Page Title

History of the
Madawaska Acadians

ACADIA
The name was first used by explorer Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 for the Outer
Banks area of North Carolina. In 1548, the mapmaker Gastaldi moved the
designation north, to what is now Maine and Atlantic Canada. The colony of Acadia
itself was founded in 1604, when the King of France granted a ten-year monopoly
on all fishing and fur trading in the region to Pierre Duguay, Sieur de Monts.

The first settlement, on the unsheltered St. Croix (Dochet) Island, quickly proved
inappropriate, and the colony, buildings and all, moved in 1605 to a location on the
shore, Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal, N.S.), in 1605. De Monts had had enough
however, and returned to France. His proprietorship was revoked and the colony
(with its seat officially at Port Royal) languished without leadership from 1607 to
1610, when its former governor, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt, resumed
control. Acadia was soon involved in the imperial struggle that would end -- in
America -- with the French and Indian Wars.

Although destroyed in 1613 by English colonists under Samuel Argall, Port Royal
was rebuilt, and the colony prospered with its fertile fisheries offshore, ample furs
in the forests, and in particular, its very productive dyke-protected fields. Many of
the settlers were from the Poitou region of France, where the dyking of the Vendee
marshes had been carried out for centuries, so this was familiar work for them.
Working together, the Acadians were able to build and maintain complex dykes
(the tops of which doubled as roadways) and create productive farmland from salt
water marshes that the British passed by as useless. The British prefered to cut
down all the trees on a piece of land and farm it until it was barren, then find
another plot of land. Ironically, the British looked upon the Acadians as lazy
because of this efficiency, and disdainfully called them "Les Defrichheurs D’eau,"
"the movers of water."

But Acadia, located between the competing colonies of Quebec and New England,
was at the center of international strife in the New World. In 1628/29, Sir William
Alexander, with a colony of Scottish Calvinists, seized Port Royal, holding it until
1632, when the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye returned the area to France. With
peace established between France and England, Cardinal Richelieu ordered
Captain Isaac de Razilly to take possession of the colony. Razilly was named
Lieutenant Governor of New France and with the help of his brother Claude, he
recruited skilled workers -- artisans, journalists, soldiers -- and some families to
strenghten the colony. They first settled at La Hève, where they stayed for four
years before resettling at Port Royal in 1636.

In 1654, the British reoccupied Acadia. In 1670, the French regained control. In
1710 the British reclaimed the colony, changing its name to its modern designation
of "Nova Scotia", and finally, in 1713, France ceded Acadia for good to Britain
through the Treaty of Utrecht.

Through all this time, the actual colonists had struggled to remain neutral,
regardless of who the "official" rulers of their territory was. In fact, the French
settlements in Acadia essentially governed themselves and actually flourished in
relative isolation for over 100 years. With the final British possession of all of
Acadian Canada in 1713, the Acadians entered a 40 year period of uneasy
relations with their new rulers, refusing to swear allegiance to the English King or
to take up arms against their brethren in French Quebec. Their stubborn refusal to
take sides earned them the title of French Neutrals. In 1755, their situation took a
turn for the worse, as Le Grand Derangement began....

On September 5, 1755, under the orders of Lieutenant Governor Lawrence, the
British Governor of Acadia, the Acadian farmers of Nova Scotia were forcibly
arrested and crowded onto English ships -- to be scattered throughout the British
empire. Families were separated, possessions burned, and shipboard conditions
were crowded and unhealthy. As many as half of the Acadians rounded up and put
on these ships would die before reaching port.

But not all the Acadians were living in Nova Scotia. A number of families had
already settled by the old Fort Latour, across the Bay of Fundy from their
neighbors in Nova Scotia, up the St. John River (New Brunswick). The river had
appeared on a map as early as 1604, when Champlain charted it as a member of
De Monts' expedition. In 1631, LaTour built a fort at its mouth, which d'Aulnay
Charnisay destroyed 10 years later as part of their internal maneuvering for
control of Acadia. Charnisay then built another fort across the harbor, which the
English eventually took.

The Malecite settlement on the river formed the original base for the Acadians.
The Malecites were a very warlike people, much more so than the neighboring
Micmacs, and they tended to work in league with the Native American tribes of
Maine and Canada against the British colonists of New England. In fact, the name
Malecite is derived from the Micmac term "Malesse'jik," meaning, "he speaks
badly," because the Micmacs found the Maliseet language so difficult to
understand. The Malecites, on the other hand, called themselves Wabannakai, or
Men of the East, so it is not too much of a stretch to find them related to the
Abanaki of Maine...

In 1701, the population of the St. John settlement was only about 50 people. In
1732, a larger group of Acadians, fleeing the British forces who had taken
possession of Nova Scotia under the Treaty of Utrecht, settled in the area where
Old Government House in Fredericton stands today, and called their community
"Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas (Ste. Anne's Point). A 1733 French census counted
83 people in 15 families. By 1755 and the Grand Derangement, approximately two
thousand Acadians were scattered over several small villages along the river -- at
Grimrose, Jemseg, Nashwack, Ecoupag, and Ste. Anne. Despite constant British
harassment, the lower St. John Valley remained the only significant Acadian
settlement in New Brunswick at the time.

Charles
Boishébert

In part, the community survived because of a combination of the resourcefulness
of the Acadian settlers, their strong friendship with the local Native Americans, and
the dashing presence of the French military leader Charles des Champs de
Boishébert. In 1749, the French authorities at Quebec sent 30 men to the St. John
River under Boishébert's leadership to take possession of the territory at its mouth
and prevent the English from settling there. He maintained a fort near Grimrose,
and many of the settlers (and refugees from other parts of Acadia) settled in the
area under his protection.

An accomplished woodsman and sailor, Boishébert was a major thorn in the side of
the British and he was involved in the only major success by the Acadians against
the British. In 1755, the British transport Pembroke became the only Deportation
ship ever captured by the Acadians, and this ship and its settlers remained in the
St. John River community under Boishébert's protection.

LOWER ST. JOHN RIVER

General Monckton continued to raid the area, however, and eventually forced out
Boishébert. As Monckton's Rangers raided and burned down the Acadian villages,
they massacred a number of settlers they caught -- armed or unarmed. Ste-Anne
was torched, and the surviving settlers fled to the forests once again, to live in
hiding for the next eight years.

With the assistance of Boishébert and their local Malecite allies, the Acadians
managed to survive. In 1761, it is reported that as many as 40 Acadians still lived
in the area of Ste-Anne. Records show that two of those families are those of
Joseph and François Martin.

The 1763 Treaty of Paris allowed many deportees to return to their homes, but on
arrival they discovered that their old lands were now inhabited by English colonists,
and Ste-Anne had become Fredericton. Determined to live in peace, they moved
farther up the St. John valley to Ecoupag, the French Village, and Kennebeccassis.

The exile community here was fairly successful for a time. The Acadians cleared
land and settled down, hoping to have their land grants approved by the British
government, now that the war with France was over.

Some of the more experienced couriers de bois served as "express carriers" --
essentially mail carriers who kept open the lines of communication between
Quebec and Halifax. As such, they were quite familiar with the waters of the upper
St. John River, and the fertile valley on either side.

This knowledge would prove critical in the years ahead. In 1785, English Loyalists,
fleeing American territory in the aftermath of the American Revolution, would
forcibly evict the Acadians from their new homes. The government officials in
Quebec and New Brunswick, despite earlier promises of protection, offered no
redress. Some of the displaced families we know of are: Simon Joseph Daigle,
Louis Mercure, Paul Mazerolle, Mathurin Mazerolle, François Hébert, François
Godin, Jean Baptiste Daigle, Baptiste Viennaux, Louis Lejeune, Pierre Pinette,
Joseph King (Roi), Alexis Thibodeau, the two Martin families, Pierre Mazerolle and
Mathurin Gotreau. There is even a "Pierre Michaud" in residence, probably a
Kamouraska courier de bois.

Louis Mercure and Simon Joseph Daigle, as experienced "express carriers",
organized the 24 leading families, including the Martin, Cyr, Lizotte and Dubé
families, to petition the government for permission to sell their lands for the
promise of two hundred acres on the upper St. John River to the head of each
family. Determined to live unaccosted, the families traveled up the St. John Valley,
beyond Grand Falls -- where the British ships could not follow -- to the area called
"the Madawaska", the Native American word for "the Land of the Porcupine..."
More than half of the Acadian colony of the lower St. John would leave within the
year for the Madawaska settlement. Others moved to Memramcook, Miramichi,
Tracadie, Caraquet and Pisiquit.

In June of 1785, upon setting foot on the banks of the St. John River at St. David,
Maine (near the modern town of Madawaska), Joseph Daigle directed the erecting
of a large wooden cross at their landing site -- this was the first Acadian Cross.
The Acadian refugees had finally found a permanent home, after 30 years of
persecution and flight. By 1790, the British would finally affirm the land claims for
the Acadian families on the banks of the St. John.

By the time of their 1831 survey for the State of Maine, Deane and Kavanagh
reported that "Almost all of [the Madawaska settlers] tan their own leather, make
their own shoe-packs and Canada boots, and make also their implements of
husbandry, which are of rude construction and poor. The females manufacture the
wool and flax of the raw material, until it is made into garments to wear, or other
articles for domestic use. They also manufacture large quantities of Sugar from the
rock-maple. Many hunt in autumn. The men appear to live easy and work only a
portion of the time, which must be attributed to the productiveness of the soil. The
women appear in all the houses to be spinning, weaving, preparing the cloth, and
making it up for use..."

There is a misconception that, because the Acadians had little formal education,
they were only simple farmers without other skills. Actually, they were great
improvisors and skilled craftsmen. It's interesting to look at the passenger lists of
the Acadians who were shipped to Louisiana as a reference, since many of them
listed an occupation for each head of family and adult child. The majority of
Acadian males on these lists, the fathers, brothers and cousins of the Madawaska
Acadians, listed their occupation as either sailor or carpenter.

The Acadians had to make due with what the local environment provided. Trade
goods from the outside world were scarce and very expensive. With no blacksmith
and little metal, they made their tools, boats and homes from wood and became
expert carvers and joiners. The English looked down upon the Acadian settlers for
having such simple needs, and considered their wooden homes and tools to be
quite primitive. But the Acadian houses of the St. John valley were actually very
sturdy and innovative in their construction. The Acadians from Ste-Anne had been,
like Joseph Daigle, fishermen and boatbuilders, as well as farmers. So, using their
woodworking skill, they built their houses using traditional "ship's knees" for
support, and wooden walls of squared logs caulked like boats -- with a waterproof
mixture of flax, unburnt lime, and buckwheat seed. Even the cross beams were cut
slightly narrower at their ends, just like the sturdy boats they used to navigate the
highway at their front door, the St. John River.

CREST OF THE LEGENDARY MADAWASKA REPUBLIC

This is a composite of the three local flags of the Madawaska Republic -- the
yellow Star of Mary of the 1884 Acadian flag, the porcupine and gold stars of the
Madawaska Historical Society's 1985 bicentennial, and the eagle and red stars of
John Baker's 1827 Aroostook Republic. It also manages to include the red, blue
and white colors of both the French Tricolor and the US Stars and Stripes, and the
red, gold and blue colors of the New Brunswick provincial flag.

History Of The Madawaska Acadians