MF – 1867.08.20 – Maguire on Johnville – #158 – F12252

In the House of Commons on July 26th during the discussion of the Irish question –

Mr. Maguire asked what was the real condition of the South of Ireland? As a rule there was no security for the tenant – no protection whatever or his industry in the great majority of instances. He knew there were many great and improving landlords; but, as a rule, the state of things was this – leases were discouraged in three of the provinces of Ireland – Let him suppose a man in Tipperary; he held from year to year – he might make improvements, but if evicted, he had no claim for compensation, and his landlord might turn him out a beggar. There were hundreds of thousands of such cases. He had been in the other house of parliament in March last year with a Catholic Bishop from New Brunswick. A noble lord was addressing the house and expressing his deep regret that emigration was draining the life blood of Ireland – Earl Grey used some such expression, when a gentleman standing near said to the bishop, I don’t agree with the Earl Grey, for unless Irishmen leave the country – unless Ireland be repeopled with Englishmen and Scotchmen, there is no chance of her prosperity;.” The bishop knew he (Mr. Maguire) was about to go to America, and asked him to come and see with his own eyes a living refutation of the implied slander. In company with the same bishop in his late visit to New Brunswick he went two or three hundred miles up the St. John River and into the heart of an essentially Celtic settlement. What did he see? In 1861 the first man and woman went into the living forest; the second year another man and woman went there; the third year the settlement began to pour in in large numbers. He was there in October, 1866, when he saw 600 human beings in the settlement. They passed through a long avenue of the forest, and from a moderate eminence saw a vast plain – miles of it cleared and dotted all over with human habitations. He was in fifty of these farms and houses. He scarcely saw one shanty – in most instances they were large, roomy, log cabins. There were cows, horses, hogs, and barns bursting with produce. Not only were there large and commodious log cabins such as settlers in the United States and British colonies were content with for years, but he saw 14 or 15 large framed houses, as good as any he saw in the United States, occupied by these people, who had scarcely £600 among them when they first entered the forest. That was what the Irish people could do when the opportunity was afforded them, and he had known it done in a hundred other instances. Among the people who dwelt in that clearing was a family, who having been robbed, stripped, and plundered by a landlord in Galway, had been driven by sheer disgust and destitution across the ocean, and was now rising every day in wealth and independence. Was not the question of the settlement of Ireland equally important with the settlement of the Reform question? The hon. baronet who spoke last stated that Fenianism was chiefly the result of two bad seasons, but he could tell them that the feeling of discontent in Ireland had been deepened – he did not say caused – by the denial in this country of the existence of distress in Ireland in 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1863. He warned the house and the people of England that such a feeling of animosity and vengeance existed among the Irish in America, as would some day or other prompt them to endeavour to plunge the two countries into war – a result that might be calamitous, indeed, for Ireland, but would be still more calamitous for England. If a million more of the population crossed the Atlantic, a feeling of burning hatred would be aroused which would hereafter cause our statesmen to mourn over neglected opportunities of conciliating the people and removing the causes of discontent on this side of the Atlantic and of [machination] on the other. Irish members would return home with the miserable satisfaction of having made places for a few eminent lawyers, but of having still left their countrymen ready to listen to the wildest whisper of rebellion. Prompt action alone could save Ireland and prevent the safety of the empire from being [imperilled] (cheers).

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MF – 1866.12.22  Johnville – Woodstock Sentinel #155  F12251

The Woodstock Sentinel, noticing the returns from Johnville, says:

“And here it is but just that we should state that Rev. Mr. Connolly, Parish Priest, has labored hard in that district, and contributed largely to the success and happiness of the people of the settlement. The same result that has followed the career of laborers from St. John in these new settlements has been participated in by many persons from Woodstock and elsewhere, who instead of being “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for the [pubic], are making the forest ring with the sounds of their cheery labour, where every tree felled, every fallow burned, every sod turned, is for themselves, and is a tangible addition to their individual wealth, independence and importance.The very satisfactory returns from Johnville, which we published last week, might be repeated twenty-fold, in as many instances, as the history of other settlements in this and the adjacent Counties. True there is a difference in the characteristics, as well as nationalities, of the settlers in the rural districts, but while the Scotch element prevails in some, the Irish in others, English and Blue Nose in others; while in some the settlers were drawn from the laborers as a class, and in others from [artisans] and farmers from less favored districts; yet all are animated by the same spirit, all display the same resolute moral courage in encountering present difficulties, in view of a sure reward; all are working for their own sterling independence, and better than that all are working for posterity; all their united and individual labor goes to enrich and benefit the Province. What has been done in a score of instances where new settlements have been formed may be duplicated a hundred times. “Good as is the land, the inviting to settlement, in the districts already settled it is only a very small part of a continuous tract, following the course of the River St. John, on its eastern side, extending from Canada to the boundary of York. Here are hundreds of thousands of acres of land unsurpassed in native richness, capable of sustaining thousands upon thousands of population. The land, the wood, the lime, the brick clay, and plaster, the water privilege, all and everything the settlers require for their agricultural and manufacturing purposes is here.”
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MF – 1866.11.03 – Johnville – Author, J. F. Maguire M.P. – #153 – F12251
 
J. F. Maguire, Esq., M. P., left St. John for Canada via Portland, Me., in the “New Brunswick” on Thursday. During his brief stay in this Province he laboured indefatigably to gather material for a work on the Irish in America, the copy right of which he has already composed of to the great London publishers, the Longmans. He relies as far as possible on personal observation, and on the morning after his first arrival in St. John he started in company with the Right Rev. Dr. Sweeny to pay a visit to the new settlement of Johnville, a journey to and fro of nearly four hundred miles. The water in the river was so much lower than is usual at this season, that even the little steamer Gazelle had discontinued running to Woodstock, and the journey from Fredericton up and back, a distance of over two hundred miles, was performed by stage. At Johnville Mr. Maguire made the most minute examination of the farms, houses, barns, crops, stock, &c., of the settlers whom he visited in their homes, and on his return he was enthusiastic in his description of what he saw. The evidence of the courage, enterprise, industry and perseverance of these settlers who, by their own exertions, have attained comfort and independence in a few years, met him on every side, and not only afforded him the greatest satisfaction, but excited his admiration. The settlers themselves, with a laudable pride, described their struggles, and trials, and contrasted their present happy condition with what they had known in Ireland. This journey occupied five of the eight days Mr. Maguire spent in New Brunswick, but it enabled him to see a large portion of the Province. The Irish population everywhere welcomed him with delight, and manifested their admiration of his character and their gratitude for his services to their unfortunate country. The Irishmen of St. John desired to show their respect and regard for him by giving him a public dinner, but unfortunately he had made arrangements which prevented his remaining more than a day or two in this city.

We are satisfied that Mr. Maguire’s book will remove many of the erroneous ideas respecting the character and the position of the Irish in America which now prevail in Great Britain and even in Ireland itself, and will do all the good the talented and patriotic author seeks to accomplish.

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MF – 1866.11.27 – Johnville Prosperity – #154 – F12251

Johnville

On Sunday the Bishop read returns which he had caused to be made up by the settlers at Johnville, in order to show the wonderful progress that Settlement has made within a few years, and so afford a stronger inducement to others to become settlers, and win for themselves and their families the honourable independence to which all men should aspire.

This Settlement was commenced in 1861 – only five years ago – when fifteen persons went into what was then an unbroken wilderness. – The Bishop described the hardships the first settlers had to encounter. They did not arrive at Woodstock until after the first snow had fallen, and this being followed by rain, they had much misery and discomfort to endure. – Indeed the spirit, energy and perseverance of Mr. and Mrs. McCann, who, after struggling through the woods in slush and rain, boldly set to work to put up their log cabin was really heroic. They persevered, and in a short time they were able to give most valuable assistance to those who followed them. Now they are worth at least $1,600 in cleared land and houses, stock and crops – perfectly independent and comfortable.

In 1862 a much larger number went in, and many were added to the Settlement in 1863 and the following years. If we take an average of 2 1-2 to 3 years work for all the settlers, we shall probably overstate the amount of work expended.

Now to the gross results.

The settlers have:

1406 acres of land cleared which,
allowing only for the labour of clearing, $12 per acre, is worth
$16,372
464 acres of land chopped
$2,786
Frame houses worth $7,000
Barns worth $6,000

STOCK
They Have:

48 horses worth
$4,320
134 cows worth
$3,216
64 oxen worth
$2,560
115 young cattle worth
 $575
247 sheep worth
 $988
262 pigs worth $2,620
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

208 tons of hay worth
$1,664
2,526 bushels of wheat worth
$3,789
11,315 bushels of oats worth
$3,960
277 bushels of barley worth
$194
3,874 bushels of buckwheat worth
$1,549
110 bushels of rye worth
$88
16,885 bushels of potatoes worth
$5,065
4,905 bushels of turnips worth
$981

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL: $64,234

In this calculation the very lowest price is put down for each article. Oats are estimated worth only 35 cents per bushel, Potatoes 30 cents, Hay $8 a ton, and so of all the other produce. The price for cattle is even lower still, and for cleared land the only amount allowed is the ordinary cost of clearing, vis, $12 an acre. The exact cost of the Houses and Barns – less the value of the settlers’ own labour, is also given. The Bishop’s object was not to [exagerate], but to keep far within the truth, so as to leave no room whatever for doubt, and yet the results must surprise everyone. In one year this young settlement has raised crops to the value at least of $17,290, and this is but a part of the produce of the labour of the people, much of which of course, was expended in the work of chopping, burning, fencing, building, &c., &c. Yet this $17,290 alone is probably twice as much as the same number of people could earn in town.

Their stock also increases with surprising rapidity. It must be remembered that few of those settlers had any money when they went in. A few perhaps could buy a cow and a few sheep; but in nine cases out of ten, when the log cabin was up, the head of the family was compelled to seek employment for a time in order to provide food for his children. Their whole wealth was almost literally created out of nothing. Their capital at the start was industry, courage, and the spirit of independence. The stock will probably increase much faster in the future. The week the Bishop visited the settlement they had sold $800 worth of fat cattle to some American traders.
 

In estimating the value of the property they have acquired, we should take into account the labor expended on the roads they have made through the settlement. The Bishop thinks there must be more than twenty miles of road open and fit for travel. We should also make allowance for the value given to the land by the mere fact of its being settled. Putting this at a very low figure indeed, we must be satisfied that the settlers in Johnville, are to-day worth at least $100,000. Four or five years ago the wealthiest of them was dependent on his day’s wages for his day’s living.

We hope this exposition will have the desired affect, and that it will induce hundreds of those who now earn a precarious livelihood by working like slaves in mills and factories, or up to their knees in mud and water all day long in the city sewers, or drudging and toiling in any of the other occupations in which so many wear out their health and strength, to imitate the example, and share the prosperity, the comfort, and [independence] and respectability of those settlers. Money is not necessary. The man who has enough to get provisions for his family for the Winter has quite enough to make a good start in any of those settlements. The difficulties in his way are now comparatively trifling. Roads are made for him up to the very lot ready for him to settle on. He becomes at once the last of a populous neighborhood, and in a few weeks may expect to have others settled beyond and beside him. He will get assistance and encouragement on all sides, and if he wants to earn some money, he can get employment at good wages when the labourers of the city are all idle. The man who, with such an easy way of becoming independent within his reach, prefers still to be a day labourer, dependant on the change of times and the will of an employer for permission to earn mere food and shelter by hard work, deserves to be nothing better than a labourer all his life.

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MF – 1866.11.03 – Johnville – Author, J. F. Maguire M.P. – #153 – F12251
 
J. F. Maguire, Esq., M. P., left St. John for Canada via Portland, Me., in the “New Brunswick” on Thursday. During his brief stay in this Province he laboured indefatigably to gather material for a work on the Irish in America, the copy right of which he has already composed of to the great London publishers, the Longmans. He relies as far as possible on personal observation, and on the morning after his first arrival in St. John he started in company with the Right Rev. Dr. Sweeny to pay a visit to the new settlement of Johnville, a journey to and fro of nearly four hundred miles. The water in the river was so much lower than is usual at this season, that even the little steamer Gazelle had discontinued running to Woodstock, and the journey from Fredericton up and back, a distance of over two hundred miles, was performed by stage. At Johnville Mr. Maguire made the most minute examination of the farms, houses, barns, crops, stock, &c., of the settlers whom he visited in their homes, and on his return he was enthusiastic in his description of what he saw. The evidence of the courage, enterprise, industry and perseverance of these settlers who, by their own exertions, have attained comfort and independence in a few years, met him on every side, and not only afforded him the greatest satisfaction, but excited his admiration. The settlers themselves, with a laudable pride, described their struggles, and trials, and contrasted their present happy condition with what they had known in Ireland. This journey occupied five of the eight days Mr. Maguire spent in New Brunswick, but it enabled him to see a large portion of the Province. The Irish population everywhere welcomed him with delight, and manifested their admiration of his character and their gratitude for his services to their unfortunate country. The Irishmen of St. John desired to show their respect and regard for him by giving him a public dinner, but unfortunately he had made arrangements which prevented his remaining more than a day or two in this city.

We are satisfied that Mr. Maguire’s book will remove many of the erroneous ideas respecting the character and the position of the Irish in America which now prevail in Great Britain and even in Ireland itself, and will do all the good the talented and patriotic author seeks to accomplish.

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