1933 letter to the editor about St. Croix Island, settled in 1604 by deMonts & Champlain - by Mrs. Ida Vose Woodbury

July 27, 1933 newspaper clipping describing a letter to the editor written by Mrs. Ida Sumner (Vose) Woodbury (1854-1934) in which she objects to the fact that St. Croix Island was misidentified as Dochet Island in Senator Wallace H. White's bill proposing that the island become a national park.  [Wallace Humphrey White, Jr., (1877-1952)]

St. Croix Island is the site chosen by French explorers Sieur deMonts and Samuel de Champlain to establish a settlement in 1604.  The island is located in the St. Croix River not far from where it empties into Passamaquoddy Bay near St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada.  

Sadly, the island proved to be a site poorly suited for what would be an unusually harsh winter.  On the island, the party of 79 had felt they would be safer from the Wabanaki natives, in case of conflict, and yet it was the Wabanakis whose help and know-how they came to rely on, albeit too late for many of the men, 35 of whom succumbed to scurvy, sickness and cold.  

The following year the party moved its settlement to Port-Royal, Nova Scotia.

Today St. Croix island is regarded as a site of international significance.  The United States and Canada operate historic parks on their sides of the river facing the island.  
     US side, Red Beach section of Calais, Maine 
     Canada side, Bayside, New Brunswick 

Transcription:

THIS ISLAND CALLED DOCHET.
In a recent letter to a Portland newspaper Mrs. Ida Vose Woodbury voices a strong protest against the use of the name "Dochet" as applied to the historic islet in the St. Croix River where DeMonts and Champlain spent that disastrous winter in 1604.  Her letter was prompted by the introduction of a bill in Congress by Senator Wallace H. White of Maine asking that the island be made a national park and a monument erected there, and she writes:

"My object in writing this article  is a protest against the name which Mr. White used in speaking of the island.  He called it Douchet.  That was one of the many names applied to it.  Another was Dosia, connected with a local tragedy on the island.  It was also called Big Island, Great Island, Neutral Island and many other things.  But when DeMonts and Champlain first came to the island they named it St. Croix for the river in which it is located.  The river takes its name from a crude cross which is readily distinguishable from the river itself or from the "English side" (so called) especially at high tide.  Oak Bay forms the head, and the Waweig, flowing from New Brunswick with the river itself which is the Maine boundary, make the arms of a cross which give a reasonable foundation for the name St. Croix.  When DeMonts came to the island, he named it the same.  Champlain, the geographical member of the expedition, corroborated it.

"In 1904, a ter-centenary celebration of the settlement of the island was held.  There were two assemblies; one on the island itself and the other in the Opera House in Calais.  Representatives from Maine, from New Brunswick, and from France were present.  The secretary of the committee brought a petition from the historical town of St. Andrews, which took the form of a resolution that the island should henceforth and forever be known by the name of St. Croix.  This resolution was unanimously adopted.  Later the city of Calais, on the Maine side of the river, and the city of St. Stephen on the New Brunswick side, by official action confirmed this resolution.  It seems to me that we should not go back of these actions.  I approve heartily of Senator White's plan if the country ever has money enough to indulge in parks and monuments, but I plead for the name of St. Croix, the only legal name for the island."

That is straightforward and conclusive enough to set straight the record which has gone somewhat astray since the celebration nearly 30 years ago.  It is rather surprising that the name Dochet clings so tenaciously when the name of the river is a constant reminder of the proper, legal name of the island.

Interestingly, I once read a school report of a Robbinston, Maine schoolgirl on the tercentenary celebration mentioned in Mrs. Woodbury's letter.  She mentioned that three French warships attended the celebration.  Robbinston abuts the Red Beach section of Calais where St. Croix Island is located.        

In 2004, a ten-day quadrennial celebration marked the event.  Unfortunately, it was hampered by unending torrential rain and fog, in an echo of the harsh weather of 1604.  

British Encroachments in Passamaquoddy - c1790

Reprinted, with permission, from the blog Heirlooms Reunited.

 

From the Massachusetts Centinel, issue of 20 March 1790, an article about British encroachments in the disputed border around Passamaquoddy Bay in Maine and New Brunswick.

Transcription - corrections and clarifications requested:

BRITISH ENCROACHMENTS
Circumstantially related by a Correspondent

There are three rivers that empty themselves into the Bay of Passamaquady [now called Passamaquoddy], the easternmost always called by the native Indians and French St. Croix, and the middle one Schooduck.  Before the commencement of the late war, Gov. BARNARD sent Mr. Mitchell, a Surveyor, and several others to explore the Bay of Passamaquady, and to examine the natives, to find out which was the true river St. Croix; they accordingly did, and reported it to be the easternmost river, and returned plans of their survey as such.  At the forming of the Treaty of Peace, the Commissioners had Mitchell's maps, and in fixing the boundary between that part of Nova-Scotia now called New Brunswick, and this Commonwealth, they considered it to be the river laid down by him.  - After the Peace, the subjects of the British King took possession of all the lands, between the St. Croix and Schooduck rivers, (which tract is nearly as large as the State of New-Hampshire) and now hold possession of the same, under a pretence that the Schooduck is the true river St. Croix; they also claim all the islands in the Bay of Passamaquady, although many of them lay several miles to the westward of the river that they call the boundary; and have in a number of instances exercised, by force, jurisdiction over the subjects of this Commonwealth, living on those Islands. - The British Sheriff from St. Andrews, with an armed force, took a Mr. TUTTLE (formerly a Lieutenant in the American army) from his house on Moor Island [likely Moose Island], and conveyed him to St. Andrews gaol, where he was confined a considerable time; their Court have repeatedly fined the inhabitants of these Islands for refusing to obey when summoned as jurymen, and they have taken several of their vessels laying close under those Islands, and carried them to St. John's [Saint John], where they detained them a considerable time before the owners could obtain their release.  In the late instance, Capt. Dunn their High-Sheriff for Charlottee [Charlotte] County, with David Owen, Esq., one of their principal Magistrates, and four men, armed with muskets, pistols, &c. in a hostile and violent manner, went on Frederick Island, (above five miles west of what they call the river St. Croix, and attempted to break open Mr. DELESDERNIER'S house to search for property they said belonged to a British subject.  Mr. Delesdernier opposing them, armed with an ax, prevented their succeeding on the house; but they finding a cow on the Island forcibly carried her off with them.   Mr. Delesdernier not having any assistance, could not prevent it.  Mr. Delesdernier is the collector of the Customs for the United States, and keeps his office in the house they endeavored to break open. - It is presumed, that Lord DORCHESTER, Governour General of the British Colonies in America, would not countenance such proceedings - but it is to be wished that measures may be speedily taken to prevent such insults in future.

The most intense of these "encroachments" would occur on July 14, 1814 when a British fleet under the command of Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia, captured Fort Sullivan on Moose Island [also known as Eastport, Maine] and renamed it Fort Sherbrooke after Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, then Lieutenant Governour of Nova Scotia.

Because the British had felt since the American Revolution that the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay were in their jurisdiction, they did not leave Moose Island at the end of the War of 1812 in 1815.  After a few more years of negotiation, an agreement was reached on November 24, 1817 between the British representative Thomas Barclay, and the American, John Holmes, apportioning all of the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay to the British, except for Frederick, Dudley and Moose Islands, though the agreement still had to go through channels.  The British left Moose Island in June 1818.   

Though some townspeople refused to take the oath of allegiance and left, some just to the nearby mainland, where the British did not harrass them, most of those who stayed reportedly did not notice much difference between American and British rule in the areas of trade and daily life.  Arguably, the influx of the British contributed to the cultural and social life.

While at Fort Sullivan/Sherbrooke, the British built a powder house that still stands, though in desperate need of restoration, a project that the Border Historical Society has ongoing.  

Eastport, on Moose Island, and the islands of Passamaquoddy Bay: Moose Island is very close to the Perry, Maine, shore; the other two islands are now known as Treat Island and Dudley Island.  Treat Island is managed by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust and is open to visitors.

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James Monroe's 1817 SOTU: Mentioning the Islands in Passamaquoddy Bay

In his State of the Union address on December 12, 1817, President James Monroe mentioned the Treaty of Ghent and the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay.

Excerpt from his address: 

The Commissioners under the fourth article of the treaty of Ghent, to whom it was referred to decide to which party the several islands in the bay of Passamaquoddy belonged under the treaty of 1783, have agreed in a report, by which all the islands in the possession of each party before the late war have been decreed to it.  

The Treaty of Ghent ended the hostilities of the War of 1812 in 1815, but a few thorny issues remained for further negotiation, including the issue of the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay.    

In July of 1814 the British had captured Fort Sullivan on Moose Island and renamed it Fort Sherbrooke, in honor of the Governor General of British North America, Sir John Coape Sherbrooke.  Unlike as in the case of Castine, Maine, however, the British did not leave Moose Island at the war's end, feeling that it had rightfully been part of British North America all along, since the American Revolution.

In the end, however, the negotiators agreed that the islands would be governed as they were before the War of 1812, and, thus, Moose Island and its fort would return to the United States, whereupon the fort resumed its name of Fort Sullivan. 

Although this decision was reached in late 1817, the British did not leave until June 30, 1818, because of slow communications, the enormity of the task and because the British were having a hard time finding transport for the large force.

A different outcome from those negotiations, not difficult to imagine, would have placed Moose Island in British North America, and thus a part of modern day Canada, or would have placed what are now the West Isles of New Brunswick in the United States.

Read Monroe's State of the Union address of December 12, 1817 in its entirety here.