Acadian Fredericton

Year
1901
Month
8
Day
3
Article Title
Acadian Fredericton
Author
Rev. W. O. Raymond
Page Number
1
Article Type
Language
Article Contents
Acadian Fredericton Visiting The Old Home A prominent New York journalist, .Mr. H.A.O’ Leary and his mother, Mrs. John O'Leary of New York, were in St. John a few days last week, enroute to their old home at Buctouche [Bouctouche] to spend their summer vacation. Mr O'Leary, as news-editor of the New York "Press," enjoys a very important and lucrative position. He is a trained journalist and was for many years connected with the Moncton Transcript." To many of our New Brunswick boys the journalistic field field in New York city bus proved a strong attraction, and that they are preeminently able to cope with its tremendous possibilities, is evidenced in the large number of them who figure in the most advanced stage of journalism in that vast city. Among the number who are well known in St. John are: John Boden, Sr. managing editor New York Press: John Boden, jr., sporting editor of same paper and who is said to be doing the best work in the country: Oscar Watson, assistant sporting editor of the press woo is visiting his home at present, Ernest McCready, editorial staff of New-York Telegraph : Mr. McInerney of the Evening World : James Dever, New York Sun : T Dieuade, New York Evening Sun ; and John Mahony, Associated Press. St. Peter’s and Holy Trinity Church Picnic. Great preparations are in progress for the combined church picnic in the aid of the orphans to be held on the St. Peters church grounds, North End, on the week commencing August 12. The congregation of Holy Trinity church, of which Rev. J. J. Walsh is pastor will amalgamate with that of St. Peter’s in making the event one of the season’s successions. Several large tents will be spread over the grounds. The space in front of the church, the large area in the rear and towards Douglas Avenue will be utilized for the festivities. St. Joseph's Annual Outing A number of St. Joseph's Society members will hold their annual private outing at Waters' Landing on Aug 2lst. A large number of invitations have been issued. The steamer will lay out the wharf all day, and arrangement' have been made for the serving of a dainty supper. There will be dancing, music for which will be supplied by a string orchestra. The impression very generally prevails that the ancestors of the present inhabitants in Madawaska came from the neighboring province of Quebec. Many of the families who reside, in Madawaska, however, claim to be of Acadian origin, and they are undoubtedly correct. In order to have an intelligent idea of the circumstances that, led to the establishment of a French colony at Madawaska in the year 1786 it will be necessary to briefly consider the state of the French on the River St. John in the pre-loyalist period. After the sad event known as the expulsion of the Acadians some of the fugitives that escaped the general deportation fled to the St John River, where they formed several little settlements, the most important of which perhaps was that ay Grimross, near the present, village of Gagetown. In 1758, General Robert Monckton with a strong party, again drove them from their homes, burnt their houses and barns and compelled them to seek for situations more remote. St Anne's Point, the site of the present city of Fredericton, seems next to have become their headquarters; but alas for them I in the month of March, 1750. The settlement at St. Anne's was ruthlessly destroyed by a party of New England Rangers under Lieutenant Moses Hazen. Their conduct was disapproved by General Amherst, who strongly reprobated the killing of women a.id helpless children. Moses Perley, the well known local historian, says that when his grandfather, Israel Perley, with others, explored the (St. John River. In the year 1762, they noticed "the devastated settlements of the French and the blackened fragments of their buildings which had been mercilessly burned." On their arrival at St. Anne's Point “they found the margin of the river, along the whole of what is now the town plot of Fredericton, cleared for about ten rods back from the bank, and they saw the ruins of a very considerable settlement. The houses had been burned and the land was fast relapsing into a wilderness state." Notwithstanding the destruction of their village, the Acadians still lingered near St, Anne's. In their distress their Indian friends came lo their relief. Their existence evidently was known, for on April, 15, 1701, Lieut. Governor Belcher reported that there were forty Acadians at the village of St. Anne's who had made no submission. In August 1763, these Acadians petitioned the government of Nova Scotia for leave to gather their crops and remain on their locution, for the winter. Five years later we find Provincial Secretary, Richard and Bulkeley, directing John Anderson and Francis Peabody Esq’rs, in their capacity as "justices of the peace for the country of Sunbury, river St. John,” (to give notice to all the Acadians there, except about six families (to be named by Father Bailey, their priest), that they were to remove from the St. John river, and that lands would be given them elsewhere. In spite of all difficulties and discouragements the poor Acadians clung to the binds on which they had settled. In the year 1783 Major Studholme appointed a committee of exploration, consisting of two loyalists, Ebenezer Foster and Fyler Dibblee and two old inhabitants, James White and Gervas Say. They found no less than sixty-one families of Acadians on the river, comprising 357 prisons. The committee thus refers to them in their report: Above St. Anne’s we found a considerable number of French settlers, many of whom have been in possession a number of years. They, in general, appeared to be an inoffensive people, but few, if any, have a legal title to their lands. About a dozen of these families lived near the mouth of the Keswick stream; on the east side of the River St. John, within the bounds of a tract of land assigned to a Loyalist corps called the Prince of Wales American Volunteer. All of the above went afterwards lo Madawaska. There were two other French settlements a few miles above St. Anne's, one near (he Indian village of Aukpaque and another called the Upper Settlement — a few miles above. There was possibly another small settlement on the lower part of St. Anne's plain, which at the time the loyalists arrived was called Mercure's plantation. Major Studholme expressly commends the services rendered the British during the American Revolution by the Mercures as couriers, and, by several member of the Martin and Cire families. About the year 1708 a small French settlement was formed at Hammond River, on the Kennebecasis, in which were included families hearing the name of Tibideau, Violet, Robicheau, Goodin, Blanchard, LeBlanch and Doucett. These Acadians traded with the English settlers, and were employed by them in the year 1769 dykening the large marsh east of the present city of St. John. From these little colonies of fugitive Acadians many of the founders of the Madawaska settlement trace their origin. —Rev. W. O. Raymond. M. A. in the Capital.