USA > Maine > How the Acadians came to Maine > Part 6
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About this time the Governor of the Province was a guest of Father Romuald Mercier, Pastor of St. Basile's. The next day, the Governor and his party went to St. David to pay a visit to Captain Simon Hébert to learn from local officials what measures should be taken to have English laws respected in the area. It was decided that thirty soldiers be sent to Meruimticook and Chautauqua to arrest all those who had elected a representative to the Portland Legislature.
Baker, the defeated candidate, who had followed the doings of the English from far, had prudently left his home. The Vice- President of the Republic, Mrs. Baker, was all alone to receive the visitors. Four Americans, Daniel Savage, Jesse Wheelock, Dan Been, and Barnabas Hannawell were arrested at once. Mrs. Baker protested loudly against the violation of the home of a citizen of the Republic. Her last words which the soldiers heard as they were leaving with their prisoners were: "The Star-Spangled Banner shall wave in the breeze of Meruimticook".
Thirty Acadians and Canadians did not resist arrestation as they had been promised liberty.
Chief Justice Ward Chipman, who presided at the court, seriously admonished the French prisoners and dismissed them on their promise not to use American propaganda any more. It was not so with the four Americans, Wheelock, Savage, Hanna- well, and Been who had to submit to a long questioning on the means they used to seduce the French. They were fined 50 louis and condemned to three months' imprisonment.
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Baker went to Portland to advise the State Officials on what was transpiring in the area. Governor Lincoln did not ask any better than to hear that a large number had been taken prisoners. A general alarm of protestations echoed throughout Maine and even reached as far as Washington. Andrew Jackson, President of the United States, assured Maine that the prisoners would be set at liberty. Fredericton, alarmed by these rumors, wanted to free the prisoners without seeming to fear Washington or lose its dignity. Prisoners were told that the London Court had acquitted them.
Washington denied the annexation of Madawaska by the Maine Legislature and promised a million to Maine if it would cede its jurisdiction in the contested area. But Maine had as governor, Enoch Lincoln who would not give in easily when the interests of Maine were at stake. On July 4, 1832, when a big crowd had gathered for the celebration of Independence Day, he proposed a toast in reply to a warning of moderation received from Washington: "To our brethren of Madawaska, too civilized to be sold as slaves. To John Baker and Mrs. Baker, to all my constituents over there, to Wheelock, Bacon, Pierre Lizotte and all his fellowmen, let us drink the good wine of Maine. Let us raise our glasses." While cannons were roaring a chorus of voices shouted from the heights of Portland.
Evidently, Maine did not intend to be dictated by Washing- ton. The state began the construction of the military road be- tween Houlton and the St. John River and encouraged settlements in the Aroostook Valley and in the St. John Valley. Maine went so far as to measure 100 lots of farmland on the north bank of the St. John River to be held for $5.00 a lot.
In vain did New Brunswick try to stop this invasion of its territory. London and Washington did not hurry to settle the question of the frontiers and all honest effort of colonization was paralysed. The sickening situation lasted until 1837 at which time England and the United States could not come to an agree- ment.
In 1837, Maine undertook to take another census. The census taker, Ebenezer S. Greeley, was arrested by Warden James A. McLaughlin and taken to Woodstock where the jailer refused the prisoner. Greeley went back to work and this time he was ar- rested and jailed in Fredericton. Maine asked New Brunswick to set Greeley. at liberty. Governor Harvey of Fredericton answered Governor Dunlap of Maine that he had been ordered to prevent ony exercise of jurisdiction by a foreign power in the contested territory, even if he should be obliged to have recourse to the military force of British America to enforce this order.
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Washington intervened again. S. M. Fox, British Minister in Washington, asked New Brunswick to release Greeley.
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CHAPTER XIV AROOSTOOK'S BLOODLESS WAR ENDED IN BOUNDARY SETTLEMENT
During the winter of 1838, the Governor of Maine sent George W. Buckmore as special agent to investigate the quantity of timber cut in the upper St. John Valley. The agent found the forests peopled by laborers. The Legislature of 1839, upon the report of Buckmore, decided to drive out from its domain all the invaders. Rufus Mcintyre, land agent, and Major Hasting Strick- land, sheriff of Penobscot, proceeded to the area with 200 soldiers.
The American troops had not yet reached the place, when a battalion of the 11th Regiment of Quebec was on its way to Madawaska, and a part of the provincial troops had already proceeded to the Aroostook River.
Governor Harvey at this time paid a visit to Father Langevin at St. Basile. In his letters to London, he constantly pleaded with his government not to abandon the Madawaska people to whom he had pledged the protection of the British Crown.
Shortly after the governor's visit when peace seemed to be assured, an incident occurred which brought back old hatreds. The English Vanguard, made up of the territorial wardens, Mc- Laughlin, Tibbits, and other officers, fell into the power of the Americans who took them as prisoners to Bangor on February '2, 1839. The same month the provincial troops took ten American prisoners on the Aroostook River and led them to Fredericton. Among them were Rufus Mcintyre, Colonel Webster, and other officers.
In the. St. John Valley, Joseph Nadeau and Jean Baptiste Daigle with their lumberjacks were taken prisoners by the com- mandant of Fort Kent recently erected at the mouth of the Fish River.
Sir Harvey issued a proclamation in which he vindicated the
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rights of his province. Governor Kent of Maine retorded by raising à troop of 10,000 men. The Adjutant General, Isaac Hodgdon, led the soldiers toward Houlton. Governor Harvey drafted as many men as he could find to send them to the frontiers to reenforce the 11th Regiment of the British Forces. Nova Scotia voted a budget of 100,000 louis and offered its last soldier to repel the invader. Upper and Lower Canada took sides with New Brunswick. From Quebec to Halifax, people were being armed. New England wanted war; however, war had not yet been declared.
As proclamations were issued by both contestants, General Winfield Scott of the United States Federal Army arrived on the scene with a message of peace and the mission of coming to an understanding with the military officials of Canada. Scott and Harvey, who had met as adversaries at Stoney Creek and Lundy's Lane, had always kept a certain esteem of each other. It was agreed that the Aroostook Valley would remain within the juris- diction of the United States whereas the St. John Valley would continue under the administration of New Brunswick. It was also agreed that they would abstain from any offensive act. The ex- ploitation of the forests was left open to the two countries. Pri- soners were then exchanged and the troops returned to their respective capitals. But agreements were not to last.
The Canadian troops had not yet reached Quebec and Ha- lifax when Governor Fairfield of Maine sent a troop to the Aroos- took Valley and to the Fish River Valley. Harvey protested and explained the terms of the treaty, but Fairfield replied that he did not want to be bound by the Scott-Harvey agreement and that he intended to keep the Fish River Valley as well as the Aroostook.
Both sides brought back their troops which stayed in the territory until the peace treaty of 1842.
As a result of this, all the timber cut during the winter was not floated down the river in the spring and the lumber operations came to a standstill. The Canadian troops stationed in the area were given the task of building the military road from St. John, N. B. to Rivière-du-Loup in the Province of Quebec and erecting forts at Madawaska and at Ingall on Lake Temiscouata, barracks at St. Rose du Dégelis and at Grand Falls. The Americans on the other hand finished the Aroostook Road leading to Fort Kent.
The most important of Canadian forts was the one in Ed- mundston. From a height of 150 feet it dominated the St. John and Madawaska Valleys. The stone foundation was 40 by 30 feet and the upper story was a triangular frame. After the fire of 1868, the stones were used for the construction of a dam on the Madawaska River.
The fort at Fort Kent remains to tell the bravery of Maine
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citizens during the war of proclamations.
While negotiations were going on in Washington and Lon- don, political intrigues were a matter of course in the contested area. Baker appeared on the scene again. At Fort Kent in 1840, he presided at a meeting during which the American flag was hoisted to the top of the fort and the area was declared part of the Republic.
At the date of the treaty, two-thirds of Madawaska was under the control of American troops, all the south bank of the St. John River except the farmland of Simon Hébert of St. David.
Since 1831, England had practically abandoned the south bank of the St. John and had concentrated all its efforts on keep- ing the north shore.
Although London wanted to avoid any collision with the American Army, Governor Harvey of New Brunswick persistently tried to keep the entire territory of Madawaska. In a letter to the British Minister in Washington, Harvey mentioned that he would not provoke the American troops on condition that they stay away from the north shore of the St. John River.
Father Langevin of St. Basile wrote on June 15, 1841, that the people lived in fear and sometimes in hope as to what will happen regarding the boundary line, and ends, by saying, "Come what may, we prefer war than give one inch of Madawaska to the Americans."
The British cabinet appointed Lord Ashburton to meet Daniel Webster at Washington to settle once and for all the question of the frontiers.
The result of the deliberations between the two men is known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty signed in Washington, August 9, 1842. The present boundary line between New Brunswick and Maine was settled. It was practically the same line suggested by the King of Holland. By the treaty, 7,000 square miles and 2,000 subjects were ceded to he United States. The St. John River was left open to the two countries, and the colonists who had farm- lands in the territory had to get new deeds from one country or another, depending on what side of the river their land happened to be at the time of the treaty.
Baker who stayed on Canadian soil got used to his new alle- giance without however becoming naturalized. He became a prosperous and useful subject with his new fellowmen. He died in 1863 and was buried in a cemetery of his own denomination at St. Francis Ledges. In 1895, his remains were transferred to Fort Fairfield by the State of Maine which wanted to honor its hero.
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Captains Hébert, Lizotte, Duperry, Thibodeau, Thériault, and
- Major Bellefleur were buried in St. Basile's Cemetery.
Captain Francis Violette was buried in St. Bruno's Cemetery, Van Buren, Maine. Captain Romain Michaud rests in peace in St. Lucy's Cemetery, Frenchville, Maine.
The only relic that remains of this period of agitation is the Blockhouse at Fort Kent.
Loyal to its new allegiance, Madawaska, Maine grows and prospers amid an Anglo-Saxon population and the people are proud to be good American subjects.
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CHAPTER XV TREATY OF 1842 WAS TURNING POINT IN MADAWASKA HISTORY
The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was the turning point in history for the inhabitants of American Madawaska. They came under the control of another country and as a consequence they did not know how they would get along with their new fellowmen, the Americans. Great was their surprise when they found out in time of peace that their new countrymen were civil and hospi- table.
The Puritans had mitigated their characteristics as they did not have to be on the defensive regarding their creed. They had one aim and that was to develop their country and make it pros- perous. They wanted liberty of conscience for themselves and wanted it also for those who would respect theirs.
The new Americans adopted themselves very well to their new life under a new allegiance and ended by adopting the man- ners of their new fellowmen to pass them afterwards to their brethren across the St. John River who were deprived of the Pan American civilization. For half a century afterwards, many French Canadians got a longing for the States and migrated to the great industrial centers of New England.
Maine developed very rapidly. Its population increased from 96,000 in 1790 to 501,000 in 1840, of which 9,000 lived in Aroostook County. After a part of the Madawaska Territory had been annexed to Aroostook County in Maine, three regional dis- tricts or plantations were created: Van Buren, Madawaska, and Fort Kent, with Houlton as the county seat of Aroostook.
The first duty of Maine was to acquaint its new subjects with the constitution of the state. James Madigan, an Irish Catho- lic, who had a good education and who knew French, was sent to the St. John Valley as civil missionary. He held meetings and
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gave lectures on district administration, the Constitution of the United States and American civil government. During his first years in Madawaska he held several positions, such as postmaster, teacher, collector of taxes, and justice of the peace for the entire area. As soon as the different places produced qualified citizens to take over some of those duties, he was glad to let them ad- minister their own affairs. Each town was dotted with one or several schools, a post office, and an office for the justice of the peace.
The first Register of Deeds in the district was Louis Cormier of Grand Isle, who held that position for many years.
During the summer of 1844, a committee from Maine and Massachusetts came to Madawaska to give the deeds and titles to those who owned any property. All grants made by the New Brunswick Government were recognized and other districts were opened to colonization. The committee came back in 1854 for the same purpose.
New Brunswick on the other hand became interested in the welfare of the inhabitants who were living on the north bank of the St. John River, and did pretty much the same work as had been done by the American officials.
The report given by the committee shows the good will of the people. All the colonists were satisfied with the boundaries of their farmlands as well as their property titles. "The people," stated the report, "is prosperous, loyal, and relatively happy. It appears that their loyalty to the British Crown in the past is a good sign of their future loyalty toward the laws and institutions of the republic."
The committeeman from New Brunswick likewise made a report to his government and stated that the colony of Canadian Madawaska had been completely neglected. On this report, New Brunswick went to work to do something for that part of Mada- waska. The bridge over the Madawaska River in Edmundston, begun in 1837, was completed in 1847. At Grand Falls, a sus- pended bridge was erected in 1851. Six years later it fell down, but was rebuilt in 1860.
The highway between Grand Falls and Edmundston was completed about this time, for it is reported- that in 1856 the Governor of New Brunswick, Sir Edmund Walker Head, came from Fredericton to Edmundston by the highway. At St. Basile, Governor and Lady Head were guests of Father Langevin, and people were invited to the rectory for a social in honor of the dis- tinguished guests.
It was to honor this visit of Sir Edmund Head that a few ci-
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tizens of the place called their little village Edmundston which has since become the seat of Madawaska County.
In 1860, the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII, also visited Canadian Madawaska. This was a great event for all the people of the area. An address was read in English and then Honoré Bossé was invited to pay homage in the name of his French countrymen.
It is during the period following the treaty of 1842 that more colonists went to Van Buren and Frenchville, Maine and to St. Hilaire and St. Francis Ledges, New Brunswick. Eagle Lake and St. Agatha, Maine and St. André, Drummond, and Baker Lake, New Brunswick were getting enough settlers to have parishes established.
In 1846, Madawaska was called upon to elect a represen- tative to the Maine Legislature. Joseph D. Cyr, wealthy Van Buren farmer, was elected. His immediate successors were Francis Thi- bodeau, Paul Cyr, Joseph Nadeau, and Firmin Cyr.
The first representatives of Canadian Madawaska to the Fredericton Legislature were Francis Rice of Edmundston and Charles Watters of Grand Falls.
in 1850, the population of Canadian Madawaska was 3434, whereas American Madawaska had 3000 inhabitants. Ten years later, in 1860, the population had increased to 5000 and 3500 respectively. All in all there were 8500 inhabitants on both sides of the St. John River. The entire region was prosperous. The use of the forests brought wealth by furnishing employment to the lumberjacks and a market for farm products.
In the fall, heavy flat boats full of food supplies were drawn by horses to the lumber camps in the forests. All the men who were not needed at home went to the woods to cut logs and float them afterwards on the rivers.
Agriculture became more and more satisfactory by bringing an annual revenue to the region. Agricultural implements made the art easier and more economical. The only motors on the farms were windmills.
In 1850, there were twenty schoolhouses in the area. Five post offices from Grand Falls to the St. Francis River were at different locations on the highway. There were four on the Ameri- can side. The mail carrier used horse and buggy to deliver his mail. Upon his arrival at the post office, he would blow his bugle to let the people know that he had arrived. Wherever he went he could find a lodging place and through him the people got all the news and gossip of the region.
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Newspapers were scarce at this time and were a luxury. Post- masters and school teachers were the only ones who received "La Gozette de Quebec" or "Le Canadien", which were afterwards circulated among the people of the district.
After the settlement of the boundary line, Lower Canada wanted a share of the Madawaska Territory which had not been ceded to the United States, including part of Victoria and Resti- gouche Counties to Dalhousie on Chaleur Bay. Later on it limited these pretensions to Grand Falls, and finally to Madawaska River.
New Brunswick on the other hand claimed all the territory south of Notre Dame Mountains to the head of Chaleur Bay, that is, the entire Temiscouata Valley and part of Bonaventure County.
The people in that area wanted to stay in New Brunswick. London appointed a commission to end the controversy. The first arbitration was favorable to New Brunswick, but Quebec protested so loudly that another commission had to be appointed. This time Doctor Travers Twiss, representative of New Brunswick, and Tho- mas Falconer, lawyer from Quebec, and Judge Stephen Lushing- ton from London were appointed. The new boundaries on the Ca- nadian side were fixed 12 miles north of the St. John River and from Madawaska River to the St. Francis River opposite the Town of St. Francis, Maine.
The entire Madawaska Territory was therefore divided among three contestants: New Brunswick, Quebec and Maine.
After the treaty of 1842, American Madawaska remained under the jurisdiction of the Bishops in the Maritime Provinces. New Brunswick was erected into a diocese in 1843 with Bishop Dollard as head of the Fredericton See. The inhabitants did not delay long in demanding a separation from the diocese of New Brunswick to become subjects of the Boston Diocese. Several reasons were given to effect a change: The political division of the Madawaska Territory; the difficult crossing of the St. John River for several months in the year; the hope of getting a resi- dent pastor under another administration; the discount demand- ed on American bank notes by New Brunswick; the fact that Father Langevin of St. Basil, New Brunswick refused to Maine civil officials all statistics on births, marriages, and deaths of Catholics ministered by him.
These grievances originated at the Mission of Our Lady of Mount Carmel situated between St. David and Grand Isle, Maine almost opposite St. Basil, New Brunswick. Father Langevin kept on ministering to the religious needs of the new Americans. His
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successor was Father Hugh McGuirk who was more successful than his predecessor as having been acceptable to the people.
Bishop Fenwick of Boston, while on a visit to the St. John Valley in 1846, had located the site of a future chapel, and his successor, Bishop Fitzpatrick, two years later, July 16, 1848, de- dicated the chapel to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The people then began the propaganda of complete separa- tion from New Brunswick to belong to an American diocese. All the parishes on the American side formed an association for this purpose, an association known as "The Aroostook Catholic Asso- ciation" which launched a vigorous campaign. Receiving little encouragement from the Bishops of Halifax and St. John in whom Father Langevin had strong supporters, they addressed a petition to Boston where The Boston Pilot, a Catholic newspaper, gave them all the support they wanted.
The inhabitants also sent a petition to the Maine Legislature which sent it to the proper religious authorities.
In 1860, Bishop Rogers of Chatham, New Brunswick was authorized by Rome to report on the religious question of Ma- dawaska. As a result, Bishop Rogers administered American Ma- dawaska which remained by right under the jurisdiction of the St. John Bishop. This arrangement was agreable to the bishops of New Brunswick but did not help the situation. Therefore, the American Madawaskans addressed a petition to Pope Pius IX on November 2, 1864. There were 1018 signatures.
By a degree of the Propaganda at Rome signed by Cardinal Barnado August 16, 1870 American Madawaska came under the jurisdiction of the Most Reverend David W. Bacon, the first Bishop of Portland, Maine.
Two months after the promulgation of the decree, Bishop Bacon officially visited Madawaska where he was greeted by acclamation of the people who had gone to meet him at the Aroos- took River to escort him afterwards to Madawaska.
This separation as a logical consequence of the political di- vision of the territory was negotiated in Rome by Bishops Rogers, Sweeney, and Bacon who favored the separation.
The joy manifested by the people of Mount Carmel was not to last. The parishioners of St. Bruno's Church, Van Buren, Maine having decided to move their church and rectory from the Grand River site to the site of the present church near Violet Brook, Mount Carmel's chapel did not as a consequence answer the needs of the people and was abandoned completely when the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at Lille in Grand Isle was built in 1876. A cross marks the site of the old cemetery of Mount
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Carmel between Grand Isle and St. David of Madawaska.
The last years of Father Langevin's ministry were marked by the disagreement of the people of Mont-Carmel. The attitude of these colonists he had served for so many years greatly disap- pointed him. He died in April, 1857 at the age of 55. In his last will, he gave the greater part of his meager fortune to the college of "Sainte-Anne de la Pocatière" for the education of the co- lonies' young men. He deeded the land he had bought from Major Bellefleur in St. Basile to Msgr. Connolly for a convent. St. Basile is indepted to him for the foundation, plans, and material of a church as well as the first convent.
Father McKeagney, who was Father Langevin's assistant in St. Basile, became the second pastor in Van Buren. He succeeded Father Gosselin who had been pastor for fourteen years.
In St. Luce, Father Dionne came as pastor. During his ad- ministration, churches were built in St. Francis Ledges, St. Joseph of Wallagrass, and St. Louis of Fort Kent. In Fort Kent, the church was not finished when Father Dionne became sick and had to retire. He died in Kamouraska in 1861.
Father Charles Sweron of Belgium came to the Madawaska territory as missionary under the jurisdiction of Bishop Sweeney of St. John. He was given the parish of St. Francis Ledges where he stayed for three years. He then succeeded Father Dionne in St. Luce from 1859 until his death in 1908. For half a century this saintly man ministered to the needs of the Acadian people from St. Francis to Van Buren.
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