Down By The Bay

The Passamoquoddy Bay that is :o) As predicted, this time away has been exactly what DH and I needed. Time seems to stop down here. There's no rush to get anything done and there is no set schedule. The television becomes a thing of the past and serenity takes hold. I'm more than happy to stay here and the itch to wander or travel is gone.

This area is rich with history. If you look out over the bluff, you see a piece of land that juts out into the ocean. This is the tip of Oven Head -

Up until a few years ago it remained a vacant piece of land but now one of the wealthiest families in Canada spend their summers there. When DH's parents first bought their property, I did some digging and came across a local gentleman that was able to share some of the history of Oven Head with me.

If you were to walk out to the Oven Head point, you would come across a tiny family cemetery enclosed by a small fence. Upon further inspection you would see that the gravestones date back to the mid 1800's and bare the Fisher name.

Over a hundred years ago, in the little town of St. Andrews, a 17-year-old naval officer by the name of William Henry (alias Lt. Bray) met and married a 17-year-old girl named Mary Kelly. Together they had a daughter, Martha Ann, who was born on May 26, 1792. When William returned home after a year at sea he finally confessed that he could not return to his home in England with his wife and daughter because he was the son of the King and it was not permitted that he marry a commoner without the King's consent.

Around the same time another woman, Rebecca Vernon, was being disowned by her family for marrying a British soldier by the name of John Fisher. On February 29, 1784 they had a son, George Albert. Unfortunately in 1787 John Fisher did not return home and it is believed that he was lost at sea during a voyage. Some time later, Rebecca married again, this time to James Stewart, and together they raised her son George. They settled and received one of the first land grants on Passamoquoddy Bay.

In 1819, George Fisher and Martha Henry's paths crossed and they married. Together they had seven children. Both are now buried on Oven Head. Because of the times and the lack of medical knowledge, quite a few of the Fisher children died within a matter of years. In the case of Carrie Fisher, George and Martha's granddaughter, she was to die in childbirth. In 1895, Carrie met a man in St. Andrews and her pregnancy was a result of this affair. Being a scandal at the time, Carrie requested to be buried alone, out on the tip of Oven Head. But with the winds and waves, her casket soon became exposed and Carrie's father moved her inland to the family cemetery. Back in the 1980's, the movie Children Of A Lesser God was shot there although the beach may not have been recognizable because it was bulldozed and painted for the film.

How did Oven Head get its name? As the tide pushes itself out, more and more beach area is exposed below the 100-foot cliffs located on Oven Head. There in the rock walls are several cave like hollows. Over time, the cycle of tidal movements has caused the rocks in these cliffs to disintegrate, therefore creating these many depressions. It is said that people in the early days likened the caves to a woman's oven and soon it was nicknamed Old Woman's Oven.

So there you go, a little bit of trivia for you on this peaceful Saturday night :o)