The Herald – 1878.01.05 – Letter from Johnville – #5
LETTER FROM JOHNVILLE
{To the Editor of the HERALD}
Dear Sir, — Some of the papers, lately have been drawing the attention of the public to the new settlements, in different parts of this Province, and the manner of the Government towards them. Johnville is generally introduced as a sort of step-child that has felt a step-mother’s breath, rather more than is good for its health, and all that on account of country and creed.
We cannot say that the Government of the day pays us much attention, or that they take much interest in our affairs, but it may be as much our own fault as others, as we never ask for anything ; but it never came into our minds to think we were slighted because we are Irishmen and Catholics. If we have any fault to find it is with out County members, but I will pay my respects to them in due time. We are a happy, contented and by no means a fault-finding or envious people. Very few outside of Johnville know much about us, or our young and thriving settlement. We are comparatively prosperous and do not look for unreasonable notice from the Government, but rather depend on our own exertions. We who are here from the commencement consider, as we always did, that the Government of that day (Which many of us think, foolishly perhaps, was the very best New Brunswick ever saw) did for us all they promised to do.
Thirty six thousand acres of gold land was surveyed in one block, and reserved for years for Catholic applicants only. If some of it remains to this day unoccupied the fault is not with the Government. Roads were bushed out, the lots numbered, front and base lines marked, but the side lines we got run out at our own expense. For several years, applications were received at the Crown Land office, the survey money not being exacted. The priest had discretionary power to locate settlers, and no application would be received at the Crown Land office unless through him. It is true we built our own houses and made most of the roads, but in doing this we were paying for our land, whilst making roads to our own doors.
Johnville is now pretty well up in its teens. Its age is about sixteen years, and is promising and strong for that age. In its infancy it had its struggles and its trying periods common to all young settlements. Some landed here with but little means and less experience, and would certainly have failed and been discouraged had they not been instructed, aided and encouraged by the priest ; by him they were supported and sustained until they learned to be self-sustaining and could stand alone.
It was not considered wisdom to look for help from any government, especially having the example of River de Chute before our eyes. There, the people, long, long ago, got free grants on the banks of the St. John River, provisions for two years, and all necessary farming utensils, now, they are perhaps, the poorest class of farmers in this County.
In the Parishes of Simonds, Wakefield, Richmond and Woodstock we met with numbers of well-to-do farmers, who, when they settled in the forest had no assistance, only what strong arms and a strong resolution gave them, and when we compare the hardships, privations and toil of these successful pioneers with our own, we of Johnville feel ashamed of ourselves. We are only feather bed soldiers in comparison.
Perhaps I have said enough for the present. If you do not object, I may continue the subject, — the early history and progress of Johnville.
I am etc., etc.,
-MONQUART
I am etc., etc.,
-MONQUART
MF – 1867.10.17 – Pastoral Visit to Johnville – #161 – F12252
The Bishop of St. John returned last week from the visitation of that portion is his Diocese which lies above Woodstock on the River St. John, and on Sunday he told the Congregation at the Cathedral what the results of his visit were. He gave Confirmation to over sixteen hundred children, and, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Lefebre, of Memramcook College, he gave a “Mission” in two of the Parishes, in which over three thousand persons went to Confession and received the “Holy Eucharist.” He described the flourishing condition of this magnificent district, in which the population is increasing rapidly, and evidences of comfort and independence abound on all sides. It was nothing unusual to see 150 waggons standing around one of the Churches at early Mass, to which the people flocked from the most distant parts of the Parish. Forty years ago there was not a road in all that County, even as far down as the mouth of the Tobique. Now fine roads run in all directions, and the settlements are constantly and steadily extending.
He also gave Confirmation to a large number of children in the new settlement at Johnville, where, since his visit a year ago, he saw the most marked improvement. The number of settlers is constantly increasing, and there are now about two hundred families, actually living in comfort and almost in opulence, where, five years ago, there was an unbroken wilderness. They have a Church and resident Priest, two Post Offices, School Houses, fine roads, and all the advantages and conveniences enjoyed by the most flourishing of the old settlements, a d they are all prosperous, contented, and happy. A few short years ago not one of all these thriving, independent farmers was better off than the labouring men who still cling to the town, and find themselves to-day poorer than they were when first they were invited to take their share of those fertile lands, and shrank from the difficulties which their cowardice exaggerated. The men who were ambitious, industrious and resolute went in, and to-day they need envy no people in all America, for none are happier.
The Carleton Sentinel last month gave a description of this settlement, which we copy for the benefit of those who ought to be glad to have such an opportunity of escaping from the drudgery and the miseries of the life of a labourer in the mills or in the sewers of the City:
“We made our first visit to Johnville on Thursday and yet we penetrated such a short distance into the settlement, a visit to which we had long desired, that we cannot, and shall not attempt, until after more extended observation, an opportunity for which we have promised ourselves very soon, to do it justice. We only went in as far as Mr. Boyd’s, who was the first settler, in 1862.
“At Mr. Boyd’s place begin the principal clearings. Just before reaching his very comfortable residence the Chapel, a neat and prettily situated one, embosomed in trees, meets the eye. This Chapel, we learn, is quite too small for the numbers who attend divine service, and is to take the place of vestry to a large building in a short time. The evidence of industry and thrift, as well as of the land being of the most favorable description for farming are very marked.
“Five years is a short time, and still here is a settlement of some 200 families, all comfortably situated and having good farms under very successful cultivation, where five years ago the first tree, preparatory to settlement, was cut. One can scarcely realize the fact. Standing on the eminence above Mr. Boyd’s below our feet lay one immense clearing five, six, or perhaps seven, hundred acres in extent, with nothing but the stumps occasionally showing themselves above the heavy headed grain to tell of the original state of the land. A beautiful sight it is, especially associated with the circumstance that so short a time has passed since the place was covered by the primeval forest, to look down upon this vast cultivated field, here and there relieved by the white farm houses, the extensive barns, or the sheep and cattle. While, as if sternly attesting to the greatness of the work accomplished, in the back ground the giant trees of this most rich soil stand encircling in close and luxuriant phalanx.
But this is only a small portion of Johnville. Look right or left, or beyond, and breaks in the forest tell of other clearings and of other habitations.
“The men who here to-day are ‘lords of the soil:’ who here breathe their adopted, if not native air, on their own land; who with their families at eventide can look out upon broad acres of golden grain: whose barns are filled with hay for their cattle; whose flocks and herds are multiplying fast; who feel a sense of independence which few in other branches of business can feel. These man, many of them three or four years ago were laborers in the cities, plodding wearily their daily round of uncertain work for an uncertain living.
“But we did not intend to say as much at this time. To the Rev. Mr. Connolly, whose interest in these settlers has been unceasing and deep, and whose labors for their social and moral well-being have been incessant, all thanks are due, and he has the thanks, as he has the love and respect, as we know, of the settlers. Until recently Rev. Mr. Connolly’s field of labor included Johnville, but now they have a resident Priest, Rev. Mr. M’Kenney.”
The Sentinel then gives the extract from the speech made by Mr. Maguire in the House of Commons, which we published some time since. Our readers will not object to our publishing it again:
“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 Early 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 settlers 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 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 Untied 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.”
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).
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.”
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.