The Gaspereau villages grew in importance, and were among the richest and most populous in 1755. The Melansons numbered about eighty souls, and were connected by kinship and marriage with all the Acadian families of Minas. It was one of the daughters of this Pierre Melanson who married the "Notary Public" of Longfellow's Evangeline. "Bent like a laboring oar, that toils in the surf of the ocean, Bent, but not broken, by age was the form of the notary public; Shocks of yellow hair, like the silken floss of the maise, hung Over his shoulders; his forehead was high; glasses with horn bows Sat astride his nose, with a look of wisdom supernal. Father of twenty children was he, and more than a hundred Children's children rode on his knee, and heard his great watch tick." Another daughter, Anne, married Thomas Jacasse, and it was their son who later refused to sign the deliberations for the surrender of Quebec. The Terriots (The Cornwallis) The next colonist who came to establish himself in Minas was Pierre Terriot from Port Royal. He is an important and interesting figure in the history of the country. His coming dates but a short time after Pierre Melanson's arrival. Terriot selected the fine situation near Kentville, upon the present Cornwallis River, with natural conditions similar to the Gaspereau Valley. Good upland for farms, and extensive areas of marsh near the head of the tidal stream, afforded favorable means for the development of his farming operations. His home on the south side of the river was ten miles from Melanson's, and the expansion of growth was each toward the other. The farm areas soon extended alongside the marshes into what became the Grand-Pré district. Pierre Terriot, like Melanson, came out from Port Royal, where his father had settled before him. Port Royal was the parent colony (1632, under Commander Razilly) from which all the Acadian districts received their first colonists. Pierre Terriot was a colonizer, and an interesting figure in the early days of Minas. Although he had no children by his wife Cécile Landry, he encouraged migration from Port Royal to the wilderness, the rich country of Minas that surrounded him. Young couples soon came, relatives of the Terriots and Landrys, and others, who for a time enlarged their holdings more rapidly than those who came to Grand-Pré and Gaspereau. The founder, Terriot, who was in good circumstances, aided the newcomers with grain and stock, and as has always been the custom of the Acadians, the settled people cut the timber, built the foundations and homes, and helped the young couples to start in life. Pierre Terriot's home was, moreover, the asylum for orphans and widows, till the children grew up and were able to set up for themselves. The settlers married young, and were encouraged to do so, for they were a home-loving people, and industrious.