Chatham, New Brunswick
Prior to municipal amalgamation in 1995, Chatham was an incorporated town in Northumberland County along the south bank of the Miramichi River opposite Douglastown.
In colonial times, the surrounding lands were heavily forested; the stands of eastern white pine were especially valued for ships' masts.
With a deep channel close to the shore, the largest ships in colonial times could approach the wharves.
The soil, while sandy and a bit acid, supports potatoes, root crops and apple trees.
The settlement attracted a group of aggressive entrepreneurs, Scottish and English, such as Joseph Cunard, William Muirhead, Jabez Bunting Snowball, and later, W. S. Loggie.
Gradually, the community became a centre for lumber mills, shipbuilding, and exporting fish and forest products to the British Isles and, later on, to the United States.
Chatham attracted the Maritime lawyer Richard Bedford Bennett, later to be prime minister of Canada.
He was appointed the Minister for Aircraft Production in Winston Churchill's World War II cabinet.
By 1851, Chatham had 505 employed persons among the following occupations: 170 labourers, 74 servants, 60 shipwrights, 25 joiners, 20 cordwainers, 19 farmers, 16 clerks, 13 blacksmiths, 12 merchants, 10 tailors, 9 storekeepers, 7 sawyers, 7 teachers, 5 blockmakers, 4 sailmakers, 4 riggers, 4 stage drivers, 4 butchers, 4 printers, 3 clergymen, 1 sparmaker, 1 gunsmith, 1 surgeon and 1 constable.
In 1881, somewhat past the prime of sailing ships, the port of Chatham recorded the following annual traffic: In 1881, the value of bank deposits was $133,118.
Chatham in its prime (1880–1919) had extensive wharves, a pulp mill, three large sawmills, a fish-packing plant, a large foundry/shipbuilding facility with a repair yard for small vessels, an armoury, several sizeable hotels; a Catholic hospital (Hotel Dieu) and associated nursing home as well as a Nursing School, all run by the Religious Hospitallers of St. Joseph; three secondary schools, a Catholic liberal arts college, the county poor house (the County Home), a race track, an indoor rink, a golf club, facilities for an agricultural exhibition, and several notable churches.
During the period, 1880 to 1960, the Catholic Church was a major employer in Chatham, being especially important after the mills began to close.
Until 1967 a ferry boat provided service across the Miramichi River at Chatham, except during the period of winter freeze up.
Historically, Chatham has been a majority-Catholic town, with smaller United Church, Anglican, and Presbyterian congregations.
Chatham achieved peak prosperity during the years immediately prior to World War I, but even then its main export was people.
The postwar depression of 1919 hit the town, resulting in a major employer, the Snowball sawmill, closing permanently.
World War II saw the opening of RCAF Station Chatham, providing an economic stimulus for the town until its closure in 1996.
RCAF Station Chatham was established as part of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
RCAF Station Chatham was the site where the Golden Hawks Aerobatic Team was formed before it was moved.
The primary purpose of the base was to train navigators for flight crews serving in the European Theatre.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the base, renamed CFB Chatham in 1968, was an important staging ground for CF-101 Voodoo fighter interceptors, which were under command of NORAD to interdict Soviet nuclear bombers that could have challenged Canadian airspace in Atlantic Canada.
Chatham sent many sons to Europe during World War II as part of the North Shore Regiment.
In the mid to late nineteenth century, some left for lumbering opportunities in the United States in areas such as Maine, Wisconsin and Washington.
In 1998, the federal government opened a central processing site for the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP) in Chatham.
