Home on the River by Eden Monroe

 

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WHAT did a few United Empire Loyalists say to the captain of the evacuation ship, Union, when they landed in what would become Saint John, New Brunswick?  Hey, this looks like a great place for a city, but we’ll settle a little further upriver if you don’t mind.

Well it might not have gone exactly like that, because most Loyalist families went to land grants provided to them (or were given cash) by the British government in reward for their loyalty to the Crown during the American Revolution. The purpose of that first voyage in 1783, and the many that followed, was to deliver these fleeing  New Englanders to various locations in British North America as Canada was then called. A number of those first Loyalists settled on the Kingston Peninsula, and it is this picturesque New Brunswick location, in present day, that my fictional Aiden and Suzanne Briggs of Just Before Sunset were born and raised and eventually married in the Trinity Anglican Church, built there in 1789.

I thought this Peninsula, with its stunning natural beauty and colourful past, was the ideal setting for Just Before Sunset, and that’s where most of the story takes place. My mother was also born on the Kingston Peninsula, since we’re on the subject, so it also has a rich personal history for me and my family.

 Lovely to visit and a popular alternative to crowded urban sprawl for its many rural residents, historic structures abound on the Peninsula, including the Union House built in 1788, and Carter House, circa 1810. In fact this historic district located at the hub of the Peninsula is a rare example of a rural Loyalist village whose key buildings, superb examples of Loyalist architecture and settlement in New Brunswick, have been serving Loyalists and now their succeeding generations since the 1780’s. Some buildings are still being used for their original function to this day!

 Many of those first Loyalists were from Connecticut, including Jonathan Ketchum, a tavern keeper; Israel Hoit, shoemaker and Silas Raymond, carpenter, among others. Theirs are real-life stories of hurried escapes from their New England homes, refugees, such as the Ketchums who fled when their village, Norwalk, Connecticut, was burned to the ground.

These Loyalists sailed off into the unknown and found a peaceful new life and rich abundance on the Kingston Peninsula.

 

The Kennebecasis River (pronounced ken-e-be-KAY-sis) also figures prominently in the Kingston Peninsula way of life …  and in Just Before Sunset.  A tributary of the great St. John River, the name Kennebecasis is believed to be derived from the indigenous Mi’kmaq word Kenepekachiachk meaning little long bay place.  The Kennebecasis is a river of many moods, transforming itself several times from its humble beginnings in the foothills of the Caledonia Highlands in Albert County, New Brunswick. At one point in its ninety-five kilometer journey to join up with the St  John River, it relaxes and broadens as it passes the communities of Norton and Hampton, creating one of the largest fresh water marshes in Eastern Canada. Then hurrying onward it becomes bolder, deepening as it plunges to an amazing depth of nearly 350 feet off Minister’s Face.

Finally, its adventure nearly complete, it is a handsome dash of sapphire on a sunny day as it rolls past the southern side of the Peninsula, where one of two cable ferry systems cross the Kennebecasis at separate points to the mainland. Pictured above are the dual ferries at Reeds Point that Aiden and Suzanne use to reach the Gondola Point side, a delightful five-minute jaunt across the enchanting Kennebecasis.

 Suzanne spent many a lonely evening sitting on the pebbled beach beside their home on the river, thinking about her husband so far away in Africa, all too often long moments of quiet reflection and despair.

 I see the ferry is just about ready to depart for Reeds Point, so come, cross the river with me and let Aiden and Suzanne tell you their story.