News and Reflections: "The detailed plan of a projected rising of the French and Indians" -- December 13, 2023

Source: Anon. 1737. "Carte de la coste du N[ord] et du S[ud] de l'Arcadie et de l'île St Jean" Public Domain. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53089931w/

"During the period 1870-1885, an old Indian burying ground was discovered on King Street, in the Curry’s Corner area of Windsor. A number of bodies wrapped in birch bark, the characteristic Mi’kmaq funeral fashion, were discovered while digging operations were in progress for the erection of a barn. They were reburied, and it is possible there may have been an Indian mission chapel in the vicinity. There is reference to this church in the anonymous newspaper series “Reminiscences of Windsor” that was published in the Hants Journal on November 8th, 1883:

“There is a farm, on which the Indians have long buried, and still bury their dead. Near that burial ground a Roman Catholic Chapel once stood, although no known vestige of it now exists. In connection with it this story has come down traditionally. A letter addressed to a Frenchmen at Grand Pre, was entrusted with a Micmac squaw. She, taken ill on her journey, committed it to a soldier bound for Pesegitk who handed it to his commanding officer there. Opened by him, it conveyed information that an important paper would be found in a recess near the altar of the chapel. Thither, at midnight, the magistrates with lanterns and torches, repaired, and discovered the detailed plan of a projected rising of the French and Indians.”

Reference: Stewart, W.B., Beanlands, S., Kelman, D. (2006, August). "Fundy Gypsum: Miller’s Creek Quarry Continuation Archaeological Assessment West Hants, Nova Scotia, Archaeological Assessment Report. Cultural Resource Management Group, Ltd. https://novascotia.ca/nse/ea/millers.creek.gypsum.mine/millers.creek.gypsum.mine_RegistrationSections_Appendices_H-I.pdf (Accessed 12/13/2023)