Generation 6 - Acadians in the 19th Century

Pierre Pitre was born April 13, 1799 in Nipisiguit. This is where on October 26, 1819, he married Marie Marguerite Haché-Gallant. In 1826, the 'Village de Nipisiguit' became the Town of Bathurst. On the 1861 census of Gloucester County taken in Bathurst North, Pierre is listed as a farmer.

During most of the 19th century, this couple would have seen a slow social and economic development for Acadians especially since they had hardly any political power in Fredericton. Still getting over the shock of deportation and busy surviving, Northeastern Acadians, like those in the rest of New Brunswick, will not see a rise of consciousness until the middle 19th Century.
"Marsh Hay" by Nelson Surette

Once Acadians resettled, agriculture was still practiced but on more of a familial basis than a commercial one as had been the case in the Annapolis Valley prior to deportation. It is probably for this reason that many supplemented their living by fishing.

"Halibut" by Nelson Surette

Marie Marguerite Haché-Gallant

As early as the last century, young people would generally have to live less than 10 kilometers away from each other in order to meet. Marie-Marguerite, the eldest daughter of Sylvain Haché-Gallant & Anastasie Lavigne was born on September 11, 1799 in Bathurst where she grew up on Avenue St-Pierre only a few houses away from her future husband Pierre, son of Michel Pitre & Marguerite Boudreau. Marie Haché was 20 years old when she married Pierre Pitre on October 26, 1819.

At the beginning of colonization, Acadians & French Canadians did not intermarry frequently, the distance between these two groups isolated them from each other. This of course, changed after the great upheaval when hundreds of Acadians descended upon Canada. Many stayed on and were easily integrated as they shared the same language and religion while others returned to Acadia with their new spouses.

Marie Haché's mother Anastasie Lavigne was French Canadian and through her and other ancestors, we are linked to many of the first French settlers in Quebec.

Marie Haché's father Sylvain Haché links us to the Acadian pioneers Michel Haché dit Gallant and Anne Cormier

Pierre Pitre & Marie Marguerite Haché-Gallant had at least nine children:

1. Marie Pitre born January 9, 1821 in Bathurst, N.B., married in Petit Rocher November 22, 1841, Joseph Arsenault (Grégoire & Élisabeth Robertson)
2. Pierre Pitre born May 19, 1823 in Bathurst, N.B. married January 10th, 1848 Marie Daigle
3. Hilarion Pitre born July 17, 1825 in Bathurst, N.B., married in Bathurst Sept. 11, 1855 Marie Lagacé
4. Marguerite Pitre born September 24, 1827
5. Joseph Pitre born June 13th, 1831 in Bathurst, N.B.married Nov. 18, 1861 Hélène Daigle
6. Pierre Pitre born October 25, 1832 in Bathurst, N.B.
7. Thérèse Pitre born ca 1839 in Bathurst, N.B.
8. James Pitre born ca 1841 in Bathurst, N.B.
9. Jean Pitre born July 16, 1842 in Bathurst, N.B.
10. Jeanne Pitre born October 1844 in Bathurst, N.B.