Minister's Island - European Settlement

European Settlement

The Island did not see white residents until the arrival in 1777 of John Hanson and Ephraim Young. Traces of early European buildings were excavated in the 1970s. Having received location tickets in recognition of their service in the Revolutionary War (Hanson fought with Wolfe in Quebec), Hanson and Young set out from Salem, Massachusetts in a whaling boat and eventually found their way to St. Andrews, the first Loyalists to arrive in the area. At that time St. Andrews consisted of little more than a trading post operated by two trappers from Saint John, along with a mainly ceremonial native presence. Having decided to settle on Consquamcook Island (or Chamcook Island, as it later was called), they cleared fields, raised families, and for a few tough years were forced to subsist almost entirely on shellfish and what they could bring down with their guns. With the arrival of the main United Empire Loyalist influx to the area in 1783, there was some concern that they might be ousted from their island by the new settlers, so they petitioned Governor General Carleton in Halifax for title to the Island but were informed that a prior application had been received from Samuel Osborn, Captain of the warship Arethusa, then stationed at St. Andrews for protection of the refugees. There is a legend, probably true, that Osborn was forced to use his ships cannons in some sort of not-so-friendly target practice to persuade the squatters to leave the premises. There is another story that Osborne, in cahoots with the Town’s new rector, Samuel Andrews of Connecticut, got Hanson drunk and persuaded him to sign over his property to the Minister. This is certainly not true. as Hanson and Young had in fact no legal title to the Island, and the deed transferring the Island from Osborn to Andrews is dated 1791, seven years after the two unfortunate settlers had left the Island.

Neither Osborn nor Andrews seemed particularly attached to the Island. Though Andrews built a small stone cottage there, still standing today, though in bad repair, he put the property up for sale in 1798 but apparently had no takers, as it was still in his possession upon his death in 1818. After that it passed to his son Elisha Andrews, the town’s Sheriff, then to Elisha's son Marshall, and finally to Marshall's son Edwin. Edwin Andrews and his father Marshall were still living there in 1889 when the celebrated William Van Horne, newly appointed President of the CPR, arrived in St. Andrews on a tour of inspection of the New Brunswick Railway, a new addition to the CPR's rapidly expanding system. Van Horne was impressed with the town and a few years later, in 1891, purchased 150 acres (0.61 km2) from Edwin Andrews and began construction of Covenhoven, his summer home.