Jemseg

[1] Prior to European contact in the 16th century the Wolastoqiyik (also called the Maliseet or Malecites) and other aboriginal peoples lived along the banks of the Wolastoock (the "good" or "beautiful" river, named the "Saint John River" by the first European explorers) for thousands of years.

The history of Jemseg is a microcosm of the whole story of Acadia, the eastern provinces of Canada that passed back and forth between the French and English after 1604.

English proprietor of Nova Scotia Col. Thomas Temple established the first trading post at Jemseg near the mouth of the river (1659).

After the death of Soulanges in 1678 it was occupied by the d'Amours brothers, Louis and Mathieu, who are recognized as the first farmers at Jemseg.

So farming in this area has a 300-year history although nowadays strawberries, potatoes and market vegetables are the chief crops grown while beef cattle and light horses are the only stock traded commercially.

It seems likely that Acadians lived and farmed in the area until 1758 when General Monckton razed the settlement during the St. John River Campaign.

Between then and 1783, a handful of English-speaking pre-Loyalist families settled on the Jemseg (the Nevers, Garrison and Estabrooks for example), but it was the United Empire Loyalists after the American Revolution (1783) who really caused the village to grow.

Loyalist names like Dykeman, Ferris, Gunter and Currie and, until recently Colwell, are still represented in the community and these people often live on the same land granted to their ancestors in the 18th century.

One school was in the vicinity of the corner and the stone church (St James's Anglican) at Lower Jemseg, a second was somewhere near the supposed division between Upper and Lower just below Stuart and Lori Appt's farm, and the third was on the banks of a little brook that runs into Grand Lake between the Walter Gunter and Turner farms.

Besides teachers and clergymen, blacksmiths, carpenters, mariners, tanners, student, shoemakers, weavers, and, of course, merchants appeared as necessity dictated.

As time went on mixed farming, and forestry in the off-season, were the primary occupations of the inhabitants with a few tradespeople as required.

Then there was an extensive old-growth forest which was used almost from the beginning for domestic building, and very profitably for masts and spars for the King's Navy.

Most of the land grants were for 200 acres (0.81 km2), and the majority of the settlers over the first decade or two established thriving farms.

In 2002 a new 4-lane expressway alignment of Route 2 opened through the community, including a new bridge over the Jemseg River immediately upstream of the original, which was permanently closed in May 2015 after failing a safety inspection.