USA > Maine > How the Acadians came to Maine > Part 4
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year of Black Famine. After the last frost in the fall of 1796, the remaining crop was covered by an early snow which brought one of the coldest winters. Many colonists went to the St. Lawrence or to Fredericton to spend the winter. Those who stayed in the colony lived on game and herbs.
After a long period of waiting and anxiety, when the men had gone hunting and snow had been falling for eight days, the food supply was exhausted. The last portion of boiled barley had been eaten, the last cow had been killed, and the hunters had not returned.
It is during these long days of hunger and anxiety that Mar- guerite Blanche Thibodeau, wife of Joseph Cyr, wrought wonders of heroism and charity. Endowed with herculean strength and a charity as strong, she became the protecting angel of the weak, the invalid, and the hungry people of the colony. On snowshoes, lugging a heavy load of clothes and food, she went from the door of the wealthiest to the door of the poor to bring food and a ray of hope and life. While she buried the dead and snatched from death all those who had lost all hope of help, she gave her care to everyone and built up the morale of those who were letting them- selves overcome by poverty and hunger.
At last, one evening the men came back with a companion who had died of cold and hunger and another who was dying, but they also brought food: the colony was saved.
As soon as her works of mercy became known, Aunt Blanche was venerated with great respect and devotion by all the colonists. She cured the sick, found lost articles, reconciled enemies. Her reprimands to delinquents and drunkards were more feared than those of a bishop.
Mrs. Cyr was truly the aunt of a great number of young families in Madawaska. Her mother's name was Leblanc and was the daughter of René Leblanc, Notary Public of Grand-Pré im- mortalized by Longfellow. She died in 1810 and on account of her great devotedness during the famine, she was buried in the church of St. Basile, a privilege without precedent and accorded to only a few later on. They called her Aunt Blanche and she be- came the Aunt of Madawaska.
In the spring of 1797, the government came to the help of the poor colonists.
In July, 1794, Madawaska had its first resident pastor, Fa- ther François Ciquart, a Sulpician.
Father Ciquart came to Canada under the regime of Gov- ernors Craig and Haldimand at a time when French priests were forbidden to enter the country. Haldimand found him and had
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him deported to England from where he passed over to France. He was director of the works of the Sulpicians at Bourges when the French Revolution broke out and was sent out of that country in 1792. He came back to America where Bishop Carroll of Balti- more confided to him the Abenaki missions of the Penobscot River. It is from there that he came to the St. John Valley.
Since Father Ciquart knew the language of the Abenakis, Governor Carleton invited him to minister to the Indians of the St. John Valley. He accepted the invitation and protection of the Governor, after which he went to Quebec to be approved by the Bishop.
Bishop Hubert accepted him in his diocese and gave him the parish of St. Basile of Madawaska. The colonists were overjoyed to get a resident pastor. In no time, they built a humble rectory near the church to house their pastor.
Father Ciquart was the father, teacher, doctor, lawyer, and judge of the colony. The Malecites were very pleased to have a missionary who could speak their language. Warriors from Me- doctec, Springhill, and Tobique came often to St. Basile to hear Father Ciquart preach.
In 1798, Father Ciquart left Madawaska to tend to the Penobscot missions which were more numerous. He came back to Fredericton and later went to Memramcook where he stayed till 1812. He passed by Madawaska on his way to Quebec from where his Bishop sent him to the Indian missions of St. François du Lac. He died in Montreal among his confrères of St. Sulpice in 1824 at the age of 70.
After Father Ciquart's departure, St. Basile became a mis- sion ministered by the pastor of St. André of Kamouraska. But the inhabitants of Madawaska wanted a resident pastor. Since French missionaries were forbidden to enter Canada by the veto of the sectarian governments of Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces, the Bishop of Quebec did not have enough priests for a country larger than Europe and in a state of rapid development.
Fathers Amyot, Vézina, and Dorval visited St. Basile be- tween 1799 and 1804.
When the inhabitants of Madawaska asked Bishop Denaut for a resideht pastor, he ordered them to finish the church and rectory and provide the necessary dispensaries. The following year, he sent Father Charles Hott, assistant at River Ouelle, as pastor of St. Basile. He found the parish in a very neglected con- dition, but with the help of his parishioners he set everything right.
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Despite famine and delays caused by the emigration of a few colonists, the colony had increased in population. The settle- ment at Grand River was encouragingly increasing. The present parish of St. Anne of Madawaska, where the Martin, Cyr, Thé- riault, Bourgoin, Beaulieu, and Sirois families had settled, was rapidly growing.
The year 1804 witnessed the arrival of the first pioneers of Chautauqua.
V
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CHAPTER IX ACADIAN SETTLERS IN VALLEY LOST COUNTRY AND NATIONALITY
It would be somewhat difficult to have an exact idea of the condition of the Acadians in the Maritime Provinces at the be- ginning of the 19th century and the state of complete destitution of the population scattered along the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or hidden in the recesses of bays and forests, or as was the case of Madawaska pushed farther up the rivers.
While the English colonies were helped and encouraged by the provincial governments, the Acadians were not even ahead of their fathers of three-fourths of a century before. As for educa- tion, very few colonists knew how to read and write.
Compelled to live by hunting and fishing for half a century, they had lost the taste and even the art of agriculture. They had lost their country and their nationality. All that was letf were their religion and French ancestry.
Although Madawaska had a soil far more fertile than any other colony in the Maritimes, it had the disadvantage of being situated in the interior, isolated from the other settlements with- out ways of communication.
Hunting, which had furnished food to the colonists, was decreasing; frost destroyed the crops; many colonists went back to Canada; other's went to join the colonists on the Gulf of St. Lawrence which on account of its proximity to the sea had a more favorable climate where fishing was very good in case the crops did not turn well. Madawaska at this time was stationary and in most instances was going backwards.
It was during this general depression and at the time when the question of the boundaries made the fate of the inhabitants rather uncertain at the beginning of the War of 1812 that Bishop
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Plessis visited Madawaska
The missionaries of Bishop Plessis travelled all over Acadia visiting missions from Cape Breton Island to the Upper St. John Valley. Their principal stations were St. Joseph of Carleton, Res- tigouche, Bonaventure, Bathurst and Caraquet on Chaleur Bay; Tracadie, Miramichi, Richibouctou, Gedaique on the Gulf of St. Mary's Bay; Halifax, Pictou, and Arichat in Nova Scotia; Mem- ramcook on the river of the same name; St. Anne and St. Basile on the St. John River. In the Maritime Provinces, there were about fifteen missionaries.
Grouped around their modest churches, these Acadians, dis- seminated by exile, wanted to live their own life, resist assimila- tion, and conquer a new place under the sun.
After the departure of Father Charles Hott, who had been the resident pastor of St. Basil between 1804 and 1806, Mada- waska became a mission of St. André of Kamouraska with the ministration of Father Michel Auguste Amyot. Father Amyot had two missions a year, one in winter and the other in June as was the custom with his predecessors. He had deep piety and great devotedness, but he lacked administrative ability so necessary in a new parish. His long hikes on snowshoes during the winters of 1807 .and 1808 highly prove his zeal as a missionary. However, the rare visitation of the missionary could not satisfy the needs of the colony which demanded a resident pastor. In October, 1808, Father Jean Baptiste Kelly took the ministration of the St. John Valley with his residence at St. Basile.
Father Kelly was Irish, as his name indicates, but his mother was French Canadian. Brought up in. Lower Canada, he knew the two languages of the country. Besides Madawaska, he had the missions of St. Joseph of Carleton, Passamoquoddy, Houlton and Old Town, Moine, with Tobique, Medoctec, St. Anne and St. John, N. B. St. Basile already had the missions of Grand River and Chautauqua. The New Brunswick government continued to pro- tect the missionaries who ministered to the Indians of the St. John Valley. Therefore, Bishop Plessis advised them to stay on good terms with the civil authorities of the Province. On account of poor health, (his chief ailment being rheumatism) Father Kelly could not perform all the parish duties and tend to his numerous missions. The Bishop released him in October, 1810.
His successor. at St. Basile was Father Louis Raby, former assistant at St. Laurent near Montreal. The new pastor was young (23 years old) but was endowed with great talent. Being timid by nature, he mixed very little with the people whom he knew too little. He gave the major part of his day to the study of the classics. The more learned of the group of parishioners
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said that it would have been preferable to have a pastor who had already completed his Latin classes. Nevertheless, his deep sense of justice, his great devotedness, and his personal merits brought to the studious pastor all the sympathies of the people; and when he left three years after, he was sincerely missed by all the people of Madawaska.
It was during the administration of Father Raby that a no- table event became memorable in the ecclesiastical annals of the Maritime Provinces, the pastoral visitation of the illustrious bishop of Quebec, Bishop Joseph Octave Plessis. It was the second time that a bishop of Quebec visited this part of his diocese which extended through the length and breadth of Canada.
Bishop Plessis started from Quebec at the beginning of June, 1812, navigating the St. Lawrence River, cruising along the coast of New Brunswick while visiting all the parishes and missions of Gaspecie, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Nova Scotia. From Nova Scotia, he crossed over to Prince Edward Island and from there to Cape Breton Island and the Magdalen Islands. Then he went to Memramcook, came back to Cedaique to cruise the Gulf into Chaleur Bay.
His Excellency decided to come to Madawaska by the Res- tigouche and Grand Rivers. Soon after his arrival at St. Joseph of Carleton on Chaleur Bay, he, with Father Charles François Painchaud, the local pastor and founder of the College of St. Anne de la Pocatière in 1827, Father Côté, his chaplain, and Louis Lemieux, his servant, left for the missions of Restigouche where the natives promised to lead the bishop and his crew to the Grand River settlement at Van Buren where the colonists of Modawaska were supposed to join them.
It is during this apostolic visitation that war between England and the United States was declared on June 18, 1812.
While crossing Northumberland Stroit to go to Cape Bre- ton Island, the bishop was attacked by fishermen of Nova Scotia who took him for an American pirate who had dared to venture in British waters. All were stupefied when they recognized their bishop who was on his way to administer the sacrament of con- firmation to their children. Awkwardly, they made all sorts of excuses which delighted the bishop.
The Madawaska settlement which the bishop intended to visit was at that time a country contested by the two governments of England and America. He did not dare to go there without first sending ahead one who knew the St. John River and who could warn the bishop in case of any danger to be encountered in the enemy country so that the bishop could retrace his step in time
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to avoid any mishap. Father Painchaud and two Indians were chosen to precede the bishop and his crew. After many days of painful privations and delays, the bishop reached Madawaska. When his business was completed in Madawaska, he visited all the missions on the Madawaska River and Lake Temiscouata on his way to Quebec which he reached on September 12 the same year.
According to his diary in which he kept all the details of his apostolic travels, the Bishop of Quebec was not very much im- pressed by the Acadians of the Madawaska settlement. He meant well, but we must remember that the bishop had a very unplea- sant journey and encountered many hardships. His appreciation of the population would have been more complete if he had mentioned the heroic virtues of the colonists after enumerating their faults. It was mostly on the administrative point of view that he judged the colonists of Madawaska who, although wishing to be respectful, were sometimes too persistent in urging the bishop to give thern a resident pastor.
The other notable visitors who came to Madawaska at about the same time wrote praiseworthy appreciations on the character of the people and the honesty of their lives. Among them was Joseph Bouchette, general surveyor of Lower Canada and well- known historian and geographer. Peter Fisher, one of the first historians of New Brunswick who was well-acquainted with the people of Madawaska, passes judgment on the population by say- ing: "They have a settlement separate from that of the English. They have been since peaceful pioneers and well-disposed toward the government. They are today a gay, honest, peace-loving, and hospitable people." Jackson, an American, in his geological report of 1836, gives a pleasant description of Madawaska .. We could mention several other witnesses such as Rameau de Saint-Père, Sir John Harvey, Canon Mercier, Sir Arthur Gordon, Davies, Deane and Kavanagh of Maine who all highly praise the people of Madawaska.
Bishop Plessis did not forget the colonists of Madawaska upon his arrival in Quebec. He sent them Father Marcoux whose administrative talent was widely known. In 1814, he began the construction of a new church which was completed by 1817. This was the third church in St. Basile.
Father Marcoux was a priest of action who knew no obstacle. His study and mastery of the Abenaki language pleased the Male- cite Indians who praised the sagacity of the priest who could speak the Indian language.
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CHAPTER X WAR OF 1812 MADE SETTLERS' FATE AND ALLEGIANCE UNCERTAIN
The War of 1812 had left the boundaries of Maine and New Brunswick in a worse state than before. The people of Madawaska were in a continual state of anxiety during the war, as the fate and allegiance of the people depended on the settlement of the boundaries. Officially, they kept the strictest neutrality. They even thought of decloring the contested area an independent country.
As long as the war lasted, American spies kept a constant vigil on the frontiers. Several Canadian mail carriers were ar- rested near Grand Falls and Presque Isle. Robbers, highjackers, and sharpshooters infested the forests of Lake Temiscouata, so much so that the Canadian postal service was as dangerous as costly, and no mail carrier dared to pass there without an escort of soldiers.
At this time, another event worth mentioning is the march- ing of the 104th Infantry Regiment of New Brunswick through the area in 1813 on its way to the threatened boundaries of Lower Canada. The Regiment left St. John, N. B. on February 11 and reached Quebec the 27th of the same month without losing one man. The Regiment was composed of Loyalists, and false rumors were spread all over the area that these Loyalists were coming to evict the colonists from their lands as had been done in Nova Scotia because they refused to bear arms against the Americons. Their worry had no bounds. Already some were pre- paring to resist them with the help of Americans, others wanted to flee to the hills when the Regiment passed by without any sign of hostility. This time the Loyalists were on their way to fight soldiers and not unarmed colonists.
The War of 1812 proved to the authorities of New Bruns- wick and Lower Canada the lack of protection on the frontiers
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and on the military and postal routes in the east of Canada. Lower Canada took the initiative by establishing between the St. Lawrence and St. John Rivers ten stations under the protection of the Royal Veterans who stayed until the peace of Gand in 1814. Most of these veterans settled on farms in the Valley of Lake Temiscouata and became the pioneers of that valley. Such were Smith, Simpson, Jones, Slight, McDonald, Stripman, Bannon, Ruff, Clifford, Gardner, Doll, Henry, Gillaway, Peters, Hogg, · Payne, McLeod, Wandiskin, and Anderson.
New Brunswick on one hand began to think of colonizing the present county of Victoria. The Province had always main- tained stations at Grand Falls and Woodstock, but places in be- tween were without protection. Its first colony was that of Salmon River where farmlands were conceded to soldiers who had taken part in the War of 1812. The Rangers of New Brunswick settled Victoria County in large numbers.
The State of Maine on the other hand encouraged the co- Ionization of the contested area and took possession of the Upper Aroostook Valley. A few colonists crossed the St. John River to settle ot Baker Brook.
Chautauqua (Frenchville) and Grand Platin (Big Flat, just above Frenchville) were settled by several pioneers among whom we find the following: Germain Saucier, Jean Baptiste Daigle, Do- minic Daigle, Michel Morin, José Michaud, Emmanuel Michaud, Raphael Michaud, Sigefroi Nadeau, Bélone Ouellet, and Hubert Caron.
St. Hilaire was settled a few years after Chautauqua by Hi laire Cyr, Hilarion Daigle, Louis Albert, Paul Marquis, Théotime Chassé, and Olivier Chassé.
Fort Kent was settled in 1812 by José and Sigefroi Nadeau, Baptiste Daigle, François Thibodeau, and Basile Albert.
Clair, N. B. was settled at the same time as Fort Kent by the families of Cyr, Albert, Levasseur, Landry, and Long.
Minain Cyr and his three sons Théodule, Didyme, and Zé- phirin settled at St. Francis Ledges, N. B. on Crock River in 1816. The Albert and Thibodeau families joined them shortly after.
The first colonist of St. Francis, Maine was Louis Albert who was followed by a Thibodeau family.
The first American families to settle in Madawaska on Baker Brook were Nathon and John Baker, and John Harford.
St. Leonard, N. B., settled by the Violette and Cyr families, was soon settled by other families among whom we find the fa- milies of Cormier, Gauvin, Ouellet, Coombs, Parent, Nadeau,
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McRay, and Powers. The last three settled near Grand Falls.
Grand Falls had one family, Isaac Michaud, besides the soldiers stationed at the fort.
St. Jacques, in 1820, had Francis McDonald and Lewis Strou- piana, said Stripman, a Spanish soldier in England's service during the War of 1812. Among the first pioneers of St. Jacques we find Firmin Michaud, Saint-Onge, Robinson, and Hughes.
Edmundston was settled by Simonnet Hébert whose dwelling served as hotel to travelers.
Despite progress made since the settlement of the colony, agriculture was still in the primitive stage. Implements were still made of wood, only they were better made.
At this time, three great innovations transformed the interior of houses and the material side of life. These were stoves, grist mills, and hydraulic saw mills.
The first stoves were imported from Canada by way of the St. John River.
The first grist mills were constructed in 1800. They were installed on brooks and were made according to models used in Nova Scotia and Bay of Fundy.
The first mill was constructed at St. Basil by Paul Potier. Another one was at St. David the property of Louis Gatte. François Cormier was the first miller of Grand Isle and Francis Violette was the first one at Grand River, Van Buren. The Violette mill was built on Violette Stream which Americans used to call Violet Brook, the old name of Van Buren. Minain Cyr had a mill on Crock River ot St. Francis Ledges, and Germain Saucier had one at Chautauqua.
Captain Firmin Thibodeau bought François Cormier's mill at Grand Isle. He made so many alterations that he was able to give white flour to his customers. Captain Régis Thériault did likewise at St. Basile.
The first sawmill in the country was that of Nathan Baker on Baker Brook.
A few citizens had already made a fortune, and Captain Thibodeau, who was known as Lord of Madawaska, was one of them. He had vast farmlands a short distance southeast of Green River. His dwelling, which could compare with the old manors of Normandy, was open to all those who were looking for work as well as to strangers and travelers. He became one of the wealthiest farmers of the Province. In his barns he had 25 cows, 8 horses, 50 sheep, and a larger number of pigs. Since he knew how to read
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and write, he was the merchant of his district and the banker of the country.
Other citizens were likewise commercial merchants; such were Jean and Michel Robichaud, Louis Bellefleur, and Simonnet Hébert.
In all the houses, the loom had the place of honor. The young lady who could not weave had scant chances of meeting a well-to-do young man, since possession of this art was a condition of an elegant marriage. A young man who had not cleared 10 acres of farmland was a poor risk for a young lady.
When the day of proposal had come, if the candidate had no dwelling, the father had just to let out the news of an approaching marriage and in no time a frolic was organized and another house went up in the village. Those who gave a helping hand were in- vited to the wedding.
Whenever a house or a barn burned down, every man gave a hand to rebuild.
Farmers used to lend their agricultural implements, their oxen, and sometimes their Sunday best on certain occasions.
Education was not far ahead. However, there were traveling teachers such as Pierre Duperry, Thomas Costin, and Antoine Joliet who taught each his turn in different localities. For such services, they received board and room with three shillings from each family for the school term. As an aid to education, the gov- ernment granted from 150 to 200 acres of land to all the districts which kept school for six months in the yeor.
The first school where one could get a good elementary edu- cation was founded in 1817 by Father André Toussaint Lagarde, assistant to Father Marcoux and whom he succeeded as pastor. of St. Basile. Father Lagarde changed the old rectory into a school and spent all his leisure time instructing the youth of Madawaska.
Among his pupils of the first academy was the young and unfortunate Prosper Cyr, the first native priest of Madawaska. He went to Montreal to finish his studies at the seminary. His father, Eloi Cyr, his stepmother who was Father Lagarde's sister, his two brothers all drowned in the St. Lawrence on their way to attend the ordination ceremony at Montreal. The newly-ordained priest did not long survive this accident of 1830. He died a few months after the tragedy, and when he died that branch of the Cyr family became extinct as he was the sole survivor.
The population of Madawaska was over 1000 souls in 1820, the year Maine was admitted to the union.
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CHAPTER XI FRENCH NAMES IN 1820 WERE "MURDERED" BY CENSUS TAKERS
The Treaty of Gand, 1814, which put an end to the Anglo- American War and which was supposed to settle the question of the boundaries, confused the issue still more and made the fron- tiers a source of conflicts. New Brunswick and the State of Maine continued to debate the jurisdiction of the contested territory. Lower Canada claimed this territory without however encroaching on the jurisdiction of New Brunswick.
In order to assert its jurisdiction on Madawaska, the United States undertook to take the census in the entire area. According to this census of 1820 we find 1,171 inhabitants, or 148 families, an increase of 500 people since 1808.
New Brunswick, unhappy about this interference in its do- main and unwilling to cede this area to its rival, also took a cen- sus in 1824. According to this census, there were 1,600 inhabi- tants, or an increase of 469 inhabitants in four years.
In 1830, the Americans took another census and this time found 2,500 inhabitants. The population had doubled in ten years.
The American census takers murdered some of the French names. On their list Jean Baptiste Cyr is John Betishire. David le Sourd became David Lewsure, nickname of David Cyr. Benjamin Boucher became Barnum Buschiere. For Honoré Levasseur, we read Honerd Lerassus. Anselme Albert is changed into Handsome All Bear.
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