St. Stephen, New Brunswick
From Conservapedia
St. Stephen is a Canadian town in Charlotte County, New Brunswick.
The town is situated on the east bank of the St. Croix River. The river and surrounding area was first explored by the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain when he and his men spent a winter there in 1604 on St. Croix Island. Officially St. Stephen was incorporated as a town in 1871, five years later St. Stephen's business district was almost totally destroyed by fire when eighty buildings and 13 wharves burned. The population of St. Stephen has declined 5.9% since 1996.
The St. Croix River marks a section of the international boundary between the United States and Canada, forming a natural border between the towns on either side of the river bank. Calais, Maine (pop. 3,447) is connected to St. Stephen by a bridge (Ferry point Bridge) which is the eleventh most important link between the world's two largest trading partners. (Canada & U.S.) Residents of St. Stephen and Calais regard their community as one place, cooperating with the fire departments and other community projects. As evidence of the longtime friendship between the towns, during the War of 1812, the British military provided St. Stephen with a large supply of gunpowder for protection against the enemy Americans in Calais, But because of the friendship of the towns (mainly due to a Christian revival) the town elders gave the gunpowder to Calais for its Fourth of July celebrations.
Historically a lumber and ship building economy until the early part of the 1900s, by the end of World War II the town's main employers were the Ganong Bros. Limited chocolate company (established 1873, Canada's oldest candy company), and the second largest textile mill in Canada built in 1882 on the river where it operated with its own hydro-electric generating station. In 1957, the textile mill closed but the confectionery maker remains a key employer.
An area of high baseball interest, in 1934 the Boston Braves of baseball's National League played an exhibition game in St. Stephen against the local "Kiwanis" team. The fans in attendance numbered over half of the town's population during that time. In 1939, the local baseball team won its ninth consecutive New Brunswick senior championship, topping off a decade of dominance in the sport at both the provincial and Acadian levels.
St. Stephen, being a small town, has only two media organizations: a radio station and weekly newspaper. Radio station CHTD-FM, known as "The Tide" (98.1 FM), plays country music and offers regular news updates. Founded in 1865, The Saint Croix Courier is the town's weekly newspaper, it also publishes another newspaper, the Courier Weekend. The Courier is the only English-language newspaper in New Brunswick that is not owned by the Irving family. Station WCRQ FM in Calais, Maine also broadcasts into St. Stephen.
Some famous people from the St. Stephen area are:
- Henry Burr, radio pioneer and early recording star
- Sandra Burr, Athlete
- William Francis Ganong, historian, botanist and cartographer
- Rowland Frazee, chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada
- Arthur Ganong, businessman, politician
- Gilbert Ganong, businessman, statesman
- Don Sweeney, former NHL hockey player with the Boston Bruins and Dallas Stars
Did You Know
- That the Chocolate Bar was invented in St. Stephen?
- The First International telephone call took place between St. Stephen, NB & Calais, ME
