Martin House
The one who built the Martin house is Jean-Balthazar, known as Jean Barnabé Martin. farmer borned in 1736 in Port-Royal, He first got married to Rosalie Thibodeau in 1761 in Port- Royal, and then married to Hélène Godin in 1767 in Sainte-Famille, île d’Orléans, Quebec. Finally, he married Marie- Anne Levasseur in 1773 in Kamouraska.
Balthazar was a messenger for the Parr of Halifax and Haldimand from Québec. He will live with his family in Ste-Anne, Fredericton around 1768.
When he died in 1806, Jean Balthazar Martin bequeaths his house and his farm to his son, Jean-Baptiste. Jean-Baptiste Martin, borned in 1781, got married to Marie-Anne Cyr, receives the family inheritance but died at the age of 26 in 1807. His wife became the estate’s administrator.
A few years went by and Jean Martin, son of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Anne, settles in Madawaska and sells the family estate in 1833 to Alexis Godin. On October 2nd, 1889, Alexis bequeaths to his son, Abraham Godin, farmer, the land and the house. Abraham did the same to his daughter Marguerite, who gets the Martin land and house.
Finally, Marguerite got married to Leslie George Kingston in 1920 in French Village and she and her husband live in the Martin house for a few years. Her son-in-law, Charles Nicholas, sold part of the house to the Village historique acadien on May 9, 1973. The Village historique acadien crew then proceeds to the final moving of the house on the historical site.
This house testifies the precarious situation of the Acadians after the expulsion. More a shelter than a house, this structure doesn’t have any partitions walls and there’s only a few windows.
After the signature of the Paris treaty in 1763, the Acadians obtained the right to return in the Nova Scotia colony in the condition they don’t gather together. They will then settled in territories that offer them minimum security. Access to the sea or a watercourse becomes the common factor for all these people. They settled at the St-John River in 1760, but a lot of them had to move to leave the place to the Loyalists in the 1780 years.
During that period, one of the worries of the Acadians, was to get rights for their land, that is land concessions. Despite their numerous requests, they often only get fishing permits or temporary occupation.
As for religion, a catholic mission is established as soon as 1768 in Ecoupag on the St-John River. The mission was established by abbot Charles-François Bailly and Micmas and surrounding Acadians are part of this mission.
Concerning the relation between Acadians and amerindians, they each won their trusts. The Acadians do not ruin the amerindians hunting territories and often acadian villages are settled near his amerindians’ camps. A few rules had to be respected, among them, not to cut the hay in the marsh during duck hunting. This means the St-John River Acadians were in touch with amerindians, without adopting their life style. However, they adopted a few technologies such as mocassins and showshoes.
- Square hewns log construction with dovetail assembly
- Dovetail sash windows (very few)
- Floor with packed earth
- Imposing fireplace with flat stones
- Restricted format of its dimensions.
