Preface Lovell's Gazetteer of British North America

The utility of a work of this kind, drawing its facts from original and authentic sources, treating on a variety of topics, all of them of interest, many of them novel and heretofore unnoticed, becomes the more evident when the increasing intercourse between the different provinces and the growing commerce between the Dominion and other countries are taken into account.

The nature and extent of the labor involved in the preparation of this GAZETTEER may be inferred from the fact that there are 6,000 Cities, Towns and Villages within the Dominion of Canada and Newfoundland; that each of the 6,000 had to be classed in alphabetical order; the geographical position described; the railway or steamboat connections, postal or telegraphic facilities, distance from important centers; also the manufacturing, mining, agricultural, shipbuilding and fishery industries; and the population, as far as it could possibly be obtained. Also, that the locality and extent of over 1,500 Lakes and Rivers had to be described.

The GAZETTEER is classed under three heads: First, the Cities, Towns, Villages, Settlements, Counties and Provinces; second, the Lakes and Rivers; and third, a Table of Routes. The latter is of itself an intrinsic part of the work. It skews the proximity of the railway stations, and the sea, lake and river ports to every city, town, village and settlement, in British North America, thus informing the reader how he may reach any desired place without unnecessary delay.

The minuteness of the details and the fullness of the information embodied in the GAZETTEER can best be illustrated by the following extracts:-

AMHERST, (formerly known as Fort Lawrence,) a seaport town of Nova Scotia, the capital of Cumberland co., very pleasantly situated on an arm of Cumberland Bay, and on the Intercolonial railway, 9 miles from Sackville, N.B., and 138 miles W. by N. of Halifax. It contains, besides the county and railway buildings, about 30 stores, several churches, hotels, mills and factories, an iron foundry, 2 tanneries, 1 printing office issuing a weekly newspaper, a telegraph office, and a branch bank. It is a port of entry, and has a large trade, especially in lumber and ship building. The number of arrivals for 1872 was 190, (tons 21,836), and the clearances 208 (tons 24,106). Total value of imports $94,211; exports $107,769. Pop. 2,000.

AMHERSTBURG, an incorporated town in Essex co., Ont., on the Detroit river, 5 miles above its junction with Lake Erie, and at the western terminus of the Canada Southern railway, 18 miles from Windsor. It was at one time a garrison town, and was called Malden, the name of a fortress in the town. It contains a courthouse, a lunatic asylum, 5 places of worship, several saw and gristmills, an iron foundry, about 25 stores, 5 hotels, and a telegraph office. Amherstburg is a port of entry. The total value of imports for 1872 was $80,657; exports $114,350. Steamers run daily between Amherstburg and Detroit. Pop. 1,936.

Amherst in Nova Scotia and Amherstburg in Ontario, two towns of
nearly equal population, rapidly rising in importance as shipping and manufacturing communities, are selected at random from classification A of the GAZETTEER to show the care with which statistical materials incident to each locality have been collected and utilized.

These towns, situated more than a thousand miles apart, exhibit in a striking light the vast extent of the confederated portions of the British North American possessions, while the returns of factories, stores, mills and rail and steamboat connections, demonstrate their marvelous progress in all those elements of wealth and population which constitute the true basis of national strength.

There is one especial advantage enjoyed by those who relate events or transactions, or any incidents recorded in the earlier annals of this continent: because the chief actors are individualized, their deeds officially registered, and critical contemporaries have depicted in lively colors those memorable events which form chronological landmarks in the history of Canada, whereas the earliest accounts of the origin and growth of the old world races are involved in the mists of antiquity, and fabulous legends assign super-human qualities to mythical and pre-historic heroes. The Sagas of Iceland, dating back more than five centuries before Gaspar Cortereal, in 1500, entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence, recount how adventurous Northmen discovered this continent, founded the colony of Vinland, and maintained intercourse with it down to the beginning of the twelfth century, though no trace of their occupation can be discovered, and Vinland is capriciously assigned to the shores of Massachusetts, Labrador, and Newfoundland; but it is a well attested fact that in 1535 Jacques Cartier landed at the Indian village of Hochelaga, explored the St. Lawrence as far as the foot of the Lachine rapids, and ascended the mountain of Montreal, where, after the fashion of the age, he planted a cross. Thus to France undoubtedly belongs the honor of having made the first discovery of the St. Lawrence. In subsequent years bands of stouthearted and self-sacrificing Frenchmen, conspicuous for their fortitude and stoical endurance, exposed their lives fearlessly in adventurous explorations extending from Hudson's Bay to the Great Lakes, and thence down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.

The earliest settlement attempted at Quebec dates 1608; only 265 years have therefore elapsed between the epoch when the first settler, under manifold discouragements, planted himself in Canada, and to-day when the Queen of England claims jurisdiction over the most extensive colony in the world, inhabited by upwards of four millions of active, enterprising, and self-reliant people, confederated under the ambitious title of the Dominion of Canada, which consists of upwards of four millions of geographical square miles, extending from the Atlantic on the east to the shores of the North Pacific on the west. Its extreme breadth on the parallel of 49° north latitude is 3,066 geographical miles, and the greatest depth from the most southern point of the Province of Ontario to Smith's Sound in the Polar regions rather more than 2,150 miles.

It was said of Canada, when the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada comprised her entire territory, that, with the exception of coal and a few of the less important metals, she contained within herself a supply of almost all the known useful minerals, not only amply sufficient for her domestic consumption, but, with few exceptions, for permanent, profitable and extensive commerce. Again, at the great Exhibition of 1851, at London, the jury were pleased to state, "that of all the British Colonies, Canada is that whose exhibition is the most interesting and complete, and one may even say that it" is superior, as far as the mineral kingdom is concerned, to all countries that "have forwarded their productions to the Exhibition." Canada has since grown from two Provinces into a Dominion, thereby acquiring the gold and coal mines on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the enormous coal areas of the North West. Little is yet known as to the extent of the mineral deposits throughout nine-tenths of the territory included within the limits of the Dominion, but evidence has been obtained to warrant the belief that these sources of wealth exist in inexhaustible quantities and include every variety found on the continent of Europe. The coal mines of Nova Scotia may for centuries to come supply the demands of the marine of England, while capacious harbors like Halifax afford ample and secure anchorage for the largest navies. Along the line of the American coast, stretching from the Isthmus of Panama to Belfring's Island, a distance of three thousand miles, few harbors equal, and none are superior to those found in British Columbia; hence the coal measures of Vancouver Island and the Saskatchewan acquire additional importance, and must become of incalculable value when the commerce of the Dominion with Japan, China, and the Australian colonies assumes larger dimensions. The vast regions belonging to the British Crown, extending from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, averaging six hundred miles in width by two thousand miles in length, are adapted to the uses of the agriculturalist, and are capable of supporting a greater number of the human race than can today be found in France, Germany, and Switzerland combined. Every variety of soil and climate offers itself. British Columbia revels in the enjoyment of a Devonshire temperature, while, up to sixty degrees of north latitude, the seasons, owing to the warm winds of the Pacific, are more genial than those of Sweden or Norway. Vetches, which remain juicy during winter, and the enduring bunch grass, as nourishing as the pastures of England, cover vast prairies, while the abundance of buffaloes and the facility with which horses and cattle find food throughout the year, and fatten and multiply, are facts which attest the nutritious nature of the natural grasses. This magnificent country, watered by majestic streams, stored with mineral treasures, known as the Saskatchewan Valley, so called after the celebrated river, which descends from the Rocky Mountains to Lake Winnipeg, is noted for the extent and richness of its coal measures. Rich beds of pure economic coal twelve to twenty-four feet in thickness, and iron ore in vast quantities in the same strata, extend from the Coal Rapids, Saskatchewan river, to the Rocky Mountains, a distance nearly double that between London and Edinburgh, while from two hundred miles north of the Saskatchewan coal deposits, to the Arctic, about 70° of lat. N., Mackenzie discovered bitumen in a fluid state, petroleum, and coal strata. On the banks of Slave river, a branch of the Mackenzie, numerous bituminous springs abound; in fact, the region skirting the eastern flank of the Rocky Mountains, ascending many degrees of latitude from 49° to 70° North, gives indications of inexhaustible stores of coal and other minerals, including gold, while the virgin surface soil is of exuberant fertility. The latest traveler who visited this country named it the Lone Land; a fitting name, when we consider that there are thus a million statute square miles, possibly the finest agricultural region known, remaining tenantless, and awaiting the approaching hour when the iron horse will render the Lone Land easy of access to the over-crowded hives of Europe, and bring it within reach of the present civilization. No emigrants have yet found their way to this modern Egypt, because a voyage to Australia or New Zealand can be performed in half the time and at a third of the cost, but when these conditions are reversed, when the emigrant sailing from Liverpool in one of the Allan line of steamers, can, after a ten days' voyage, enter the Grand Trunk railway cars at Quebec, and, without breaking connection, proceed direct to his future home on the banks of the Saskatchewan, Athabasca, Peace or Mackenzie, with their countless tributaries, accomplishing the entire journey with ease and safety within three weeks from the day he left England, at a cost of about ten pounds, then must commence a mighty exodus from over-crowded Europe. The labor markets of the world were profoundly stirred, and a rapid rise in the price of all manufactured articles occurred synchronically with the completion of the American Pacific railway, simply because railways penetrated hundreds of miles through regions of marvelous fertility, rich in minerals and all the elements for agricultural and manufacturing industry, which had been up to that date isolated and shut out from the occupations of the human race. Yet, manifold as are the attractions of the American prairies, the North West of the Dominion is more bounteously supplied with lakes, rivers and rainfalls, and possesses an equally fruitful soil.

Let it be known at home that lands rich as the fens of Lincolnshire or the Mid-Lothians can be acquired at a nominal cost on the banks of the Saskatchewan, a river navigable for a thousand miles, with a climate not more severe than that of Germany, and that the journey can be performed within three weeks, at a cost of ten pounds, hundreds of thousands of the people now sighing for a competence, and solicitous to provide a future independence for their young families, will willingly seek their fortunes in this inviting region. The tide of emigration is now turned back, unable to spread over the many hundred thousand geographical square miles extending from Fort Garry to the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, because between the western extremity of Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg, a distance of only four hundred miles, no railway has yet been built. The government of the Dominion have, however, as a condition for the entrance of British Columbia into the Dominton, pledged themselves to that province to build a railway from Lake Nipissing to the Pacific Ocean, which will connect the two oceans and traverse the whole length of the provinces forming the Dominion of Canada. It is almost superfluous to acid that a Pacific railway must commercially and politically prove of vital importance to both the Mother Country and Canada. It will commence at a point near Lake Nipissing, about 200 miles due north of Lake Ontario, where railway connection can be established with the railway systems of Canada and the United States; it will then advance along the north shores of Lakes Huron and Superior to Fort Garry, in Manitoba, and proceed on its westerly course through the fertile belt bordering the River Saskatchewan until it reaches the Rocky Mountains, and then one of the seaports of the Alpine province.

This railway, measuring two thousand seven hundred miles in one uninterrupted line, will, when built, complete the great Canadian Inter Oceanic chain, and remain an enduring monument of the enterprise and patriotism of the people. It is impossible to over-estimate the benefits that must accrue to both the Mother Country and the Dominion, when this important railway route is completed.

Heretofore Canada has been to the traveler little better than a cul de sac, as he could only journey as far as the extremity of Lake Superior; but when the entire Dominion can be traversed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, he will be enabled with ease to take a rapid survey of these wide-spreading dominions belonging to the British Crown, and measure their political and commercial importance. He will then become convinced that the Dominion is rich in coal measures, slate quarries, gold, silver, copper, iron, and almost every mineral of commercial value; that the climate is favorable to health; and that there are millions of acres of grain-raising and pasture lands awaiting colonization in the fertile belt of the North West and British Columbia.

The aggregate population of the Dominion, including British Columbia, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and the North West Territories, is estimated at four millions; and the progressive growth of population in four of the Provinces during the last twenty years, is thus recorded in the Census returns:

The census of England and Wales during the same period gives the following results:

Census of ISM 17,927,609 I Census of 1871 22,704,108
Increase during 20 years, about 241 per cent., 4,776,499

The census returns of the United States are brought down to 1870, and make the following exhibit:

Census for 1830 23,191,076 Census for 1870 38,543,983
Increase during 20 years, about 66 per cent, 15,381,107

The Provinces and Territories included within the Dominion are: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Manitoba, and the North West Territories; and in the GAZETTEER will be found, in alphabetical sequence, carefully prepared summaries of their earlier records; with descriptions of their gradual growth in population and wealth, enriched with statistics, drawn from authentic sources, embracing topics calculated to interest the reader.

It is alike a duty and a pleasure on the part of the publisher to return his grateful thanks to the following gentlemen who were kind enough to revise and correct proofs descriptive of those Provinces of the Dominion with which they are familiar;

Right Rev. Robert Machray, D.D., Lord Bishop of Rupert's Land.
Most Rev. Alex. Tackle, D.D., Archbishop of St. Boniface, Manitoba.
The late Hon. Joseph Hove, Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
Herbert Crosskill, Esq., Deputy Provincial Secretary of Nova Scotia.
Hon. Thomas Glen, Receiver General of Newfoundland.
Hon. Thomas Talbot, Member of the Executive Council, Newfoundland.
Hon. B. R. Stevenson, Surveyor General of New Brunswick.
Hon. Joseph Royal, Provincial Secretary of Manitoba.
Hon. George A. Walkem, Attorney General of British Columbia.
Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney Bellingham, M.P. for Argenteuil.
J. George Hodgins, Esq., LL.D.,.F.R.G.S., Deputy Superintendent of Education, Ontario. Andrew Russell, Esq., late Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands, Ontario.
E. E. Taché, Esq., Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands, Quebec.
Malcolm McLeod, Esq., Aylmer, Que., District Magistrate for the District of Ottawa.

The publisher refers especially to the value of the services rendered by the above gentlemen, and gladly acknowledges Mr. P. A. Crossby's judicious compilation and classification of the matter, and the unremitting industry be displayed in consulting records, collating authorities, and moulding into shape the topographical, statistical, and historic materials of the GAZETTEER.

It would be an act of presumption on the part of the publisher to pretend to collect all the information which it is requisite to embody in a Gazetteer, without availing himself of the copious and authentic stores of valuable data collected and given to the world by geological and topographical explorers, and inquisitive and investigating travellers. It is therefore his agreeable duty to acknowledge that, in the execution of his work, he has o availed himself largely of the abundant material furnished by SIR W. E. Lonan's valuable Geological Map of British North America, and the Annual Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada, instituted in 1843, and carried on under the direction of SIR William E. Login, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., for years the renowned chief of the Geological Department of Canada; and also the following authors, whose works have been consulted with advantage:

The British Dominions in North America; or, a Topographical and Statistical Description of the Provinces of Lower and Upper Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward and Cape Breton; by Joseph Bouchette, Esq., Surveyor General of Lower Canada. London, 1815 and 1832.
William A. Beating's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River, Lake Winnipeg, and Lake of the woods; performed in 1823 by order of Hon. J. C. Calhoun, U. S. Secretary of War, under command of Stephen H. Long, U. S. T. E. London, 1825.

Admiral Bayfield's Surveys of the River St. Lawrence and Great Lakes. London.

Hawkins' Picture of Quebec, with Historical Recollections. Quebec, 1834.

Geological Survey of Canada: Report of Progress from its commencement to 1873, under Sir William E. Logan, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., late Director; Alfred R. C. Selwyn, Director; Alex. Murray, Assistant Geologist; T. Sterry Hunt, M.A., F.R.S., Chemist and Mineralogist; E. Billings, F.G.S., Paleontologist; Robert Bell, C.E., F.G.S.; Charles Robb, Mining Engineer; Prof. L. W. Bailey, A.M.; George F. Matthew, H. G. Vennor, James Richardson, and the late Edward Hartley. Montreal.

Charles Lanman's Wilds of the United States and British American Provinces; with an Appendix by Lieut. Campbell Hardy. Philadelphia, 1856.

The Salmon Fisheries of the St. Lawrence; by Richard Nettle, Montreal, 1857.

History of Canada, from the time of its discovery till the Union Year (1840-41); by F. S. Garneau. Montreal, 1860.

A Concise History of Newfoundland; by F. R. Page, Land Surveyor. London, 1860.

Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857, and of the Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. By Henry Youle Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S. London, 1860.

Eighty Years' Progress of British North America: giving in an historical form the vast improvements made in Agriculture, Commerce and Trade; Modes of Travel and Transportation; Mining and Educational interests; with a large amount of Statistical information; by H. Y. Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S.; T. C. Reefer, C.E.; J. George Hudgins, LL.D., F.R.G.S.; Charles Robb, M.E.; M. H. Perley; and Rev. William Murray. Montreal, 1863.

Explorations in the Interior of the Labrador Peninsula, the country of the Montagnais and Nasquapee Indians. By Henry Youle Hind, M.A., F.R.G.S. London, 1863.

History, Geography and Statistics of British North America; by Alex. Monro. Montreal, 1864.

A History of Canada, and of the other British Provinces in North America; by J. George Hodgins, LL.D., F.R.G.S. Montreal, 1865.
Lovell's Dominion Directory: containing names of Cities, Towns and Villages, throughout the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Be. Montreal, 1871.

Red River Country and its Resources; by Joseph James Hargrave. Montreal, 1871.

Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World, containing a notice and the pronunciation of the names of nearly one hundred thousand places. Philadelphia, 1871.

Report on British Columbia; by Hon. H. L. Langevin, C.D., Minister of Public Works. Ottawa, 1872.

Peace River: a Canoe Voyage from Hudson's Bay to the Pacific in 1523; by the late Sir George Simpson, with a Journal, by late Chief Factor Archibald McDonald, Hudson Bay Company; edited by Malcolm McLeod, barrister, Aylmer, Que. Ottawa, 1872.

Queen Charlotte's Islands: a Narrative of Discovery and Adventure in the North Pacific; by Francis Poole, C.E. London, 1872.

The Dominion at the West: A brief Description of the Province of British Columbia, its Climate and its Resources. The Government Prize Essay, 1872. By Alexander Caulfield Anderson, Esq., J.P. Victoria, B.C., 1872.

Nova Scotia; Its Climate, Resources and Advantages. Being a general description of the Province. By Herbert Crosskill, Deputy Provincial Secretary. Halifax, 1872.

Bishop Tackle's Sketch of the North West.

Géographie de la Compagnie du Nord Ouest; by David Thompson, Astronomer and Surveyor of the North West Company.

The Year Book of Canada, from 1896 to 1873, Montreal and Ottawa.

Reports of the Minister of Public Works and Agriculture of the Dominion, for the years 1867, 68, 69,70,71, and 72. Ottawa.

Capt. Butler's Report on the North West Territories, Ottawa 1872.

The First Dominion Census, taken in 1871. Vol. I. Ottawa, 1873.

Maps of the Provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, British Columbia, Manitoba and the North West Territories, compiled from the most recent surveys; Plans of Townships and Counties' Plans of various Rivers and Lakes' Government Maps of sections of the country &c.

Lovell's Gazetteer of British North America, Edited by P.A. Crossby, 1873

Lovell's Gazetteer of British North America

Add/Correct a Link

Comments/Submit Data

Copyright 2002-2024 by Canadian Genealogy
The WebPages may be linked to but shall not be reproduced on another site without written permission.