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Although the
landing of DeMonts, the French pioneer, in the present harbor of St.
John, New Brunswick, June 24,1604, is annually celebrated in the
Canadian Province, the progressive history of New Brunswick dates
from the time of the influx of loyalists from the United States in
1783. They were known as the United Empire Loyalists; and, so great
was their love for their King and royal traditions, they left the
United States after the successful issue of the Revolution again to
find a home under British rule on the American continent.
On their arrival at
St. John they found a country covered with pine, spruce, fir and
hardwoods, and almost unscarred by the ax. They found the River St.
John and other streams penetrating, with their tributaries, this
magnificent timber. The River St. John, it is true, rises in Maine,
but the greater part of its channel lies within the present Province
of New Brunswick. Another portion of the stream forms the boundary
between the New America to which the loyalists had come and the old
new America which they had left. They recognized the importance and
value of the St. John as a waterway, and even to this day it brings
to the City of St. John large numbers of logs from both Maine and
New Brunswick.
The Province of New
Brunswick embraces 27,985 square miles. The principal timber
territory is traversed by the Tobique and smaller streams which
empty into the St. John, the Miramichi, the Nepisiguit and the
Restigouche. These are the principal log-floating streams in New
Brunswick. The Province contains 17,910,400 acres, of which about
7,500,000 acres remain in the hands of the Crown and may be
considered timber lands. Of these about six million acres are under
license to lumber operators and many have been denuded of the more
valuable and larger timber,' though still capable of being
profitably operated. The remainder of the Crown lands, about
1,500,000 acres not under license, is in the interior of the
Province and is almost in its pristine condition. In addition to the
timber on the public lands, there is much valuable timber on lands
held by private owners. In particular the 1,647,772 acres granted to
the New Brunswick railway as a bonus includes some of the finest
timber land in the Province, stretching from the southwest Miramichi
waters across the Tobique Valley to the head waters of the
Restigouche. It is leased by the company to lumber operators and
yields a large annual cut. Alexander Gibson, one of the largest
operators, owns 200,000 acres of forest land and other individuals
hold the fee simple of extensive tracts, so that the total area of
forest land is at least ten million acres. Some authorities put the
figure considerably higher;' Lieutenant Governor Jabez B. Snowball,
an expert in the lumber trade, estimates the total forest area at
about twelve million acres, but as this apparently includes large
tracts which have been stripped of timber by fire and by the ax, the
former estimate probably includes all the land at present available
for lumbering operations.
Spruce is the
predominant tree and, although wherever operations have been carried
on the heavier spruce is pretty well cleared off, there is still an
abundance of ordinary sized trees.' The merchantable pine is nearly
exhausted, but in many localities a flourishing young growth is
springing up which, if protected against fire, will form a valuable
future source of supply. Along the north shore there is a belt of
hardwood comprising oak, beech and maple. Of the total forest area
60 percent is estimated to be spruce land, 10 percent pine, 5
percent hemlock, 5 percent cedar and 20 percent hardwoods, which
latter consist principally of birch, beech, ash and maple.
The original timber
growth of the Province was white pine and red pine principally, but
the proportion of these woods has been much reduced by cutting.
Spruce is now the principal article of local manufacture and foreign
export and owing to its availability and rapid growth it enjoys a
favor equal to, if not greater, than that of pine. White spruce and
black spruce predominate and smaller quantities of red spruce,
hemlock, balsam", fir and white cedar are also present. Among the
hardwoods are the red, yellow and white birches, the hard and soft
maples, ash, white, red or black, beech and American elm, generally
distributed, and butternut and basswood in the southern part of the
Province. Red birch and yellow birch form the greatest hardwood
wealth and much white birch is cut for spool stock.
'New Brunswick has
from the earliest days been a great lumbering section, the industry
being favored by the geographical position of the Province and its
physical conformation, which presents special facilities for the
shipping and marketing of its forest product. It is surrounded on
the southeast and partly on the north by water, giving a seaboard of
545 miles. There are two great river systems, the St. John and the
Miramichi, with another important one, the Restigouche, and numerous
smaller rivers which, with lakes, intersect the Province in every
direction, affording abundant facilities for floating timber from
the interior to the coast. In addition to these natural highways New
Brunswick claims to have a larger railway mileage in proportion to
population than any other country.
As early as 1778
the magnificent timber on the St. John River attracted British
enterprise and capital. In 1781 Jonathan Leavitt launched at St.
John the pioneer vessel of the fleet of New Brunswick built ships
which subsequently sailed from that port.
The territory was
at that time a portion of the Province of Nova Scotia. It was set
apart as a separate province in 1785. Up to that time it was but
sparsely settled, the population being composed mainly of a few
Acadians and some straggling settlers from New England attracted by
the profits promised by the timber or the fish trade. But the
population was being increased by an influx of United Empire
Loyalists who had taken the side of Britain during the Revolutionary
War and felt compelled in consequence to seek homes outside of the
United States. European immigrants also came in large numbers, the
principal attraction being the opportunities afforded by the growing
timber industry, which was greatly increased by the demands of the
British navy. The ships which left New Brunswick with cargoes of
timber returned laden with immigrants, many of whom passed on to the
United States. Those who remained in the Province and took up land,
however, were greatly aided financially by the market afforded for
their produce by the lumberman and the timber merchant.
W. O. Raymond, LL.
D., writing in the St. John Telegraph on “ Early History of New
Brunswick Families,” says concerning the first sawmill in New
Brunswick:
“The reference to a
mill, built by the brothers Louis and Mathieu d’Amours in the
neighborhood of Fort Nashwaak, may serve to explain the statement of
Villebon in 1696, that he had caused planks for madriers, or gun
platforms, to be made near the fort. This mill at any rate antedates
by the best part of a century the mill built by Simonds & White at
St. John in 1767 and that built by Colonel Beamsley Glasier’s
millwrights at the Nashwaak in 1768. Doubtless it was a very
primitive affair, but it sawed lumber, and was in its modest way the
pioneer of the greatest manufacturing industry of New Brunswick at
the present day.”
In 1790 there were
two sawmills of a primitive design in St. John. In 1822 a steam
engine and boiler were imported from Birmingham and the first steam
sawmill was started, the first output being shipped the same year to
Cork, Ireland. Thereafter the number of sawmills increased rapidly
and the item of sawn lumber began to assume a prominent position in
the table of exports.
The noted Miramichi
forest fire occurred in 1825. It had been a summer almost without
rain and, when autumn came, the woods were as dry as tinder. Fires
from numerous causes originated in many places in the forest and
columns of smoke enshrouded the earth in the darkness of twilight.
The danger did not become great, however, so long as the air was
still. On the night of October 7, 1825, a strong wind arose and
fanned the flames into fury. A local historian has thus described
it:
At eight o’clock
the wind increased to a swift hurricane from the west and soon
afterwards a loud and appalling roar was heard, with explosions and
a crackling like that of discharges of musketry. The air was filled
with pieces of burning wood and cinders, which were driven along by
the gale, igniting everything upon which they fell. The roaring grew
louder and sheets of flame seemed to pierce the sky. The people ran
hither and thither, some gave up in despair, some took refuge in the
river, domestic and wild animals mingled in the general rush for
safety. In the space of a single hour the fire swept over the
district north of the river, destroying everything in its path. The
sweep of the fire in northern New Brunswick extended for one hundred
miles and covered an area of 6,000 square miles.
The crowning
catastrophe came when the conflagration swept away within an hour
Newcastle, Douglastown and other villages on the northern side of
the Miramichi River. Of five hundred buildings only twenty-five
remained, and the ships in the harbor were burned.
The fire was not
confined to this district. It devastated the whole country from the
Bartibogue to the Nashwaak, a distance of more than one hundred
miles, and crossed the upper Tobique Mountains one hundred miles
distant in another direction. The total area laid waste was about
six thousand square miles and the loss of timber at the low estimate
then placed upon it was reckoned at £500,000. The effects of this
disastrous fire were seriously felt by the trade for many years
afterward.
EARLY LUMBERING
METHODS.
The following
description of the methods of lumber manufacture employed at an
early period, taken from the “ Account of the Province of New
Brunswick by Thomas Baillie, Esq.,” in 1832, will be of interest.
Mr. Baillie was surveyor general. The work was written mainly for
the benefit of future immigrants.
Mills for sawing
lumber are our principal and largest branches of industry. The
proper dimensions of the building are sixty feet long, forty feet
broad and about twenty feet in height to the roof. The usual expense
of the whole undertaking, including the dam, is seldom less than
£1,000, provided the river be large. In this country, wood and water
being so abundant, steam and iron are not likely to prove profitable
when the former materials can be used.
Labor is so
exceedingly high that mills are constructed in a very simple manner,
substituting great power for complicated machinery, and no fault
could possibly be found with such an economical arrangement,
provided the power remained at its usual maximum. But during the
summer months and in the depth of winter the water, which is
generally so abundant, becomes so much reduced in quantity and the
machinery is then in want of sufficient power to continue in
operation. The simplicity of the machinery and its being made of
wood admit, in the scarcity of millwrights, of the repairs being at
any time effected by the millers themselves, at which they are
exceedingly expert. The difficulty attending iron machinery in the
event of accidents would be irreparable, for, considering the remote
situations of mills, an engineer could not possibly be obtained in
sufficient time to prevent delay.
Sawmills are worked
with undershot water wheels, carrying a crank to which is applied a
connecting rod giving motion to the saw. One saw in a frame is
universally considered more advantageous than gangs, owing to the
acceleration of the motion. The part of the machinery which causes
the log to advance to the saw and to carry it back is equally simple
and prodigal of water. . . .
The sawmills
manufacture boards one inch thick from the white pine, the spruce
and the hemlock for the consumption of the Province, and the former
article also for the West Indies. Heretofore they have been
principally employed in the sawing of deals from the white and red
pine and a few from spruce for the British market, but the latter
trade has sustained so severe a shock from the low state of the home
market that the mills would have gone to decay had not the West
Indies at one period held out some inducement to manufacture boards.
The raw material is obtained from the Crown lands under a license
for which a duty of two shillings and six pence for every thousand
superficial feet of one inch in thickness is paid to the Crown.
The writer proceeds
to show how the sawmills have always been the pioneers of settlement
and gives the rate of wages prevailing at that period as follows:
For first-class millmen, £6 per month; second class, £4 10s;
laborers, £3 to £4 10s. Men in the woods received £4 per month with
board. “With charges so heavy as these,” concludes Thomas Baillie,
Esq., “it is perfectly impossible for our mill owners to compete
with the Americans.” Nevertheless, as the figures previously quoted
show, the trade continued to flourish as the depression in the
British market passed away and the demand from that quarter again
became active.
Shipbuilding formed
at this time an important industry. In the earlier days many of the
vessels built in the Province were defective, being built by
contract for from £4 to £7 per ton. In 1840 an effort was made with
some success to improve the standard by a rigid system of
inspection. For many years the abundance and good quality of timber
gave New Brunswick a notable advantage in shipbuilding.
In the early days
of the Nineteenth Century many people were disposed to regard the
lumbering industry somewhat unfavorably, as an obstacle to the
agricultural development of the country and as a frequent cause of
demoralization to the men engaged in it. Complaints of this sort are
frequently met with in the descriptive works of the writers of the
period. Joseph Bouchette, surveyor general of Lower Canada, in a
work dealing with the British American colonies, published in 1832,
in speaking of the northern region of the Province, says:
“The quantities of
timber that have been felled, squared and taken from this part of
the country are enormous and yet no one industry presents so few
symptoms of improvement. The pursuit of lumbering (perhaps a
necessary evil in colonizing a wilderness) seems indeed of a
demoralizing tendency, sometimes depriving its followers of the
inclination and even capability for consistent and steady industry.”
Another writer, J.
McGregor, in his “Historical and Descriptive Sketches of the
Maritime Colonies of British America,” published in 1828, gives a
very vivid description of the hardships and discomforts of a
lumberer’s life and the primitive camp arrangements then in vogue:
They commence by
clearing away a few of the surrounding trees and building a camp of
round logs, the walls of which are seldom more than four or five
feet high, the roof covered with birch bark or boards. A pit is dug
under the camp to preserve anything liable to injury from the frost.
The fire is either at the middle or at one end, the smoke goes out
through the roof, hay, straw or fir branches are spread across the
whole breadth of the habitation, on which they all lie down together
at night to sleep with their feet next the fire. When the fire gets
low he who first awakes or feels himself cold, springs up and throws
on five or six billets and in this way they manage to have a large
fire all night. One person is hired as cook, whose duty it is to
have breakfast ready before daylight, at which all the party arise,
when each man takes his “ morning,” or the indispensable dram of raw
rum, before breakfast. The meal consists of bread, or occasionally
potatoes, with boiled beef, pork or fish and tea sweetened with
molasses. Dinner is usually the same, with pea soup instead of tea,
and the supper resembles the breakfast. These men are enormous
eaters and they also drink great quantities of rum, which they
scarcely ever dilute.
After describing
the rafting of timber down stream in the spring, and its attendant
hardships, the writer goes on to say:
No course of life
can undermine the constitution more than that of a lumberer or
raftsman. The winter snow and frost, although severe, are nothing to
endure in comparison with the extreme cold of the snow water of the
freshets in which the lumberer is day after day wet up to the middle
and often immersed from head to foot. To stimulate the organs in
order to sustain the cold these men swallow immoderate quantities of
ardent spirits and habits of drunkenness are the usual consequence.
Their moral character with few exceptions, is dishonest and
worthless. Premature old age and shortness of days form the
inevitable fate of a lumberer. After settling and delivering up
their rafts, they pass some weeks in indulgence, drinking, smoking
and dashing off in a long coat, flashy waistcoat and trousers,
Wellington or Hessian boots, a handkerchief of many colors round the
neck, a watch with a long chain and numberless brass seals and an
umbrella.
The picture is a
strong one, and that there were exceptions to the rule of profligacy
and that the sad fate of the lumberer was not inevitable, the author
a little further on admits in giving instances of young men who, by
saving their earnings in lumbering on the Miramichi, were enabled to
purchase farms, or became principals in the lumber business. |
