married and gone. Trying to farm 100 acres was a daunting task for
an ageing man and so in 1847 he sold the 50 acres on the east side of
the property to Henry Brehaut, who was one of the Guernsey settlers
and was a cooper, or barrel maker. Henry was an old man at that
time and he died about a year later, but his heirs continued to farm
the property.

Now Vere not only had a lot of neighbours, but he also had very
close neighbours in the Brehaut family.

It was probably about this time that Vere built his third house. He
would have some spare cash from the sale of his land, and he would
need some extra room as the children still left at home were growing
up and needed more space. The boys who were still at home could do
a lot of the work on the new house.

Early photography was
starting to make an ap-
pearance in Prince Ed-
ward Island about this
time. The first photog-
rapher in the Maritimes,
William Valentine of
Saint John, N.B., went
into business in 1841 and
was believed to have vis-
ited PEI. shortly after.
While he was the first in
the Maritimes, others fol-
lowed quickly and within
a few years there were
three photographic stu-
dios in Charlottetown.
Vere and most of his sons
had their photographs
taken early on but this
was a luxury that not
everyone could afford. The industry was new and the work was ex-

 

Portrait cf Vere Beck

53