Parkindale Hall

The river runs peacefully at the back of the pasture: behind the river is a steep dark green hill covered with huge Hemlock and mixed hard and softwoods.  The sky is open to the south and your eye is grabbed by the pastures and farms running up the Prosser Brook.  Maple woods grace the tops of Sweet Mountain and Hardscabble.  This beautiful scene is in Parkindale, New Brunswick and it is the dawn of the 19^th century.

The Little River (Coverdale) was first settled at its mouth by Yorkshire men in 1772-74.  The grants of the settlers spread up river as each new generation needed land, until it reached the upper vales and hilltops.

By the 1830’s many new families including John and William Parkin are in this little piece of heaven.  The settlements of Prosser Brook,  Flint Hill,  Pleasant Vale,  Forest Hill, Gowand Mountain,  Mapleton,  Hillside,  Elgin and Forest Glen are all alive and full of farms, mills, lumber and sugar camps.

Churches are plentiful and active.  Times are full of hard work, big families and a desire to prosper.

Albert County was separated from Westmorland in 1814 and named after Price Albert.

In 1874 a new railway line is built from Petitcodiac to Elgin bringing hotels, shops – stores and restaurants.

By 1877 a new railway runs from Salisbury to Albert.  In the southern end of the county shipbuilding is taking root with big sawmills built on the rivers running to the coast.  Trade is growing in lumber, gypsum, and farm produce and many Albert County merchants begin to build large homesteads.

Elgin Parish stays quiet and rural as farming (summer) and lumbering (winter) remained staples, grist and flour mills proliferate as do tanneries and creameries.  Excursions to the coast to watch ship launchings are a big event for locals as are horse races and picnics.

Confederation brings New Brunswick into Canada in 1867.  The same year Sanford Parkin opens a general store on the main corner in Parkindale.  Around the same time his first cousin George R. Parkin earned a B.A. from the University of New Brunswick.  George was beginning a career in teaching and public services, organizing representative of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust at Oxford (England) and as a speaker in the British Commonwealth on the subject of imperial unity.  His visits back to Parkindale helped create an air of optimism about the century to come.

Much more research is needed on the actual Parkindale Hall building (1902) and events up to 1930.  If you have any information or sources of material please email events@parkindalehall.com 

Sir George was the mentor of Bliss Carman, Charles G.D. Roberts and J.D. Hazon, founders of the nature based poetry era in Canada.  Some have suggested we use the Hall as a forum for current N.B. poets – any interest out there?