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New Brunswick Tourism Region : St. John River Valley
Description From Owner:
- The town takes its name from Woodstock in England, a town NW of Oxford. Historian William Francis Ganong suggests the name 'was probably suggested by its nearness to Northampton as in England.'
- That place name may be translated from medieval English as 'a place in the woods.' The same name is found in nearby Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire.
- The name was first assigned in 1786 when the parish was founded and was then an appropriate designation. When Carleton County was established in 1832, Upper Woodstock was for a time the shire town.
- In 1909 that honour was moved to the larger community of Woodstock which was New Brunswick's first incorporated town.
- Birthplace of Hon. Richard Bennett Hatfield (1931-1991), premier of New Brunswick from 1970 to 1987, the longest-serving premier in the history of the province.
- Woodstock was also the birthplace of James Kidd Flemming (1868-1927), premier from 1911-1914), father of Premier Hugh Flemming who served from 1952-60.
- The 'silver-tongued orator' led his Conservative party to a landslide victory, taking 44 of the province's 48 seats.
- Without a leader to match Flemming's charisma, the Liberals hired E. S. (Ned) Carter, P. J. Veniot and Frank Carvell to work for them behind the scenes.
- The trio, known as 'The Dark Lantern Brigade, ' uncovered one of the biggest scandals ever to rock the province.
- They alleged Flemming had used his stewardship of the province' s crown land to extort campaign funds from lumber merchants and had accepted kickbacks from the Saint John-Quebec Valley Railway.
- Flemming denied any wrongdoing but stepped aside as premier and went into seclusion.
- A Royal Commission could only implicate Flemming as a 'likely conspirator' and he refused to resign as premier.
- Woodstock is home to the annual Miss New Brunswick Pageant and the Carleton County Historical Society Museum housed in the historic 1840 Hon. Charles Connell House at 128 Connell St.
- The Old Carleton County Court House at 19 Court St., built in 1833, was the site of the first county council meeting in New Brunswick.
- The Lu P. Fisher Library, built in 1914, contains local books, manuscripts and genealogical information and the Dr. G. F. Clark collection of Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) artifacts.
- The Crimson Beauty apple was developed in Carleton C. by Francis Sharp of Woodstock in the mid-1880s. First named the Early Scarlet, the winter-hardy apple ripens in late July or early August.
- With permission from 'New Brunswick Place Names' David E. Scott 2009
Address of this page: http://nb.ruralroutes.com/Woodstock
