The Story of Cantin Dionne

Mark Dionne

Cantin Dionne¹ was born October 31, 1788 at St. Roch des Aulnaies, in Kamouraska County, Quebec, the last of 9 children. His Dionne ancestors² had lived in the prosperous farming region along the shores of the St. Lawrence River for over 100 years. When he was 14, his mother Marie Louise Caron died, and two years later, in 1805, his father remarried and moved nearly 200 miles west to the town of Baie du Febvre³, along with most of the nine children. Within a few more years his father married again.

A Frenchman in a Loyalist Land

Around 1810⁴, the young man appeared on the shores of New Brunswick, employed by Robert Pagan at the town of St. Andrews. (Map) Squire Pagan was one of the richest men in the province, a Loyalist who had owned a fleet of ships in Falmouth, Maine (now called Portland) during the Revolution. He sought refuge in New Brunswick when the (then Massachusetts) legislature declared him an enemy of the United States. Pagan and his brothers founded St. Andrews—the southernmost town on the coast, bordering Maine—and then built up a large shipbuilding business, lumber businesses, and many other enterprises. Pagan was also a member of the New Brunswick legislature and involved in preparations to defend the province during the 1812 war. Robert Pagan died in 1821.

Sixty years earlier there had been many French people, the Acadians, who came to the New World separately from the French in Quebec, living in what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Many were deported by the British and dispersed around the globe, a story that was told by Longfellow in the poem Evangeline. Many who returned were forced out a second time when Loyalists arrived in New Brunswick after the Revolution. French names were uncommon in the province when Cantin Dionne arrived.

In July 1814, Cantin petitioned the provincial government for a grant of land on the Saint John River. When applying for the land, he had letters of recommendation mentioning Robert Pagan and signed by Mary Ann Glenie and Stephen Glasier. (Mary Ann Glenie was the wife of James Glenie, an interesting character who had been a British artillery officer in the Revolutionary war, a political reformer member of the New Brunswick legislature (and ally of Robert Pagan), lumber businessman, and a mathematics professor. Stephen Glasier's family owned one of the biggest lumbering businesses in the province, and eventually had influence in Maine.) Did hobnobbing with these gentlemen put ideas of land ownership into the young man's head?

A German Wife

Cantin Dionne's petition was for "a grant of Two Hundred Acres of Land; on the East side of the River St. John; two Lots above Lands granted or applied for by Hon. Bedel Esquire's son." In another neighboring lot⁵ lived John DeMerchant, Jr. On February 23, 1815⁶, Cantin Dionne married Mary DeMerchant, his neighbor's sister. The marriage was performed⁷ by William Turner, Justice of the Peace, who then resided at the Presquisle military garrison⁸, in the vicinity of what is now Florenceville. Mr. Turner had been the Lieutenant in charge of the garrison of the New Brunswick Regiment stationed at that post. John DeMerchant Jr. was married in the same circumstances one week later.

Mary was the daughter of a Loyalist, John Cuffman (or Coffman) who lived about five miles down river. Cuffman later changed his name to John DeMerchant⁹ (Sr.) (Kaufmann means merchant in German.) Cuffman had been a Private in the Prince of Wales American Regiment¹⁰, fighting for the British¹¹ from 1777 until 1783, when he sailed to New Brunswick along with many other Loyalist soldiers. There is good evidence¹² that John was of German origin. While there were Hessian¹³ soldiers fighting for the British in the Revolution, they kept mostly to their own regiments. In the case of John Cuffman, other German names are not evident in the rolls of his regiment. John Cuffman was a stranger in a strange land, like Cantin Dionne.

Mary Catherine Frances DeMerchant was baptised by Rev. John Beardsley May 28, 1798 at Maugerville Anglican Church. That record is the earliest known use of the name DeMerchant. Very little is known about Mary's mother except that her name was also Mary. There is indirect evidence that John was married at the time he first petitioned for a land grant in 1784. After John's death in 1830, his wife received a Widows of Revolutionary War Soldiers pension from 1840 until 1848, when she presumably died.

Failure and a Second Try

In Northeastern North America in 1816, there were freezing conditions every month of the year, probably due to the effect of volcanic activity in the South Pacific. Widespread snow storms occurred in June. Successive years of bad weather, including this "year without a summer,"¹⁴ ruined many New Brunswick farmers, and the young Dionne was apparently one of them. On Jan 16, 1818 Contin Yon's grant on the "East Side the River St. John—Wakefield" appears on a long list of lands forfeited¹⁵ for not fulfilling the official requirements, which included improving the land and paying a yearly fee.

In February 1819, Cantin applied again for a land grant, this time for 300 acres in Richmond, on the road between Woodstock, New Brunswick, and Houlton, Maine, about two or three miles from the border. He tells us that he "...was born in and bred up in the Province of Lower Canada [modern Quebec] but he has resided for the last seven years in this Province. He is a married man and desirous with establishing himself in the Province in the farming line." He already had "...upon the said land about four acres cleared and under cultivation..." He was granted 200 acres on Jan 19, 1822, and by 1824 he had cleared another ten acres.

Baptisms in a Foreign Church

Two baptisms were recorded at the Woodstock Anglican Church on January 30, 1822: Charles Edward John, born July 22, 1818 and Charlotta John born January 31, 1820. Parents were listed as Mary and Conter John, a farmer from Richmond. On the same day, Mary's sister Francis Maria DeMerchant, also from Richmond, was baptized as an adult. Was Francis Maria helping her older sister with her children?

More Land Transactions

In August, 1823, Cantin and Mary sold half of their Richmond property to Samuel Parks, for 50 pounds. John Bedell was a witness to the sale.

In March 1824, he was again petitioning the government over land. He claimed that the previous April he purchased 300 acres of land in Kent Parish, from Nathan Messer. Messer died before he had clear title to his grant, and Cantin petitioned to clear things up. The land in question was north of lot 106, on the east side of the St. John River, at the mouth of Shikatehawk Stream, about 6-7 miles north of the Military Settlement where he was married in 1815. [The lot is probably the one marked George Dixon on the grant map.] He says, "...having moved upon the land, rendered the old house formerly occupied by Messer habitable and put the land under fence and cultivation in doing which and making the first payment [30 pounds of the 75 pound total] he has completely for the present exhausted his slender means, his entire ruin must be the consequence of his being deprived of the land which Messer's Step Son has not only threatened to do but also to insist upon the Balance unpaid upon the obligation whenever due."

He "... throws himself upon the clemency of Your Honor...," and apparently won, for in September 1825 he turned around and sold¹⁶ the land to Edward Kermott for 200 pounds. The previous March he had sold the second half of his Richmond land to John and Walter Bedell for 20 pounds.

Cantin's actions were consistent with the land speculation that was rampant at the time. He leveraged a free grant to an ultimate profit of 200 pounds, probably with the assistance of John Bedell, who was a prominent Woodstock businessman and, conveniently, Judge of common pleas and registrar of deeds and wills for the County of Carleton.

Move to Madawaska

Another baptism was recorded at the Woodstock Anglican Church on September 11, 1826: Thomas Yon¹⁷, son of Mary and Conter, a farmer from Kent parish. Shortly after the baptism, Cantin and Mary returned to the French-speaking community in the upper St. John River Valley, about 100 miles up the river. Was Thomas baptized in preparation for the trip?

The switch from the Anglican Church to the Catholic Church¹⁸ was sudden. On January 14, 1827, Julie Dionne was baptized at St. Basile, about five miles east of the current city of Edmundston. More births are recorded at St. Basile in 1828, 1830 and 1832. On August 10, 1835, three children who were christened at the Anglican Church in Woodstock were again baptized at the St. Basile Catholic Church (Thomas, age 10, Angelle, age 15 and Edouard, age 17). Ten children¹⁹ are known in all.

At that time, the name Madawaska referred to the area around the upper St. John River Valley, above Grand Falls. Settlement of Madawaska began around 1785 when French Acadians forced from the area around Fredericton joined others from Quebec and petitioned for land in Madawaska.

In the 1830 US Census of Madawaska, he is listed as Cortor Yon, on line 21 of p.382 in "Madawaska Settlement, St. John River". In the 1831 Survey of the Madawaska Settlements²⁰ by Deane and Kavanagh, commissioned by the State of Maine, Quintin Yan appears on the South Bank of the St. John. The report reads, "Almost opposite the old church of the Parish of St. Basil, is a path which leads to a back settlement. On this road which runs in a southerly direction... beginning not less than 500 rods [1.5 miles or 2.5 km] south of the St. John River... [the third lot on west side of road, in what is today the town of St. David, Maine]" The report says that Quintin Yan was "From Canada, began clearing 12 years ago, occupies a width of 60 rods [1000 ft or 300 meters], has a house and a barn and 12 acres in cultivation." This is curious because he was living 100 miles away in Richmond 12 years before, in 1819.

Starting about this time, and for the next ten years, a dispute arose over the proper location of the border between the United States and New Brunswick. The two sides very nearly went to war, but the situation was eventually settled by the Webster Ashburton Treaty in 1842. The international border was set as the St. John River, dividing the communities of Madawaska.

In the 1833 New Brunswick Census of Madawaska²⁰, he is listed as Contre Yon, living in the "Back Settlement opposite Chapel" (which seems to refer to the church at St. Basile, across the river). Like many others in Madawaska that year, the census lists him as being in need of assistance. His only livestock was a single horse, and no crops were planted or harvested, making him one of the poorest in the census. (Or perhaps he concentrated his efforts on lumbering, the vocation of a number of his descendants.)

In the 1840 US Census he is listed as Conte You, on line 14 of p.49, living in "Madawaska North of the St. John". He had moved back across the river. In 1845, John Hartt brought suit against him in Supreme Court for 36 pounds 16 shillings.

The 1851 Census of New Brunswick shows Cantin Dionne living in the fourth dwelling on the west side of the Madawaska River, which joins the St. John river just west of Edmundston. His oldest daughter Mary Anne and her husband Charles Fournier lived in the next dwelling upriver and Charles is listed as "Farmer Tenant". Three more houses upriver lived his daughter Julie and her husband Joseph Beaulieu, who apparently was working for the landowner Peter St. Onge (or St. Ange).

In 1853 Conter and Mary Dionne deeded²¹ their "lot No. 7 on the West side of the Madawaska River" to Mary Ann and her husband Charles Fournier. Earlier that year, his son Edward sold²¹ the adjacent lot 6 to Charles Fournier. This land was about three miles up the river, not far from Edmundston, with a nice section of intervale along the river, but very hilly further back.

Final Days

Cantin Dionne executed his final land deal in 1860, applying to buy 100 acres of Wilderness Crown Land "Near the Grant of Myshrell [probably Mazerolle, which is often spelled Mussrell] and others east of Green River" which he had already begun to improve.

Cantin Dionne, spouse of "Marie Demarchand," was buried²² at St. Basile on February 10, 1869, having died the day before at the age of 80.

In 1871, Mary DeMerchant Dionne was living with the family of her eldest daughter, Marie-Anne Fournier, and a younger daughter Elizabeth who was deaf-mute.

Cantin Dionne and Mary DeMerchant's descendants prospered in the upper St. John River Valley for over a hundred years. Though other Dionnes soon arrived from the shores of the St. Lawrence River, Cantin Dionne was the first to bring the Dionne name to the farms and forests of Madawaska.

Afterword

My father, Leonard Dionne, told me about 40 years ago, and has repeated the same many times since: According to family lore (from his older brother John), an ancestor, supposedly a Dionne, came off a ship somewhere in Canada or New Brunswick (he may have been a seaman who jumped ship, or an escaped criminal, or otherwise "on the run"), had a red beard (he said Frenchmen don't have red beards), and only spoke English, or at least spoke English very well. This person changed his name, supposedly to Dionne, because it was a common name, like Jones or Young.

Some facts corroborate this story: his father George spoke English perfectly, and preferred it, even though most people in his home town of Van Buren, Maine, spoke French at the time. George's grandfather Thomas (Cantin's son) used the name Young in the 1880 census. Some notes written by family members state that George knew many protestant hymns, and that some relatives in Presque Isle did not speak French at all.

The story does fit the Loyalist John DeMerchant pretty closely: he spoke English, came on a ship to Canada, was "on the run" from the USA, and changed his name. The obvious question: Did John DeMerchant have a red beard?

Notes

1. Cantin is the French spelling for the name Quentin. It is pronounced something like Con-TAN.

   In the early 1800's, English speakers were not familiar with French pronunciations and spellings, and French names were often approximated in written records. Dionne was often shortened to Yon, and in Cantin Dionne's case, also Yan or John. At one time, Cantin's son Thomas went by the name Young, and Edouard went by the name Yohn. Other researchers have found Ayon, Dion, D'Yon, Guyon, Yone, Yonge, Yonne, Youn and Yuon. Likewise, the name Cantin was rendered various ways: Quintin, Contor, Cortor, Cantor, Conte etc.

   The fact that Cantin Dionne's name is just about never written the same way in two legal documents has made it difficult to research his history, yet this researcher is thankful for such an uncommon name!




2. A genealogical tree including some of Cantin Dionne and Mary DeMerchant's ancestors is available at RootsWeb WorldConnect. Another good source of Dionne genealogy is Marc Dionne's Dionne Genealogy site.



3. One researcher has communicated to me: "There seems to be a number of other families also moving from Kamouraska and L'Islet counties to Baie du Febvre around this same time."



4. Most of the documents relating to Cantin Dionne put his arrival in the province in 1810, though his 1819 land petition indicates 1812. Since the 1814 documents mention "four years," 1810 seems more likely.

   In 1811, Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis from Quebec sailed from Cantin's hometown of Kamouraska to the northern shore of New Brunswick on an extended missionary journey. On his return, he traveled through Madawaska and back to Kamouraska. Could there be some connection with Cantin Dionne's journey?




5. Neither the Dionne nor the DeMerchant grant appears on the Provincial grant maps, but there is good evidence that they were adjacent to lot number 4, marked Walter D. Bedell, on grant map 81.



6. News of the end of the War of 1812 had arrived just days before the marriage of Cantin Dionne and Mary DeMerchant. Was this significant?



7. The marriage record seems to give his name as "Conti ine John", but the signature line reads "Contn Yeo". At least one modern transcription reverses the names and interprets the name as "John Constantine".



8. William O. Raymond wrote a series of interesting columns in the Woodstock Dispatch between 1894 and 1896, including several on the Preqsuile garrison and life in the vicinity. They have been collected by R. Wallace Hale in a CD entitled Fort Havoc.

   Here is an excerpt from a report entitled Winter Journey from Fredericton to Presqueisle in 1815 by Sir George Head:

   The houses were so scarce now the country seemed well nigh deserted. ... Pushing on a few miles further they stopped at a log house for the night. Here they received a hospitable greeting and Sir George was struck with the lack of etiquette displayed by all parties. The driver entered the house as if it were his own, throwing a large stick that he had dragged in with him on the open fire, and taking a key from the wall without even saying "by your leave" disappeared for the purpose of stabling the horses. The state of the country at this time was such that "common consent established a reciprocity of accommodation." A dozen strangers probably would enter one after another each dropping down to rest before the fire and taking up their quarters for the night without the ceremony of asking leave of anybody. The poorest person was not the least welcome nor in the exercise of hospitality was any regard paid to condition or outward appearance. The people had enough to answer their own wants and secluded from the world were remunerated for their hospitality by the news they occasionally received from the passing travellers. Sir George goes on to say "The landlord and his wife were both extremely civil good people. They had cows, pigs, poultry and all the requisites of a small farm; and finding by degrees in the course of the evening that my stock of provisions was expended, they thawed and set before me a frozen goose which I thought was excellent."



9. Anyone with the name DeMerchant is a descendant of John Cuffman/DeMerchant. Vaughan DeMerchant of Bath, NB, has extensively researched John's descendants and Norman DeMerchant of Lincoln, NB, has documented John Cuffman's early history. Their excellent web site has details of their research.



10. For more information on the Prince of Wales American Regiment see The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies or Michael S. Mallery's PWAR site.



11. John Cuffman's service included the battle at Hanging Rock, South Carolina, as well as several years in the prisoner of war camp at Camp Security. Norm DeMerchant has written a detailed history.



12. The 1871 census of Madawaska lists Mary Dionne's origin as "Almande" (German). The same census in Kent Parish lists her brother Robert as German.



13. John Cuffman applied for a land grant together with Charles Foster, and they were neighbors for six or seven years. Foster was probably a Hessian soldier, originally using the name Foerster.



14. Describing the "Year with no summer," The Halifax (Nova Scotia) Weekly Chronicle noted in December: "It has been given us from the most authentic sources, that several parishes in the interior part of [Quebec] are already so far in want of provisions, as to create the most serious alarms among the inhabitants." (This quote is from an interesting article here.)



15. Cantin Yon's forfeited lot appears on a list dated Jan 16, 1818, RS637, Schedule of Escheats 16.6.




16. While most of the other documents are signed by Cantin Dionne with his mark, this 1825 deed appears to have his actual signature, which matches the one on the 1814 petition, and looks like "Conte u Yon". One can speculate that even when he was perfectly literate, it was an advantage for a non English-speaker to "make his mark" rather than sign a document. It would leave him room, at a later date, to claim that he had been misinformed about what was written.




17. While a modern transcription of Thomas' birth record gives the name as Olson (!), it is unmistakably written as Yon. Thomas Dionne was the author's great great grandfather.



18. The Dictionaire Genealogique du Madawaska lists the place of their marriage as "Angleterre." To the priests there, a marriage in an Anglican church in New Brunswick was essentially "English." They also modified Mary's name to Desmarchands.




19. A genealogical tree including Cantin Dionne and Mary DeMerchant's descendants 
    is available at RootsWeb WorldConnect. The known children and their spouses:		
       Marie-Anne b. 1815   +Charles Fournier
       Charles Edward Dionne b. July 22, 1818   +Marguerite Mazzerolle
       Charlotta Angele Dionne b. Jan 31, 1820   +Patrick Casey
       Thomas Didyme Dionne b. 1825   +Virginie Lagace
       Julie Dionne b. Dec 15, 1826   +Joseph Beaulieu
       Female Dionne b. Dec 13, 1828
       Louis Dionne
       Elizabeth Dionne b. 1832
       Sophie Dionne
       Jacques Dionne b. Aug 4, 1838

20. The Deane and Kavanagh Report and 1833 New Brunswick Census of Madawaska can be found at the excellent Upper St. John web site, along with a great deal of information on the Madawaska region.



21. For the 1853 Madawaska deeds, see Book 296A page 174 and Book 219A page 133. A grant map lists the name "John Colin Dionne" on lot 7, and this is almost certainly another creative version of Cantin Dionne's name.

    The grant map shows lot number 5 belonging to John Hartt, who sued Cantin Dionne in 1845. He was not listed in the 1851 census, however. The same map shows several lots (numbered 8, 9 and 10) where no one is listed in the 1851 census, suggesting that Cantin's original lot may have been split into more than two lots.

    The sale of lot 6 was witnessed by Patrick Murphy, who married Mary DeMerchant's sister Eliza, and his son Alfred Murphy. The document mentions an original grant to Joseph Martin Jr. and others.




22. Cantin Dionne's death and burial is recorded in Microfilms de Fond Drouin, #3138.

Acknowledgements

My father, Leonard Dionne, told me a family story that needed looking into.

Leon Guimond started all the trouble by providing a family tree with the mysterious entry: Cantin Dionne married Marie Desmarchands in England.

My son, Sam, moved things along by asking lots of questions.

Norm DeMerchant found many of the original documents that slowly brought the story to life. He put as much effort into Cantin Dionne's story as he has put into his own research, and it has been great fun to have him along.

The following also have provided bits and pieces of the story: Bruce Moreau, Vaughan DeMerchant, Sirpa Utriainen, Marc Dionne, Allan Lanctot, Jack Kovacs, Chip Gagnon, Don and Glenna Hanson, R. Wallace Hale, Willis Hamilton, Bob Glasier, Guy Dubay, and Nicholas Hawes of the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Copyright © 2002 Mark Dionne. All Rights Reserved. This work is based on original research by Mark Dionne. Permission to copy or reprint this work is granted, provided: (1) the copy or reprint is used for non-commercial, educational purposes; (2) the work is copied in its entirety or a single paragraph is used as a quotation, and; (3) the author's name (Mark Dionne), email address, the URL mentioned in the following paragraph, and this notice are all included.

Latest revision: October 16, 2007. The master copy of this document resides at http://www.markdionne.com/cantindionne.html along with a companion document at http://www.markdionne.com/cantindocs.html which contains related material. Revisions may have been made since this copy was taken. Please refer there for the latest revision.

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