William Oakes, Carpenter

United States # 114, 1869, 3c. locomotive on tiny 2 Aug 1869 double franked cover from -LY- (Plymouth?), USA to New Albany, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. Addressed to Mr. William H. Oakes, New Albany, Annapolis County, N.S. Cancel -LY- AUG 2, PAID. Front stamp (illegible post office) AU __ N.S., backstamp Lawrencetown, N.S. AU 6 186-, presumably 1869 since that was the date of issue of the stamps.

In 1869, William Henry Oakes was a 29-year-old single carpenter living with his widowed father, Jesse Oakes (His mother had died March 17th of that year), his paternal grandmother, and his siblings in New Albany, Dalhousie Township, Annapolis County, when he received this letter from the United States.

1871 census has William Oakes, age 31, Dalhousie, Annapolis, Nova Scotia, District 190, Baptist, carpenter, living with Jesse Oakes, 62, Maria Oakes, 28, Ada S Oakes, 25, Mary L Oakes, 17, Ingram B Oakes, 22, Rachel Oakes, 92. (his grandmother, Rachel Lovett Oakes, wife of Phineas)

A.F. Church map, New Albany

After his marriage, William moved his family down river to Nictaux and joined the Methodist Church there.

1891 census has William H Oakes, married, age 52, Nictaux, Annapolis, Methodist, Farm Dealer, Jenny A Oakes, wife, 40, Carrie J Oakes, 17, daughter, Ethel M Oakes, 15, daughter, Roy W Oakes, 9, son, Cynthia L Oakes, 7, daughter.

1901 census District Annapolis, District 26, Sub-District Nictaux, Wm H Oakes, married, age 62, born 1 Nov 1838, Methodist, carpenter, Jennie Oakes, 52, wife, Caroline Oakes, 27, daughter, Ethel Oakes, 25, daughter, Roy W Oakes, 19, son, Cynthia Oakes, 17, daughter, and Caroline Harris, 86, mother-in-law.

William's father, Deacon Jesse Oakes was born on January 2nd, 1809, in Nova Scotia, the son of Phineas Oakes and Rachel Lovett. In 1834, he married Eliza Whitman. They had 10 children. In 1874, the widowed Jesse was remarried to Susannah Saunders-Baker. He passed away in 1894. He is buried in the Whitman Family Cemetery, New Albany, Annapolis, Nova Scotia.

The Messenger & Visitor for Wednesday, 16 May 1894, p. 8 –

"The New Albany church has sustained another loss in the removal, by death, of Deacon Jesse Oakes, who passed away on the 28th ult, aged 85 years. Though weakened by advanced age and suffering during recent years from disease, he was always in his place in the church when possible. One of the early settlers in Albany, he resided at the old homestead till called to the heavenly home. A son of Loyalist parents, naturally strong physically, and resolute of purpose, he was, in his active life, a leader in whatever promoted the good of the community. He was not converted till near middle life. Forty-seven years ago, during a powerful religious awakening under Rev. W.C. Rideout, he and many others joined the Albany church. How often was he accustomed to refer to the sweet revelation that came to his life, when he was enabled to realize that God through Christ could be just and yet the justifyer of the guilty sinner who would trust in Him. As a deacon, he stood at his post as long as he felt able. Of his ten children six survive him, four sons and two daughters. Few men have ever been more upright in business or more faithful to promises. At last he rests from toil and care. The funeral services were conducted by the pastor, Rev. S. Langille, who delivered a discourse on the resurrection, as a basis of the Christian’s hope. It is understood that the deceased has remembered the foreign missionary work in his will."

The first Baptist church in the region was organized at Nictaux in 1810. It was a dynamic congregation under the leadership of first Rev. T. H. Chipman, then Rev. I. E. Bill. In 1833, there were 1000 church members. In 1829, congregants from Nictaux and Paradise, led by Rev I.E. Bill and Rev. Thomas Ansley, organized a Baptist Church in New Albany. The church evolved from being held in homes to the local schoolhouse, which later burned down. The New Albany Baptist Church deed describes the purchase of one half-acre of land for the price of 21 dollars in December 16, 1878. This site has been identified as the home of Beriah Bent, where early evangelical meetings were first held. Local resources were used to build the church, such as beams from Adolphus Farm Mill.

New Albany Baptist Church, dedicated on May 20th, 1877. 

The church demonstrates beautifully a transitional phase in Nova Scotia Baptist architecture between the early 19th Century meeting houses and the last 19th Century church buildings. The meeting house style is indicated in the overall form of a simple gable roof with double entrance ways while the pointed arches, with shouldered architraves, of the window and door frames herald a Gothic Revival Style. William Oakes may well have employed his carpentry skills in the construction of this church.

William's grandfather, Phineas Oakes, was born about 1781 in New York, the son of Jesse Oakes and Deborah Baldwin. He was brought to Nova Scotia as an infant by his Loyalist parents. Phineas married Rachel Lovett (born before 1781 in Annapolis; daughter of Col. Phineas Lovett Jr. and Abigail (Thayer) Lovett). Their children were: Louisa, Abigail, Jesse, Elizabeth, and Mary Jane. In 1827, Phineas Oakes was listed as a farmer in Annapolis Township, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia with a family consisting of 4 males, 5 females and 1 male servant. The family was Baptist. The census shows there was 1 marriage in the past year. Phineas died on April 2, 1854, in New Albany, aged about 72.

William's great-grandfather, Jesse Oakes was born 8 Dec 1745 in Huntington, Suffolk, New York. Jesse married Deborah Baldwin (born in 1747 in Northport, Suffolk, New York).

He appears on the Muster Roll of Discharged Officers and Disbanded Soldiers & Loyalists taken in County of Annapolis on June 29, 1784, with a wife, 5 children and one servant.

He paid a tax of 10 shillings in Annapolis Township, Annapolis County in 1792 and 7 shillings 7 pence in 1794. Jesse died in 1837 in Annapolis Co., Nova Scotia, aged 81.

Arrival of Loyalists in Annapolis County

"The author of a small treatise published anonymously at Edinburgh in 1787, entitled "The Present State of Nova Scotia," asserts that Annapolis received an accession of 2,500 by this [Loyalist] migration, which increased the extent of the town to six times its former area, with a population larger than it ever before possessed.

To give a more accurate account I will quote from Mr. Bailey's journals and letters, as reproduced in the biography referred to. On his arrival in 1782, he puts the population of Annapolis Royal at 120, comprised, as he said in a letter written five years later, in eighteen families, with a considerable number of French in the neighbourhood. Late in October of that year nine transports, convoyed by two men-of-war, arrived, bringing five hundred Loyalist refugees, by whom, Mr. Bailey says, "every habitation is crowded, and many are unable to procure any lodgings. Many of these distressed people left large [confiscated] possessions in the rebellious colonies, and their sufferings on account of their loyalty and their present uncertain and destitute condition render them very affecting objects of compassion." In October 1783, he mentions the arrival of nearly one thousand people from New York, and in November 1,500 more, "in affecting circumstances, fatigued with a long and stormy passage, sickly and destitutes of shelter from the advance of winter." "Several hundreds are stowed in our church, and larger numbers are still unprovided for." The 57th regiment of troops also arrived this autumn. A small unfurnished apartment, he said, cost $3.00 per week rent. He states, on November 6th, 1783, that "the population of the country," when he arrived in Annapolis, was about 1,500, including French. Since that, between three and four thousand had been added and several new settlements formed. In 1784 the court-house and every store and private building was crowded with people, so that he was obliged to perform divine service at several miles' distance or at his own habitation. In letters of May 10th and 11th, 1787, Mr. Bailey reports that many people have removed from the several towns in this county upon their farms, so that Annapolis contains only forty-five families including negroes, few of them in affluent circumstances, and many poor, with about five times as many in the county under his care. He describes a journey to Clements in the autumn of this year for the purpose of marrying Shippey Spurr and Alicia Van Voorhies, going out to Lequille to cross the river at the head of the tide, and proceeding by a circuitous route over " horrid broken roads, so encumbered with rocks, holes and gullies, roots of trees and windfalls and sloughs, that the passage was extremely difficult and dangerous," Calnek, W. A. (William Arthur), History of the county of Annapolis, including old Port Royal and Acadia.

New Albany in the Early Days of Settlement

"The road through the settlement had been cut out before 1806, for in that year Charles Whitman was granted the sum five pounds, to pay him for keeping the road open from the eighteen-mile tree to Cleaveland's - that is, to cut out the windfalls that might obstruct the travel for that year. In 1809 £100 was voted for the Liverpool Road, a part of which would be expended on that portion of it which extended through Albany, and Nathaniel Parker was appointed a commissioner to expend it. The settlement is bounded on the north by the south line of the second division of the township of Annapolis; on the east by the Nictaux River; on the south by the north rear line of the Dalhousie lots, and on the west by the western lines of the lots contained in it, and by Trout Lake, a fine expansion of a brook that discharges its waters into the Nictaux after crossing the settlement near its southern extremity. The road which traverses it is very hilly, in some places having been carried over the highest hills. The soil is productive and generally well cultivated; it is formed of clay loams mingled with the detritus of granitic rocks of the district. Wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, turnips and mangold-wurzel ai-e successfully grown, and are a source of considerable profit to the farmer. It is well watered and productive in grasses as it possesses some valuable meadow lands. The streams and lakes abound in trout and perch, and afford fair returns to the sportsmen who venture to try their luck in them. The writer has seen the latter fish taken in Zwicker's lake, near the south end of the settlement, of the size of a mackerel, and they are to be preferred to the former for their flavour and delicacy...The district possesses two or more school-houses, a Baptist church, a grist and several saw mills, one of which was situated near its northern boundary, and is known as 'Patterson's gang-mill,' having been built by James Butler Patterson, an enterprising American gentleman who, having become the proprietor of extensive lands on the Nictaux River, expended large sums in the construction of this valuable mill and in clearing out the river and its tributaries and building dams, and who will long be remembered by the people of this part of the country for his enterprise and many manly qualities, as well as for his having been the pioneer in the introduction of a new and improved method of conducting lumbering operations on a large scale. This property was sold to Messieurs Pope, Vose it Co., who in their turn sold to the enterprising firm of Davison Bros., who still continue to manufacture several million feet of boards annually, which of late years find their way via the Nova Scotia Central Railway to Bridgewater, in Lunenburg County, whence they are shipped to various markets. This branch of industry has contributed largely to the material prosperity of this settlement. From the earliest recollection of the writer until about the middle of the century, this locality woh Iwst, in fact only, known by the latter name. John Grinton, a native of Scotland, and, I believe, of Glasgow, soon after his arrival in the Province took up his abode at or near Lawrencetown, where, with his family, he lived several years. This man was the first applicant for a grant of lands in this settlement, and became one of the first settlers there. Another Scotchman, a Glasgow man, Arod McNayr by name, became a grantee and settler in the same year. The former is said to have built the first house, and the latter to have constructed the first barn in it. The descendants of these men yet find homes and farms on the lands granted to their fathers. Three-quarters of a century has passed away since the pioneer's axe was first heard in this now fine district, but which was then a dense wilderness of mixed and mighty forest trees. It had to be approached from East Dalhousie by a bridle-path a distance of several miles. Tt was through such a road, and on horseback, that the wives and children of Grinton and McNayr were guided on the way to their new forest homes. The almost heroic courage and devotion which animated these worthy women cannot fail to excite our admiration. The sacrifices made by them can scarcely be measured by any standard known to us of today. The loss of the public worship of God, of the social intercourse with old friends and neighbours and relatives without which life loses half its zest ; the deprivation of the comforts and conveniences of living long enjoyed ; the loneliness and sometimes the dangers of life in the woods, and the certain prospect of a life of toil and privation in the future — all these sacrifices were made with admirable fortitude because they were made by willing hearts, and it is believed that the satisfaction which accompanies such deeds sweetened the declining years of their long lives.

For several years these people had to convey such supplies as they were not otherwise able to produce, through roadless forests on their own shoulders or those of a horse. This condition of things was experienced until a considerable lapse of time had occurred, but it gradually, at first very gradually, began to give place to a better one." Calnek, W. A. (William Arthur), History of the county of Annapolis, including old Port Royal and Acadia.