a party of about thirty hands embarked on board a schooner belonging
to the Company for the scene of operations. The men were fishermen,
laborers, lime burners, with one or two coopers--a rough and ready
lot, but with one or two of superior intelligence to act as foremen.
Comparatively few of the men seem to have become permanent settlers,
yet as members of the little colony at Portland Point and almost the
first English-speaking residents of St. John, outside of the Fort
Frederick garrison, their names are worthy to be recorded. The
following may be regarded as a complete list: James Simonds, James
White, Jonathan Leavitt, Jonathan Simonds, Samuel Middleton, Peter
Middleton, Edmund Black, Moses True, Reuben Stevens, John Stevens,
John Boyd, Moses Kimball, Benjamin Dow, Thomas Jenkins, Batcheldor
Ring, Rowley Andros, Edmund Butler, John Nason, Reuben Mace, Benjamin
Wiggins, John Lovering, John Hookey, Rueben Sergeant, Benjamin
Stanwood, Benjamin Winter, Anthony Dyer, Webster Emerson, George
Carey, John Hunt, George Berry, Simeon Hillyard, Ebenezer Fowler,
William Picket and Ezekiel Carr.

The Company's schooner, with William Story as master, sailed from
Newburyport about the 10th of April, arriving at Passamaquody on the
14th, and at St. John on the 18th. The men set to work immediately on
their arrival, and the quietude that had reigned beneath the shadow of
Fort Howe hill was broken by the sound of the woodsman's axe and the
carpenter's saw and hammer. Among the first buildings erected were a
log store 20 feet by 30 feet, a dwelling house 19 feet by 35 feet, and
a building adjoining it 16 by 40, rough boarded and used as a cooper's
shop, kitchen and shelter for the workmen.

Portland Point lies at the foot of Portland street at the head of St.
John harbor--the locality is better known today as "Rankin's Wharf."
Before the wharves in the vicinity were built the Point was quite a
conspicuous feature in the contour of the harbor. The site of the old
French fort on which James Simonds' house was built, with the
company's store hard by, is now a green mound unoccupied by any
building. The place was at first commonly called "Simonds' Point" but
about the year 1776 the name of "Portland Point" seems to have come
into use. Nevertheless, down to the time of the arrival of the
Loyalists in 1783, the members of the company always applied the names
of "St. Johns" or "St. John's River" to the scene of their operations,
and it ma