Overview

Freemen Ashley published Dick and Jack's Adventures on Sable Island in 1895. This lively story is back in print, with an introduction by South Shore historian Danielle Robertson about the book and its connection to real events and people of 1840s Nova Scotia. Robinson writes, ""The time in which the story takes place seems to be circa 1840. Remarkably, the 1838 census of the area includes most of the book's characters, including Mary Elizabeth and her husband, John. Interestingly, Mary Elizabeth and her father, Israel Wharton, appear in the famous diary of Simeon Perkins in Liverpool in the early 1800s. Israel worked for Perkins; Mary Elizabeth was a maid for Perkins and married John in Perkins' house.""Names, nationalities and numbers of children are all accurate for his characters at Black Point. It became clear that the author must have actually met the people who appear in this novel, and been in their homes and community to have so accurately known these minute details. Even all the landmarks and local place names, such as Darling Rock and Little Hope Lighthouse, are accurate.""Through months and years of research, scouring a wide variety of sources, I came to piece together the background of the author and how he came to know this much about the scattered inhabitants living on the headland between the harbours of Port Joli and Port Mouton all those years ago.""In a recent breakthrough, I realized that the author knew every landmark, every place name, every settler and every nuance of my community because he had actually lived here with his family for a time. The Deed Registry office verified that the author's father, Reverend William Ashley, purchased the land at Black Point in 1838.""

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9781997827115

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Barnes Freeman Ashley was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia in November, 1833. He got his early education in Barrington, NS, and studied Classics and Theology under private tutors in Boston. He followed that with a three-year medical course at the Ohio Medical College in Cleveland, Ohio.Ashley served as a pastor for 43 years, first with Baptist congregations and later for the Reformed (Dutch) Church. Later in life he began writing stories for magazines, and then novels for young adults, including ""Tan Pile Jim"" and ""Air Castle Don"". Danielle Robertson, born in 1968, grew up in Queens County, Nova Scotia. She attended Port Mouton Consolidated School and Liverpool Regional High School, with an early interest in local history. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts with a major in History at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax.She went on to a myriad of pursuits including working with museums, parks and local establishments such as White Point Beach Lodge. She also established several of her own businesses including Coastal Trails Hiking Tours and the Port Joli General Store Ltd., designing and supervising construction of the Hunts Point Market and Cafe, and acting as Postmaster of the Port Joli Post Office for 17 years. As an avid volunteer, Danielle sat on committees and boards promoting community interests, especially history and the environment. Danielle was integral in rejuvenating the Port Joli Community Association and restoring the historic Port Joli Community Hall. From 2021 through 2025, she and her neigbhours workd on the ""East Port L'Hebert Community Mapping Project."" She initiated the Port Joli Project with the Nature Conservancy of Canada and became the first woman to grace the cover of their magazine in 2017. In 2007, Danielle appeared on the CBC series ""Who Do You Think You Are?"" alongside her more-famous distant cousin, Major General Lewis Wharton MacKenzie.Through all this, Danielle was married and raised two ""larger than life"" boys, Lewis and Lee. She, along with her husband, Charles, dedicated 20 years to giving them the best formative years. Through extensive family research, Danielle learned of the fascinating history of her father's side of the family, the Whartons. From participating in the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution in ""Tarleton's Legion"", in the settlement of Port Mouton in 1783, and captaining the famed ship Columbia (doomed rival of the Bluenose), the Whartons were leaders in South Shore history in the 18th and 19th centuries. Danielle always felt cheated by never having been taught local history while attending school in Port Mouton. Knowing that the students she sat next to were descended from an ancestor who fought alongside her ancestor in the American Revolution would have meant something. Republishing this historic novel helps to tell part of the story that she missed in school and that could have been lost forever.

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