Reminiscences
of Christopher Jost, 1805-1884
Clara Jost Marr wrote:
"It is a mystery
to the descendants of our grandfather what happened to this,
and we don't know the year in which he wrote it. This much of
it was found on ‘Little Island’ in Guysborough [Nova
Scotia] Harbor many years after his death and that of his wife.
The tattered manuscript was incomplete, found by someone strolling
there and delivered to one of his descendants and I got a copy
of it from Dr. Arthur Jost: This is a copy of Arthur's:" [she
copied it by hand, as follows:]
My brother John and our
cousin William Moir left Halifax for Guysborough by schooner
in the spring of 1822 and remained there until fall and returned
home. They both returned the spring of 1823 and I accompanied
them.
William Moir commenced shoe-making. John and
William, however, set up a shop in Guysborough. We had
arrived on a Sunday morning. The name of the captain was
Bell. We went on shore and went to meeting. Rev. M. McNutt
preached in the county court house.
On Monday morning we
rented part of a house from Joseph Cameron and landed our
goods in our new home. How little we knew what was before
us. Mr. Cutter's establishment was nearly closed and there
were only two stores--Mr. Frank Cook's and Tyrus Hart's
[Christopher’s future father-in-law]--that did any
business, except a few grocery shops.
Guysboro was noted for
bankruptcy. Saturday afternoons were set aside for the
rowdies to come to town, get drunk and quarrel and fight
and return home to prepare for Sabbath morning. Nothing
could be done without rum. The smith would not shoe your
horse without half a pint. The town, what there was of
it, looked like a dreary place. There was a church of England,
a Catholic chapel and a court house.
Our parents belonged
to the Methodist Church in Halifax and we were brought
up to fear God. I was young and had not much knowledge
of the world. I was eighteen. John was 27. We little thought
of the unknown Hand that was leading us.
We spent rather a pleasant
summer. I was John's and William's clerk. We sold our goods
and collected all we could. At this time trade was very
small. Butter was 9 pence a pound, and hard to sell at
that. Best fall mackarel 12/6 per barrel. We shipped our
produce in a shallop [a small boat] owned by Hartz and
Hadley and arrived safe at "Home Sweet Home" for
the winter. Without William but planned to go back in the
spring.
But before I go any
further, I must write about a serious circumstance that
befell us on our passage back to Halifax. John and I, to
our dismay, found something caused a great itching about
the legs and arms and we came to the conclusion it was "Scotch
(or Irish) Fiddle". How we came by it we could not
tell. The only consolation we had was that we were on our
way home where a mother's kind heart would console us and
some treatment cure us and all would be well in a few days.
We arrived home safely
and found all the family and friends well. After our fish
and goods were sold and our accounts paid it was decided
that another supply was to be purchased and that I was
to go back to Guysborough for the winter and John was to
remain in Halifax.
We shipped the goods
on the same vessel we had come up on about Nov. 1824. And
I returned with them to Guysborough.
I hired a house from
John Foster, handed out the goods and commenced another
company for the winter, all alone, without much experience
and exposed to influences common to young men but I have
no doubt the prayers of pious parents followed me. But
alas, I found that horrid itching again overtake me and
what to do I did not know.
However, something had
to be done. I got some sulphur and lard and made a mixture
of it and borrowed a large tub and went through the process
in a very awkward way you may be sure until I was tired
and sick. I do not know what the young ladies thought of
the way I smelled. It was difficult to destroy that perfume.
However, I got rid of
it at last and very willingly bid a long farewell to it.
I
spent a very pleasant winter there and made acquaintances and kind
friends in some good old families and also at the "Cove" and
in Manchester as well as in the town, particularly Hank
Cooks and the Tyrus Harts. Mr Hart [Christopher’s
future father-in-law] seemed to take a great liking to
me and wished me to stand godfather to his son Levi.
Rev. Mr. Weeks performed the ceremony.
There was no preacher
in the town at that time except in the English church and
I could discern a great difference between it and the preaching
I had been accustomed to in the Methodist church in Halifax.
But I soon got quite pleased with it. My brother and I
were accounted good singers and the church people were
quite proud of William and me.
Baptist missionaries
came quite often. Rev. Mr. Widden, Nutter and Demmock and
preached more often on the "Cove". We frequently
went down there to hear them.
At last spring came
and I begin to pack up again for Halifax and arrived home
safely and settled up the brothers.
My brother George in
Halifax had been my silent partner. He sold out his share
to me for $400 and that made a change in the business.
Henceforth I was to be John and Christopher Jost ["J&C
Jost"]. I did not own another cent at the time.
John and I returned
to Guysborough to spend the winter there. There were no
temperance societies at that time but we determined to
sell no liquor.
That winter we occupied
the same house belonging to John Foster. In the spring
we opened a store in New Harbor and I remained in Guysborough
to do business there while John went to New Harbor.
That summer I got acquainted
with Wentworth Taylor's family and when lonesome took a
walk up and spent many a pleasant evenings there. They
were very kind.
Very often after church
William Moir and I went Manchester side of the harbor to
visit some of the folks--Mr. and Mrs. Lawson and some of
the McKeough families--I think something like a load stone
drew William there very often to McKough's who lived on
the point. Several young ladies belonged to it.
In the fall my brother
John shipped his fish from New Harbor to Halifax as I did
mine. We both spent the winter in Guysborough.
There came to Guysborough about that time
a number of Irish families from Newfoundland and settlers
around Salmon River Lakes and Roman Valley. A number of
them hired out for work on farms. Some of these farms belonged
to protestant families and after a time they married some
of their daughters who became Catholics. The protestants
became alarmed--however God intervened. Evangelical preaching
was conducted more often and Methodist and Baptist preachers
came on the ground. A Methodist meeting house was erected
in the town and a Mr. Webb became the preacher. The Baptist
Assn. sent Mr. Widdne who used to travel time after time
over almost the whole country. There appeared to be a great
searching for the "Water of Life." A number of
persons who had come Sunday after Sunday to the established
church to hear words whereby they might be saved went away
dissatisfied and when they heard the joyful sound from
dissenting ministries embraced the full gospel at blessed
the once. The Lord labors of His servants and a number
got converted round the Interval about. After this we had
regular preaching at [?] and the "Cove" and in
Manchester as well as the town.
We had, however, got
used to the established church and we found it difficult
to leave it. But oh how thankful I ought to be that I found
the strength to do so. But I had felt there was something
wanting.
In the spring we left
the Foster house to go where Mr. Mahoney now lives and
there we commenced business and during the summer we started
to build a house on the land where we now reside. We purchased
the land from Christian Muller Esq. an old German.
In the spring of 1866
my brother John and I built a new store on the ground where
it now stands.
Again Clara
comments:
"And that is all we
have of it. Not a clue as to the date it was written except
that it was after 1866. Were John and William and Christopher
attracted by the beautiful scenery around Guysborough that
they decided to settle there, or was it the young ladies?
"We do know that John and Christopher parted
in the business. John built a store about a block away. Probably
it was about this time that Christopher's son Burton was taken
into the business. And a little later his son George. And it
probably was about this time that Christopher retired. He died
in 1884.
"John also had a son,
[Henry] Marshall and he may have wanted to get him established,
having seen that the business was growing sufficiently to warrant
the opening of another store. The original business became ‘B&G
Jost’ [around 1880].
"I have heard it remarked
by Guysborough folk that the reason they, ‘B&G Jost’ got
so much of the business was because Uncle Burt was a liberal
in politics and a Baptist and Father [George] a Tory and a
Methodist. But their principles, like their father, Christopher,
were the highest, and that can be said of the firm to this
day under Gordon Drysdale, grandson-in-law of Burton, who married
Burton's grand-daughter Dorothy Jost."
Burt and
George ran the store about 20 years in all, from Christopher’s
death in 1884 to 1904. In 1900, Burt’s son, Christopher
Arnaud Jost, began working in the store. He eventually took
it over, and worked it faithfully to the end. Gordon Drysdale
came in about 1948. One evening in 1952 Christopher had a store
meeting for the purpose of giving his son-in-law Gordon signing
power. Christopher died the next day.
The original store was built in 1866. A later location was built in 1900--Jim
Drysdale knows the son of the man who built it [he’s 93 years old,
as of 1990]--he showed Jim the bill his father made out for the job,
$950! That building burned down in 1927. Until the present building could
be erected, the store carried on business in a feed shed on the wharf.
The B&G Jost store closed its doors for the last time at 12 noon
on Sat. June 30, 1990, after 167 years of doing business.
Arthur Cranswick Jost, son
of Burton & Sarah--
Finished high school at the age of 15. Got his B.A. at the Baptist University
in Wolfville. Went to McGill and graduated M.D. Married Victoria Martin
("Tory"). Practiced in Guysborough. Enlisted in WWI. After
his wife died, sister Bessie came to keep house and help raise his two
boys, Burton and Victor. After his return from the war he was health
officer for Nova Scotia, living in Halifax, and later took the same position
in Dover, Delaware. There he met and married Dell Buckner. Burton graduated
as a mining engineer, and enlisted in WWII, in the Canadian forces. Victor
also enlisted, but in the American forces. Burton’s plane went down
over Germany, and he was reported killed. At about the same time, Arthur’s
beloved Dell died suddenly. He was shattered. He had retired, and he
returned to Guysborough and took up residence in the hotel, a highly
respected and valuable citizen. He has written many books on Nova Scotia
history, many of which he passed on to the Nova Scotia archives.
(written by Clara Jost Marr)
The bulk of the above material
was taken from work done by Clara Jost Marr, a daughter of
George Edward Jost. She worked on the Jost family history for
more than 20 years before her death. The material was sent
to me by her son, Avard Marr, now deceased. In turn, Clara
got some of her information and the manuscript by Christopher
Jost, from Dr. Arthur Cranswick Jost, mentioned above.
Information about the store
came from Jim Drysdale, son of Gordon and Dorothy (Jost) Drysdale.
Sources:
Jim Drysdale
Writings of Clara Jost Marr
Writings of Dr. Arthur Cranswick Jost
Family information
Links:
Allan Jost's gedcom of our Jost family:
http://www.jostfamily.tk/
Halifax County, Nova Scotia GenWeb
Project:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nshalifa/
Guysborough County, Nova Scotia GenWeb
Project:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~guys/index.html
Josts buried in Evergreen Cemetery,
Guysborough:
http://www.angelfire.com/ca4/Patsy/everguy2.html
March 1, 2013
Polli Turner
