The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-06-15
COMMUNICATIONS.
Letter from the Northern Border.
LA GRANDE ISLE,
Madawaska Territory, May, 1868.

Madawaska Territory, May, 1858.
To the Editor Of the Press:
The plantation known to maps and
State papers as Grant Isle is properly La
Grande Isle; so named from large and fer
tile island in the ST. John river, near the heart
of the Madawaska territory. The district
formerly bearing this general designation was
SO named from the river of that name, which
flows into the ST. John on the northern or
provincial side. The settlers of this territory
were originally French, as most Of the inhabi-
tants still are.i From the eastern line of the
State, near the Grand Falls these French set
Elements extend up the valley of the st. John
to its junction with the St. Francis, a distance
of about seventy-ve miles. By the Ashbur-
ton treaty the river, through this distance, is
made the boundary line between Maine and
the British Provinces, thus dividing the Mad
awaska settlers between the two nationalities.
But they are of course still united in origin,
religion and language, and their general pur-
suits and interests remain very much as be-
fore. They are people by themselves, and
seem little ambitious to adopt the customs and
language of outsiders. The original settlers
were Acadians, who fed first from Nova
Scotia, then from New Brunswick, and pitched
their cabins in this valley. then remote from
all other settlers near the close of our Revolu-
tionary war. They continued here in the
quiet pursuits of agriculture, undisturbed for
many years. Many Canadian Frenchmen af.
terward joined them, and the two elements
are now intermingled, although the lines of
Acadian blood are still traceable in some fam
lilies, who pride themselves upon their origin.
Their language also is thought TO be some
what purer French.
Some of the settlers have learned to speak
the English language very well-for practical
purposes-but most of them speak only the
French Contrary to my expectation their
French is much nearer the Partisan standard
than is often represented With few varia-
tions in the vowel sounds, the spoken French
of the Madawaskans is essentially the same as
that of France. 1t is not wider departure
from the standard language than is much OF
the English heard upon the territory OF Great
Britain. l say Great Britain, for it is well
known that the Ne,o England usage has pre-.
served the English language more nearly pure
than 1t is found in most parts OF England out
side OF London society and the literary cifcles
These settlers are very industrious, as a
general rule, peaceable, cheerful and well dis
posed Some Of them have accumulated prop
erty; others are poor save in the wealth OF
children who uroRg the premises of nearly
every inhabitant. Ii is no uncommon thing
to find families of fifteen or twenty children.
most OF them still too young 10 leave home;
oil course the number OF school children, so
reckoRed, must be very large in proportion
to the whole population. Thu, the census of
1850 shows population of 467S, for the ten
townships which cover the south bank of the
st. John from Hamlin to ST. Francis; and the
school returns from the same plantations give
the aggregate of 2576 children, between the
ages OF four and twenty-one years; a propor-
ton much greater than that reached in any
other part of the State.
speak of this number of school children In
a technical sense. Very few of them are ac-
tuaiiy at school in any part of the year. They
count in drawing school money from the
State, bnt have not had their school affairs so
managed as TO yield them much instruction.
At only two or three points in this whole ter
ritory are there any Yankee settlers who APP
preciate the advantages of schools, or take
any pains to secure them. An act was passed
by cile last legislature, intended to correct
some OF the faults of the school mangement in
these plantations. BY this act an agent is pro-
yided, whose duty it is to establish schools
wherever it can be done with promise of use
fulness, TO employ and pay the teachers, and
in word to discharge for these settlements
the double duties of school committees and
school agents. Cooperating with the more
intelligent and interested among the French
and American settlers, it is hoped that this
agent will be able to secure TO the children
the elementary instruction so desirable for
them to receive. Col David Page, of Fort
Kent, has received the appointment TO this
agency.
At Van Buren, twelve miles above the
Grand Falls, L find three or four Yankee fam
lies. The names of Hall, Richards, Morrill,,
and Smith have home sound With the ex-
ception OF these names, and here and there an
immigrant from New Brunswick, the entire
population from the Grand Falls to Fort Kent
more than fifty miles-bear the unmistaka-
BILE French sound and aspect in their Names
We have for example the names of Ddigle,
Hdrier, Cyr, Firmdn, Souci, Vincent, Porddi,
Violette. Michdud, Cormier, Plourd, Thibo-
dedu, Sirois, and others which an English ear
does not reckon familiar. Our friend Sirois
a member of the last House of Representa-
uves, whose name was differently - and in
d.Uerentty-pronounced by members at Au-
gusta last winter, | found in his field at Dionne
dillgentiy sowing the good seed, wheat, barley
or buckwheat, which will make due returns in
haryest-time. Monsieur Siros, has many acres
OF fine intervale land a very good house. of
French aspect and interior, but much srperior
to the great majority of dwellings ON the river.
In their dwellings as in other matters. our
French friends of the northern border. have
not reached the Yankee standard of neatness
and convenience, but still are not behind the
settlers of the newer Aroostook generally, in
the comforts and conveniences. They them
selves, however, the French Inhabitants are
not new settlers. They have occupied this val
ley the larger part of a century, and the coun-
try has long been cleared and cultivated along
the rirer. The farms show long stretches of
intervale and upland, entirely free from the
stnmps and burnt logs, which mark the face
OF the new settlements in the Aroostook town
ships below them. And these farms, If well
cultivated, would be gardens in beauty and
fertility-as some of them are now. The soil
is rich loan, intervales or upland sloping
gently back from the river on either bank As