Why did early settlers choose to live where they did?

If you examine a map showing where the Acadians lived before the expulsions of the 1750s, you’ll see concentrations of settlement in areas that allowed the production of grass crops and the grazing of cattle in marshland that was often below sea level at high tide. The Acadian dyking system was the product of ingenuity and hard work. Grand-Pré (large meadow) and Beaubassin are both excellent examples of this.

 Later colonization reflected another consideration that mattered. Roads were few, poorly maintained and seldom very long. Waterways were the highways. As islands, Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island depended completely on the sea for access by people and goods. The early-inhabited areas of all the Atlantic Provinces were coastal, unless a navigable river led into the interior, as the Saint John River in western New Brunswick.

Stock-in-trade

Fishing was a major industry and the need for fishing villages to be on shorelines was evident. Many of our ancestors made a livelihood from the forests. Beyond their immediate need for building materials and fuel, lumbering communities had to get their timber, deals and planks to market. The vast Miramichi basin and dozens of smaller interior waterways were the means of doing so. This helps to explain why villages dotted the shores of those rivers, lakes and harbours.

Combine timber resources with fishing and seafaring and a shipbuilding industry grew up in the region. Hundreds and probably thousands of vessels, some of considerable size, others shallow-draft boats, were built in dozens of yards around the coasts of Newfoundland, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy rim. Once-thriving communities supported large crews employed in building the hulls, making the rigging and the sails, and outfitting the ships.

Rivalries between seaport towns reflected a spirit of competition and enterprise, as one vied to outdo the other. Halifax and Saint John enjoyed the advantage of having ice-free harbours in all but the most arctic of winters, at a time when Charlottetown and the St. Lawrence were icebound. The two cities were rivals to dominate trade within the region, so to enable goods from the former to enter markets around the Bay of Fundy. Saint John responded by pushing through a line to Shediac in an attempt to wrest the Gulf trade away from Halifax interests.

When Prince Edward Island joined Confederation in 1873 a major concern was how to maintain year-round access within the Island and with the mainland. Study the areas in the region which attracted settlement and the influence of location along a rail line is obvious. People and commodities needed to get in and out; until the 1980s the railroads played a major role in providing this service. Ice-free harbours and access to trains dictated settlement, at least until a subsistence economy gave way to a market-based one.

The effect continues to play out with regard to highway long-distance trucking. Sometimes busy towns diminish once the rail lines disappear and major highway systems bypass them.

Changing times

What about places that weren’t on a coastline, a river or a railway? Most exceptions would be communities that arose and relied on the extraction of a single resource. During the 1850s and 60s gold was found in several locations and what appeared to be a thriving town began to take shape. Once the resource was played out or became uneconomical to mine, the town shrank to a village to a hamlet to a few scattered buildings or even a ghost town.

Other communities were the products of visionaries with a dream, which usually petered out due to forces beyond their control. In western Nova Scotia from 1892 until about 1920 we had a place known as New France, nicknamed “Electric City” because its founder, Jean Jacques Stehelin from France, set up a mill and lit buildings decades before the surrounding area was electrified. Economics forced its closure and the buildings were eventually torn down. Today only foundations mark the spot.

Where we live largely comes down to access, enterprise and jobs—largely decreed by the lay of the land and what resources it holds. That seems a case in favour of good stewardship on our part, doesn’t it?

Dr. Terrence M. Punch is a Member of the Order of Canada. His latest book, Montbéliard Immigrants to Nova Scotia, 1749-1752, is available in a revised edition from genealogical.com.