Smith's Cove - Volume II - Pages 29 & 30

 

The McDormand's

 

Robert McDormand, pioneer settler, first built a small log house (later replaced by a frame one) at the confluence of the Annapolis Basin and Grand Joggin, near the western bank of Grand Joggin, afterward crossed by Faulkner Highway and then by the Dominion Atlantic Railway, which follows the road across the tract of thirty-three acres granted to him. He died Oct 7, 1802, of old age.
 
William McDormand, brother of Robert, was a pioneer settler at Conway (Digby). William's first wife was Meribah Fitzgerald, Senior, of Wilmot, Annapolis County, later of Conway. After her decease he married, May 25, 1802, Tabitha, widow of George Schreiber, the Loyalist. She was the daughter of Captain Joseph Webber. He had removed to Gulliver's Hole (Gulliver's Cove), but later came back to Digby. His house was where the present Digby United Baptist Church now stands and it was his widow who opened her home for Elder Peter Crandall to hold the first Baptist services in the town of Digby. Quoting from the Messenger and Visitor of Feb 11, 1891:
"Father Crandall was the first Baptist minister that ever proclaimed the Gospel in the town of Digby (shortly after his settlement on Digby Neck). This he had to do in the face of strong opposition. The Baptists were the sect everywhere spoken against in these times. It was not easy to find a place in which to preach, so strong were the prejudices of the people against him. At length Mrs. McDormand, a widow, friendly to religion, opened her home and invited him to preach there. But he was not allowed to proceed with religious services undisturbed.
 
A riotous mob surrounded the premises, stoned the house, and threatened the preacher with violence. Andrew Snodgrass, a worthy magistrate of the town, dispersed the rioters so that Mr. Crandall finished his religious services without further molestation. What may be regarded as approaching coincidence is that their beautiful new church building is on the place where widow McDormand's house stood and their parsonage is hard by where that worthy gentleman resided. This circumstance is a pleasing fulfillment of the promise, "If any man serve me, him will my Father honour'."
 
There seems to be a tendency to get the field of service of Elder Enoch Towner confused with that of Elder Peter Crandall. The same Messenger and Visitor that gives the history of Elder Crandall also tells of Elder Towner's field of service. It seems that Elder Towner laboured in the Township of Digby, which was an area 50 miles in extent but not on the town of Digby. Perhaps the cause of the town being avoided was the hostility of its rector, Roger Viets, Senior.
 
It may be noticed, too, that the organization of church itself sometimes becomes confused with the organization of the Sissiboo Church which Elder Towner organized. That was in the Township of Digby but not in the town of Digby.
 
The widow McDormand was enrolled in the Sissiboo Church, later known as the first Digby Neck Baptist Church. She died Dec 25, 1842. Her husband had died in 1809.
 
William McDormand's daughter, Mary, married David Cossaboom, of Gulliver's Cove, and it is from David & Mary (McDormand) Cossaboom that the Smith's Cove Cossabooms descended.
 
Both William McDormand and his brother Robert emigrated with their parents, William McDormand, Senior, and wife, to Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in 1761. They were descended from an ancient Ulster family of note. Both William and Robert were born before their parents emigrated, in May 1739, to the Valley of the Brandywine River, now in USA.