) in 1993 served as the catalyst for launching a serious genealogical quest. With newly discovered Reid relatives, a collaborative effort was begun to gather and organize as much information that could be found. This work, The Reids of Centreville, New Brunswick, is the culmination of years of research, not only by the author, but also by two tireless genealogical zealots—cousins, Wanda Rodney and Budd Reid. William Reid currently resides in Vernon, Connecticut.

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