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The City of St. John is the oldest incorporated city in British North America, its charter dating back to 1785; it is also the largest city in New Brunswick. Among the earliest Catholic missionaries to visit New Brunswick, which was then part of Acadia, were the Jesuit Fathers, Biard and Massé, in 1611. They remained until after the destruction of Port Royal by Argall in 1613, and were succeeded by Recollects.
With the erection of Quebec into a diocese, special interest was attached to the Acadian missions. Mgr. St. Vallier left the St. Lawrence, 7 May, 1686, proceeded to the St. John, and reached Medoetec, an Indian village eight miles below Woodstock.
There the bishop established a mission, and left it under the direction of Father Simon, a Recollect. Subsequently another mission was formed at Aukpaque. After the death of Fathers Simon and Moireau, the missions on the St. John passed into the hands of the Jesuits, among whom were Fathers Aubery, Loyard, Danielou, Loverga, Audren, and Germain. The Indian church at Medoctec was probably the first erected in New Brunswick. On the original site of this church a small stone tablet was discovered in June, 1890, bearing a Latin inscription the translation of which reads: "To God, most Good and Great, in honour of St. John the Baptist, the Maliseets erected this church A.D. 1717, while Jean Loyard, a priest of the Society of Jesus, was Procurator of the mission."
More than 150,000 Irish had landed here by 1867, making up 85 per cent of all immigrants who came here during that period. Although most of them kept
going, enough stayed to forever change the character of Saint John and New Brunswick.
Rather than the Loyalist City, Saint John has for a century and a half been an
Irish city.
And many of those who can trace their family trees back to the Loyalists
probably have even more ancestors who were Irish.
By the 1850s, Saint John's founding Loyalists "found themselves a minority
within their own city." They were certainly outnumbered by the Irish.
February 16, 1891, Logansport Pharos
Logansport, Indiana, U.S.A.
A MYSTERIOUS DISPATCH.
Reciprocity with Newfoundland Not a Probable Consumation.
WASHINGTON CITY, Feb. 16. —The state department is in the dark as to the meaning of a St. John's, Nd. dispatch about a reciprocity treaty having been agreed upon between the United States and Newfoundland. Assistant Secretary Adee says the state department has jurisdiction to make reciprocity treaties in such cases only when the conditions prescribed in the McKinley bill exist, and those conditions, as far as he is informed, do not exist as to Newfoundland.
"I simply know," he added in conclusion, "'nothing about the matter."
The Senators Haven't Heard of It.
If Secretary Blaine has concluded any reciprocity treaty with Newfoundland he has not informed the senate of the fact. The matter has never been brought to the attention of the senate in executive session, and several senators to whom the dispatch from St. Johns was shown say that they know nothing about such an agreement. One feature of the matter is that the American papers have had frequent specials representing Newfoundlanders as being on the verge of insurrection almost because of the alleged delay of England in ratifying the treaty.
