Joshua Huestis [H12]
(1788-1868)


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Joshua Huestis (1788- 1868) [H12] m. 1st Sarah Black (1794-1830)
m. 2nd Rebecca Fulton (1812-1870)

  • Mary Julia Ann Huestis [H121] (1816-1844) m. Stephen Fulton
  • Thomas Edward Huestis [H122] (1820 - 1898) m. Lydia Fulton
  • Richard Black Huestis [H123] (1822-1877) m. Eliza Augusta Black
  • Sarah Jane Huestis [H124] (1824-1918) m. Angus Livingstone
  • Catherine Huestis [H125] (1826?- ) m. William Stevens
  • William B. Huestis [H126] (1828-1900) m. Adeline Jane Betts
  • Stephen Fulton Huestis [H127] (1835 - 1928) m. Louisa F. Archibald
  • Lydia F. Huestis [H128] (1838-1909) m. Alexander Wylie Nicolson
  • Phoebe Ann Huestis [H129] (1839 - ) m. 1st Rufus Page, m. 2nd A.E.C. Holland
  • Susannah Archibald Huestis [H12-10] (1841-1934) m. Samuel Henry Morris
  • Martin Bent Huestis [H12-11] (1843-1931) m. Victoire Marie Johnson
  • Joshua Huestis [H12-12] (1854-1859) died young
  • Mary Adeline Huestis [H12-13] (1854-1925) m. Dr Evan Kennedy, MD
  • Julia Elizabeth Huestis [H12-14] (1848-1933) m. John Edward Warner
  • Philena Augusta Huestis [H12-15] (1850- )
  • George William Archibald Huestis [H12-16] (1855 - 1912 ) m. Lydia Webster

Joshua Huestis, along with his father, are the two Huestis' most closely associated with the early days of Wallace. Thomas was one of the Loyalists who settled in Remsheg, and his son Joshua was one of the principal government officials for the town in the golden years from roughly 1825 to 1875. Those would have been heady days in the town. The Loyalists that arrived in the 1780's would have been men and women who were looking for a better life, and were prepared to work hard to achieve it. By the 1850's there were seven shipyards active in the town, and in one particular year (1854, I think) there were fourteen ships launched from those seven yards. Almost all of the work would be done by hand as steam machinery would not be common, and of course there would have been no electric motors or tools. That amount of work in the small town of Wallace would have meant that there would be an enormous amount of labour employed, and a great deal of commercial activity surrounding the chandlering of the ships and yards, and the feeding and housing of the workmen and their families. And Joshua Huestis was right in the thick of it, as Postmaster, as county warden, and as magistrate.

Martin B Huestis, son of Joshua, offers a fascinating peek into life in Wallace in the 1850's in his essays written in 1927 and reproduced here (on the home page). Here, following, is what he had to say about his father, Joshua:

Joshua Huestis, my father, eldest son of Thomas, was taught the rudiments of an education by his parents before the first school was opened. Then for a time he taught school for the neighbors' children. He was always privately a student of law. Was foreman of grand jury at Amherst when 21 years of age, and during his life held many prominent positions in Cumberland. Among other old official documents of his I have his appointment dated May 1821 to be one of the Commissioners for the summary trial of actions in the township of Remsheg. This was issued by His Excellency Sir James Kempt, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty's province of Nova Scotia, etc. This was signed by Rupert D. George. Another was a Commission issued by his Honor Michael Wallace, President and Commander-in-Chief of Nova Scotia for expending Twenty Pounds to repair the road from Hortons in Remsheg to Dewars Bridge towards Tatamagouche. He superintended the repairing of roads and building of bridges for many years. This commission was issued on the 10th of May 1824 in the 5th year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, George the Fourth of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and of the United Church of England and Ireland the Supreme Head." I wonder if Hon. Percy Black, Minister of Highways, issues to his contractors such imposing documents as this.

The next is his appointment as Postmaster of Wallace. It is dated 1829 and signed by John Howe, Junior, Esq., Postmaster General for the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. This is the first document in which the name of Wallace appears instead of Remsheg. Joshua Huestis acted as Postmaster without salary, from the time the mails were first carried on horseback over trails from Halifax until regularly appointed [some words missing here] by this document is a marriage license issued to Joshua Huestis esq., and Rebecca Fulton, Spinster. This was issued in Halifax Nov. 20th 1833 by His Honor Thomas N. Joffery administrator of the Government of Nova Scotia. A clause reads-We do hereby grant this License and Faculty as well to you the parties contracting as the Rector Vicar or Curate of the Parish of Wallace to solemnize the said marriage. The document was addressed to Daniel MacFarlane, Esq., and as there was no English clergymen available, and nonconformists, so called, were not allowed to perform a marriage ceremony they were duly married by the Squire.

A document issued in 1855 by Sir Gaspard LeMarchant, Governor, etc., etc., appointed "Joshua Huestis of Wallis to be Custos Rotulorum, during pleasure, for the County of Cumberland." This office he held for many years, as Chief Magistrate presiding in January each year over the magistrates sessions in Amherst. This was before the days of Municipal County Government by a warden and councilors. The last document I have was issued by the Right Honorable Lucius Bentinck, Viscount Falkland, the governor of the time, appointing Joshua Huestis to be Captain and Adjutant of the 2nd Batt., Cumb. Co., Regt. Militia, dated 1840, in the 3rd year of Her Majesty's reign. His duty was to drill the regiment and on a good horse he was a fine looking and capable officer. He was the first to move for the organization of a volunteer company of young men called the Wallace Grays. The first captain was William S. Huestis, my cousin, while I had the honour to be a corporal of the company, rising afterwards to the exalted position of Sergeant Major in the Cumberland Militia and later to be a member of the company that drilled at Wallace during the Fenian scare. Years after I with others who prepared to shed our blood to put down the terrible Fenians received one hundred dollars each from a generous Government.

Most of the civil and criminal cases in the Wallace District were tried before Squire Huestis, many such as now would come before a county court judge. When required, two justices, James Drysdale or William MacNab, used to sit with him. Students in a small law school at Wallace by the late Henry Oldright, among them E.D. King, W.F. McCoy and others, have told me that my father had as good a knowledge of the common law as any man they had known.

Joshua had a large family and two wives, having been widowed early on. His first wife was Sarah Black of Amherst. Her nephew, writing in 1885, described Sarah's family as follows:

Richard Black was the third son of the first named William Black [the original Black, who settled in Amherst]. He was born in England in the year 1762, and was 13 years old when he arrived with his father at Amherst, Cumberland. He first settled at River Philip where he bought 500 acres of land from Rodger Robinson. There he remained several years, and moved thence to Amherst, and settled on the farm his father bought on his first visit to Cumberland in 1774. Here he lived the remainder of his life. While at River Philip two of his children died when young. His youngest son and some of his grandsons now live on the old Amherst farm.

Richard Black was one of the strong supporters of the Methodist denomination, to which he belonged, and, when its number in Amherst was small, he was always found ready with means to support the cause as far as his duty dictated. The partial loss of his hearing in the latter part of his life operated very materially against his comfort. As long as health permitted, however, he attended religious meetings, and, in order to hear, invariably took his seat at the desk or in the pulpit, beside the minister, of whatever denomination of christians he was.

He married Sally Chapman, who was also from Yorkshire. Their family consisted of eleven children, named William, Thomas, Maria, Joseph, Sarah, Richard Asher, John Chapman, Ann, George, and Mary. Two others died when young. The family were of particularly large physique and very muscular. The writer once heard one of them say he was the smallest of seven brothers and weighed 185 pounds and was six feet in height.

Mrs. Black died in 1820, aged 53 years. Richard Black married again Elizabeth Smith of Parrsboro. He died in the year 1834 aged 72 years.

Sarah Black Huestis died in 1830, just a few years before her father.

Joshua's second wife, Rebecca, survived him by a few years. She was Rebecca Fulton, and her son Martin described her family as follows:

William Fulton was one of the best citizens of Wallace. He lived the most of his long life on a fine farm at Shoal Bay, three miles below Wallace. [I think that this is now called Lazy Bay.] He was a sturdy North of Ireland Protestant and during all of his life at Wallace one of the most faithful members of the Methodist Church. In politics he was a Liberal and a great admirer of Joseph Howe. He died at 93 years of age. His wife, Lydia Arnold, small physically but great of heart, died at 92. They celebrated 71 years of married life.

My mother was a daughter of this worthy pair. Their eldest son Hon. Stephen Fulton, a merchant and shipbuilder in Wallace, represented Cumberland Co. for some years with Hon. Joseph Howe. They had three grandsons who became prominent clergymen in Canada and the United States and two are physicians who are successful practitioners in Pennsylvania. The old gentleman told me once with pardonable pride that none of his children had disgraced him.

Joshua's boys have their own pages on this site, but briefly: Edward moved to Rhode Island when he was in middle age, following most of his adult children who had settled in that area. Richard was a merchant in Wallace and Amherst, and then manager of the Wallace Greystone Company. William was a merchant in Wallace and Londonderry. Stephen became the Reverend Doctor Stephen F. Huestis, a very prominent Methodist minister and force within the national church. Martin succeeded his father as Postmaster in Wallace and later moved to Halifax to work in the insurance industry. George, the youngest, was a jeweller and watchmaker in Windsor, NS for a few years, and then moved to Springfield, MA where he died in 1912.

Joshua's daughters also did well. As son Martin relates, the entire family was raised in a progressive, literate and cultured environment, and the daughters seem to have chosen husbands who would be successful in their fields. Mary married Stephen Fulton, who became a member of the provincial legislature. Sarah's son Joshua Huestis Livingstone was also a member of the provincial assembly. Lydia married Reverend A.W. Nicholson, who became prominent in the Presbyterian church. Mary married Evan Kennedy, who practiced medicine all of his (and her) long life, in the New Glasgow area. Julia married John Warner, who became an Anglican minister in Nova Scotia and Ontario, and two of her sons also held appointments in the Anglican church in Ontario.

I have some details on the lives of Joshua's daughters and their families (in addition to the bare dates below), and I will post them below as time permits.

  • Mary Julia Ann Huestis [H121] (1816-1844) married Hon. Stephen Fulton M.P.P. (1810-1870)

    Julia Huestis died young and without a family. Her widowed husband Stephen Fulton went on to become a shipbuilder, businessman and eventually a Member of the Legislative Assembly. He was more of an accidental politician, but he lived in a time when big political decisions were being made, on representative government, provision for railroads, decline of wooden shipbuilding, Confederation, trade with America. He re-married and had issue. [Stephen Fulton was the brother of Julia's stepmother, as related above.]

  • Sarah Jane Huestis [H124] (1824-1918) m. Angus Livingstone (1810-1891)

    The Livingstones lived mostly in Wentworth, where Angus farmed and worked as a house-builder. In his essays, Martin Huestis relates Angus' disastrous shipbuilding effort. Their son Joshua became a prominent and prosperous merchant in Wentworth Station. The Livingstone children that I know about include Julia, Joshua, Alice, Arthur and David.

  • Catherine Huestis [H125] (c.1826- ) m. William Stevens

    Catherine married her cousin, the son of her aunt Catherine. In the 1871 Census they are shown as living in Wentworth, and the family includes children Helina (20), Mary (18), Lydia (16), Ansley (14), Augusta (10), Bessie (7) and Clara, age 3.

    In his history of the Black family of Amherst, Cyrus Black, writing in 1883, says of this family:

    Catherine, youngest daughter of Joshua Huestis, was married to William Stevens, of Wallace. They removed to Boston. They had 7 children, one of whom died when young. The names of those living are Selina, Ardell, Lydia, Augusta, Bessie, and Chesley.
    Selina was married to W. R. Slade, a teacher at Oxford.
    Ardell was married to John Gow, of Wentworth, and removed to Boston.
    Lydia married and removed to California.
    Augusta was married to a Mr. Patriquen. They live in Boston.

  • Lydia F. Huestis [H128] (1838-1909) m. Rev. Alexander Wylie Nicolson

    Wylie Nicolson was a Presbyterian minister who became prominent in that church in the Maritimes. Their children included Frank, Charles, Ella and Matilda Nicolson.

  • Phebe Annie Huestis [H129] (1841- after 1912) m. 1st Rufus Page; m. 2nd Augustus Holland

    Annie Huestis married Rufus Page in March of 1877. He is listed as a merchant in Wallace, living in River Philip, son of Thomas Page. A Thomas Page ran a hotel in Wallace in 1871, so perhaps they met in Wallace. In the census of 1881 they are shown as living in River Philip, and their household included sister Philena Huestis. Annie does not re-appear until she is mentioned in Martin's biography in 1900 as being married to Mr A.E.C. Holland of Prince Edward Island, and again in the 1911 census where she appears (with her husband Augustus Holland, age 83) as Annie Holland, age 71, living then at Wallace Bridge. Also living in the household is Clara Warner, age 23, daughter of Annie's sister Julia. I have no more details on her life and times and I cannot find any records for their deaths or burial.

  • Susannah Archibald Huestis [H12-10] (1841-1934) 1st m. Samuel Henry Morris, 2nd m. Conrad West Morris

    Susannah (also called Susan) married Samuel Morris, and after he died, his brother Conrad. They lived their lives in Wallace. Their children included Thomas, Edward, Archie, Frank, Henry and Conrad, Jr.

  • Mary Adeline Huestis [H12-13] (1854-1925) m. Dr Evan Kennedy, MD

    Dr Kennedy practiced medicine all his life in the New Glasgow area. Their children include Lida Kennedy, Dr Walter Huestis Kennedy, Cora Kennedy and Katherina Kennedy.

  • Julia E. Huestis [H12-14] (1848-1933) m. Rev John Edward Warner

    Julia Huestis married John Warner in 1874 in Pugwash, where both were living and where John worked as a merchant. He was working in Pugwash for Henry Pineo & Co. in 1880 when Annie was born, and in 1887 he was working as a grocer in Bedford. At some point he became an Anglican minister, and in the 1901 census the whole family can be found in Granville Ferry, Annapolis County, NS where he was posted. His last parish was in Parrsboro, NS. John died in 1929, while Julia died in 1933 in Montreal.

    By the time Julia Huestis was born her older half-sister had already passed away, and so perhaps her name was given to the new baby. The elder Julia was listed on her gravestone as Mary Julia Ann Fulton, and the younger Julia appears as such in census records.

    • Rev David Victor Warner [H12-14-1] (1879-1949)
    • Rev. Gesner Quinton Warner [H12-14-2] (1883-1955)
    • Annie L. Warner [H12-14-3] (1880 - ) m. Mr MacLean living in Springfield, Mass in 1930
    • Clara Warner [H12-14-4](7 July 1887 - ) living in Victoria in 1930
  • George A. Huestis [H12-16] (1855 - 1912)
    This item is reproduced from the Oxford Journal of 28 March 1912:

    There are many friends in Windsor and throughout the province who will learn with regret the death of GEORGE A. HUESTIS, who died on the train while on his way from Ottawa to Springfield, Mass. He had been to the capital on business, but ill health compelled him to enter the hospital there, where he underwent an operation and after a short time, feeling that his end was near, expressed a wish to return home and died on the journey.

    The deceased who formerly conducted business in Windsor, a watchmaker & jeweller, was about 55 years of age and had for sometime been employed in the insurance business as an inspector. He was born in Wallace, N.S. and is survived by his widow (who was a Miss WEBSTER of Pet't Codiac, NB), 2 sons and a daughter. 2 Brothers - Dr. S.F. HUESTIS of Halifax and M. B. HUESTIS for many years Manager of the Federal Life in Halifax, but more recently of Ottawa and by 4 sisters. Mrs. (Dr) KENNEDY, New Glasgow; Mrs. A.E.HOLLAND - Wallace; N.S. Mrs. C.W. MORRIS - Wallace, N.S.; Mrs.JOHN E. WARNER - Parrsboro, N.S.

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