Simonds, Hazen and White

English: , In 1762 three young ex-officers of provincial regiments (units of Americans within the British army) joined in a trading venture. The Boston friends - James Simonds, James White and William Hazen - were attracted to the free land at the mouth of the St. John River, by the Maliseet fur trade, the potential fisheries, and the available local limestone (required for agriculture). , A year earlier James Simonds had chosen the partners' harbour site. It was directly across from Fort Frederick, on a green mound once the site of Fort La Tour, and in pre-European times, a meeting place for the Wabanaki. The trading post would be in a strategic position. It looked out to the Bay of Fundy, and on the right towards the mouth of the St. John River as it passes the cliffs of Reversing Falls. The back of the site met the ancient Maliseet's portage trail around Reversing Falls. , James White had learned accounting in the army as an assistant to the provisions master. He became bookkeeper for the new company and its principal agent for the fur trade. , William Hazen at 21 had fought at the battle for Quebec (1761). As founding partner he looked after business at their New England office in Newburyport, Mass. , Simonds, Hazen and White's post at Portland Point was essential to the survival and comfort of new settlements upriver. James Simonds arrived with the first settlers in late summer 1762. James White arrived soon after. , By 1764 they had built a large store, a large shed containing a cooper (barrel-making), a kitchen and living space for workmen. Partners Simonds and White shared a finished large house whose stone cellar stored apples and potatoes. The company's own ship brought more workers (laborers, fishermen, lime burners and coopers) to Portland Point. , Commerce flourished with the Maliseet fur trade, contracts for Fort Frederick garrison, and supplies to the expanding settlement upriver where farming was thriving. From 1764 to 1775 Simonds, Hazen and White shipped out $100,000 worth of local goods , furs, oak staves, lime and fish. , Unrest and anger against Britain increased in the American colonies. In 1768 the garrison at Fort Frederick left to handle troubles in Boston. The fort's four soldier caretakers looked to Simonds and White for support. Founding partner William Hazen moved his family from Newburyport, Massachusetts to the more peaceful Portland Point in the early 1770's. , In April 1775 the American Revolution began when the first shots were fired by Massachusetts militiamen ranged against British forces on the Green in Lexington, Massachusetts. ,