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Founders' Site

17 Caissie Street, Saint-Antoine, New Brunswick, E4V, Canada

Formally Recognized: 2006/04/03

Uninhabited house located on the grounds of the Founders' Site. A well beside this house is a vestige from the time of the founding of the community.; Daniel Léger
The founders' site
This letter states that the founders of the village are giving four lots of land to allow for the construction of the first church as soon as they receive the grants requested of the government.; Valmond Léger Collection
Letter dated June 25, 1843
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Other Name(s)

Site de la première terre de Saint-Antoine
Founders' Site
Site of the first land of Saint-Antoine
Desroches Historic Site
Site historique Desroches

Links and documents

Construction Date(s)

Listed on the Canadian Register: 2007/05/10

Statement of Significance

Description of Historic Place

Founders’ Site consists of an open, grass-covered lot at the end of Caissie Street in Saint-Antoine. The designation relates to the site and not to the uninhabited one-and-a-half-storey house which currently stands on the site.

Heritage Value

Founders’ Site is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the founding of Higho de Cocagne by the three Desroches sisters one spring day in 1832. That site would eventually become the Village of Saint-Antoine.

Before the Parish of Saint-Antoine got its name in 1873, the new colony was called Higho de Cocagne. In 1832, the three Desroches sisters, Marguerite, Geneviève, and Barbe, went with their husbands to a sugarhouse on what is now Grub Road. The three women ventured into the forest where they found high ground and fertile soil. Marguerite Desroches planted a stick in the earth, saying “This is my property. My sisters, now claim yours.” That gesture was very important for the Village of Saint-Antoine because Geneviève and Barbe did, in fact, lay claim to properties by the old cemetery and the current stone church, and these were the first three properties in the village. The following year, in 1833, the sisters and their husbands moved onto those properties, thereby becoming the first residents of Saint-Antoine. Other families followed suit, settling there permanently.

The location of this site alongside the Higho de Cocagne Institutional Centre - the historic location of the village’s first school and churches - demonstrates that the settlement of the Desroches sisters spawned the early infrastructure of what would become Saint-Antoine. Although the house that currently sits on the site is not directly related to the earliest occupants, vestiges of an old well that date back to when the first house was built in 1833 still exist, leading to the possibility that further potential archaeological resources exist on that site.

Source: Village de Saint-Antoine - File A1- "Lieu des fondatrices"

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe Founders’ Site include:
- open, grass-covered lot;
- location alongside the Higho de Cocagne Institutional Centre;
- vestiges of an old well that may have been used when the first house was built on the site in 1833;
- yet to be discovered archaeological resources relating to the early settlement of the site.

Recognition

Jurisdiction

New Brunswick

Recognition Authority

Local Governments (NB)

Recognition Statute

Local Historic Places Program

Recognition Type

Municipal Register of Local Historic Places

Recognition Date

2006/04/03

Historical Information

Significant Date(s)

1832/01/01 to 1832/01/01
1833/01/01 to 1833/01/01

Theme - Category and Type

Building Social and Community Life
Community Organizations
Peopling the Land
Settlement

Function - Category and Type

Current

Residence
Single Dwelling

Historic

Community
Settlement

Architect / Designer

n/a

Builder

n/a

Additional Information

Location of Supporting Documentation

Village of Saint-Antoine-de-Kent Municipal Office, file A1 "Lieu des fondatrices"

Cross-Reference to Collection

Fed/Prov/Terr Identifier

1015

Status

Published

Related Places

n/a

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