Atholville is a community in Restigouche County, New Brunswick, Canada. It held village status prior to 2023 but is now part of the city of Campbellton.
The first inhabitants of the area were the Mi'kmaq who settled there in the 6th century BC and were then called Tjikog. With 400 people, it was their biggest village and the only one permanently inhabited in the region. The Acadians arrived in 1750. It was at this time that the Mi'kmaq left the area and went to Listuguj in Quebec. The French defeat at the Battle of Restigouche on July 8, 1760, was damaging to the development of the settlement. The Intercolonial Railway, however, was inaugurated in 1876 and Anglophone merchants developed the forestry industry in the early 20th century. The village then experienced significant growth and was incorporated as a municipality in 1966. A shopping centre frequented by people from the whole region was established there from 1974. The forestry industry still plays an important role in the local economy.
History Prehistory
Covered with ice during the Wisconsin glaciation, the Atholville district was probably released from the glaciers in about 13,000 BC.General geological map of shallow sediments in New Brunswick, AA. Seaman, 2002, Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, consulted on 7 August 2009 The Goldthwait Sea subsequently covered the coastal area, then gradually receded until around 8,000 BC. due to Post-glacial rebound.
The village Tjikog has been permanently inhabited since at least the 6th century BC. by the Mi'kmaqs. Tjikog was fortified by a piled wall and also had a cemetery. Tjikog was located in the district of Gespegeoag which included the coastline of Chaleur Bay:Philip K. Bock and William C. Sturtevant, Handbook of North American Indians, 13 Volumes, Vol. 1, Government Printing Office, 1978, pp. 109-110, 777 pages it was the only permanently inhabited village in the whole district. Before the arrival of Europeans the village had a population of between 400 and 500, making Tjikog the largest Mi'kmaq village. Mi'kmaq lifestyle was based on hunting seals and birds, fishing with harpoons, and collecting shellfish. The population lived along the river nearly all year. The emblem of Tjikog is the salmon.
The French period In July 1534 Jacques Cartier entered Chaleur Bay up to the mouth of the Restigouche River.Ristigouche River, Toponymy Commission of Québec, consulted on 29 November 2012 The French founded Acadia in 1604. Father Sebastian, a Recollect, was the first missionary to visit Tjikog in 1619 and he found a cross planted in front of a "hut of prayer".Canadian Historical society of the Catholic church, Study Sessions, Société canadienne d'histoire de l'Église catholique, 1978, p. 88 . The Capuchins replaced the Recollects in 1624 and the Jesuits followed in the same year then the Recollects returned in 1661.The French at the Athol house Site , Restigouche Gallery website, consulted on 21 August 2012 The efforts of missionaries were initially focused on Cape Breton Island - where the capital of the Mi'kmaq was - then moved to Tjikog, which was regarded as the centre of Saint Anne worship in Mi'kmaq and Acadia. In 1642 Father André Richard lived in the village for six months. Chief Nepsuget was baptised in 1644 then 40 others in 1647. Increasingly frequent contacts with Europeans allowed the Mi'kmaqs to acquire things, especially those made from metal, in exchange for furs.Bock and Sturtevant (1978), opcit, p. 117. However, diseases brought in by Europeans decimated much of the population from the 17th century.
Gespegeoag was first claimed by the Iroquois and then later only by the Mohawks. Oral tradition maintains, however, that in 1639 at the beginning of the Beaver Wars, a group of Mohawks from Kahnawake met Mi'kmaq fishermen in Long IslandLong Island is located in the Restigouche river in Tide Head, 7 kilometres west of Atholville. and, despite the warnings of his father, the son of the Mohawk Chief massacred the Mi'kmaqs sparing none but Chief Tonel.Tonel means "thunder". After his recovery Chief Tonel went to Kahnawake. Before executing the leaders of the attack, he exclaimed: Gotj Listo! meaning "disobey your father!". From this the village was renamed Listo Gotj on his return. Nicolas Denys established a store at Listo Gotj in 1647 but had to abandon it in 1650.Denys, Nicolas, George MacBeath, 2000, Online biographical dictionary of Canada website, University of Toronto, consulted on 21 August 2012 Richard Denys, the son of Nicolas, obtained control of the land on the departure of his father to France in 1671.Denys, Richard, George MacBeath, 2000, Online biographical dictionary of Canada, University of Toronto, consulted on 21 August 2012 The missionary Chrétien Le Clercq lived in Listo Gotj in 1676Le Clercq, Chrestien, G.-M. Dumas, 2000, Online biographical dictionary of Canada, University of Toronto, consulted on 21 August 2012 where he wrote his main texts on the Mi'kmaqs. Richard found a new occupation at Listo Gotj in 1679 or 1680 fishing and drying fish as well as the fur trade. In 1685 he gave land to the Recollects to open a mission.William Gagnong, A Monograph of historic sites in the province of New Brunswick, J. Hope, Ottawa, 1899, p. 300, Read online, consulted on 15 August 2012 In 1688 there was a total of 17 Europeans living at Listo Gotj including 8 employees of Richard Denys. The French then maintained a trading post probably on the coast of Canada (New France).Not to be confused with modern Canada. Canada was a province of New France corresponding roughly with Québec.Visitor Guide and maps, Campbellton website, consulted on 20 August 2012
The Denys family did not meet the conditions of their concession and it became crown land. The Lordship of Restigouche, 12 leagues long and 10 leagues wide,About 46.8 km by 39 km, comprising the territory along the coast between Tide Head to the west and Belledune to the east. was given to Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1690.Ganong (1899), opcit, p. 344. The Recollect concession was also revoked in 1690. Richard Denys bought the lordship in 1691 but died in the same year. Françoise Cailleteau, the widow of Denys, then married Pierre Ray-Gaillard and settled in Quebec. They rented part of the lordship but the area became abandoned and, apart from the Micmacs, there was no more than one Frenchman, one Canadian, and some half-caste children at Listo Gotj in 1724. The United Kingdom obtained control of Acadia in 1713 through the Treaty of Utrecht. The treaty was vague: the French thought they retained the territory now corresponding to New Brunswick while the British believed they had control. The Mi'kmaq left Listo Gotj for Listuguj on the north bank of the river in Quebec. Several sources place this event in 1745Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Tawow, Volumes 1 to 6, Ottawa, 1970, p. 41 while others mention 1759Bona Arsenault, History of Acadians, Éditions Fides, Montreal, 2004, 502 pages, p. 230, and even 1770. The decision by the Mi'kmaq was related to the intrusion of Europeans into the heart of their village and their desire to move the Mi'kmaqs from a Protestant colony to a Catholic colony or rather to ensure that they remained faithful to the King of France.
The Acadians settled in Pointe-aux-Sauvages on the present site of Campbellton between 1750 and 1755 - the year of the start of the Expulsion of the Acadians. In 1753 the daughter of Françoise Cailleteau sold the lordship of Restigouche to one Bonfils from Quebec. In 1759, after the fall of Quebec, the colony begged France to send reinforcements.W.J. Eccles, Battle of Restigouche, The Canadian Encyclopedia. On 19 April 1760 six ships, under the command of François Chenard de la Giraudais, left Bordeaux carrying 400 men and food. Giraudais, on learning that a British fleet had penetrated into the Saint Lawrence River, decided to take refuge in the Restigouche River and set up batteries on its banks. The Battle of Restigouche took place east of the village from 3 to 8 July 1760. The British fleet outnumbered the French. Without reinforcements, Montreal surrendered on 8 September to the troops of Jeffery Amherst. The French troops at Restigouche surrendered on 23 October and were repatriated to France. The United Kingdom officially took possession of New France in 1763 by signing the Treaty of Paris. In 1764 Bonfils tried to gain recognition of his ownership of the lordship of Restigouche but it was refused under an Act of 1759 canceling all the concessions made under the French regime.
Under British rule until the constitution After the French and Indian War British traders established pickling plants for salmon. Meanwhile, George Walker, from Bathurst, established a branch of his business in Walker Creek in 1768, on the site of Campbellton. Hugh Baillie obtained the first concession which he sold to Englishman John Shoolbred. Colonization was not, however, a priority and Shoolbred, not having built a school or street, lost his concession to an employee.
The Loyalists arrived in New Brunswick from 1783 but did not get concessions in the county. The Listo Gotj concession was granted to Samuel Lee in 1788 and since then the village became more developed than Campbellton. Samuel Lee also opened a sawmill at Walker Creek which was the first step towards the directing of the economy to logging. The Scotsman Robert Ferguson arrived in the area in 1796 and inherited the business of his brother Alexander.Ferguson, Robert, William A. Spray, 2000, Online biographical dictionary of Canada, University of Toronto/Laval University, consulted on 29 NOvember 2012. His thriving business contributed to the immigration of other Scots to the region.Lucille H. Campey, The Scots, The Pioneer Scots of Lower Canada, 1763-1855, Dundurn, 2006, 336 pages, p. 115, A chapel was built in 1810 in the old cemetery: it closed its doors in 1834.Notre-Dame de Lourdes parish, Irene Doyle, 1998, Irene's genealogy and history website, consulted on 20 August 2012 Around 1812 Robert Ferguson built boats at Listo Gotj. Part of the fleet, which had Ferguson aboard, was captured by American pirates during the War of 1812. After leaving his confinement Robert Ferguson built a store and a house named Athol House from which the village derives its modern name of Atholville. The 1825 Miramichi Fire destroyed much of the New Brunswick forests. The logging industry then moved northward and sawmills and shipyards were opened in Atholville and also in Campbellton from 1828. Meanwhile, in 1826 Atholville and several other places in the area were grouped into Addington Parish in Gloucester County from a portion of Beresford Parish.In New Brunswick, a parish is a territorial sub-division which lost administrative significance in 1966 but has always been used for census purposes.Genealogical guide to the county of Restigouche, 2006, Archives provinciales du Nouveau-Brunswick website, consulted on 24 November 2012 Restigouche County, comprising the parishes of Addington and Eldon was separated from Gloucester County in 1837.