19th-Century NB Travel: Sleighs, Frozen Rivers & Deadly Risks
- Snow, ice, sleet, and wind often make travelling the province’s roads treacherous during the colder months.
- “It's a heck of a commute when you think about it,” said historian James Upham.
- Today, sleigh rides often evoke images of peaceful, recreational journeys, perhaps ending with hot chocolate.
Getting around New Brunswick in the winter is rarely easy. Snow, ice, sleet, and wind often make travelling the province’s roads treacherous during the colder months. But conditions today are a far cry from what people in 19th-century New Brunswick faced. Then, travel meant relying on horse-drawn sleighs, often over long distances and across frozen rivers.
“It’s a heck of a commute when you think about it,” said historian James Upham.
Long, Cold Journeys
Today, sleigh rides often evoke images of peaceful, recreational journeys, perhaps ending with hot chocolate. But in the 1800s, these trips were primarily utilitarian. The rivers of New Brunswick served as the highways of the era.
“The waterways of New Brunswick were, for most of the history of this region, the way that people got around,” Upham explained. “In summer you take a canoe… in the winter when [it] froze… you could take a sleigh being drawn by horses.”
While quicker than walking, travel was still slow. Journeys that take hours today would have taken days in the 19th century, limited by the speed of the horses.
And there was little in the way of modern comfort. “We just do not have anything at the moment that compares with that unless you’re actually on a polar expedition,” Upham said. “Might have been lucky enough to have a container full of hot coals from the breakfast fire under their feet to keep them from freezing.”
A Tragic Trail
Travelling on ice was not without its dangers. In 1803, Hugh McMonagle, a newly elected member of the Legislative Assembly, died after his sleigh crashed through the ice of the Kennebecasis River.
McMonagle was travelling from his home near the Nova Scotia border to Fredericton for his first session as the representative for Westmorland County. The accident occurred near Darlings Island.
According to reports in The Royal Gazette and the Saint John Gazette, McMonagle and fellow passenger Benjamin Lester drowned when their sleigh broke through the ice. The sleigh, horses, and all baggage were lost.
“Melancholy Accident,” read the headline in The Royal Gazette. “Melancholy! Melancholy! Indeed!” echoed the Saint John Gazette.
Upham noted that several other passengers survived the incident, a remarkable feat given the circumstances. “There’s no horse drawn ambulance… you can’t just pull out your cell phone and call for help,” he said. “It’s a crazy survival story that we just don’t have an analogy for in the modern world.”
While the practice of using frozen rivers for transportation has largely disappeared, remnants remain. Upham mentioned that an ice road still opens on the Kennebecasis River, providing a shortcut for those travelling to Saint John and avoiding the Gondola Point ferry.