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The Land | The
River | The Ocean |
The People | Founding
Fathers |
Book
Release: Historic LaHave River Valley: Images
of Our Past.
Read
the Isaac de Razilly brochure by Joan Dawson
here!
By
Joan Dawson
In
1632, Commander Isaac de Razilly, first Viceroy
and Lieutenant General of New France, built
Fort Ste. Marie de Grace on a point of land
that was, from 1632-36, the First Capital of
New France. Today, that site in the village
of LaHave is known as Fort Point, a National
Historic Site and home of Fort Point Museum
and Lighthouse. This community museum is owned
by the Province and operated by the Lunenburg
County Historical Society.
During the past 38 years, the Society has made
considerable investments of money and time in
maintaining the museum and lighthouse structures.
Nevertheless, for the Museum to maximize its
service to its community and to national and
international visitors, we must now make greater
use of the museum and the beautiful and historic
grounds on which it rests. We embarked upon the Renaissance Project to enable us to better tell the historic stories, presnt our collection more effectively, and to improve our programs for community members and vistors.
1. The Land
The
land around the LaHave river consists mainly
of drumlins of gravelly soil left from the glacial
period, and a fair amount of slate, granite
and other rock. Until the coming of the Europeans,
it was covered in forest. The trees were a mixture
of hard and soft wood, with large stands of
red oak. (Various early descriptions)
The native people lived inland in the forest
in winter time, and on the coast in summer.
They used the forest for hunting for food and
clothing, the trees for their wigwams and canoes,
the plants for food and medicine. The forest
and its lakes were also the source of the beaver
pelts which the natives traded with the Europeans.
When
he arrived from France in 1604, the first land
that Champlain and De Monts saw was Cape LaHave
rising from the ocean. They named it Cap de
la Hève, after the last cape they had
passed after leaving Havre de Grâce (now
Le Havre) at the beginning of their voyage.
(Maps) The name has remained to this day and
has spread to the river and to settlements on
both its banks. Champlain and his companions
anchored in Green Bay and did not as far as
we know explore the river as far as Fort Point.
Champlain described the area at the mouth of
the LaHave as follows:
...there is a bay with many islands covered
with spruce trees; and on the mainland oaks,
elms and birches.
In
1632 when Isaac de Razilly established Fort
Sainte-Marie-de-Grâce, the French cleared
areas of forest for agriculture, particularly
the area around Petite Rivière. There
a number of farming families (Nicolas Denys
says “40 residents”) were settled
and had brought in a harvest of wheat before
Isaac’s death in summer of 1636. They
also used the marshy meadow across from the
fort (below Five Houses at Oxner’s beach)
which they called “la Vacherie,”
as a dairy farm for the governor and his companions.
Meanwhile Nicolas Denys had established lumbering
operations in the oak woods on the east side
of the LaHave, towards Merligueche (now Lunenburg).
During Razilly’s governorship he sent
back dressed lumber to France on the returning
supply ships. After Razilly’s death, Charles
de Menou d’Aulnay refused to allow him
to do this, and after a few years the operations
ceased. When Denys’ great-nephew, Simon
Denys de Bonnaventure, travelled in the area
in 1701, he discovered the remains of one of
his great-uncle’s lumber camps.
...we
found a point where M. Denys used to make oak
planking of which I saw several piles, mostly
rotten like soil and some others which were
not, but all worm eaten.
The
LaHave area was visited in 1684 by a French
naval officer named Lalanne, who knew of the
oaks in the area and came to inspect them as
part of his survey of Acadian timber resources
for ship-building.
Agriculture
and lumbering continued to be major parts of
the economy of the area for many years. When
the British replaced the French in the 18th
century, subsistence farming was essential to
the survival of new settlers. Joseph Pernette
established his own farm at West LaHave in the
1770s, as part of an enormous grant on the west
side of the river from the falls to just above
Fort Point. On the east side of the river farm
lots were developed by settlers from Lunenburg.
A Captain Strasburger from Lunenburg had an
enormous farm in the Dayspring area which is
shown on early maps of Lunenburg County.
Pernette,
Strasburger and others established sawmills
on streams running through their property. The
wood was used for constructing dwellings and
ships and was also exported. We know that Pernette
brought in shipwrights from England to construct
vessels for him, and during the nineteenth and
early twentieth century a flourishing shipbuilding
industry existed based on the local timber resources.
Although much diminished with the development
of new techniques, the building of wooden vessels
still takes place in the LaHave area. Lumbering
continues, with much of the wood being sold
to large companies.
A
condition of Pernette’s grant was that
a certain amount of the land should be set aside
for growing hemp, which was used to manufacture
cordage for naval and other vessels. He established
a grist mill on the brook running through his
land, to grind the cereals which were grown.
For many years the local people grew a good
deal of their own food, but much of the land
is stony and infertile, and with improved transportation
only the better areas have remained under cultivation.
Agriculture
has diminished in importance, but a certain
amount of farming is still carried on on both
sides of the river. The descendants of Joseph
Pernette maintain a dairy farm at Pernette’s
Brook , and cattle are raised on the old farmlands
at Petite Rivière. Good farms are to
be found on many of the roads running back from
the river.
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2. The River
From
earliest days the river has provided a highway
and a harbour for the people living around its
banks. The Mi’kmaq travelled on it, fished
in it and presumably bathed in it!
The
French used it as both a highway and a harbour.
Fort Point is protected by the islands and is
a good strategic defensive position. Vessels
could anchor in the cove on the Riverport side
in safety from both weather and enemy attack.
In the absence of roads, the river linked different
parts of the larger community, and linked them
all with the sea.
There
is no record of the French building vessels
along the river, but one of the first things
that Joseph Pernette did was to establish a
sawmill and commence ship building. Others followed
his example, and the river was the centre of
ship building, commercial shipping and fishing
for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Remnants of these industries still carry on
here.
When
roads were first built, after the British take-over,
the river became an obstacle to transportation.
John Pernette’s ferry was established
near the site of the present Yacht Club. A later
ferry connected communities lower down the river,
and finally the present ferry site at LaHave
was established. (See material in the Museum
on the ferries.)
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3.
The Ocean
From
the earliest time the ocean was a source of
fish and a way of travel. The first Europeans
to reach Nova Scotia from across the ocean may
have been the Vikings, and certainly fishermen
from many European nations have fished on the
banks off the mouth of the LaHave. The richness
of the fishery in our area was the cause of
much of the rivalry between the French and the
English (and New Englanders) throughout the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was
also part of the cause of ill feeling among
rival groups of Frenchmen who wished to enjoy
as monopoly in the field.
We
can talk about the development of the fishery
from a European-based venture to the “sedentary”
fishing stations established by Nicolas Denys
(Liverpool and elsewhere) and others. (Denys
describes the fishing methods in great detail.)
Much of it remained unchanged except for the
design of the fishing vessels until the second
half of the 29th century when freezing replaced
drying as a method of preserving the catch.
Many of us remember the fish flakes outside
stores in LaHave and elsewhere. (We have photos.)
The
LaHave was also the centre of ship building
and of a flourishing fleet of merchant vessels.
We have a lot of information and pictures of
both of these.
I
suppose we should include under this heading
the beaches and the tourist industry which have
replaced most of the above!
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The People
1.
The Mi’kmaq
The
First Nations Mi’kmaq spent the winters
in the forest. They hunted animals there for
food and clothing, and they used the plants
and trees for medicinal purposes. They used
the river for transportation and fishing, and
in summer they travelled down it to their summer
camps on the shore, where they fished in the
ocean and along the beaches. They also used
the ocean for travel.
Two
separate native locations are identified on
Champlain’s map of the Port of LaHave,
one on the east bank of the river, and one on
the west side of the Petite Rivière,
where an Indian burial ground has been identified.
The road from the east side of the LaHave now
known as Indian Path was identified on an early
map (Bellin, 1744) as the portage route between
LaHave and Merligueche.
The native people acted as guides for the early
French settlers, were on friendly terms with
them, and taught them some of their techniques
for survival in the harsh winters including
remedies for scurvy. Their ability to travel
by canoe in summer and with snowshoes in winter
was passed on to the newcomers. The furs, particularly
beaver pelts, which they collected in the forest
during the winter were traded with the French
for goods from Europe. The French brought European
weapons, technology, trinkets, disease and alcohol
to the Mi’kmaq. They also brought Catholic
religious education, which was at least partially
accepted, and in Razilly’s time the natives
of the LaHave area accepted the political domination
of the French, and lived at peace with them.
The French employed the natives in various ways
as guides, interpreters and for other services.
2. The French
The
two main purposes of the French colonisation
of Acadia were fishing and fur trading. The
ocean off Nova Scotia, like the Grand Banks
of Newfoundland, was rich in cod and there was
an enormous market in Catholic Europe for this
commodity. The coast of Acadia had been known
since long before Champlain’s arrival
as a source of fish and also of havens for the
fishermen. The entrepreneurs who crossed the
Atlantic for fish also found that the natives
had furs for trading. Both these sources of
wealth were theoretically under the control
of the Crown, which granted monopolies to individuals
or companies, but illegal fishing and trading
was hard to control. Ships crossed the ocean
and returned to France and other countries laden
with both fish and furs. The purpose of a permanent
settlement was to control this traffic and to
establish French claims to Acadia.
The
arrival of Champlain and DeMonts in Green Bay
in1604 resulted in the name LaHave being given
to the cape on one of the outer islands, where
it has remained and spread to the whole river
and to communities on each side of it. When
Razilly came in 1632 he sailed up the river
and made use of the strategic location of the
narrowing entrance to construct Fort Ste Marie-de-Grâce.
The river provided both a harbour and a highway,
before roads were constructed in the area.
Nicolas Denys, one of Razilly’s colleagues
at LaHave, realised that as well as fur and
fish, timber was abundantly available from the
red oaks which grew in the forests beside the
river. An enthusiastic businessman, he established
not only a fishing base at Port Rossignol (Liverpool)
but also a lumber camp on land on the far side
of the LaHave towards Merligueche (Lunenburg).
He sent lumber back across the ocean on returning
supply ships.
As
Razilly’s settlement became established,
new colonists were recruited from France. The
passengers on the Saint-Jean, which sailed for
Acadia in the spring of 1636, included both
the bride-to-be of Charles Menou d’Aulnay,
and several married Frenchmen with their wives
and children. Their port of destination was
clearly LaHave, the administrative centre of
Acadia, where a farming settlement was already
springing up. Some of the names from the shipping
list are still common Acadian family names.
Some time after Razilly’s death in July,
1636, the settlers were transferred to Port
Royal, and LaHave was abandoned, and destroyed
by fire in 1653 as a result of rivalry among
French traders. Sporadic attempts were made
by both the French and the English to reestablish
a post, and towards the end of the 17th century
a small but persistent group of French and Mi’kmaq
residents settled there, remaining until the
Expulsion in the mid 18th century.
3. The British
As
time went on the fur trade dwindled in value,
but the importance of the fishery increased
and with it the rivalry between various French
factions and the British, whose fishery was
based in New England. Their vessels plied the
waters off Acadia throughout the17th century
despite French efforts to repel them. It was
the ocean that attracted the New Englanders,
and they had become familiar with the fishing
grounds off the mouth of the LaHave river. It
was some time after Nova Scotia passed into
the hands of the British that a number of entrepreneurs
received permission to develop fishing lots
on the islands and the beaches in the LaHave
area before the formal establishment of the
Township of New Dublin.
The
Mi’kmaq, who had befriended the French
and intermarried with them, were understandably
hostile to the new arrivals, who in their turn
treated them less sympathetically than the French
had done. Bad feeling between the races continued
for a long time after the arrival of the English.
After
several false starts, development of the area
began under Joseph Pernette’s leadership.
Pernette received an enormous grant extending
from the falls (Bridgewater) down almost to
the town plot of New Dublin (the present village
of LaHave). He also owned property below the
town, including the Fort site. As well as establishing
his own family at what is now West LaHave, he
subdivided his grant and brought in settlers
who formed the nucleus of the population on
the west side of the river. Some of them came
from Lunenburg, others from farther afield.
Many of their descendants still live there,
as do descendants of Pernette himself. Two of
Joseph’s daughters, who died before the
establishment of St. Peter’s church and
graveyard, are buried in Fort Point cemetery.
Other family members lie in St. Peter’s
cemetery.
Pernette
established a gristmill and a sawmill on the
brook that ran by his house, and brought in
skilled workmen to build ships. The forests
provided ample timber and his was the first
of many shipyards to spring up along both sides
of he river. He oversaw the construction of
the road from Lunenburg to the LaHave river,
and his son John ran a ferry service from there
to West LaHave which was to become a vital link
in the road along the South Shore.
From
the end of the eighteenth century onwards, the
LaHave became an active commercial shipping
area, with both construction and trading forming
important parts of the economy. Fishing, too,
was a major industry, and the salting and drying
of fish took place along both banks of the river.
Lighthouses were established at Fort Point and
other places on the river mouth. Lumbering and
farming also provided occupations for many inhabitants
during the following centuries.
More
recently, many of the local industries have
given way to tourism, but there are still boatyards
on the river, fish is still caught in the ocean
and wood is still cut in the forest.
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