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LOCAL HISTORY
Saint John is the largest city
in New Brunswick, Canada. Located at the mouth of the Saint John River,on the
Bay of Fundy.
Saint John Harbour was
first entered probably in 1524 by Gomez (A Spaniard) and named Rio De La
Buelta. Earlier still Basque, Breton and Norman Fisherman are to believed to
have made voyages to the Bay of Fundy in the early
1500s.
History records that the French explorers Sieur de
Monts and Samuel
De Champlain, arrived at the mouth of what is now the St. John River on
June 24, 1604, feast day of St. John the Baptist and named the River in the
Saint's honour.
Portland Point, near where H.M.C.S.
Brunswicker is located, is an important historic landmark on the east side of
Saint John Harbour. It was here that the first permanent french settlement in
that part of Acadia now known as New Brunswick was
made.
Fortified by
Charles La
Tour, who was made Lieutenant Governor in 1631 to 1635 and engaged in trade
with the natives.
It was occupied in 1758 by the British
and renamed Fort
Frederick. The latter was destroyed by American revolutionaries in 1775 but
was replaced by Fort Howe (1777-1778),
whose block house has since been reconstructed. The settlement began to
develope in 1783, when the United Empire Loyalists established Parr Town and
Carleton
around the harbour. In 1785 the two communities amalgamated as Saint John
(after the river) to become Canada's first incorporated
city.
Benedict
Arnold, the American revolutionary traitor, lived here in 1787 to 1791.
During the War of 1812, Martello Tower
was built on Lancaster Heights for harbour defense; it is now a national
historic site.
A year round ice-free harbour fostered
shipping, shipbuilding ( the famous
Ship Marco Polo to name one ), and fishing; but economic
growth was checked by a disastrous fire of 1877 and a declining lumber trade.
Saint John recovered, absorbed the city of Portland in 1889 the city and parish
of Lancaster and part of Simonds parish in 1966, and became the province's
commercial, manufacturing, and transportation center, with shipping facilities
and one of the world's longest (1,050 feet) dry docks.
The Irish
Story, thousands of Irish immigrants were quarantined on
Partridge
Island during the time of the Great Famine in Ireland. Many died fleeing
across the ocean packed in unsanitary cargo vessels. Hundreds more who survived
the journey died on the overcrowded island with inadequate shelter, medical
care, sanitation, and drinking water.
Those hardy enough
to make it ashore alive faced continued poverty, prejudice, and great
challenges in finding gainful employment in the "Loyalist" city. An Irish
community was established in Saint John during the late 19th century owing to
the arrival of these Irish immigrants, but it diminished somewhat over the
years as immigrants who had the means to travel further abroad sought better
opportunities in the west and south in the United States.
The
great
fire of 1877 reduced much of the city to ashes, and although foreign
nations and cities raised relief funds to help rebuild, the Irish labourers who
had arrived en masse only 30 years before and who continued to arrive in droves
played no small role in rebuilding the destroyed Loyalist city of Saint John
back up again, this time in brick and stone.
A local
phenomenon is the "Reversing
Falls" at the river's mouth, where strong tidal fluctuations of 30 feet
reverse the rivers flow for several miles upstream twice daily( this is truly a
site to witness). The New Brunswick Museum located in downtown Saint John has
an extensive collection of colonial relics, ship model of the shipbuilding era,
a variety of galleries and features a 45-foot right whale and
mastodon!
Saint John has taken great pride in it's history
and has restored many of the original building and homes of the early settlers,
a walk down
Prince
William St. is like taking a walk in the past.
From Champlain
to Lord:
A political history of New Brunswick
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