DEDICATION - To my wife Florence, who has helped me with this publication and who has put up with me through 46 years of our ups and downs. A hearty thanks to all the folk's who helped in any way to make possible this backward glance at a bygone community. This is a brief outline of my memories of life in Coote Hill, School District #11, Queens Co., N.B. where I was born and privileged to live among the greatest people in the world. If I were an author I could write a book of the folks and events in this Community. However here are a few brief comments on some of the folk and events during the 20's, 30's, 40's. Also included, is a map of the area with the last one or two owners listed, before expropriation of the properties in 1951 or 1952 for Camp Gagetown. Vacant lots were all farms many years ago where rock piles and foundations can still be found.

Coote Hill was a normal mixed farming area for this part of N.B. with the farmers cutting logs, pulpwood or working in the woods or sawmills in the winter to supplement their income. Time and labour were the cheap commodities, there was always plenty to eat in those days, cash was very scarce and life moved at a leisurely pace. There was always time to stop and chat with a neighbour or visit in the evenings or on a Sunday. In case of sickness, human or animal, one or several neighbours would stay with you day or night to help, even letting their own work go to do so.

Doors were rarely locked, in fact I doubt if many people even knew where their keys were. Theft was almost unknown. Unless it was a property transfer, a man's word and his handshake was as good as his bond or note in making a trade or bargain. Without realizing it at the time we went through an era in the depression years which left a deep impression on us. To share what we had, to save everything and anything that might have a future use. How to take responsibility, be honest, patient, learn our 3 R's in school, be patriotic, and respect our parents and elders. We did not have the time on our hands to get into too much trouble.

There are two versions of how Coote Hill got its name. First, a family by the name of Cooey owned the Phoebe White property which was on the top of a steep hill. Secondly, a mentally retarded resident who was known as the "Crazy Coot", take your choice.

This was a small mixed farming area, and I mean small. First in the spring as soon as the last of the snow was gone and the fields were dry enough the manure which had been hauled out and put in piles in the winter, was loaded on the wagon and spread. Then the land was prepared for seeding, usually by spring tooth harrow. Grain was usually sown by hand, potato furrows were made with wooden feet on a frame drawn with horses and then potatoes and fertilizer were dropped by hand and covered by horse hoe. Garden rows were made with a horse hoe then planting was usually done by hand, or if lucky you had a hand seeder, also used for turnips. Calves and lambs were usually born in the spring as well as piglets when the weather was warm. The wool was shorn off the sheep by hand.

The crops were cultivated by hand or a single cultivator, weeding and thinning was also done by hand. Potato bugs were knocked off into a can or poisoned with Paris Green. This was a good way to earn pocket money, ten cents a hundred if they were not plentiful, price dropped rapidly as they became more abundant. Fresh vegetables were delicious in the summer with wild strawberries and real cream for desert. Haying was next with the mower and hand scythe, horse rake and muscle power with a fork to load it on the haywagon, then store it in the barn for winter feed

Harvest time was interesting watching the grain ripen just right to cut by hand or with a reaper (of which there were few). When dry the grain was stored in the barn until threshing time. Potato rows were ploughed out with the colter off the front of the plow, then dug out with a scratch hoe or dug by a long toothed potato fork. There was only one potato digger in the community and it dug one row at a time. When dry they were picked and put in barrels or feed bags and stored in the basement in bins. Beans were allowed to ripen in pods on the bushes and then stored in a dry place to dry them out for hulling. Carrots, parsnips, squash, pumpkin, beets would keep in the cellar for a while depending on the humidity, along with the canned vegetables which lasted all winter. Of course we churned our own butter and had our own eggs, which all told made us nearly self sufficient. In wet weather, harness was repaired, also machinery, new fork handles, etc. Idle days were non-existant if you wanted to do anything useful.

The people were very friendly and quarrels scarce, the few there were, were usually over stock breaking through the line fence out of pasture. Except my forefathers. I guess great grandfather Graham had a bad temper and would raise cain. I have two copies of bills he paid for law suits. One for assaulting Abraham Moore, this was in dollars and cents. Another in pounds, shillings and pence for striking his brother in law's horse with a pitch fork handle and the horse ran away with a load of hay, knocking Andrew Hamilton to the ground. This was in 1866.

In 1914, the Welsford & Hampstead Telephone Company constructed our telephone line, I remember the excitement in our home as a small boy, when that big wooden phone with a crank was installed. Some years later there were so many parties on one line and they all listened in to most calls. It was almost a broadcast.

We used kerosene lamps and lanterns until 1948 when hydro was put through, this gradually eliminated the outhouse, with the previous years, Eaton's Catalogue for slippery toilet paper was very cold in the winter. After hydro it was much warmer bottom wise with inside plumbing if you could afford it.

In the fall of the year preparations were made for winter. Wild berries, jams, jellies, canned meat and fruits. They were all prepared and stored in the (cellar) or basement, with a winters supply of potatoes, carrots and turnips, etc. Potatoes were also used for seed the next year, carrots were put in sand to preserve them.
The house was banked with earth or sawdust around the base to keep the frost out, the foundations were stone or masonry with no insulation in the walls, except in rare cases. Buckwheat hulls, or counter plastering.

Late in the fall a pig would be butchered and along with a quarter of beef hung in the woodshed or barn to freeze. As it was needed pieces were chopped off. Also a small keg of salt herring, for variety was put in the woodshed. Baked home grown beans, of course, was another staple and with fat pork, molasses and homemade brown bread was a must on Saturday night and for breakfast too.
In the spring, another pig would be butchered. The hams, shoulders, belly for bacon was cured with salt and brown sugar, hung in the smokehouse (a small wooden building a few feet square) then a fire was made with maple hardwood smothered to make lots of smoke, that was maple flavoured smoked pork to make your mouth water. The spring and fall pig for home consumption was usually fed lots of cull apples to help sweeten the meat.

No fridges or deep freezes in those days. So in the summer the milk and cream was kept in the cellar or lowered in the cold water in the well, inside (creamers as they were called) to keep it fresh. The creamer resembled a coffee urn. The cream comes to the top, and the milk is drained from the bottom. This was before cream separators.

Some folks had ice houses or buildings to store ice in. This was cut at Adamson's Pond. It was cut in cakes by hand with an ice saw, pulled out of the water with ice tongs, and finally hauled home by horse power. It was 24 to 30 inches thick and packed in sawdust. If properly done it would last all summer. We really appreciated the ice houses in the summer as we had a special drink for those hot haying days. It was a mixture of oatmeal, molasses, ginger, in cold spring water; most refreshing and a good thirst quencher too.

In the winter, the hardwood was cut and hauled for fuel. In the spring, Malcolm and Si. Corbett or Raymond and Harry Woods would bring their wood cutters and gas engine and cut the wood in stove lengths, the neighbours would trade labour so all you had to pay was the sawyers. Then the wood was split and piled loosely outdoors all summer to dry and put in the wood shed in the fall. The women cooked and served meals to the crew in the house. When fall came it was threshing grain under the same circumstances. If you couldn't pay for threshing they would take (toll) or grain for payment. The grain was stored in the granary as feed for livestock also for seed the following spring. Buckwheat was cut before the dew dried in the morning with a buckwheat cradle with wooden fingers on it and thrashed at thrashing time. It was then taken to Adamson's Mill, ground, screened, into flour and used for pancakes, unscreened it made feed for the pigs. Apples were peeled, cored, sliced then put on a twine string and hung up to dry to be used for pies in winter.

Some tapped maple trees for sap to boil and make maple syrup. Messy but good, especially on those pancakes. Late in the spring and early summer, trout fishing was usually good. If hunting was good we had moose and deer meat, also partridge, some deer meat was used to make mince meat, it was delicious.

Memories Of Coote Hill (Part 2) by Austin Graham

Some of the prices we paid at our store in the "Dirty Thirties', were: Eggs 11c per doz. , butter l5c lb., pork 6c per lb. , beef 4c per lb., fowl 5c per lb , calfskins 25c, potatoes 82.5 lbs. (half barrel) 25c delivered in Saint John, handled on commission as they were taken in trade for supplies. Our commission was small, for instance lc per dozen on eggs. Egg cartons were scarce and many farmers brought their eggs to the store packed in sawdust, buckwheat hulls or wrapped individually in newspapers. Molasses came in 90 gallon puncheons, coal oil in 45 gallon drums. All Spices, sugar, rice, nails, candy, in fact nearly everything was sold in bulk. Customers brought their own jugs for oil and molasses. In the fall, isolated families would buy supplies of sugar, flour, molasses, salt, etc. to last them all winter.

In the drug department, our store carried supplies of Dodds Kidney pills, Carter's Little Liver pills, Lydia Pinkhams Compound, Borasic Acid, Castor Oil, Sloans Linament, Minards Linament, Wampoles Emulsion, Sweet Spirits Nitre, Syrup of Squills, Castoria, Paragoric, and Beef Iron and Wine to name a few. Tailor made cigarettes were five cents for a package of five. Cigarette tobacco or (makings) were l0c per package, cigarette papers were included and would last about a week.

Months before Christmas the Eaton's Catalogue was studied with great care to select our Christmas gifts. Mother supervised the arrival of the parcels from Eaton's, giving each one of the family in secret what they ordered, to wrap and hide until Christmas Eve. Sometimes there was a trip to Saint John before Christmas, the only one of the year as it was 35 miles from home. You left home between 3:30--4:00 a.m. to catch the train at Welsford which was 10 miles away, train left at 7 a.m. (had to stable your horse or team before train time). Then shop all day and catch the train at 5:15 p.m. for the trip back to Welsford, get your team harnessed and drive 10 miles home again, it was quite a day.

On Christmas morning we very carefully unwrapped the gifts, saving the tissue paper and coloured string so we could use them for wrapping next year as we couldn't afford to buy it. Our Christmas tree lights were real candles put in metal holders that snapped on the tree, when they were lit it was beautiful, it is a wonder that the house didn't burn down, (usually a pail of water was kept near the tree). The tree was decorated with homemade balls of popcorn hung on a string, birds on a clip with a spring so they moved, plus other decorations. Santa always arrived during the night.

At Coote Hill United Church, service was held every other Sunday as the minister had a total of five preaching places) these were Welsford, Juvenile, Patterson, Armstrongs Cor. Hall and Coote Hill. If he was using a horse and buggy or sleigh, he came the night before from Welsford and stayed at a parishoners home for morning service. He preached three sermons a day, 11 a.m. -2 p.m.-7:30 p.m. The Anglican church on Headline had church every other Sunday too.

Only the very necessary chores were done on Sunday, just looking after the livestock. It was unthinkable to repair harness or farm machinery, etc. or work in the hay or grain field even if it had been wet all week and Sunday was a beautiful day. That was God's day and was respected as such, almost 100%. When I was a boy it was a rare sight to see anyone even fishing trout on Sunday. However the devil did get into me one Sunday in Sunday school and I put some live angle worms down a girls neck. It sure disrupted things for awhile and when I got home dad disrupted my bare rear with his razor strap. I could barely sit down for a week.
The horse sheds that were in conjunction with every church were used to shelter horses during church service, most had a special single stall for the Minister's horse. They were boarded in on three sides and open on the other side, they also made an excellent parking place for couples with either horses or cars. As time went on they gradually disappeared as their usefulness diminished.

The Ladies Aid formed part of the social life, meeting every two weeks at some members home, pre school children accompanied mothers. The hostess supplied supper. Their was usually a business meeting and then members quilted, knit or embroidered. The farmers at home grumbled and got their own cold suppers, being used to the wife's nice hot meals.

The first cars in our area were Model T. Fords. You cranked them to start, no gear shift, just three pedals, low, reverse, and brake. They had 30 by 3.5 tires--60 lbs. air, plenty of blowouts on the dirt or gravel roads not too smooth a ride, tires were changed by hand, patched the tube and air pumped in with hand pump.
I remember when the road below Welsford at Eagle Rock was so narrow the alder bushes hit the car on both sides. The cars all had cloth tops with side curtains of isinglass and leatherette which were put on with snaps in wet or cold weather. Heaters were unknown then. In winter the car was jacked up, put on props in the barn and the battery brought in the house and kept back of the stove to prevent freezing. You licensed your car for three or six months depending on the roads, no anti-freeze or insurance in those days. About 1922 the driving was changed from the left to the present right hand side of the road, older models were all right hand drives.

The school district was three miles long, attendance at Coote Hi11 school was 18--20 with grades one to eight taught in the one room school. The teachers salary was $40. monthly of which she paid $4. weekly for room and board, there was no pay for holidays or days off for sickness and she was usually paid twice a year by the School District

There was a woodshed and a four holer outhouse, partitioned, two for girls and same for boys. The cloak rooms in the front of the school were unheated, you didn't linger long in the winter after putting on cold overshoes, coat, cap, etc. There was an ink well in every desk, pens were used and a new pen nib was a gem. Water was kept in a pail on a small table and everyone used the one and only long handle tin dipper to drink from, we were healthy in those days, the water was usually carried from dad's well.

We used slates for working in school and scribblers for home work or something special, they cost 5c, slate pencils were all slate and broke easily. If you squealed them on your slate it was strange, but it seemed to get on the teachers nerves. Arbour Day as it was called was a highlight as we spent the day giving the school a good cleaning and scrubbing, also the school yard was thoroughly cleaned up. This day was in the spring, usually May.

The nearest High school was in Saint John. We went to school barefoot in summer as boots were expensive (besides it was more fun. To play ball we made a ball out of pieces of twine string, tied and rolled tightly. We used to set rabbit snares at recess and noon hour, sold what we caught for 5c each. Put one in the teachers desk one morning, when she opened it there was hell to pay, a strapping, also kept in after school.

For several years I had the contract to light the fires in the pot bellied wood stove. The fire was lit at 8 a.m. I supplied my own kindling, carried in the wood, disposed of the ashes in the outhouse, all for the princely sum of $10. per year, up to $15. the year I left.

Usually before school you helped milk the cows, feed the pigs, sheep and hens, after school you helped clean stables, milk, put down hay from the haymow, feed the stock, pulp turnips in the turnip pulper, carry in wood, etc.
The girls helped milk and then helped their mother with meals, washing dishes, learning to cook and general housework.

Children's bob sleds or hand sleds were homemade, if you didn't have something, borrow it, or make it or do without. We made whistles from an alder limb and fishing poles from elm saplings. We had fun skating, sledding, sliding, square dancing, and games of all kinds, you had to make your own entertainment as it wasn't supplied for you.

Some community social activities were held in the school. A popular one was a Pie or Basket social to raise funds for the school or church. The ladies made beautifully decorated pies or baskets and they were auctioned off to the highest bidder. Each young man tried to buy his girlfriend's pie, sometimes she would tell him what it looked like. The school teachers pie was also a popular one, the bidding at times was very brisk. The auctioneer was often asked by young men to tip them off, sometimes he double crossed them and tempers smouldered. The boyfriend would be eating with some farmers wife and her family.

Another community highlight was the "charivari", held on the wedding night at the home of the bride and groom. The folks gathered after dark outside and on a signal would fire shot guns, beat on pans, ring cow bells or anything to make a noise, this was kept up until the bride and groom appeared at the door and invited everyone in for a lunch, then they all went inside. The guests usually made up a French bed and hung cowbells underneath the bed in the bridal chamber, also put soda in the chamber pot for the couple.

Property Taxes were billed and if not paid by a certain date in the fall, your name and the amount owing was put on the defaulters list which was posted in a number of public places. It was a matter of principle to pay them and a disgrace to have them on that list. In the thirties, it was just impossible for some folks to get enough cash together to pay them.

Our road tax could be paid by working on the roads by hand or with horses. This was called Statute Labour, or if you had it you could pay by cash.
I think 1929 was the year of the deep Snow, by spring there was 5 or 6 ft. in the fields. It had rained on this creating a heavy crust, for about two weeks you could haul anything with horses and sleds in the fields until about 10:30 a.m. or so when the suns rays started to weaken it. This was very hard on wild game, partridge fly into the snow at night, if it freezes over they can't get out. The deer were also limited to a small area in their yards for food and very vulnerable to wild cats.

In the winter it was expected that each School District would shovel the worst of the snow drifts voluntarily so the mail could get through (and they did too). Some of our mailmen were Bob Scribner, Ray Cooper, Tom Wilson, Fred Jones and Frank Conners. Mail came 10 miles from Welsford to Coote Hill, the mailman travelled by horse and buggy or sled 30 miles each day, 6 days a week, round trip. The Big Snow year the roads were impassible for horses for two weeks in the spring. From Armstrongs Cor. to Coote Hill, Dunns Cor. Summerhill, North & South Clones back to Armstrongs Cor. the mail was picked up by volunteers on a toboggan at Armstrongs Cor. from the mailman and was passed from school district to district for delivery and pickup until its return to the mailman at Armstrongs Cor. There were no unions then, (thank goodness).

When the blueberries were ripe in Clones on what was known as the Blueberry Barrens, someone with a hayrack still on their farm wagon would take one to three families and go out for the day. It was a combined picnic and work day as we took our picnic lunch, boiled our kettle and had lunch under a nice shade tree at noon. After picking berries all day, I can still see those milk pails full of beautiful berries which were immediately converted into delicious pies, puddings, or eaten with cream and sugar, the rest were made into jam or jelly or preserved for winter use.

Memories Of Coote Hill (Part 3) by Austin Graham

When the blueberries were ripe in Clones on what was known as the Blueberry Barrens, someone with a hayrack still on their farm wagon would take one to three families and go out for the day. It was a combined picnic and work day as we took our picnic lunch, boiled our kettle and had lunch under a nice shade tree at noon. After picking berries all day, I can still see those milk pails full of beautiful berries which were immediately converted into delicious pies, puddings, or eaten with cream and sugar, the rest were made into jam or jelly or preserved for winter use.

Some of the peddlers or repairmen we had in those days (walking or with horse and wagon) were Perchinock, selling boots, dry goods, etc. Joe Boyle, (later owned Boyle's Hardware in Fairville), soldered pots and pans, later had a horse and wagon and also sold pots and pans etc as well as doing repairs. Billy Young sold pins and needles and other small items. Another one and I can't recall his name, sharpened knives, scissors, etc. had a hard time finding a place to sleep, as he was lousy.

Some homemade remedies were:

• Hives, baking soda
• Infection, bread or salt pork poultice
• Spring Tonic, sulphur and molasses; (shake your undershirt over the stove and see the blue flame)
• For Cough Syrup, pepper and sugar or ginger and cream mixed with sugar;
• Constipation, castor oil
• Severe Colds, goose greese and turpentine, or mustard poultice, on the chest
• Bee or Hornet Sting, wet clay, or black swamp mud was best
• Sore Throat, salt and water gargle
• Cold Sores, burned birch bark, apply to lip
• Worms, steeped Senna leaves
• Sore Muscles, Minards or Sloans linament
• Croup, Syrup of Squills
• Tooth Ache, paragoric, or ground cloves applied

Pills, cough medicines, and salves were carried by the Doctors, the nearest drug store was in Saint John.

North of Headline church was #4 Hall, L.O.B.A. where dances were held. The highlight of the year was the annual picnic held July 12th. Nut bars, ice cream, bananas, plums, pears, soft drinks, etc. all for 5c each were to be found at the canteen. Dinner for adults, 50c; children 25c. We square danced from 12 noon until midnight, a one piece orchestra (Len Dunn) on the fiddle supplied the music, a stage was built outside for daytime dancing, we danced in the hall at night, the only break was for Len to have his supper. No charge for daytime dancing, at night you paid. In my boyhood days it was about the only time fresh imported fruit was available except at Christmas. Another highlight of the twelfth was Jimmy Godfrey singing "The Preacher and the (Bar) Bear", What a character.

There were often some humorous incidents at these affairs, on one such occasion one of the men folk was invited by a friend to go to his place and sample with him some of the latest batch of homemade potato beer. Time flew and before he realized, nearly two hours had passed by, upon returning to the Hall, as he stepped out of the car he realized that although his head was clear, his knees seemed to be made of rubber. Feeling rather guilty that he had sort of neglected his family, he decided to make amends and going to the canteen bought four cones of ice cream for a treat, he found them sitting on the seats in the hall. A local spinster of ample proportions was sitting chatting with his wife, not wishing to be rude he politely offered his own cone to her, as he bent over somewhat unsteadily to give it to her, to his horror it  rolled off the cone and fell inside the dress of her buxom bosom. Thinking it better not to offer assistance, and in this case he felt retreat was the better part of valour, he mumbled an apology and made as hasty an exit as possible from the Hall. (A two time loser.)

Going south at one time years ago, the main road left the Base Line at Coote Hill Church (as the bank of the Allingham Brook was too steep to cross at the Scribner property) turned left up Brandy Lane to Base Line and followed Base Line past Austin Armstrong's. The hill on the front of the Austin Graham and Phoebe White Property was so steep the road was changed to its present location.

In 1930-31 the Valley road was built from Coote Hill Church to join the Hampstead road at Joe Murphy's, to eliminate the extremely steep Headline Hill, from James Graham's to Headline Church. The princely sum of 27 & l/2c per hour was paid by the Provincial Government for labour on this job. It was built by hand and horse power, a road grader was hauled by horses and was operated by Winfield Queen. Regular wages were l0c per hour for a 10 hour day, six days a week, $6. and your board.

This road continued on to Hampstead, Adamson's mill was one quarter mile past Joe Murphy's on this road. He custom sawed lumber, also sawed pine and cedar shingles and lath. He also ran a grist mill and wool carding machine. We had the hardwood flooring for our living room sawed at this mill. The mill was first driven by water wheel and then by steam engine, in the Thirties he bought logs delivered to the mill for $10. per thousand feet., $5. for refuse. The mill crew was supplied bed and board in his large home. His wife Gertie and a hired girl cooked for the mill crew.

If you worked in a commercial lumber or mill operation a distance from home, you were lucky to get home once a month. The camp was covered with tar paper and divided into two parts, cookhouse and bunkhouse, beds were boards covered with straw or fir boughs, and blankets, a feed bag filled with straw was your pillow. You were assigned your place at the table by the cook (boss of the kitchen) and you sat there each meal.

The stove in the cookhouse was a huge cast-iron affair with mostly a solid top on which the cook made toast and fried pancakes, for breakfast we also had beans, fried pork, fried potatoes, sausage with biscuits and homemade bread. If the woods crew ate out, at noon lunch was packed in a wooden box hung on the hame of the yarding horse, his hay and oats were on the other side, on the hame. At noon a kettle of water was boiled for black tea, frozen bread was sliced on a fresh stump with a sharp axe, toasted on the open fire on a forked stick, then spread with molasses. Sliced meat and cookies were thawed in the same way. Supper was most ample with huge plates of sliced meats, vegetables, pickles plus a variety of cakes, cookies and pies. Tin plates and cups were our utensils. After working in the woods all day we ate with gusto and washed it down with gallons of black tea.

The cook's bunk was in the cookhouse and he cooked alone for about 30 or 35 men, over that he had a "cookee", or helper. Attached to the building was a leanto called the "dingle", in which frozen meat and supplies were kept. Space was limited in the bunkhouse so we played cards in the cookhouse until 9 p.m. then it was lights out for everyone. The outhouse was a brush leanto with a pole to sit on.

Some of the folk were tellers of "Tall Tales" such as the following: "I was out hunting and wading in the shallows, crossing a river, I looked down stream and saw a moose on one shore and a bear on the opposite shore, I only had one cartridge left so I spied a large sharp rock in the middle of the river, I fired at the rock, the bullet split, one half killed the moose and the other half the bear, the gun kicked badly and knocked me down in the river, when I got up my pockets were full of trout, splinters of rock hit a pair of ducks overhead and they dropped near the moose."

"Another time I was hunting and about night fall I spotted seven partridge perched on a hardwood limb for the night, again I only had one cartridge left so I fired, split the limb partially and it snapped back and pinched the partridge's claws and held them until I could wring their necks."

"To go fishing just follow a racoon to a good fishing hole, keep out of sight and when he throws the trout out catch it, he will think it got away, so why fish yourself?"

Gagetown the capital of Queens Co., also the Gagetown road was named after General Gage, who in 1812 was granted an enormous tract of land from Gagetown to the (Armstrong) grant, the last owner was John White. This was south of Austin Armstrong's. Below this another large grant was made to a Col. Welsford, no doubt this is where the village of Welsford got its name.

The first settlers were mostly Irish and came from Antrim, Ireland in 1820. Among these were the Graham's who came from county Fermanagh. They were Scottish, of the clan Graham of Montrose, these among many other Scottish clans had been dispossessed of their lands in Scotland when the union of the English and Scottish crowns took place; they were forcibly transported to Ireland by order of King James VI in 1602 because they were troublesome clans.

The lot for the Headline Anglican Church was given to the church in one of the original grants. The Coote Hill first Methodist church (later United Church of Canada) was built in 1845. The Minister came from Jerusalem until 1872 when the Welsford circuit was formed. The church was rebuilt by William White, approximately 1882. James Graham and Thomas Cooey were appointed the first chapel stewards in 1855. Once yearly a list of names and amounts of church donations was posted in the rear of the church. This was discontinued about 1931. The crossroads at the Headline Anglican Church being the highest ground in the area was used by the surveyors in laying out the roads and lots.

The public school districts were every three miles, construction of the public schools started about 1872, previous to that instruction was given in the homes. One of our senior teachers living in Saint John graduated from the Provincial Normal School in 1905. She received a salary of $50. per term and paid $2. monthly for board, and was paid twice a year. Those were the good old days, or the bad old days, which?

The cemeteries have a history all their own, besides the churches, there were two private cemeteries, the Cooper family cemetery and another on Bessie Brittain's property. This was formerly known as the Graham cemetery because it was on the lot of the original owner Tom Graham, (father of Fred). Since Tom Graham's and Francis Woods' wives were sisters, many members of the Woods family are buried here also the original grant of the Gra ham homestead of 200 acres was granted to Richard Hewlett, February 21st, 1833, for twenty five pounds in reign of King William IV. He sold it to my great grandfather in 1836. To add to his acreage, great grandfather Graham bought 70 acres at the rear of his property. This grant to him is dated July 7th, 1868, in the reign of Queen Victoria. Sir Lemuel Allan Wilmot was the Lieutenant Gov. of N.B. at this time, his name is on the deed.

On mothers side of the family her grandfather John Murphy (Irish) emigrated from parish Clother, County Tyronne, on June lst 1821 and landed in Saint John, September 1st, of the same year. They sailed from Liverpool on the ship "Harp", with Captain John Spence. From here he went to Nova Scotia, returning later and settled in Coote Hill in 1835. One thing my ancestors had in common was a bad temper. I certainly can remember grandpa Bob Murphy's, when his temper and long beard got going he was a holy terror.

I hope this will stir a few memories among my own generation) the latter generation who attended school there will remember some of it, those who were too young to remember, I feel sorry for. It was a time for love, laughter, despair and friendship that is almost impossible to duplicate in a community today. If you get even a small bit of pleasure reading this, it will have been worthwhile. I have thoroughly enjoyed putting it together as I remember Coote Hill.

= Austin Graham, March 1978