Jonathan Spinney

• General Notes
  • From St. Croix courier:
    
    March 1, 1867
    Died:
    Spinney - In St. Stephen on Tuesday February 26th, Jonathan Spinney aged 90 years.
    
    Excerpts from the Material compiled by John Oliver Spinney:
    
    To get a starting point, lets go to a spot near the old public wharf in Upper L'Etang River narrows and the tide rushes through, both flood and ebbs, from the wide bays - both above and below. This spot is called Pull-and-be-Dam. Nearby is an old cellar, built of field rocks and stones. The ground, in the immediate area, when plowed in my young days, showed great depth of calm shell, indicating that at some date long past, Indians of some eastern tribe lived there. My information is that the cellar was under a house inhabited by one Jonathan Spinney, in the late 1700 and early 1800's
    Now at this time, I feel that we must go back and connect with the ancestore of the First Thomas Spinney, as detailed in story # 116 (Maine and Nova Scotia) because when a certain John Spinney came from New England to Nova Scotia, about the turn of the 17th to 18th century, they settled at Argyle and Yarmouth (some still are). They prospered, bred and spread like rabbits: and in a generation or two, a lad named Jonathan got across the bay of Fundy and located at Pull-and-be-Dam.
    If I am correct Jonathan sired my grandfather James along with others that I shall mention later on. If so be was my great grandfather and whatever land owned, or claimed was devided. One of the sons (my grandfather, James homesteaded the 100 acred lot onth of Pull-and-be-Dam. This is the place where afterwards my uncle Tobias lived and the house still stands. I was a very small boy when my grandfather James fied and I can only just remember him.
    I believe that old Jonathan had several other sons besides my grandfather James, because about the year 1866, my father James V acquired by some means, a lot of 100 acres, running due west of Pull-and-be-Dam and next to his father, James. Part of this block was known as Ned's Field and lay next to John Grey's line south. It is reasoned therefore, that Ned was another of Jonathan's and therefore was my father's uncle. The Public road to L'Etang wharf split this property along the side of the Ned's Field.
    A little further along the L'Etang Road was a corner, and a road ran south to connect Upper L'Etang. This was known in my time as Thorp Road, because about half-way through, lived one of the oldest settlers, named Henry Thorp. The corner was then known as Nat's corner, which means that Nathaniel being another son of Jonathan was given acreage there. Finally my father must have acquired his 100 acres somehow from his Uncle Ned and Nathaniel about the year 1866 - when he was 20 years old.
    When Edward (Ned) was a boy, after his mother died, his father brought home a new wife and said to the boys who were working in the yard, "I have brought you a new mother.." It is said that James put down his hoe, walked away and never came home again per family stories of daughters of Edward Spinney, also told by the family of James.
    According to Death Records of Jonathan's children, Jonathan was born in Kennebunk, Maine, not in Nova Scotia.