The lengthy, chilly, typically lethal manner N.B.ers used to journey in winter

Getting round New Brunswick within the winter time is never a chunk of cake.

Snow, ice, sleet and wind usually make travelling the roads within the province treacherous throughout the colder months.

But it’s nothing like what individuals dwelling in Nineteenth-century New Brunswick needed to put up with.

They must journey through sleigh, over lengthy distances, usually on frozen rivers.

“It’s a heck of a commute when you think about it,” stated historian James Upham.

Long, chilly journeys

When we consider sleigh rides right now, we regularly image peaceable, picturesque leisure journeys, perhaps topped off with scorching chocolate at a camp afterwards.

But within the 1800s, the journeys have been utilitarian in nature, and the rivers of the province have been seen in the identical manner highways are seen right now.

“The waterways of New Brunswick were, for most of the history of this region, they were the way that people got around,” stated Upham.

“In summer you take a canoe … in the winter when [it] froze … you could take a sleigh being drawn by horses.”

While undoubtedly faster than strolling, the restricted horsepower of horse energy meant a journey that will take mere hours right now would’ve taken days again then.

And neglect about fashionable heaters that may make a automobile really feel tropical even in sub-zero temperatures.

“We just do not have anything at the moment that compares with that unless you’re actually on a polar expedition,” stated Upham.

“Might have been lucky enough to have a container full of hot coals from the breakfast fire under their feet to keep them from freezing.”

On tragedy path

Travelling on ice might additionally result in catastrophe, like in 1803 when newly elected MLA Hugh McMonagle died after his sleigh crashed by means of the ice of the Kennebecasis River.

McMonagle was travelling from his house in Mount Whatley close to the Nova Scotia Border to Fredericton to take a seat for the fist time as an MLA representing Westmorland County.

But it was close to Darlings Island the place McMonagle’s journey turned lethal.

“McMonagle and several of his elected colleagues were traveling across the ice of the Kennebecasis River in a horse drawn sleigh driven by Joseph Baxter of Norton, Kings County,” reads a biography offered by the New Brunswick Legislature Library.

“Near Darlings Island, the sleigh broke through the ice. McMonagle and Benjamin Lester, another passenger, drowned in the water.”

“Melancholy Accident,” learn the headline of The Royal Gazette.

“Melancholy! Melancholy! Indeed!” agreed the Saint John Gazette.

In addition to the lives of McMonagle and Lester, The Royal Gazette stated “the sleigh, horses and every article of baggage are entirely lost.”

Upham stated a number of individuals travelling within the sleigh with McMonagle did survive, “which is actually quite impressive in and of itself.”

“There’s there is no horse drawn ambulance … you can’t just pull out your cell phone and call for help,” stated Upham.

“Somebody’s got to fish these people out of the water the best they can and then get to a house … It’s a crazy survival story that we just don’t have an analogy for in the modern world.”

While the concept of utilizing the rivers of New Brunswick has principally died out, it’s not totally extinct, and there’s even examples of it within the space the place McMonagle died.

“I’ve driven across the Kennebecasis River myself in a car,” stated Upham.

“There’s an ice road that’s open even still sometimes … It’s a shortcut to get into Saint John [for] people that don’t want to take the Gondola Point ferry.”