40 SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY. 



paring the barricades. Tliese consisted of two 14-inch squared 

 timbers, one at the corner where the Canada House now stands 

 and the other at the Golden Ball corner. Three cannon were 

 lashed to these and loaded with scrap iron and spikes, and cart- 

 loads of stones were dumped down there to form an obstruction 

 or defence wall and furnish ammunition for the unarmed. These 

 two barricades commanded perfectly the egress from Peabody's 

 wharf, the only point where the enemy could well land. Peabody's 

 wharf was crowded with joeople looking with anxious eyes over to 

 Douglastown. I was among them. The women and children 

 were sent out of town for safety. The morning was beautifully 

 bright and clear, and the red shirts could be seen quite distinctly 

 at Douglastown, embarking in eight or nine vessels. But now, a 

 thunder storm, with lightning of unprecedented severity, set in 

 with floods of rain and the wind veered to the east ; but not a man 

 left his post, and after the storm had partially passed, the vessels 

 were seen heading down the river towards Chatham. The first 

 tack fetched the ballast heaps, a mile above Chatham, the next 

 to where Munro's mill now .stands, and the third, Peabodys 

 wharf. They came in very close, almost touching the wharf, 

 evidently enjoying the fright they wei"e giving us, and then stood 

 off for Currie's on the other side. They were going down to a 

 polling place down the river. Bay du Vin, or somewhere, and 

 perhaps started the rumor themselves for fun. 



At last the contest was over and Mr. Street was 

 returned, but enmity between the parties was very bitter for a 

 year or more, so that very few ventured to cross the river into 

 the enemy's camp. 



I saw a young man from the Rankin party, who had come over 

 from Douglastown to Chatham, kicked and cuffed from Water st. 

 to Coulson's slip, where the ferry boat crossed at that time, and 

 very badly hurt. 



A night or two after the election, some one went around after 

 everybody had gone to bed, and marked the windows or doors 

 with tar, of every Rankin voter or suspected sympathizer, and he 

 was boycotted. 



The Rev. Robt. Archibald, minister of St. Andrew's, wi.shed to 

 vote for Rankin, who was one the most liberal patrons of his 

 church, but apparently did not dare to in town, so he went to 



