Charles Fleming

I stumbled on this little treasure tonight.
Daniel F. Johnson: Volume 84 Number 3093

Date: January 4 1892
County: Saint John
Place: Saint John
Newspaper: The Daily Sun

Transcribed by Daniel F. Johnson.

… About four miles from the mouth of the of the stream is the outlet of Charlie Lake. The lake itself is about one quarter of a mile wide and three quarters long. On the left of this lake a short distance from it, is the site of an old lumber camp operated over sixty years ago by John GLASIER now Senator, who first commenced operations here getting out large pine. Your correspondent is indebted to a gentleman of this city for the following tale of Charles FLEMING, a singularly individual who lived alone in the solitary fastness of the Shogomoc forest and from whom it is said the lake takes its name. He is said to have been a pirate and freebooter on the high seas, and many a dash and bloody fray to have taken part in. It is not known whether he voluntarily engaged engaged in this terrible work, but it is quite certain that for many years he followed this dash and bloody calling, until eventually along with the rest of the crew he had been run down and the most of the crew being either killed or taken prisoner, he alone managed to escape, and a fugitive from juctice and the stain of blood upon him, he sought to hide from justice and the face of his fellow men. He wandered on until he found a refuge in the rocky fastness of the Shogomoc woods, supplying his wants with fish and game from the lakes and forest, and by such products as he could raise from such portions of the land as he had by degree cleared; and as year by year he added to it, he raised potatoes, grain and hay and as the lumberman gradually intruded into his locality and fear of capture gradually began to wear off, he was enabled to exchange for such articles as he might stand in need of. He was very superstitious and was always doing something to drive away the ghosts that were nightly appearing to him, his only companion in his exile being his little dog. Here he continued to live for a number of years, gradually clearing up quite a large farm, faint outlines of which can still be seen, but a second growth has come up over it and good merchantable logs have been cut off the fields where he once cut his hay. I have talked with several aged men living in the vicnity of Fredericton who, when still youths, were engaged in the woods at Shogomoc and used to spend many an evening in Charlie FLEMING’s cabin. By degrees, as his mind became unburdened of the fear of capture, he told how, on the coast of Spain, the crew being broken up, had buried a vast amount of gold and treasure, and this knowledge coming to the ears of some enterprising citizens of the city of St. John, they came to Charlie’s residence at the lake and induced Charlie to go to St. John with them. They then procured a vessel and had her loaded with lumber of some description, with compartments fitted up in the centre of the lumber to conceal Charlie, and it was done so skilfully that to anyone not in the secret, it would appear as a solid pile. Thus equipped, they set sail for the Spanish coast. But there a disappointment awaited them. The site where the treasure was hidden was covered by a town which had grown up after Charlie had been driven off the sea. The appearance of a strange vessel with a cargo foreign to what was an article of commerce there, hovering around their coast, aroused the suspicion of the Spanish authorities, who had the vessel detained and the crew put into prison and it was only through the intervention of the British consul that they were eventually allowed their liberty and proceeded back to St. John with their vessel. Charlie Fleming remained all the time in his quarters in the centre of the cargo unobserved. After returning to St. John nothing more was heard of Charlie Fleming by the settlers in the vicinity of Charlie Lake, but he is supposed to have died there, and the lake and clearing in the Shogomoc woods still bear his name.