The Seigneury of Chipody. A Chapter in the History of Albert County. First European Settlement on the Petitcodiac - Beginning of the Lumber Trade.

Newspaper
Year
1886
Month
7
Day
29
Article Title
The Seigneury of Chipody. A Chapter in the History of Albert County. First European Settlement on the Petitcodiac - Beginning of the Lumber Trade.
Author
----
Page Number
2
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
The Seigneury of Chipody, A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF ALBERT COUNTY. First European Settlement on the Petitcodiac.—Beginning of the Lumber Trade, (Continued.) In the autumn of 1700 the buildings were erected and occupied; the marshes were skirted with 700 toises (toise is about 6.4 ft) of ditches and aboiteaux; they had planted willows, which already bloomed; a small but abundant crop raised in the clearing justified the hopes they had felt; numerous chickens cackled with the hens about the house; the young calves showed themselves—first fruits of hope redeemed, and the mill turned for the first time on the solitudes of Chipoudy. William Blanchard was not long after Thibaudeau in starting from Port Royal for his settlement on the Peticoudiak; in passing Chipoudy he imparted some news. They had heard airily, at Port Royal, replies from France, which announced the return TO that town of the Governor of the Colony; as for the rest, all was quiet; and it strengthened the colonists in their confidence and courage. He was himself accompanied by his three eldest sons—Rene, Antonio and Jean—and his son-in-law, Oliver Daigle, and two of his nephews, sons of Peter Godet, junior, who had married his sister. They came altogether to commence the work of settlement at Peticoudiak [Petitcodiac], explored by them the previous season. Some thought of following the fortunes of William Blanchard, and starting a settlement beside his; work was quickly commenced; foiling the trees, squaring the timber, and piling them up for their first homes; those labors, according to habit, were varied by hunting and expeditions in the woods for purposes of exploration. The two camps of settlers were at SO small a distance that they were often together, sometimes at mass, sometimes at a frolic, which were gatherings eagerly looked forward to as a season of rest and enjoyment, when they communicated to each other any news or information either might have gained, and exchanged sentiments of mutual sympathy and hope. The resources of life were more abundant than the previous year; they still had recourse to hunting and fishing, but the cows furnished abundance of milk and butter, and the mill gave them new flour and lumber. A little plantation of corn, sown when they first landed, afforded food for many pigs and fowls; and in the spring they had brewed that drink already familiar to the Acadiens, called spruce beer, produced by the fermentation of spruce boughs, but they mixed with it in the tub some molasses or eau-de vie, of which Thibaudeau—those primitive days of Acadian simplicity possessing no Scott Act—kept a supply in stock. In the little colony of Chipoudy there were at this time (1700) eighteen persons; Thibaudeau, the elder, with his wife, one daughter and four of his sons—Peter, Antoine, Michel and Charles; Peter, son of Jean Brossard, Andre and Jacques Martin, Peter and Francois Pitre, with six hired men. Not alone had Thibaudeau erected upon his hillside a mansion with storehouses and outbuildings, but the young Brossard in concert with the brothers Martin and the brothers Pitre constructed at the same time upon the lots they had chosen rough hewn log houses, first indications of approaching civilization. Brossard had selected for his father a lot of 200 arpents; each of the others had taken lots of 100 arpents. Already they had gathered and threshed one crop, the second was ripening in the sun; the mill made up the lower part of the picture; a herd of cows, feeding on the aftermath, giving life to the level dyked lands. They had sawn a considerable quantity of lumber and joists at the mill, ready to be worked up or shipped, for at Port Royal one could ship sawn wood to France. The store houses were full of forage and supplies of all sorts, to withstand the winter; one thing alone was needed to complete the happiness of the colony—that was wives! (To be Continued.)