- St. Stephen, New Brunswick
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St. Stephen — Town — 
Motto: Canada's Chocolate Town Location of St. Stephen in New Brunswick
St. StephenCoordinates: 45°11′32″N 67°16′38″W / 45.19230°N 67.27723°W Country Canada Province New Brunswick County Charlotte Founded 1604 Town 1871 Government – Type Town Council – Mayor Jed Purcell – Deputy Mayor James Maxwell Area – Total 12.43 km2 (4.8 sq mi) Population (2006)[1] – Total 4,780 – Density 384.7/km2 (996.4/sq mi) Time zone AST (UTC-4) – Summer (DST) ADT (UTC-3) Canadian Postal code E3L Area code(s) 506 Telephone Exchanges 466, 465, 467 NTS Map 021G03 GNBC Code DAZBZ Website http://www.town.ststephen.nb.ca St. Stephen (2006 population: 4,780)[1] is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, situated on the east bank of the St. Croix River at 45°11′32″N 67°16′38″W / 45.19222°N 67.27722°WCoordinates: 45°11′32″N 67°16′38″W / 45.19222°N 67.27722°W.
Contents
Climate
The climate is temperate but greatly affected by the Bay of Fundy. The bay is a cool body of water which acts as a natural air conditioner in the summer and diverts major snow storms in the winter. The bay never freezes. The average summer temperature is 22 degrees Celsius with the average winter temperature being -3.9 degrees Celsius.
History
The Passamaquoddy people were the first to make their home along the St. Croix River. They dispersed and hunted inland in the winter; in the summer, they gathered more closely together on the coast and islands, and primarily harvested seafood, including porpoise.[2] In 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain and his men spent a winter here. The Passamaquoddy were moved off their original lands repeatedly by European settlers since that time.
Raid on St. Stephen (1704)
During Queen Anne's War, in response to the French Raid on Deerfield, New Englander Major Benjamin Church (military officer) raided the Acadian villages of Castine, Maine (then known as Penobscot). From the Raid on Castine, Maine, Church learned that Michel Chartier, who was granted the land of present-day St. Stephen, was building a fort at Passamaquoddy Bay. Church and his men arrived at the Passamaquoddy Bay on board the Province Galley, Gosport and Fearly and several other vessels.[3] Church travelled up the St. Croix River to St. Stephen and, on June 7, 1704, took Chartier by surprise and his family fled into the woods.[4] On June 13, Church reported they were destroying the crops of the Acadians and the Acadians and Natives fired upon Church’s troops and a three hour exchange ensued. Church killed and imprisoned Acadians and Natives, with the total number being 35. One of Church’s men was wounded. They pillaged and plundered the community.[5]
After the Raid on St. Stephen, Church moved on to raid other Acadian villages in the Raid on Grand Pré, the Raid on Piziquid, and the Raid on Chignecto. [6]
St. Stephen Incorporated
Officially incorporated as a town in 1871, five years later St. Stephen's business district was almost destroyed by fire when eighty buildings and 13 wharves burned.
In the 1970s, the municipalities of St. Stephen and Milltown joined together to become what is now simply known as St. Stephen.
Ganong Chocolates
Historically a lumber and ship building economy until the early part of the 1900s, by the end of World War II the town's main employers were the Ganong Bros. Limited chocolate company (established 1873, Canada's oldest candy company), and the second largest textile mill in Canada built in 1882 on the river where it operated with its own hydro-electric generating station, the Milltown Dam. In 1957, the textile mill closed but the confectionery maker remains a key employer.
Every August since 1985, the town plays host to the week-long Chocolate Fest, celebrating their rich and delicious heritage. That spotlight on the wonder of chocolate resulted in the opening of the Chocolate Museum in 1999 and its expansion as a Chocolate Discovery Centre in 2009.
In 2000 St. Stephen was given the title of "Canada's Chocolate Town."
International border
New Brunswick visitor information centre in St. Stephen's former Canadian Pacific Railway station.
The St. Croix River marks a section of the international boundary between the United States and Canada, forming a natural border between the towns on either side of the river bank. Calais is connected to St. Stephen by the Ferry Point International Bridge and the Milltown International Bridge.
Residents of St. Stephen and Calais often regard their community as one place, cooperating in their fire departments and other community projects.[7] As evidence of the longtime friendship between the towns, during the War of 1812, the British military provided St. Stephen with a large supply of gunpowder for protection against the enemy Americans in Calais, but the town elders gave the gunpowder to Calais for its Fourth of July celebrations.[8]
For much of their history, both towns' fire departments have responded in tandem to any fire call on either side of the border.[9]
Construction began in 2008 on a third bridge connecting the two communities. The new International Avenue Bridge, which was officially opened in January 2010, will serve primarily commercial trucking traffic, while the two older bridges will remain in use for passenger vehicles.[10]
Every year, the town co-hosts a weeklong International Festival with the neighbouring town of Calais, Maine.
The new Ganong chocolate factory.Media
St. Stephen, being a small town, has only two media organizations: a radio station and weekly newspaper.
Radio station CHTD-FM, known as "The Tide", plays country music and offers regular news updates.
Founded in 1865, the Saint Croix Courier is the town's weekly newspaper, and also publishes a weekend edition, the Courier Weekend. The Courier is one of the few papers in New Brunswick that is not owned by the Irving family.
Education
The town is home to St. Stephen's University, a small private Christian university.
Sports
A hotbed of baseball interest, in 1934 the Boston Braves of baseball's National League played an exhibition game in St. Stephen against the local "Kiwanis" team. The enthusiastic fans in attendance numbered more than half the town's population. In 1939, the local baseball team won its ninth consecutive New Brunswick senior championship, topping off a decade of dominance in the sport at both the provincial and Maritime levels.
A building which housed the former Parsons Printing business suffered fire damage in May 2010. This building housed the first basketball court in Canada. [11]
People from St. Stephen
- Norman Buchanan (MC), a politician, business man and member of NB Sports hall of fame. He served during the Second World War and was awarded the Military Cross with two bars, an extremely high honour held by only 23 other Commonwealth Officers.
- Henry Burr, radio pioneer and early recording star
- Allan Fraser, folk musician and songwriter
- Rowland Frazee, chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada
- Arthur Ganong, businessman, politician
- Gilbert Ganong, businessman, statesman
- William Francis Ganong, botanist, historian and cartographer
- Samuel Heywood, prominent early settler of Berkeley, California
- Kenneth G. Mills, philosopher, lecturer, composer, conductor and artist
- John Ralston, actor
- Don Sweeney, former NHL hockey player with the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars
See Also
References
- ^ a b Canada 2006 Census Community Profiles: St. Stephen.
- ^ http://www.nps.gov/acad/historyculture/ethnography.htm.
- ^ The History of the Great Indian War, p. 262 Church's Book
- ^ Griffith, E. From Migrant to Acadian. McGill-Queen’s University Press. 2005. P. 207
- ^ THE Boston News-Letter No. 10, June 19-26, 1704, p. 2 as recorded in "An historical digest of the provincial press; being a collation of all items of personal and historic reference relating to American affairs printed in the newspapers of the provincial period beginning with the appearance of The present state of the New-English affairs, 1689, Publick occurrences, 1690, and the first issue of the Boston news-letter, 1704, and ending with the close of the revolution, 1783" p. 94 (See Boston News Letter)
- ^ Benjamin Church, Thomas Church, Samuel Gardner Drake. The history of King Philip's war ; also of expeditions against the French and Indians in its Eastern parts of New England, in the years 1689, 1692, i696 AND 1704. With some account of the divine providence towards Col. Benjamin Church.pp. 262-270
- ^ "Town working on paving way to its future". The Telegraph-Journal, December 31, 2009.
- ^ "PM opens new crossing". Saint Croix Courier, January 12, 2010.
- ^ "After 35 Years the Favour Is Returned; Calais Firemen Borrow Canadian Truck". Bangor Daily News, October 23, 1970.
- ^ "U.S. gives go ahead to third bridge", St. Croix Courier, September 26, 2006.
- ^ http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/rss/article/1067561 Parsons Printing Building Fire, Canada's First Basketball Court
External links
Subdivisions of New Brunswick 
Subdivisions Cities Towns Beresford · Bouctouche · Caraquet · Dalhousie · Florenceville-Bristol · Grand Bay-Westfield · Grand Falls · Hampton · Hartland · Lamèque · Nackawic · Oromocto · Quispamsis · Richibucto · Riverview · Rothesay · Sackville · Shediac · Shippagan · St. Andrews · St. George · St-Léonard · St-Quentin · St. Stephen · Sussex · Tracadie-Sheila · WoodstockCategories:- Communities in Charlotte County, New Brunswick
- Towns in New Brunswick
- Populated coastal places in Canada
- Conflicts in Nova Scotia
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