Family History

Pleasant Valley - Home at Last

The Story of Sussex and Vicinity, New Brunswick, by Grace Aiton, and The Loyalists of New Brunswick, by Esther Clark Wright, available in public libraries, both provide excellent information on the Loyalist refugees who settled in Nova Scotia, later to become New Brunswick.

Both books mention our Snider families; the first provides mustering out information on Loyalist troops; Grace Aiton’s book is full of references to the daily life of the new settlers in Kings County, New Brunswick and mentions the Snider brothers frequently. Elias and Peter ran a freighting business by Durham boat, up and down the Kennebecasis River; Peter later became the community shoemaker. One of the next generation moved to the mountain which now bears the family name.

In 1789, Martin married Sarah Armstrong. In 1794, he was granted 200 acres on Lot 60, Rockville, New Brunswick, and farmed there until he sold the land in 1811 and moved to Upper Canada.

According to research by Herbert Elgin Snider, Martin was first granted three Town lots in the Saint John area in 1785, but later moved to Sussex Parish in Kings County. He and four of his brothers and six others, settled on Trout Creek, finally receiving grants in 1794.

In 1978, Ted Snider travelled to New Brunswick and visited Martin Snider Senior’s farm. He found a large house with hand-made clapboard trim, and inside, scroll-carved arches and two, two-sided fireplaces, one with a Dutch oven.

Grace Aiton described the homestead in The Story of Sussex and Vicinity, although by that time it was known as the Teakles Homestead Farm:

"The house, probably the oldest in the community, was substantially built, with a great stone wall, several fireplaces, both downstairs and up, and a bricked-in oven where the bread was baked."

We’re not sure why Martin decided to leave New Brunswick around 1811 and move his growing family to York in Upper Canada, but it seems reasonable that he would have wanted to provide sufficient farm land for his sons. Perhaps most of the available land in Kings County was already taken. In any event, this is just what he did – packed up their household goods and likely took the overland and waterway route to the Home District.

Martin sold the farm to Alexander Teakles by deed on February 9, 1811, registered in Book "K" in Kings County records. Later, Alexander’s son William married Charlotte Snider, daughter of Martin’s brother Peter. Four generations of Teakles lived on the Trout Creek farm and by 2005, George Chambers - a direct descendant of the Teakles family - was still the owner. His son worked the verdant land - "as far as the eye could see" and cared for their fine herd of Holsteins.

In his book, Land of the Loyalists, Their struggle to shape the Maritimes, author Ronald Rees describes the Kennebecasis Valley as a most favoured part of the province. "Today it is one of the few truly pastoral regions of New Brunswick," Rees said, and noted that Pleasant Valley is a "broad interval between Salmon and Trout Creeks -- the two headwater streams of the Kennebecasis . . . "

The Peripatetic Sniders (Family History continued)