"They appear to have come to Dorchester, N.B., by a schooner commanded by one 'Lige Ayre, so called.Why they should have gone first to Westmoreland's shire town, instead of direct to the Eldorado of their dreams is one of the unknowable things, but presumably the exigencies of travel in those days had something to do with it.Both passengers and mail matter went by dead reckoning, so to speak, and could seldom get direct conveyance to their destination.
"In the yellowed leaves of a century old diary, penned by the hand of Senator Wood's grandfather, and also from letters, we find quaint comments and an interesting insight into the lives of the early settlers.
"The journal was begun in October, 1800, when Josiah Wood was twenty-four years old.He and his mother, after visiting in Canard, appear to have made their home for the time being in Newport, N.S., where in the cloth mill of Alexander Lockhart Josiah found employment.The young man seems to have had all the business acumen and habits of industry that distinguish his posterity.When work in the mill was slack he taught school, beginning with four scholars.Evening amusements consisted of husking parties, etc., where Mr.Wood contributed to the festivities by flute playing and songs.His idea of a vacation was taking a load of cabbages to sell in Windsor, where his sole extravagance was buying a bandana handkerchief.
"Mrs.Wood filled in her time, though hardly profitably, by having smallpox.This dread disease did not seem to cause any dismay in those days.The neighbors came and went with kindly ministrations to the sick woman, and the son pursued his work in the mill, quite unconscious that according to modern science he was weaving the death-producing microbe into every yard of cloth.
"In February, 1801, Mrs.Wood and Josiah went to Halifax, where they put up the sign 'The Bunch of Grapes.' The diary speaks of their visiting 'Mr.Robie, Mr.Blowers, the Chief Justice and the governor,'