Sackville is a former town in southeastern New Brunswick, Canada. It held town status prior to 2023 and is now part of the town of Tantramar.

Sackville is home to Mount Allison University, a primarily undergraduate liberal arts university. The university welcomes roughly 2200 students per academic year. Historically based on agriculture, shipbuilding, and manufacturing, the economy is now driven by the university and tourism. Initially part of the French colony of Acadia, the settlement became part of the British colony of Nova Scotia in 1755 following the Expulsion of the Acadians.

History

Pre-European

Present-day Sackville is in the Mi’kmaq district of Siknikt (to which the place name Chignecto may be traced), which roughly comprised Cumberland, Westmorland and part of Albert counties. The Mi’kmaq settlement, Goesomaligeg, was on Fort Beausejour Ridge and Tatamalg or Tantama, on the Sackville Ridge. Many regional toponyms are Mi’kmaq including Tidnish, Minudie, Missaguash River, Aboushagan Road, Midgic, Memramcook and Shemogue. A portage connected Beaubassin by way of Westcock and the valley now known as Frosty Hollow with the Memramcook and Petitcodiac rivers and was an important link in the communications system between Acadia and Quebec.

French colony (1670s-1755)

The first Acadians arrived in the early 1670s, as the French colony expanded from its base at Port Royal. Many of the Acadians came from the west of France and were experienced in reclaiming from the sea lowlands that might be made arable. The Tantramar Marshes were well suited to this, and the Acadians built a system of dykes and sluices that allowed them to cultivate the marshes. Surveyor Charles Morris visited in 1748, and reported Acadian settlements at Westcock; Pré des Bourgs, (Sackville); Pré des Richards, (Middle Sackville); Tintamare, (Upper Sackville); La Butte, Le Coup, Le Lac (Aulac); Portage, at the head of the Missaguash River; Beaubassin (adjacent to Beausejour); Jolicoeur, (Jolicure) and Pont à Buot, (Point de Bute). Farther afield, there were settlements at La Planche (Amherst) and Baie Verte for a total population of about 3,000. Settlements were connected by trails and separated by marsh. A seaport at Westcock provided a link to Port Royal.

British conquest and resettlement

The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 had ceded Acadia to England, but without specifying where the boundary was between Acadia and what remained of New France. This led to ongoing skirmishes until June 1755 when, as part of a wider struggle of the British and French of North American colonies, the French were defeated at the Battle of Beausejour. This led to the removal of most of the French military from Acadia. Six weeks later, Governor Charles Lawrence, without distinguishing between neutral Acadians and those who had resisted the British, wrote that the Acadians "shall be removed out of the country as soon as possible, and as to those about the isthmus who were in arms and therefore entitled to no favour from the government it is determined to begin with them first". This marked the beginning of the expulsion of the Acadians. They were only allowed to take with them their ready money and household furniture, and their buildings were burned to the ground.

Following the expulsion of the Acadians the British needed to repopulate the colony. The first wave of immigration was the New England Planters who were invited and encouraged with land grants. The Sackville area was abandoned for six years after the expulsion of the Acadians until 1761 when 25 families from Rhode Island settled on the vacated Acadian farms, followed in 1763 by a group of 13 from Swansea, Massachusetts, who formed the first Baptist church in Canada, but subsequently returned to New England. In 1763 the population was 20 families on 200 acres of cleared (probably by the Acadians) upland, and also marshlands. A 1767 census gives the population as 349, of which 343 were Americans. The Sackville Township, named after Viscount Sackville, was formally created in 1765 and by 1772 was sufficiently populated to send a representative to the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

The Yorkshire Emigration started in 1772 and lasted about three years. They arrived too late to occupy the vacated Acadian farms which had already been granted to the New Englanders. However many New Englanders did not stay, and sold the land on to the British immigrants.

When the American War of Independence broke out in 1775, many of the American settlers in the area were sympathetic with the Americans, and rebels led by Jonathan Eddy laid siege to Fort Cumberland. However the rebels were repelled by soldiers, with help from the Yorkshire settlers who remained loyal to the crown. When the war was over, United Empire Loyalists, emigrated north, some to the Sackville area. This was followed by the development of shipyards on the Tantramar River. Official records for shipbuilding in New Brunswick began in 1824, but by that time shipbuilding was already well under way with several ships of over 100 tons having been built.

In 1862 there was a shipyard at the site of the current railway station, and another to the east at Dixon's Landing at the end of Landing Road. A public wharf was built there by local merchants in 1840–41. The shopkeepers were looking to import products and export staples such as lumber, grindstones and building stones. In the 1870s, a spur line connecting the Intercolonial Railway to the wharf was built.

Shipbuilding and coastal trading thrived between 1824 and 1872. The last was built in 1896. The largest was the Sarah Dixon, built by Charles Dixon in 1856 at 1465 tons.

By the 1870s the wharf was inadequate since vessels over 200 tons had only the end berth. A new wharf was added in 1911, but much shipping business had already been lost because of the lack of proper wharf. Local folklore reports that a ship never tied up at the new wharf. The wharf and the end of Landing Road was on a meander of the Tantramar River, but in the 1920s the meander was cut off due to erosion and silting, leaving the site without access to the sea. As of 2018 the foundry still had not been rebuilt.

Sackville grew in importance as a railway junction after Canadian National Railways established a dedicated railcar ferry service at Cape Tormentine in 1917. The Sackville railway yard and station were constantly busy until the opening of publicly funded highways following World War II started a slow decline. The abandonment of the Prince Edward Island Railway in 1989 saw the line to Cape Tormentine removed at the same time as the Trans-Canada Highway was being expanded to a 4-lane freeway. As the railway consolidated to a single mainline running through town, businesses left, including offices of Atlantic Wholesalers.

Recent history

On 1 January 2023, Sackville amalgamated with the village of Dorchester and parts of three local service districts to form the new town of Tantramar. The community's name remains in official use.

In November 2022, Sackville received the accreditation of being named an international wetland city under the Ramsar Convention, the first in North America.

Geography

Sackville is on the Isthmus of Chignecto, which connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America. It is on the Tantramar River, which empties into Cumberland Basin which then joins Chignecto Bay, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy. Sackville is at a low elevation above sea level. Prominent ridges rise above the marshes, namely the Fort Lawrence Ridge, the Aulac Ridge, the Sackville Ridge, and the Memramcook Ridge. Sackville is surrounded by the Tantramar Marshes, once a tidal saltmarsh. The marshes are an important stopover for migrating birds. The marsh soil consists of silts deposited by centuries of tidal flooding. Drainage is poor and there are slow-moving meandering rivers, shallow lakes, bogs, and intertidal zones.

Infrastructure

The earliest post road followed the route of the present day High Marsh Road.

The Tantramar Veterans Memorial Civic Centre, a recreational facility and arena, opened in 2003. The arena can seat over 750 spectators and is the home rink for the Mount Allison University women's hockey team.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Sackville had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Economy

The main employers are a Moneris Solutions call centre, Russel Metals, Sackville Memorial Hospital, and Mount Allison University.

Arts and culture

  • The oldest university art gallery in Canada, the Owens Art Gallery, which opened in 1895, has a permanent collection of over 4000 works. The current director of the Owens Art Gallery is Dr. Emily Falvey.
  • Live Bait Theatre provides theatre and other live performances like dinner theatre, comedy and live music.
  • In 2008 the town was given a Government of Canada grant the 300th anniversary of its founding and to mark the 10th anniversary of the opening of its first museum.
  • The Sackville Arts Wall celebrates the achievements of Sackville artists who have made significant contributions to the fields of Literary Arts, Performing Arts, and Visual Arts, as well as Arts Builders who have supported artistic development within the community. Sackville Arts Wall inductees include Alex Colville, Charles G. D. Roberts, Pauline Spatz, Ray Legere, Arthur John Motyer, Douglas Lochhead, Ivan and Vivian Hicks, Sharon MacIntyre, Glenn Adams, K. V. Johansen, Pauline Harborne, Alex Fancy, Ian Hanomansing, Julie Doiron, Mary Connelly, Thaddeus Holownia, Ernie Sears, Delanor R. Wheaton, and Janet Hammock.
  • Struts Gallery, is an artist-run-centre established in 1980 dedicated to presenting contemporary art to the public through artist residencies, screenings, and performances.
  • SappyFest is an annual independent arts and music festival held in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada, launched in 2006. SappyFest was started by Paul Henderson, Jon Claytor, and musician Julie Doiron as an extension of Sappy Records.

Landmarks

  • thumb|Sackville United Church, Sackville, New Brunswick, 2014. Demolished 2015.A 50m-long covered bridge, built in 1916, which spans the Tantramar River on the High Marsh Road.
  • Cranewood: a Georgian house constructed of local red sandstone in about 1836 by William Crane. It was bought by Josiah Wood in 1867, and remained in the Wood family until 1966. From 1966 to 1975 the house belonged to Dr. W.S.H. Crawford, until it was purchased by Mount Allison University for use as the official residence of the president. In 2013 the Cranewood building was converted into a bakery.
  • The Swan Pond, also known as Lily Pond is located in Ladies' College Park on the campus of Mount Allison University. The pond was excavated in 1901 and a fountain designed by artist John Hammond was added in 1904. The last pair of swans to live in the Swan Pond died in 2015.
  • Campbell Carriage Factory: Sackville's first museum, the Carriage Factory was operated by the Campbell family for over 100 years, closing its doors in the 1950s.
  • Captain George Anderson House, an octagon house built in 1855.
  • The Boultenhouse Heritage Centre, built by prolific shipbuilder Christopher Boultenhouse in 1840, built onto the front of the Bulmer House, which is believed to be Sackville's oldest house built in 1790. It houses wallpaper that is original to the house, imported from Paris, and believed to be one of only 3 or 4 examples of this type of wallpaper remaining intact in North America.
  • The Sackville Harness Shop was founded in 1919 and made custom hand-crafted leather items, specializing in harnesses and straw collars for draught horses. The building, an example of Gothic Revival architecture, was constructed c. 1846 and is one of the Town's earliest commercial properties. The business closed in 2021.
  • The Vogue Cinema: an Art Deco style building established in 1946, which operated until May 2023. It is a one-room theatre originally designed by Moncton architect R.A Frechet. The Vogue Cinema held regular movie screenings and hosted the Sackville Film Society yearly during the fall and winter season.
  • The Cube is the tallest building in Sackville. Standing at 44 metres tall, it's a featureless white cube-shaped structure which is an enormous automated blueberry and cranberry freezer. Aside from its main use, in 2021 it was used as a public screen for video art and music videos during SappyFest.

Education

Public schooling, run by Anglophone East School District, includes a pre-school, the Salem Elementary School, Marshview Middle School, and Tantramar Regional High School. Sackville is also home to Mount Allison University.

Sackville Public Library

Sackville opened a public library in 1984 which has since been accessible to the entire town of Tantramar. Located on 66 Main Street, in the centre of downtown Sackville the library opens its doors to all demographics of the population. The library is a part of the system of New Brunswick Public Libraries.

Media

Newspapers/Periodicals

  • The Argosy is the student journal produced by students of Mount Allison University. Established in 1872, The Argosy is one of the oldest official student publications in the country.

Radio

Source:

  • CBAM-FM-1/105.7 is a repeater of CBAM-FM at Moncton.
  • CHMA-FM/106.9, known as "The Voice of the Marshes", provides open format and specialty music shows, spoken word programs on a variety of topics as well as audio art programming.
  • From 1944 to 2014, Sackville was home to CKCX, the high-power shortwave transmitter site shared by Radio Canada International and the CBC northern shortwave service.

References

Selected bibliography

  • Fox, Amy & Bogaard, Paul, The Struggle for Sackville: The British Resettlement of Chignecto 1755-1770, Tantramar Heritage Trust, 2012.