Latest news with #JamesUpham
CBC
3 days ago
- CBC
Caton's Island: New Brunswick's 1st — or 3rd — European settlement
The first Europeans set up shop in New Brunswick more than 400 years ago, that much is for certain. Who they were, and where their first New Brunswick settlement was, that's a bit more complicated. In 1610, Samuel de Champlain set up what's known as the first European settlement in New Brunswick on Caton's Island in the St. John River near Browns Flat — but that statement comes with a huge asterisk. "There's some people that are probably pointing and yelling at their radios," said James Upham in a Roadside History segment on Information Morning. There are a couple reasons for that reaction. St. Croix The first is the well-known fact that Champlain set up an ill-fated settlement on St. Croix Island in 1604, six years prior to the Caton's Island settlement. But while St. Croix Island is an important part of New Brunswick's — and Canada's — history, the island is not in Canada. "When you look at the map, it actually is, strictly speaking, a little closer to the United States side of the [St. Croix River]," said Upham. It's not hard to see why most people would mistake St. Croix Island as the first New Brunswick European settlement. It's only about 500 metres away from being in the province, and the story behind the island settlement is way more interesting. "They ended up kind of trapped on [St. Croix Island] for months and they didn't have enough food," said Upham. "That's also potentially one of the reasons why we don't have a ton of information about [Caton's Island] ... because it wasn't horrible." Scandinavian settlements Caton's Island's position as the home of the first European Settlement in New Brunswick is complicated even further by the suspected movement of other Europeans further north 500 years prior. "There's some really tantalizing suggestions that there may have been a Norse settlement … on the Miramichi Bay," said Upham. We know the Norse did have settlements in North America, at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and Labrador, and because butternuts were found at that site, people think the Norse may have made it to New Brunswick, as they're not native to Newfoundland. Somewhere else Or, maybe the first European settlement in New Brunswick was someplace else entirely. It's possible that another settlement was founded by someone else and forgotten to history. "[Europeans] have been poking around this area for potentially a good deal longer than we've really talked about a lot, because we don't necessarily have written records," said Upham. "Was the first European community set up in this area? We actually just don't know." Upham said until we get more conclusive evidence about Norse settlement in New Brunswick — plausible, he said — or the United States give St. Croix Island — not so plausible — to Canada, Caton's Island has the title of the first European settlement in the province.
CBC
20-07-2025
- CBC
This southern N.B. wharf was bustling with steamboat commuters a century ago
What is now a quiet riverbank was once a bustling transportation link for the residents of Wickham a century ago. Before railways and highways, steamboats used to chugged up and down the river from wharf to wharf, picking up passengers and cargo, said Roadside History explorer James Upham. "Say 1914, 1913, if we were standing here at about quarter to six in the morning, there'd be a steamboat waiting right there to run a commuter service," he said. The Wickham Wharf that Upham is referring to is nearly 50 kilometres north of Saint John on the eastern bank of the St. John River. "It's kind of amazing to imagine what is currently a very sleepy little community at one point being able to sustain its own commuter steamboat service," said Upham. He said Wickham was once "one of the busiest spots in this entire region" and the main point of import and export for the community. People in the area would gather on the wharf each morning in the summer in order to commute to Saint John to work for the day. The commute was two hours compared to what is now a roughly one-hour drive by car. But, two hours on a steamboat was much more peaceful than the morning traffic some face in New Brunswick's cities, said Upham. "Basically no traffic, plus you could just put your feet up and have a cup of tea and watch the absolutely gorgeous St. John River go past you as you're heading off to work in the morning." One of the boats that operated from the Wickham Wharf was the Oconee, whose captain's last name was Taylor. According to Upham and the provincial archives, the Oconee was originally a tugboat called the Stella Marie before it was lengthened by Taylor. The archives website says the boat was renamed on June 13, 1912. It was the last of its kind on the St. John River and was scuttled, or destroyed, on March 1, 1927. On vessels like the Oconee, there were amenities for travellers, explained Upham. Meal service was available with locally grown food, dessert and coffee or tea. "There was a saying in the latter part of the 1800s that it was cheaper to travel than to stay home because ... for pennies, you could get a full, like, four-course meal." Upham said companies would hire the best cooks, with the hopes of luring people onto their ships over their rivals' on the river. Point of competition The river's wharves were also grounds for competition, as steamboat captains raced to pick up the most commuters. Upham said some people had their preferred ship to travel on. Along with the Oconee, the Victoria and the David Weston were also plying the waters at that time. "If you were the first steamboat to get to a wharf, you usually got all the business that was on that wharf and the next steamboat coming along would have to just sort of put up with whoever got there late." One trick used by steamboat captains was to leave someone on the wharf with the task of flagging down other steamboats in order to slow them down. While they picked up a single passenger, other steamboats would work their way down the river to busier stops. "That guy waiting on the wharf waited for the next steamboat to get close enough and then started waving his handkerchief furiously so they had to pull over and pick up one person." Upham said stories like these were written by Donald Taylor, whose father ran the Oconee, and who also became a steamboat captain.
CBC
10-05-2025
- CBC
Secrets in stone: 200-year-old Bell Inn's mysterious origins remain elusive
Full history of stone inn sought for more than 100 years but remains lost in time The Bell Inn in Dorchester is one of the oldest buildings in New Brunswick. It might even date back to Acadian settlement, but the specific details are lost in time. One of the remarkable things about this "very beautiful old stone building" is that it wasn't turned into a museum but remains in use today, says Roadside History host James Upham. Upham is a historian and educator who enjoys exploring the countryside of rural New Brunswick, travelling its rivers and backroads and occasionally stumbling upon "bits of clay pots" that predate the city of Rome. Bell Inn is a small, stone building with the appearance of an old cottage, located at the corner of Cape Road and Main Street. It is owned and maintained by the Westmorland Historical Society. Upham said that even if the precise date of the Bell Inn's construction isn't known, it is "certainly one of the oldest buildings in the province" and "definitely the oldest stone building that's still in use." A History of the Bell Inn by Eugene Goodrich, accessible on the Westmorland Historical Society's website, says the inn was likely built between 1811 and 1821, based on the first record of its existence. Goodrich writes that there was once a Dorchester legend that Bell Inn predates the British conquest of Acadia. In this legend, he writes, the building's core was built in the 1690s and served as a fort, which illicitly traded with Mi'kmaq and Acadians. Yet, he also writes that "there is no documentary evidence whatsoever for a structure of this date, and considerable evidence that it was, in fact, built later." Upham, however, believes that some parts of the building may actually date to the time of Acadian settlement. But even if it doesn't, he said "for us here in New Brunswick, a 200-year-old building is really old." The Bell Inn is currently being used as an apartment building. At different times, it's had different uses, including as a bakery and even as the home base of "a literal shipping empire" run by a prominent local family. According to Goodrich's document, it has also been used as a cobbler stall, a confectionery and the privately owned home of the Hickman family. The Bell Inn is a place that has stood so long and played host to so many different uses that it has engrained itself in the history of Dorchester, according to Upham. Once the shiretown of Westmorland County, Dorchester has undergone a lot of changes over the years, shifting size a number of times throughout its history based on its significance at the time. Upham said that even "an old citizen of Dorchester, a fella by the name of Percy Palmer, who passed away in 1878," is recorded as trying to figure out who actually built the Bell Inn and where it came from. The fact that the Bell Inn, a building with such a rich history, has not been turned into a museum but is still in use is "one of the fascinating things about it," Upham said. The inn has been witness, and participant, to all of the changes that Dorchester has gone through over the years. Yet, it remains subtle, said Upham. While "the hoity-toities were hoitying their toities" and building houses to live in "made of big fancy rocks," the Bell Inn took a more subtle approach, he said. "It is a shelter. It is a place for people to go when they need to go someplace."
CBC
30-03-2025
- CBC
Once a bustling rail line, a Moncton path tells a former railway's story
Moncton and Buctouche Railway changed transportation remarkably in 19th century Walking through Irishtown Nature Park, on the northern edge of Moncton, the winding path suddenly straightens out. According to historian and Roadside History columnist James Upham, it isn't a coincidence. "We could look at this as like a park design approach to brutalism in some fashion or another, which it's not," Upham said from the straight, flat pathway inside the park. "It's a railway — it's an abandoned railway, and it's the railway that kind of shaped this area that we're in right now." The Moncton and Buctouche Railway, as it was called, was chartered in 1883 and opened in 1887, said Upham. At that time, New Brunswick did have some roads, but Upham said in today's context, they would be some of the roughest dirt roads you could imagine. "It's really hard to get our heads around from a modern context, of sitting in air-conditioned vehicles going along at 100 and some odd kilometres an hour down a highway," Upham told Information Morning Moncton. "There's kind of a famous line from the early 1800s from New Brunswick to say that, you know, at that time, there was less than 10 good miles of road in the province, and they weren't consecutive." Image | Moncton and Buctouche Railway Caption: This photo from 1910 shows a train that worked the Moncton and Buctouche railway, with the train station just visible in the background. Upham said trains revolutionized the ability to travel. (Provincial Archives of New Brunswick P211-15313) Open Image in New Tab That's why, Upham said, if someone needed to get somewhere efficiently or move something from one place to another, the Moncton and Buctouche Railway did the job. The railway made such a big difference that in the area that later became known as Saint-Antoine, businesses moved to where the train passed through. "The community itself changed and adapted and sort of molded itself around this railway," said Upham. "In Bouctouche itself, the railway station that was the terminus for this rail line there, it doesn't exist anymore, but it still has its own historic site." For decades, the train chugged on, moving cargo and traffic from Point A to Point B. Upham said it didn't close until 1965. He said trains revolutionized the ability to travel. What would now be considered a short drive would once more likely have been a trip that people "might not necessarily ever want to repeat again." "It used to be that if you're wealthy, you didn't go anywhere — people came to see you because it was such a pain in the butt," said Upham, adding that travel for fun or enjoyment didn't exist. "People tend to sort of think of locomotives and steam engines and stuff and even diesels, to a certain degree, as being kind of like old timey … and it was just an absolutely massive step into the future."
CBC
30-03-2025
- CBC
Once a bustling rail line, a Moncton path tells a former railway's story
Moncton and Buctouche Railway changed transportation remarkably in 19th century Walking through Irishtown Nature Park, on the northern edge of Moncton, the winding path suddenly straightens out. According to historian and Roadside History columnist James Upham, it isn't a coincidence. "We could look at this as like a park design approach to brutalism in some fashion or another, which it's not," Upham said from the straight, flat pathway inside the park. "It's a railway — it's an abandoned railway, and it's the railway that kind of shaped this area that we're in right now." The Moncton and Buctouche Railway, as it was called, was chartered in 1883 and opened in 1887, said Upham. At that time, New Brunswick did have some roads, but Upham said in today's context, they would be some of the roughest dirt roads you could imagine. "It's really hard to get our heads around from a modern context, of sitting in air-conditioned vehicles going along at 100 and some odd kilometres an hour down a highway," Upham told Information Morning Moncton. "There's kind of a famous line from the early 1800s from New Brunswick to say that, you know, at that time, there was less than 10 good miles of road in the province, and they weren't consecutive." Image | Moncton and Buctouche Railway Caption: This photo from 1910 shows a train that worked the Moncton and Buctouche railway, with the train station just visible in the background. Upham said trains revolutionized the ability to travel. (Provincial Archives of New Brunswick P211-15313) Open Image in New Tab That's why, Upham said, if someone needed to get somewhere efficiently or move something from one place to another, the Moncton and Buctouche Railway did the job. The railway made such a big difference that in the area that later became known as Saint-Antoine, businesses moved to where the train passed through. "The community itself changed and adapted and sort of molded itself around this railway," said Upham. "In Bouctouche itself, the railway station that was the terminus for this rail line there, it doesn't exist anymore, but it still has its own historic site." For decades, the train chugged on, moving cargo and traffic from Point A to Point B. Upham said it didn't close until 1965. He said trains revolutionized the ability to travel. What would now be considered a short drive would once more likely have been a trip that people "might not necessarily ever want to repeat again." "It used to be that if you're wealthy, you didn't go anywhere — people came to see you because it was such a pain in the butt," said Upham, adding that travel for fun or enjoyment didn't exist. "People tend to sort of think of locomotives and steam engines and stuff and even diesels, to a certain degree, as being kind of like old timey … and it was just an absolutely massive step into the future."
