Acadian Tragedy, Rivet and Glode-Mylott Ancestors, The Pembroke and the St John's River

One again, I am returning to the story of The Pembroke.    In an earlier post (October 2010), I wrote  about the ancestors of Edith Mylott née Glode who in 1755 were exiled from Annapolis Royal aboard The Pembroke.  At that time, I didn't include the fact that an ancestor of Rivets, Prudent Robichaud, was also aboard that same vessel as well as others.  The story of The Pembroke is a true hardship story and probably one that historians will likely never know in detail.  The tragedy of The Pembroke was the basis of fiction by Mary L Weekes. 

A fictionalize story of The Pembroke can be read in Acadian Betrayal.  It use to be available on the internet.  If you cannot find a digital copy, it sometimes appears for sale on Ebay - but I suspect it wouldn't hold your interest for too long.  It is a typical melodrama.

The story of The Pembroke is a subplot in the tragedy of the Acadian people who were ousted, expelled, excised from the area around the Bay of Fundy from September through December 1755 by New England colonials under the authority of Governor Charles Lawrence and William Shirley, colonial governor of Massachusetts.  Over 7000 Acadian people were dispersed into small ships and sent to colonies along the North Atlantic seaboard and Haiti.  Some ships sank at sea, some were refused permission to dock and passengers remained without food and sanitary conditions in the ships while disease took over.  One ship, The Pembroke, was the exception. Its Acadian passengers overtook the crew and commandeered the ship across the Bay of Fundy to St John in present day New Brunswick.  On board that ship, were not only the Guilbault ancestors of Edith Glode and her sons, there also were the Robichaud, Melanson and Belliveau ancestors of Claire, Albert and Raymond Rivet of Cohoes, New York.  According to the article written by Paul Delaney on Acadian Ancestral Home, the probable leader of the Acadians on The Pembroke was Charles Belliveau. He is also the great great great great great grandfather of Claire, Al and Ray Rivet!!!

After bringing The Pembroke into the mouth of the St John's River, the Acadians were discovered by the English provoking an engagement, firing of arms, taking of English prisoners and ultimately burning The Pembroke so it could not be used against them.  Subsequently, the Acadians made their way to present day Fredericton, New Brunswick, then a French settlement called Saint Anne des Pays Bas where they wintered enduring malnutrition and exposure to the harsh environment.  The Rivet ancestor, Prudent Robichaud, quite elderly, died sometime during this struggle and somewhere along the Saint John River.  It is believed the Acadians including Charles Belliveau,  Charles Melanson, and their families made their way north via canoe on the St John's River through Grand Falls (Grand Sault) to present day Edmunston regions and then onto the Madawaska River to Lac Temiscouata (present day Quebec). The route continued from Lac Temiscouata overland and via waterways to Trois Pistoles on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River concluding in Ville Quebec.  

Unfortunately, Charles Belliveau and Charles Melanson, like many of the Guilbault family, are believed to have succumbed to smallpox in 1758 and 1757, respectively, after completing their harrowing escape.

Below, the St John River near Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far.  This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

Three 8th Grade Graduations at St. Marie's, Cohoes, NY 1932, 1933 and 1936: Rivet, St Hilaire, Bissonnette and many more

A sincere "thank you" to Mr. Joe Carlin from Cohoes for these wonderful photos! 

1932 Marie Claire Rivet, below, seated on far right:

 1933 Joseph Albert Rivet, below, seated second from far right.  With Arthur Louis St Hilaire standing directly behind him:

1936 Raymond Dedace Rivet, below, standing in the third row back from the priests. He is the third student from the left.  Also in this photo is Therese Bissonnette in the front row, third from right.

Summit Street in Cohoes, NY

In the 1910 US census Paul Emile Rivet and his first wife Ida Mailloux are living in a house in the town of Guilderland. Ida Mailloux died in 1912 and it was probably soon afterwards, around the time of Emile's second marriage, that he bought the house at the top of Summit Street. This was the house Claire, Al and Raymond Rivet were born it and the house their mother, Marie Louise and their stepmother, Malvina Hamel died in.
The house was unremarkable except for its view from the backyard.  From the eastern edge of the yard, one could look over the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. At the time he bought the house, one would have been able to look over the Erie Canal, the Harmony Mills and its power canals below.   By the 1950s when I spent time there, those days were long gone.  There was just a ditch below. I never saw the canals it the heyday.  By the time I went to high school all the canals were polluted slimy waters filled with old tires and appliances.


The Front of the house....

The Johnson Mansion, 2-3 lots south of Emile Rivet's house.

The Top of Summit Street, looking north. The small pale yellow house,

 left of the brown 2 story, was the house of Emile Rivet.

David Lamarche and yours truly on Summit Street.

The Back of the House....

A very young Al Rivet standing in the backyard of Summit Street.

The backyard was the best part of the property.  This is the yard Claire, Al and Ray Rivet played in as children. The second generation of Rivets and Yettos played there too.  At the far end of the yard, a fence prevented children from falling down the embankment to the canal ditch.  Rhubarb grew in the backyard and my Uncle Al was always sure to gather some for me to dip into a sugar bowl and snack on later! 

View of the Valley from the Backyard on Summit Street 

Another view from the backyard with remains of the Erie Canal in the foreground

The Rivet children on Summit Street, Cohoes, NY circa 1923

Three children, from left to right: Raymond, Joseph Albert and Marie Claire Rivet
Location: In the front of the Rivet home on 28 Summit Street, Cohoes, NY. circa 1923.
Claire , Al and Ray all lost their biological mother when she died shortly after Ray was born.  By the time this photo was taken, they had a step mother, Malvina Hamel who, from all accounts, treated them as if they were her own.  Malvina never had any biological children of her own but found her calling raising the children of Marie Louise Lacasse and  Paul Emile Rivet.
In the photo, the children appear quite serious. Even Claire who gets to sit on the pony doesn't seem to be certain if she is enjoying the occasion.  Al, as the responsible older boy, has a good hold on the pony. Ray, the youngest, looks content to go along with this experience of being photographed with a pony.  This was a very common way to photograph children in this period.  Itinerant photographers would travel from neighborhood to neighborhood  setting up equipment creating a quick setting to take a photograph and sell to eager family.