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

It's a beautiful day

Hello everyone, well it is going to be a beautiful day, the sun is coming up and the weatherman says hot. We won't have too many of these hot days soon, it is already beginning to get cooler at night. Brrrr. Well I am pretty busy as usual, I am working on two family tree books for someone and I am hunting like crazy , for tidbits, dates, marriages, obits, and also for photos. I honestly believe that adding all these things sure makes for an interesting book. And especially if the person who is receiving the book sees photos in it that he has never seen before. So at the moment I am doing one family line and I have recently received a photo of a great grandfather, I am hoping that this person has never seen it before. I have also sent for some obituaries and there is one on the way. Once the first book is completed I will start the second book on a different surname.

Now that is not all that I am doing. I know many of you have checked out my website at http://www.acadian-roots.com/    ,that is my website  for genealogy and tidbits and I wanted to have a website where I can show some of my products that I am creating and selling so I took the big step and decided to create a website exactly like my acadian roots site with a sidebar and everything, I have even added a blog there. But let me tell you it is a big job, I have a big part of it done already, I had to choose backgrounds that would show up my products which I did and add the titles and I am thinking of adding a little bit of music here and there. And in between my genealogy and my new website I need to create products, take care of my two groups  Williams dit Bristol group and Old Photos of New Brunswick groups on Facebook, plus my genealogy groups on yahoo and my Chat n Brag group on my family. And then I have to squeeze some time to take a break and go to my favorite coffee shop Tim Hortons. And yes I do my housework in between but let me tell you when I hit that pillow, don't ask me any questions because I am then Dead to the World. grin. Well I guess this is it for this time,if you haven't checked out my store (not my new website yet) go to http://www.zazzle.com/allicor*  ( Oh and I sold my first pair of Scottish Tartan Shoes yesterday) I was really pleased. And if you are on facebook and if you have Williams originally from Kent County and Westmorland County New Brunswick check out our group on Facebook and if you have old photos of New Brunswick, (places,people,building,etc) please join us on Facebook  or if you just want to look at them you are welcome. The image at the top is a postcard of a soldier dreaming of home. I believe this card was from World War 1, the image was.You can see more at my zazzle store. Thanks for the lovely visit,please stop by again.
Have a great day
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St Bernard Church in Moncton and Tee shirts

Today I shall discuss two topics, the first will be the tee shirts because I could not add the images at the bottom of this blog.I shall continue about St Bernard after.

The reason for the t-shirts is because there is a 15%sale on this weekend and there is only tomorrow left, I have created lots of tee shirts the two here are some you can personalize, you change the names to your choices. I also have funny tee shirts, animals tee shirts,children tee shirts, so if you want to save on the tee shirts they are great for birthdays, St Patrick Day,Reunions and much more. The mugs are ten percent off too . I even have a ball team tee shirt for ladies you personalize it to, so now would be a great time to buy. Go to http://www.zazzle.com/allicor* click on tee shirts, or acadian cajun, or children they all have tee shirts and the humor page also.

Now getting to Saint Bernards Church in Moncton New Brunswick:

Saint Bernard is the Mother Church of Moncton City, and the cradle of its Catholic community. There were no Catholics among the first who settled in what was to become the city of Moncton after the Exile of the Acadians. A first church had been built by the Acadians near the site of the actual Bore Park called La Chapelle and the surrounding area was called Terre Rouge.(translation Red Earth). This whole area was plundered and burned by the ravages of Scott at the time of the deportation in 1755. Thomas Cocoran an Irishman who arrived in 1810 was maybe the first of many others of his catholic faith in the Moncton area. As the population grew the Mass was said in private homes and in the Free Meeting house on Steadman Street. This prompted Father FX Lafrance of Memramcook to buy in 1851 a lot of land for the building of a church. However twenty years had passed before a first church was built by Father John Murray pastor of St Anselme. Five years later Father FX Cormier began building a bigger church which was finished April 20 1879 by Father William Foley,Moncton's first resident priest. Three years later in 1882 with the appointment of Father Henry A Meahan as Parish Priest Moncton City became the parish if St Bernard. The families of Irishtown were also served by the new parish. The 3rd St Bernard cornerstone was laid in 1888 . The first Moncton native ordained as a priest was Francis Walker 1916. Father Meahan was replaced in 1905 by Father Edward Savage pastor till 1938. The Moncton Cathedrale was built in 1914 . My father was baptized in St Bernards, his father was born there and his grandfather Jake Williams married Osite Leger in St Bernards so that church is special to me. My grandparents married in the Moncton Cathedrale in 1914 .So they were among the first to marry there.

I found most of this information in a book I bought today called 50th Anniversary of the Moncton Diocese. Very interesting book.

Hope you liked today's blog, be sure to check out my tee shirts and mugs. Thanks for the visit and do stop by again

Have a great day

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