Pictou
| Pictou | |||
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 View of Pictou, 2006 |
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| Location in Nova Scotia | |||
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| State : |
 Canada
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| Province : | Nova Scotia | ||
| County: | Pictou County | ||
| Coordinates : | 45 ° 40 ′ N , 62 ° 42 ′ W | ||
| Residents : | 3437 (as of 2011) | ||
| Time zone : | Atlantic Time ( UTC − 4 ) | ||
| Website : | www.townofpictou.com | ||
Pictou is one of the 30 towns in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia . Incorporated since 1873, the place on the northern edge of a multi-armed bay, the Pictou Harbor, in Pictou County today has about 3500 inhabitants. It goes back to the village of Pictook of the Mi'kmaq as well as French settlement efforts of the 17th century, from 1760 the British followed them.
history
Early history
The settlement of the region by Mi'kmaq goes back several millennia. They named the place Pictook , which means 'exploding gas'. Presumably there is a connection to the coal seams in the region. The French called the local Mi'kmaq Souriguoi , a name they used to refer to the north bank of the province. One of their burial sites was discovered on Lowdens Beach in the 1950s.
Nicolas Denys, settlement attempts from 1660
In 1660 Nicolas Denys gave the area the name La rivière de Pictou . He had received exclusive exploration rights between Canso and the Gaspé Peninsula in 1653 , including Cape Breton Island and the other islands in the Gulf. Denys spent four decades trying to develop the colony on behalf of France, but his ventures were unsuccessful. He tried in vain to establish fish farms in Port Rossignol ( Liverpool ) and Cape Breton.
In 1760 Great Britain signed a treaty with the Mi'kmaq, which also affected their former village Pictook, for which William Wicken assumed perhaps 300 inhabitants for the time before the arrival of the Europeans.
Philadelphia Grant from 1765, British settlement (from 1767)
On October 31, 1765, after the Seven Years' War ended , the Philadelphia Company of Pennsylvania was awarded 200,000 acres of land from London . The society, which consisted of 14 British Protestants, had to undertake to settle the colony within four years. The area was named the Philadelphia Grant . It ranged from Brown's Point (adjacent to the McNutt Grant) to Colchester County . The land had the disadvantage that there was limited access to the water between Brown's Point and the mouth of the West River. This was the reason why society failed to convince settlers to go there.
At least the Betsy landed on June 10, 1767 and brought families with her. So the first colony in Pictou County was born . The families settled on the West River, now Lyons Brook. The first magistrate was Dr. John Harris, a doctor who graduated from Princeton University . He was followed by John Patterson, a land surveyor better known in the area as Squire Patterson . In total there were four families who settled west of the estate or Haliburton. James McCabe's family settled in Durham , those of John Rogers in Rogers Hill (Scotsburn). It is not clear where Henry Cumminger's family and another, not known by name, settled. In 1769 the first sawmill was built at Saw Mill Brook near Lyons Brook.
McNutt Grant (from 1773)
The following year, the McNutt Grant or Irish Grant ran out, which comprised what is now Pictou Township, including the Town of Pictou, Trenton , New Glasgow and Stellarton . McNutt had outperformed the Philadelphia Company , but he too failed because of the settlement requirements. After all, 120 settlers were already living in Pictou Township at this time.
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In July 1773 the Hector , a Dutch flute owned by John Pagan, a trader from the Glasgow area , set sail in Loch Broom in northern Scotland . She had 179 passengers on board and took another ten in Greenock . On September 15, the ship landed in Pictou. However, the land the passengers headed for was given to Alexander McNutt. But in 1775 5,000 acres of that land went to Lieutenant Richard Williams. He traded it for a horse with Walter Patterson, who divided the future city area and named it 'Coleraine'. By November 1775, 53 families had settled here. In 1783 further parts of the McNutt-Land were given to 44 settlers, most of them passengers of the Hector . Of these families, 70 men were able to take arms.
John Patterson acquired further parts of the McNutt land in 1787 and founded the new town of New Paisley by subdividing it into lots . Meanwhile, the first church in the county was built near Loch Broom. It was a Presbyterian church .
Urban Development Beginnings, Pictou Academy
In 1788 the city got its name back Pictou. Now the first timber merchants came to town with Edward Mortimer and his brothers, and Thomas Copeland, who had just arrived, built the first ship. In 1793, Peter Grant established the first school. In 1799 an election was held for the first time, which Edward Mortimer could win. He was the leader of the Reform Party, the forerunner of the Liberal Party .
In 1801 Hugh Denoon brought the first passenger cargo to Pictou on the Pigeon . Most of them were Catholic, so they preferred to live in Antigonish and Cape Breton.
In 1803 Reverend Thomas McCulloch came to the first Presbyterian Church, which was established in 1804. He is considered the founder of the Pictou Academy . He opened a grammar school in his home in 1808 , which became the Grammar School for the Pictou District in 1811 . In 1816 it was recognized by a charter; it opened its doors the following year with 23 students. Another grammar school was built in 1818 while the Pictou Academy was able to complete its building at the west end of Church Street.
Shipbuilding, infrastructure
In 1806 the first ferry was able to start operating between Pictou and Pictou Landing. The shipping industry took off with James Dawson, who came from Scotland in 1811. In 1834 a first lighthouse was built at the entrance to the harbor (burned down in 1903), more precisely at Cole Point. The first flax mill in Nova Scotia was built in 1824, and a planer mill in 1825, which made it easier to manufacture doors, frames, frames and casements. There was a regular connection to Prince Edward Island with the Richard Smith steamboat . In 1833 the stagecoach service to Antigonish opened.
In 1812, to protect against Irish marauders ( Fenians ), a battery of cannons was installed at Battery Point (demolished in 1942).
State institutions followed, such as a post office (1812), a court (1813, rebuilt in 1856), a postal service that linked Pictou with Truro and Halifax , and a library (1822), which, however, closed again after three decades. In the same year, public flogging was abolished.
In 1825 construction began on St. James Anglican Church, which was consecrated in 1829. In 1823, Father James Grant encouraged the local Catholics to build a chapel, but in 1824 a fire destroyed the construction. In 1827, however, the church was completed, it was named St. Patrick's.
In 1830 Pictou had 1,500 inhabitants, in 1838 it had 1,744. However, the immigrant ships also brought disease, as in 1841 when the brig Lady Gray brought in typhus . In the same year, cholera and smallpox were rampant . Decades later, a smallpox epidemic threatened the city in 1885.
Newspapers, from 1827
The Colonial Patriot was the first newspaper to appear on December 7, 1827, and others soon followed. The Pictou Observer appeared from May 11, 1831 , The Juvenile Entertainer from August 6, 1832 , the Pictou Bee from May 27, 1835 , The Mechanic and Farmer from May 23, 1838, followed by The Presbyterian just five days later Banner . Fierce competition led to the merger of Eastern Chronicle , The Mechanic and Farmer, and The Presbyterian Banner in 1843 . The paper later moved to Glasgow. But in the same year new newspapers appeared with The Christian Record and The Little Visitor . In 1850 a monthly journal was added, The Missionary Registry . This sheet has been merged with the Christian Instructor .
Dispute between Tories and Liberals, Brandy Election (1830)
In the so-called Brandy Election , an election in which the taxation of the name-giving drink was the focus, the Highlanders were behind the Tories. They were armed with batons. In fact, there were brawls for several days in streets and restaurants in which a man was killed. The Liberals won the election anyway.
Similar to the newspapers, there was a considerable variety of denominations. So in 1848 the John Knox Free Church came into being ; in the same year the First Presbyterian Church was established .
Further development of the urban infrastructure, industrialization approaches
In 1848 JDB Fraser was able to produce chloroform for the first time , which was used in an operation in Halifax. The following year the first hospital was established, around five kilometers from the city. It took in immigrants who disembarked sick. It wasn't until 1893 that a general hospital was completed.
In 1848 the first tannery was opened in Lyons Brook, which existed until 1923. Telegraphing became possible from 1850, because the connection to Truro was completed. From 1870 the Pictou Gas Works began supplying the city with gas.
City development, struggle for connection to Canada
In 1873 the Town of Pictou was incorporated. In 1882 another newspaper appeared with "The Pictou News".
In 1880 a new building was built for the Pictou Academy, which opened its doors on January 9, 1881, as well as a hospital for sailors and passengers on the site of today's Sutherland Memorial Hospital. The building burned down in 1895, but was rebuilt ready for occupancy by December 1896.
James William Carmichael, who had worked in shipbuilding, coal mining, timber and fishing, was one of the Pictou-born supporters of staying with Britain. Accordingly, he was an opponent of the Confederation of 1867. He had studied at the local Pictou Academy and sat from 1867 to 1872 in Parliament, joined the Liberals in 1869 and sat again after the establishment of Canada in Parliament (1874-78). From 1898 to 1903 he was a member of the Senate.
Railway connections, tobacco, ore smelting
A railway connection that emerged, the Intercolonial Railway , connecting Pictou with Stellarton - Oxford Junction . Coal was shipped via Pictou Landing, which in turn promoted shipbuilding. However, CN Rail gave up the railway line in the late 1980s. It was no longer able to cope with the competition from the much more heavily subsidized road traffic, especially Highway 106. In 1886, the construction of a railway connection between Pictou, Westville and Stellarton, which opened in November 1887, began. A telephone network was also set up that year. In 1890 the Short Line to Oxford Junction, construction of which had started in 1888, went into service.
In 1881 and 1890, heavy fires raged in the city, in the latter case the prison and 20 commercial buildings were destroyed.
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The tobacco industry became more and more important, it existed until about 1960. It processed raw tobacco from Virginia and Kentucky . So in 1898 50,000 pounds of Pictou Twist were made. Another important employer was a copper and iron smelter, which processed ores from Newfoundland and the other eastern provinces.
In 1905 a new station for the Intercolonial Railway was built , but in 1910 the competing means of transport appeared for the first time in Pictou with the first car.
In 1938 the third building of the Pictou Academy was destroyed, it burned down on June 3rd. The fourth building was built in 1940.
Expanding shipbuilding, World War II
With the Second World War , shipbuilding took a steep rise. For this purpose, houses for around 400 families were built in Victory Heights. A school of its own was established there in 1943. In 1946, however, a major fire destroyed parts of the port, again on July 6, 1959. Ferguson Industries was partially destroyed, as was the Canadian Hydrographic Service depot .
Permanent economic crisis, overfishing
As in the rest of eastern Canada, economic problems also hit the Pictou region. In 1968 the GH Hamilton biscuit factory closed, in 1974 a fire destroyed the CN train station, but most of all the fishing industry collapsed. Few local industries could hold out. Grohmann Knives Ltd is the only manufacturer of cutlery in Canada.
education
Founded in 1803 by Thomas McCulloch, Pictou Academy is the only remaining local high school ; it was officially recognized in 1816. All other high schools were closed in 2003/04, their students now attend the comprehensive Northumberland Regional High School and the North Nova Education Center . In addition, the local, small city library continues.
sons and daughters of the town
- John William Dawson (1820–1899), geologist, paleontologist and school reformer
- Christie MacDonald (1875–1962), singer
- Joey MacDonald (born 1980), ice hockey player
literature
- Lucille H. Campey: After the Hector. The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773-1852 , Toronto 2004, 2nd edition 2007.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ William Wicken: Mi'kmaq treaties on trial: history, land and Donald Marshall Junior , University of Toronto Press 2002, reprinted 2004, p. 38.