The first missionary to visit Arichat was Father Bailly de Messein, a native of France serving in the diocese of Quebec.
Bailly was replaced by Father Bourg who directed the parishioners to build a...
According to Garvie Samson (The River That Isn’t), a team from River Bourgeois played the Maple Leaf Cardinals from Halifax which was en route to Sydney for an exhibition game.
The contest took place...
In Robins in 1935 there were only five homes. The first was that of Henry W. Boudreau; he married twice, first in 1918 to Philomena Samson (1899-1922) and later to Eliza Boudreau (1893-1956). There were three children:...
Ephrem Boudreau was born in River Bourgeois in 1905.
After his classical studies from 1922 to 1928 at the seminary at Trois Riviere, he spent three years at agricultural school at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere. Here he...
The following excerpt is taken from Cape Breton Book of the Night edited by Ronald Caplan. This story was taped, transcribed, and translated into English by Jocelyne Marchand:
“But it got so that even I didn’t want to stay there....
The first store, near the houses of the three brothers, Eugene, Victor and Martial Digout, was that of Fred Carré, brother of Henri located where later Peter McLean had his and was for a time the home...
Diseases, which have all but been forgotten, were common and at times fatal 100 years ago: diphtheria, appendicitis, pneumonia, yellow jaundice, and tuberculosis were the main ones.
At one point, a county nurse traveled...
The following excerpt is taken from Cape Breton Book of the Night edited by Ronald Caplan. This story was taped, transcribed, and translated into English by Jocelyne Marchand.
“We had problems after we got there. The first night we slept...
Looking back over the decades, and indeed, centuries,
it is amazing to observe the numerous family names that once were common in
this area.
One of those names that no longer holds a place here is
Haskell....
We are going to continue along the Upper Road, moving west from St. John’s Anglican Church.
In 1935 the only house after the St. John’s rectory was that of Nicholas Dixon, 1845 to 1934....