On one occasion, when some of these people were approaching the house, Mrs.Dixon hastily gathered up her silverware and other valuables and deposited them in a barrel of pig feed, where they quite escaped the notice of the visitors.On a later occasion, when somewhat similar troublous times existed, Mr.Dixon, with the aid of his negro servant, Cleveland, hid his money and other valuables in the earth, binding his servant by a solemn oath never to divulge to anyone the place of concealment."Nor was all the destruction of property chargeable to the rebels.At this time a number of the loyal settlers, who, it is said, had been drinking freely, surrounded the house of Mr.Obediah Ayer, who was in sympathy with the rebels, and set fire to his place, intending to burn the inmates.Mrs.Ayer was warned by her neighbors and escaped to the woods with her baby in her arms.After the raiders departed she with her children found a temporary home with a neighbor.Her husband did not dare appear for many days, but hid in the woods by day and visited his family at night.
The raid of Allan on the St.John gave the Government uneasiness in that quarter for some time longer.As mentioned before, there were two Eddys, Jonathan and William.They owned adjoining farms in Fort Lawrence.The upper road leading from Fort Lawrence to Amherst still bears the name of the "Eddy Road." It was probably made through the Eddy grant, and the Eddys may have been instrumental in its construction.
It is related that William Eddy, after the rebellion, came back to Fort Lawrence to settle his business and take his wife and family out of the country.To escape being made a prisoner at that time he kept hid in a hay-stack in the day-time and visited his home during the night.One night the soldiers who were watching saw him enter the house and at once surrounded the place, sending in two of their number to bring out the prisoner.Mrs.Eddy would give no knowledge of her husband's whereabouts.The house was thoroughly searched, but the man could not be found.The soldiers were dumbfounded.The fact is, that when Mrs.
Eddy saw the soldiers coming, she told her husband to cover himself in a bin of grain in the chamber and place his mouth close to a crack on the side of the bin over which had been tacked a piece of list to prevent the grain from coming out.She would tear off the list and that would give him air to breathe.Her husband did as directed.When the officer who was making the search came to the grain-bin he thrust his sword into it, and said, "He is not there." Mr Eddy said afterwards that the sword went between his body and arm, so near was he being made a prisoner.
Inverma, the home of Sheriff Allan, is now owned, in part, by Councillor Amos Trueman, and is still called by that name.It consisted at that time of three hundred and forty-eight acres of marsh and upland and was no doubt part of the Allan grant of 1763.Besides the Sheriff's own house there were six or seven small houses occupied by Acadian families as tenants, also two large barns and four smaller ones.
Allan's wife was Mary Patton, the daughter of Mark Patton, who was at one time a large property-owner on the Isthmus.Patton Point, in the Missiquash valley, still goes by his name.His home farm joined the glebe lands of the parish, and was afterwards bought by William Trueman and given to his son, Thomas.I find the following entry in William Trueman's journal, referred to elsewhere:
"Old Mrs.Patton was buried at the burying-ground by Thomas Trueman, July 31st, in the 92nd year of her age."This lady was no doubt Mrs.Allan's mother.She had continued to live at the old place after Thomas Trueman had taken possession, and as this was in the year 1808, she had lived thirty-two years after her daughter left the country.
