Great Saint John Fire

Saint John New Brunswick in Canada suffered many times from fires. But the Great Fire occurred on June 20th 1877. It started at 2 o’clock in the afternoon in a building known as York Point. Fanned by a northwest gale ,it spread quickly to the business portion of the city and soon was out of control. People were driven by the flames from street to street. Some ran in the streets, some sought refuge in boats and crossed over to Carleton. The Reed Wharf was a place for refuge for from 1500 to 2000 persons, who were imprisoned there by the flames from 3pm to 4 am the next morning, when the fire had died down enough for it to be safe enough for them to leave. People standing at the head of King Street saw the schooners in harbour catch fire , flames climbed up the mast, leaped to the masts of schooner after schooner until there was a complete bridge of fire across the harbour. When the flames spread to Trinity Church, Captain Hazen rescued the Old Arms. These were the Royal Arms that originally adorned the walls of the counsel chamber of the Old Town House in Boston. And later they were placed on the wall of the New Trinity Church in 1880 and may still be seen today. The old one story wooden school on Germain St was destroyed. It had been a school since 1805 for boys .The new Victoria School was also destroyed. Meanwhile in the homes, people were saving what they could, like kitchen things and leaving their valuable furniture behind.


One woman told her husband to save the bag containing valuable silverware that had been in the family for hundreds of years ,later it was discovered that he grabbed the rag bag instead. King Square stopped the progress of the fire, and became a camp ground. There were soldiers, hospital beds for the wounded. It was also crowded with furniture, books and household utensils. The fire raged for 9 hours and burned two fifth of the city, the heart of the business section, the homes of the wealthy, nearly every public building. Altogether it destroyed 16 12 buildings, and made 2700 families homeless ,13000 people. Eighteen people perished in the fire or from accidents during the fire while others died from wounds, exhaustion and exposure. Many valuables were lost , pictures, books, heirlooms. Assistance came from near and far, and insurances helped repair their losses. And Saint John carried on.

Can you imagine if this happened to our city or town? It sure must have been scary and heartbreaking for these people. This makes me think about Beaubassin which was an Acadian Village near Amherst of today and when the villagers were told to burn down their village before the English got there, imagine being there and seeing these families saving what little they could save, and having to leave things behind.

Sure must have been lots of sadness in both fires among all these Loyalists and Acadians. But they were strong and they survived.

I hope you have enjoyed this story that I found in the book Our New Brunswick Story . Now I would like to change the subject and share with you a few things I have created in my store at http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* When you have time do stop by, check out my invitations, in my greeting card folder, my tee shirts, valentines and much much more.

Chow for now

Allicor

Did You Do it?

Good morning everyone, the sun is shining, it is a beautiful but cold day. With the wind chills here it is in the minus 20s . Brrr. But yet , we are still so very lucky. Last night we watched the Canada for Haiti show.It was a very good show and while I was watching all the images and the people asking for support and the stories I thought to myself, I want to be a part of it too. I want to help. I feel so very bad for all the little children going hungry , no water and for the parents who must be so worried about their children. So the phone number came over the screen
1 -877-51-42484. So I picked up the phone, dialed it , a voice came over the lines sorry the circuits are busy please try later, No way was I going to try later, so I kept hitting the redial button oh its ringing, then I heard sorry all circuits are busy, so back to the redial and finally I got through. I now feel so very good and to make things much better for the people of Haiti, the Federal Government in Canada is matching all donations, so my donation however big or small will be doubled. But it is not over yet, YOU can still donate until February 12 and have the government equal your donation so please phone 1-877-51-42484 and give? Even five dollars will help, two dollars even. Remember if you give two dollars it makes four dollars going to Haiti.
You can even donate on line by going to CanadaForHaiti.com .
Well now I need to change the subject, as you know I have been going crazy with my store,grin.
Last night I decided to make a Hat for all the Canadian Provinces, well I need to go and add Labrador cause I only added Newfoundland and need to add Yukon. These hats can be for both men or women, there are pinks and there are greens and reds and more.These hats can all be seen in my Miscellaneous folders in the cities and towns. I also made an American hat and a Maine hat.Then I made more for my Acadian folder too. Added some posters for Acadians and Cajuns with a list of surnames. And now I have my Mom involved in this, she is 91 and she needs something to keep her interested so this morning I went to see her, and she said Aline what about this? So I looked at it and Yes Mom I said this is gonna be something different. So I need to make it first will fill you in later. Also if any of you are Zazzlers please join my Fan Club,if you belong to Linkw please do a review on my gallery?I am doing as many of yours as I get to.
Now I need to go blog elsewhere, so until next time, remember to donate to Haiti and please visit my gallery, come by often I keep adding new things, http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*
PS I haven't forgotten my genealogy , I keep doing work there too.
Have a great day
Aline