Westmorland community remembers its roots
Published Saturday January 3rd, 2009
Scoudouc celebrates community church's 100th anniversary
For 200 years, Scoudouc residents have watched as life around them transformed.
The community went from its early years when settlers carved a niche in the wilderness to the heydays when thousands of people lived and worked at the military air base and radar station during the Second World War.
In 2009 it will celebrate 200 years of development.
During the Second World War, an estimated 5,000 people worked at the base dedicated to aircraft repairs. A number of British airmen were stationed at the base, living in large bunkhouses.
There were enough people to warrant a monthly local newspaper called Mayfly, said local historian Paul Belliveau.
As many as 100 aircraft were on the ground at a time.
By 1915, there 141 families, totalling 852 residents in the community.
Today, the community numbers 1,200 to 1,500 residents.
Years ago, Canadian National Railway trains rolled in regularly picking up commuters heading for the work in Moncton, including at the CN Shops, and went back at noon to pick up shoppers heading for the major retail centre. The trains would return at night bringing workers and shoppers back home.
After the war, the airfield was turned into a popular drag strip and, eventually, into the Scoudouc Industrial Park, now the region's largest employer with 16 businesses and room to grow.
Scoudouc was a main route between Memramcook and Shediac and later Moncton and Shediac for travellers, freight from the area and families crowding railway passenger cars bound for summer excursions and picnics at Pointe-du-Chene- and Shediac-area beaches.
The picnic trains have long since stopped running and all railway tracks except for a connection to the industrial park have been removed.
The year 2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the founding of the parish and 100th anniversary of the completion of the St-Jacques-le-Majeur Roman Catholic Church, named after one of the Apostles. The church with its tall spire still greets travellers along Route 132.
The parish takes in the communities of Dorchester Crossing (formerly Leger Village), Painsec, Meadow Brook, Malakoff and Scoudouc itself.
The parish was created in 1809 with land grants to eight families who had emigrated from Nova Scotia's Minudie region in 1756 and from Memramcook.
Fifteen names were on the request for land grants sent in 1804 and it took 11 years to obtain, during which the settlers could have been ousted from the land, said Belliveau. They were named Melanson, Como (Comeau), Bourg (Bourque), Léger, Babin and LeBlanc, he said.
The reason the settlers moved inland to found Scoudouc was that most of the available Crown land from Shediac west was already taken, he said.
There were an estimated 85 to 90 people in the area around 1800, including Mi'k maq. There were still native people living in Scoudouc in the 1950s and a larger settlement at nearby Painsec Junction.
The origin of the name Scoudouc is not exactly known, said Belliveau, noting it was written seven different ways over the years including Omskoodook. He says one thought is that the word is Mi'kmaq meaning crooked river.
The first church was built in 1847. Before that, residents had to travel to Memramcook or Shediac to attend religious services.
When they did attend services, families would stay with friends or relatives in Memramcook or Shediac for a day or two before heading home.
For these early settlers, religion meant everything, said Belliveau who published a historical book on the community called Scoudouc Fête 100ième et 200ième Anniversaires.
There was even an apparition seen by a group of children at the end of the 19th century which sparked considerable public interest at the time and some furor as well, including when the local priest tried to suppress the incident.
The children had seen a woman and child on a wall at their school in 1893 that some residents assumed was Mary and Jesus. The school was ordered closed in order to quash talk of the incident and implication, said Belliveau.
The new church built in 1909 was designed by architect René A. Fréchette who also designed many other buildings in the region including the church at Grand-Pré, N.S., and Mary's Home in Moncton.
Rev. Maurice A. Leger, who looks after several pastoral units including Scoudouc, said it took some persuasion to convince the bishop at the time to grant a parish priest in 1907.
Like many small rural communities in the late 20th century, the young people left, drawn to jobs and a faster pace of life in larger centres. That trend seems to have slowed down in recent years and may even be reversing, said Belliveau.
A number of young people are returning to their roots and many young families are enticed by the quiet rural appeal of country life. As well, Scoudouc is only a few minutes' drive from shopping and employment centres like Moncton, Dieppe and Shediac.
A project to link the Scoudouc Industrial Park with the four-lane Highway 15, providing a direct route for transport trucks, is likely to inject new life into the park and perhaps spur new activity in this peaceful rural Westmorland County community.
Several residents are convinced that more development is heading their way with completion of the new direct highway link and that's creating all sorts of interest.
Ronald Boudreau, president of the first Local Service District council for Scoudouc, hopes the community will revive.
There is no community fire department and the highway through the area could win first prize for the most potholes and patches, he said.
He's one of those hoping something big will come along with completion of the link between Highway 15 and the industrial park. If nothing else, the new route should divert the heavy truck traffic from the local road which would be an improvement, he said.
It's a shame, he added, that the railway tracks which ran to the roundhouse in Pointe-du-Chene are gone. It could have been developed into a summer tourist attraction, much like the Salem & Hillsborough Railroad attraction, he mused.
Various activities are scheduled for the anniversary year, including family photo sessions, a conference and an ecumenical church service this month.
A social gathering is set for July 4 and the anniversary parade and church service July 5.
Other activities later in the year include a memorial mass, Christmas concert and Christmas Eve midnight mass.
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