Notre-Dame Centre and Cocagne Sud

In the 1850s, Acadians from Beaumont-Memramcook, Bouctouche, Grande-Digue, etc. started arriving. Many settled where is today Dufourville and LeBlancville as well as MacDougall Settlement.

In 1868, the community’s way office for postal service was shown as being Scovil’s Mills, the first ‘official’ name of the village. Almost twenty years later, the post office would change the village name to Notre-Dame.

Both linguistic communities developed rapidly, each with their church, school, businesses, and social activities. They worked together on common initiatives for the good of the community. One such collaborative project was getting the Bouctouche-Moncton railway line built in the late 1880s.   Father F.X,-J Michaud, visiting priest in Notre-Dame, Presbyterian Minister M. Murray, and Gilbert Girouard all played an instrumental role in establishing this rail line.

A newspaper obituary dated June 1, 1888, refers to the passing of Andrew Johnston as dying in Victoriaville, another name for the “head of the tide” where the mill and covered bridge were once located.

There is a great deal of information about the Union Church and genealogy of founding families in a book written by a historian with Notre-Dame roots. Generations of pioneers are documented as well as an in-depth look in matters surrounding the Union Church community and the lifestyle of the day. Several descendants of founding families still live here.

Cocagne Sud

There is a cross-over of areas which today includes parts of the historical communities of both Notre-Dame Centre and Whites Settlement. Notre-Dame Centre traditionally included Victoriaville and Scovil’s Mills while Whites Settlement included a stretch of houses near the Whites Settlement Road and westward along the South Cocagne River.   As more settlers arrived the borders of these two communities soon met. And the area became known as Cocagne Sud or South side of the Cocagne River.

Cocagne Sud Road follows the river and is very picturesque. It begins with a turn off Route 115 and onto Cocagne Sud Road. It ends at the corner of Route 134 in Cocagne. Along the way are the Union Church, Teed Road, Girl Guide Camp, Babineau Beach, and others.

1800 to 1850

1817
Thirty-eight-year-old British immigrant, George Gibson, applied for land along what is today Falconer Road in Notre-Dame.

1818
Unhappy, Mr. Gibson wrote to the Lieutenant Governor of New Brunswick, describing the land as “too far remote from any inhabitants” and relinquished his application.

1819
John Armour, originally from Scotland, applied for a land grant at the freshwater end of the Cocagne River, and near today’s Falconer Road. This area would bear several names: Victoriaville, Scovil’s Mills, Cocaigne North, and finally Notre-Dame Centre. Regardless, all settlements were located within the Parish of Dundas.

Armour was also granted land in 1820. A few years later, he and his new bride Ann moved from Dorchester to what is today Notre-Dame Centre, NB.

About 1824/25
John Burk, Thomas Lynch, William Limen, and John Gorman settled in what is now Notre-Dame Centre. This group of Irishmen probably moved from Dorchester. Their lands were granted on November 10, 1824.

John Armour and Alex McWilliams, both originally from Galloway, Scotland, moved from Dorchester to what is today Notre-Dame Centre.  John Armour, who was married with three children, had been granted 300 acres of land on September 26, 1820. Alex McWilliams was granted 200 acres of land on July 31, 1824. He was married to Catherine and the 1881 census shows her to be sixty-nine years old.

Alex McWilliams is shown on the 1861 census as being forty-three years old and a resident of Scovil’s Mills. An 1881 census shows him as being sixty-two years old. As a result, he was born either in 1818 or 1819. McWilliams was married to Catherine and father to William McWilliams.

These census records put into question the year Alex McWilliams moved to the community. Documents do show that Alexander McWilliams was postmaster of Scovil’s Mills between 1868 and 1873.

Son William McWilliams was a well-respected member of the community, active in church matters and a Trustee of the Protestant Burying Ground, adjacent to the Union Church along with Mill’s operator Bowen Smith and his wife, Harriett Smith. William is buried in the Union Church Cemetery.

1826
Alexander Nevers, a merchant from Dorchester, rented land from Humphrey Gilbert, Esq., who was also from Dorchester. On this land, Nevers received permission to cut wood and to build a “double sawmill” on the south side of the Cocagne River in Notre-Dame.

In 1826, even though he owned large parcels of land in what is today Notre-Dame Centre, Alexander Nevers opened a sawmill on land rented from Humphrey Gilbert. The year before, in 1825, Nevers had opened his first sawmill in Shediac, on the shore of Shediac River. In 1833, he died in a tragic boating accident. He was forty-six years old.

Note: Humphrey Gilbert was granted land in Cocagne on July 26, 1809. He lived in Dorchester and was wealthy, owning large parcels of land which he rented. It is believed that he was a descendant of Major Thomas Gilbert, a very distinguished loyalist whose family originated from Devonshire, England. His mother was Elizabeth Tisdale (born abt 1741). They were married November 14, 1765, in Freetown, Bristol, Mass.

The Gilbert family colonized in Massachusetts under patent from the Queen, and Colonel Thomas Gilbert was in Louisburg in 1745. He was granted land in Gagetown, New Brunswick in 1783 and settled there at the age of 68.

Humphrey Gilbert was born on September 25, 1775, in Bristol Old Colony, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1783, he sailed on the ship “Spencer” with his grandfather, Colonel Thomas Gilbert, to Saint-John, New Brunswick.  He later settled in Dorchester and on February 12, 1807, and married Sarah Keech (born April 5, 1783, and died May 31, 1842). She was the only child of Lt. Robert Keech, a British Loyalist born in North Castle, New York, who lived in Dorchester and died there on October 2, 1842, at the age of 83. Gilbert died in Dorchester on July 20, 1838.

Note: Alexander Nevers was born on February 4, 1787, in Maugerville, Sunbury County, NB. He was the son of Samuel A. Nevers and Isabel Howard. He married Frances Perley in November 1810, in Maugerville. She was the daughter of Israel Perley and Elizabeth Mooers. It is not clear what happened but what is known is that Alexander married for a second time, to Millicent Peters on March 18, 1814, in Grand Lake, Queens County, NB.   She was born on September 7, 1794, in Long Island, Queens County, NB. Her parents were William Peters and Charlotte Haines. Alexander and Millicent had 6 children. Millicent Nevers is shown on a historical map as owning land in Hays.

Alexander Nevers was involved in a boating accident that took his life on October 11, 1833, in Shediac, Westmorland County, NB, at the age of forty-six. All six people on board drown. He is buried in the St. Martin’s in the Woods Anglican Church Cemetery, Shediac, Albert County, NB. Millicent died June 8, 1861.

1826
Dundas was created from Wellington Parish, and it covered a large territory on the southern belt of Kent County. Communities such as Cocagne, Grande-Digue, Notre-Dame, Saint-Antoine, Goudalie, etc. were all part of the civil Parish of Dundas.

The Parish had a say in local governance and a responsibility to administer services such as schools. A local committee hired teachers, maintained the school infrastructure and grounds in good order, etc. As local schools were built, the district assigned them a number. For example, the district of Guéguen was designated as District Dundas 4.

1829
Andrew Johnston, who was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on January 12, 1803, landed in Saint-John in the spring of 1825. He went to Cocagne in 1826 and married Anne Spence on December 5, 1827. Anne was from County Armagh, Ireland. They had ten children born in the Parish of Dundas. He died in 1888 at the age of 85, in Victoriaville (as shown in the Daily Telegraph). Victoriaville was known to be the area surrounding the Union Church. This area would also be known as Scovil’s Mills, Cocaigne North, Notre-Dame Centre, and Cocagne Sud Road.

About 1831
Andrew Johnston received a land grant in the heart of the village and farmed this property, father to son William and later grandson Arthur.   

William was born on September 28, 1828, in Cocagne, and he died in 1915. He married Margaret Jane Dysart who was also born in Cocagne, on July 29, 1856. The Johnston family have been living on this land for almost 200 years.

About 1833
It is unclear who operated the sawmill in the heart of the village following the death of Alexander Nevers in 1833. It is believed that the mill was purchased by Richard Scovil, a lumber baron and owner of sawmills and several large land parcels in the area. The sawmill would again be sold in 1848, to Bowen Smith.

1835
The Teed family began to settle in the area known as Teed Road. The Crawfords also lived there.

1837
The home of James Lucas in Cocagne served as relay post office (way office) for Cocagne, Saint-Antoine, and Notre-Dame. Lucas became the first postmaster of the Cocagne Post Office in 1868. Meanwhile, two years earlier in 1866, Scovil’s Mills Post Office was opened to serve the growing population of the village. The lumber industry was lucrative and an important economic generator.

1838
Humphrey Gilbert died. Property rights changed hands to his three sons: Humphrey, Bradfort and Samuel.

Abt 1841
The first school built was a log cabin used to teach children of the first settlers. It was located across the road from present day Notre-Dame Express store. The small school would be replaced in 1906 with a new two room school built one mile down the road, towards the mill.

1848
Records show that Bowen Smith operated a mill in what is today Notre-Came Centre which he probably bought from Richard Scovil who operated other mills in the area, namely Shediac. Bowen contacted brothers William and Richard Scovil, owner of sawmills and several large parcels of land in the region. He sold them half of his rights in 1851 and the other half in 1854. Under Richard Scovil, this water powered lumber mill became one of the most important in the area, employing ten people in 1861.

Scovil’s Mills was sold in the early 1900s to brothers Charlie and Ben Lockhart who modernized it and opened a general store nearby. In 1915-16, the Lockharts sold the mill and general store to W.D. Gunter (Fredericton) and opened a large and successful lumber store in Moncton. The mill continued to operate until 1938 when it was dismantled and moved to Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. Then store manager, Calvin L. Taylor, bought the general store and, in 1945, his son Donald became a partner upon his return from the war overseas.

R.C. Scovil had built the area’s first water powered lumber mill in 1845, on the western bank of the Scoudouc River in Shediac where he owned a great deal of land. In 1871, his Shediac mill employed seventy-five workers and produced 600,000 logs and 6,000,000 feet of board and beam (madrier). It is believed that this mill was sold in 1872 to J. M. Hanington of Shediac. Unfortunately, the R.C. Scovil Shediac mill was destroyed by a hurricane known as “the August Gale” in 1873. Scovil had built a home in Shediac in 1850.

Richard C. Scovil was born January 15, 1822, in Springfield, Kings County, NB, and he died in Saint John on December 1, 1884. His wife was Pamelia C. Smith and they had at least 3 children. She died October 1, 1872. The Scovils are buried in the St. Martin’s in the Woods Anglican Church Cemetery in Shediac, NB.

Bowen Smith also hand built the first vessel to be built on the Shediac Bay and it was launched in 1817. A second vessel was launched by 1820. And by 1875, at least fifteen more vessels were launched on the bay.

1850
On March 20, Pierre and François Bourg (Beaumont-Memramcook) jointly purchased 100 acres of land from James Black and became the first Acadian settlers just southwest of the heart of the village. They were soon joined by Mélème Bourg, Béloné LeBlanc, and Laurent (dit Hunker) LeBlanc (Fox Creek), Pierrot LeBlanc (Memramcook), Amant, Thomas et Beloni Surette (Petitcodiac).

James A. Black owned several large parcels of land in the area (name to soon change to Scovil’s Mills), but he did not live in the area. He was born in Dorchester, NB in 1790 and he died on April 10, 1863. He is buried in the Dorchester Pioneer Cemetery.

He was married to Elizabeth Etter Black who was born in 1789 and who died on June 29, 1874. She is also buried in the Dorchester Pioneer Cemetery. They had six or seven children.

James’ father was William Black Sr., and he was born on October 11, 1727, into a wealthy family living in Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. He became a travelling salesman in linens and draperies. During a business trip to Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England, he met Elizabeth Stocks. William and Elizabeth were married there about 1758.

William was drawn to “the new world” and its many opportunities. In the spring of 1775, he chartered the “Jenny” in Hull, England and sailed to Nova Scotia with his family, wife Elizabeth and five children. She suffered injuries on the boat which may have contributed to her untimely death the following year in Amherst, Cumberland County, NS.

The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild record the Jenny departing Hull, Yorkshire on April 10, 1775, with first stop being Fort Cumberland, Nova Scotia and where the Black family disembarked. William Black was forty-three, his wife Elizabeth was thirty-six, and the five children varied between seven and fifteen.

Elizabeth Stocks Black was from Huddersfield, Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England (born in 1739). She was brought up in higher circles and took with her fancy clothing such as her scarlet riding habit and cap as well as embroidered satin dresses to “the new world”. She found little use for these fine clothes.

William did not remain a widower. He married Elizabeth Abber who was born in 1750 in Ireland, and they had 5 children. She died in Dorchester, NB in 1813 and is buried in the Dorchester Pioneer Cemetery. Following her death, William purchased a large estate in Dorchester where he lived with his son Joseph. He died there on April 11, 1821. 

1851 to 1875

1853
Josiah Crawford settled as one of the first inhabitants of Hays Village, which was the area on the north side of the Cocagne River heading westward and bordering Guéguen and Alexandrina. On December 12, 1853, Crawford was granted 50 acres of land which ran to the river and next door to Robert Johnston’s home.

It is believed that Josiah was Daniel Crawford’s father. Daniel was married to Mary A. Crawford, and they had two sons, Joachomish (Jacob) and William. He died in 1861.

Jacob was born in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. On November 9, 1868, he married Henrietta Ann Gray (born 1849). He was a blacksmith, and his religious affiliation was Episcopal. They lived near the Teed family on Teed Road, and he died March 17, 1908.

William H. Crawford married Mary Abegail Marr and their son William John was born in 1871. His brother Jacob lived next door to each other. Another son, Elisha A. Crawford was born in 1864 and died in 1927.   His descendants (family) donated a pump organ to the Union Church in 1985.

Samuel Wesley Teed and his wife Annie (Stuart) Teed lived nearby. Samuel was born April 24, 1888, to parents Thomas and Alice (Donnelly) Teed. Annie was born in 1892 to parents Edward Stuart and Katherine (McNeil) Stuart of Scotch Settlement. They were married in Moncton on October 27, 1920, and moved to Notre-Dame near the family homestead until 1934 when they moved to the Stuart homestead in Scotch Settlement. They had three children. Wesley was the son of Thomas and Alice (Donnelly) Teed and Annie was the daughter of Edward Stuart and Katherine (McNeil) Stuart of Scotch Settlement.

Note: Thomas Teed (1838-1907) met and married Alice Donnelly (1848-1928) in Saint-John, New Brunswick and most of their children were born there except for three who were born either in Notre-Dame or Shediac River. They moved to Notre-Dame sometime between 1881 and 1891, moving from Thomas’s father’s property in Shediac River. Their son, William J., was born in 1886 and married Emma B. Cobham (born in Saint-John in 1889) on October 15, 1906. Emma lived with William James Cobham and Emily Jane (Johnston) Cobham – presumed adopted as census shows her as their daughter. William died of consumption at 22 on March 22, 1908. They had one child, Atkin C. Teed, born in 1907 and he also died of tuberculosis at the age of 22.  

In 1920, Samuel Wesley, son of Thomas and Alice (Donnelly) Teed, married Annie in Moncton. They moved and lived near the family homes.

1861
A census records Thomas Hays (aged fifty-three) living in Dundas. The names of Catherine Dysart (aged fifty-four), Robert Dysart (sixty), Ann Johnston (fifty-eight) and Elizabeth Johnston (sixty-one) also appear.

1864
Alexander Falconer, born in Scotland in 1828, immigrated to Canada and came to our region. In 1864, he moved from Dixon’s Point to the south side of the river, sometimes referred to as Victoriaville. He operated a water powered grist Mills next to the creek in what is today Falconer Road from 1870 until the turn of the century. He died in 1909. He was married to Sarah Geddes who was born in 1841 and who died in 1926. He was a way office postmaster in the 1870s and lastly in 1880.

1864
On December 17, 1864, Alexander and Sarah’s son, William Evan, was born. On January 26, 1895, William married Alena Christina West. William and Alena purchased the property next to the Union Church grounds, from Bowen and Harriett Smith. The 1901 Census of Canada shows that William was thirty-six years old (born 1864) and that Alena was thirty-five years old (born 1865). They had 4 children, Ethel, Kenneth, Earle, and Percy. This land remains in the hands of the Falconer family.

1865
Cocagne Parish priest, Abbé Antoine Gosselin, conducted a census of the Catholic population in Notre-Dame and records thirty-eight families (two hundred and thirty-five souls).

Abt 1866
A small 40 by 30-foot church was built in Notre-Dame and the construction was overseen by Father J.M. Vanier, assistant to Abbé Gosselin who was the second resident priest of Cocagne and served there until 1875. Previously, the community had been a mission of Cocagne which was served by missionaries from Gédaïc (Shediac) until 1842 when the mission was reorganised and became a mission of Bouctouche. In 1862, Abbé Henri Berthe became the first resident priest in Cocagne. He was succeeded by Abbé Gosselin in 1863.

1868
The village was growing rapidly and, in this year, the way office for postal services was named Scovil’s Mills and thus, the area became known as such. The first postmaster was Alexander McWilliams and he remained on duty until 1873. He was followed by Alexander Falconer. In 1887, the post office was renamed the Notre-Dame Post Office. Later, the post office operated in an old store believed to be owned by Marc Bourque who was postmaster until 1911.

1870
Alexander Falconer opened a grist mill on the now Falconer Road in Notre-Dame. It operated until the turn of the century.

1871
Richard Scovil’s Mill in Shediac was one of the largest operations in the area. It employed seventy-five people and processed 60,000 logs, producing 6,000,000 feet of board and thick board in 1871. The hurricane “August Gale” destroyed the mill in August 1873.

1876 to 1900

Abt 1879
It is possible that the Union Church was built in 1879 although dates used have been shown as 1889 or 1891. What is known is that Robert Ainsley and Robina Robertson were married in July 1879 and that he was commissioned to build furniture for the church. This must have occurred during or after the building process, not ten years prior. A book written on John Andrew Johnston and his descendants also provides clues that “the first records of the church date to 1879”.

Abt 1879
Bowen Smith (mill owner) and his wife, Harriet Smith, donated the land on which the Union Church and cemetery stand with the understanding that the church would remain community property and could be used by all Protestant denominations. The directors were John Colborne, William McWilliams, R. Blythe Murray and John Crawford.

The Union Church was built and it served many sects: Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist. It is still active today and is a very special heritage building.

Bowen was born around 1835 in New Brunswick. He married Harriett Wilson and together they had ten years. Harriett was born on Prince Edward Island in 1846 and died at the age of eighty.

In 1898 he was known as Bowen Smith, Esq, lumber merchant and dealer. According to one article, Mr. Smith returned from Montreal where he discovered the egg market lackluster. He gets involved, planning to ship hundreds of crates of eggs to England. In the end, the opportunity did not turn out to be what was expected.

Bowen Smith sold land to Alex H. Johnston for $450 according to a deed showing his signature.

It is believed that the first people to settle east of the Union Church community and Whites Settlement came from the villages of Dundas and Gladeside. The families of William Crawford, Henry West, Samuel Webb, Thomas Teed, Joseph Riley, George Hope and Colborne were among them. These names are familiar to the Union Church community. They arrived in Notre-Dame when the Bouctouche-Moncton railway line passed through the region.

Note: Gladeside is located almost 2 km southeast of the villages of Trafalgar and Dundas in New Brunswick. At first it was called McLaughlin Road and there was a post office which operated between 1861 and 1929. In 1866, it was a group of farmers which numbered twenty-four families; by 1871 the population had risen to 200 and by 1898 there was a mill, a church and a population of 250. Its name changed to Gladeside in 1929 and the Gladeside Post Office remained in operation until 1932 .

1883
A historic railroad company was founded in New Brunswick with plans to build a rail line linking Bouctouche and Moncton and the communities in between. Construction started in 1886 and was completed in 1887, the rail line opened on September 1, 1887, but it did not reach Moncton until 1888, when there was extended.  The railway line was sold to the Canadian Government Railways (CGR) in 1894.

Spring 1886
Father F.X.-J. Michaud (Cocagne and Notre-Dame visiting priest), Presbyterian Minister M. Murray, and Gilbert Girouard teamed together and lobbied to get a railway line built between Bouctouche and Moncton. Construction of the 30-mile-long railway line began in 1886 and was completed the following year, being built by locals. After years of slow overland and river transportation, the train greatly stimulated the area economy. The lumber industry was booming. Extensive wood operations were being carried out to produce hulled tan bark, logs, barrel wood, and cord wood. The train offered a passenger service which was a popular means of transportation for the local population.  The train passenger service was offered until 1955.

1886 to 1887
The first wooden railway bridge was built over the Cocagne River at Notre-Dame Centre, close to the bridge at Scovil’s Mills. It would be replaced in 1921.

1887
On October 11, 1887, a name change saw the Scovil’s Mills Post Office become the Notre-Dame Post Office. The last postmaster of Scovil’s Mills was Laurent LeBlanc and the first to serve the Notre-Dame Post Office was Dorothée Bourque. It is believed that for many years, the ND post office was located in the small store operated by Marc Bourque and his son Dosithée. Afterwards, it has its own building.

Note: Both 1887 and 1889 are attributed by different sources as being the year the Notre-Dame Post Office was established. According to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, this post office was established in 1887.

1888
The privately owned railway line between Bouctouche and Moncton was completed. On April 29, 1888, the train made its first full run, leaving Bouctouche at 08:00 and stopping at several places including Notre-Dame at 08:52 and MacDougall’s at 09:08 before arriving in Moncton at 10:08. It returned in late afternoon, arriving in Bouctouche at 18:08.

Note: A portion of the rail line was opened on September 1, 1887, and in the next year, the line was extended to Moncton crossing the Intercolonial in Bouctouche Junction and continuing north to Bouctouche. In 1918, the Bouctouche-Moncton railway line became part of the Canadian National Railway (CNR). Passenger service was offered until 1955.

Train station attendants included Charlie Lockhart, Honoré Bourgeois, Kenneth Falconer and Ernest Wry.

1888
The building of a new Catholic church in Notre-Dame began under the supervision of Father F.X. Cormier (Église Saint-Pierre, Cocagne) and was completed under the supervision of Father Honoré Ouellet. Pierre Bourque had donated the land. Unfortunately, this church was destroyed by fire in 1945.

1889
A territory was established for the new church, the parish was canonized, and the community welcomed its first resident priest, Père Honoré Ouellet, who stayed until 1897. Between 1889 and 1923, the parish of Notre-Dame served the neighbouring community of Saint-Antoine.

According to the Acadian newspaper L’Évangeline, Père Honoré Ouellet died January 20, 1898, three months after leaving Notre-Dame. One source indicated that he died in the parish of Ste-Cunégonde-de-Montréal. He had also been vicar in Cocagne, Cap-Pelé, and Shediac. He was born in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Kamouraska, QC on December 13, 1834, and his parents were Honoré and Marie (Bérubé) Ouellet.

1890s
Brothers Philippe and Félicien Bourque operated a sandstone quarry in Dufourville and the Bourque Quarry employed fifteen to twenty men. The new Bouctouche-Moncton rail line, with stops along the way, greatly helped in the economic development of the area and accommodated shipment of heavy materials such as stone.

A second quarry, the Stevens Quarry, was owned by Edgar Stevens. According to an 1890 newspaper (L’Évangeline) article, the quarry had “recently” received $1200 stone order for a building in Moncton (the now-demolished YMCA building). The Stevens Quarry was located just south of the railway bridge in Notre-Dame. A rail branch line was added to transport quarry stones. In 1895, Thomas Dobson was the quarry operator and he remained so until 1898.

Both quarries were closed by 1912. The stones from the Stevens Quarry were used to build the church l’Église Saint-Antoine de l’Hermite (1923), in neighbouring St-Antoine. Residents from Notre-Dame and St-Antoine teamed up to transport the stones to the church site since the quarry had been closed.

Meanwhile, Henri LeBlanc operated a flat rock quarry in Suretteville. His two sons, Arthur and Adélard, continued the operation for several years.

Note: There is a conflicting information regarding the source of stones used to build the Saint Bernard Church (Botsford Street at Gordon, Moncton – 1887 to 1891) and Mary’s Home (Mountain Road at Bonaccord, Moncton – 1908). These buildings were not built with stones from the Stevens Quarry in Notre-Dame. According to “Industrial Minerals Summary Data”, issued by NB Department of Natural Resources, in both cases the stones originated from the McSweeney Quarry located in Scotch Settlement. This quarry was owned by Edward McSweeney, a former Moncton mayor.

1890
On July 13, 1890, a fire destroyed the bridge over Cocagne River at Scovil’s Mills. It was replaced by a new covered bridge which would become known as the “Lockhart Bridge”, itself destroyed in the spring thaw of 1901. There is evidence of a replacement bridge but few details other than it was built too close to the river which posed problems and was torn down. Finally, the fourth structure to span the river at that point was a new covered bridge built in 1929. The bridge linked traffic between the two sides of the river and their surrounding communities.

1890
The first church burials took place in the Union Church Cemetery.

1893
In July, Guilford P. Goguen paid Joachim P. Goguen $1.20 for 2 lbs of tobacco according to a worker’s diary.

1893
Work records showed Charles Noel, Maxime Gallant, David Chapman, and Philip A. Goguen as having worked on the bridge over the Cocagne River in Notre-Dame.

1894
The Bouctouche-Moncton railway line, owned by the Canadian Government Railways (CGR), went bankrupt. The CGR became part of the Canadian National Railway. The railway line was sold to Captain Israel J. Merritt of New York. There would be another change of ownership in 1911.

1894
On May 30, 1894, Philip Goguen exchanged $4.25 worth of potatoes and bought two sheep from Maximin Babineau for $2.50 as noted in a record of household affairs.

1895
On June 10, 1895, Maximin Babineau bought one pair of oxen for $40 as noted in a record of household affairs.

1896
In June 1896, Edward White hired several men to work: Fred Barnes, Thomas Scott, John Cochran, Silvain Goguen, Maxime Goguen, and Philip A. Goguen.

1897
On October 9, 1897, Ferdinand Léger bought 12m of shingles for $12 as noted in a record of household affairs.

1897
Father Paul Dufour arrived in Notre-Dame in September 1897 to serve as the community’s second resident priest. He was thirty-four years old, and a time when the community was bustling and growing quickly. In 1907, he traveled to Europe and Palestine. After serving the parish for sixteen years, Father Dufour left in October 1913.

Paul Dufour was born in Madawaska, Maine, in 1864 in the parish of St David, ME. He studied at Collège Saint-Joseph (Memramcook, NB) and at the Gd. Séminaire de Québec. He was ordained in 1891 at the age of twenty-seven.

His mother was Eleonore Marie Thibodeau Dufour, born in 1824 and died May 4, 1872. His father was Narcisse Dufour, born September 15, 1815, and died March 15, 1897. His paternal grandparents David Joseph Dufour and Charlotte Pothier Dufour came from Saint Louis-de-Kamouraska, QC and they died in Saint Basile, NB.

Father Paul Dufour died January 30, 1938, in Montréal, QC. He is buried in Saint Joseph Cemetery in Old Town, Penebscot, Maine.

The settlement of Dufourville was named in honour of Père Dufour and it serves as a reminder of his many accomplishments and great contribution to the parish.

1897
A residence for the priest was built next to the Catholic Church.

1898
According to NB Provincial Archives, “In 1898, Notre-Dame was a farming and lumbering settlement with one post office, two stores, one sawmill, one quarry, two churches and a population of 400”. Also noted was the train station on the Bouctouche-Moncton line.

It is possible that one of the two stores was operated by Phares and Helena (Coughlan) Chapman. References show Mr. Chapman as having a small grocery store in the front to the house in which they were living. This house is believed to have been one purchased later by Vera and Ray Doolan, and it was located across the covered bridge, between the old Grady property and the corner of the North side of the river road.

Notre-Dame was an important stop on the Bouctouche-Moncton railway line. It provided the services of a station, water tower and dam.

1901 to 1925

Early 1900s
The Scovil’s mill was sold to brothers Charlie and Ben Lockhart who modernized it and opened a general store nearby. The Lockharts sold both mills and general store to W.D. Gunter (Fredericton) in 1915-16. The brothers then open a large successful lumber store in Moncton. The mill continued to operate until 1938 when it was dismantled and moved to Parrsboro, NS. Store manager Calvin Taylor bought the general store which became the C.L. Taylor General Store.

The families of Thaddée Landry, Bill Scott, Lawrence Teed and Daniel Landry settled on “Chemin des Thaddées”. This settlement was located inland, off Falconer Road and eastward toward the Teed Road. These homesteads were abandoned afterwards. There is still some evidence such as berry patches, apple trees, peonies, day lilies, etc.

The first telephones installed in Notre-Dame Centre linked the Catholic rectory, Gunter General Store, homes of Calvin L. Taylor and Charlie Lockhart. One source also included the Richard Store as part of the link, but little is known about this store. We do know that the Richard Store was in business in 1923 according to an advertisement shown in the historical booklet of the Parish of Saint Antoine de Kent, published in July 1923. The party line telephone system stayed in place for many decades and was the main source of the rumour mill news.

In MacDougall Settlement, the first telephone was installed in the home of Coll MacDougall in 1889.

1900
One-half ton of hay cost $3.50, one bushel grass seed $2.50, one pair of shoes $1.10, five locks and nobs $1.50, one bottle of Mother Seigel $0.30, one hundred lbs of flour $5, three lbs of tea $1.20, one gallon of oil $0.25, and one bottle of liniment $0.35 according to a record of household affairs.

1901
The Catholic Church was officially named Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur and the parish subsequently defined the territory of the community of Notre-Dame. The settlements (or historical villages) included were MacDougall Settlement, Poirier Office, LeBlancville, Dufourville, Notre-Dame Centre, Guéguen, Hays, Alexandrina-Nor’ouest, North and South sides of the river, Whites Settlement, along with Village des Pishcots, Village des Fricots, Suretteville, Teed Road and Chemin des Thaddées.

1901
The first train station, known as “Cocaigne Station”, was located between the General Store and Falconer Road. It was replaced by a new station, known as the Notre-Dame Station, located almost across from the Union Church. Station masters were Charlie Lockhart, Honoré Bourgeois, Kenneth Falconer and Ernest Wry. They operated the station between 1901 and 1966. The Notre-Dame Station served as a stop for passengers, freight, and water. During the early days of steam locomotives, water stops were necessary every 7 to 10 miles (11 to 16 km) which consumed much travel time. A water tower, located near the Notre-Dame train station, met the needs of a steam engine. Water sources came from a brook and a dam. When the train stopped for water, it would be positioned by the water tower, the boilerman swung out the spigot arm over the water tender and ‘jerked’ the chain to begin watering.

1901
On March 22, 1901, a powerful freshet took down three covered bridges: the Lockhart Bridge the Poirier Bridge, and the McLaughlin Bridge. It is believed that all bridges were rebuilt.

1901
On June 29, 1901, a bridge was sold to John Colborne for $20. Bridge #2 across Alexandrina (Nor’ouest) stream was sold to Maxime Robichaud for $13.50. Two Poirier Office bridges were sold to Thomas Poirier, one for $12 and the other for $20.

1903
On April 17, 1903, a horse and sleigh passed on the main road for the last time that spring according to a diary.

1904
On April 10, 1904, a horse and wagon passed on the main road for the first time that spring as noted in a record of household affairs.

1906
A second school was built in Notre-Dame, known as École de Dundas. This two-room school was located ½ mile down the road from the Catholic Church and served the community well until being destroyed by fire January 14, 1959. In ten months, a new larger school was built and opened to students grades 1 to 12, coming from every corner of the community. École Centrale de Notre-Dame.

Note: In the 1900s, schoolteachers were hired by local parent committees. Teachers lived “room and board” in the vicinity of the school. Inspectors were hired by Dundas Parish administrators who regularly visited school and wrote detailed reports which were influential and brought about change.

1907
Parish Priest, Père Paul Dufour, traveled to Europe and Palestine.

1909
On August 31^st, Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur became the patron of the Notre-Dame Catholic Church which was blessed by Mgr Thimothy Casey of Saint-John.

1910
The Manchester locomotive (e.g. I.C.R. no. 139), built in New Hampshire in 1875, began its journey from Bouctouche to Moncton and remained in operation there until the derailment of 1914.

1911
Calvin Taylor and Clara Wheaton were married on September 23, 1911. He managed the general store in Notre-Dame until the death of owner W.D. Gunter which occurred in 1937. Taylor purchased the store in the late 1930s.

1911
A second post office was built in Notre-Dame Centre, on the main road at the end of the driveway of the Antoine Bourque home and near the two-room school in the centre of the village. He was the first postmaster in the new building and remained so until his death in 1940. He was replaced by his daughter, Hélène, and afterwards by his son Napoléon who was postmaster from 1964 to 1972.

1911
Captain Israel J. Merritt (New York, USA) sold his Bouctouche-Moncton railway line and the name was changed to Moncton and Northumberland Strait Railway Company. This railway line will change ownership once again in 1918.

1915 to 1916
Brothers Charlie and Ben Lockhart sold their sawmill and general store to W.D. Gunter (Fredericton). The store was managed by Calvin Taylor who eventually bought it after Gunter’s death. The Lockharts moved to Moncton and opened a large lumber store which was very successful for many years.

Charles E. Lockhart was born in 1871 in East Leicester, Nova Scotia. He came to Notre-Dame around 1892 and married S. Elizabeth Dysart in October 1912.   Elizabeth or Bessie was from Cocagne where she was teaching school. They had four children. He died July 5, 1939, in Moncton, NB

Bent Weatherhead Lockhart (Ben) was born October 16, 1878, in East Leicester, Nova Scotia. He married Annabel Teed in 1907, in Notre-Dame. He died on October 31, 1944, in Albert County, NB

Brothers Charlie and Ben Lockhart, along with sons, developed their woodworking and lumber business into one of the largest and most distinguished businesses in Atlantic Canada. Lockhart Lumber became part of Beaver Lumber, a well-known lumber business, located near the river in downtown Moncton. Charles and Ben were the sons of Henry Bennett Lockhart and Jane (McKenney) Lockhart.

Calvin Luther Taylor was born May 23, 1887, and he married Clara Myrtle Wheaton on September 6, 1911. Calvin lived on the Old Fredericton Road at North River and Clara lived in Wheaton Settlement. They first lived in Petitcodiac then moved to Notre-Dame in 1915 where Calvin became employed at W.D. Gunther’s general store as bookkeeper and manager of the store and the mill.

Taylor purchased the store after Mr. Gunter’s death in 1937 and he operated it for many years. His son Donald became a partner after his return from serving as captain in the Carleton and York Regiment in the Second World War.  He married Phyllis Bradley MacQuarrie, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.A. MacWilliam of Moncton and they lived in Notre Dame.

Next to the store was a large two-story building. The ground floor was used as a grain warehouse and the second floor was the “Sons of Temperance Hall” where meetings and social events, such as “pie socials” were held regularly. Political meetings, agricultural meetings and other important meetings were also held here. It also served as a courthouse.

The Taylors were very active in the community. Their store, the C.L. Taylor & Son General Store, was a hub and landmark. In 1938, C.L. Taylor was elected to the post of Secretary-Treasurer of the Union Church, and he served until 1950. The Taylors co-ordinated the activities of a large and busy choir known as “The 9^th District Male Choir” who sang for special church events for miles around. Calvin was also involved with the Masonic Lodge (past Master of Salisbury Lodge) and served on numerous boards and committees.

1916
Alexandre Doucet settled in Notre-Dame, coming from Grand Étang, Nova Scotia. He was well-educated, prominent, and a great orator. In 1923, he was the elected Conservative Member of Parliament. Interestingly, he was the sole francophone conservative elected to the Commons and instantly, became the spokesperson for francophones across Canada in the legislature. He served on several distinguished organisations. He is buried in the Notre Dame Cemetery.

1918
The Moncton and Northumberland Strait Railway and Transportation Company (Bouctouche-Moncton rail line) was sold for $70,000 and put under the control of the Intercolonial Railway before being made part of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) system. It was important infrastructure and an efficient way to serve the busy area. It played a key part in the area’s development, facilitating trade of goods to and from Moncton and the rural surroundings. In 1965, the CNR abandoned its Bouctouche-Moncton rail line as of January 1, 1965. All except a small 1.7-mile-long trackage, known as the “Humphrey spur” or simply “Humphrey” which continues to be used in Moncton.

1919
The Notre-Dame Parish grew with the addition of several families: Thaddée Leménager, Barnabé McGrath, Edouard Richard, widow Odilon Goguen, and Théophile Goguen, all of whom transferred from neighbouring Cocagne St-Pierre Parish.

1919
The Union Church was now part of the Methodist Circuit in Bouctouche. The circuit consisted of Bouctouche, Little River (later called McKees’s Mills), Coatesville, and MacLean in addition to Notre-Dame. In 1920, Arthur Johnston was Notre-Dame’s representative on the Board of Stewards and the Society Representatives were Charles Lockhart and Mrs. Arthur (Mirinda) Johnston, Sunday School Superintendent was Mrs. W. E. Falconer who was also President of Ladies’ Aid.

1921
A new steel railway bridge was built to replace the existing wooden one. It would be torn down in the early 1970s and in its place was built a new culvert bridge and road for vehicles and pedestrians (Route 115).

1923
Alexandre J. Doucet, Honoré Bourgeois, Arsène Doucet, Delphin A. Goguen and Charles R. Doucet started canning fruits and vegetables in their new business, Maritime Products Ltd. It operated for several years. That same year, a chair manufacturing company was started, owner(s) unknown.

1923
A leafy booklet, published in July 1923, provided a detailed history of the church in neighbouring Saint-Antoine-de-Kent, NB which was once served by the church in Notre-Dame. Inside the booklet was an advertisement for the “Banque Provinciale du Canada” which listed its branches and one of them was Notre-Dame. The bank branch was located in the home of Honoré Bourgeois, manager.

1925 to 1950

1926
On February 2, 1926, a car passed by on the main road. It could have been owned by the Lockharts, Taylors or Colbornes. This was important enough to record in a notebook of household affairs.

1926
William (Billy) Colborne sold his sawmill to Philippe Léger. It is unknown when the sawmill was built. Union Church records, which showed payment of annual pew rental, recorded Billy Colborne’s name and payment in 1926 but not the following year. William was born in 1856 and died in 1934. He married Mora Lee Wood who was born in 1872 and died in 1917 of bronchitis at the age of 42. Billy and Mora had seven children.  The sawmill was located at the “S’ curve on Falconer Road. It was destroyed by fire in 1932.

1927
In August 1927, Mgr. J. Guéguen blessed the elevated Calvary statues during an impressive ceremony at the Catholic Church cemetery.

1929
A new covered bridge was built over the Cocagne River at Notre-Dame Centre by Ashley A. Calter of Fredericton (known as Diamond Construction in 1926) at a cost of $21,000. It was the fourth structure to span the river at that point and the oldest surviving the ravages of time. The first structure, an open bridge, burned in 1890 while the second was carried away during a winter break-up in 1901. The third, a “misfit”, survived for a while before it was torn down. It was built much too close to the river, posing all sorts of problems. The Notre-Dame covered bridge spanned at least 200 feet. It was demolished in 1981 by the provincial government.

1929
On June 27, 1929, Ralph E. Crawford died as a result of being struck by a car. He was the son of Everett and Margaret (Johnston) Crawford. Ralph’s paternal grandparents were Elisha A. and Catherine J. (Dysart) Crawford. He was only four years old.

1932
A few people had electricity as early as 1932 and by 1940, service was widespread but did not reach every corner of the village. This proved to be a fatal blow to several settlements and the main reason why these areas were eventually abandoned, such as Alexandrina-Nor’ouest, chemin des Thaddées, Village des Pishcots, Village des Fricots, and Suretteville.

1932
Jimmie (John Robert) Johnston returned to Notre-Dame with his wife Edith and their daughter Anna. They had been living in Boston and moved due to the Depression and lack of work. Jimmie was born on December 25, 1897, in Boston, Massachusetts and died in Moncton on August 28, 1930. Edith Edna Geddes was born in Gladeside, NB on August 13, 1905, and she died in Moncton on July 25, 2000.

Jimmie’s parents were Robert Howard Johnston and Mary Alice Balser of Niagara, Albert County, NB. They had moved to Notre-Dame when Jimmie was 5. He attended the community school to grade 8 and then worked in his father’s logging camp as well as farm jobs in the off season. He enlisted in the Canadian Army in 1916 and returned from war in 1919. Three years later, he returned to Boston to work in a shipyard.

1932
Gilbert Léger started a bus route from Saint-Antoine to Moncton, serving Notre-Dame passengers, farmers, and merchants in need of transportation. The demand for this service was greatly reduced as cars became the preferred means of transportation, even with the terrible dirt roads.

1935
A suspension bridge was constructed by Mac Basque, Patrice Pellerin, and Thaddée Pellerin over the river at Hays, a short cut to the church, school, post office, stores, etc. It was known as “pont macbasque”. Unfortunately, ice brought down the handy suspension bridge about a year and a half later being built.

1937
John M. Bourque is credited with planting the seed of opening a credit union in Notre-Dame. An intelligent man with very little education, John was wise to see that the lack of credit was stifling growth of the community. The Notre-Dame branch of the Provincial Bank had ceased operations some years back. He was instrumental in pursuing the idea and finally getting a charter to incorporate the Notre-Dame Credit Union in 1937. It was the first Caisse populaire in Kent County and the second in New Brunswick. John Bourque was the first president and Honoré Bourgeois was the first manager. Business was conducted in the Bourgeois home.

1937
W.D. Gunter was listed as a sawmill operator in Notre-Dame, in the category of “Mills producing between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 feet of lumber per year”, as found in the 1937 Department of Trade and Commerce, Dominion Bureau of Statistics, Census of Industry – Forest Branch Ottawa, Canada (p. 20). Gunter died in 1937.

1938
In March, the priest, Father Désiré Allain, proposed that a parish hall be built. Without delay, the residents got to work and that same year, the hall was built across the road from the church. It served as a temporary location for classrooms after the small school burned and while the new school was built. For several years, the hall served as a place for religious celebrations following the church fire in 1945 and during the construction of the new church. The hall was demolished in the early 1960s. Also in 1938, the parish was blessed by Bishop Melanson on August 25, 1938.

Father Allain was born in Sainte-Marie-de-Kent, New Brunswick, in 1892. He was pastor of Notre-Dame parish for nearly 20 years, including several during the Great Depression. On December 9, 1931, he founded a local chapter of the Canadian Catholic Youth Association. This chapter was known as the “A.C.J.C circle”. (acegists) and he played an important role in bringing the community together. Father Allain was very devoted to this organization.

Meetings were held regularly for educational purposes and to discuss parish affairs. This proved to be of great value to the parish. This organization remained active until 1941, when the young men were called to fight overseas. The presidents of the committees were Honoré Bourgeois (1931-32, 1932-33), Alfred Cormier (1933-34, 1934-35). Raymond Cormier (1936-37, 1937-38, 1938-39) and Napoléon Bourque (1939-40, 1940-41).

1938
W.D. Gunter’s Notre-Dame mill was sold. He had bought it from the Lockhart brothers in 1915 / 16. The mill was dismantled and shipped to a new owner in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia believed to be the Parrsboro Lumber Company located at 24 Main Street in Parrsboro which operated between 1942 and 1971.

William D. Gunter was born August 15, 1886, in York County, NB. He died in Saint John on October 26, 1937, at the age of fifty-one. His wife Grace M. (Duffy) was born in 1884 and she died on October 19, 1971. They were married in 1910. He and his wife are buried in the Fredericton Rural Cemetery. His mother, Eliza, was born on March 1, 1862, in Cardigan, York County, NB and she died August 17, 1954. His father, Herbert H., was born July 5, 1861, and he died on November 12, 1908. Both are buried in the Fredericton Rural Cemetery.

1938
Calvin Taylor purchased the general store and operated it for many years. His son Donald became a partner upon his return from the Second World War, serving as captain of the Carleton and York Regiment.

Next to the store was a large two-story building. The ground floor was used as a warehouse, mostly for grain, and the second floor was the Sons of Temperance Hall where people often met for meetings, town halls and social events, such as the Pie Social. Important meetings were also held regularly, such as political, agricultural and community meetings. This building also served as a “courthouse”.

The Taylors were very active in the community and their store, the C.L. Taylor General Store, was the central location of activity. In 1938, Calvin Luther Taylor was elected secretary-treasurer of the Union Church and served until 1950.

The Taylors took care of many of the procedures associated with the popular concerts of the local choir “The 9th District Male Choir”. Covering great distances in the surrounding area, this choir sang for special and religious events. Calvin was also involved in the Masonic Lodge (past Master – Salisbury Lodge) and served on numerous boards and committees.

Note: Sawmill operations increased as the lumber industry prospered. It was a main employer in the community and some worked at the mill while others in the winter logging camps. Factory employees were served three meals a day at the “cook house” in addition to transient workers.

The kitchen was a two-story building. The first floor had a kitchen-dining room for thirty to fifty men, a smoking room and living quarters for two cooks. The second floor served as a dormitory for workers coming from outside. From spring to fall, Justine Bourgeois worked as a cook with her aunt Minnie Gallant.

1938
Calvin L. Taylor was elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Union Church and replaced Charles E. Lockhart who had held the position for the previous forty years. He held this office until 1950 when his daughter, Dorothy (Taylor) Johnston, took over as Secretary-Treasurer until 1968.

1939
On November 12, 1939, Notre-Dame marked the 50^th anniversary of the building of its Catholic Church. Mass was celebrated by parish priest Father Désiré Allain, Abbé Philippe Robichaud, (originally from Notre-Dame and serving the Shemogue Church), and Abbé Placide LeBlanc (Port-Felix, NS). During the evening activities, Kent Federal Deputy Alexandre Doucet (Notre-Dame Centre) and Ernest Langis (Guéguen) addressed the large crowd assembled at the parish hall.

1939
On November 13, 1939, inaugural classes at the École d’Agriculture at Université St-Joseph (Memramcook) started with 34 students. Classes were organized in six-week semesters and ran until May 1940. The first semester finished in December 1939 and the closing remarks were made by Napoléon Bourque. In 1964, he would become postmaster of the Notre-Dame Post Office.

1945
On July 30, 1945, the Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur Church was destroyed by fire due to faulty electrical wiring. The parish hall served as location for religious ceremonies until the new church was built in 1950–51.

About 1945
The home and hotel, owned originally by William James and Emily Jane Cobham, were destroyed by fire. It was located near the general store and had 12 rooms for travellers to lodge and to eat. The owner, William Cobham, was a sea captain from Saint John. His wife Emily (also recorded as Emma) operated the hotel which was also known as the Cobham home.

Captain Cobham owned a vessel and was away from home a great deal. His vessel would occasionally moor at a dock on the Petitcodiac River. He was born in Parish Roscarberry, County Cork, Ireland in 1855 and died in Moncton in 1939. He emigrated from Ireland to Saint-John in 1865 and married Emily Jane Johnston on October 28, 1879, at Carleton, Saint-John. She was the daughter of Notre-Dame residents James Johnston and Ann (Chisholm) Johnston. It is believed that they had no children of their own but adopted and raised many. Mr. and Mrs. Cobham are buried in the Union Church Cemetery.

1950/51
Under Father Emery Doucet’s watchful eye, contractor Abbey Landry (Memramcook) built a new large and modern catholic church in Notre-Dame, as per plans drawn by architects Lévesque et Venne of Québec. Arthur Landry managed the work performed by local tradesmen. The exterior red bricks came from Chipman. The “table de communion” was sculpted by the Bourgeaults of St-Jean-Port-Joli, QC while the iron work was done by Aurèle Marois. The Bourgeaults also made the church pews. The church bell was forged at Fonderie Paccard (France) and weighs 658 lbs. L’Église Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur remains a beautiful landmark.

1951 to 1975

1951
On May 30, 1951, Église Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur was blessed by Monseigneur Norbert Robichaud. On June 10, 1951, Monseigneur Daigle blessed the new church bell which came from Fonderie Paccard of France.

1954/56
A home postal delivery service was introduced in Notre-Dame. Mail was delivered by drivers who would insert letters and parcels in mailboxes next to the road of each house and business throughout the community. One route started at the Notre-Dame Post Office then onward to Hays, Alexandrina-Nor’ouest, across the covered bridges to Poirier Office, LeBlancville, Dufourville and ending where the route began, at the post office. Delivery areas grew to include Guéguen, the South side of the river road. The MacDougall Settlement mail delivery was and remains part of a different route.

With the arrival of mailboxes and home postal delivery, several small post offices were closed, such as Dufourville, LeBlancville, Alexandrina-Nor’ouest, Poirier Office, and MacDougall Settlement.

Postal delivery was first done and for many years by Joe Delaney, followed by Thomas Robichaud, M. Delaney, Olivier Bourque, Alcide Pellerin, Frank Maillet, Regis Bourque, and others.

1955
By 1955, passenger rail travel on the Bouctouche-Moncton line had been discontinued.

1955
September 17, 1955, locomotive engineer, Norval Earl Johnston, drove the first ‘diesel’ passenger train out of Halifax. Norval was a long-time resident of Notre-Dame. He owned a Model T. Ford and later, a Model A. Ford. He was generous and offered rides to go vote, to the Catholic church, or elsewhere.

1956/57
The bus service line between Saint-Antoine and Moncton, with stops in Notre-Dame, ceased operating.

1958
The Notre-Dame community was made up of different school districts: Upper Guéguen, Hays, Alexandrina, LeBlancville, Dufourville, MacDougall Settlement, Whites Settlement (joined with Cocagne around 1965) and Notre-Dame Centre. The school board was responsible for maintaining and repairing schools as well as hiring teachers, heating, and other expenses, paid for by local taxes.

1959
On January 14, 1959, the two-room wooden schoolhouse École de Dundas was destroyed by fire. Classes are held in the parish hall and in the church basement. Ten short months later, a new two storey brick school was officially opened on November 14. L’École Centrale de Notre-Dame continues to cater to francophone students from the four corners of the community. Today, it is known as École Notre-Dame. First principal was Roméo Robichaud, followed by Gérald Aucoin who remained for many years.

Spring 1962
The first graduation at l’École Centrale de Notre-Dame had only one graduate, Claudette Gallant.

1963
On December 16, 1963, Bernice Gallant become the first Notre-Dame correspondent to the Acadian daily newspaper l’Évangeline.

1964/65
A non-profit association, known as « Club Athlétique de Notre-Dame, was founded by Gérald Aucoin and Ernest Gallant. Its purpose was to provide youth with sport and leisure activities. A decade later, the board of directors expanded the Club’s mandate and built a community centre with bowling alley, baseball fields, etc.

1965
The last section of the Bouctouche-Moncton rail line was abandoned on January 1, 1965.

1966
Sisters Edith Robichaud and Stella Roach (Sisters of the Notre-Dame congregation, cn-d) arrived to found a convent. Followed by two other nuns, the convent of four sisters was established and quickly became an important source of support. The sisters served this community until the fall of 2007. The last nuns to leave were Sister Edith who moved to the convent of Saint-Louis, NB and eventually joined Sister Stella at Accueil Marguerite Bourgeoy in Quebec. Their contribution to the quality of life of the parish is immense and immeasurable.

1966
A tragic accident occurred on April 21 on the outskirts of Moncton. Three young people from Notre-Dame lost their lives that morning: Victor Langis, Josette Doucet and her brother Gérald. A fourth passenger escaped. It was a moment of great sadness for the families and the community who have been grieving their deaths for many years.

1967/1968
This is the last school year for students between grades 9 and 12 to attend l’École Centrale de Notre-Dame and thus, the last graduating class. Afterwards, high school students attended the high school in Bouctouche.

1968
The last high school graduation in Notre-Dame was held in June 1968. Graduates were Omer Babineau, Robert Babineau, Roberte Cormier, Valmond Cormier, Claudine LeBlanc, Fernande LeBlanc, Francis LeBlanc and Carol Léger. Sadly missing was Josette Doucet who died in a horrific car accident on April 21, 1966 and involved four youth, two brothers and a brother-sister pair. Three people died that day, Josette Doucet, her brother Gérald, and her new boyfriend Victor Langis. It was a time of great sorrow for the families and the community which mourned their passing for many years.

1970s
The old train bridge was demolished in the late 1960s and this presented a golden opportunity to accommodate the growing traffic between Kent and Westmorland Counties. On the same site was built a culvert bridge and a new access road known as Route 115. Car travel on the old-covered bridge was stopped but pedestrian and cycling traffic continued to be permitted until 1976.

1971/72
With postmaster Napoléon Bourque’s retiring, the post office operations were moved to the home of Paul and Yvonne Léger. Mme Léger replaced Mr. Bourque until 1996 when Denise Richard replaced her, and the post office was again relocated into Richard’s home.

1972/73
With the old-covered bridge traffic being rerouted onto Route 115, Donald Taylor decided to demolish his general store and move his operation to in a new convenient location up the road just past the Catholic Church. This proved to be a wise decision. His son Brian took over ownership of the Taylor & Son General Store a decade or so later. In 1996, the store was sold, and its name was changed to Notre-Dame Express. Today, the store remains busy and an important contributor to the community.

1975
Local entrepreneur Adolphe Bourque constructed a new building to accommodate the growing business of the Notre-Dame Caisse Populaire. It was built on the grounds of the old two room school which was destroyed by fire in 1959. Mr. Tilmon Richard was manager of the credit union at the time.

1976 to 2000

1979
The board of directors of the “Club Athlétique de Notre-Dame” undertook the building of a large community center with leisure and sport facilities. From the beginning, the centre was very busy. Equipped with a kitchen and bar, the large hall was ideal for dancing, meals, events, weddings, anniversaries, private parties, and other activities and events. Many fundraisers were held there. The split-level basement housed bowling alleys and multi-purpose rooms for non-profits organisations such as the Knights of Columbus, Golden Age Club, ATV, literacy classes, etc. People came from afar for the music, bingo, cards, amateur nights, carnivals, cultural activities, book launchings, etc.

On the community ballfields were held two national women’s softball championships, in 1988 and in 1991. The local team did very well at both national events, especially in 1991 when the host team, the Athletes, won the Canadian Championship. The community centre underwent major renovations in the early 2000s when the bowling alleys were dismantled, and the space converted into an exciting youth centre known as Place Jeunesse Centrale.

In 2011, weight of snow collapsed the roof during the night of Wednesday, January 26. Luckily no one was in the building at the time as the evening before, the hall had been full of people playing the card game of “200”. The damage, however, was extensive. A group of volunteers teamed up to coordinate the necessary work leading to the ravaged building being demolished and the construction of a new community centre. In 2012, exactly one year later to the day, the new bigger one storey building opened its doors to the public. The Notre-Dame Community Centre remains very active.

1980s
The Scout movement was very strong in the community, and it remained active for several years. A Scout camp was built and often used.

1980
The old rectory was demolished, and in its place, a new rectory was built with space for the parish office.

1981
Notre-Dame lost an important landmark, the old-covered bridge. It had spanned the Cocagne River about 200 feet and was located near the sawmill where 40 years earlier, lumber was the main economic generator. The wooden bridge was quite visible when passing of the new bridge on Route 115 and is fondly remembered to this day. Notre-Dame has another covered bridge, at Poirier Office.

1982
École Notre-Dame expanded under the leadership of Rose-Marie Babineau and other volunteers. A new gym, cafeteria, offices, and classrooms were added.

1985
The “Église Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur” was consecrated.

1985
Résidence de Notre-Dame Inc. was built to offer retirees affordable apartments (nine one-bedroom apartments and one two-bedroom). The residence boasts a large common room with full kitchen for family get togethers.

1987
A Knight’s of Columbus charter was granted to the parish on April 5, 1987. Charitable and caring Christians founded the organisation “Chevaliers de Colomb Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur #9545. For over three decades, the Knights of Columbus have served the residents of the community by supporting local organisations and helping residents in need. Today, leadership and membership numbers continue to be strong.

1988
On November 13, 1988, veterans and community members gathered on the grounds of the Notre-Dame Catholic Church to pay tribute to those who died in the world’s great conflicts. Donald Taylor and Donat Després unveiled a commemorative monument.

1988
In the summer of 1988, Notre-Dame greeted softball teams from across Canada and their entourage as it hosted the Women’s Canadian Fast Pitch Ball Championship. Games were played on the Community Centre’s ball fields. While the local team was a strong contender, the winning team was the North Delta U-Guys, BC. Notre-Dame hosted another national championship in 1991 at which time the local team (The Athletics) won the championship title.

1988/89
The parish celebrated its 100^th anniversary with monthly activities throughout the year.

1989
L’École Notre-Dame celebrated its 30th anniversary with the return of former students, teachers and administrators during a weekend of activities. Many traveled from far and wide for the reunion which was a great success.

1990
A chamber of commerce, known as Chambre de commerce Cocagne-Notre-Dame, was founded and within on year, had over fifty members.

1991
Notre-Dame hosted the 1991 Women’s Fast Pitch Canadian Championship.   Its local team the Athletics, won this national championship.

1993
Local athlete Julie Dupuis competed in the 1993 Summer Games held in Kamloops, BC and again in the 1997 Summer Games in Brandon, MN.

1994
August 17, 1994, during the Congrès mondial acadien, a private reception was held at Pépin Cuisine for dignitaries, ambassadors, and world leaders such as Jacques Chirac, then Mayor of Paris and in 1995, President of France. Pépin Cuisine was a restaurant offering local and international cuisine, catering services, and cooking classes.

1998
Local female softball player Vicky LeBlanc pitched a perfect game in the 1998 World Tournament in Japan. For a decade, she had been winning medals at international competitions and being recognised for her talent. Her status rose to Olympian in 2000 when she competed at the Sydney Olympics for Canada.

2000
In March, the postal addresses were changed from site and box number to civic numbers thereby improving efficiently and visibility, especially for emergency services such as fire and balance services.