was named for the river whose Indian name means “having its outlet among the reeds” and “worn out grass (land).” A monument marks the landing of the Acadians. Its main street, U.S. Route 1, is dominated by Fraser Paper Company, whose plant straddles the border with Edmunston, New Brunswick. Agriculture remains a significant portion of the economy. Most residents in this heavily Catholic community are fluent in French and have extended family members in Canada.
Marguerite-Blanch Thibodeau Cyr (1738-1810), a healer, midwife, and pioneer, was part of the migration from the French settlements of Acadia to Madawaska Territory on the south side of the St. John River Valley in the State of Maine. She was born in Beaubassin (now Amherst, Nova Scotia), during the era when France and England were…
Originally a French colony, Acadian lands in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia were passed back and forth between the French and English by various treaties settling European wars. The last of these, the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, gave the land to England. For a time the Acadians lived peacefully with the English. In…