Page:New Brunswick Magazine Issue 1.djvu/28

trading business that shall be thought advantageous to the company."

Accordingly Messrs. Simonds and White, with a party of about thirty hands, embarked on board the schooner Wilmot, Wm. Story, master, for the scene of operations. They left Newburyport about the 1oth of April, arriving at Passamaquoddy on the 14th and at St. John on the 18th. The names of these pioneers of commerce at St. John were Jonathan Leavitt, Jonathan Simonds, Samuel Middleton, Peter Middleton, Edmund Black, Moses True, Reuben Stevens, John Stevens, John Boyd, Moses Kimball, Benjamin Dow, Simon Ayers, Thomas Jenkins, Batcheldor Ring, Rowley Andros, Edmund Butler, John Nason, Reuben Mace, Benjamin Wiggins, John Lovering, John Hookey, Reuben Sergeant, Benjamin Stanwood, Benjamin Winter, Anthony Dyer, Webster Emerson, George Gary, John Hunt, George Berry, Simeon Hillyard, Ebenezer Fowler, William Picket, and Ezekiel Carr.

Quite a number of these men became permanent settlers in the country and their descendants today are numerous and respectable.

Some months ago the writer of this article found in a pile of rubbish that had been thrown out of the old Ward Chipman house some old account books in a fair state of preservation, containing in part the transactions of Messrs. Simonds and White while in business in St. John. One of these, a book of nearly 100 pages, ordinary foolscap size, with stout paper cover, is of especial interest. At the top of the first page are the words

This book is intact and very creditably kept. The entries are in the hand writing of James White. It contains the record of the initial transactions of the first business firm established at St. John one hundred and