by Jackie Fallon
Hello! Thank you for your emails. From the last Miramichi Room column
I realised there is a great interest out there in genealogy. Is there anyone who would volunteer to assist people looking
for information on Miramichi Families?
For all you talented Miramichiers, please volunteer your time and contact
the editor@mightymiramichi.com to discuss the possibility of submitting articles of interest for Bread 'n
Molasses. From Herb Curtis' book, Look What the Cat Drug In! Miramichi Dictionary, here's your Miramichi word and meaning
for the month: "bread n'molasses" - A tasty snack that no one will admit he or she eats. Peasant food.
Hope you enjoy this May Miramichi Room!
HONOURING OUR LEGENDS:
LOUISE ELIZABETH MANNY.Born 1890 d.1970.
Louise Manny was a Miramichi historian, author, librarian and cultural
innovator. She came to Newcastle from Maine as a child when her father became the manager of a new spool wood plant at Newcastle.
Louise Manny was the leading cultural force on the Miramichi during her
lifetime. She hosted a weekly program for Miramichi Folksongs and folklore on radio station CKMR for more than 20 years and
founded the Miramichi Folksong Festival in 1957.
She wrote Songs of Miramichi in 1968, co-edited with James R. Wilson,
the Miramichi musician and musicologist who was a faculty member at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Also to her credit -
Ships of Miramichi in 1960.
In the late 1960's, she received her LLD's from St. Thomas University
in Chatham and the University of New Brunswick.
We thank you Dr. Manny!
FASCINATING FACTS:
DID YOU KNOW . . . the first white settler on the River was Nicholas
Denys, a Frenchman?
DID YOU KNOW . . . two of the 36 acknowledged Fathers of Confederation
were from the Miramichi? Peter Mitchell and John Mercer Johnson. In no other part of Canada were there two Fathers of Confederation
whose homes were only five miles apart.
DID YOU KNOW . . . the first vessel built on the Miramichi was a schooner
built by Davidson and fittingly named THE MIRAMICHI?
DID YOU KNOW . . . James A. Pierce of Halifax, who arrived in Miramichi
in 1825, established the first Miramichi newspaper? The Mercury, a weekly paper consisting of four pages each 9 x 14 inches,
was published from 1826 to 1829.
DID YOU KNOW . . . the modern settlement of Miramichi dates from 1765?
DID YOU KNOW . . . the Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 destroyed 6,000 square
miles, took almost 200 lives, and laid waste Newcastle, Douglastown and most of the other settlements?
