The White FenceNo. 71

January

2016

ISSN 1913-4134 N E W S L E T T E R O F T H E T A N T R A M A R H E R I T A G E T R U S T

Editorial-

Tantramar Heritage Trust29B Queens RoadP.O. Box 3554

Sackville, NB E4L 4G4

(506) 536-2541tantramarheritage@gmail.com.

heritage.tantramar.com

Tantramar Heritage Trust, Inc.

Executive Directors 2015-2016President Barbara JardineVice-President Geoff MartinSecretary Dodie PerkinTreasurer Paul Bogaard

Staff MembersExecutive DirectorKaren ValanneBookkeeperSandra Niles

Dear friends,

This is a very special issue of The WhiteFence, one with news that helps to ensureour long-term future. But it containsboth sad and good news. The sad news is that we have lost a valued friend andcontributor; the good news lies in thislate friend’s legacy to the TantramarHeritage Trust. The details are describedin the articles below written by Al Smithand Paul Bogaard based on their closefriendship with Alec R. Purdy over manyyears. When we began discussions aboutcreating the Tantramar Heritage Trustnearly twenty years ago, we realized that,in order to function properly and effectively, we would depend almostexclusively on whatever grants we couldsecure but especially the generosity ofour friends and members. Well dearfriends, you all came through! Over thelast (nearly!) twenty years (officially the20th this fall), we have benefitted from the generosity of federal, provincial andmunicipal grants but especially from ourmany valued members, most of whomprefer to remain anonymous. This issueof The White Fence is dedicated to oneexemplary long-distance friend of theTrust who has recently passed on but leftus a very tangible legacy to help ensureour fiscal future. Although we focus thisnewsletter on the generosity and legacy ofAlec Purdy (at right), we thank all ourmany benefactors who have long support-ed us in our efforts to illuminate our past.As the saying goes: we could not have

done it without you. All of our donorsnames are all listed on the “donor walls”at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre andCampbell Carriage Factory in Sackville.Based on that long list of names and thetwo articles in this newsletter, I can onlyreach one conclusion: we must be doingsomething right.

Thank you all!

Peter Hicklin

Alec R. Purdy 1945-2015.

Trust’s Endowment AccountGets a Major Boostpage 2

When Careful PlanningMeets the TotallyUnexpectedpage 7

Heritage DayFebruary 13, 2016

See page 8

Page 2 The White Fence

By Al Smith

As we start the year 2016 and enterour 20th year as a non-profit

charitable organization, it is reallynice to be able to announce a highlysignificant donation that will ensurethe long-term sustainability of theTantramar Heritage Trust (THT).The Trust as an organization hasgrown very quickly over the past 19years, now owning and operating twomuseums highlighting Sackville’s richheritage. These two museums househistorical displays and artifacts in sixhighly significant heritage buildingswhich, in addition to restoration,require constant maintenance andrepair. After opening theBoultenhouse Heritage CentreMuseum in September 2006 (theTrust’s 10th anniversary as an organi-zation), our planning discussionsstarted to explore how we couldensure the long-term viability of theorganization. Thus, in 2008, theBoard established a THT EndowmentFund – the idea being that donationsto that Fund would be of restricteduse and be allowed to grow and eventually invested to accrue returnsthat could then be used to help offsetannual operating expenses.

Despite a significant initial donationof $5,000.00 to establish thatEndowment Fund, that account hasgrown very slowly over the past sevenyears. A total of $10,293.00 was inthe fund at the end of fiscal year2014/15. So it was with great surpriseand excitement when the Trustreceived a letter on November 5,

2015, advising us that the TantramarHeritage Trust had been named as abeneficiary of the Alec. R. PurdyLiving Trust. Attached to that letterwas a cheque for $100,000.00! TheTrust could not immediatelyannounce this amazing donation asScotiaBank required 20 business daysbefore they would release the funds.Everything has now been cleared andthe funds are safely in the Trust’saccount and under the watchful eye of our Treasurer, Paul Bogaard. So who was Alec R. Purdy and why would he have so significantlysupported the mission of theTantramar Heritage Trust?

Alec Raymond Purdy (1945-2015)was a great, great grandson of HenryBoultenhouse Purdy (1814-1888) the shipbuilder from Westcock whoconstructed 19 vessels over the period1852-1878. Purdy family genealogistshave traced the roots of the familyback to Francis Purdy born in the mid-16th century (circa 1562) inYorkshire, England. John Purdy, a sonof Francis, immigrated to Concord,Massachusetts, around 1632 along

with his wife and their son Francis.Sometime later, Francis moved toFairfield County, Connecticut, wherehe married and raised a large family.Over the next hundred years theregrew a very large Purdy clan inFairfield County, CT, as well as inneighboring Westchester, County, NY.During the American Revolution, the Purdy family was divided withloyalties to both sides of the conflict.After 1783, the “Patriot” sections ofthe family remained in New Yorkwhile the Loyalist branches (threePurdy brothers: Gabriel, Henry and Gilbert plus an uncle) settled inNova Scotia including the founding of the community of Westchester inCumberland County. All threeLoyalist Purdy brothers had served inthe British army and were rewardedfor their loyalty and service by beingawarded land grants in Nova Scotia.Henry Purdy settled in FortLawrence, Gilbert in Malagash(Remsheg) and Gabriel inWestchester.

The direct line to Alec R. Purdy –the subject of this story – is via

Trust’s Endowment AccountGets a Major Boost

Henry Purdy (born c1745 in White Plains, NY – died 1826, Fort Lawrence, NS)Married – Tamar Kniffen 16 Feb. 1773

• James Purdy (born in White Plains NY, Sept. 12, 1781 – died Wood Point 1861)Married – Mary Ann Boultenhouse in 1814

• Henry Boultenhouse Purdy (b. Wood Point 28 Dec. 1814 – died 22 Dec. 1888, Westcock)Married – Dorcas Snowdon 21 March 1837

• Reuben Boultenhouse Purdy (b. Wood Point, 27 Oct. 1841 – died New Westminster BC 1925)• Belmont Russell Purdy (b. Sackville, 4 Aug. 1880 – d New Westminster, BC 15 June 1943)• Dwight Walker Purdy (b. New Westminster, BC, 1911 – died 17 Mar. 2009, Edmonton, Alberta)• Russell Matter Purdy (b. Lethbridge 1943 – died May 24, 2015, Edmonton)• Alec Raymond Purdy (b. New Westminster, BC 19 Oct. 1945 – died Indio, California 4 Jul. 2015)

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 3

Henry Purdy, an officer in the Britisharmy who joined the loyalist cause in1776 and was commissioned in 1780as a Captain of a Light InfantryCompany under Colonel JamesDeLancey. Henry Purdy (circa 1745-1826) received a grant of 150acres at Fort Lawrence, CumberlandCo., Nova Scotia, in 1785 and ashared additional grant of 400 acres in1788. In addition to being a farmerand merchant at Fort Lawrence, hebecame a Colonel in the Nova ScotiaMilitia, a Judge of the Court ofCommon Pleas, acted as Town Clerk,was appointed High Sheriff ofCumberland County in 1794 andserved as a member of the NovaScotia Legislative Assembly from1806-1820. Henry Purdy and his wifeTamar Kniffen had a family of nine.Their second son, and fourth oldestchild, was James Purdy (1781-1861).James grew up in Fort Lawrence, wasactive in the local Militia and by circa1810 was the captain of a small trading vessel owned by BedfordBoultenhouse of Wood Point, NewBrunswick. That vessel, built inHillsboro, traded between the ports ofSackville, Dorchester, Saint John andthe Passamaquoddy area.

James Purdy was 32 when he married15-year old Mary Ann Boultenhousein 1814. It was considered by somePurdy family genealogists to havebeen a so-called “shotgun wedding”as their first child Henry BoultenhousePurdy was born on Dec. 28, 1814.The couple had an additional 11 children over the next 23 years. MaryAnn was the daughter of BedfordBoultenhouse (1762-1848), a Loyalistcarpenter from New Jersey who

immigrated to Nova Scotia in 1784and finally settling near Sackville in1794. Bedford married CharlotteHarper, daughter of YorkshiremanChristopher Harper, and raised a family of six including ChristopherBoultenhouse (circa 1802-1876), New Brunswick’s most prolific shipbuilder having constructed 60vessels in his lifetime.

Henry Boultenhouse Purdy marriedDorcas Snowdon (1817-1897), grand-daughter of Yorkshireman PickeringSnowdon, on March 21, 1837, andraised a family of nine. Henry tookover an existing small shipyard atWestcock that was established by John Boultenhouse (brother ofChristopher) and his son Bedford.Between 1852 and 1878, HenryPurdy built and launched 19 vesselsfrom his Westcock shipyard. The sea-faring traditions of the Purdy familywere carried on by his oldest threesons: John, Reuben and James. Johnand Reuben were both MasterMariners. Reuben (see accompanyingphoto) went to sea in 1856 at theage of 14 and by the time he reached19 he was a full-fledged sea captain.James was a shipwright having con-structed three vessels at the familyyard in Westcock. By 1890, with theend of the era of wooden ships, allthree sons had moved out to BritishColumbia where they worked as seacaptains in the Vancouver area.

Alec Raymond Purdy was descendedfrom Master Mariner ReubenBoultenhouse Purdy. Alec was bornin New Westminster, BritishColumbia, on October 19, 1945. His father (Dwight Walker Purdy)

was a professional engineer employedin the sugar industry; the family followed the father’s postings toplaces like the Dominican Republic,Vancouver and Lethbridge. In 1963,Alec returned to Vancouver to attendUBC where he obtained a degree inMechanical Engineering in 1967. His initial employment was withWestinghouse working mainly on gasturbines but, since childhood, hadalways been interested in racecars. In 1970, he left Westinghouse andmoved to Toronto where he purchased a Lotus 61 Formula Fordracecar. In partnership with Brian

Master Mariner Reuben BoultenhousePurdy (circa 1870) from the collection ofAlec R. Purdy

Page 4 The White Fence

Stewart, a successful Canadian driver,they won the 1972 Formula FordChampionship and earned a place inthe World Championships in England.Thus began a 42-year involvement inprofessional motorsports. Purdy’sextensive experience in engineeringdesign, fabrication and testing, especially for new car development,made his expertise very sought afterby numerous racing teams.

Alec moved to Hanover, Ontario, in1973 and worked 10 years with FerretIndustries. Working with Fred Wilkenat Ferret they designed a brand newracecar incorporating concepts thatAlec had been toying with for severalyears. Alec’s incredible mechanicalmind combined with his drivingexperience contributed significantlyto the success of Ferret’s new Ferret Mk 4 Formula Ford racecar.With Purdy as driver Ferret claimedthree Canadian Formula FordChampionships along with manyregional titles.

Between 1984 and 1989, he workedfor Ryan Performance Machine inNorth Carolina as a specialty enginebuilder. Purdy formed his own company (Ferret Inc.) around 1990 –a company that provided engineeringconsulting, motorsport parts and services to the general racing community. Throughout the 1990sand over much of 2000-2010, he wasassociated with numerous professionalracing teams. In January, 2013, GregRice of the Rice Race Prep teammanaged to talk Alec Purdy out ofretirement to develop new shocks forhis racecars and to provide advice ontechnical matters.

The following quote from Greg Ricewell illustrates the tremendous respectthat the racing world had for AlecPurdy: “I had the privilege of

working with Alec Purdy for 18months…as I felt that my race preparation business needed a boostof engineering expertise. He came to some of our Pro F1600 andProF2000 events, provided remoteconsultation when he could notattend, built our shocks, and appliedhis “Purdy” touch to our race cars.With Alec leading our group, ourteam won “Engineer of the Year” inthe Pro F1600 Series in 2013. In Juneof 2013 we won the June Sprints atRoad America. In June of 2014, wewon at a Pro F1600 race at VIR, andjust a month ago, we won anotherPro F1600 race at VIR. Although wehad not had Alec at the track with usfor a year, his shocks, revised frontgeometry, and engineering foundationwere a key part of that success. It isso fitting, that through all of Alec’ssuccess in motorsport, his final contribution was in helping a ragtaggroup of Canadians, with an over-age

Canadian driver, win a Formula Fordrace against a bunch of young kidsfrom around the world driving formulti-car mini Indycar teams. It wasso cool to work with a Canadianmotorsport icon – Alec was brilliantand maintained his sense of humor to the end...”

1970s photo collage of Alec Purdy with racing cars from the Ferret Industries website:www.ferretindustries.ca.

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 5

The photo (above) of Alec Purdyadvising the Rice Race Team is fromthe team’s website (www.riceraceprep.com/team/) and is likely the lastphoto that illustrates his long involve-ment in motorsports.

Alec Purdy was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 and lost the battle withthat dreaded disease in the earlymorning hours of July 4, 2015. He died at his residence in Indio,California, but was buried in NewWestminster, BC, alongside his great grandfather Capt. ReubenBoultenhouse Purdy. Alec was nevermarried and had no children. He waspredeceased by his parents and hisolder brother Russell. Alec R. Purdywas in his 70th year.

So now you know quite a bit aboutwho Alec Purdy was but why wouldthis retired engineer from BC (andCalifornia), a motorsports legend,have named the Tantramar HeritageTrust as a beneficiary in his LivingTrust? We certainly had no inklingthat Alec had intended such an undertaking and the first that weheard of it was from the letter (earlierreferred to) from the co-executor ofhis estate. Alec Purdy was passionateabout his family’s genealogy andenthusiastically continued the earliergenealogical work that was started by his father.

Alec was certainly well connected historically to the local Purdy,Boultenhouse and Snowdon familiesand it was in that regard that he initially contacted the Trust office in2006. He had discovered us on theInternet after we had updated ourwebpages and posted details of theopening of the Boultenhouse HeritageCentre. Prior to that, Alec had beencorresponding with Jim Snowdonsharing genealogical information on the Boultenhouse, Purdy and

Snowdon families. Since his initialcontract with the Trust, Alec and Ihave exchanged more than 50 emailssharing genealogical information onthe two families and also a lot aboutshipbuilding at both the Purdy andBoultenhouse shipyards. In his questfor family information he had visitedthis area three times and then againin early July 2008 specifically to seethe Trust’s Boultenhouse HeritageCentre and our displays and informa-tion on shipbuilding and ship-builders.

Although I never actually met Alec hewas an extremely important contactfor me (via email) in working out thecomplex interrelationships betweenthe Boultenhouse and Purdy familiesand also with other early Sackville-area families including Millidge andBotsford. Paul Bogaard also hadextensive email contacts with Alec as did one of our summer students,Angela Hersey. Much of ourBoultenhouse family information on file in the Resource Centre at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre (in the Anderson Octagonal House) is attributable to Alec.

In 2008, the Tantramar HeritageTrust published a book entitledShipbuilding in Westmorland County,NB 1784-1910. I co-authored thatwork along with the principalresearcher Dr. Charles Armour. I was in touch with Alec Purdy many times during the preparation ofthat manuscript and he contributedsignificantly not only genealogicaldata but also did copy-editing for mefor the accounts on shipbuildersChristopher Boultenhouse and HenryBoultenhouse Purdy. After the bookwas published in May, 2008, I maileda copy to Alec in appreciation for hismany contributions.

Henry Boultenhouse Purdy’s threesons John, Reuben and James allmigrated out to the Vancouver area. I had been in touch with Alec on several occasions asking him to consider writing up an article on those three sons for an issue of TheWhite Fence newsletter. Alec did agreeto do that and I know that he hadresearched material in Vancouver butunfortunately never got a chance towrite up the article.

My last email correspondence withAlec was in June, 2013. I had no ideathat he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2014 nor that he had passedaway in July, 2015. Until researchingthis article I did not know that he wasa famous racecar designer and driver.I do know from his emails that he wasdeeply appreciative of the work thatthe Trust was doing here in Sackville.Since receiving the letter and chequefrom his estate last November we havebeen in touch, via email, with theestate’s co-executors. They have toldus that his earlier connections withthe Tantramar Heritage Trust meant alot to him and that it brought greatpleasure to him to include the Trustin his will. Alec established the AlecR. Purdy Living Trust that is dedicat-ed to the Purdy family genealogy. TheBoard of Directors of the TantramarHeritage Trust are deeply moved byhis kindness and generosity but alsosaddened to realize that he is nolonger with us.

Alec R. Purdy obviously believedstrongly in the work of the TantramarHeritage Trust. There is an old sayingthat “we must understand our past in order to pioneer the future”. Themission of the Trust is preserving thepast for the future and now that ourEndowment Fund is a viable entity in the organization’s long-term

Page 6 The White Fence

sustainability we are all very muchrelieved. This does not mean that weneed to back off on fund-raising aswe are very hopeful that this donationwill be a stimulus to others to consid-er contributing via donation or estateplanning. Continuing our annualfundraising as well as building theEndowment Fund will be necessaryfor many more years to come.

Thanks to Alec’s passion for delvinginto the past, and his willingness toshare his research, we know muchmore about the early history of theBoultenhouse family. His extremelygenerous donation via The Alec R.Purdy Living Trust will ensure thatthe contributions of this family, thatso influenced Sackville’s economicand social development for most ofthe 19th century, are forever remembered.

Thank you Alec Purdy – may you restin peace dear friend.

Sources• Bedford Boultenhouse Loyalist by Alec Purdy – unpublished manuscript

• Boultenhouse and Purdy family information by Jim Snowdon – unpublished manuscript on file at the Resource Centre at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre

• Letter from Ann Lahey dated October 29, 2015

• Email correspondence from co-executors (Ann Lahey and Mike Purdy)

• Shipbuilding in Westmorland Co. NB 1784-1910 by Charles A. Armour and Allan D. Smith, 2008

• A History of Fort Lawrence by G. Trenholm, M. Norden and J. Trenholm, 1985

• Obituary of Alec R. Purdy published in the Burnaby Now and New West RecordSept. 23, 2015

• Obituary of Russell M. Purdy published in The Edmonton Journal, May 29, 2015

• Descendants of Francis Purdy: website www.yelland.ca/Descend/Purdy.pdf

• Ferret Industries website: www.ferretindustries.ca/

• A family divided by the American Revolutionwww.thefreelibrary.com/A+family+divided+by+the+American+Revolution%3A+S

• Rice Race team website: www.riceraceprep.com/team/

• The Purdy Family of Long Islandhttp://longislandgenealogy.com/Surname_Pages/purdy.htm

• Al Smith’s Purdy family tree on ancestry.ca

Tantramar Heritage Trust Page 7

When Careful PlanningMeets the Totally UnexpectedBy Paul Bogaard, TreasurerTantramar Heritage Trust

Careful planning refers to the financial plans that have for several

years allowed the Tantramar HeritageTrust to accumulate almost a milliondollars worth of capital assets (build-ings and artifacts). These efforts culminated in the Capital Campaignfor 2015 and 2016 which representedour best-laid plans for retiring a$40,000 bank loan still outstanding.You will have received these campaigndocuments from our Capital Campaigncommittee chair and former Trustpresident Geoff Martin which alsoincluded a financial summary. Thesedollar figures were re-printed in TheWhite Fence #69 in October 2015.

The plan centered upon a wonderfullygenerous offer to match dollar for dollar whatever we raised in donationsto meet the 2015 loan payment toScotiaBank. By the end of 2015, the target of $10,000 was raised byour membership for this purpose,matched by an additional $10,000from an anonymous donor…and the payment for 2015 was met!According to the plan, we had onlyone more payment of $20,000 left tobe paid by Dec. of 2016.

This seemed to us something like arainbow of good fortune and promisefor the future…until parting cloudsrevealed what awaited us at the end of our rainbow!

The totally unexpected bequest fromthe Living Trust of Alec R. Purdyarrived in a rather standard businessenvelope but one that also contained a

cheque for $100,000 U.S.! As AlSmith explains in the preceeding article: while we had known Alec and engaged with him in many emailconversations, no one had anticipatedhis passing, nor his bequest, nor theamount involved. Now what to do?

Well, ScotiaBank clarified some thingsimmediately: don’t count your chick-ens before they could confirm throughWells Fargo in California that therereally was a pot of gold at the end ofthe rainbow. And that took severalweeks. On the other hand, beingpatient was likely to pay off since the Canadian dollar was weakeningagainst the US dollar and, as thisextraordinary legacy from Mr. Purdywas in US dollars, it was likely togrow even larger.

So the Board of Directors of theHeritage Trust agreed on some thingsright away: first, assuming this unex-pected bequest was going to becomereality, its principal use should be tobuild up our Endowment. Secondly,that if we could find a way to do so,we should pay off the remaining loanas soon as possible. That would elimi-nate all remaining debt from our pastprojects (which, however careful theplanning, become a millstone aroundone’s corporate neck) and relieve us of any further interest payments. And thirdly, since we face each yearthe challenge of paying for expenses(like summer employment) months in advance of the grants we are grate-fully awarded being actually received,it would be most helpful to alleviatethis annual cash-flow problem.

Before Christmas, ScotiaBank confirmed that the funds from theAlec Purdy Living Trust were securedand at our disposal. We arranged,with their help, to convert justenough of these US $ to fully retireour bank loan. The Trust is nowcompletely debt free! And theremainder (still worth more than$100,000 in Canadian dollars) is sitting in a US $ Account waiting forthe day when we take full advantageof the exchange rate… which is stillimproving.

In effect, the Trust has paid off theloan a year in advance by borrowingagainst the funds destined to becomeour greatly enhanced Endowment.With that in mind, we have alreadyapproached the donor who had madethe generous offer (and who prefers toremain anonymous) to match dollarfor dollar whatever we raised to help,through 2015 and through 2016, thetwo final payments on this loan. The 2015 plan was met and carriedthrough and this donor has agreed tocontinue this challenge: if we canraise up to $10,000 during 2016, thatwill be matched by an additional$10,000, and these two amounts canthen be used to “pay back” what was“borrowed” from the bequest, to beinvested in our Endowment.

Happily, this now becomes the Trust’sadjusted plan: place $100,000 inCanadian dollars into our EndowmentAccount before this fiscal year is overand pay off the remaining loan (whichhas now been done) with the expecta-tion that this amount will be raised inthe 2016 campaign and added back

Page 8 The White Fence

into the Endowment. Finally, whatever amount remains through the exchange from US to Canadiandollars be used to alleviate our annualcash-flow challenge. And, of course,our auditors will review all this andreport on what has been done at ourAnnual General Meeting (AGM) inthe spring.

To be clear: “Endowment” meansthat the Trust has a special account atthe bank and any monies placed therewill be held there, and invested,instead of being spent to meet immediate expenses. However, theinterest (or any other earnings) fromthe funds in this account may bespent each year to meet on-goingexpenses. But the “principal” will beheld in this account, ensuring that theTrust has some resources available to

it over many years to come. This isassured by maintaining this specialaccount, according to a policy established by the Board of Directors,which follows the guidelines for charitable organizations handling“endowed” funds and commits theorganization to this long-term use.

In a small way, the Trust had alreadyanticipated this special arrangementby setting up the account and careful-ly considering the proper use of suchfunds. It was an initial donation byour friend and generous contributor,Pauline Spatz, who made this possiblesome years back. And each yearsince, some donors have chosen tospecify that their donation, or a portion of it, be directed to ourEndowment.

At just over $10,000, we have learnedhow to properly handle these specialfunds even though the annual earn-ings from such an amount are notvery significant. With the Purdybequest, we can now be assured of amuch more significant Endowmentwith earnings large enough to bewoven into each year’s budget ofexpenditures, and for years to come.

By attending our objectives to pre-serve the Tantramar’s past, we havebeen granted the means to help usensure meeting these objectives wellinto the future. We ask that each ofyou continue to find ways of helpingus meet these worthy objectives.

MORNING

Tantramar High School

20th Annual Heritage Breakfast (7:30-10:30 am)

The day will begin with our popular Heritage Breakfastat the TRHS Cafeteria featuring eggs, bacon, sausage,beans, toast, juice, tea and coffee. Tickets are $7 foradults and $4 for children to age 10 and can be purchased in advance from Trust members, at the office at the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre, or at thedoor that morning.

Tickets can be purchased in advance from Trust members, at the office at the Boultenhouse HeritageCentre or at the door that morning.

AFTERNOON

Anderson Octagonal HouseBoultenhouse Heritage Centre27 Queens Road, Sackville, NB

Guest Speakers (1:30-3 pm)

Details still to be confirmed. Check the Trust website at heritage.tantramar.com. Reception with light refreshments to follow.

Heritage Day – Saturday, February 13