The first Anglican church in the Miramichi area of New Brunswick was erected in the early 1800s to serve both Newcastle and Chatham. The Reverend Samuel Bacon oversaw the construction of the Gothic-style church on a site located near both communities. The first service was held at St. Paul's Church at Christmas 1825. Within a short time, members of the congregation expressed dissatisfaction with the distance they had to travel to attend services. In the 1830s plans were drawn to construct St. Mary's Chapel-of-Ease at Chatham to serve Anglicans residing there. Built by contractors Thomas Hodgson and S. J. Frost, the church opened in 1836.

A dispute soon arose over where to hold vestry meetings -- in the parish church of St. Paul's or in St. Mary's Chapel. In 1889 the Reverend David Forsyth took charge of the parish and oversaw renovations to both churches. The chapel was totally destroyed by fire on 12 June 1964 and was not immediately rebuilt due to declining membership. The rectory remained on the site until about 1975 when it was demolished. Eventually, a new St. Mary's Chapel was built of brick and stone on the original site. In 1981 both St. Mary's Chapel and St. Paul's Church were under the leadership of the same priest.

Source:
"David's Kingdom" by W. A. Spray, 1979

T. McAvity & Sons Limited can trace its origins to an ironmongers business which James McAvity opened in Saint John in 1834. In 1838 he added to his business by purchasing a hardware shop owned by James Hendricks, a local merchant and his former employer. The McAvity establishments expanded again in 1863 when James' sons, James H. and William, established brass and iron foundries which produced bronze bells, rudder braces for sailing vessels, and other items.

The Great Fire of 1877 destroyed the McAvity shops and foundries, but the businesses were soon revived. The firm shifted its focus from the declining shipbuilding industry to the rising railway industry. The new foundries manufactured plumbing material along with bearings, inspirators, whistles, locomotive valves and other products for the railroads. In 1907 the businesses were incorporated as T. McAvity & Sons Limited.

After the Great War the foundries, machine shop, and head office were brought together in a factory on the outskirts of Saint John that had produced shells for the war. Branch offices of the company were soon opened elsewhere in Canada and overseas (London). In 1955 a foundry was purchased in Medicine Hat, Alberta. G. Clifford McAvity, a grandson of Thomas McAvity, sold the family business to Crane Canada Limited in 1961.

A railway link between the St. Lawrence River and the Maritimes was being discussed as early as the 1840s. In 1865 a route proposed by Sandford Fleming through northern New Brunswick, which bypassed the St. John River valley and the existing Saint John to Shediac line, was adopted. The construction was guaranteed under the British North America Act of 1867 (section 145). Construction was completed by 1876. The line was never a commercial success, but nonetheless continued to grow by incorporating other lines such as the European and North American Railway which ran from Saint John to Shediac. Until 1918 it was administered by the federal government and in 1919 it became part of Canadian National Railways.

The first almshouse in Saint John, New Brunswick was established in 1800. A new building was acquired in 1819 and used until 1843. An act to "provide for the erection of an alms house and work house, and to provide a public infirmary for the city and county of Saint John" was passed in 1838. It was paid for by an assessment from the city and the parishes of Saint John, Portland, Lancaster and St. Martin's, and £1000 from the provincial government. In 1841 a site in the parish of Simonds was chosen and the contract awarded to Ewen Cameron and Edward Roche for £3330.

From the beginning, there were problems with the management. The commissioners directly responsible for inspection were appointed by the Lieutenant Governor in Council but supervised by the county Sessions and later by County Council. It was also included in the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace and the grand jury. The resulting conflicts lead to continual controversy. The first keeper was William Craig who remained until 1850. In 1846 he was tried and acquitted on charges of rape and larceny and his financial dealings were frequently suspect. He was followed by Robert Reed and shortly after, by William Cunningham. Cunningham, who remained for 33 years, was also dogged by rumours of corrupt and incompetent dealings The treatment of the inmates was often bad. All types of people were housed together and treated the same, including the old, children, women, the mentally disturbed and the physically ill.

In 1897 another act was passed in an attempt to improve conditions, but it appears to have been unsuccessful. In 1907 the name was changed to Municipal Home. In 1937 an in-depth investigation by John A. Barry, H.C. Schofield and Neil MacKellar identified such problems as the deterioration of the building, under-use of the farm, improper feeding and clothing, mixing of the able and the sick and conflict of interest by the Commissioners and Superintendent. If conditions improved, it was not for long since in 1949 another investigation by John Chard, Charles MacIlveen and Ernest Patterson revealed similar problems.

By 1957, the Municipal Home had evolved into a chronic care facility but conditions were still deplorable, according to a complaint by E.F. Mullay. In 1960 the Social Assistance Act replaced the Municipal Homes Act and by 1965 the Home had ceased operation.

Albion Steam Works was founded in 1836 in Nashwaaksis, New Brunswick, across the St. John River from Fredericton. Co-founders William Braithwaite and William P. Kay, originally doing business as Braithwaite, Kay and Company, combined a variety of business ventures to form the firm. They constructed a brewery, oat and flour mills, a smithy and a cooperage, machinery for garding (gardening or farming), a shop to turn wood and iron, circular sawing for joiners work, facilities to cut hay and straw and for bruising oats. All the company's machinery was run by steam engines. In fact, the owners' primary intention was to open a general engineering firm to serve as an outlet for the sale of steam engines and mill machinery.

In addition, Albion Steam Works operated a general mercantile business. Albion Store sold a variety of imported products, as well as locally produced goods, such as pork, fish, stoves, vinegar, grain, flour, beer, coal, and plaster of Paris. The Works also offered architectural design services, which included estimates for building construction. This work was probably completed by co-founder William Porden Kay, who, in the 1840s and 1850s, would be employed as a colonial architect by his uncle, the governor of Tasmania, to design a number of public buildings there. Merchants John V. Thurger and Robert Chestnut served as company agents in Saint John and Fredericton respectively. In July 1837 the firm expanded when a store opened on upper Queen Street, Fredericton, with Anthony Lockwood as agent. A drying kiln and a barley mill were added in September of the same year.

The services of Albion Steam Works were in demand in the late 1830s. These records suggest that the volume of business increased to the point that the firm acquired the schooner "Mary Ann" to transport raw materials upriver and end products to market. The ledgers contain a number of accounts pertaining to the provisioning of the "Mary Ann". The date Albion Steam Works ceased operation is unknown.

Sources: Daniel Johnson's Vital Statistics from New Brunswick Newspapers on-line; MC248; and other records.

The United Commercial Travelers Association of America, an international philanthropic and fraternal organization, was established in 1888. Members of the association are drawn from the ranks of business people and professionals who want to improve their communities by assisting youths, the mentally challenged, and senior citizens through the sponsorship of drug awareness, senior citizens, and cancer education programmes; safety poster contests; and other activities.

In 1947 Frank S. Corbin, then president of the Maritime Commercial Travelers Association, encouraged the citizens of Fredericton to organize a branch of the association there. A charter was issued to Fredericton Council #746. In the 1970s Council #746 worked to build and staff a school for mentally challenged individuals at Fredericton. Members of the Fredericton Council have sponsored local baseball and softball teams and have offered university and college entrance scholarships to high school students. In 2001 the United Commercial Travelers of America Fredericton Council #746, now a member of the Atlantic Grand Council, is still committed to the motto "people helping people."

Source: United Commercial Travelers Fredericton Council #746
Web site: www.brunnet.net/uct746/

Thomas H. Swift (1873-1954) was born in Goshen, Albert County, the son of Michael Swift and his wife, Jennie Breen. In 1904 he married Lena Jacquart, the daughter of Peter Jacquart, who had emigrated to New Brunswick from the coal mining regions of Belgium. In the same year Michael Swift moved the whole family to Minto, Sunbury County. Thomas worked for the King Lumber Company as a mechanical engineer until 1920.

In 1924, Thomas and his wife formed a registered partnership with their two sons, Rene J. Swift (b. 1905) and Victor Swift (b. 1906) to open a general store and later a hotel in a building purchased from King Lumber Company. When the building burned down in 1929, the store was rebuilt and continued to operate until 1973. The business greatly expanded in the 1930s, selling groceries, furniture, clothing, building supplies and feeds and grains.

The Swifts were also interested in coal mining and acquired some mining leases which were operated for them by Nat Branscombe as the Lockowan Coal Company from 1928-1949. The company also bought coal from other mining operations for resale. It was not a large operation and was eventually sold to the D.W and R.A. Mills Company who took over mining operations in Minto in the 1940s. Between 1937 and 1940, Rene Swift was one of the partners in the short-lived Peerless Construction Company.

Source:
Marjorie Taylor-Morell, Of Mines and Men, 1981

The temperance movement began in the early nineteenth century by encouraging moderation in the use of alcohol. By the middle of the nineteenth century, many temperance societies advocated total abstinence and the prohibition of the sale of alcohol. Support for the movement were strong in Protestant and anglophone areas of New Brunswick.

Queens Own Lodge No. 96 of the British Order of Good Templars, was formed at Cambridge, Queens County in 1866 and remained active until at least 1881. It must have become inactive for several years, because in 1886 it was reorganized as the Queens Own Lodge, No. 184 of the Independent Order of Good Templars, an American group which had begun in Utica, New York in 1851. The Order was a fraternal organization with secret rituals and initiations similar to other lodge organizations.

From the very beginning the Queens Own Lodge included both men and women. Five of the 13 executive members elected at the first meeting in 1866 were women. Although interest in temperance societies declined steeply after 1890, the Queens Own Lodge appears to have been active until at least 1933.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, begun by Dr. Thomas Bray of the Church of England to support missionary activity in the New England colonies, was chartered in 1701. After the American Revolution, its activities in America were restricted to British North America. The Society provided funds to build churches and rectories, to pay clergy, to support schools and to purchase books. It provided New Brunswick with its earliest clergymen and church infrastructure.

In 1938 the Reverend F. M. T. Palgrave made this calendar of the Society's correspondence related to New Brunswick. Palgrave was an etymologist and missionary with the Church Missionary Society. He had served in Stikine in Northern British Columbia from 1896-1902.

The Order of the Knights of Pythias, an international non-sectarian fraternal order, was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1864 by Justus H. Rathbone. It was the first fraternal order to receive a charter from the United States government under a special act of Congress. The order's primary objectives -- to promote friendship and to relieve suffering -- are supported by its distinguishing principles of friendship, charity and benevolence. Both the national flag and the Bible have an important place in lodge rituals.

Interest in the Knights of Pythias spread rapidly, and by the turn of the 19th century hundreds of lodges had been established in the United States and Canada. Apparently Marysville Lodge No. 18 was functioning as early as 1905; however, its by-laws were not formally approved until August 1928. Marysville Lodge supported a number of charitable causes and established a widows and orphans' fund to assist members' families. Wines and liquors were excluded from lodge functions and gambling was forbidden in lodge rooms at Castle Hall.

The Knights were active elsewhere in the Maritimes. By 1935 lodges had been established at Milltown, St. Andrews, Moncton, Woodstock, Juniper, Campbellton, Sackville, Saint John, Sussex, St. Stephen, and Fredericton in New Brunswick; at Sydney, Halifax, Windsor, Parrsboro, Amherst, Oxford, Port Grenville, and Truro in Nova Scotia; and at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Most of these lodges, including Marysville Lodge No. 18, were affiliated with Grand Lodge Knights of Pythias Domain of the Maritime Provinces. Marysville Lodge No. 18 was functioning in 1954.