Commercial 55

_ ~ . _ . ) . . '~ I am “- 0 The Home of Donald Beaton, 1816-1865 Caleb Carlton Sr. bought the Beaton home and surrounding property after the death

of Mrs. Beaton. It remained in the Carlton family until 1953 when it was purchased by Ray A. Leard. Note the home of Donald Lavie in the background.

vessels held firm in the ice in Nova Scotia ports. The Robinson, on her return trip, was loaded with provisions including porter and ale. The other, under Captain Deagle still held her outgoing cargo of bake and mackerel. Beaton was sick and upset with worry. It is interesting to note that in this,and in a later letter of Feb. 5, the Port of Souris is free of ice. He writes: “I don’t understand how it is that the straits are full of ice over there and not a fistful here not even after we had the last southerly blow”.13 His brigantine the Jane left Souris in November of 1865 on a fishing trip to Newfoundland. She, too, became frozen in ice there for six months but returned in the spring to a joyful welcome.

In spite of setbacks, Donald Beaton became a wealthy man and owned considerable land at his death. His widow sold a large block of the centre of the Village to Owen Connolly in 1876.”

There was room in Souris for both these early merchants but they were, no doubt, rivals in business. They were also rivals in politics and religion at a time when the question of Bible reading in the schools was debated with hot passion. Donald Beaton, Roman Catholic and Liberal was elected to the Assembly under George Coles in 1850. He was defeated in 1854 by Conser- vative John Macgowan. In 1859, John Knight, Conservative, was elected to serve under Edward Palmer but lost out in the next election to Donald Beaton.

With modern life expectancy, both John Knight and Donald Beaton might have lived to see the railway come to Souris (spring of 1875) and the breakwater (1877). But John Knight died in April, 1875, age 63, and Donald Beaton in November, 1865, at age 49, of diabetes.15