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

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