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Memorial Service for Pioneer Thomas Hartt was Dec. 15,
1968. There is also a memorial in the main part of the Junction.
It consists of two gristmill stone wheels used for grinding the wheat and
a bronze plaque. (will have a pix of this as well for the book)
MEMORALIZE EARLY SETTLER AT FREDERICTON JUNCTION
A stained glass picture window presented on behalf of the
descendants of Thomas Hartt, was dedicated by the congregation of the
United Baptist Church of Fredericton Junction N.B. with Rev. Julian Green
conducting the service on December 15, 1968.
The family of Thomas Hartt who were United Empire Loyalists, came to
Gagetown, N.B. in the late 18th century.
Thomas Hartt was born at Gagetown in 1771 and came to what is now
Fredericton Junction in 1804. He married Phebe Anne Phillips and
they had eleven children - -eight girls and three boys. He
purchased grants of land from Ambrose Sherman who had received them the
Nova Scotia Government on Oct. 14, 1784. The terms of the grants
reflect the times. The privilege of hunting hawking, fishing and fowling
went with the land, also all minerals except gold, silver, lead, copper
and coal, and all trees except white pine.
The yearly rent to the Crown was 2 shillings for each hundred acres of the
400 and 500 acre grants. A designated amount of land had to be
cleared and
cultivated within three years, or so much swamp or marshland reclaimed
instead. A selected number of men had to be employed, and a dwelling
house
not smaller than 16 x 20 must be erected, and further an oath of
allegiance to the Crown was required.
Thomas Hartt built a dam across the North Branch of the Oromocto River
just below where the Highway Bridge now stands at Fredericton Junction.
He
erected a saw mill at one end and a grist mill at the other.
This resulted in a settlement called Hartt's Mills in honor of Thomas
Hartt. Hartt first lived in a log cabin, but later, in the year
1813, erected a house of sawn lumber, which escaped the Miramichi fire of
1825 and still stands.
BAPTIST CHURCH IN FREDERICTON JUNCTION, NEW BRUNSWICK
The Baptist Church that Thomas Hartt and his family attended was built
in1839, and situated half way between Hartt's Mills and Tracy Mills, on a
road
now known as the Back Road. The church served both communities.
The first school was built just west of the Highway Bridge and several of
Thomas Hartt's daughters taught school there and also at Kelly House.
When Thomas Hartt first settled at the future Fredericton Junction, there
were no roads leading to other parts of the province, and everyone
traveled
by water. Supplies brought in by boat were landed at what was later
known as Pride's Landing, named after Samuel Pride, Clerk at the mill, who
had
built his house there.
In those early days schooners were built at the old shipyard not far up
river from Pride's Landing,
Following construction of roads, Hartt's house was used for a
stagecoach stopover when traveling from St. Andrews, Saint Anne's Point
and Parr Town.
There are today hundreds of descendants of Thomas Hartt living from east
to west in Canada and the United States.
Thomas died in 1853 and is buried in the Gladstone Cemetery at Fredericton
Junction.
The unveiling of the window in his memory was preformed by Mrs. Edward
Pride, one of the descendants and a long-standing member of the Church.
She was received into fellowship in 1906.
The largely attended service had many representatives of the Hartt
descendants, together with friends of the local community.
Refreshments were served to guests at the conclusion of the service.
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