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Gc 974.1 V81h 1944783
M. L.
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01083 7117 ITO
How
THE
Acadians
CAME TO
Maine
By
LAWRENCE A. VIOLETTE
3HT
SMAD
PREFACE
In 1920, a French book on the Acadians of the St. John Valley, sponsored by Acadian contributors, was published by the Franciscan Press of Quebec ( Imprimerie Franciscaine Missionnai- re). Known by its French title, "Histoire du Madawaska", the book is based on the researches of Patrick Therriault and Prudent Mercure, and was written by Rev. Thomas Albert. The people mentioned above are now dead, and the book which was to be used in the schools of the Valley has never reached the schools. Each of the sponsors received a special copy, but the other copies which were printed were not widely distributed. There are no more copies available in the French language as no reprint has been made since 1920, and shali not be made at any time.
A great majority of the people have never heard about the book or read it. This led the author to undertake to write an English edition based on the researches of Patrick Therriault and Prudent Mercure. The titles have been furnished by the Arcostook Republican of the Caribou Publishing Company, Caribou, Maine. The author limited his work to the exact history and plain facts leaving out all the opinions and diaries reported by Father Albert.
This work is far from being exhaustive. The present work deals with the Early History and Settlement of the Acadions in the St. John Valley, Aroostook County, Maine and Madawaska County in New Brunswick.
Lawrence A. Violetto
March 25, 1951
1944783
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£
INTRODUCTION St. John Valley Depicts Drama Of Early Pioneering
As one comes to Maine for the first time, he cannot boast of having seen the State of Maine until he has seen Aroostook County, and one cannot state that he has seen the entire County until he has seen the St. John Valley. Madawaska in the Valley is the northernmost town in the State of Maine.
The Valley really begins at the boundary line near Grand Falls, N. B., and the hills on either side of the St. John River become more pronounced as one proceeds northwest to Allagash Plantotion in Maine. The River posses through Woodstock, Fredericton and St. John, N. B., but there it is known as the St. John River only and there is no real valley os we find here.
Coming from Grand Falls, N. B., and crossing the boundary into Maine, the traveler passes through Hamlin, Van Buren, Grand Isle, Madawaska, Frenchville, Fort Kent, St. John, St. Francis, and Allagash, and here is the end of the road. On the New Brunswick side, the traveler passes through St. Leonard, Siegas, St. Anne of Madawaska, Green River, St. Basil, Edmund- ston, St. Hilaire, Baker Brook, Clair, St. Francis Ledges, and Con- nors. Here the end of the trail ends at Glacier Lake.
The highway in New Brunswick follows the River; therefore, the traveler may see all the American towns as he wends his way along the River on the New Brunswick side. Likewise, when the traveler uses the U. S. Highway, he may see all the towns on the New Brunswick side. There is not a dull moment for the traveler from Van Buren to Allagash as the towns are not far apart. As one leaves a town, he sees on both sides of the highway houses rather close together except on the stretch from St. Francis to Allagash which is a wooded area. However, in the Valley the traveler does not have to travel miles and miles on a road through the woods or a highway bordering large farmlands where a spar- sely populated area presents more scenic beauty than anything else which tires the traveler after many hours of traveling. There is not enough contrast to keep his attention for long.
Anyone coming from Massachusetts through Kittery and Portland has nearly four hundred miles to travel before he can reach Van Buren through Caribou. Then he has to travel another seventy miles before he can reach Allagash. If he wants to cross to Canada, he may do so at Van Buren, Madawaska, and Fort Kent, as these three Valley towns have each an international bridge connecting Van Buren, Maine and St. Leonard, N. B., Madawaska, Maine and Edmundston, N. B., and Fort Kent, Maine and Clair, N. B.
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The Madawaska Territory, so called, included all the present towns on both banks of the St. John River as far west as Lake Temiscouata in the Province of Quebec, and practically all the present counties of Madawaska, York, and Victoria in New Brunswick, and extended as far south as the Aroostook River in northern Maine. This section was renowned for its hard pine trees, therefore New Brunswick and Maine vied for the complete possession of the entire territory until 1842, the year the perma- nent boundary was fixed.
The people of the Valley are descendants of the Acadians from the land of Evangeline, present Nova Scotia, except that Acadia included all the surrounding lands and was much larger than Nova Scotia.
Acadia might be a contraction of Arcadia, a mountain dis- trict in ancient Greece which was famous for its simple, quiet, and contended life. Any region of simple, quiet contentment is called Arcadia. Such was the Acadia of the Acadians.
Originally the Acadians came from Brittanny, "La Breta- gne," in northern France, and the inhabitants of Brittanny were Britons as much os the Britons of England. In fact, Great Britain is "La Grande Bretagne," as compared with simply "La Breta- gne" in France.
Although the majority of the first settlers were Britons, there were also many Normons from Normandy in the north of France. They were the old Northmen, or Norsemen, descendants of the Vikings from the Scandinavian Peninsula. There is a relationship between the Normans of France and the Norsemen of Scandina- via, as well as between the Britons of England and the people of northern Fronce.
The people of the St. John Valley are Britons and Normans at the same time. Intermarriage and interrelationship between Normans and Britons were such that it is hard today to say who are Normans and who are Britons. However, we know with cer- tainty that the Valley people have inherited the qualities and faults of both groups, and as a consequence have developed a distinct nationality of people, the Acadians.
In 1066, at the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror, Duke of Normandy, won a victory over Harold of England. The Normans ruled England from a period at the end of the last cru- sade to the Renaissance from 1100 to 1300. Norman French was the language used during the two hundred years of occupation. As a consequence, the English language contains 70% of Latin words which came directly from the Latin, or indirectly through the French.
The Debacle, or "le grand dérangement," took place in
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1755. Acadia came under the rule of England in 1710, and the Dominion of Canada in 1760. The Acadians refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the King of England unconditionally, were treated as a stubborn people, a sort of riffraff to be gotten rid of as soon as possible. They were willing to pledge allegiance to En- gland, but they were unwilling to take up arms against the Frenchmen in Cape Breton Island, New Brunswick, and other French settlements in case of a war between England and France.
On a fateful day in 1755, the people were summoned to church by order of Governor Lawrence. Not suspecting any treach- ery, they went in, and the doors were locked at once. A proclama- tion was read to the effect that they were prisoners of the King and that they would be deported. All their lands were confiscated, and some of the houses and barns were set on fire. At the point of the bayonet they were ushered to the boats which were waiting for them to take them away and scatter them along the Atlantic Coast. Directions were given on the manner they should behave in the new country to which they were to be taken. Husbands, wives, and children were separated for fear some might venture to come back and settle nearby. They were put on different boats, some being taken to Boston, others to Louisiana, and still others to Bermuda. Those who were fortunate enough to be notified ahead of time fled to Fredericton, others went to the shores of the St. Lawrence. Little by little a new settlement was made near Frederic- ton, and the Acadians who had fled to the Province of Quebec and those who had been deported to Boston rejoined them there.
In 1785, there was another wave of unrest. The English were pursuing the Acadians again. This time they came to the St. John River Valley and settled in what is now Madawaska, Maine, and Edmundston, N. B. Other settlements were made in Van Buren and St. Leonard, Fort Kent and Clair. The first winter was hard and brought famine and sickness and terribly decimated the population. The Acadians of the Valley suffered the same bitter trials as did the Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in Massachu- setts.
The entire territory about the Valley was called Madawaska, an Indian name which means the land of the porcupine. The in- habitants of the Valley did not belong to the United States nor to Canada. They were simply Madawaskans.
Madawaska was rich in hard pines, which the United States and Canada coveted. It was difficult to settle on a boundary 'ine to satisfy Maine and New Brunswick. Several surveys had been made by both parties concerned, but nothing was final. The United States argued that Madawaska belonged to Maine, where- as Canada maintained that it belonged to New Brunswick. The governors of Maine became interested in the people and territory
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in northern Maine, as well as Presidents Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. Beginning in 1830 there were debates, ex- changes of letters and threats, when finally armies were mobil- ized, the old military road was built, the Aroostook Road going from Fort Kent through Wallagrass and Eagle Lake being part of that road. Great Britain claimed the whole St. John River, in- cluding both banks, and a great part of the territory as far south as Houlton. In 1839, the New Brunswick governor issued a pro- clamation which amounted to a declaration of war. However, not a shot was fired, and a settlement was finally agreed by arbitra- tion. The Aroostook bloodless war was at an end in 1842. The Blockhouse in Fort Kent is a relic of that war.
Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton were the arbitrators. They made the St. John River the dividing line between Maine and New Brunswick, from Van Buren to St. Francis, and the St. Francis River the dividing line between the two at St. Francis. The treaty of 1842 is known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty.
The people of the Valley are accused of speaking a dialect. It is Yankee French more than anything else. However, the educated class, and by this I mean those who have studied French in school long enough to be well-versed in reading, literature, and grammar, speak very good French. Others speak a mixture of French and English, use bad grammar, as others do in their own language, and use old forms of the 17th century, the century of the French settlement in Canada.
The Acadians have inherited two great cultures from two great civilizations, England and France. They are proud of this dual nationality in culture. Though the people of the Valley dis- like to be called Frenchmen, they prefer that than to be called Franco-Americans, a term foreign to them. The Franco-Americans are in Lewiston, Biddeford, Brunswick, Lawrence, Lowell, Fall River, Providence, and in other French-speaking communities in the New England States. These are not Acadians; they are French Canadians from the Province of Quebec.
The people of the Valley Anglicize the pronunciation of their names as much as they can. They are proud to be Ameri- cans, and as such they claim no other nationality. They are not French-Americans, they are not French-Canadians, they are Ame- ricans.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Preface Introduction 3
2
CHAPTER 1
Madawaska Area Was Early Scene of Indian Martyrdom 8
CHAPTER II St. John Valley was Travel Artery Over 200 Years Ago 12
CHAPTER III Madawaskans are Britons and
Normans at the Same Time 15
CHAPTER IV Acadians in 18th Century had
Steadfast Principles 18
CHAPTER V French looked to Upper St. John for Religious Freedom 22
CHAPTER VI
First Madawaska Settlement
Became Enduring Community 26
CHAPTER VII Madawaska Colonists Built First
Church at St. Basil 30
CHAPTER VIII
Aunt Blanche was Heroine of
Colonist's Black Famine 35
CHAPTER IX Acadian Settlers in Valley Lost
Country and Nationality 41
CHAPTER X War of 1812 Made Settlers' Fate
and Allegiance Uncertain 45
CHAPTER XI
French Names in 1820 Were "Murdered" by Census Takers 49
CHAPTER XII
Forests of St. John Valley One Cause of Aroostook War 54
Early Attempt to Incorporate
CHAPTER XIII
Madawaska Led to Arrests 59
CHAPTER XIV
Aroostook's Bloodless War Ended in Boundary Settlement 64
CHAPTER XV Treaty of 1842 was Turning Point 68 in Madawaska History CHAPTER XVI Period of Progress 74
Lawrence A. Violette,
Former Superintendent of Schools, Madawaska, Maine 78
CHAPTER I MADAWASKA AREA WAS EARLY SCENE OF INDIAN MARTYRDOM
The Republic of Madawaska is bounded by New Brunswick and Maine at an angle where the two meet the Province of Quebec. The St. John River divides the territory into two equal parts, and this territory extends from Grand Falls to Seven Islands, a distance of 150 miles in length and from 40 to 80 miles in breadth, making a total of 9,000 square miles.
Before the treaty of 1842, the portion, allotted by com- promise between New Brunswick and Quebec which were claiming the territory and which the United States had not as yet annexed, extended from the Aroostook Valley to Lake Temiscouata, an area of 12,000 square miles.
Although its surface is varied and unequal in height, Mada- waska cannot be ranked as a mountainous country. Its so-called mountains, the highest being 1000 feet, are but hills, compared with the mountains of Switzerland. Nevertheless, the varied as- pects of its surface with its fairly high peaks, numerous water rapids, abundant vegetation, and picturesque scenery, make this region one of the most attractive in the east. The region has the largest portion of the greatest river basin of the Atlantic Prov- inces and one of the most beautiful in North America: The St. John River.
The water of the St. John River is so clear and its banks so delightful that the river has been compared with the Rhine and Rhone Rivers in France. It crosses Madawaska in the middle of its course, but at this spot it is magnificent in all its enchanting splendor.
The St. John and its tributaries have falls which furnish light and power to several towns in the Valley. The most im- portant is Grand Falls in Victoria County which after Niagara is one of the most impressive sights that one may encounter in
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North America. The Falls, which have a vertical height of , feet and a cascade of 45 feet, are the chief source of hydraulic power in the Maritime Provinces.
The soil in this area is very fertile and its climate is one of the most temperate and healthful of the eastern provinces. The winters are not so long and rugged as they used to be. The sum- mers are hot, and Jack Frost, which in the Spring and Fall was the terror of the pioneers, is not so today.
The vast forests of Madawaska have attracted many ex- plorers from the forests of New England and the Maritimes. The woodland wealth of this region was the cause of many heated debates between Maine and New Brunswick.
For a long time the valley was called the hunter's paradise. Hunting was the principal means of subsistence among the pioneers, although the rivers and lakes abounded with fish.
The St. John Valley is the promised land to which came the Acadjan Ancestors after 1755. In this Valley, which was already inhabited by the friendly Malecite Indian Tribe, a permanent settlement was made by the Acadians in 1785.
On a promontory near Edmundston on the highway to St. Basile is the Indian Reservation of Madawaska. The early site of the Indian village was precisely where the City of Edmundston is today and was called Madoueskak. The tribal headquarters were on the present site of the Edmundston Post Office (now Woolworth's). At the time of the Acadian settlement, the village had a population of 300 and was the important seat of the Male- cite Tribe. The principal villages of the Malecites on the St. John River were St. John, Springhill, seven miles north of Fredericton, Medoctec, eight miles south of Woodstock, and Madawaska at the mouth of the Madawaska River which flows through the City of Edmundston.
The Malecites were one of the tribes of the Abenakis and the Passamaquods who held settlements in the entire St. John Valley. The Abenakis belonged to the Algonquin Confederation which occupied all the Canadian lands east of the Great Lakes and extended across Acadia and New England. The Micmacs of Nova Scotia and East New Brunswick also belonged to the Al- gonquin Confederation. The Abenakis dominated the St. John and Kennebec Valleys. The name of Madawaska is of Micmac origin. Madawes means porcupine, and kak means place; hence the land of the porcupine.
The Malecites were nomads given to fishing and hunting and many times they pursued their enemy, the Mohawk. Al- though in the barbarian stage, the Malecite never attached or
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insulted a woman. His wife was his slave, but strange to say, the women were more cruel than their husbands toward their victims.
The Iroquois, the inveterate enemy of the Malecites, came to the St. John Valley, took a village at the mouth of the Allagash and massacred all the inhabitants. When they arrived in Mada- waska, the brave Pemmyhaouet, chief of the Malecites, with a hundred warriors organized to protect the fort. In the ensuing battle, the bold Pemmyhaouet fell and his son was fatally wound- ed. As the defenders of the fort fell one by one, their wives and young daughters took their place at the post. After several days, they had no more bows and arrows and had to leave the place. It was then that the Mohawks found two women who were des- perately hoping to die in order to be delivered from the hands of the Mohawks. They were Necomah, the wife of chief Pemmy- haouet, and Malobiannah, the fiancee of Pemmyhaouet's son.
The Iroquois warriors planned to carry their pillage down the river, but being unfamiliar with the navigation of the St. John, they seized their two captives and forced them to accompany them as their guides. When night had come, the birch canoes were tied to one another and were left to be watched by Malo- biannah alone, as Necomah, the wife of the old chief, had al- ready died of grief.
Malobiannah, weeping over the death of her fiance and grieving over the woes inflicted on her race, kept in her heart an Indian revenge, and resolved then and there to avenge those she had loved and at the same time, save her kinsfolk at Springhill and Medoctec by directing the float toward the murderous. Falls.
At a short distance from the Falls, some of the warriors were awakened by the roar of the thunderous waters and on being assured by their guide that this was a tributary of the Walloos- took, they went back to sleep. A few hundred feet from the treach- erous Falis, they realized but too late the danger of being en- gulfed in the turbulent cataract. They jumped out of their canoes, but they disappeared in the precipice while cursing the heroic Malobiannah who had sacrificed her life to avenge her race and her fiance.
A map of the St. John Valley dated 1699 shows nine Indian settlements in the Madawaska area. There were three in the Aroostook Valley, four in the St. John, one at Eagle Lake, and one at Squatteck Lake.
During the American Revolutionary War, the Malecites, whose sympathies were with the revolutionists, travelled to Fred- ericton to meet Colonel John Allan of Machias, Maine, with the purpose in mind of forming an alliance against England. The zeal and respected authority of the missionaries persuaded them
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to stay within the law and had them respect the rights of the English Loyalists. Nevertheless, they were constantly on the alert during the War of Independence.
On account of a decline in population, the Madawaska In- dians lost the right to a political chief, but they regularly elect a titular chief who is the Lieutenant of the Chief of Tobique. Every year they go to pay homage to their chief at Tobique. The as- sembly of the tribe usually takes place on Corpus Christi Day at Tobique, the seat of the tribe, a few miles south of Grand Falls. The settlement is in charge of Franciscan Fathers.
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CHAPTER II ST. JOHN VALLEY WAS TRAVEL ARTERY OVER 200 YEARS AGO
It is most probable that the Indians were the first to inform the French about Madawaska. Champlain knew something about this region in 1612, since his maps show the location of the Ma- dawaska River ond Lake Temiscouata without indicating them by name.
Many Europeans had already travelled in this area. The Recollet missionaries with Jacques de la Foye, Louis Fontiner, and Jacques Cardon had travelled through Madawaska from Port Royal to Quebec while navigating the St. John, St. Francis, and Loup Rivers.
Feudal grants were made as early as 1683 to several French people, Madawaska being one of the land grants conceded to them.
A large number of travellers crossed the Valley during the war between England and France. Both countries fought for the supremacy of Acadia and Canada between the years 1755 and 1760. It is then that Madawaska became the link between Acadia and Canada. In 1756, there were two French post offices in the Madawaska Territory, one at Grand Falls and the other at Lake Temiscouata.,
The exodus of the Acadian people which began in 1755 by their expulsion from Grand-Pré ended at Fredericton to begin again in 1759 when many had to flee to the St. John Valley to get away from the English Loyalists who were threatening them. Many had fled to the Province of Quebec, but when they heard that Louisburg in 1758 and Quebec the year after had fallen in the hands of the English, these refugees pledged unconditional allegiance to England and returned to their lands. It is then that many of these repatriated Acadians stopped in St. Basil, but never dreamed for a moment that 26 years later, this land was to be-
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come the cradle of a new settlement.
It is the doring messengers who carried the mail from Nova Scotia to Quebec who knew well the St. John Valley which was but a forest inhabited by Indians, woods adventurers, and wild animals. They carried messages under trying circumstances, hard- ship, and danger, sometimes a distance of 600 miles in canoes during the summer and on snowshoes in the winter. The Acadian messengers made the journey in 15 days at an average of 40 miles a day.
During the War of Independence, two Mohawks, enemies of England, had ambushed in the Madawaska River Valley to get hold of the mail in order to sell war correspondance to American agents. They pursued one of the messengers for many days in vain. The messenger, being tired of this man hunt, found a cabin at the mouth of the St. Francis River. Knowing how superstitious and naive these Indions were, he knew how to fool them and fill them with fright. Having eaten his supper, he began to pack his belongings to be ready to leave early the next day. Pretending to ignore the presence of the two Indians nearby, he took a large stump, the size of a man, placed it on the cot where he used to sleep, and covered it with ordinary blankets without forgetting the traditional nightcap, then went to hide where he could watch the result of his stratagem. In the middle of the night, he saw two shadows going toward the cabin. The Mohawks entered the un- locked cabin and jumped on their supposed victim. With their tomahawks, they struck with such violence that their tomahawks bounced back with a dry and ringing sound. Suspecting with- craft, they believed that the Great Spirit had metamorphosed their victim, and being seized with fright, they fled to the hills.
Several years after the settlement of the Valley, J. G. Dean of Maine was sent in 1828 to get information concerning the boundaries. Dean tells that in 1782 a boy of 14, Pierre Lizotte, who had been lost in the woods of Kamouraska, crossed to the mouth of the Madawaska River where he saw a few Indian huts. He spent the winter with the Indians and returned home in the Spring. He urged his half-brother, Pierre Duperry, to go back with him to the land he had visited in order to establish trading posts among the Indians. In 1784, we find Lizotte and Duperry at their fur trading post near the Indian village. Duperry and Lizotte did not settle in that village since we find their names in the census of Fredericton taken about that time. However, they came back with Acadian pioneers and settled in the Valley. Lizotte died in St. Basile at the age of 96, and Duperry died in Madawaska at the age of 68.
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