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“How Well I Remember Speerville, New Brunswick”

The hot sun beamed on us, the sweat ran down our foreheads, the mosquitos were trying to eat us alive, our arms and legs were scratched from climbing through brush piles plus my arm was bleeding as I had fallen over a rotten stump, but the thought of raspberry pie covered in whipped cream as well as raspberry pudding with brown sugar sauce kept us at the task of filling the two mixing bowls with wild raspberries.

Probably the Speer children in Speerville also picked raspberries  for their mother. They too, may have been bitten by the mosquitos, scratched by the barbs, and scorched by the hot sun.

According to “How Well I Remember Speerville, New Brunswick” by Murray Hubbard, published in 1991, John Speer was born in Ireland in 1766 and with his wife Mary had a family of several sons and one daughter. The sons, Andrew, John, James, John S., Joseph, Samuel and William, along with their cousin Robert, founded Speerville.

Samuel Speer married in 1842 to Sarah Hemphill, who had been born in Ireland, the daughter of William Hemphill.

James Speer married Jane MacBeath in 1834. He received his grant of land in 1835.

John S. Speer married Margaret Hemphill, the daughter of William Hemphill.  One of their sons, William Knox Speer, went to the Yukon and was never heard of again. Daughter, Sarah, married  William Gibson.
 
The tombstone of Joseph Speer gives his place of birth as County Tyrone, Ulster, Ireland. His wife was Rebecca Hemphill, daughter of William Hemphill, born in  Ireland. They built their home on Oak Mountain. Rebecca died in 1883 at age 78. Her picture as an elderly lady, wearing a bonnet, can be found in the book.

I have never visited Speerville nor met the folk who lived there. But while reading Murray Hubbard’s, “How Well I Remember Speerville, New Brunswick”, I felt as if I had grown up in the community and personally knew of the joys and sorrows of his neighbours, their ancestors and their descendants.

At http://www.rubycusack.com/Book-Speerville.html a copy for sale of  How Well I Remember Speerville, New Brunswick

Query 1333
Drost - Hathaway: In the 1851 census, Jane Drost, who was born circa 1845, was living with her grandparents, Eleaser and Susanna Hathaway. In the 1861 Sunbury County census, she was enumerated in the household of her uncle Calvin Hathaway. I would appreciate any information on this person.
SHIRLIE PHELPS
1288 Rte 119
Rindge, N.H.
03461, USA
E-mail shirlie7425@yahoo.com

Query 1334
Johnston: Jane Johnston, who was born 11 Apr. 1839 in Ederney, Fermanagh, Ireland and her siblings - Elizabeth (died Saint John at age 18), Mary Ann (died Saint John 25 Feb. 1907), Cathryn (died in New York 19 Nov. 1890), James, Joseph and Robert, migrated from Derry to Saint John, New Brunswick in 1852 on the  MARY ANN 1. Any information about this family history appreciated.
W. CHERRY
POB 68
Mill Valley, CA
94942, USA
E-mail winkycherry@comcast.net

Query 1335
Religious Intelligencer:  Searching for original copies of the Religious Intelligencer, the official newspaper of the Free Baptists in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia from 1853 until 1906. Rev. Ezekiel McLeod , born in Sussex in 1812, was the founder and first editor of this bi-monthly and then a weekly denominational paper published in Saint John, New Brunswick.
BARBARA F. PEARSON
476 Pearsonville Road,
Pearsonville, NB
Canada, E5P1S6
Telephone 506-433-3569
E-mail barbara3@nb.sympatico.ca   



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Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in New Brunswick, Canada. Send your New Brunswick genealogical queries to her at:  rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca.  Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of the readers of the newspaper who do not have access to E-mail but could have information to share with you. Please put "Query" followed by the surnames in your query. For more information on submitting queries, visit http://www.rubycusack.com/Query-Instructions.html
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