The Grindstone King
1800's & 1810's
1806 - Amos and older brother Job founded "A. Seaman & Co." shipping hay and vegetables from Minudie to New England and the Carribean
1810 - started an agency in Boston
1813 - applied for land grant in Minudie and attended night classes
1814 - married Jane Metcalf from Maccan (parents from Yorkshire)
1816 - built a store near Minudie wharf, stocked with cagoes from his ships such as , silk, cotton and jewelry.
1818 - bought his first 1/2 acre of land and built a house in Minudie
1820's
1823 - dissolved partership with Job, built the first bridge in Maccan and one across the River Hebert River and became a tenant of DesBarres
1825 - formed Harmony Masonic Lodge in Cumberland County
1826 - acted as an agent for Augustus DesBarres collecting rents from the grindstone quarries
1826 - obtained all quarry leases
1830's
1834 - bought Minudie estate from DeaBarres family at a cost of 8,592 pounds (quarries, shad fishing and 3,000 acres of marshland known as "Elysian Fields"
1837 - built the "Homestead" also known as "Grindstone Castle". Sir Charles Tupper and Joseph Howe were among the many guests who stayed there.
1838 - Executive Council of Nova Scotia orders a "Grant of Confirmation" in regard to land disputes
1840's
1842 - petitioned Lieutenant of Nova Scotia to grant a lease of coal seams on his land in River Hebert - worked River Hebert and Joggins Mines
1843 - built first gist steam mill in province, cost was 1500 pounds and was cutting 150 logs a day by 1847.
1846 - travelled to England & Scotland, was present at court and visted the House of Commons
1848 - donated four acres of land, some lumber and paid a quarter of the cost for the construction of the new Catholic Church St. Denis.
1850's
Early 1850's the school house in Minudie was built.
1860's
1863 - Universalist Church was completed
1864 - Amos died in September after a short illness, Jane died a year and a half later, both rest in the Lake Cemetery.
Amos Seaman was born in Wood Creek, near Sackville, New Brunswick on Janurary 4th, 1788 and was the 10th of 11 children to Zena and Nathan Seaman, who were from Swansea, Massachusets.
The family moved to Lumley Hill Farm near Maccan in 1796. There are different accounts of how Amos first came to Minudie.
One story has Amos running away from home in the middle of the night and paddling a birch bark canoe across the river from Maccan to Minudie, another has him landing barefoot with his family, both of which are said to take place in 1796.
When Amos was 12, he was sent to Boston to live with his maternal grandparents.
He worked four days a week to pay for his borad and attended school twice a week. His grandfather was a sea captain which was how Amos began his illustrious career in the shipping industry.
