Grandique is a French term meaning big ditch or big plank.
According to a 1969 article in the Antigonish Casket by Bishop John Cameron, in the early 1800s, Grandique Ferry was a mission of the Parish of Arichat. According to mission records the population, in 1821, was 76 made up of 44 adults and 32 children.
In 1827 a road was constructed to facilitate communication between the mainland at Grandique Ferry and Arichat, which at that time was a bustling centre of economic activity. From Arichat connections could be made to Canso and Mulgrave.
According to the census of 1861 there were 13 polling stations in Richmond County and there is no mention of one at Grandique Ferry. It would seem that all the villages along route 320 were accommodated at the D’Escousse polling station.
The Nova Scotia Board of Statistics, a branch of the Nova Scotia Government, indicates that there was a church at Grandique Ferry in 1886. In fact, Maude Fixxott and Nicholas White were married there on Sept. 7, 1886.
On Friday, Nov. 2, 1888, Grandique Ferry submitted a tender to the Postmaster General of Canada at Ottawa for the conveyance of Her Majesty’s Mails from Grand Anse to Grandique Ferry six times per week each way. This contract extended from 1889 to 1893.
Government records show that several shipwrecks occurred in the Grandique Ferry area. On June 22, 1885, the Richmond, a 44-ton steamship, secured at the Grandique Ferry wharf, caught fire, burnt and sank; it was a total loss.
Records indicate that the Margaret Ann, a 50-ton schooner sailing from Port Hawkesbury on Dec. 29, 1887, was caught in a storm and sank near Lennox Passage.
On Oct. 27, 1890, the Kate, a 131-ton schooner registered at Shelburne and sailing from White Head, Nova Scotia to St. Pierre et Miquelon, was stranded near Grandique Ferry. Judgement error was determined as the cause of the disaster.
The Wild Briar was an 80-ton schooner registered at Miramichi, New Brunswick travelling from Sydney to Chatham, New Brunswick. On June 17, 1891, a leak caused the ship to founder on the beach at Grandique Ferry. The cargo was valued at $250, a considerable sum in the 19th century. The unfortunate schooner was abandoned on the beach at Grandique Ferry.
In the early 20th century there was still a settlement at Grandique Ferry in Richmond County. The 1905 Journal of Education of the Nova Scotia Department of Education listed the communities in the county with schools, Grandique Ferry was Number 18. There was no school in Louisdale, but then in the 1908 Journal Grandique Ferry was still Number 18 while Louisdale became Number 19.
Grandique Ferry was so named as a result of its being a docking area for ferries connecting the mainland to Isle Madame. In 1872 the provincial government granted a subsidy to W.R. Cutler of Arichat to provide ferry service using the steamer Richmond at Lennox Passage.
In 1883 G.M. Shaw won the subsidy. He continued to utilize the Richmond until it burned in 1885. John Murchinson of Grand River, the warden of Richmond County, commissioned a new vessel, the Lennox, to replace the Richmond. It was registered in Arichat in 1887, but it too fell victim to fire not long after.
From that time on, scows were used, either propelled by manpower or hauled by a motorized rig. G.M. Shaw, Steward McPhie, and J.V. Shaw shared the subsidy consecutively until the bridge opened in 1919. In 1911 the first automobile to Isle Madame made its way via the ferry across the passage. This vehicle belonged to J.A. Gillies, K.C., a lawyer from Sydney who took up residence in Arichat.