Man unearths old French village
Saturday, July 20, 2002

 19th-century community of Raymondville had link to Abraham Lincoln

By Monica Graham – Bridgeville

(Click on image to see larger picture)

Photo caption: John Ashton with kitchen utensils, buttons and other artifacts retrieved from the abandoned French settlement Raymondville.

             A Pictou County man’s curiosity about a cluster of French names recorded in an old atlas among the Macs, Frasers, Camerons and other Scottish settlers has led him to the remains of a 19-th century French community south of New Glasgow. 

            “It’s out in the middle of nowhere,” said Bridgeville graphic artist John Ashton.

While researching Raymond-ville, Mr. Ashton undercovered tales of economic hardship, political and corporate intrigue, religious riots and even a connection to American president Abraham Lincoln.

            Raymondville was founded in 1877 just north of the confluence of the Pictou, Colchester, Guysborough and Halifax County lines.  It was named for the first baby born there.

            Within three years, most of its 11 families had dispersed across the continent, leaving behind six graves in a tiny cemetery, a few foundations and discarded household items, and little else.

            Only one family, the Bonnets, remained until finally leaving in 1942.

            Mr. Ashton got hooked on the community when, armed with a compass and map, he tramped around the area until he stumbled over a stone foundation.  Hooked on the quest, he asked local residents about the site and heard vague reports of French families visiting the community of Lorne, Pictou County for supplies in the early 1900’s, and then of a teacher who had recorded information while studying at Universite Sainte Anne in Pointe de l’Eglise, Digby County.

            A search of old newspapers and church records at the provincial archives proved to be a gold mine of information, leading Mr. Ashton to more archives in France, Kansas and Toronto.

            His research revealed that a scarcity of skilled miners in the early 1870’s prompted Canadian businessman Sir Hugh Allan to recruit miners in Prussian-occupied France for Pictou County’s coalfields.  At first the French were steadily employed here but soon American coal tariffs and subsequent reduced production led to layoffs and labour unrest.

            The destitute French miners fell in with a Presbyterian mission headed by a former Roman Catholic priest, Frther Charles Chiniqui, and were converted to Protestantism.

            Chiniqui was a controversial evangelist whose sermons led to riots in Antigonish and Halifax. 

Sued by the Chicago diocese in the 1850’s, Chiniqui hired Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln to successfully defend him and they remained friends until Lincoln’s assassination. 

Under the mission’s leadership, 15 French families applied for a Nova Scotia land grant in 1877, and Raymondville, also known as the French Mission, was born.

“It would have been good farmland,” Mr. Ashton said…. But they were miners.”

Likely overwhelmed by the hardship and isolation, the community failed.

Although some descendants remain in the area, the original surnames- Homme, Segretin, Bonnet, Floret, Durand, Mazzee, Passieux and Oudin – have mostly disappeared, Mr. Ashton said.

            He as traced other descendants to Pennsylvania coal towns and to another Presbyterian mission in Kansas.

            Mr. Ashton plans to organize his findings into a book in time for the 2004 Acadian Congress, but admits there’s no personal connection to Raymondville.

            “It’s just a Love of history.”