Millstream and North West Arm Manuscript April 24, 2016

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Chapter One
The Millstream Valley, Kings County, New Brunswick and the North West Arm, Cape
Breton in Historical Context
I
Millstream Valley, Kings County, New Brunswick
Introduction and Historiography
The idea for this book came about as the result of suggestions made to the
author that a scholarly examination of Kings County history was needed. The author is a
descendant of the McEwen and Cook families from the Carsonville area of the
Millstream. As a professional historian he determined that researching the history of the
Millstream would help him to understand his Kings County roots better and, at the same
time, would add to the constantly developing and evolving historical literature pertaining
to settlement and development in, more specifically, Kings County; and, more broadly,
the Province of New Brunswick. It would also, from a wider perspective, contribute to the
literature of settlement pertaining to various regions and rural communities across North
America. It is placing this study within this broader framework and larger historical
context that gives the work its significance.
This book takes a historiographical look at the history of the Millstream
Valley from its first European settlement in the 1780s to the present day. Several previous
works have been written on the area by various individuals and community groups..
Largely these works have been essentially oral history; that is, compilations of stories as

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told by local residents.i As such, they rely heavily on the accuracy and trustworthiness of
the information provided by these residents which may or may not have a basis in
historical fact.
Two examples of these histories are Echoes of the Past which was
compiled by the Millstream Women’s Institute and a second by Horace Macaulay.
Macaulay declares that for his book “…the term ‘compiler/writer’ would be more
appropriate than ‘author’ in my attempt to summarize relevant material to complete the
story”.ii Essentially, both Macaulay and the Women’s Institute assembled a collection of
stories from the past and put them together as a book, not taking into account any possible
biases that some of these stories might have. For example, an article written by a member
of one of the Millstream’s wealthiest families.iii As such one might have only discussed
the happenings of the better off families in that area; the less well off families may not
have received a mention. Neither of these books provide the reader with the two
components that comprise a modern day historiographical approach: interpretation and
analysis.
As compilations of oral history or oral tradition as related by some local
residents, these books provide significant information of great local interest. The two
books mentioned above and others provide a very useful and highly valued addition to
local knowledge of the area, its people, economy and culture. While local histories of this
type are also of interest to the scholar, they lack the detailed analysis which could paint,

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for the general reader and researcher alike, a more realistic and accurate picture of life in
the Millstream valley of Kings County in the period 1784 to 2001.
Books such as Echoes of the Past, Grace Aiton’s book The Story of Sussex
and Vicinity produced by the Kings County Historical and Archival Society in the early
1960s and Horace R. Macaulay’s book Historical Writings of Lower Millstream which
was self-published, are all examples of local histories. These works are reflective of the
appearance of community-sponsored local histories in communities all across Canada.
According to historian Paul Voisey in his assessment of the state of rural local history in
Western Canada, “…governments urged everyone to become more historically minded
and provided funds for local history projects”.iv The Echoes of the Past book was a New
Brunswick Bicentennial project funded by the provincial government.
According to Voisey, “A desperate sense that important links to the past
would soon be obliterated launched many local history societies”.v This may have been
the case with the Kings County Historical Society which published Grace Aiton’s book.
The attention of many of these local histories was focused upon the earlier settlement
period, “…the era most clearly threatened with loss and the one believed most important
in fostering local identity. Thus the purposes of community-sponsored local history
differed radically from those of the scholar”.vi
One of the problems sponsors face when setting out to publish one of
these community-sponsored local histories is that many residents in rural communities

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such as the Millstream often have difficulty in determining how to proceed with their
projects. This may have been the case with the three books just mentioned. According to
Paul Voisey, in his discussion of the writing of community histories in the Prairie West
and, more specifically, the community of Vulcan, Alberta, “In most places no one had
ever researched and written anything as long as a book, but they turned to the prairie
tradition of cooperative enterprise; coordinating committees asked members of the
community to write brief histories of their own families, and they did so largely from oral
tradition rather than documents”.vii The author believes that Voisey’s findings on the
Prairies are equally valid here in New Brunswick. The books so far produced on the
history of the Millstream appear to have been dependent upon limited church, school and
organization records and on the memories of local residents. As Voisey notes in his
description of histories prepared by local groups, “Sometimes the committee also asked
contributors for brief institutional biographies; local teachers wrote about schools and
local ministers about churches. The typical history book committee solicited four hundred
contributions, two-thirds of them family biographies”.viii Voisey notes that many
professional historians dismiss the results of these community histories; however, he says
that many of these local history societies, such as the Kings County Historical Society,
“…wrote for themselves and did not expect anyone outside the community to read their
books, save former residents”.ix Many of these local histories, he says, suited local
purposes very well. These books, such as the three on the Millstream, are loaded with
“…names, landmarks, incidents, anecdotes, and pictures, they preserved grandmother’s
story, drew personal links between past and present, and bolstered local identity”.x

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The author of this book seeks to provide both an interpretation and an
analysis of settlement and social life in the Millstream valley in the period 1784-2001.
The research and findings in this book are based upon the author’s belief that:
interpretation of the past is a worthwhile undertaking; that the past is not dead but can be a
very important tool to understanding the present; and that modern historiography offers
the appropriate analytical methods to understand and interpret the past.
Given these beliefs the author set out to analyze issues affecting settlement
of the Millstream area. First, to interpret the process by which the area was settled as a
means of understanding who settled, where they settled, when they settled, what lands
they obtained and why they received these lands. Secondly, to provide a picture of the
physical environment and its impact on the process of settlement, settlement patterns and
on economic activity. For example, part of the analysis will involve an examination of the
influence of soil quality on settlement and economic well being. Lastly, the book will
discuss society on the Millstream as it evolved in the period between the initial settlement
of the area in the 1780s and 1900. To do this, the book will be limited to the first three to
five generations of families along the Millstream.
By an examination of these factors one can come to some conclusions as
to why families would have chosen to settle where they did. Who settled where and why?
That is a question that this book will seek to answer. Did families choose particular
parcels of land because they sought to make a living off of farming or lumbering, did they
choose it to be close to other kin or did they choose it for both reasons? Did the time of

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arrival and time of receipt of their land grants have a significant impact on their future lot
in life?
In general, is there a pattern to the way that families settled in the area? In
an effort to better understand this pattern a selection of local families and their ties to
other families in the Millstream from 1784 onward will be examined through the use of
archival materials, census data, and local histories and genealogies. One of the major
factors to be considered will be an analysis of the extent to which families persisted (or
remained in the area). A number of families departed(or outmigrated from) the area. Were
there some economic reasons for these families either staying or going?
Religion, politics, ethnicity and economic pursuits all play important roles
in the development and sustainability of all rural communities The author will discuss the
ethnic and religious composition of the families settled in this valley. He will touch upon,
to the extent possible, the role that political representatives in the area during this period
had on the process of settlement. The economic structure of the local family households
will be analyzed and measured primarily by examining the occupational backgrounds of
the families. The social life and social structure, including such issues as education and
literacy, will be considered as will land and home ownership and the relative wealth or
lack thereof of the families. There will also be a discussion of the manner in which
settlers would have interacted socially with one another. Were there any significant social
distinctions between the settlers? The book will end with a concluding chapter which will
offer a brief synopsis of the findings of the book.

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A note needs to be made at this stage about the geographic area that the
Millstream valley encompasses. For the purposes of this book, the area that will be
examined starts at Apohaqui at the junction of the Millstream and Kennebecasis Rivers.
The area to be studied is focused in the direction of the communities of Lower Millstream
and Berwick; and it terminates at the Head of Millstream and Cosman Settlement, where
the headwaters of the Millstream River can be found. The following communities will
also be mentioned in this discussion: Carsonville, Pleasant Ridge, Centre Millstream (or
Centreville), Summerfield, Gibbon, Dubee Settlement, Dingley Cooch and Perry
Settlement. In a broader sense, the book is looking at settlement in the Millstream
watershed.
The primary purpose of this chapter is to place this study of the Millstream
Area of Kings County, which is essentially an exercise in historical demographyxi, within
the broader historical context of works dealing with settlement and socioeconomic
developments in other geographic locales of North America. The author has already
illustrated the works of several local historians and has described what their findings
were. The writer will explain in the following pages what it is he is doing and how this
methodology is similar and different from the works of the local historians; and he will
demonstrate why this book is thought to be significant. The work will then be put into the
overall context of what professional historians, geographers, sociologists, economists and
others, have found for different regions of North America and will show where this work
fits in from a historiographical perspective.xii

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The general hypothesis of this book is that the Millstream area was both
culturally and economically diverse and was one in which interfaith and interethnic
marriage played a significant role in bringing families of different ethnic and religious
persuasions, together. The author also believes that the social structure that developed in
the area was also the result of socioeconomic factors such as education level and
occupation as much as it was based upon ethnicity and religion. There were distinctions
amongst the different ethnic and religious groups which will be noted in this book, but the
examples of interfaith marriage in this work suggest that the area was not as socially
stratified as other areas which have been studied elsewhere in North America. This issue
has been studied extensively and will be discussed later in this chapter.
The second purpose of this chapter, is to describe the methodology
(research method) that the book will employ. There were a total of 304 land grants
distributed throughout the Millstream area in the period for which this study
encompasses- the years 1784 to 1987. Together with this, there were an inanimate number
of settlers listed in the Censuses of 1851, 1881, 1901 and 1911 who did not receive land
grants. Rather, these families either purchased land from one of the earlier settlers or they
inherited land from other family members through the means of probate records which
will be a focus of Chapter Two. A large cross-section of these grants were located in
portions of Studholm, Havelock and Sussex parishes. These grants comprise all of the
land constituting the overall geographical area of the study which the author selected
based upon geographical and topographical factors. These are grants for which there is

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available information in the PANB. Appendix 2 will be the basis for a discussion of those
families who purchased or inherited land who are listed in the censuses of 1851, 1881,
1901 and 1911.
The settlers discussed in this work were selected from three separate and
distinct sources- off of the land grant maps, out of the Land Grant Records, and out of the
Land Petition Records, all found at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, as is
evidenced by Appendices 1 and 2; secondly, out of the census, as indicated by
information provided in Appendices 5, 6, and 7; and, lastly, from Birth and Marriage
Records as found in Appendix 8. To clarify: Appendix 1 contains data representative of
those families who arrived at an earlier date and were able to obtain land grants; and
Appendix 2 is data which is representative of those families who either purchased or
inherited land when they had arrived in the area at a later date and realized that all the
available land grants had already been distributed. Therefore, there were two groups of
settler families which can be identified: those that received land grants and a second
group, some related to the grantee families and some not, who either obtained land
through deed of purchase or inherited it through probate will. This cross-section of these
local families is based upon the various ethnic, religious and occupational characteristics
which distinguished each settler from one another.
These settler families are being utilized as a representative cross-section of
society on the Millstream. The basic purpose, in examining these families, is to
demonstrate that the group was both culturally and economically diverse, and, therefore,

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truly representative of the local population in Kings County and, for that matter, the
population of New Brunswick as a whole. This book, as was stated earlier, will focus
upon the process of settlement in all of the major communities situated in the Millstream
both big and small. It is hoped that this will paint a picture for the reader of what the
society was like at the time and what life was like for the average settler.
The author would note here, for the reader’s interest, the names of a few of
the families from each community.xiii From Apohaqui and Lower Millstream are included
the Sharps and Fosters(the Foster family had another land grant at Carsonville and the
Sharps had two grants in the community of Gibbon). In reference to Gibbon there was
also the Little family which had two grants in that area and another lot in Dingley Cooch.
Also located in the Apohaqui/Lower Millstream area was the Good family(the Goods, as
well, possessed other land grants at Summerfield, Head of Millstream and just inside the
Kings County boundary not too far from Snider Mountain which is not included in this
study). The Ryan family also had a significant presence in the area- in Apohaqui, Lower
Millstream and further upriver.The Ryans had grants of land in Lower Millstream,
Carsonville, Head Of Millstream, Dubee Settlement and Centre Millstream. The McLeods
too, were present in Apohaqui and Lower Millstream; they also owned land in
Carsonville.
Some other notable names include: in the Berwick area, the Fenwick and
Kierstead families; from Head of Millstream, the Hayes and McMillan families; from
Cosman Settlement the Cosman and Elder families; from Queensville, the Gaileys and

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Kelsoes; from Perry Settlement, the Perrys and Elliotts; from Dingley Cooch the
O’Donnells and Goggins; and, lastly, from the community of Carsonville, the Carsons,
Beldings, Spicers, Schofields and Northrups. The Northrups (See Map #...) also had land
grants located within the study area not far from both Snider Mountain and from the
Kings/Queens County line and the parish boundary between Studholm and Brunswick
parishes. These families are representative of the first five generations of families settled
along the Millstream as noted by the Land Grant Maps.xiv
For the reader it should be noted that a certain percentage of families
persisted only until 1851 or prior to that date. Those families or settlers that did not persist
up until 1851 had likely outmigrated from the area in search of economic opportunities
elsewhere. Other settlers would, of course, have died, which, in certain circumstances,
would have explained why those surnames were not present in later censuses. This type of
information can be gleaned from an examination of the Census of 1851 for Kings County,
Studholm Parish. Some other families, constituting another percentile of the total
immigrant population settling the local area , persisted until 1881 as noted in the 1881
Census for Kings County, Studholm Parish. Some of those 1881 families had been present
in 1851 while others had newly migrated into or outmigrated from, the area. Yet other
families, constituting the remaining percentile, some having, as well, been new arrivals in
the area and others, having been present at the time of both the 1851 and 1881 Censuses,
had persisted up until 1901 and 1911 as data from these two censuses would indicate.
Throughout each census there can be found examples of families that had either persisted
or outmigrated from the area. It is of interest to note the percentages of families that

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either persisted, outmigrated or had shrunken in size over the course of these censuses due
to natural decrease ie. deaths in the family. Many of these family names are still present in
the Millstream area up to the present(2006). An examination of the 2001 Census would
suggest this. The persistence of certain local families is also to be noted in the cemetery
records found online at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website. These are
issues that will be examined as a part of a more detailed analysis which is provided in
chapters two, three and four. The objective of this book, is to examine the first five
generations of settlement on the Millstream to 1900 and then to look ahead another five
generations at the persistence of the pioneers’ descendants in the area. What is the
historical significance of this?
The utilization of the cross-sectional approach, based upon the random
selection of families extracted from data found in the land grant records, census records
and the birth and marriage records, is a more scientific way of choosing families. This
way there is more likelihood that you will achieve some semblance of a balance between
wealthy families, poor families and middling families. The problem with not doing it this
way and picking families through the process of talking to older people in the
communities is that those older people have their personal biases as to who would be
worthy of mention in a book such as this and who would not be. Many of these older
residents would probably look upon the wealthy families favourably and look down upon
the less well off ones. That is exactly the problem with not using a scientific approach.

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The author’s approach to this study of the Millstream has been greatly
influenced by his earlier study on the North West Arm area of Cape Breton, entitled,
Settlement, Family Persistence and Wealth in the North West Arm Area, Cape Breton,
1785-1835. Many of the concepts in this work here are similar to those utilized in the Cape
Breton study.xv The author has also been influenced by similar works completed in Canada
and the United States, a number of which will be referred to in this and subsequent chapters.
In a similar manner to these works, the author is using size or number of land grants as one
indicator of the wealth of individual families. There is a significant amount of historical
literature which asserts the importance of land ownership as the prime measure of an
individuals or family’s wealth. It is useful here to discuss some of this literature and to show
where this book fits in.
Sociologist Gordon Darroch and Economist Lee Soltow suggest in a 1994
study that land and home ownership and, for that matter, any type of property ownership,
was the most important source of wealth for settlers in nineteenth-century Ontario.xvi The
author of this book agrees with this position and believes that this is most likely the case for
the Millstream area as well. To this end, the relationship between patterns of landholding
(or, more generally, property holding, which land is a constituent part of) and the question
of whether any social/economic distinctions, if any, developed based on these patterns will
be examined. The methodology used in looking at land holding patterns in rural
communities in nineteenth-century Ontario will be used in examining issues of landholding
and wealth amongst the families on the Millstream. The Ontario study does a number of
things, the most significant of which is to look at the evolution of social/economic

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distinctions by examining the process of acquiring land and the differentiation in terms of
acreage owned. This book will include a discussion of this process for the Millstream
area.xvii
Historian T.W. Acheson, in a study which examines the social and
economic characteristics of agriculture in New Brunswick in the 19th century argues that
the majority of New Brunswick farmers could be viewed as rational men and women who
pursued those economic activities which would have resulted in the highest return for their
efforts, be it farming, lumbering or any other activity.xviii The author believes that Acheson’s
conclusions are equally applicable on the Millstream. Another historian, Beatrice Craig, in
a study examining the Upper St. John River Valley appears to agree with Acheson’s
assessment.xix This book will show that the people of the Millstream valley were no
different than anyone else in New Brunswick in terms of the practical approach that each
family took in terms of attempting to become the ideal, that is, completely self-sufficient.
Some studies done in areas across North America, however, suggest that complete self-
sufficiency is not possible. Craig herself suggests that farmers in New Brunswick, “…did
not constitute a homogeneous class of self-sufficient households with tenuous relations to
the market.”xx Acheson points out that agriculture was the most significant sector of the
provincial economy; however, he also believes that even though much of the output of the
agriculture industry went towards the support of family subsistence, there were, in his
opinion, “…few farms that could be seen as self-sufficient.”xxi

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This was likely the case in the Millstream valley as well. Most of the families
in the Millstream, it will be suggested here, were likely subsistence operations with just
enough goods being produced for family needs and with little left over for the market. Many
farm families, being flexible, viewed agriculture as one of a number of activities. According
to Acheson, “…Younger men, in particular, participated in the timber trade when more
money could be made through this avenue of endeavour…”xxiijust as they may have fished
or operated a mill (of which a number were established along the Millstream, hence the
name) or, as Acheson says, “…when satisfactory opportunities were not available at home,
they emigrated to foreign lands.”xxiii In the case of the Millstream these “foreign lands”
would either have been other parts of Canada or quite often, the New England States. In
later sections of this book the reader will note that some of the original settlers along the
Millstream would have moved away making room for the arrival of a new group of settlers,
many of whom may have occupied the lands either sold by or abandoned by the original
settlers. In the process of examining the first two to three generations of settlement the
reader will note that some family names will disappear to be replaced with new ones. Other
families, however, may remain in the area over several generations. Did those that persist
remain in the area because of economic reasons or because of strong kinship ties? This will
be discussed further in future chapters.
According to T.W. Acheson, the nature and extent of agriculture is linked to
the fertility of the soil. This is, he says, “…a function both of the soil base and of the climatic
conditions found in an area.”xxiv New Brunswick (and the Millstream is no exception to the
general trend across the province) contains a variety of soils “…interspersed to the point

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where a single hundred-acre lot may contain several varieties.”xxv The author, in his study
of settlement in Cape Breton, found that there was a direct link between soil quality and the
wealth and persistence of families in the area. Chapter Two will examine the soils and
topography of the Millstream Valley in greater detail and will draw relationships between
the settlement pattern, economic activity and soil quality. Acheson says that in the 19th
century “…agriculture was almost always a local affair”.xxvi The nature of the soils and their
availability for agricultural use, farming was so different even between adjoining parishes
ie. Studholm and Havelock parishes to give an example from the area that this book covers,
that, he says, “…it is impossible to speak of the province as a whole or even a significant
part of it, as being a common agricultural community.”xxvii Rather, “…economic
specialization occurred rapidly in most parts of the province, typically within a generation
of the initial settlement of the parish”.xxviii In this book the author will provide a description
of the soils in the Millstream area; he will illustrate the differences between various
locations in the study area; and he will comment on the impact of these differences on
wealth accumulation and persistence.
In areas where the agricultural soil resources were not as good and where
there were significant timber resources it will be argued that most farmers were involved in
a mix of forestry and subsistence agriculture. Acheson argues that in most cases “…farm-
based income was being supplemented by that received for off-farm operations either in the
woods or in nearby villages.”xxix He says that “…in older areas of settlement, in areas with
good agricultural resources, and in almost any parish near a town or city, some form of
commercial agriculture was an important element in the incomes of many and, depending

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on the time and circumstances, perhaps most farmers”.xxx In the early part of the century
that “commercial” agriculture was more often than not a form of barter with neighbouring
farmers and local storekeepers.xxxi
It will be shown that many of the families settled along the Millstream,
especially those on the more marginal agricultural land, pursued a number of occupations
besides farming in order to sustain themselves. According to historian Rusty Bittermann,
he found that, in many instances, “…the quality of land resources available…”xxxii
combined with, “…a poverty that diverted labour and capital away from farm
improvements and toward the needs of basic sustenance-precluded ever escaping the
necessity of engaging in extensive wage work.”xxxiii In his study on farm households and
wage labour in the Northeastern Maritimes Bittermann points out that, to use Cape Breton
as an example, “…there were ‘hundreds’ of farms in this region of Cape Breton where years
after initial settlement their occupants remained heavily reliant on off-farm employment in
order to ‘eke out the means of a scanty subsistence’”.xxxiv He points out that “While some
households made ends meet by combining wage work with the sale of selected farm
‘surpluses’, often enough exchanging costly foods like butter and meat for cheaper
breadstuffs and fish, there were others which appear to have been exclusively, or almost
exclusively, reliant on the sale of labour to meet the costs of household goods and food and
to procure seed and animal provisions”.xxxv The situation in those areas of the Millstream
where the soil is of lower quality is not significantly different than in other areas such as
Cape Breton. Many of the families in this area became reliant on wage work to earn a living

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primarily because they may have had difficulty producing enough goods on their farms to
be self-sufficient or to even survive.
While the soils on the Millstream are on average better than those in the area
studied by Bittermann, it is that his model of three household types is applicable on the
Millstream. He states, “At one end of the spectrum there were households, primarily those
of backlanders, where farm returns were chronically and substantially short of household
subsistence needs- households that of necessity had to look for income beyond the farm
across the full course of the family life cycle”.xxxvi It is argued that this type of household
did, in fact, exist in the backland areas of the Millstream. Bittermann suggests that, “On the
other extreme there was a significant minority of households…where farm production was
well in excess of household subsistence needs and the returns from farm-product sales were
sufficient to permit substantial reinvestments in agriculture and in other pursuits”.xxxvii
These families, he argues, “…had the option of working for themselves with their own
resources or working for others”.xxxviii It is believed that most of those that settled on the
best lands along the banks of the Millstream did, in fact, fall into this category. Between
these two groups of families lay a third group- “…families whose condition more closely
approximated the image of household self-sufficiency permeating so much of the literature
on the rural Maritimes- farms on which the value of production roughly matched current
needs”.xxxix Although these families possessed sufficient resources to make a living off the
land, it is apparent, Bittermann says, “…that the resources of many of these households
were not expanding at a rate sufficient to permit all their offspring to begin life in similar
circumstances”.xl He argues that, “Demographic growth was forcing, and would force,

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many individuals from an emerging generation within these middle strata households into
participation in the labour force”.xli
Throughout the 19th century, according to Bittermann, “…substantial
numbers of the members of farm households situated in the northeastern Maritimes- new
settlers, backlanders (along with others whose farm resources were chronically insufficient
for household needs), and some of the offspring of middle-strata households- necessarily
had to maintain a significant and regular involvement in the labour force despite their access
to extensive tracts of land”.xlii Added in with these people, “…were many who were drawn
for one reason or another by the opportunities afforded by off-farm work,”xliii people whom,
Bittermann says, “…might move in and out of the work force at will, alternately deriving a
living from farm resources or choosing to participate in the labour force”.xliv It was likely
that way in the Millstream as well.
As a community study, this book will also use genealogical records and
sources as a basis for understanding the evolution of life on the Millstream. Geographer
Randy Widdis suggests that in terms of writing a community history the genealogical
approach is essential “…as it is one of the best ways to relate individuals to their families
and socio-economic and physical environments.”xlvAccording to Widdis, “Well-
documented genealogies enable us to study the mobility experiences of pioneer families
and their descendants and, when linked with other records, also allow us to trace land
ownership, occupation, and other economic and demographic indicators.”xlvi In his work,
Widdis cites another study by Bruce Elliott which examines Irish migration to Canada.

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Elliott’s study, according to Widdis, “…is the major Canadian example of large-scale life-
course analysis using a genealogical method”.xlvii Widdis points out that Elliott’s study,
“…concentrates on a well-defined group who shared a common origin and left good records
of themselves, making it possible to locate, identify, and trace their experiences”.xlviii
Widdis says that the success of Elliott’s work “…strengthens the cause of the genealogical
approach to the study of migration…”.xlix
Randy Widdis emphasizes the significance of the “…genealogical
investigation of persistence and the development of community as researchers increasingly
realize that despite the tremendous mobility that characterized nineteenth-century North
America, many individuals remained in place and played a key role in the development of
community, particularly in the rural context.”l Widdis does raise some concerns about the
use of genealogies, however. He says that “…they can be criticized on several grounds as
to their representativeness”.li Genealogies, in Randy Widdis’s view, “…are secondary
compilations based on primary sources and many of the earlier genealogies are highly
unreliable, reflecting the poor state of record collection techniques that existed in the past”.lii
Widdis states that “The majority of published genealogies are often testimonies to social
status and, in a minority of cases, religious or racial purity. Recent genealogies are more
reliable and detailed in nature as researchers take advantage of more sophisticated
compilations of records and expand their pedigree charts to include full-scale
biographies.”liii In examining the settlement and persistence (or non-persistence) of families
on the Millstream these issues will be taken into account.

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A study done on Montague Township in Eastern Ontario by historian Glenn
Lockwood argues that there was a great deal of interdependence existing between the
settlers, both amongst family members and neighbours. One thing that Lockwood’s work
clearly points out and which the author agrees with, was that sons and their families quite
often lived near their father’s farm and the father’s and son’s more often than not, worked
together and with fellow neighbours at farming. Lockwood argues that “Those few farmers
without brothers and parents could join with neighbours in mutual chores and bees just as
they did when performing statute labour.”liv It will be shown in this book that the Millstream
was a similar case to Montague Township, and, for that matter, to many other rural areas in
Canada in that there were many examples of interdependence amongst the local families
and their neighbours and of families and neighbours working together for the benefit of the
community as a whole. Lockwood also suggests that “Although there were examples of
poverty, indeed of near-starvation, within Montague’s modest general living standard, there
was no rigid structure of inequality dividing local society.”lv
This book on the Millstream might best be considered a local history. Donald
Akenson argues in his study on the settlement of the Irish in Leeds and Lansdowne
townships in Eastern Ontario that in interpreting the significance of a local study such as
the Millstream, “…one must first realize that the place was not typical. Nocommunity is.”lvi
He points out that “Even if one took ‘typical’ to mean ‘average’ and studied only local
societies…that were close to the average on various major indices (population, age, ethnic
source and economic structure), one still would not have analysed a typical community, for
most communities were far from being average on all the major indices.”lvii In writing this

22
book on the Millstream the author will be careful not to make too many generalizations
based on one small geographic area. It is important to place the findings of the Millstream
area within the context of the broader historiography of North America as a whole. By
placing this book within the context of this broader literature, this book, and its findings
will have much more credibility. In reading and interpreting Akenson’s work, it becomes
evident that you cannot make generalizations based upon an examination of one geographic
area. However, the same cannot be said about doing this after looking at a number of
different studies.
The key, Akenson says, to interpreting a local study is to determine where
“…on the entire spectrum of the provincial experience the particular locale fit.”lviii Akenson
states that “A set of local studies are like the colours of light that issue from a prism: each
is part of the overall provincial picture, but no one colour is typical or average in any
meaningful sense. One wants to know where, in the entire visible spectrum, each colour,
that is, each community, fit.”lix When the question of the significance of the specific
geographic locale being studied is posed this way, it, according to Akenson, “…frees the
local historian from having to argue that his case-study is more typical (and thus more
important) than that of someone else.”lx Put together, historians who do local studies are
attempting to understand the nature of the entire social and economic situation of the
province (in this case, New Brunswick).Only in this way, by comparing studies done in
other geographic locales can one come to some intelligent conclusions about the society
and economy of the Millstream valley. One significant example of a local history is the
work of David Gagan.lxi Donald Akenson praises Gagan’s book and comments that “Given

23
the quality of most local historical writing, it is understandable that Professor Gagan wished
to dissociate himself from the local antiquarians and to underscore the fact that his work
had a wider purpose than the mere satisfaction of local piety. His work was both a local
history and of general significance.”lxii That is what this book on the Millstream seeks to
accomplish: to be a local history of general significance.
It is not the purpose of this book to discuss every source available (the
number of sources being quite voluminous) which deal with the issues of settlement, family
persistence, the distribution of wealth and socio-economic stratification. These issues have
been dealt with in greater detail elsewhere (see endnote #30). Therefore, this
historiographical chapter is only focusing on a discussion of the more significant sources to
give the reader a general taste of the work that has been done in these areas and to
demonstrate to the reader where this book on the Millstream valley fits in. Geographer
Darrell Norris makes an important comment on a significant debate in the historiography
of land settlement.lxiii Norris refers to a study done on Mono Township in Ontario by
Geographer Cole Harris and his colleagueslxiv which in Norris’s interpretation speculates
“…that a predisposition toward social and economic individualism among…emigrants was
fuelled by an abundant supply of land and steady demand for labour in pioneer settings.”lxv
According to Norris, the authors of this article “…single out the nuclear family as the
paramount social and economic unit of settlement, and regard wider ties of kinship,
acquaintance, and community as having been weakened by colonial migration and
assimilation.”lxvi Norris’s work implies that their study argues for a relatively egalitarian
society based upon similar farms occupied by nuclear families.lxvii

24
That is one side of the debate. To present the other side of the debate, Norris
refers to an article by Geographer James Lemon.lxviii Lemon’s primary argument was, to
quote Norris, that, “…early colonists were predisposed to regard land as wealth, status, and
a means of exchange, and that, however cheap and abundant, land was not the neutral
equalizing force needed to sustain Harris’ interpretation of early colonial settlement.”lxix
According to Norris, “Lemon regards social stratification in the North American colonies
as a transplanted earmark of...England’s commercial and agrarian capitalism, not as a
consequence of an incipient colonial land shortage.”lxx This debate illustrates two different
perspectives on the European rural experience in colonial North America. Norris comments,
“The first equates individualism, opportunity, family, uniformity, and the backwoods
experience. The second stresses stratification, limited social mobility, and a pre-industrial
capitalism permeated by the forces of trans-Atlantic staple commerce.”lxxi
The next four chapters will deal with the issue of the extent to which
stratification of the Millstream population existed. It will also examine whether if it indeed
existed was it related to land availability as is implied by Norris or was it the result of
England’s Colonial Lands Policy from the 1780s through to Confederation or was it a
combination of both factors.

26
II
North West Arm Area, Cape Breton, 1785 to 1900
Introduction and Historiography
In 1984, two University of South Carolina anthropologists, John W.
Adams and Alice Bee Kasakoff, pointed out that a number of town (community) studies,
including their own, had determined that "stayers" (those settlers who "persisted" in a
particular geographic area) were wealthier than "movers" (or those who emigrated out of
the area)1 and, in his 1973 study, Daniel Scott Smith noted an inverse correlation between
wealth and the propensity to leave a community after marriage.2 The "stayers", or
"persisters", examined in community studies were often descendants of the first to arrive,
who were often proprietors given more land than later arrivals and who had a vote on
subsequent distributions.3 Adams and Kasakoff have suggested that it was in the best
interests of the descendants of the original settlers (the second, third and later generations
of a family) to remain in order to get parcels of land, either through the process of
1
John W. Adams and Alice Bee Kasakoff, "Migration and the Family in Colonial
New England: The View From Genealogies," Journal of Family History, (Spring,
1984), 29. Some of these town studies include: Linda Auwers Bissell, "From One
Generation to Another: Mobility in 17th Century Windsor, Connecticut," William and
Mary Quarterly, vol. 31, (1974), 87;
Douglas Lamar Jones, Village and Seaport: Migration and Society in Eighteenth
Century
Massachusetts, (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1981); and John
Waters,
"Family, Inheritance, and Migration in Colonial New England: The Evidence from
Guilford, Connecticut," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, vol. 39, (1982), 64-
86. For a Canadian example which presents a similar argument for a later period see
David Gagan, “Land, Population, and Social Change: The ‘Critical Years’ in Rural
Canada West” Canadian Historical Review, vol. LIX no. 3, (1978), 293-318.

27
2
Daniel Scott Smith, "Parental Power and Marriage Patterns: An Analysis of
Historical Trends in Hingham, Massachusetts," Journal of Marriage and the Family,
vol. 35, (1973), 419-428.
3
Bissell notes that men given smaller grants were more likely to leave Windsor. See
Bissell,”From one Generation to Another”, 87; Adams and Kasakoff, ”Migration and the
Family”, 30.
inheritance or through direct sale from one family member to another, just as it was also
in the interests of later arrivals to seek more land elsewhere.1
These assertions by Adams, Kasakoff, Daniel Scott Smith, and others, raise what
is to be the fundamental question that this thesis will seek to answer. That is, what
relationship, if any, was there between the propensity for certain families to either persist
or out-migrate from the area, the manner in which land was distributed among these
families and the relative wealth of these families? Using wealth as the primary indicator
of status, this study will, further, consider whether the community around the North West
Arm of Sydney Harbour, Cape Breton, offers an example of a stratified, market-driven
society, as some historians might argue. Or might it be considered to be a fundamentally
rough egalitarian and economically self-sufficient society, as others might suggest? In
either circumstance, the question is, why or why not? Did settlers persist in the area
because they had a "good thing going" economically? Or did they persist because of
family and kinship ties in the area? Or, was, in fact, the decision to remain based upon a
combination of both factors? In general, what similarities and differences may be found
1 Adams and Kasakoff, “Migration and the Family,” 30.

28
between this community and other, similar, rural communities examined by other
researchers both in Canada and elsewhere in North America?
The primary focus of this thesis will be on the predominant role land distribution
played in creating new or reinforcing existing socio-economic divisions in the
community geographically defined by the North West Arm. The concept, or idea, of
socioeconomic stratification and its impact on the evolution of communities is one that
has been examined by a number of scholars.2 In the broader perspective, it should be
noted here that the development of socioeconomic divisions within a community is the
result of the interaction of a combination of factors, including ethnicity, religion,
education, politics, age, sex and land distribution. This study will be conducted with an
awareness of this broader context, but will concentrate mainly upon the roles that land
distribution and the land acquisition strategies of the settlers in the North West Arm area
played in the social and economic development of the area.
The idea for this study has come from the researcher's developing interest in the
field of rural history. This thesis takes much of its inspiration from the writings of
historian Robert Swierenga, who, in 1981, made a plea for both historians and
geographers to respond to what he termed, "the scholarly neglect of rural life" that
characterized most of the "new social history".3 It also takes its inspiration from the
research of historians and historical geographers, Rusty
Bittermann, Robert A. MacKinnon and Graeme Wynn, who, a decade later, pointed out
2 Most significantly for the purposes ofthis thesis (although, of course, there are many others), Rusty
Bittermann, Robert MacKinnon, Graeme Wynn, Stephen Hornsby,Beatrice Craig, James Lemon and Gary
Nash, Duane Ball and Jack Little.
3 Robert Swierenga, "The New Rural History: Defining the Parameters," The Great Plains Quarterly, vol.
1, (1981), 211-223.

29
that, for Canada, at least, there remained a "dearth of detailed work on the rural scene".4
An important objective of this thesis is to both broaden our knowledge of and expand
upon previous work done in the field of rural history.
Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn have commented that, "In the absence of new
inquiries, addressed to new questions and informed by the insights and approaches of
studies in agricultural history elsewhere, old concepts have survived, neither challenged
nor confirmed, to assume the authority of convention".8 In the case of the history of the
Maritime provinces, these old concepts can be seen most clearly in the works of the
"Golden Age" historians, Lawrence J. Burpee and Daniel C. Harvey.9 Both Burpee and
Harvey offered a romanticized vision of rural life in earlier times. Later generations of
historians generally accepted this vision, emphasizing the self-sufficiency and
independence of nineteenth-century farm households and farm communities. At the heart
of their argument lay the assumption that easy access to land offered settlers both security
and opportunity and that this, in turn, resulted in an essentially egalitarian rural social
structure.10 Real poverty, wrote W. S .MacNutt, in 1965, was an urban ill, "found only in
the
8
Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn, “Of Inequality and Interdependence,” 4.
9
Lawrence J. Burpee, "The Golden Age of Nova Scotia," Queen's Quarterly, vol.
36, (1929), 380-94; Daniel C. Harvey, "The Spacious Days of Nova Scotia," Dalhousie
Review, vol.
19, (1939), 132-42. For a critique of the “Golden Age” approach which predates that of
4 Rusty Bittermann, Robert A. MacKinnon and Graeme Wynn, "Of Inequality and Interdependence in the
Nova Scotian Countryside,1850-70," Canadian Historical Review, vol. LXXIV no. 1, (1993), 4.

30
Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn, see Vernon C. Fowke, “The Myth of the Self-
Sufficient Canadian Pioneer,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vol. LVI
series III, (June, 1962), 23-24.
10
Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn,”Of Inequality and Interdependence”, 2. As
they point out, there is an extensive literature which is grounded in this assumption. Much
of it takes its inspiration from the work of Frederick Jackson Turner. See, for example,
A.R.M. Lower’s "The Origins of Democracy in Canada," Canadian Historical
Association Report, (1930); J.L.
McDougall, "The Frontier School and Canadian History," Canadian Historical
Association Report, (1929); and Michael S. Cross, The Frontier Thesis and the
Canadas: The Debate on the Impact of the Canadian Environment, (Toronto: Copp
Clark, 1970). See also Donald C. Creighton, British North America at Confederation,
(Ottawa: King's Printer, 1939). Some of these viewpoints persisted well into the 1960s.
See, for example, S.D. Clark’s argument in S.D.
Clark, The Developing Canadian Community, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1968). more squalid slums of the seaports". He argued that even where the land was of
marginal quality,
"the country could always produce food". The Maritime region was a region of pioneers,
"but
pioneering was yielding a modest competence".5
5 W. S. MacNutt, The Atlantic Provinces: The Emergence of Colonial Society, 1712 to 1857, (Toronto:
McClelland and Stewart Ltd., 1965), 267.

31
Historians in more recent years have begun to challenge the work of these earlier
scholars. Yet as early as the 1960s, Vernon Fowke concluded that in many agricultural
communities the degree of self-sufficiency had been significantly less than commonly
assumed by historians. Pioneer agricultural self-sufficiency, he argued, had been, and
remained, a persistently fostered Canadian myth.6 As Daniel Samson has noted, Fowke,
who wrote from the 1940s through the 1960s, went far beyond the older emphases in
describing the myth of the self-sufficient farmer.7 “Pointing out that the farm sector was
divided by production capacities and marketing activities, Fowke outlined the role of
class divisions in rural society”.8 However, it was not until the late 1970s , that, with the
publication of the first volume of essays in the Canadian Papers in Rural History series,
Canadian historians began to follow the path established by Fowke.9 This thesis will take
a further step along that path, by examining the production capacities of the land as a
factor in the creation of wealth and the development of socio-economic divisions in the
North West Arm.
Because they knew relatively little about the social and economic structure of
rural communities in the nineteenth-century Maritimes, and even less about how farm
families dealt with the varying soil capabilities of the land resources they obtained and
6 Fowke, "The Myth of the Self-Sufficient Canadian Pioneer," 23-24.
7 Daniel Samson, "Introduction: Situating the Rural in Atlantic Canada," in Daniel Samson, ed., Contested
Countryside: Rural Workers and Modern Society in Atlantic Canada, 1800-1950,(Fredericton:
Acadiensis Press, 1994), 2.
8 Daniel Samson, Contested Countryside, 2. See Vernon C. Fowke, "The Myth of the Self-Sufficient
Canadian Pioneer," 28-37; and Vernon C. Fowke, "An Introduction to Canadian Agricultural History,"
Agricultural History, vol., 16 no. 2, (1942), 79-90; See as well Vernon C. Fowke, Canadian Agricultural
Policy: The Historical Pattern, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1946).
9 See Donald H. Akenson,ed., Canadian Papers in Rural History, vol. 1, (Gananoque, Ont.: Langdale
Press, 1978).

32
with the social and economic changes that were a constant aspect of life in the region
during this period, many of the earlier historians tended to fall back upon sweeping
generalizations in their assessments of the nature of rural life in the Maritime region
during the early years of settlement. Many of these scholars concentrated upon the
“Golden Age” notion of an egalitarian North American rural society, where immigrants
had equal opportunities to make the transition from subsistence to commercial
agriculture--from a traditional to a modern society. This tendency towards sweeping
overviews founded on assumptions of a mythical “Golden Age” has resulted in what
Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn have identified as the "general failure of recent
Maritime scholarship to ask fundamental questions about how the rural majority of the
region's people lived; how they shaped their material, social, and political worlds; and
how their life-chances were affected by their background, economic status and the timing
and location of their settlement in the provinces".10 This thesis sets out to determine how
the people of the North West Arm lived and
how their life choices were affected by their access to land. One of the several models
which shape this study is the work of Bitterman, MacKinnon and Wynn. In their
research, they have begun the necessary process of exploration and reassessment of
previous works on the rural
Maritimes.11 In a 1993 article published in the Canadian Historical Review, Bittermann,
MacKinnon and Wynn brought together their individual research findings and combined
10 Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn,“Of Inequality and Interdependence,” 4-5.
11 See Rusty Bittermann, “Middle River: The Social Structure of Agriculture in a

33
expertise for what they refer to as "a preliminary foray", which they point out is “tightly
bound in time and space, that attempts to tackle some of the long-neglected questions
about rural life in the Maritimes”.12 The result is a comparative study which explores
some of the basic tenets of rural economic and social life in two small nineteenth-century
Nova Scotian communities: Middle River, in Victoria County, Cape Breton and
Hardwood Hill, close to the Town of Pictou, in Pictou County, on the Northumberland
Strait.13
Models, such as the Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn study, are a very useful
tool to help historians understand and explain events in small rural communities. In their
assessment of the value of local community studies, J. M. Bumsted and James T. Lemon
emphasize the importance of using models in historical demography, arguing that all
historians implicitly employ models as analytical tools. Models, by supplying
frameworks for analysis, even though they may be tentative and imprecise, can serve
to open up possibilities for future syntheses and comparative study. In this study, several
models will be used as an aid in understanding the demographic evolution of the North
West Arm area and the similarities and differences between the North West Arm and
communities studied by other researchers. As Bumsted and Lemon put it in their
discussion of using models as analytical tools: Assuming that they are a reasonably
accurate (though simple) statement of general developments, they can be used as
Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton Community,” M.A. Thesis, University of New Brunswick, 1987; and
Robert A. MacKinnon, “The Historical Geography of Agriculture in Nova Scotia, 1851-1951,” Ph.D.
Thesis,University of British Columbia, 1991.

35
yardsticks against which to measure future community studies and can also be utilized to
suggest similarities or differences in comparison to other regions or colonies.
With this in mind, an overview of some of the models which will be drawn upon in this
study will be useful here.

34
The Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn study of Middle River and
Hardwood Hill is fundamentally Marxist in its outlook and focuses on a number of
interrelated themes, the most important being the nature and significance of
dependency, subservience and exploitation. They argue that the settlers who arrived
in the area at a later date were less likely to obtain the parcels of land suitable, in
terms of soil quality, for a "modest competency" at farming. This forced these later,
poorer settlers to become dependent upon and subservient to the wealthier frontland
farmers and merchants for wage labour. Accordingly, this left the poorer settlers
open to exploitation by their wealthier neighbours. In essence, Bittermann,
MacKinnon and Wynn argue that the later settlers traded domination by landlords in
Scotland for domination by merchants and wealthier neighbours in Cape Breton. In
other words, they are suggesting that previous class divisions which existed in
Scotland were transferred to North America. In a broader perspective, they argue that
both in these settlements, and, by extrapolation, in almost any community of several
hundred residents in Nova Scotia's farming zone, society was, by and large, divided
and stratified along class lines imported by migrants arriving from the British Isles.
The primary questions that their study poses for this thesis are: a) to what
extent,
if any, did later arriving (poorer?) settlers become "dependent" upon the earlier arriving
(wealthier?) frontland settlers for wage labour, if, in fact, they did at all; b) did the later
arriving settlers become dependent on the frontland settlers and did dependency itself

35
necessarily lead to the subservience and exploitation of the poorer settlers by the
wealthier settlers? and c) did the settlers bring class distinctions with them when they
arrived at the North West Arm? The idea of "dependence" would appear to be a relative
term. Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn emphasize both the dependency of the poorer
backlanders upon their ‘wealthier’ frontland neighbours and the "exploitation" of the
backlanders by the very same people.14 But the picture may be more complex. When
families that were part of an extended kin group, like the Highland Scots, chose to settle
together in the local area, did they then cooperate to earn a relatively self-sufficient living
based upon subsistence agriculture and other related occupations such as lumbering,
fishing, etc? Conversely was farming even necessarily a priority for most of these settlers
or was there, perhaps, enough diversification in terms of occupations in the North West
Arm that this, in effect, turned farming more into a secondary, rather than a primary
occupation? These are some important questions and themes that this thesis will
examine.
Similarly to what Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn found, Stephen
Hornsby
determined that the early, relatively well-off Scottish tenant farmers and crofters who
arrived in Cape Breton between 1802 and the mid-1820s had the choice of the best land
and soon settled the accessible and fertile frontlands on the coast and along the major
river valleys. By 1830 much of the best land on the Island had been occupied. The
immigrants arriving in the 1825 to 1840 period consisted mainly of destitute crofters and
14 Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn,“Of Inequality and Interdependence,” 17-18, 31-41.

36
cottars who occupied not only whatever good land remained, but also large areas of the
poorer backlands. According to Hornsby, after the relatively fertile areas had been
occupied, settlers moved onto rocky backlands behind the first range of lots. Much of this
land was extremely poor in quality, being stony and containing acidic soils.15
In essence, Hornsby argues that these settlers had exchanged landlords
and
bailiffs back in Scotland for poor acidic soils and long winters in Cape Breton. Very few
could support themselves by farming and forestry alone and they were forced to turn to
whatever forms of wage labour were available. Some eventually worked in the island's
forestry or mining industries, while others worked on frontland farms. Like Bittermann,
MacKinnon and Wynn, Hornsby believes that the economic stratification between
frontland and backland settlers in Cape Breton was a perpetuation of that seen between
crofters and cottars back in Scotland, that is: cultural and socioeconomic divisions which
existed in Scotland were transferred to Cape Breton.
He argues that for many, the trans-Atlantic migration had hardly improved their situation;
they
still faced rural poverty, part-time work, and eventual emigration. Many in the areas
studied by Hornsby would ultimately choose to leave Cape Breton, migrating to areas
such as Southern
15 Stephen J. Hornsby, Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography, (Montreal and
Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1992), 48-51. This book is based upon his 1986 Ph.D. thesis at
UBC entitled, "An Historical Geography of Cape Breton Island in the Nineteenth Century," Ph.D. thesis,
University of British Columbia, 1986. See as well his "Scottish Emigration and Settlement in Early
Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton," in Ken Donovan,ed., The Island, New Perspectives on Cape Breton
History, 1713-1990 (Fredericton and Sydney: Acadiensis Press and University College of Cape Breton
Press (1990), 56-57.

37
Ontario, the Saint John River Valley of New Brunswick, the Annapolis Valley of Nova
Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where agricultural opportunities for immigrants from
the British Isles were more promising than on Cape Breton Island.16
The North West Arm area was somewhat different from the areas
described by Hornsby, in that the early arrivals were Loyalists and British settlers who
had little previous contact with the Highlanders who were to arrive in the area after 1825.
Very few Scots settled the North West Arm area in the 1800 to 1820 period: in this area,
the better quality land was taken by Loyalist and British settlers, leaving the backlands, as
elsewhere in Cape Breton, to be occupied by the late arriving Highlanders. This thesis
will examine the extent to which the pattern of developing dependence described by
Hornsby was a factor in the North West Arm and, further, whether the land allocation
process perpetuated and reinforced class distinctions these later migrants had experienced
in Scotland.
Similar to the arguments developed by Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn
and
Hornsby, Beatrice Craig, in her research dealing with the settlement of the Madawaska
region of New Brunswick, notes that frontier regions have a tendency to attract
continuous waves of immigrants until all available land has been completely settled.
Craig argues that, in Madawaska, not only was the best land taken up by the early settlers,
but that those settlers, in their determination to provide their own families with the best
16 Hornsby, "Scottish Emigration and Settlement," 68-69; and, Hornsby, Nineteenth-Century Cape
Breton, 83-84.

38
opportunities, did not welcome newcomers, but acted in such a way as to create
significant barriers to the integration of the later migrants into the original community.
The result in the case of the Upper Saint John Valley was the “emergence of a clearly
stratified society which was dominated by the original families and their descendants”,
and this, Craig claims, came about “within the first 50 years of the settlement's
founding”.17 Craig's research raises an important question for this thesis: that is, were the
original frontland settlers in the North West Arm open to newcomers? Or, as in the case
of Madawaska, were the later migrants in some manner hindered from integrating into the
original community?
In his work on the colonization settlements in the St. Francis District of
Quebec, J.I. Little examines the colonization of the District by both Highland Scots from
the Isle of Lewis and French Canadians. He rejects the arguments made by proponents of
the frontier thesis regarding the "assimilation" of the various settler groups and sets out
instead to examine the collective responses of the two different ethnic groups. He found
that the two groups established relatively separate and distinct communities grounded in
the cultural and social values that they had brought with them from their previous
homelands. Each group adopted their own way of coping with the frontier’s harsh
physical and economic environment and, in effect, developed their own distinct local
17 Beatrice C. Craig, "Immigrants in a Frontier Community: Madawaska 1785-1850," Histoire
Sociale/Social History, vol. XIX no. 38, (November, 1986), 277. See as well, Beatrice C. Craig,
"Agriculture and the Lumberman's Frontier in the Upper St. John Valley, 1800-70," Journal of Forest
History, (July, 1988), 125-137; and, Beatrice C. Craig,
"Agriculture in a Pioneer Region: The Upper St. John River Valley in the first half of the 19th Century," in
Kris Inwood, ed., Farm, Factory and Fortune: New Studies in the Economic History of the Maritime
Provinces, (Fredericton: Acadiensis Press,1994), 17-36.

39
culture. Both groups sought independence in their situations, but they did so in different
ways. On the basis of his study, Little concludes that:
In order to apply general historical and social concepts to the study of any settler
society, it is important to understand the nature of the cultural values in the
homeland, why and how the colonists migrated, the limitations imposed by the
new physical environment, and the nature of the political-economic structures
imposed on the community.25
25
J. I. Little, Crofters and Habitants: Settler Society, Economy, and Culture in a
Quebec Township, 1848-1881, (Kingston and Montreal: McGill-Queen's University
Press, 1991), 259. See also his "Ethnicity, Family Structure, and Seasonal Labor
Strategies on Quebec's
Appalachian Frontier, 1852-1881," Journal of Family History, vol. 17, no. 3, (1992),
289-302.

40
Little also cautions that, in studying settler societies, it is necessary to study more than
the "needs of capital", arguing that any explanation of capital requirements and its use
must be based upon a greater understanding of the context of the community that capital
exploits.18 This thesis will pursue an argument which tends to lean, historiographically,
more in the direction of Jack Little than that of Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn, or
that of Stephen Hornsby or Beatrice Craig. It will be argued that both the frontier ( in the
North West Arm) and the adaptation of the cultural and socioeconomic outlooks and
values the immigrants brought with them played roles in shaping their social and
economic behaviour and the nature of the relatively discrete communities they
established.
18 J. I. Little, Crofters and Habitants: 134 - 155.

41
The concepts of dependency, subservience and exploitation are indicators
of
socio-economic stratification and are all related to the manner in which wealth is
distributed within a given area. With this statement in mind, the present study will utilize
wealth as the primary measure of stratification. More specifically, it will use real property
(land) as the major indicator of wealth, the reason for this being that, within the context
of the period being examined, 1785-1835, a large proportion of settlers would have
considered their most important source of wealth to be their land. Many historians and
social scientists who are concerned with the study of class structure have concentrated
upon the division of wealth as measured through real property (land) and/or taxes. James
Lemon and Gary Nash point out that the distribution of wealth is the
“...most obvious and most readily quantified criterion of stratification...”.19 However, as
Lemon and Nash warn, this method of analysis can be very problematic since scholars are
far from uniform in either their approach to the problem of social (and economic)
stratification or their use of evidence. In this context, Lemon and Nash note that
socioeconomic stratification involves not only the division of material wealth, but also
the distribution of political power and social prestige. They point out that although these
are related, connections between them are not easy to make; each of these components of
stratification can be discrete and each has its own dynamics of change. As a result, the
19 James T. Lemon and Gary B. Nash, “The Distribution of Wealth in Eighteenth-Century America: A
Century of Change in Chester County, Pennsylvania,1693-1802,” Journal of Social History, (1968), 1.

42
conclusions one may reach about societal structure and the changes it underwent are
many and varied and may sometimes be contradictory.20
In their study of Chester County, a largely agricultural county in
southeastern
Pennsylvania, Lemon and Nash discovered that an analysis of soil conditions and
topographical features could provide very useful insight into variations in the distribution
of wealth. Although their findings were suggestive rather than definitive, the evidence did
indicate that, in the areas with the best soils, the land owners were generally better off
than those in areas where soils were not as good. Similarly, although population density
did not correlate clearly with the distribution of wealth, better incomes did tend to occur
where the settlers were more highly concentrated. They also suggest that cultural
differences, as measured by the ethnic and religious backgrounds of the settlers, may also
have had some impact; however, definitive correlations cannot be made.
The most important lesson emerging from their study is that generalizations about
social stratification or wealth distribution need to be made with great care. Lemon and
Nash’s evidence suggested that wealth often (though not always) became more
concentrated at the top of the social hierarchy in areas accessible to water transportation
and not too distant from commercial centres, especially if those areas contained rich soils.
They further note that, in more newly settled areas, even those with less productive soils,
society tended to have more of a
“middling” look.21
20 Lemon and Nash, “The Distribution of Wealth,” 1-2.
21 Lemon and Nash, “The Distribution of Wealth,” 22-23.

43
This thesis, following the example of Lemon and Nash's study, will undertake an
analysis of both soil and, to an extent, topographic conditions to determine what insight
they may provide into variations in the distribution of wealth in the North West Arm area.
Their study raises a number of questions which this thesis will seek to examine. First, in
the areas with the best soils, was the distribution of wealth greater or less than in areas
where soils were not as good? Secondly, what impact, if any, did culture, as measured by
ethnic and religious backgrounds, appear to have upon wealth distribution? Was wealth
more concentrated in areas accessible to water transportation and which permitted easy
access to markets, especially if those areas possessed good quality soils? Lastly, in the
areas with less productive soils, is there evidence to suggest that society tended to
develop more of a "middling" look? Finally, this thesis will be strongly guided by the
advice of Lemon and Nash who warn that any generalizations about social stratification
or wealth will need to be made with great caution.
In another study of Chester County Pennsylvania, Duane Ball, taking a
slightly
different approach from that of Lemon and Nash, examines the relationship between
population density and the distribution of wealth. He criticizes some historians, most
notably, Kenneth Lockridge, for having made the arbitrary assumption that the link
between land and population increase remained strong throughout the eighteenth century,
and that increasing population made for pressure on the land which resulted in stagnation,

44
or even a decline in the average per capita income.22 Ball set out to test that assumption,
to determine whether there was a break in the link between land and population increase
prior to the nineteenth century. His findings indicate that such a break did occur in
Chester County during the eighteenth century, as the passing of the frontier, contrary to
the traditional model, was followed by increases not only in population, but also in
wealth.23 The question of the link between land and population increase will be kept in
mind in this study of the settlement of the North West Arm.
Although the models outlined differ in focus and approach, all of them
could
accurately be classified as “micro-studies". All have all adopted a "micro-analytic"
method in their efforts to try to understand the patterns and dynamics of these different
rural communities, and all would agree that, local as their studies are, their findings do
demonstrate the value of new approaches to understanding patterns of change in
nineteenth-century rural North American society. The questions raised by these
community study models will be tested through a community study of the North West
Arm of Sydney Harbour. The study will pay considerable attention to the "fundamental
questions" identified by Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn: how the people of the North
West Arm "...shaped their material, social and political worlds; and how their life-
chances were affected by their background, economic status and the timing and location
22 Duane E. Ball, “Dynamics of Population and Wealth in Eighteenth-Century Chester County,
Pennsylvania,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. VI no. 4, (Spring, 1976), 622. For the clearest
expression of this viewpoint see Kenneth A. Lockridge, “Social Change and the Meaning of the American
Revolution,” Journal of Social History, vol. VI, (1973), 403-437.
23 Ball, “Dynamics of Population,” 622.

45
of their settlement in the provinces".24 In the Maritime context, the studies completed to
date reveal the need, as Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn point out, for a reassessment
of common perceptions of the colonial period as a regional, "Golden Age".25
Micro-analytic models will be used in this study, keeping in mind that the
usefulness of micro-analysis has been questioned in the past. The decision to use a
micro-analytical approach raises the issue of the relevance of micro-studies within the
broader parameters of historical research being done elsewhere. Over the years this has
been a contentious issue among historians. As Bumsted and Lemon note, the major
debate has focused upon the extent to which micro- studies, both conceptually and
substantatively, lack a broader historical context. 26 The debate is well illustrated in
Herbert Butterfield’s criticism of Sir Lewis Namier, namely that micro-analysis tends to
“over particularize” to the point that macro-historical movement and direction are lost.27
However, as Bumsted and Lemon point out, even though the authors of local studies may
be reluctant to generalize from their particular cases, it does not follow that a local study
cannot produce useful hypotheses. Nor is it necessarily true that macro-studies which
ignore contradictory evidence from case studies are particularly useful. Certainly it is
necessary to recognize the limitations as well as the strengths of both community studies
and more general studies. Bumsted and Lemon stress the need to be aware that events
24 Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn,“Of Inequality and Interdependence,” 5.
25 Bittermann, MacKinnon and Wynn,“Of Inequality and Interdependence,” 5.
26 Bumsted and Lemon, “New Approaches,” 99.
27 Herbert Butterfield, George III and the Historians, (New York, 1959), 206-213; cited in Bumsted and
Lemon, “New Approaches,” 100.

46
take place at the personal, small community and larger provincial and national levels and
that the local study must take account of events at these broader levels. Thus, while they
believe that "the closer the investigator comes to the primary constituents of a
phenomenon, the higher the probability of accuracy", they also recognize that "a
historical phenomenon is more than the sum total of its manifestations on local levels,
just as it is more than the phenomenon as it manifests itself on the general level".28 This
thesis, although focused at the community level, will be mindful of the larger economic,
political and social context within which the North West Arm was settled and which
influenced its growth and development. It is, in fact, this awareness of the need to place
this study within a broader historical framework, that led to the selection of the different
"models" previously mentioned to use for the purposes of comparison. Each of the
models chosen deals with the broader question of socioeconomic stratification in various
geographical locations across North America; however, they all tend to deal with it in
slightly different ways.
28 Bumsted and Lemon, “New Approaches,” 100.

47
It should be emphasized here that, in spite of all of the contextual problems that
were inherent in many of the older local studies, significant progress has since been made
towards rectifying these problems. Most notably, in the past three decades, those
professional historians who have moved into the field of local history, in choosing a
region or community to study, have demonstrated their awareness and understanding of
the larger historical questions. In many instances, the primary criterion in selecting a
particular community for analysis is the completeness or richness of records.29
Unfortunately it is seldom possible to achieve the ideal. Nevertheless, in micro-analysis,
the researcher seeks to achieve as detailed and total a reconstruction of the local
community as is possible. Such careful reconstruction is grounded in the belief that the
vast majority of the population experience economic, political and social change at the
level of their families and their communities, acting and reacting at the local level in
structuring and restructuring their lives. Because micro-analysts view this level of action
as intrinsically important, they seek to test the generalizations of the "traditional" scholars
(the macro-analysts) in an objective and scientific way.30
As a local history, this thesis, to a degree, is following a path similar to
that
advocated by Duane Ball, who argues in favour of historians studying particular local
areas within a settlement framework, analyzing the impact of land availability on new
29 Bumsted and Lemon suggest that very few American colonies or states have available as rich and
complete a collection of local records (especially public ones)as Upper Canada prior to Confederation.
They also point out that the opportunities for micro-study in Upper Canada are almost unlimited. Bumsted
and Lemon, “New Approaches,” 99.
30 Bumsted and Lemon, “New Approaches,” 99-100.

48
settlers, and then tracing through the stages of fixed capital accumulation that arose out of
the settlement process and the frontier boom. He suggests that this type of study allows us
to appreciate the social and economic differences arising out of different phases of the
settlement process, which would also make necessary a closer comparison between older
and newer areas.31
The locale for the purposes of this study involves the geographic area surrounding
the North West Arm of Sydney Harbour in eastern Cape Breton and the people who
immigrated to the area over the 1785 to 1835 period. The geographic area covered
encompasses the North
West Arm of Sydney Harbour and its drainage basin, which includes Ball’s Creek,
Leitches Creek and their watersheds. The area in question extends along the edge of the
North West Arm starting at the present day North Sydney town boundary (Upper North
Sydney), continuing through the communities of Leitches Creek and Ball’s Creek at the
head of the Arm and extending as far as
Point Edward; the territory of the study then moves inland from Ball’s Creek to include
some of the "backlands" areas, most notably, the communities of Upper Leitches Creek,
Rear Boisdale,
Rear Ball’s Creek, Gillis Lake, Beechmont and Frenchvale. (See Map 1, Study Area
Location and
Map 2, Land Settlement Index Map)
Having provided a general outline of the geographic area to be studied, it is also
31 Ball, “Dynamics of Population,” 642.

49
useful here to provide some brief sketches of some of the present day communities.
According to the Public Archives of Nova Scotia publication Place-Names and Places
of Nova Scotia,32 there are three communities which share the place name - Leitches
Creek - Leitches Creek Station and Upper Leitches Creek. They are located along the
creek of the same name which was named after John Leitch, an early Loyalist settler of
Lowland Scottish descent. Settlement began in this area soon after 1783; however, much
of the backlands area, though ‘occupied’, was not actually granted until the late
nineteenth and in some cases, the early twentieth centuries. Within these communities,
the basic occupations were forestry and farming.33 The community of Ball's Creek, which
can also be said to include the Rear Ball's Creek area, is located at the south end of the
North West Arm of Sydney Harbour and was named after the Honourable Ingram Ball,
who received a grant bordering on it in 1795. Farming and forestry were the predominant
occupations in this area.34 The community of Frenchvale, or Frenchville, as it used to be
called, is located approximately six miles southwest of the head of the North West Arm
of Sydney Harbour, across the upper extension of Ball’s Creek from Upper Leitches
Creek. In this community, the early settlers were Acadians and as a result of this the
community received its name. In Frenchvale, the predominant occupations have
traditionally been farming and lumbering.35
32 C. Bruce Fergusson,ed., Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia, (Halifax: Public Archives of Nova
Scotia, 1967), 350.
33 Fergusson,ed., Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia, 350.

50
There are a number of reasons why this particular geographic area lends itself to
a study of the social and economic structure of a nineteenth century rural Maritime
community. One is because of its ethnic diversity. In contrast to Middle River, which was
settled exclusively by Highland Scots, this area was settled by a variety of different
groups, most notably, the Loyalists, British and Acadians, together with Highland and
Lowland Scots, and some Irish as well. A second reason this area was chosen is, based
upon its location and the diversity of its soils. During the period of this study, 1785-1835,
most of the incoming settlers would have sought land that either fronted upon or was
close to, a source of water, if for no other reason than for transport purposes, as many of
the island's roads at the time were either poor or non-existent. The North West Arm of
Sydney Harbour forms a part of one of the best harbours on the east coast of
Canada, providing easy access to other areas of Atlantic Canada, the New England States
and the Carribean. Most settlers (or, at least, those who farmed or who aspired to take up
farming) wanted to be as close to water as possible so that they would have easier access
to outside markets along the Nova Scotia coast and in Newfoundland and access to soils
which would permit them to grow produce for those markets. The soils immediately
adjacent to the North West Arm slope back from the Arm and are generally of very good
quality, but, as in Middle River, and in many other areas of Cape Breton, the backlands
soils are of a much lower quality. Map 5, (Generalized Soils Quality) based upon the

51
Nova Scotia Soil Survey36 and Records of Crown Grants37 shows that the settlers
receiving grants in the 1790-1820 period generally were settled on the best quality land,
while those settling in the 1820-1835 period obtained lands of lesser quality (see Map 5;
see as well Map 6, which provides the reader with a general description of the local
topography).
Who were the immigrants who settled in this geographic locale and what were
their origins? Research on the North West Arm and environs reveals that they were a
diverse group. But they were by no means the first to settle on Cape Breton Island.
Therefore, before moving on to an examination of the settlers who arrived in the area
following the American Revolution and in the later period, it will be useful to consider
some of the earliest known census data as an indicator of the demographic characteristics
of the population of the island of Cape Breton prior to the establishment of these
communities. Here, it must be noted that there is no census data that specifically relates to
the North West Arm; as a result, this study must look at the bigger picture of the data
pertaining to Cape Breton as a whole and, from an examination of that data, attempt to
make some generalizations about the North West Arm.38
36 D.B. Cann, J. I. Mac Dougall and J.D. Hilchey, Soil Survey of Cape Breton Island Nova Scotia, (Truro
NS: Government of Canada, Minister Supply and Services, 1981) Southeast Sheet,Soil Survey Report No.
12.
37 Province of Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Crown Grant Map; Sheet 131, Nova Scotia Crown Grant
Records, Registry Office, Sydney NS.
38 D.C. Harvey, ed., Holland's Description of Cape Breton Island and Other Documents, (Halifax:
Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1935), 10-11.

52
The earliest census of Cape Breton, taken in 1766 by Samuel Holland, gave the
total population of Cape Breton Island as 707, exclusive of the Native Peoples. Of these
707, the census indicated that 271 were Acadians, 170 Americans, 169 Irish, 70 English,
21 Germans and only 6 were Scots. Eight years later, in 1774, another census was taken,
which showed a total population of 1012, again exclusive of Native Peoples, who were
recorded to have numbered 230. In this latter census, Americans, Scots and Germans
were all classified as being English, for a total of 304. The Irish numbered 206 and the
Acadians, 502.39 These census figures, if they can be taken as a reasonable portrayal, give
one an idea both of the overall population of the island and its ethnic make-up prior to the
American Revolution. In looking at the 1774 Census, it should be noted that the figures
for the District of Little Bras D' Or which might be considered those which most closely
approximate the situation at North West Arm, suggest that at the time, the area was
virtually unsettled.40
39 Harvey, ed., Holland's Description of Cape Breton Island, 10-11. Hugh Millward suggests that this
census represents the best source oforigin data prior to the Canada Census of 1871. Hugh Millward,
Regional Patterns of Ethnicity in Nova Scotia: A Geographical Study, Ethnic Heritage Series, vol. 6,
(Halifax: International Education Centre, St. Mary's University, 1981), 9.
40 Harvey, ed., Holland's Description of Cape Breton Island, 135.

53
To begin to develop an understanding of this particular geographic locale and its
social structure, it is first essential to gather information on the area’s natural resources
and the individuals who initially settled and resided within the several relatively distinct
communities which comprise the North West Arm. This thesis relies on several sources
of information in defining the settlement patterns, social status and persistence of settlers
in the study area: Crown Grant records and the Nova Scotia Government records of land
transactions over the period 1785 to 1990, limited census records, evidence from local
amateur historians, Church records and genealogical records developed and maintained
by descendants of the original settlers.
Genealogical evidence of the type available to this researcher has been questioned by
historians. However, genealogical data, Church and school records constitute the most
readily available and abundant sources of information on the families of the North West
Arm area. Therefore, genealogical methods will play a significant role in this study of
the North West Arm community. Much of the genealogical research done on the North
West Arm area to date, was conducted by Elva E. Jackson, a North Sydney local
historian.49 Jackson did a voluminous amount of research and writing on North Sydney
and environs. Her genealogical work provides the researcher with names, shows some of
the relationships among families which settled the area in the 1785-1800 period and
gives the reader a great many facts, all of which are quite useful in gaining an
understanding of the area’s development.50
49

54
Jackson’s book entitled Cape Breton and the Jackson Kith and Kin as well as
a variety of her unpublished works located at the Beaton Institute of the University College
of Cape Breton provide detailed background information on the settlement of the North
West Arm frontlands.
50
Elva E. Jackson, North Sydney, Nova Scotia: Windows on the Past, (Belleville,
Ont.:
Mika Publishing Company, 1974), 238. See also Elva E. Jackson, Cape Breton and the
Jackson
Kith and Kin, (Windsor, N.S.: Lancelot Press, 1971); Elva E. Jackson, "Some of North
Sydney's Loyalists," Nova Scotia Historical Review, vol. 3, no. 2, (November, 1983);
and, Elva E.
Jackson, "The Ball Family of Cape Breton: Three Generations and Their Antecedents in
England,"unpublished manuscript, 1984, File B&G: Ball, Beaton Institute, Chapter One.
Good genealogical sources can be a very useful tool in understanding the social
and economic strategies followed by families in a small community. In recent years,
historians have begun to recognize the potential of genealogical sources. In his
elaboration of the genealogical perspective in social history, Randy Widdis gives several
reasons why genealogy is a valid and important historical method and source. Most
significantly, he points out that a genealogy is more than a mere lineage; it is, in fact, the
history of a family.41 Through the lens of the family it is possible to perceive larger
processes such as community growth or decline, intermarriage of religious and ethnic
groups and out-migration. This thesis, as with studies by other historians, will use
genealogical information to analyze the experiences of individuals and families in
particular communities. It is expected that, in the absence of abundant census material,
analysis of available genealogical data will provide reliable information on the
41 Randy William Widdis, “Generations, Mobility and Persistence: A View from Genealogies,” Histoire
sociale-Social History, vol. XXV, no. 49, (mai-May, 1992), 129.

55
persistence of families in the area, their economic activities and their family linkages.
This approach is supported by Widdis who notes that genealogies “specify the particulars
of lives over time and space within the context of kinship and with their longitudinal
focus transcend the limits of the cross sectional census based approach.”42 Widdis, in
advocating the use of this source of information and data, argues that a well documented
genealogy provides an opportunity to study the geographic and social mobility
experiences of pioneer families and their descendants. Good genealogies trace the
patterns of marriage, births and deaths and, when linked with other records, permit us to
trace land ownership, occupation and other economic and demographic indicators.53
53
Widdis, “Generations,” 128.
Genealogies available to the North West Arm researcher provide good evidence
of kin linkages, intermarriage among the four main settlement groups and out-migration.
As Adams and Kasakoff state, genealogies show the linkages among kin who lived in
different communities, provide a fairly complete record of dispersion and, through
coverage of entire families, provide a way of assessing the degree to which out-migration
42 Widdis, “Generations,” 129.

56
may have fostered or hindered relationships in particular communities.43 Of particular
relevance to this study is
Samuel P. Hays’ assertion that a major advantage of using the genealogical method is that
it gives the researcher a "...sense of place and of the persistence of a family in a given
place". As Hays points out, many individuals put down roots and played a significant role
in the development of community institutions. From the genealogical method comes an
understanding of the relationships amongst families within a specific community. Hays
argues that within two generations the kinship context of community life takes on great
importance; and its importance was generally even greater for rural areas like the North
West Arm than for urban communities.44 Genealogies have become a particularly
valuable source for scholars interested in studying individual communities in the early
settlement period. First, as Robert Charles Anderson points out, and as is the case in
North West Arm, for earlier periods, when the number of people in the Arm communities
was very small, the less efficient methods of the genealogist become more feasible; and
secondly, during this period the demographer does not necessarily have reliable or
consistent census data to rely upon.45
43 Adams and Kasakoff, “Migration and the Family,” 25.
44 Samuel P. Hays, "History and Genealogy: Patterns of Change and Prospects for Cooperation," in Robert
M. Taylor, Jr. and Ralph J. Crandall, eds., Generations and Change:
Genealogical Perspectives in Social History, (Macon, GA.: Mercer University Press, 1986), 41.
45 Robert Charles Anderson,"The Genealogist and the Demographer," Genealogical Journal, vol. 9, no. 4,
(December, 1980), 192-193. Anderson's own research, based upon genealogy,focused upon the families of
seventeenth-century Dedham, Massachusetts.Because of his interest in that area, he encountered the study
of that town by Kenneth Lockridge and discovered that the practitioners of the "new social history" were
beginning to utilize many of the same records that genealogists had been using for over a century and were

57
Drawing on genealogical records, as well as available primary sources, then, this
thesis focuses on the experiences of the diverse groups of people (see Map 3) who settled
the North West Arm. Because the primary focus is on the emergence of socioeconomic
patterns in the study area, settlement patterns, family persistence and the distribution of
land will form key components of the analysis. In terms of its overall structure, this thesis
will be broken down into three parts. Chapters Two and Three will deal with the actual
process of settlement. They will look at both the arrival of the immigrants in the area and
the initial process of land acquisition. For this phase of the analysis, the examination will
be limited to the first generation of settlers. The impact these migrants had upon the
settlement of the North West Arm area will be documented. These chapters will also
examine the land acquisition strategies of the first settlers and the degree to which family
and kinship ties influenced land selection. More specifically, Chapter Two will focus
upon the settling of lands in the period 1785-1810 and Chapter Three will deal with
settlement in the 1810-1835 period. (see Map 4) The broad period of this study 1785-
1835 was chosen because it corresponds to the two major periods of Loyalist and
Highland Scot migrations into Cape Breton as a whole.
Chapter Four represents the focal point of the thesis. It will examine the
actual
notion of societal stratification and how it relates to the North West Arm area. Several
key issues will be dealt with here. Most importantly, it will look at the relationship
between a family's tendency to persist in a geographic area and the relative wealth of that
also using the published works of many genealogists.See Kenneth Lockridge, A New England Town: The
First Hundred Years, (New York, 1970).

58
family as measured by the land they held. If a family persisted, why did they do so? Was
it for economic reasons: did the family own a significant amount of land in a good
geographic location which contained good quality soils that would have allowed them to
earn a "modest competency" from farming? Was farming even their main preoccupation?
This, of course, raises the issue of the extent to which occupational pluralism played a
role amongst the settlers. Did the settlers, for example, use their land for farming or
forestry or as an adjunct to other occupations that they were pursuing?
Or was this tendency to persist based upon family and kinship connections in the
area? Linked in with this is the possibility that many may have persisted because they
simply either lacked the financial means, or, for that matter, the desire, to out-migrate.
Using land (or property) as the primary measure of wealth amongst persisters, what does
this say about the degree to which stratification did or did not develop in this area? Were
the families with the larger amounts of land necessarily any wealthier than those with less
land? Is there any evidence that any kinds of social barriers developed amongst these
settlers of varied backgrounds, i.e., Loyalist, Acadian, Highland Scot, etc. If so, how does
one account for these developments? These are all important questions that will be
examined in the following chapters of this thesis.

Millstream and North West Arm Manuscript April 24, 2016

Millstream and North West Arm Manuscript April 24, 2016

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