Page 79 - A.F. Church and His County Maps

ISSUE : Issue 50

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1989/1/1

Church is said to have skipped to Canada. This may ac? count for the arrival and for the stay of Church in Canada for many years, even though it has not been fully substantiated. Descended, it is alleged, from one of a legendary family of six Church brothers who arrived in America from Wales about the middle of the seventeenth century, Ambrose Fin- son, son of Greenleaf and Elizabeth (Finson) Church, was t)orn in Hartland, Maine, where the family had resided for many generations, in the year 1836. He had one brother John and five sisters, all of whom went West and settled in Nebraska or California or British Columbia, excepting John, who disappeared en route. An abbreviated transcript of the census of Hartland for 1850 does not include the name of Ambrose Finson Church and his parents, but he became a civil engineer by profession and he married Nan cy Anne (or Mercy Anne) Saunders of Sydney, near Au? gusta, Maine. For a time Ambrose Finson and Nancy Anne (Saunders) Church lived in Hartland, Maine, where their eldest daughter, Alice, was bom about 1864. Church as Mapmaker By that time Ambrose Finson Church had become involved in making maps. For four years prior to his going to Nova Scotia in 1865, in the spring of which year the American Civil War ended, he is said to have been engaged in the work of making a map of the State of Maine for Jacob Chace, Jr., map publisher of 55 Danforth Street, Portland, Maine. Church's association with Jacob Chace, Jr., result? ed in his becoming interested in Nova Scotia. In 1862 the government and the legislature of Nova Scotia considered the subject of procuring, by means of detailed surveys, maps of the Province and its counties, and Jacob Chace, Jr., visited Halifax and conferred with a committee of the House of Assembly which had been appointed to deal with the mat? ter. Chace explained his views and showed maps of parts of the State of Maine, the Province of New Brunswick, and the County of Halifax, similar in kind to those he proposed to make in Nova Scotia. Favorably impressed, the committee was of opinion that such maps would be highly useful in this Province if obtained on reasonable terms. Chace offered to conimence the necessary surveys of the County of Halifax and provide the maps, "provided reasonable en? couragement be given him that a certain number of them will be tak? en for distribution by the Government, when he is prepared to fumish them, he to depend for further aid upon private subscription, and the sale of the maps when made." The committee recommended that the necessary arrangements be made to take one hundred copies of the maps from Chace when they were satisfactorily furnished. This report of the committee was received and adopted by the House of Assem? bly on April 11,1862. Two years later, perhaps after the death of Chace, Ambrose F. Church offered to furnish the proposed plans of the counties of Nova Scotia. Church's proposal of 1864 was to include in one plan the counties of Halifax, Hants, Colchester, Pictou, and Cumberland, instead of mak? ing separate plans of each county as at first proposed. A select com? mittee of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia took this proposal in? to consideration and concluded that one plan composed of those adjacent counties coukJ be furnished at only a small additional charge to the expense of providing a plan of a single county and that from their connection and situation those counties could be grouped together without making the map inconveniently cumbersome. "The committee therefore recommend," its members reported on April 28, 1864, "that the first map be issued as proposed, and on the same be? ing completed to the satisfaction of the Government and a committee of this House, (provided the Legislature be in session when such plan is ready for delivery) that three hundred copies of the same be taken by the Government for distribution, at a price not exceeding six dollars per copy. It also being understood, that in the event of the plan of these four (sic) counties proving satisfactory, the survey shall proceed so as to include the whole of the remaining counties in the Province." This report, received and adopted by the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia on April 28,1864, evidently contains the terms on which Church undertook to prepare the plans of the counties of Nova Sco? tia, although it seems that no formal contract was signed. Having purchased from J. Chace, Jr. & Co., of Portland, Maine, and H. F. Walling, of New York, some surveys of a portion of Nova Sco? tia, Church went to Nova Scotia in 1865 to proceed with the work. He N0.1 IN HOME HEATING • state of the art heating equipment • Trained heating technicians • Largest Fleet of Home Heating deiivery vehicles • Ways to save you money • Budget Payment Plan • FREE Furnace Efficiency Tests IN SYDNEY CALL: TONYWADDEN [IRVING 564-6293 '' UALITY SOFT DRINKS SINCE 1905 M THE PRICE THAT REFRESHES A COMPLETE LINE OF PARTY SUPPLIES Pop Factory I Ron BTZGUO McKinlay & Sons Ltd St. Peters Drug Store Ltd. Don Stone, Ph. C, Open 6 Days Proprietor a Week 849-6644 262 BROOKSIDE GLACE BAY Monday to Friday open until 8 p.m. Saturday open until 5 p.m. 535-2203 St. Peters, Richmond County, N. S.

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