| Sackville | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| — Town — | |||
| Sackville Waterfowl Park | |||
|
|||
| Nickname(s): Cultural Crossroads of the Maritimes, Bagtown | |||
| Motto: Where You Belong | |||
|
Sackville
|
|||
| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Canada | ||
| Province | New Brunswick | ||
| County | Westmorland | ||
| Established | 1762 | ||
| Incorporated | January 4, 1903 | ||
| Electoral Districts Federal |
Beauséjour |
||
| Provincial | Tantramar | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Town Council | ||
| • Mayor | Pat Estabrooks | ||
| • MLA | Mike Olscamp (PC) | ||
| • MP | Dominic LeBlanc (L) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 74.32 km2 (28.7 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | Sea level to 32 m (0 to 105 ft) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| • Total | 5,411 | ||
| • Density | 72.8/km2 (188.6/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym | Sackvillean | ||
| Time zone | Atlantic (AST) (UTC-4) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | ADT (UTC-3) | ||
| Canadian Postal code | E4L | ||
| Area code(s) | 506 | ||
| Telephone Exchange | 364, 536, 939 | ||
| NTS Map | 021H16 | ||
| GNBC Code | DAEAM | ||
| Website | http://www.sackville.com/ | ||
Sackville (2006 population: 5,411) is a Canadian town in Westmorland County, New Brunswick.
Mount Allison University is located in the town. Historically home to two foundries manufacturing stoves and furnaces, the economy is now driven by the university and tourism.
Contents |
Sackville history (and that of the Tantramar Region) can be divided into a number of periods reflecting settlement patterns in the area, and then the evolution of the community: Mi'kmaq or pre-European, Acadian, Planter and Yorkshire, and United Empire Loyalists, followed by the so-called Age of Sail, the foundry period and finally contemporary Sackville.
French settlement first began in the Maritimes in 1604, but it was not until the early eighteenth century that Acadian settlement reached the Tantramar. Acadian communities had spread slowly from Port Royal up the Nova Scotian Fundy Coast via Grand Pré, and finally on to the Maccan area. Much of the area already settled by Acadians was similar to the Tantramar's highly fertile salt marshes.
The Acadians built a system of dykes and sluices (known as les aboiteaux) that allowed them to cultivate the very fertile marshlands. A number of communities grew, including Pré de Bourque (thought by some to be closest to present-day downtown Sackville), Tintamarre (present-day Middle or Upper Sackville), and Beaubassin (present-day Fort Lawrence, roughly where the Nova Scotia visitor's centre is located). Despite great prosperity, the Acadian period ended tragically in 1755 with the deportation of the Acadians. The seeds of the deportation, however, had been sown much earlier.
In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht ended the War of the Spanish Succession (or Queen Ann's War) and granted control of Nova Scotia to the British. Unfortunately the treaty was very vague on where Nova Scotia stopped and French Acadia began. The British interpreted the boundary to be close to the present-day boundary between New Brunswick and Quebec. The French interpreted the boundary as the Isthmus of Chignecto, which agreed with a larger policy of French containment of British settlement in North America. The Tantramar, and the Acadian settlements there, became ground zero for the nine-year conflict that became the Seven Years' War (or the French and Indian War).
In the intervening peace both the British and the French constructed forts on the Isthmus of Chignecto. The French built Fort Beauséjour on a ridge overlooking the Cumberland Basin and the Tantramar marshes on what is today Aulac Ridge. The British built Fort Lawrence on the next ridge (just over the Missiguash River, the present-day border between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia).
Although the French had ceded Nova Scotia to the British, the Acadians continued to live and prosper. For the most part, the Acadians seem to have been free of imperial allegiance, either to the French or to the British. Between the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht and the outbreak of hostilities in the 1750s, numerous attempts were made by the British authorities to secure oaths of allegiance from the Acadians. Although most Acadians were willing to swear oaths of allegiance to the British Crown, it was always on the condition of neutrality in the event of any conflict between Britain and France. The Acadians also refused overtures by the French to aid in military action against the British.
Fort Beauséjour was captured by the British in June, 1755. Several Acadians were found among the French soldiers at the fort. The British claimed this proved that the Acadians had not only violated their neutrality, but that they were openly on the side of the French. Soon after, Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence ordered the deportation of the Acadians and the destruction of their homes and property. Many were scattered across North America, although some returned at the conclusion of hostilities. It is believed that a number of Acadians hid in the woods of south-eastern New Brunswick with the aid of the Mi’kmaq. The diaspora of the Acadians has become known as le Grand Dérangement. (See more at Great Upheaval).
With much of the population of Nova Scotia deported, British authorities looked to other sources of settlers. In 1758 Governor Lawrence issued a proclamation calling for New England planters, or settlers. Enlisted men finishing their military service at Fort Cumberland, as Fort Beauséjour had been renamed, were also offered land grants in the area. Waves of New Englanders arrived throughout the 1760s.
As part of the settlement campaign, New England-style townships were surveyed in the area from the early 1760s. Sackville Township was named for George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville (1716–1785), a member of parliament as well as a military commander. Many Planters were ultimately unhappy with the area however, and returned to New England.
Hoping for more settlers, Lieutenant Governor Michael Franklin made a visit to Yorkshire in 1769-'70. Over a thousand settlers emigrated from Yorkshire to settle in Nova Scotia throughout the 1770s. Largely tenant farmers, the "Yorkshiremen" bought much of their land from departing New England Planters. Although immigrants of the "Yorkshire Immigration" settled across Nova Scotia, they had the largest impact on the Tantramar area.
Both the Planters and the Yorkshire settlers brought the non-conformist denominations to the Tantramar. A group of Planters from Swansea, Massachusetts formed the first Baptist congregation in the colonies that later joined Canada in what is now Middle Sackville when they arrived in 1763. The first Methodist congregation in the colonies that later joined Canada was formed in the Tantramar from Yorkshire immigrants in 1772. They constructed the earliest Methodist church in the colonies that later joined Canada at Point de Bute on the Aulac Ridge, a few kilometers from Sackville, in 1788.
With the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775, some in the Tantramar desired to join forces with the patriots and make Nova Scotia the fourteenth state of a new republic. Led by Jonathan Eddy, a group of rebels laid siege to Fort Cumberland. Despite attempts to raise assistance from the Continental Army, the rebels went unassisted. Their siege was somewhat disorganized, and British soldiers were able to slip through the lines and send word of the attack to Halifax. The rebels hung on until British reinforcements finally arrived from Halifax following a harrowing journey. The loyalty of the Yorkshire settlers was of tremendous aid in defeating the Eddy Rebellion. The rebels were punished and many of their homes and possessions seized. See more at Eddy Rebellion and the Battle of Fort Cumberland.
Following the war, large numbers of refugees, the United Empire Loyalists, moved north into British North America, some to the Sackville area. Over 32,000 of them settled in the colony of Nova Scotia. Many Loyalists settled in mainland Nova Scotia and soon requested the creation of their own colony. The Colony of New Brunswick was created in August 1784. Fearing the sort of fierce and republican dedication to democracy that had developed in the Thirteen Colonies to the south, the New England-style townships, including Sackville, were quickly abolished.
Until about 1840, the Sackville economy was largely focused on subsistence agriculture. A sawmill and gristmill were located on a tributary of the Tantramar River at what is now Silver Lake in Middle Sackville. Settlers and various services moved to the surrounding area. In the early 1840s, a public wharf was constructed on the lower Tantramar River that fostered the emergence of Sackville as a notable centre of wooden ship trade and construction.
There were three major shipyards in the district, which thrived to about 1870, though the last vessel was launched around the end of the century. In all, 160 vessels were launched including one steamship, called the Westmorland. The largest ship was the Sarah Dixon launched in 1856 at 1,465 tons.[1]
In 1872 the Intercolonial Railway project changed the Sackville area forever. This line was to follow the shortest route between Truro and Moncton, however political interference by Edward Barron Chandler and other politicians in nearby Dorchester saw the route for the railway altered to run through their community. It had been intended that the original route for the line would run north across the Tantramar Marshes from Fort Beauséjour to what is currently Middle Sackville and then on through the lowlands to Scoudouc and Moncton. The Dorchester diversion had the railway skirt the western edge of the marsh to the area near the public wharf and shipyards on the lower Tantramar River before continuing on to Frosty Hollow, Dorchester and the Memramcook Valley.
The new location of the Intercolonial Railway resulted in the commercial and business centre of Sackville being relocated from the mill district at Silver Lake to the current town centre, closer to the railway line. The New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island Railway was constructed a decade later to connect Cape Tormentine, the closest point of mainland North America to Prince Edward Island, with the Intercolonial's main line. Sackville had been vying with nearby Amherst to be the junction point for the line to Cape Tormentine, however local shipbuilder and industrialist entrepreneur Josiah Wood ensured that Sackville was chosen as the junction.
The National Policy of Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald's administration in the 1870s-1880s saw various industries cluster along the Intercolonial Railway in Amherst and Sackville. Sackville became home to two independent foundries; the Enterprise Foundry, and the Fawcett Foundry. Both produced stoves and related products with both businesses operating for more than a century. These competitors eventually merged and the Fawcett Foundry was closed and the foundry demolished in the 1980s; this brownfield site at the corner of Main and King streets was eventually purchased by Mount Allison University for campus expansion. The remaining Enterprise-Fawcett Foundry is still operational near the town's railway station and is one of the few remaining stove foundries in the world.[1]
Sackville grew in importance as a railway junction after Canadian National Railways established a dedicated railcar ferry service at Cape Tormentine in 1917. The Sackville railway yard and station were constantly busy until the opening of publicly-funded highways following World War II started a slow decline. The abandonment of rail service on Prince Edward Island in 1989 saw the line to Cape Tormentine removed at the same time as the Trans-Canada Highway was being expanded to a 4-lane freeway. As the railway consolidated to a single mainline running through town, various industrial businesses left, including the headquarters of Atlantic Wholesalers and the Fawcett Foundry, among others.
On Friday, August 11, 2006, downtown Sackville fell victim to a severe fire on the corner of York and Main streets. Many businesses housed in the Dixon block, were burnt beyond salvation or sustained severe smoke, fire, and/or water damage. No injuries were reported. Mount Allison University launched "Project Rebuild" shortly after the fire, hoping to fundraise enough money to give the town of Sackville a head start in reconstruction and cleanup.
In 2007, the Department of Canadian Heritage declared Sackville the 2008 Cultural Capital of Canada. Heritage Minister Beverly J. Oda credited the town's selection to "programming that highlights the municipality's artistic creativity, regional history, community achievements, and natural charm." [2]
| Climate data for Sackville, NB | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 14 (57) |
13 (55) |
17.5 (63.5) |
23 (73) |
28 (82) |
28 (82) |
30.5 (86.9) |
31.5 (88.7) |
20.5 (68.9) |
23.5 (74.3) |
22 (72) |
15.5 (59.9) |
31.5 (88.7) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −3.2 (26.2) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
1.8 (35.2) |
7.7 (45.9) |
14.4 (57.9) |
19.1 (66.4) |
22.4 (72.3) |
22.1 (71.8) |
18 (64) |
12.1 (53.8) |
5.9 (42.6) |
−0.3 (31.5) |
9.8 (49.6) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −7.6 (18.3) |
−6.5 (20.3) |
−2.3 (27.9) |
3.5 (38.3) |
9.4 (48.9) |
14.1 (57.4) |
17.5 (63.5) |
17.5 (63.5) |
13.7 (56.7) |
8.1 (46.6) |
2.4 (36.3) |
−4.2 (24.4) |
5.5 (41.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −12 (10) |
−10.8 (12.6) |
−6.2 (20.8) |
−0.7 (30.7) |
4.4 (39.9) |
9 (48) |
12.6 (54.7) |
12.8 (55.0) |
9.3 (48.7) |
4 (39) |
−1.1 (30.0) |
−8.1 (17.4) |
1.1 (34.0) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −31 (−24) |
−29 (−20) |
−25.5 (−13.9) |
−13 (9) |
−3.5 (25.7) |
−0.5 (31.1) |
5 (41) |
4.5 (40.1) |
−2 (28) |
−4.5 (23.9) |
−16 (3) |
−27 (−17) |
−31 (−24) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 103.7 (4.083) |
73.8 (2.906) |
94.1 (3.705) |
89.8 (3.535) |
105.8 (4.165) |
94.7 (3.728) |
89.8 (3.535) |
84.6 (3.331) |
110.6 (4.354) |
108.1 (4.256) |
109.5 (4.311) |
99.5 (3.917) |
1,163.9 (45.823) |
| Source: climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca[3] | |||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||