The Creeds ‘ 25

spinning wheel and made home safely. Catherine and her husband Joseph Bennett lived with their son William. Joseph Bennett (Ben as he was known)

died March 21, 1875 at age 85. They are buried in the old cemetery at Sturgeon.

About 1812 Joseph Bennett Creed decided he would visit relatives in the New England states, who were the Princes and the Tuckers. The Tuckers were close relatives of Abraham Lincoln. During his stay, war broke out between Great Britain and the United States. Creed was given three choices —— leave the county, go to jail, or join the American Army. He chose to leave the country. He secured passage on a boat to RE.I. and arrived home none the worse, having a great experience.

Now we come to Samuel, brother of Bennett and Job. Not too much is known about Samuel, except he married Betty Thomson and farmed for a while in Sturgeon and had some family. The exact date he left Sturgeon I don’t know. I presume it was around 1830. According to Richard Creed he went to Indiana and became a cattle rancher, but according to his daughter Mary’s letter, written 1846, he was a farmer in Algomac, Michigan. Several of his family died from an epidemic.

Now we come to the third generation. As for the descendants of Job and Samuel, 1 have no records, only one of Samuel’s girls was Mary, and many of the descendants of Job still live in the Sturgeon area and are highly respected fine people. Joseph Bennett and Catherine had two sons and one daughter — William, James and Mary.William was born in 1827 and for many years worked in the shipworks in Lower Montague. I presume he carried his lunch and boarded at home. He travelled over the road that his grandfather surveyed years before. In these days black bears were plentiful. Going home after dark, he would run most of the three miles. William was a rugged man of great strength. He would throw a barrel of flour 212 pounds on his back and walk away with it. In 1861, William married Martha Acorn, a neighbour girl, eleven years younger than he. They lived happily on the homestead with his father and mother and devoted all his time to farming. Martha Acorn was a granddaughter of John Acorn, a United Empire Loyalist who fought in the battle of Bunker Hill. He came to P.E.I. around 1788 and was given a large grant of land. To this union was born 12 children, six boys and six girls. William Creed was a very religious man, a strict Methodist, Superintendent of a Sunday School and for many years he held family worship in the home, was very strict not to work unnecessarily on Sunday. Saturday evening one of the girls was dispatched to polish all the shoes.