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Pictured here at the Wilson family homestead in the early forties are my great-grandparents Willard & Sade Wilson with Uncle Purdy sitting on the left and Aunt Maisie on the right . Note the old wooden spoked wheels on the trailor and the canoe . The canoe is known as a ” lap streak ” vessel , it is simply thin flat boards app 6 inches in width that overlap from the bottom up . The cracks were filled with black tar and heated with a gas torch to melt the tar into the seams . These boats were very heavy but stable and of course were leaking most of the time . In 1873 my great great uncle James Wilson would travel with a boat of this type all the way to Chatam Head ( known as Miramichi City today ) to purchase boot-leg liquor . He would pole all the way back to McNamee ( 60 miles ) where he ran a small tavern , until one foggy night upon leaving Chatam Head he was robbed and murdered for his goods . This is documented in a daily newspaper of that day, of course the culprits were never arrested .