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Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada, a former town on the South Bank of the Miramichi River, subsumed since 1995 into the new city of Miramichi.
First settled around 1800, Chatham was a port and pulp and paper town at its peak, with sawmills and fish packing enterprises as well as a foundry.It was on a branch line of the Canadian National Railways. It had an armoury and several notable churches.The Town is dominated by a large Roman Catholic church,St. Michael's Basilica, the largest church in Canada east of Quebec City. This neoGothic structure was formerly a cathedral.
Historically, Chatham has been a majority Catholic town, with smaller United Church, Anglican, and Presbyterian congregations. Various smaller Protestant sects have come and gone as well, though the Pentecostals are holding their own.The town long had several Jewish families,though numbers have sadly depleted in recent years. Ethnic backgrounds are Irish, Scotch, English, and French with the latter gaining somewhat in recent years.There has long been a Lebanese presence ( originally called by locals "Assyrian"). A few retired military have settled there adding to the mix.
Chatham reached its peak of prosperity in the years just before World War One, but even then its main export was people. The depression of 1919 hit it hard.The post war baby boom of the fifties enabled it to reach a peak population of 8,600 in 1961. But the loss of St. Thomas University in 1964 (moved to Fredericton) and the closing of Canadian Forces Base Chatham in 1996 contributed to its slow decline.In recent years it has promoted itself as a retirement community.
Over the years emigrants from Chatham have moved to where the jobs were. In the mid to late nineteenth century, some left for lumbering opportunities in Maine,Wisconsin and the State of Washington, but the the majority went to Boston up to the 1930's.Few left during the hungry thirties (better to be among friends when there is no work). Right after World War Two, Montreal seemed to offer opportunities, but this was soon replaced by Toronto and other parts of Ontario. Fredericton and Moncton were also work destinations from the 1950's onwards, with Halifax becoming more important after 1965. In recent years, Alberta has attracted more Chatham residents.
Richard Bedford Bennett, prime minister of Canada during the early 1930's once operated a law practice here. Max Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook, was his office boy. Another Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney attended high school here in the late 1950's at the boarding school attached to St. Thomas University. Frank McKenna, sometime premier of New Brunswick and later Canadian ambassador in Washington, was the menber of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick for Chatham from the early 1980,s until his resignation as premier.
Chatham is now known for its annual Irish festival.
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