In a remarkable 1853 event, Moncton’s shipyard workers and the wealthiest shipbuilder compromised to avert a labour dispute, leading to a now forgotten holiday that was a precursor to Labour Day..
For 92 years before changing its name to Moncton, the little first village established by 11 families of Germans who arrived via Pennsylvania was called The Bend.
Earlier, before the Expulsion of the Acadians, it had been the site of a small French agricultural community called Le Coude, meaning “The Elbow.” It had been home to about 80 people.
Archeological finds indicate that the same site had earlier been home to a Mi’kmaq camp, whose name seems to be lost. Historians suggest it was possibly a summer fishing camp rather than a more established settlement.
Despite being so consistently sparsely populated, things began to change in 1829 when shipbuilding began in The Bend.
The wooden shipbuilding era of the 1830s through 1850s was a Golden Age of unparalleled prosperity across New Brunswick, and The Bend grew by leaps and bounds during those times.
By the time Joseph Salter moved to The Bend in 1849, its population had ballooned –relatively speaking– to 800 people. That kind of growth wasn’t unusual then; during those 20 years Saint John’s population grew from 10,000 to over 22,000.
Salter, a Nova Scotian, owned a large and thriving shipbuilding company called G & J Salter’s with his brother George, who lived in Saint Johnand managed another shipyard there.
Joseph Salter’s shipyard in The Bend came to employ 400 people – about half of the village. It was located on busy Mechanics Street. Walking down that street one would have passed thriving boarding houses, shops, and ubiquitous taverns.
Life working at Salter’s shipyard wouldn’t have been easy. Back then workers were generally expected to work six days a week, from dawn to dusk in summers, and as long as the light would allow in winters.
Workers across The Maritimes often coped with the long hours and harsh conditions by drinking.
Rum was the beverage of choice, and was consumed much like how we drink coffee today. Mornings began with a rum, workplaces offered rum breaks instead of coffee breaks, and when a friend visited –or even when the doctor or priest came to make a house call– it was impolite to not offer them rum.
Salter blamed general inefficiency and the high number of accidents at his shipyard on all the drinking. Yet his efforts to curb drinking on the job fell flat – across The Maritimes drinking while working outdoors was considered a matter of health and safety. The prevailing belief at the time was that it was dangerous to work outdoors sober, because you might catch a cold.
Meanwhile, Salter’s employees wanted to work fewer hours. They’d heard news of strikes erupting across New England demanding a controversial new idea: the 10 hour work day. The American strikers’ desperate slogans like “lengthen the lives of those employed,” and “greater opportunity to breathe the pure air” resonated with those working from dawn to dusk in Salter’s shipyard.
It’s unclear what discussions had taken place prior to the events of April 11th, 1853. Records of early Moncton history are often frustratingly sparse, sometimes bordering on non-existant. Fortunately, in 1889 Moncton’s Daily Times newspaper interviewed a broad variety of the oldest people in Moncton about its history, providing a rare and valuable record of its past.
“The morning of the 11th of April, 1853, was fine and warm, the sun shone brightly, spring having been unusually early. The snow had all gone and the roads were dry and dusty,” the Daily Times wrote.
“The men decided to ask for a ten hour day and if that were refused, to strike.”
This was a bold decision when Salter employed half the village, The Daily Times explained: “the relations between employer and labourer were not so intimate those days as in the present time, the men were much more dependant upon an individual employer and there was much difficulty in finding … a spokesman in the matter.”
They then waited by the gate for Salter to show up at the shipyard.
According to historian Alexander Pincombe, former director of the Moncton Museum, a confrontation had been expected.
Instead, in the middle of the dusty dirt road that morning, the two sides managed to agree on a compromise.
The workers compromised to be sober on the job.
Salter compromised that the work day would no longer go from 5am until dusk, but instead from 6am to 6pm – an unprecedentedly short work day for any of New Brunswick’s shipyards, factories, or logging camps.
To celebrate peacefully coming to terms, the workers and Salter marched together through The Bend in an impromptu parade, down Mechanics Street to Lewisville, and back. Pincombe wrote in his book ‘History of Monckton Township’ that “Mr. Salter was carried in a chair at the head of the procession.”
The rest of the day was declared a holiday, and the workers’ wives prepared a feast to celebrate. Pincombe wrote: “during the meal, Mr. Salter was called on for a speech, in the course of which he made a proposition … he would fit up a reading room above his store equipped with chairs, tables, books, etc.” This would be Moncton’s first library.
For years afterwards, the anniversary of April 11th was a holiday in The Bend/Moncton featuring a parade, a feast, and speeches, in what Pincombe called a “forerunner to Labour Day.”
Two years later, The Bend was officially granted Town status by New Brunswick’s Legislature. Confident in their future, residents had actually asked for City status, despite only being home to around 1000 people.
At the same time, The Bend changed its name to “Monckton,” named after British General Robert Monckton, who led the Expulsion of the Acadians.
Monckton’s “K” went missing sometime between February and May of 1855 in what is usually blamed on “a clerical error” made by “a provincial clerk” in Fredericton.
The first Mayor to be elected in Moncton was Joseph Salter.
