While the name Grand-Pré was given in general to the Minas country south
and alongside the Cornwallis River, the village of the name was
adjoining the Memorial Park land. It had twenty-three inhabitants living
upon three farms. The cellars of the three homes may be seen to-day. The
largest was on the west side of the Park. The other two, upon the gentle
slope south. They were the properties of Pierre Landry, Jean le Sour,
and Jacques Terriot--all prominent and prosperous men in the little
community.
The knoll of land, consisting of fourteen acres, now called the
Grand-Pré Memorial or Historical Park, lies adjoining the dyked lands.
It is enclosed by a rustic fence, and is separated by the Dominion
Atlantic Railway from the farms on the slope rising to the south. The
ground was used for church purposes, and the chapel stood upon the
highest part of the knoll. Where the stone cross stands was the burying
ground of the Grand-Pré Acadians of the parish of St. Charles. The
church land had been given for the purpose by the original Landry, and
formed part of his farm. About the year 1687, the first church was
built, and enlarged or rebuilt as the population increased. Few dykes
had been erected at this time, and the tides of the Basin of Minas came
within a few hundred feet of the church land. In the burying ground were
laid the first to die in Minas. Melansons, Terriots, Le Blancs, Landrys,
and other families mingle their dust there. The cross without names,
built of stone from some of their home foundations, marks where they lie
forgotten.
The Presbytery stood on the foundation west of the church site. This was
occupied by Colonel Winslow when his troops were encamped about the
churchyard, on the eve of the Deportation. The row of willows on the
north side of the Park grounds was set out to shield the church from the
north winds that swept across the open dyked lands.
The bronze figure of Evangeline (_facing p. 72_), represented as looking
back upon the country of her people as she set out to depart with them
from Grand-Pré, will always typify the Deportation of the Acadians, the
commencement of the period of exile and wandering. The statue stands
upon the old road by which the people reached the church, and is but the
commencement of restoration work projected for the Historical Park at
Grand-Pré. (At the summit of the slope south this road joined the main
highway running from the Gaspereau River to the farther villages of the
Acadians.) The statue was modelled by Philippe Hebert, himself a
descendant of the Acadian family of the name. Etienne Hebert was one of
the first colonists to come to the Minas country from the home colony of
Port Royal, now Annapolis Royal. This family increased in numbers in
Minas, and two villages bore the name, one in Minas and the other in
Canard. There were fifty Heberts at the time of the dispersion.
We may now review the growth of the Acadian Minas from the coming of the
first settlers in 1681 to the year 1755, when Colonel John Winslow, with
the New England volunteers, encamped upon the church ground of St.
Charles at Grand-Pré. In December of that year the houses and barns,
churches and mills of the Acadians were destroyed, and for five years
the country was without an inhabitant. We have the names of the older
parents, of their children, their possessions. We also have record of
the younger married couples who came to make homes in the new country of
Minas. The villages grew chiefly in clusters about the establishments of
the elders. Dykes were built. Land was cleared of wood for their gardens
and orchards. Roads were made connecting all the centres of farm life.
Winter roads for their timber, fencing, and firewood were made. Finally,
they cut a way through the forests from Halifax to Annapolis Royal. They
were increasing in population, and in worldly goods.