"THE BESTS" Among- the early pioneers in Crapaud was Thomas Best and his wife Maria Hutchinson , who came to Prince Edward Island on "The Valiant," which sailed from Hull, England , on March 22, 1817. Mr. Best , with his family, James, Joy, John and Richard took up 250 acres of land m what is now Westmoreland, and settled on the farm at present in possession of James Moore . At that time, the road leading- from Corner followed the east side of the Westmoreland River to what is now Inkerman . Later, Mr. Best g-ave one hundred acres of land on the south side of the old to his son James, who afterwards sold it to George Lowther , and moved to Lot 16 . Joy settled in Searletown . and John went to Nova Scotia . Mr. Best also sold one hundred acres to his daughter-in-law's brother, James Newsom . This property is at present owned by Harold Oakes . He retained the balance of the property for himself, and after¬ wards g-ave it to his son, Richard, a carpenter by trade. Richard married Elizabeth Newsom . To this union were born six children, — Martha, Joy, Rebecca, Mary Ann, Margaret, and Mark. In 1847, he was given the contract for building the first church in Kelly's Cross. Twenty-three men were working on this job, including Rogerson Bros., John Arnett , James Newsom , and others from Crapaud . When they were raising the rafters, the building collapsed, due to the fact that the workmen, whose duty it was to put the dowel-pins in place, had omitted to do so. As a result, Richard was killed and the others injured, six of them seriously. Mark was nine months old at the time of his father's death. When he came of age, the farm came into his possession, and remained in the Best family for one hundred and eight years. In 1869, he married Sarah Thonroson , a daughter of an old pioneer family who had settled in what is now DeSable. Mrs. Best was a woman who knew the value of time, and the success of perseverance. She believed in the worth of character, the wisdom of economy, and the virtue of patience coupled with the saving grace of hard work. They had a family of twelve children, two of whom died in infancy. The children were: Richard, Albert, William, Thomas, Gertrude, Tremaine, Caroline, Russell, Herbert and Harry. Among the many lines of labor to which Mrs. Best resorted in raising her large family was that of making hats for her boys, to wear on hot sunny days. These were made of wheat straw, plaited into a braid, and sewed and blocked into shane. She also made candles for her own use, and wove linen from flax stalks, which were dried, "heckled and scutched," then spun into yarn, and woven into a web. Of the ten children who grew to maturity, nine are still living ranging in ages from sixty-nine to eighty-five. The third son, William Leslie , has resided in Ottawa since 1910, and has always interested him¬ self in the progress of his adopted city, as well as in affairs concerning the welfare of the people of Canada as a whole. In June and July, 1924, William, at the request of the Federal Government , attended the sixth session of the International Labor Con¬ ference at Geneva, Switzerland, where he acted as Technical Advisor to Canada 's Labor delegate; and again, in June, 1935, he attended the nine¬ teenth session, as Technical Advisor to the Delegate representing the Federal Government . He was honored on June 2, 1943, by having his name on the King's -•••$ 44 )§•»-