1852: An Acadia Tragedy Unfolds (Part 16, Jun 16/25)

Reverend E.D. Very’s body found on June 16

“Soon after [Phalen and Coldwell washed away], Mr. Very was washed off, but he swam to the boat, and was assisted on it by [Charles] Benjamin. He held on by the stern for ten or fifteen minutes, when three heavy seas in succession broke over them, and swept Mr. Very away.” (Distressing Calamity, Christian Messenger extra, 11 June 1852, 1) The story told by Charles Benjamin and recounted in the newspaper by Dr. Cramp helps us know that Rev. Very was taken off the boat a few times but he could not hold on to it. Archivist Wendy Robicheau discovered that Edward Dwyer Very was a prominent Baptist minister in Saint John.

He was born in 1813, in Salem, Massachusetts. At first, he was buried in the Old Burying Ground, Wolfville, next to William Grant. In April 1853, he was reinterred in the Fernhill Cemetery, at Saint John, New Brunswick.

Very attended Waterville College in Maine and completed his Junior year there in 1837. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1839 and also attended the Bangor Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1838. At the time of his death, Rev. Very was a pastor in Portland, New Brunswick, the editor of the Christian Visitor (New Brunswick’s Baptist newspaper), and a member of the Acadia College Board of Governors. The Christian Visitor indicated that he was survived by a wife and three children, one of whom was an infant daughter named Sarah, who died in 1853. His obituary notes that he had a liberal and enlightened mind as well as a kind and urbane disposition.

Rev. Very’s body was found at Horton on Friday, June 16. He was buried in Wolfville the following Wednesday with T.S. Harding preaching the sermon. The body was badly decomposed, meaning that he could not be immediately returned to Saint John. The Christian Visitor reports that his family intended that Very be “interred in Wolfville in the full assurance of its being raised up again incorruptible.” (18 June 1852) Rev. I.E. Bill preached his funeral sermon in Saint John, which is available on Canadiana.org in full text.

The next post will provide more details about Rev. Very, a Governor of the College.