Sackville
By the early 1740s the
Acadians had established three settlements in the area: Pré des Bourcqs,
or Bourgs; Pré des Richards; and Tintamarre. Following the expulsion,
New England Planters, settlers from Yorkshire and Loyalists took their place.
In typical New England style, the first town meeting was held "on 20 July 1762
at the house of Charity Bishop."
Sackville township was
proclaimed in 1772. It was named for George Sackville Germain, first Viscount
Sackville (1716-1785), who served as colonial secretary from 1775 to 1782. The
name itself is Norman in origin, and may be traced to Saqueneville, near Rouen
in Northern France.
Sackville is the home of Mount Allison
University, established in 1839 and the first university within the present
Commonwealth to grant a degree to a woman. This honour fell to Annie Grace
Lockhart (1855-1916), who graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in
1875.
The town was incorporated in
1903.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Prince
of Wales
The area was settled following the
American Revolution by members of the Prince of Wales, Regiment, thus giving
rise to the place name. The settlement predates the visit of Edward, Prince of
Wales, to New Brunswick in 1860. The latter event is sometimes erroneously
cited as the explanation for the name.
Sources: Places
and Names of Atlantic Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
The
Wolves
The Wolves refer to a series of three
islands in Passamaquoddy Bay: Eastern Wolf Island, Flat Wolf Island and
Southern Wolf Island. They have been associated with the designation Wolf since
at least 1707 when they so appeared on the Captain Cyrian Southack
map.
However, there is a much earlier Glooscap legend
accounting for their presence: Once, while watching three wolves chasing a deer
and a moose, Glooscap noted that the pursued animals were tiring, whereupon he
changed them all into islands. Deer Island, New Brunswick and Moose Island,
Maine, remain side by side in the bay; the three wolves are still in pursuit
off shore.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Campbellton
Sir Archibald Campbell (1769-1843) served most
of his life in the British army, and, like so many officers, received his
reward in the form of of the lieutenant-governorship of New Brunswick
(1831-7).
Although historian James Hannay's indictment of
Campbell – "No governor of New Brunswick has ever been less in sympathy
with its inhabitants" – is overly harsh, Campbell's arbitary rule and
stubborn resistance to the transfer of crown land control to the province help
explain his unpopularity. One of his supporters, the merchant baron of the
Restigouche, Robert Ferguson (1768-1851), suggested that Martins Point be
renamed Campbellton for the
lieutenant-governor.
Sources: Places and Names of
Atlantic Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Pull
and Be Damned Narrows
The name arose from the
difficulty experienced in rowing or paddling against the ebb tide in the Letang
River, located east of St. george. A similar name, Push and Be Damned Rapids,
is found in Gloucester and Northumberland counties for rapids on the Nepisiguit
and Southwest Miramichi rivers. These names depict the problems encountered in
attempting to paddle a canoe against the on-rushing water. Sources: Places
and Names of Atlantic Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
St.
Croix River
The St. Croix River rises in the Chiputneticook
Lakes and flows 120 kilometres southeast to Passamaquoddy Bay, forming a part
of the boundary between New brunswick and
Maine.
Discovered in 1604 by Pierre Du Gua de Monts and
Samuel de Champlain, the first settlement in acadia was built on an island in
the river, now known as Dochet's Island. (It is today part of
Maine.)
They called both the island and the river
Sainte-Croix because, upon exploration, they found that the river had three
branches that formed an irregular cross. The first year on Ile Sainte-Croix was
a disaster. Of the 79 settlers who attempted to 'overwinter', 39 died from
scurvy by spring. In the summer of 1605 the settlement was abandoned, the
buildings dismantled and moved across the Bay of Fundy, to
Port-Royal.
For years following the American Revolution,
the boundary between New Brunswick and Maine was in dispute. In 1797 the
Americans put forward the claim that the St. Croixc River, mapped by Champlain,
was in reality the Magaguadavic, while the British insisted that the river then
called the Scoodie (now the St. Croix) constituted the boundary. The matter was
settled when Thomas Wright (ca 1740-1812), later surveyor general for Prince
Edward Island, discovered and excavated (with the aid of Champlain's map) the
foundation of the ill-fated outpost on Dochet's Island, thus verifying the
British claim.Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada (1996) by William
B. Hamilton.
Aroostock; Aroostock River
A
tributary of the Saint John River. The name orginates with the river and is of
uncertain Maliseet origin. It may be derived from "Woolastook," the Maliseet
designation for the St. John River. It appears first on DeRozier's map of 1699
as "Arassatuk" and has been translated as "good river for everything." The
contemporary spelling dates from 1854 with the establishment of the post
office.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Meductic
On the west bank of the
St. John River, near the Carleton County boundry. Derived from the Maliseet
Medoctic. Alan Rayburn gives its meaning as "the end, in reference to
the portage from Eel River."
The area was visited in May
1686 by Bishop Jean-Baptiste de La Croix de Chevrières de Saint-Vallier
(1653-1727) en route to Port-Royal on a pastoral visit. He wrote:
"Megogtek is the first fort in Acadia."
The present
spelling has benn in use since the mid
19th-century.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic
Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Bay du
Vin
William B. Hamilton writes: The bay is an
extension of Miramichi Bay. A number of theories exist to explain this place
name. The most logical is given by Alan rAyburn, who suggests that it is
"probably corrupted from baie des ventes meaning 'bay of winds' ... not
in reference to wine." Site of an Acadian refugee camp after the fall of Fort
Beauséjour and the expulsion of the Acadians in
1755.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Disappointment Lake & Mistake
Cove
Southeast of South Oromocto Lake,
Disappointment Lake is sometimes called by the name "Mistake Lake." In
Passamaquoddy, it was called Esquagamook, or "End
Lake."
Mistake Cove is adjacent to Long Reach. In Maliseet
Utsaluk or Skoee bodek. Mistake Cove was named by Capt. Edward McCoy, a
loyalist from conneticut. The cove is a narrow indentation of five kilometres
long and can be easily mistaken for a channel in Long Reach, which is exactly
what happen to Capt. McCoy, who drew just that conclusion in 1763. It was
formerly called "Coy's Mistake" and "McCoy's Mistake." The narrow marshy
terrian seperating it from Long Reach is Mistake Intervale. Mistake Point is
between Mistake Cove and Long Reach.
Sources: Places
and Names of Atlantic Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Peekaboo Corner
North of the
village of Norton. The local explanation for the name is that it refers to the
fact that a house once obscured the visibility of travellers at the crossroad
in the community.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic
Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Boiestown
"On the southwest
Miramichi, near the York County boundary. In 1832 Robert Cooney wrote: 'Mr.
Thomas Boies, an active and enterprising American, lately established a
village, popularly called Boiestown after its founder.' Established as a
company town, it included, in addition to the Boies sawmill, a theatre, a
non-denominational church, and workmen's houses. Boies sold his interest in the
company in 1835. the post office dates from
1940."
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Sussex
Corner
We are
not certain who named Sussex, N.B., but according to William B. Hamilton's
Places and Names of Atlantic Canada, Sussex was named in honour of
Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1842), sixth son of King George
III and Queen Charlotte. Any resemblance between England's Sussex and our own
appears to be a happy coincidence.
Sussex's first settlers
were from New England (another "England"!), and were later augmented by
loyalists.
The parish was established in 1786, and the
town incorporated in 1904.
Cape
Enragé
The name for the cape which
extends into the Shepody Bay is one of the oldest names on New Brunswick's Bay
of Fundy coast. It is an early French descriptive 'cape of rage,' indicating
that stormy conditions are often encountered in the area. Appears as C.
aragé (Franquelin-DeMeulles 1686) and as Cape Enraged (Des-Barres,
1779).
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Maquapit Lake
Maquapit Lake (near
Grand Lake) is of Maliseet origin. There seems to be agreement that it means
"red lake." Usually such place names are descriptive of the colouring of the
rocks or the water. I can find no verification of another meaning; however,
it's just possible that it "might" be a reference, as suggested, to the
prevalence of poison ivy and what it can do to the
skin!
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Mont -
Farlagne
Mont-Farlagne near Edmundston in the
former village of St-Jacques has no recorded origin. However, tales told by
local senior citizens speak of the probable origin of the name. In earlier
days, lots of land granted by the province usually began near the rivers, which
were in those days the man means of travelling. The other end of the lots was
commonly known as the "far line." Since records were in the English language,
French settlers mistook the designation as "Farlagne." Thus, today the mountain
back of St-Jacques is known as Mont-Farlagne and host the well-known Mont
Farlage Ski Resort.
Sources: Laurent and Francine
Jalbert.
Centreville
Northwest of Woodstock.
A common description found throughout Atlantic Canada and, in this instance,
indicative of its location equidistant from nearby villages. The post office
dates from 1862.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic
Canada (1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Campobello Island
Located in the Bay of Fundy, northwest of Grand Manan, Campobello Island was
originally known by the Passomoquoddy name Ebaghuit ("lying parallel to
the land.") and later called "Great Island of the Passamoquoddy" by Captain
Cyprian Southack in 1733. In 1770, a grant of the island was made to Captain
William Owen (1737-1778) of the Royal Navy. Owen named the island in 1770. He
later wrote:
"I renamed the island Campobello, the
latter partly complimentary and punning on the name of the Governor of the
Province, Lord William Campbell, and partly as applicable to the nature of the
soil and fine appearance of the island, Campobello in Spanish and Italian
being, I presume, synonymous to the French Beau-Champ."
Christmas Mountains
In the 1960's, Arthur F. Wightman, a provincial surveyor, was the
New Brunswick member of the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographical Names.
At the time he was contemplating 10 fairly prominent hills in north-central New
Brunswick.
Wightman was in his office in Fredericton.
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was playing on the
radio.
Wightman was studying a map. A squiggly line was
labelled North Pole Stream. That's what the lumbermen who worked the back
country had called it, because of its icy waters.
But it
was a stream of consciousness, triggered by the song on the radio, that
inspired Wightman. The 685-meter-high peak at the head of the stream would be,
naturally, North Pole Mountain. The other nine, he decided, would immortalize
the reindeer in the 1949 song.
Hampstead
Hampstead is located on
the old St. John River Road, Highway 102, approximately 65 kilometres from
Saint John. It was settled by loyalist from New York in 1786. Hampstead was
named by Richard Hewlett after Hampstead, Long Island, New
York.
Sources: Places and Names of Atlantic Canada
(1996) by William B. Hamilton.
Reversing Falls
Saint John's
Reversing Falls is created by the
rise and fall of the Bay of Fundy tide and the flow of water
from the St. John River.
This descriptive name has been
attributed by Alan Rayburn (who published Geographical Names of New Brunswick
in 1975) to poet Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, who wrote a description of its
reversible character in 1882.
The location is also
celebrated in Mi'kmaq lore and legend. Thus it was Gooscap who created the
falls when he cleared away a dam erected by enemies. Non-believers may still
see a piece of the dam, now called Partridge Island, at the harbour's
mouth.
The information below was taken
from the "Reader" found in the Times Globe every Saturday.
