Representative Settlements—Planned and Unplanned

Nelson and Lumbering on the Miramichi

By Maureen English

As the Irish immigrants sailed into Miramichi Bay and onward up the Miramichi River towards Chatham they were amazed at the countryside.

It was just as had been told to them by sailors arriving in Ireland from the Miramichi. They told of the beautiful Miramichi River where they had docked; of the beautiful lush green land and trees as far as you could see; and about the government giving grants of land to people arriving from foreign lands.

In the years before the potato famine in Ireland, many people left the country for Canada (the New World). It was due to the unrest in Ireland due to religious persecutions. Many wanted a better life for their families, so they found passage aboard a ship bound for Canada to find this better life.

They were given land grants, some near the towns and some farther out of town. All cleared the land, cut the lumber, built their homes, and cleared more land and planted gardens, raised chickens and cows for food. They survived.

Irish in Miramichi 768x560

Miramichi in 1851 – Nelson is just across the river from Newcastle. Photo courtesy of King, “The Irish Lumberman-Farmer”

As the time passed, many sawmills opened up, and the men were able to find employment to help with the growing cost of daily living. By 1832 there were 18 sawmills located in the Miramichi area.

Logging in Miramichi 1 768x784

Logging in the Miramichi – photo courtesy of King, “The Irish Lumberman-Farmer”.

It was hard work, driving logs down rivers, carrying them on their backs, – getting them to the mills was the goal – they did what they had to do and made the best of it. These men had a real pioneer spirit unmatched by any we would see today. They had the courage and the foresight to see that as the years past, new methods and better modes of moving the logs would come and life would be easier for their children.

Log jam Miramichi 768x604

A log jam on the Miramichi – photo courtesy of King, “The Irish Lumberman-farmer”

In the winters, many of the men left their home, leaving the wife and children to tend to the farm, while the went into a camp in the woods and cut the logs , and had them ready to transport down the river when spring came and the water was flowing fast. Many a life was lost during these “river drives”.

I will tell of three sawmills in my area of Miramichi ( Nelson ), that were founded by Irish immigrants. There were many more sawmills in the area, perhaps founded by Irish immigrants, but time permits me to mention these three.

Burchill family

The Burchill family—left to right—John Burchill, his mother Eliza, brother George with George’s wife, Mary, their daughter Mary, Percy (second child seated in front), George Sr., and Eliza, wife of John. Photo courtesy of English, “Nelson and her Neighbours'”

George Burchill

George was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1820 and came to the Miramichi in 1826 with his parents and siblings. In 1850 he purchased a half share (with John Harley) of Beaubears Island , including the ship yard, buildings, equipment and supplies. He and Harley continued their partnership of building shipS until 1857. At that time George sold his share to Harley and moved on to the mainland, Nelson. He opened a merchantile store in Nelson, on the banks of the Miranichi River. As business prospered, and the opportunity to have a sawmill on the same property arose, he took it. In 1875 the Burchill sawmill opened. The merchantile business and the sawmill continued to operate through five (5) generations of Burchills. In the years from 1970 to 1980 both business ceased operation.

Burchills Mill Crew 1900

Burchill Mill Crew – circa 1900. Photo courtesy of English, “Nelson and her Neighbours'”

From the Burchill Family

  • Hon. John Percival Burchill M.L.A. for 29 years
  • Senator George Percival ( Percy )Burchill ( 1945 – 1977 )

John O’Brien

John O’Brien arrived on the Miramichi from Ireland in 1818 as a young man. He worked in the lumbering industry for a number of years, and in 1857 he established his own lumber business. O’ Brien’s Mill.

By 1902 he built his own sawmill. It continued to operate until the 1970 era.

From the O’Brien Family

  • John O’Brien M.L.A 1890 – 1903
  • J.Leonard O’Brien M.L.A. 1925 – 1930
  • House of Commons 1940 – 1945
  • Lieutenant Governor of N.B. 1958 – 1965

Thomas Gill

In 1825 Richard Gill arrived here from Ireland. He was 24 years old. He settled in Barnaby River. He married and raised his family.

His youngest son, Thomas, started the GILL lumbering business in the early 1900’s (possibly 1910). It continued operating until in it ceased operation in 1957.

There were numerous sawmills on the Miramichi during this era. The reason I mention these three founders of sawmillS in Nelson is that their descendants have made an impact in the political arena as well.

Also, from the Gill Family

Richard Gill M.L.A 1930 – 1959

References

  • Burchill, John G., A Miramichi Sage, Unpublished manuscript.
  • English Earl J., Nelson and Its Neighbours, Chatham, Walco Print & Litho Ltd., 1987.
Uncategorised

Representative Settlements – Planned and Unplanned
The Irish of the Memramcook Valley

Memramcook Valley

Map of Memramcook Valley

Most tourists travel from Moncton to the Nova Scotia border on the Trans Canada Highway (Route 2) and they often do so in a hurry. There is a stunning and picturesque drive from Moncton to Dorchester along Route 106 and it shouldn’t be missed. It weaves its way through the dyked Acadian marshlands along the Memramcook River – a tributary of the Petitcodiac, and when the sun rises, there is nothing to compare with its beauty. This is the Memramcook Valley and it is one of New Brunswick’s best kept secrets.

Today the residents of the Valley are almost exclusively Acadian. They are the descendents of a hardy stock of people who returned to the area after the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755. However, throughout the 19th century, the Acadian population shared the valley with new Irish immigrant families as well. The Acadians were already well-settled in the region before the Irish arrived and they were also important to their survival. Many of the Irish families who settled here were unfamiliar with the terrain and ill-prepared for the Canadian climate. They were kept alive through their first winter in the colony because of the generosity of their Acadian neighbours. The Irish were forever grateful for this act of kindness and a camaraderie developed between the two cultural groups as a result. Sadly, sometimes history has forgotten that the Irish were part of the Memramcook Valley past.

Acadian historian Gustave Gaudet wrote that:

“Vers 1843, un groupe Irlandais arrivèrent dans la vallée et s’installèrent à Memramcook Ouest et à l’est dans le village qu’on baptisa, le village de ‘McGinley’s Corner.”1

Gaudet was correct except for the date of arrival for the Irish immigrants to the Valley. The Irish had not only settled in the Memramcook Valley before 1843, but were already well-established in the area by that date. Also, throughout the nineteenth century the Irish were very much a part of the economic fabric of the Valley as well. Some of the Irish had received their land grants in the Valley as early as 1809. The Irish were firmly established in McGinley Corner, Memramcook Corner, Gaytons and a bit northeast of the valley in Calhoun, originally called Dungiven. Indeed, some of these Irish immigrants had settled quite early on – the Gayton, Casey and Cassidy families even adopted the French language and as time passed, were often considered as francophones – which further strengthened the ties between the two cultural groups.

At the intersection of the old post road between Moncton and the Nova Scotia border, and the “old” Shediac Road2 – the portage between the Memramcook and Scoudouc Rivers – was the community of Dungiven – today known as Calhoun. Located on the headwaters of the Memramcook River, here there several Irish families including the names Atkinson, Coffey, Wrynn, Casey, McCullough, Cuthbertson, Foley, McGowan, Sullivan, McManus, Cassidy and Doherty, among others.3

Many of these families moved into McGinley and Memramcook Corners later on because their land grants were on poor upland bog and the bustling mid-19th century economy in the Valley tempted them in.

Nine kilometres south of Calhoun, was the community known as Gaytons (seen today where there is a huge gravel pit on Highway 2). This community was named after Patrick (Keating) Gayton – the first Irishman in the Memramcook Valley – who was born in County Tipperary in 1766 and arrived in the Valley before 1800. The priests of the day, as they often did, changed the Irish names at will. Patrick Keating became Patrick Gayton and some of his children were registered Keating at their birth, and others Gayton. The name today is known as Gayton. He was married to Mary O’Neill – and she became Marie Niles in the records.4 Patrick Gayton acquired 300 acres in 1809 and a further 140 acres in 1826.5 He was most certainly in the area before 1843.

In Memramcook proper, there is a bridge that crosses the Memramcook River on Route 106. On the eastern side of the bridge, it was known as Memramcook Corner but even local Acadian historians suggest that it should have been known as Irish Corner.

“Le Coin de Memramcook, ou Memramcook Corner, fut traditionellement le coin des Irlandais. C’était surtout les familles McManus, McGowan, Sherry et Charters qui étaient impliquées dans le commerce dans ce coin de la paroisse.”6

On the western side of the bridge, it was known as McGinley’s Corner.7, where the road split into two – one across the river to Memramcook Corner and the other veering right to the Acadian community of St Joseph. The McGinley family is in Memramcook in the 1851 Census, but not in the list of families of 1864 (below). Patrick McGinley emigrated to New Brunswick in 1819 and his wife Mary O’Neill in 1826. They had 8 children – Sara, James, Patrick, Mary, Charles, Susan, Jane and Rachel by 1851.8

In 1864 the following Irish families lived in these Memramcook Valley communities. In brackets are the dates of their arrival here in New Brunswick, where it is known. This is an incomplete list however as the McGinleys are not on it as well as other family names, such as McKelvie who were definitely settled in the area at that time.

Terrance McManus (1831)
John McKelvie
Michael McGowan (1836)
John McGowan (1836)
Patrick McSweeney (1844)
Owen Sherry
William Summon
Smith Elliot
Anthony Connell (1837)
John Casey (1834)
Robert Casey (1830)
Michael Coffey (1824)
Jeremiah Sullivan (1835)
Bartholemew Sullivan
Daniel Sullivan
Cornelius Sullivan (1830)
Peter Keenan (1832)
Edward Doherty (1832)
Edward Doherty Jr.
Patrick Doherty
Michael McSweeney
John McHugh (1829)
John Pock (anglicized to Power) (1825)
Patrick Fitzsimmons (1825)
John McVey (1838)
Daniel O’Hara (1841)
Patrick Powell
Daniel Wood
Patrick Coyle (1828)
John Gayton (before 1800)
Nathaniel Gayton
Richard Gayton
Robert Casey Jr.9

Throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th, many of these Irish families were prominent members of the Memramcook community. They took advantage of their location at the centre of the Valley and located their businesses near the railway line and railway station – which is still the main line between Montreal and Halifax today.

Sherry Home Memramcook Corner

Sherry Home – Memramcook Corner

Owen and Mary Sherry came from Ireland and had three children – James P, Mary E, and Cassie (Catherine). Son James P. Sherry ran the general store in Memramcook Corner. It was noted that it was a real emporium and of an immense size – with every corner and inch of space filled with goods to sell.10 James P Sherry also had a tannery and shoemakers shop with a full staff making high quality boots and moccasins. He also ran the local harness shop. James P Sherry’s home was textbook Victorian elegance right down to the white picket fence and his ambitious hotel near the train station was also very grand indeed.
 

Hotel Sherry

Hotel Sherry – Memramcook

The McGowan family ran the blacksmiths shop – Michael McGowan and Sons. Michael McGowan was married to Catherine Doherty and they had arrived in New Brunswick in 1836 and 1834 respectively. His son Daniel carried on the business after his death along with Hugh McVey.

One of the most prominent families in Memramcook Corner was the McManus family. Terrance McManus immigrated to New Brunswick in 1831 and married Thurza Brownell of Dorchester. He had 8 sons. Terrance was a farmer and shopkeeper. And in 1901 there were still three McManus boys in business in Memramcook Corner – John McManus was a general merchant and both Patrick and Jeremiah McManus were building contractors. Indeed the McManus family got the contract to build Dorchester Penniteniary in 1880 for the sum of $57,000 – a huge contract for the day.11 James Thomas Reid McManus, grandson of Terrance and son of John McManus, was a building contractor in Moncton and represented the city in the Provincial Legislature.12

Despite the large number of Irish settlers in the Valley, like many other NB communities, the later generations left for the most part – some to Moncton and better opportunities -and others to the economic benefits of Ontario, the West and the US.

St Joseph’s College was established in St. Joseph13, Memramcook Valley in 1864 and served both the Acadian and Irish population. Many Irish boys from around the province and beyond came here for the high school curriculum and college subjects. So many in fact that there was a St Patrick’s Academy associated with the College. The local convent had made an Irish flag for the academy and in 1883 Jean E. U. Ealis, a visitor to the convent, wrote a poem for the occasion entitled “The Irish Flag”. One verse revealed the concern for Ireland then existing in the hearts of many New Brunswickers – and certainly the Irish students at the College.

I love it! I love it! and wonder much
If another hand could so loving touch
It’s green and gold, where the shamrocks run.
Or caress it as fondly as I have done,
Or pray with a yearning as strong as mine
For the sun of its freedom at last to shine,
When far over turret, and tower and cragg,
It shall float in proud splendour, the Irish Flag.14

In conclusion, the Memramcook Valley, which today is associated primarily with the “Acadian Story”, had a very different past indeed and it serves as an important example of a community history which needs to be revisited. Many historical writings have “skipped over’ or omitted the contribution of the Irish within the fabric of the Valley’s social makeup and this is a shame. It is right that the Memramcook Valley be recognized as the ‘shining star of Acadia’ for it was here at St Joseph’s College that the Acadian flag was developed and where the first Acadian Congress met in the 1880’s. But that is only part of the story and for an accurate past it is also important that the whole story be told – not only part of it. The Valley today is indeed the ‘coeur de l’Acadie’ but throughout the 19th century, it was also a very Irish community as well. This reality should also find a place in the history of the Valley.
__________________________________________

[1] Translation – “Around 1843, a group of Irish families arrived in the Valley and settled in Memramcook West and in the east in the village known as McGinley’s Corner.” Gustave Gaudet, La Vallée de Memramcook : Hier –Aujourd’hui , Chapman’s Corner, Chedick Ltée, 1984.
[2] This is the original Old Shediac Road and it should not be confused with the road of the same name between Moncton and Shediac (Route 134).
[3] Land Grant Map 120, Department of Natural Resources, Fredericton.
[4] Memramcook Parish records, various entries.
[5] In the land grant records, the name is spelled “Guytan”. Goodine, Beverly A, Gayton Family Records.
[6] Gérald LeBlanc, Les Cahiers de la Societé Historique de la Vallée de Memramcook, Vol 15, No 2, Novembre 2004, p. 37 Translation : Memramcook Corner,,, was traditonally Irish Corner. It was mostly the families McManus, McGowan, Sherry and Charters who were involved in business in this little corner of the parish.
[7] McGinley Corner was changed to Memramcook West when post office changes were put into effect in 1899. This occurred in many Irish communities province-wide.
[8] 1851 Census, Parish of Dorchester, page 25.
[9] Les Buzzell, Hannigan Family Records, 1864 Census of Families in Dorchester Parish
[10] Gérald LeBlanc, Les Cahiers, p. 44.
[11] Ibid, p. 28
[12] Rev. Leo Hynes, The Catholic Irish of New Brunswick, 1783-1900, Fredericton, Privately Published, 1992, p. 297.
[13] College St. Joseph was moved to Moncton in the 1960’s and is now the Université de Moncton.
[14] Ibid. p. 298. This poem was part of a compilation published on June 12, 1884 by Pustet & Co of New York.

 
BIBLIOGRAPHY

_______,1851 Census, Parish of Dorchester, Westmorland County, NB.

______Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas, Oshawa, MapArt Publishing Corp., 2008

Buzzell, Les, Hannigan Family Records, Unpublished manuscript.

Department of Natural Resources, Land Grant Map 120, , Fredericton NB.

Gaudet, Gustave, La Vallée de Memramcook : Hier –Aujourd’hui , Chapman’s Corner, Chedick Ltée, 1984.

Hynes, Rev. Leo J, The Catholic Irish of New Brunswick, 1783-1900, Fredericton, Privately Published, 1992.

LeBlanc Gérald, Les Cahiers de la Societé Historique de la Vallée de Memramcook, Vol 15, No 2, Novembre 2004.

______. Post Offices, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca

Uncategorised

Representative Settlements – Planned and Unplanned
Melrose
An Irish Village Transplanted in New Brunswick

By Linda Evans

Irish immigrants flocked to the colony of New Brunswick in the 1820’s and 1830’s and a considerable number stayed – but many left almost immediately for the neighbouring United States and others followed later when funds allowed. As a result of this statement, it has often been inferred that, for the most part, Irish immigrants to NB – whether individuals or families – came here because there was nowhere else to go. Some suggest that they came here because fares to British North America were cheaper and those that couldn’t afford to move on, stayed. This did of course occur but it wasn’t always the norm and examples abound to tell a different story.

It has also been inferred that once they did arrive, the new immigrants settled all over the province with no real organizational pattern of settlement and with little regard for pre-established relationships in Ireland or cultural similarities once here. Yet evidence suggests that many Irish immigrants knew exactly where they were going when they arrived in the colony.

In many cases, Irish immigrants settled in newly formed New Brunswick Irish settlements where there was already someone that they knew – someone who had left Ireland before them – be they family members or neighbours. Hence, they were drawn to settle in areas they had already heard of back in Ireland. Research is suggesting that there was indeed some pre-planning and organization involved in the process of emigration.

Often a family member would come ‘across’ first and then send back word to their family in Ireland. Before you knew it, as economy and fortune would allow, other family members – close relations and extended family – would follow – as well as neighbours. Indeed some who came here sent funds home to Ireland as they could afford it so that other family members could follow them – and that they did.

This was especially true of Melrose where intricate and complex family relationships existed between several of the Irish families who settled there. Several founding families were related in Ireland before departure. Once here in New Brunswick, they made their way to Melrose. Family members came over a number of years – a few at a time – and they not only came from the same county in Ireland but also from the same parish and in many instances, the same village. Melrose was essentially an Irish village transplanted here in the New World.

Melrose is located on Highway 16 – halfway between Port Elgin and Cape Tormentine on the road to the world-famous Confederation Bridge that brings visitors to Prince Edward Island. Located in Botsford Parish, in Westmorland County, it was originally known simply as Emigrant Road.

 

“In the Parish of Botsford the French people had spread eastward on the Shore of the Straits of Northumberland from Shediac to Shemogue. Farther east, were a number of Scotch settlers; while on the Baie Verte side all the lands touching the shore were taken up by English families…”1
Only the central ridge of the peninsula had not been developed – it was covered in dense forest with neither road nor clearing and no more than a few paths carved through the woods. Travel was still by sea so the central portion of the peninsula was undeveloped.
Emigrant Road
 
Emigrant Road, Tormentine Peninsula(a)
 

“In 1820, the government of New Brunswick contracted the survey of an east-west line through the centre of the peninsula tipped by Cape Tormentine. The road was meant to attract pioneering immigrants who were then flocking into the colony. Fifty parcels of land of about 200 acres each were marked off as free grants, and almost immediately Catholic Irish immigrants began arriving to claim them.”2

 

The first to take advantage of the free land grants were the Lane brothers, Timothy and Aneas.3 They had arrived in Miramichi in June 1819. Another brother, William, joined them later in 1822, but he married just outside the community.4

The Lanes came from Ballynamuck (sometimes spelled Bally-na-moche), parish of Murragh (known then as Moragh) in West County Cork. It is located a few kilometres southwest of the Anglo-Irish town of Bandon. Many more related families would follow them.

“Their relatives, the Savages, followed. They consisted of the mother [née Margaret Lane], six brothers, four sisters and the family of the eldest brother Daniel, who after the death of his first wife married again and had a second family in Ireland.”5

Location ticket Savage4

Location Ticket for William Savage, 1821(b)

They did not all come at the same time but over a number of years as their means permitted – in small groups arriving in various ports such as Miramichi, Saint John and even Quebec. Members of the Savage family came between the years 1820 and 1831.6 Some stayed in Melrose – others moved on to the American West as it was opening up. The first Savage to come was probably William7 who applied for his location ticket in 1821. His wife was a Lane and related to the Lane brothers who were considered the first to settle in the village.

One brother, Daniel Savage, who had stayed back in Ireland, eventually lost the family farm and it went into the Lane family’s hands.8

Other related families continued to come into the Emigrant Road settlement from the Ballynamuck area and the parish of Moragh and surrounding areas. Besides the Lanes and Savages, there were also: Hartnetts, Mahoneys, Murphys, Splanes, Sheas, Walshs, Donovans, McCarthys, Sweeneys, Hennesseys, Barrys, Hollands, Noonans, Hurleys and O’Learys. Through marriage, most of these families were related in Ireland before emigrating. Through parish, family records and the tithe applotment records, we can place many of these families within the Ballynamuck region of the parish of Murragh, or the neighbouring parish of Farranalough.

A thorough search of records shows that the following families were related in Ireland before emigration:

The Savage family was related to the Lanes, Murphys, Hartnetts and Sheas.
Hartnett family was related to the Mahoneys.
Mahoney family was also related to the Barrys and Donovans.
Donovan family was also related to the Hollands, Walshes and McCarthys (Cartys).
Holland family was also related to the Sweeney family.
Sweeney family also related to the McCarthys, Hollands and Hennesseys.
The Barry family was also related to the Creeds.9

The other names associated with the early arrivals are the Noonans, Hurleys and O’Learys but no direct connection has yet been made with these families and the others in Ireland before emigration.

Although there is evidence of extended family immigration into Irish New Brunswick communities,10 the number of inter-related families to have settled in Melrose (Emigrant Road) is strong enough to suggest that the small village of Ballynamuck, Parish of Moragh in County Cork was in many ways transported across the seas to southeastern New Brunswick.

There were, of course, others who joined this group – the Carrolls of County Kilkenny (via Newfoundland), the Houlahans from County Kerry and the Hayes from County Waterford to name but a few.

Most of the Melrose settlers arrived throughout the 1820’s and early1830’s. One family – because of their wayward journey – deserves mention. The Stack family came to Melrose from Ireland via Brazil and were known in the community as the ‘Brazilian connection’.

“James Stack and his sister [Mary] accompanied their father Thomas. In Ireland, Thomas had enlisted among a number of soldiers to go to Brazil to fight the wars of Don Pedro…[and] mutinied against their new rulers…choice was given them to either remain in the new country and take up farms, be deported back to Ireland, or to any British possession. They chose the latter, coming to St John and finally to Melrose.”11
Whether the Stack family had relations in Melrose before arriving there is not known and requires further research.

Other families – many of them related to the early arrivals in Melrose – trickled into the community as conditions worsened in Ireland during the 1840’s.

‘Timothy Hartnett must have had numerous relatives, because we know of 3 or 4 families closely related to him, but only one member of each came.12

Late arrivals included the Noonans, Hurleys, O’Learys, more Sweeneys and Mahoneys and the Mulrines of County Donegal. Further evidence of the inter-familial connections is further confirmed when one reads the following: ‘Wm Mahoney…came later than the others and was followed shortly afterwards by his mother and two sisters, Mrs Murphy (later Mrs. Edward Walsh) and [Johanna] (Mrs Daniel Donovan).’13

Later arrivals to the community had difficulty finding land grants near the main settlement. They settled on back lots north of the main road. Most of this land – away from the central ridge of the peninsula – was in poorly drained bog land and unsuitable for any lucrative farming.

Away from markets, most families practiced subsistence farming and supplemented their incomes by working in the woods – first their own lots – and then further a-field to make ends meet. With the collapse of the shipbuilding and timber industries in the late 1850’s and 1860’s, the first out-migration occurred at this time. Many families moved on to the US mid-west where they were offered free land. As a result, some of the names associated with the community in the early years were lost to time.14

Life was not always easy – especially in the early years of the settlement. As in Ireland, the potato crop was sometimes poor or failed all together here as well. As early as 1832, Melrose sent a petition to the New Brunswick government applying for relief:

To his Excellency Sir Archibald Campbell, Baronet G.C.B. – Lt. Gov. and Commander in Chief…province of New Brunswick…The petition of sundry poor emigrants settled on the Emigrant Land in the Parish of Botsford and County of Westmorland

 That your petitioners are settlers on the tract of land laid out in the parish of Botsford aforesaid for poor emigrants that in consequence of the difficulties attendant in procuring a living from new and uncultivated lands without any means of subsistence other than their own labour, and also in consequence of their crops having failed for the [two] last seasons.Your petitioners are now in a very destitute situation, and having heard that your excellency has humanly extended relief to persons in the province who are unfortunately in a similar situation with your petitioners, they have been induced to hope your excellency and honour will be pleased to take their case into your favourable consideration and grant them such relief as your excellency and honour may think advisable. Your petitioners also beg leave to state that a road formally laid onto their settlement but a consequence of the land through which the said road was intended to – being of inferior quality the said land is unsettled and likely to remain in that state. They are therefore destitute of a road, and should your Excellency and honour, open your petitioners a sum to relieve them in their present distressful situation, they would cheerfully perform labour on the said road to the amount of the relief afforded…Dated at Botsford this 27 January 1832.15

The petition gives an insight into the large number of families who had settled in the community between the founding of the community in 1821 to the petition in 1832. The male signatures on the petition included the following: James Carroll, Patrick Hayes, Jeremiah Mahony, John Mahony, Daniel Mahony, James Savage, Patrick Kelly, John Roach, Thomas Lane, Gilbert Wall, Michael Butler, Richard Mitton, Charles Allen, Maurice Savage, William Lodge, Timothy Sullivan, John Savage, Jr., Daniel Savage, Thomas Hayes, James Barry, John Holland, Thomas Cluny, James Sweeney, Dennis Sweeney, John Kennedy, Aneas Lean, Michael Wallace, Patrick Byrne, John Downing, Dennis Murphy, John Reilley, James Stack, Cornelius Murphy, Denis Mahony, William Hartnett, John Spelane, James Mansfield, Thomas Stack, William Savadge, John Savadge, James Mahony, James Fitzgerald, Timothy Hartnett, William Savadge, Denis Savadge, John Davis, Edward Brody, Timothy Lean, Daniel Lean, John Wall, William Lean.16

Even with the suggestion that the new settlers were willing to do roadwork in exchange for poor relief, the long awaited construction of a trunk road through the community of Melrose didn’t begin until 1846 and even then it was only a cart track through the forest.

There were also other difficulties.
‘The grants of land came through the County representative, William Crane…but this was before the days of responsible government, and at once the new settler found himself under a landlord almost as exacting as some he had left in Ireland. Under one pretext or another, Crane would oblige the new settler to work in and around Sackville on his own marsh lands and those of his friends, the Allisons. The grants may have been nominally free, but by the time they reached the new settler, payment of application, registration fees, etc., kept him busy building dykes to keep the restless Fundy tides from the marsh lands of Sackville. Though no actual charge of extortion was ever made against Crane, he was always looked upon as a hard task-master – sympathetic indeed with the people after the manner of a good-natured Southern planter with his slaves.”17

Despite these difficulties, the community of Melrose grew. Primarily farmers and lumbermen, the settlers worked their farms in the summer and carried on lumbering – first on their own lots – and then further afield – through the long winter months. At one time, the County representative, William Crane, suggested the village go by the name ‘Savagetown’ but the name never stuck.18 There was enough of a population for two post offices at one time – one was called “Emigrant Road” and the other “Emigrant Settlement” – but this was confusing.

General Store
Melrose General Store and Post Office

Eventually the community was given two new names for postal simplicity. The eastern (or lower) portion was named Malden on 1 Jun 1901. The first postmaster was Charles Mulrine from 1868 until his death in 1875. It closed in August 1948 when Joseph Timothy Barry was postmaster19 and mail then went to the nearby Melrose post office. The western (or upper) portion of the settlement was named Melrose (after a town in Scotland) on 1 April 1890. The post office was located at the back of the general store. Ben Corrigan was the postmaster from 1868 until his death in 1911. The last postmaster in Melrose was Mrs Claudette Marcella Noonan when it was permanently closed in October 1968.20 There were then two few people in the community to justify a post office ‘due to its limited usefulness’ and it then became a rural route of the Port Elgin post office.

School
Melrose School

The community was large enough in the latter years of the 19th century to have two schools – District 4 and 5 – one at one end of the community, and one at the other end.21

There was a general store and even a hotel ran by Creed[ens] – though some would say that it
was more of a halfway house and tavern then a ‘hotel’.22 At one time there was a sawmill (Hayes) and even a local tailor (William Shea) and a cobbler (Michael Wallace). Eventually Melrose was a stop on the NB-PEI Railway, a trunk line of the B & NA Railway (eventually the Intercontinental Railway and then CN) that was built as a federal promise to Prince Edward Island to bring it into Confederation.

Like many Irish communities in New Brunswick, Melrose eventually lost the later generations and descendants of the early settler families. Located away from markets and, for the most part, on poor agricultural soils, there was little to keep the children and grandchildren within the community. Gradually, the community emptied. The initial out-migration was in the 1860’s, and a mass exodus followed in the 1880’s and 1890’s to the US “Boston States” to work in the factories of New England.

Denied a decent education in Ireland, families in Melrose – as in other Irish NB communities – revered education above all else. Families knew that their children could make a decent way in the world with a good grounding in the basics. The village scraped together enough to have paid teachers almost from the beginning and long before education became universal in 1871. After a basic education, many left to go to high school and university or teacher’s college and beyond, and most never returned. Melrose produced more educators, lawyers, and businessmen than any other Irish community in the region. The legal professionals included P J Mahoney, Hon E.A. Reilley – a lawyer and Member of the Legislative Assembly, and F.P. Murphy, a Moncton lawyer whose sons all became members of the legal or medical profession. Albert McAuley,23 who lived next to the Melrose parish church, even became Mayor of New York. There were many who were called to religious orders as well – one of particular note was Monsignor Edward Savage – long-time pastor at St Bernard’s parish – Moncton’s Irish parish. He was regarded in high esteem and his benevolence assisted many Melrose families through the Depression years. He is buried in the Melrose cemetery – in the community he held close to his heart. Others went into business – and many who grew up in Moncton would remember Lane’s bakery on Lutz Street. It was owned and operated by a descendant of the first Irish family to settle in Melrose.

LEAD Technologies Inc. V1.01
Melrose Train Station

When the railway came to Melrose, it was viewed as the community’s good fortune – a lifeline to the future – and it generated tremendous excitement. Instead the railway became the means of departure, and they left in droves. Some took the CN24 train to Moncton – others continued on to Saint John, switched to CP to Vanceboro, Maine and from there switched to Maine Central or the Boston-Maine Railway – depending on which way they were going [to the Boston States (New England)]25. Those who did not leave for the United States went into Moncton – and many found work at the new Inter-colonial Railway (ICR) maintenance shops. Others found their way to Nova Scotia and beyond. Many farms were abandoned.

A second influx of immigrants came to Melrose in the late 1920’s. Part of a British resettlement scheme organized by the Soldiers Settlement Board, many families arrived in 1928 and 1929 from Britain. Only three of these families were Irish. The Murrays, McGowans and McCaffertys were all from Northern Ireland. They were not farming families however and many of these have also left the community as well.26

St Bartholemew's Roman Catholic Church (after the steeple was removed)

St Bartholemew’s Roman Catholic Church (after the steeple was removed)

As they say “Blink and you’ll miss it!” There is little evidence left of the large Irish community of Melrose today. Melrose was once a large inter-related and complex community settled by families from the same Irish village in County Cork – transplanted here on Canadian soil. Except for a few descendants, the parish church of St. Bartholemew’s and her graveyard are almost all that remain today.

There are still a few family farms in the community. However, the forest and scrub have reclaimed much of the farmland so laboriously carved out of the New Brunswick wilderness almost 200 years ago. Some farms still exist – reclaimed from the wilds yet again by German and Dutch settlers who came here after WWII – but Irish Melrose is now relegated to the history pages.

Houlahan home 1993
Abandoned farm in Melrose, 1993, before demolition

Tourists, racing down Highway 16 on their way to the new world-famous Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island pass through Melrose. There is a road sign telling them where they are. Little do they know, however, that they are passing through a village that was so full of life so long ago – a village peopled almost exclusively from a little crossroad called Ballynamuck, parish of Murragh, County Cork, Ireland.

____________________________________________________

[1] Edward Savage, Rev, The Story of Melrose, Privately Published, @1900.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Sometimes Lane is spelled Lean.
[4] Ibid, p. 199 and Savage, p. 5. Rev Savage, in his book suggests that the Lanes only came to Melrose after the Great Fire of 1825 in Miramichi. However, they had location tickets to the land grants in Melrose in 1821 and so they probably came to Melrose before the fire.
[5] Savage, p. 7
[6] __________ Census, Botsford parish, Westmorland County, various entries.
[7] It has been suggested that the Savages only came to join their Lane relations in the late 1820’s but William Savage’s location ticket is for 1822 and he so must have come before his other relatives. Location ticket is from Houston and Smyth, p. 126.
[8] Virginia Lyons-Ratteree, Unpublished family Lane genealogy.
[9] These are the families who are confirmed as related in Ireland before arrival in Melrose. Reference sources include, Savage, Story of Melrose; Parish Records, Cap Pelé and Barrachois, 1851 Census, Botsford parish and Tithe Applotment book, Parish of Moragh, County Cork 1851– various entries.
[10] Through parish records and family histories, inter-related families can also be confirmed within the communities of McQuade and Shediac Road in Westmorland County, and in South Branch, Kent County, among others.
[11] Savage, pp. 19-20
[12] Ibid. p. 21
[13] Ibid. p. 26
[14] Bernard Houlahan of Moncton, who grew up in Melrose in the 1950’s recalls that “the family names I knew and knew of were Hartnett, Mahoney, Lane, Savage, Walsh, McCafferty, Sweeney, Hennessy, Barry, Noonan, and Holland.
[15] Parish of Botsford records, Bell Collection, Mount Allison University
[16] Parish of Botsford records, Bell Collection, Mount Allison University
[17] Savage, p. 13
[18] Perhaps the Melrose people didn’t agree to the name because it was a Crane’s suggestion as he was disliked within the community for obvious reasons.
[19] Library and Archives Canada, Post Offices and Postmasters, Malden, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/post-offices PSFD 303-17852.
[20] Library and Archives Canada, Post Offices and Postmasters, Melrose, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/post-offices PSFD 303-17894.
[21] Melrose residents hated when people referred to the two ends of the community as ‘Upper’ or ‘Lower’.
[22] Savage, p. 22
[23] Sometimes spelled McCully.
[24] First called the NB-PEI railway, a trunk line of the Intercolonial Railway (ICR) which eventually became known as Canadian National Railway.
[25] Interview with Joseph Murray, Fredericton NB.
[26] Ibid.

Picture credits:
(a) Cecil J Houston and William J Smyth, Irish Immigration and Canadian Settlement,
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990, p. 198.
(b) Ibid. p. 126

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
______, Griffith’s Valuation of Ireland, Murragh, County Cork, www.failteromhat.com/griffiths/cork/murragh.htm.

­­­­_______, History of Port Elgin-Melrose Parish, Church pamphlet, 1927.

Houston, Cecil J and William J Smyth, Irish Immigration and Canadian Settlement, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Hynes, Rev Leo J, The Catholic Irish of New Brunswick: 1783-1900, Fredericton: Privately Published, 1992.

Library and Archives Canada, Post Offices and Postmasters, Malden, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/post-offices PSFD 303-17852.

Library and Archives Canada, Post Offices and Postmasters, Melrose, www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/archivianet/post-offices PSFD 303-17894

Lyons-Ratteree, Family Lane genealogy, Unpublished.

______, Interview, Joseph Murray, Fredericton, NB 2003.

______, Parish Records, St Bartholemew’s Parish, Melrose, NB.

______, Parish Records, Paroisse Saint-Henri, Barrachois, NB.

______, Parish Records, Sainte Thérèse d’Avila, Cap Pelé, NB.

______, Parish Records, Saint-Timothée, Shemogue, NB.

______, Petition of sundry poor emigrants settled on the Emigrant Land in the Parish of Botsford and County of Westmorland,Parish of Botsford records, Bell Collection, Mount Allison University .

Savage, Rev. Edward, Rev, The Story of Melrose, Privately Published, @1900.

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Bishop John Sweeny Cairn

Johnville, NB

 
 
Bishop John Sweeny was born in Clones, County Monaghan and was one of the longest serving bishops in Saint John – from 1860 to 1901. His family emigrated in 1828 and settled in Saint John. He studied to be a priest in Quebec City and was ordained in 1845 – the first year of the Great Hunger in Ireland. He served as priest in Miramichi and Barrachois before being called back to Saint John in 1852. He served as Bishop of Saint John Diocese from 1860 to 1901.1
 


Living in Saint John, through the 1850’s Rev Sweeny noted the dire living conditions of many of the Irish in Saint John.  He also was aware that many were interested in being farmers and landowners rather than city-dwellers.  As a consequence he played a leading role in creating the Immigrant Aid Society in an attempt to assist immigrants in Saint John as well as help those who wished to establish themselves on land grants within the young colony.

With that in mind, Sweeny acquired large tracts of unsettled land from the colonial government and settled between 700 and 800 families on four tracts of land within the colony.2  One pf these [lanned settlements was Johnville.  In 1861, 10,000 acres of land was surveyed and divided into 100-acre lots in Carleton County.  Bishop Connolly named the community Johnville in honour of Rev. Sweeny’s hard work in having it come to fruition.  

Cairn to Bishop John Sweeny in Johnville, NB 

The Cairn is located near St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church in Johnville, overlooking the cemetery, whose gravestones carry many of the original settler family names. The cairn is constructed of local stone and carries the following inscription:

 
 
Dedicated
To the Memory
Of the Right Reverend
John Sweeny
Bishop of Saint John
Who Founded the
Settlement of Johnville
In 1861,
And to Those Good Men
And Women in Johnville
Who Now Lie Here
He Does Not Die That Can
Bequeath Some Influence
To the Land He Knows
Bishop Sweeny was a remarkable man who cared deeply for the Irish families within his charge. It is certainly fitting that a monument is dedicated to his hard work and commitment.
 
The Bishop Sweeny Cairn is located on the Johnville Road, northeast of Bath, NB.

[1]  Rev Dr Michael McGowan, Pax Vobis: A History of the Diocese of Saint John, Strasbourg, France, Editions du Signe, 2004, p. 22-23.
[2]  Leo J Hynes, The Catholic Irish of New Brunswick, 1783-1900, Fredericton, Privately Published, 188992, p. 206.
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ST. ANDREWS CELTIC CROSS

 

https://phonenb.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/ICCA_monument_St_Andrews_2-211x300.jpg 211w" alt="ICCA_monument_St_Andrews_2.jpg" width="275" height="391" class=" alignleft size-full wp-image-3250" style="margin: 15px 15px 15px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; font-size: 14px; max-width: 100%; height: auto; float: left;" loading="lazy" hspace="10" align="left" vspace="5" />Standing tall, overlooking Passamaquoddy Bay, is a tribute to the many unfortunate souls buried on Hospital Island. This quarantine station housed hundreds of sick and destitute Irish immigrants between its inception in 1832 and its abandonment approximately 30 years later. The ten-foot Celtic Cross points to this tiny island from Indian Point in the town of St. Andrews.

The cross features a ship representing the disease-ridden, overcrowded vessels that brought ten thousand Irish immigrants through this port of entry to New Brunswick and beyond. It features a fiddle reflecting the Irish musical spirit that survived adversity, and a shamrock, the symbol of faith, love of homeland and hope for a better life in the new world.

The inscription on the cross reads: “In memory of those men, women and children who died of hunger and disease while fleeing the potato famine in Ireland, and lie buried on Hospital Island. Lovingly remembered by their descendants who persevered and helped build this great nation.”

The cross was erected through the efforts of the Charlotte County Chapter of the Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick under the leadership of long-time president, Joan Mahoney Jones. Built by Smet Monuments of St. Stephen, the official unveiling took place May 28th, 1995.

This was a significant date in the history of Hospital Island, the anniversary of the arrival of the infamous ship, Star, carrying 383 destitute men, women and children from the Wicklow estates of Earl Fitzwilliam. This 1847 “clearance” added scores to the existing burials on the island, many of them children.

Among those attending the ecumenical dedication ceremony was Katherine Baldwin of St. George, a direct descendant of a Hospital Island survivor. Mrs. Baldwin’s grandmother, Bridget Wellesley Weir, was born in Ireland in 1846, and as an infant came to St. Andrews. Her parents and siblings contracted the fever, and all died either at sea or on Hospital Island. The Catholic priest in St. Andrews took responsibility for the upbringing of this orphaned child. Bridget married Joseph Murray, and one of their sons, Lawrence, born in 1872, was Mrs. Baldwin’s father. Katherine Baldwin’s presence made the unveiling ceremony particularly poignant for the large crowd gathered around the green, white and orange draped monument.

Along with Joan Mahoney Jones, others taking part in the ceremony were Sheila Caughey Washburn, Ann McKinley Breault and Faye McMullon. In attendance were Mayor Nancy Aiken of St. Andrews, Mayor Allan Gillmor of St. Stephen, the Rev. Robert Murray of Greenock Presbyterian Church, Rev. John Matheson of All Saints Anglican Church, and Father Peter Bagley, St. Andrew’s Catholic Church.

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