By Sheila O’Kane

 

By the early 1820s Irish families were settling on land along the north side of the Tetagouche¹ River, five to ten kilometres northwest of the village of St Peters (now known as Bathurst in Gloucester County).

“Kinsale” and nearby “Youghal” Beach and the community of New “Bandon” – are also all community names in County Cork, Ireland. This suggests that some of the new settlers were from that same area of southeast Ireland.

The change of name from “Kinsale” to “North Tetagouche” is reported to have been the result of an administrative action on the part of Her Majesty’s Royal Mail (or whatever name Canada Post went by in years past). “North Tetagouche” suited their post office placement and mail delivery route needs… and so North Tetagouche it became.

In 1866, Kinsale Settlement was a farming community with 35 families and in 1871 it had a population of 200, but by 1898 it had been reduced to a population of 150²

From the original land grant map³ the following surnames were found east to west along the road. The current spelling is used first and variations on the name spelling is in brackets and if the families are still found in the area they are in bold:

Connelly, Kirby, Dempsey, Kelly (Kelley), Cowig, Alexander, McKernin, George (Gorge), Haggerty (Hagarty), Driscoll, Murphy, Maloney (Malouny), Collins, Calnan (Culnane, Calhlan, Calman, Calahan, Calden, Celnan), Power, Gain, O’Kane (Kean, Kane), Reardon (Riordan), Stack, Knight, Ferguson, Hall, Hays, Brennan, Canty, Sumner, Boyle, Dorane (Doren, Doran), James, Wood, Baldwin, Allison, Stevens, McNair, deBlois, Fergusson, McNutt, Hart, and Elhatton.

Here they are again in alphabetical order:

Alexander, Allison, Baldwin, Boyle, Brennan, (Culnane, Calhlan, Calman, Calahan, Calden, Celnan), Canty, Collins, Connelly, Cowig, deBlois, Dempsey, Dorane (Doren, Doran), Driscoll, Elhatton, Ferguson, Gain, George, Haggerty (Hagarty), Hall, Hart, Hays, James, Kelly (Kelley), Kirby, Knight, Maloney (Malouny) McNair, McNutt, Murphy, O’Kane (Kean, Kane), Power, Reardon (Riordan), Stack, Stevens, Sumner, and Wood.

Subsequent censuses include the following names (alternative name-spellings are in brackets):

Brown, Carter, Coughlan, Eghlan, Fitzpatrick, Ford, Hadley, Haley, Hicks, Howard, Keough (Koughs), Morrison, Radcliffe, Roherty (Roehathy), Shannon and Ward.

The remaining families are now just beginning to gather community genealogical information. A community works project a few years ago collected a few stories from some of the elders in the community and the work is ongoing. Here are a few of the interesting stories.

William Boyle, originally from Cork, first landed in Pennsylvania, USA. He probably came here because he had a relative (Edward Boyle?) already in this area. His great-grandchildren are still living here.⁴

James Brennan came from Ireland. When he arrived dockside for passage to British North America, the Captain of the ship refused passage to his toddler daughter. So Brennan returned home with the child to get his ‘gear’. He returned with a butter-churn and was allowed passage. The Captain didn’t know that inside the churn was the toddler he had refused. His descendants still live in the area and his daughter Mary (of the butter-churn) married and her descendants live in Balmoral, near Dalhousie, in Restigouche County.⁵

Timothy O’Kane was reported to be a teacher in Ireland and one of his sons (my grandfather) was a fiddler of some renown in this area.

John Culnane (present day spelled Calnan) came from Kinsale, County Cork. Mr Culnane (Calnan) was a Justice of the Peace for the area, and for a number of years, his house served as the local post office. His great-grandchildren still live in the area. The family has the original letter of reference from the “Sovereign of Kinsale dated 22 April, 1823. It says:

 

Sadly the John Calnan house is now gone from the region. It was believed to be the oldest structure in the community and until 2006 was still inhabited by Gregory Calnan (John’s grandson) and his family. Regrettably, the new property owners bulldozed this building into the ground.

There are still a number of houses standing in the area and are entered here in order of age:

Henry Hall/Patrick Power family home:
This house is over one hundred and fifty years old and is still a working farm. It is currently owned and operated by Margie and Peter deGraaff.

John and Elizabeth (Lordon) Power family home:
The log home burned the same day the couple’s first son was born – The ‘new’ house was then built and later expanded – it is over one hundred years old. Renovated and restored, it is still inhabited by descendants of John and Elizabeth Power.

Timothy Riorden home:

Built around 1857, this is still a hobby farm and owned and operated by Jimmy Boyle, a descendant of Timothy Riorden.

Jack and Mary (O’Kane) Murphy family home:

Built around the turn of the century, this was still inhabited by a grandson of Jack and Mary Murphy until 2006, at which time it was sold to a family from the province of Québec.

Patrick and Nelly (O’Connell) O’Kane home:
Built around 1913 by the teenage/adult sons, for their mother, it is currently uninhabited and is suffering the ravages of unrelenting break and enters.

Patrick Brennan home.

Mike Murphy home.

 

This project is ongoing and will be added to from time to time. I still would like to write on notable people from the area – including Monsignor Varrily and Father John Knight as well as the major bridges, grist and saw mills and legendary animals (horses) bred in the area. Also, more work is ongoing on the first families to leave the community and where they went from here.

 

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When one thinks of “Irish New Brunswick”, the Miramichi region or the city of Saint John comes to mind. Not Westmorland County. This is certainly true today. However, during the peak Irish immigration period (1815-1850) – and for a couple of generations that followed, Westmorland County was very Irish indeed.

Westmorland County is nestled in the south-eastern corner of New Brunswick. Her physical landscape includes the extensive marshlands along the Tantramar along the Nova Scotia border and the Petitcodiac and Memramcook River systems in the southeast. The landscape then gradually rises to the worn down remnants of the Appalachian Mountain Chain in the northwest corner at Indian Mountain.
 

Good arable farm lands along the Tantramar marshes, the Memramcook and Petitcodiac river systems had already been settled by the time the Irish came in any great numbers after 1815. Along the coastal Northumberland Strait, Acadians – those who had avoided the deportation in 1755 – as well as those who had returned – had settled much of the land. Most of the new Irish arrivals were forced inland on lands that were rich in timber, but poor for agriculture. Some lands near the inland streams weren’t too bad, but most land grants were on lots that, once the forest cover was removed, was not viable – much of it was on clay-packed bog or stone strewn upland with a very small cover of topsoil.

The earliest Irish settlement in Westmorland County and perhaps in the province of New Brunswick was the community of Petitcodiac, on the inland marshlands of the headwaters of the river of the same name. Settled in the 1760’s, this community was planted by Ulster Scots who had originally wanted grants in the Truro-Onslow area of Nova Scotia but were disillusioned and came in-land instead. Some of the family names associated with Petitcodiac were Alwards, Bleakneys (Blakeneys), Cochranes and Camerons.¹

Irish immigrants came into Westmorland County from every direction. Some came up the Shepody Trail from Saint John to Alma, in Albert County and then up-river. Others came along the Westmorland Road via Hampton, Sussex, Petitcodiac and Salisbury – but to call it a road at this time would be an exaggeration. Most trails in New Brunswick – whether they were ‘roads’ or simple ‘portages’ were a long miserable trek. Relating his experience with the Westmorland Road, Lt. Col. Joseph Gubbins in his 1811 journal wrote:

Some immigrants came via Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Others hopped off timber ships in ports such as Alma, Shediac, and Cocagne.

The largest Irish community in Westmorland County was Melrose on Route 116 on the Tormentine peninsula in the southeastern portion of the county.

Known at first as simply Emigrant Road or Emigrant Settlement, the community was briefly called Savagetown, after one of the families there, and eventually became Melrose. This Irish community was unique in many ways. It was planned and early lots were free. Most importantly, many of the settler families were related in Ireland before coming here – many came from the Bally-na-muck area of the Parish of Morragh (Murragh today) in County Cork. The related families included the family names Lane, Savage, Murphy, Hartnett, Mahoney, Carty, Barry, Donovan, and Shea. Other family names associated with Melrose were Carroll, Stack, Hickey, Houlahan, Hayes, Sweeney, Hennessey, Holland, and Noonan, among others.⁴ The community became so large that it was later divided into two communities – Melrose and Malden. Today, there is little that remains except for St Bartholemew’s RC Church and the graveyard where many were laid to rest.

The second largest concentration of Irish in Westmorland County were settled north of Moncton – in what was simply known as “Irishtown” for many years – because everyone in Moncton referred to the lands north of Moncton as simply ‘Irishtown’ – but in reality, ‘Irishtown’ was really four Irish communities that were separate and unique – but located close together in terms of distance. They included Irishtown proper, McQuades, O’Neills and eventually, Tankville.

Irishtown is located on Route 115 between Moncton and Notre Dame. It lies along the headwaters of the Shediac River. It began with a petition to the NB government on January 23, 1821 to begin a community by eight individuals:

The petition was not granted because it was not detailed enough and eventually through the 1820’s, only three of the eight petitioners actually settled in the community, suggesting that some of the petitioners were actually attempting to acquire crown lands for the timber rather than settling.

Nonetheless, Irishtown grew rapidly and settlers came into the community from mostly the southern counties of Ireland. Some were related to the settlers in Melrose as well. Before long, there was a church, named after the 11th century archbishop of Dublin, St Lawrence O’Toole. This would serve all of the Irish communities north of Moncton including McQuades, O’Neills and Tankville as well.

Names found in Irishtown were Gallagher, Hennessy, Larracey, Donovan, Hogan, Eddington, Kennedy, Fitzgerald, Cronin, Marley, among many others.

O’Neills was west of Irishtown on Indian Mountain and it was also settled primarily from the south of Ireland. It was named after the family who kept the post office in the community, the O’Neills, of whom there were a number of families. Other families here were Fitzsimmons, Kelly, Delahunt, McFarlane and Gaines.

Just a bit north of Irishtown on McLaughlin road (Route 495), a road that ran parallel to the Irishtown Road, was the community of McQuades, again named after one of the first settler families. Many of the McQuade families had arrived in Saint John in May 1832 and came from the same area in Ireland – the parish of Donagh in County Monaghan. They included the families – McQuade, Anketell, Donaghy (later spelled Donahue/Donahoe), McDonald, Foley, Barr, Kelly and Doyle. Other families joined the community later on: Kervin, Lowry, Griffin and Lannigan, among others. The settlement was located between the headwaters of the Shediac and Cocagne rivers.

Tankville is located between Moncton and Irishtown – on primarily marshland which separated Moncton from Irishtown. It was originally referred to as Irishtown as well but it took on it’s own identity as the community grew. When the Moncton & Bouctouche railway went through the community, it stopped there for water and so the settlement became known as Tankville – after the water tank. Most settled here after the demise of the shipbuilding industry in Moncton in the 1860’s. There were the Irish families of Anketell, Crossman, Delahunt, Hannagan, Kennedy, Carmichael, and Morrison but there were also non-Irish families such as the Sellick and Russell families, among others.

Seven miles northwest of Salisbury, were the Irish communities of Fredericton Road (sometimes known as Leaman’s Hill) and Keenan Hill. Located on Route 112, this was once a sizeable community as well and was served by it’s own parish (Our Lady of Ransom) and a school. Today all that remains is the cemetery, which is well-maintained. Some of the family names here were O’Sullivan, Murphy, Keohan, Monaghan, Wheaton, McHale, Keenan, Flynn and Donovan and McQuirk.⁶

West of Moncton was the community of Shediac Road, on what is now Route 134. Family names here were Connors, Fogarty, McDevitt, McDonald, O’Neal, and Walsh among others.

In Botsford Portage, inland from Cap Pelé, there were the families Butler, Joyce, Blanch, Butler, Whalen among others. This settlement is now virtually abandoned.

South of Moncton, along the eastern side of the Petitcodiac River was the settlement of Dungiven, now known as Little Dover. There were Carters, Powells, O’Neals, and McCarthys.

Along the Memramcook River system, there were also the Irish communities in Calhoun, Gaytons and McGinley Corner. Although separate communities amongst Acadian ones, they were closely related socially. The family names Sullivan, Power, McManus, McKelvie, McGinley, Atkinson, Gayton(Keating), Cassidy, Casey, Doherty, Sweeny, Sherry were settled here, among others.⁷

Irish immigrants also settled amongst the Acadians in settlements along the Northumberland Strait. There were the Friels, Downings, McGraths, and O’Briens in the Cap Pelé-Shemogue region and the Murphys and Roaches in Shediac. Also there were the Donovans, Powers, O’Briens and Caseys in Shediac Bridge. Sorting out some of these families are difficult. Over the years they became very francophone and the priests would change their names over time. Many Caseys are now Caissies; Powers became Poirier or Porelle; O’Brien became Brine or Brun; Downing became Donell or Donelle; McGraths became Magraw or Magras. Many of these families no longer are even aware of their Irish roots.

There was one thing common in all of the Irish communities throughout Westmorland County. They were all in-land, on smaller streams, on poor or non-arable lands, and away from viable markets. The most viable cash crop on their land grants was the timber thereon and when that was gone, life was very difficult. Most practiced no more than subsistence farming, supplementing their incomes by working in the woods, building roads, or working in nearby Moncton when work was plentiful.

Better roads and the railways came to most of these communities. The railway was touted as God’s salvation to most – it would bring them closer to markets and make their farms more viable. Instead they bled their communities of people – rolling them off down the rail lines to either Moncton or the “Boston States”. Gradually, the communities emptied. Many went into Moncton to find new jobs working for the railway repair sheds. Many more hopped the train to Saint John and then the boat to New England, and the factories of the market towns surrounding Boston.

Westmorland County was dotted with several Irish communities during the nineteenth century. The family names are still around – and many of their descendants live in Moncton. But the communities are mostly abandoned now and only exist in name for the most part.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cail, Shirley Landry, Village of Tankville, Moncton, Elmwood North Community Association, 2004.

Gaudet, Gustave, La Vallée Memramcook : Hier-Aujourd’hui, Chapman’s Corner : Chedic Ltée, 1984.

Houston, Cecil J and William J Smyth, Irish Emigration and Canadian Settlement, Patterns, Links and Letters, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990.

Leger, Maurice, and Oscar Bourque, Souvenir of the 50th Anniversary of the Archdiocese of Moncton, Sackville, Tribune Press Ltd., 1986.

—— “Petition for Lands by Thos Laracy and seven others” Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, F4190, RS107.

Savage, Rev Edward, The Story of Melrose, privately published, circa 1900.

Soucoup, Dan, “Westmorland Road today no more than a memory”, in Times-Transcript, Moncton, June 15, 1887.

Steeves, Harold, Our Heritage, MacDougall, Irishtown, Scotch Settlement, Privately published, 1984.

 

Kent County is located on the east coast of New Brunswick between Northumberland and Westmorland counties¹. The lands are fairly fertile along its river systems and coastline, but most inland areas away from the rivers are fairly boggy and remain virtually uninhabited to this day. It was on this land that some Irish settlers were given land grants and it is not a surprise to anyone that they moved on to other communities. Those who received grants along the river systems were the lucky ones.

Kent County is not generally associated with Irish settlement. However, there were a number of Irish communities established here throughout the nineteenth century. Not all of them were successful however, as they were fairly isolated and away from the main populated regions of the county. Land along the coastline and river systems had already been settled, and lands had been granted here primarily to Acadian, English and Scottish settlers. There were, as well, a number of Protestant Irish settlers established on lands along the Richibucto River and her tributaries.

Other than South Branch, Main River and Targettville, most Irish arrivals settled in small pockets among the Acadians who had already settled much of this region. This was certainly the case in Grand-Digue, Cocagne, Notre Dame (once known in French as “Notre-Dame des Irlandais”), Bouctouche, Ste-Anne-de-Kent, and Richibucto. The Irish also settled amongst other settler groups such as the Scots and English, along the Richibucto River system near Mundleville, and in Main River, and Kouchibouguac. Along the Rogersville Road (Route 126) there were also some Irish families in Adamsville.

The small hamlet of Kouchibouguac is located on Route 11 between St Margaret’s and St-Louis-de-Kent. Remnants of the large sawmill can still be seen in the community from the busy days of shipbuilding. Many of the Irish who came here were late arrivals or first generation Canadians , children of other Irish settlers from communities throughout southeastern New Brunswick. The cemetery of the St James mission church has many of the original family names such as Leonard, Kelly, Ryan, McIntyre, Murphy, Sullivan and Harrington.

There were Irish settled all along the Richibucto River system and its tributaries, the St Nicholas, Bass and Molus Rivers – in places like Mundleville, Main River, Targettville and Bass River. Some of the names in this area were McDermott, Roach, Donaher, Fahey, Hanrahan, Henneberry, and Roach, among others. In the early years of the settlement they travelled to mass by river to what is known today as Chapel Point, the home of St Patrick’s Chapel, one of the oldest catholic parishes in New Brunswick. Built in the 1820’s or early 1830’s, this church

is still with us today but is now closed, except for a mass or two during the summer months. It is beautiful in its simplicity with hand hewn shingles, homemade nails and floor and wall boards so wide that they must have been cut from virgin forest.

 

The Chapel Point cemetery is very well maintained and provides detailed information on many of the Irish families of the area.

Richibucto, along with nearby Rexton (then known as Kingston) became the second largest shipbuilding centre in New Brunswick after Saint John. There were a number of Irish families living in this area including Barnett, Brittain, O’Leary, Flanagan, Sutton, Donnelly, Wallace, McInerney, Harnett, Grogan, Connaughton, Lannigan, McAuley, McLaughlin and Dwyer.

Some became rather prominent in industry as well as politically.

Henry O’Leary, son of Theophilius O’Leary and Ellen Power was born in Castledown, Barehaven County Cork on 13 May 1836. Educated in Ireland, upon arriving here settled in Richibucto where he became a successful merchant, shipbuilder, lumberman and shipper. At one time he owned up to 30 lobster and salmon canning plants in the province. A Liberal, he represented Kent County in the NB Legislature and later in the House of Commons.

Nearby in Rexton, there were two Irish families that would leave their mark on the world –the Rt. Hon. Andrew Bonar Law, son of Rev James Law of Portrush, County Antrim, was born in Rexton but studied and moved to Britain and eventually would become Prime Minister of Britain – but just for a short time – from October 1922 to May 1923. The Laws, through their mother’s side were also related to another prominent Rexton family – the McInerneys. Both families had roots in Ballycastle, County Antrim and were related through the Ballycastle McDonalds, who had settled in South Branch, Kent County. ²

 

 

One of the largest Irish settlements was South Branch on Route 495 between Rexton and Ste-Marie-de Kent. Named because it was located on the south branch of the St Nicholas River, which flows into the Richibucto, one of the first settlers there was a John Blanchville who was already settled in South Branch in June, 1827, when he was granted 100 acres.³ The settlement attracted a number of settler families from all over Ireland, and some of them were related in Ireland before emigrating. They included the Shortalls of Castle Comer, County Kilkenny.⁴ Oliver Shortall was related to Blanchville and married to Julia Byrne and emigrated around 1844-45 – just before the Great Famine. There were also Chrystals (Ahamlish, County Sligo), McDonalds (Ballycastle, County Antrim), Burns (Dublin), Evans (Kerry), Fitzgeralds (Rathpatrick, County Kilkenny), Ryans (County Limerick), Markeys, Collins, Currans, Woods, Carberrys, Aylwards, Dunns, Plumes, among others.

South Branch was a farming and lumbering community and still has some of the original families living in the area. The community built a church in 1847 – St Peter’s, which is still in use today, a mission of Immaculate Conception Parish of Rexton. The cemetery is very well maintained and many of the stones contain valuable genealogical information – including immigrant’s place of origin in Ireland.

Just south of South Branch is the community of Balla Philip, named after the village of Ballyphilip in County Wexford and the hometown of the Murphy family.

In 1847, Patrick Murphy, his wife, and four sons and three daughters came [to the South Branch Balla Philip area.] One son had died at sea and tragically the mother succumbed to ship fever seven days after reaching here. She was the first person buried in the South Branch cemetery. Fortunately, Patrick’s brother had preceded him to the area and with him and his two sons, Thomas and Philip, a large area of farmland was cleared.

Just south of Balla Philip was the community of Murphy Settlement on the Murphy Road – named after the same family. This community is abandoned today.

Inland on Route 485, and southwest of St Paul, was the community of Sweeneyville, named after Bishop John Sweeny (1821-1901) who in 1864 secured lands for Irish settlers in the area. Sadly, Sweeneyville and the nearby Bishops Lands (now called Terrain de L’Évèque) were isolated and although it had a population of about 100 in 1898, with a post office, it is abandoned today – as is Bishop’s Land. The land grant map for this area suggests that very few Irish who actually settled on these planned settlements – the land was very boggy.⁵

Between Rexton and Bouctouche there were a number of Irish families living amongst the Acadians – there were Cadegans, Whalens, Butlers, and Grattans.

The community of Bouctouche today is associated with the Acadian literary folk hero “La Sagouine” but in the 1820’s, families with such names as , Ryan, Nowlan, McPhelin, McLaughlin, McFadden, Mooney Lynn and Carroll had settled here. The McPhelins had come from County Galway and the McLaughlins from County Donegal. Both families would leave their mark and were politically active in the county and beyond.⁶

On the south side of the Little Bouctouche River on Route 115 are the communities of McKee’s Mills, settled by Presbyterian Scots from Northern Ireland and the settlement of St Gregoire. This community, now gone, was called Doherty Mills where there were 100 Irish living in 1871 including Woods, and Dohertys.

On the scenic drive from Bouctouche to Cocagne on Route 535 one passes through Cormierville, which was once known as Gailey.

South of Bouctouche on Highway 134 is the Acadian community of Cocagne where there were Downings, Longs and Dysarts from Northern Ireland. Long would become a major industrialist in the village with a shipyard, and several mills and a farm. The Dysart family would produce a Premier of New Brunswick with Allison Albert Dysart – the first Irish Catholic to hold the office.⁷ There were also Carrolls, and inland towards Notre-Dame-de-Kent there were the including Sullivans, Fays and Gradys.

East of Cocagne, on the Northumberland Strait, is the summer cottage community known as Caissie Cape.⁸ It was named after an Irish mercenary who came to the Chignecto area in the 1600’s with French Acadian families. His name, sometimes spelled Quessy in the old records, is found on the land grant maps here along with his descendants Belony, Philip, Urban, Francis and Gabriel. In Caissie Cape and the neighbouring community of Grande-Digue, there were a number of Irish settlers including Connors, Fogartys, McGraths, O’Briens (Brun today), Downing (Donelle today) and Powers (Poirier today). Many of these families blended into the Acadian fabric of their communities and today consider themselves Acadian rather than Irish. In some cases, the priests would literally change their Irish names so that they would sound more francophone. Someone named Patrick would become Patrice; Mary Jane would become Marie Geneviève etc… Also last names were changed as well making it very difficult to extricate who was Irish and who was Acadian in the parish records.⁹

There were a number of Irish on Route 126 – locally referred to as the Rogersville Road. In Adamsville there were the Delahuntys, Englands, Swifts, among others.

Although Kent County today is primarily identified as an Acadian region of the province, it can be seen that many of the communities in the nineteenth century had heavy concentrations of Irish settlers – both Catholic and Protestant. However, as in many other areas of the province, Irish settlements were relegated to the ‘back end of nowhere’ and many left the area so that very few of these communities would be considered Irish today. Those that still have an Irish flavour, like South Branch, have so few families left that they are no longer communities but simply a drive through the countryside past small farms and fields, interspersed with forested areas where once another farm may have been located.

The Irish did indeed settle in Kent County. Some remain in many of the settlements today. Others – those who settled amongst the Acadian population became francophones– like the Nowlans, Donelles, Bruns and Caissies and McGraths. Not long ago, I ran into a fellow in Moncton, with roots in Grande-Digue, Kent County, who was a Brun (O’Brien) on his father’s side and his mother was a Donelle (Downing). When I suggested to him that he was Irish, he adamantly clung to his Acadian roots… Maybe he should dig a little deeper.

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Archidiocese of Moncton, Parish Records, Rexton, Richibucto Village, Bouctouche, Cocagne, Adamsville, St Paul, Cocagne and Notre Dame.

Department of Natural Resources, Province of New Brunswick, Land Grant Map, Kent County, #109.

Gallagher, Edward L, History of Old Kingston and Rexton, 1934.

Hynes, Leo J, The Catholic Irish of New Brunswick, 1783-1900, Fredericton, Privately Published, 1992.

Shortall, Robert J, The Shortall Family Tree, unpublished manuscript

 

 

The Irish people who made Albert County their home came here after first arriving in the City of Saint John, in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, sometimes after living in those areas for a time. If they arrived in Saint John they then made their way up the Shepody Road, also known as the Immigrant Road, often walking the long distance. Some went towards the area of Hastings, which is now in Fundy National Park, but mostly they settled in a place they called New Ireland, with names such as Galway and Kerry within this community reflecting their beloved homeland. Hastings and New Ireland were both hilly areas with elevations of approximately 1250 feet. Small pockets of the Irish people coming from Nova Scotia and Saint John by boat settled in near the water in Point Wolfe and Goose River, also now within Fundy National Park. Here, weir fishing was begun in 1840 by Brian Doherty. Shad was also plentiful until about 1880, when it was supposed that the sawdust from the many mills led to their decline.²

 

Always conscious of religious differences, many of the Protestant Irish who had settled in New Ireland eventually moved out towards Alma, Brookville, Sinclair Hill and Hebron. There they seemed to blend in with the Americans and Nova Scotians, who were obtaining grants and settling the area of Salmon River, later known as Alma. Still, many of the people living there today are descendants of these early Irish immigrants. Some of the Anglican Irish remained in the eastern part of New Ireland and erected a church there. There is a record of a marriage performed there in 1855 in St. Stephen’s Church by a Rev. Mr. A. J. Creswell.³

 

As New Brunswick was anxious to have the province settled, they granted land to people whom they felt qualified for such; people who would clear and settle it. Settlers often were given a “location ticket” first, allowing them to live on the land. Later, if improvements were made they received the land grant, usually of 100 acres.⁴ When the land was first cleared of trees in New Ireland, it was then burned. Then they planted a crop which was known as “burnt land potato”. These potatoes were very scabby and barely edible.

 

Later some of the people had fairly large farms, with big barns for hay. They kept cows, made hay and grew crops such as corn, oats, barley and buckwheat. In 1847 Bernard Duffy petitioned to erect a grist mill. Some of these crops were then processed at this mill which was located on McGee (later Duffy) Brook, near the Forty Five River. At that time they used oxen instead of horses for transporting their crops to the mill.

 

In the Clover Hill part of New Ireland, which was located northwest of Teahan’s Corner on the road to Elgin, there were many maple trees. These were not cut down, but were tapped in the spring for sap. The sap was then boiled down for syrup and maple sugar, which was then sold in Saint John. At one time a stage coach went through these areas coming from Saint John and continuing on to Hopewell Cape, or on to the Bend. This was mostly for mail, but it sometimes carried passengers. Also, near Clover Hill can be found the Mines Road. Elderly residents recall the old smelters which are long gone but there are still traces of the mines where small amounts of minerals such as gold, silver and copper were extracted.

 

There has been a long history of logging in the area and it has been one of the most important industries in Alma and New Ireland. There are many lakes, brooks and rivers in the area and most of these rivers had a dam built on them. The men cut the logs, hauled them to the river by oxen or horses, where they were piled high. In the spring, the logs were released into the rushing water (called a freshet) and on their way to a mill. This was dangerous work and many a man was badly hurt, or lost his life, in the “river drive”. In New Ireland the logs were sent down the Forty Five River, so named because it took approximately 45 minutes for them to get to Alma. Farther along, the Forty Five flowed into the Salmon River. In Hastings the logs often were sent down the East Branch, Sweeney, Rat Tail or Foster Brook to the Point Wolfe River. At these destinations the lumber was milled and shipped to many far away places.

 

Some of the people who lived near the water worked on the ships that were being built there. For a few, becoming a sailor on one of these ships was the life they chose.

Regardless of where the Irish settled in the lower end of Albert County, they eked out a living from the land, mostly by farming and lumbering. They picked the stones off the land, and then used them for stone fences to mark their lots of land and for fireplaces and cellars for their houses. The houses were made of hewn lumber or sometimes logs. The log homes were caulked with moss, and birch bark or buckwheat hulls were used for insulation.

 

 

Vital to any community is a church and school. These two buildings were nearly always located adjacent to each other. In the 1851 census book there are nine schools listed for Harvey, which then included Alma Parish. (Harvey and Alma are the two parishes where the majority of the Irish settled. Two hundred and fifty one immigrants of Irish nationality are listed for Harvey Parish, out of the 377 Irish who came to the county. And those 377 are the largest number of the total 723 immigrants from all countries who arrived here).⁵ Many of the teachers in the schools came from Ireland. John Cairnes arrived in 1836 and applied for a licence. He, and also Thomas Morrissey in later years, taught at the Shepody Road School, located near the Anglican Church, for many years in the late 1870’s⁶.

 

In 1866 Bishop John Sweeney of Saint John appointed Fr. David O’Brien as parish priest in the New Ireland area, and a chapel was built on the present site of the New Ireland Cemetery. In 1868 Fr. Robert Welsh replaced Fr. O’Brien and finished the Catholic mission church.⁷ Near this church, later known as St. Agatha’s Catholic Church, another school was located – the New Ireland School, also known as the Doran School. John Barrett taught here. A native of County Mayo, he was one of the earliest teachers in New Ireland, applying for a licence in 1831. In later years Frances Doherty, whose father came from Ireland, was one of the teachers who taught in another school located near Teahan’s Corner. This school continued in operation until 1923, sometimes under different names, but finally known as the Galway School. The number of pupils in these schools ranged from 20 to 40, and they ranged in age from four to twenty years of age.⁸

 

The Irish people brought some of their culture and customs to their new homeland. Bills paid from the estate of Rosie Cusack show that on the day of her death, goods purchased from A.C. Peck included 14 yards of” shirting,” sugar and oil, one “reel,” 18 pipes and six plugs of tobacco.⁹ – articles and goods very important for the Irish wake. Neighbouring women experienced in laying out the body, would gather at the house of the deceased where they would wash the body, dress it in a robe, and place a crucifix on the breast and rosary beads in the fingers. Sheets were hung over the bed and along two or three sides, creating a “dead wall” which separated the corpse from the mourners. After kneeling to say a prayer beside the deceased, the mourners would retire to the other side to honour their late friend with storytelling, eating, drinking, singing and perhaps even dancing. Clay pipes and tobacco were given to all and the house soon filled with smoke in honour of the dead. The body was never left alone, and the rosary was recited. The clocks were stopped as a mark of respect.¹⁰ Even with a lot of hard work, there was still time for entertainment. This was usually in the homes, with people playing accordion, mouth-organ, fiddle or sometimes just singing. Some of this music was a form of singing called “doodle’ where the person sang the tune, but no words. And if they sang words they were often long songs telling a story, perhaps brought here from Ireland.

Contact Winnie Smith at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

——, Anglican Church Records, Albert County (Albert County Museum), no date.

Breault, Ann, and Winnie Smith, Of the Country – The Story of a McKinley Family, St Andrews: St Croix Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd., 2003.

Breault, Ann, and Winnie Smith, School Records: Selected Schools from Alma and Harvey Parishes, Albert County, NB, Privately published, 2008.

Fellows, Robert, 1851 Census, Fredericton, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, 1972

 

Long, Heather, Good Green Hope: The Catholic Irish Settlers of Albert County New Brunswick, Halifax, Privately published, 1995.

Oram, Fr., Brief Sketch of Catholic Missions in Albert Co. NB, from Historical Parish Files, Albert County Missions, Saint John Diocesan Archives, Saint John, NB.

——, “The Irish Wake” from http://www,bcpl.net/-hutmanpr/wake.htm1#Main.