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197 QUEEN STREET
Charlottetown,
Prince Edward Island
C1A 4B7
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Prince Edward Island Tourism Region : Charlottetown
Description From Owner:
- Named by Samuel Holland 1765 Charlotte Town for Charlotte Sophia (1744-1818) consort of George III.
- City incorporated 1855. P.O. from 1802. Charlottetown Royalty was planned by Samuel Holland as one of the 70 territorial divisions of PEI.
- Port la Joie, (Port of Joy) was the city's first name in 1720 when Robert-David Gotteville de Belile (1696-1724) established a settlement on Rocky Point between West River and Hillsborough Bay.
- At the time de Belile was commandant of the Compagnie de Île Saint-Jean and named the place Port of Joy because of the safe arrival of the expedition to the New World.
- In 1763 Île Saint-Jean was officially ceded to the British and the name changed to St. John's Island.
- In 1864 the provincial legislative building hosted a conference that considered the union of the colonies of British North America, earning Charlottetown its title: Birthplace of Confederation.
- A century later the Confederation Centre was built, funded by the provincial and federal governments. In 1995 the city boundaries were extended to include West Royalty, East Royalty, Winsloe, Hillsborough Park and Sherwood.
- Beaconsfield Historic House at the corner of Kent and West Sts. was built in 1877 for a merchant and shipbuilder. Visitors tour its Victorian-era furnished rooms which also host lectures, concerts, in summer the Children's Festival in the Carriage House.
- Confederation Centre of the Arts at 145 Richmond St. is Canada's memorial to the Fathers of Confederation and showcases Canadian talent and treasures on its stages and in its galleries.
- It also includes the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Mavor's Bistro and Bar and the Showcase Gift Shop.
- Open year round. Founder's Hall at 6 Prince St. uses displays, holovisuals and multi-media presentations to chronicle Charlottetown's role in Canada's Confederation. Open year round.
- Province House National Historic Site of Canada at Richmond and Great George Sts. is considered the 'Birthplace of Confederation' and recalls the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 where the concept uniting the British North American colonies was conceived
- The neo-classical building was erected in 1847 and is open year round.
- PEI's official nickname is The Gentle Island but it also has the sobriquets of The Garden Province, The Million Acre Farm, Spud Island or simply The Island.
- With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Address of this page:
http://pei.ruralroutes.com/Charlottetown
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The Latin phrase Parva Sub Ingenti on the Armorial Bearings of PEI (formerly the Coat of Arms) translates as 'Little under the great.' It relates to England's promise to protect her little colony as the great oaks protect the little oaks.
The Coat of Arms is represented across the top of the PEI flag and the large oak tree represents the British Empire. The cluster of three small oak trees represent the three counties of Kings, Queens and Prince.
PEI was the first Canadian province to elect a premier of non- European descent. In 1986 Joseph Atallah Ghiz (1945-1993) of Syro-Lebanese descent was elected. He served until 1993. Ghiz obviously did a good job because 21 years later Islanders elected his son, Robert in a landslide, with 23 of the 27 Island seats.
Joseph Atallah Ghiz (January 27, 1945 – November 9, 1996) was the 27th premier of Prince Edward Island from 1986 to 1993.
Robert Watson Joseph Ghiz (born January 21, 1974) is a Canadian politician who served as the 31st premier of Prince Edward Island from 2007 to 2015. He is the son of the 27th premier, Joe Ghiz.
Wikipedia
37th Lieutenant Governor of PEI
Marion Loretta (Doyle) Reid (1929-) was born in North Rustico, married Lea P. Reid in 1929 and they had eight children.
She was a school teacher but in the 1979 election she and running mate Leone Bagnall became the first Progressive Conservatives elected in PEI since Confederation and the third and fourth women elected to the provincial legislature.
She served as Deputy Speaker of the House, in 1983 as Speaker of the House and during her last three years as Opposition House Leader. From 1990-95 she was Lt.-Gov. of PEI.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The house was built in 1877 for a wealthy merchant and shipbuilder and with 25 rooms and eight fireplaces was one of Charlottetown's finest homes. Open for tours year-round with special events in the Carriage House.
The house is one of the Island's seven heritage properties. There is a book store and admission is charged.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Artist painted the Fathers of Confederation
Robert Harris (1849-1919) was seven when his parents emigrated from Wales to PEI. He spent most of his life in Montreal where he was a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1880 and the Pen and Pencil Club in 1890.
His best-known painting, The Fathers of Confederation, was burned in the fire that destroyed the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa in 1916.
In 1928, his widow built the Robert Harris Memorial Gallery and Library in Charlottetown to house much of his work. This was replaced in 1964 by the Confederation Centre.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Responsible for the 'land question'
He was described as "shrewd and conniving" and was responsible for hatching a plan that ultimately led to the Island's infamous land question which bedevilled early settlers for decades.
In 1763 he requested from King George III "a grant of the whole island of St. John, estimated at two million acres, with all rights, royalties, privileges, franchises and appurtenances, and with all criminal and civil jurisdiction." He would become "Lord Paramount, residing in a strong castle, mounted with ten pieces of cannon, each carrying a ball of four pounds."
The king didn't buy Perceval's modest request.
But the British government picked up on the idea and after the island was surveyed by Holland in 1765, all but one of the townships into which the island had been divided were assigned by lottery to 100 individuals, most of whom were land speculators uninterested in the land they had so easily acquired.
This started a system of absentee landlords, most of whom were interested only in collecting rent. The "land question" did not get finally settled until the Land Purchase Act of 1875. The last of the absentee owners was finally paid off in 1878.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
15 MINUTES FAME = 30 DAYS JAIL
Twenty-three-year-old Evan Brown got a bit more than 15 minutes of fame when he stuffed a cream pie into the face of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in Charlottetown in 2001.
Brown, described as an actor, said the "gentle act of protest" was "a protest for students, for people on welfare and for social reform."
He was convicted of assault, sentenced to 30 days in jail and ordered to pay Chrétien $50 to be placed in a victim's compensation fund.
The Prime Minister's security detail was criticized for not noticing the presence of a man with a cream pie in the area where he was glad-handing well-wishers.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
HAPPY ENDING TO FIRST DEATH SENTENCE
The first death sentence pronounced on the Island was in 1778 on servant Elizabeth Mukely for stealing £7.7s from her master, Gideon Ticeborn.
Despite an offer of £5 for an executioner, nobody would consent to act as hangman.
Elizabeth was then pardoned and banished to Nova Scotia.
A few years later another Islander sentenced to death for theft also got lucky. A group of Charlottetown women circulated a petition on behalf of Freelove Allen. As a result his sentence was commuted to expulsion from the island.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The tranquility of downtown Charlottetown was shattered at 6 a.m. on an October morning in 1988 by the explosion of a pipe bomb outside the Sir Louis Henry Davies Law Courts.
Police had no leads. Six years later a pipe bomb planted in a trash can in Point Pleasant Park at Halifax was discovered and safely defused. Again police had no leads.
On April 20, 1995, a powerful pipe bomb exploded in mid-morning under a wheelchair ramp at Charlottetown's Province House only minutes after a class of school children had passed the site. A man seated on a nearby park bench suffered a broken ankle from shrapnel and more than 20 windows were broken.
Following this explosion police and the media received a communiqué from "Loki 7" claiming responsibility for the three bombs. (Loki was the Norse god of mischief).
In June of 1996 the CBC's PEI bureau received a warning from Loki 7 about a bomb planted at a nearby propane terminal. The area was evacuated and the bomb was exploded without causing damage.
Later that year police arrested and charged Roger Charles Bell (1944) of Murray River who was a graduate of Dalhousie, and former school teacher who had taught high school chemistry at schools in eastern PEI.
He was sentenced to nine years in a federal penitentiary and until he appeared before a National Parole Board hearing in 2002 had given no explanation for his motives. He told the parole board: "I think my mission was simply revenge at society."
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
PEI has had an official tartan since 1960 when Mrs. Jean (MacLean) Reed of Souris won a design contest. The reddish brown represents the soil, the green the grass and trees, the white for whitecaps on the waves and the
yellow for the sun.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Hero founded Maritime Central Airways
He founded Maritime Central Airways, but Carl Burke (1913-1976) was more than a business entrepreneur.
He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire after the daring rescue of the crew of a crashed Anson bomber.
The plane had crashed on an ice floe off PEI in 1943 and Burke borrowed a small ski-equipped plane to land on the floe and ferry off the crew. He got the crew off in four trips and returned a fifth time to salvage the plane's radio before it sank.
Two years earlier he also used a ski plane to recover the bodies of Sir Frederick Banting, navigator William Bird and William Snailman from their crashed plane in Newfoundland.
The Charlottetown native got his pilot's licence in Saint John NB in 1936 and by 1941 started up Maritime Central Airways which eventually had a network from St. John's to Windsor, ON and north beyond the Arctic Circle.
In 2009 The Carl F. Burke M.B.E. Memorial display was dedicated at Charlottetown Airport. The display includes photographs and text about the use of Charlottetown Airport by the RAF and RCAF as a training base and about Burke and his development of Maritime Central Airways.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Canada's first nursing matron
Charlottetown-born Georgina Pope (1862-1938) trained and worked as a nurse in the U.S. before being chosen in 1899 to supervise Canada's military nurses in the South African War.
She was Canada's first Nursing Matron in 1908 in charge of all Canadian military nurses and helped develop military nursing in Canada.
For her dedication to superior-quality nursing care she was the first Canadian to receive the Royal Red Cross.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The Island's 'name giver'
Check the PEI listings and just about anywhere and you're likely to find a place name, past or present, given by Dutch-born Capt. Samuel Johannes Holland (1728-1801).
That's because as Surveyor General of British North America he dished out 191 names for geographic features on the Island during his survey in 1765, at least 90 of which are still in use today.
Most of the names honoured political or military figures. Holland's cartography was amazingly accurate for the instruments available to him and he pioneered the use of some new inventions like the astronomical clock and refracting telescope. Holland College in Charlottetown is named for him.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The provincial tree of PEI is the Red Oak, used in barrel making
and ship building.
The Red Oak can grow to a height of 41.5 metres (133 feet) and is often struck by lightning, resulting in its nickname, "Thunder Tree." In Norse mythology, the oak tree is the sacred tree of Thor, the god of thunder.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The O.P.E.I. is the highest honour that PEI can bestow on its residents for meritorious accomplishments.
The initials stand for Order of Prince Edward Island and the honour is bestowed annually by the Lt.-Gov. on not more than three people. Recipients receive an enamelled medallion bearing the provincial emblem, a stylized lapel pin and a miniature medal for less formal occasions.
They also receive an official certificate and are entitled to use the letters O.P.E.I. after their name.
An advisory council recommends names to the premier. Elected federal, provincial or municipal representatives and members of the judiciary are not eligible for consideration while in office and posthumous nominations are not accepted.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
George Dowie Hanged Thrice
Third time wasn't lucky for George Dowie who was hanged three times at Charlottetown on April 6, 1869, for stabbing John Cullen to death in a bar fight over a woman.
Dowie was brought to the scaffold where a crowd of 1,500 (out of a population of 7,000) had gathered after all appeals for clemency were refused by the Colonial Office.
By tradition he was allowed a last statement and it took him a half hour to read eight pages of small handwriting and a 17-stanza poem dedicated to his wife and his mother. In his statement Dowie confessed all his past sins and spoke of his recent devotion to Christ.
He also said that his PEI mistress, Flora McQuarrie, vengeful after learning during the trial that he was married, withheld some material evidence at his trial which would have reduced his charge to manslaughter.
She could have testified that Cullen first grabbed Dowie by the throat and the act of stabbing was self defence.
After thanking his lawyers and the clergy-men who had come to pray for him, the trapdoor was sprung and Dowie fell 4.7 metres (15 feet) to the ground when the rope broke.
When he found himself alive, Dowie assumed that clemency had come at the last moment. But an hour later he was back on the scaffold with the noose around his neck again. Again he fell 4.7 metres (15 feet) to the ground, this time because a cleat had broken.
Many in the crowd believed these developments were a sign of divine clemency, but the executioner and his assistants hoisted Dowie to the gallows again and hanged him from the rope for 15 minutes until he was declared dead.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Today's malefactors can be grateful the Island's laws have changed from the late 1700s and early to mid-1800s.
Under the 1530 Whipping Act of Henry VIII, convicted thieves were to be tied to the end of a cart and publicly whipped "til the body became bloody."
On the Island, the sentence was carried out in one of two ways. The offender would be tied to the end of a cart and have his lashes administered during pauses at three stops at local landmarks.
Or he was tied to the Bellpost, the most public place in town and whipped there.
In 1794, William Belinger, a black man, was given a total of 600 lashes, 200 administered only one week after he had received 100 lashes. Most men received 39 lashes at each of three locations on the same day for a total of 117.
Robert Bears who was convicted of grand larceny was given 450 lashes in one day.
And in 1813 Thomas McCarinor died after receiving the second of three sets of 39 lashes after a conviction for robbery.
Lt.- Gov. Smith is said to have ordered the second flogging be harder because he thought the first had been too soft. Public whippings were abolished in England in 1817 but continued in PEI until the late 1800s.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Milton James Rhode Acorn "The People's Poet"
Milton Acorn (1923-86) has been described as "One of Canada's most unfortunately unstudied poets," one who "wrote down-to-earth words in an original way."
He was born in Charlottetown and was a Second World War vet who suffered a severe wound when his ship was hit by a depth charge during an Atlantic crossing. The wound was sufficiently serious that he received a disability pension from Veterans Affairs for most of his life.
In the early 1960s he was married for less than a year to prominent Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen. Acorn travelled Canada as an itinerant carpenter self-publishing his own poetry.
He was awarded the Canadian Poets Award in 1970 and the Governor General's Award in 1976.
A year after his death in Charlottetown the Milton Acorn People's Poetry Award was established in his memory by Ted Plantos.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Patricia Janet Mella (1943-) of Port Hill
was the first woman in PEI to become leader of a
provincial political party, the Progressive Conservatives, in 1990.
Three years later she became the first woman on the Island to hold the position of Leader of the Official Opposition which she held until 1996. She was provincial treasurer 1996-2003.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
The Island's expensive senator
PEI's newest senator is Charlottetown-born Michael Duffy (1946 - ), appointed Jan. 26, 2009.
His journalism career spanned newspapers, radio and TV and prior to his senatorial appointment he was host of Mike Duffy Live on CTV.
During his first three months in the red chamber he claimed $100,848 in expenses, more than double the average of what the other three Island senators claim for a typical quarter. Projected over a year, Duffy would out-spend by almost $100,000 the Senate's most costly member, Liberal Mobina Jaffer of British Columbia.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Thrice-elected first premier
The Island's first, third and seventh premier was one of the more colourful characters in its history but was clearly admired and respected by his constituents.
George Coles (1810-1875) was said to have fought a duel with one opponent, was convicted of assault and on another occasion spent 31 days in the custody of the sergeant-at-arms for refusing to retract a statement made in the Assembly.
He was born at Queens Royalty, received little formal education and went to England at the age of 19 to learn the brewing industry. He returned four years later with a bride and worked as a merchant, brewer, steam mill operator, farm operator and landlord before entering politics.
He started out as a Conservative but was often in conflict with the party and led the Reform Party in the mid- 1840s. He became the first premier under responsible government in 1851.
His Free Education Act of 1852 ended tuition fees and saw teachers' salaries paid from the colonial treasury.
He favoured Confederation if the terms of union included a solution to the island's foreign-owned land holdings and when that was not offered at the Quebec City meeting, he returned to PEI to lead the Liberals in opposition to Confederation.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Confederation question questioned again
Cornelius Howatt (1810-95) was born at Tryon in Prince C. and was a member of the PEI Assembly from 1859-76. Even when it appeared inevitable, Howatt remained dead set against the Island's Confederation with Canada.
In the final vote in 1873 he and A. E. C. Holland cast the only two votes against Confederation. His name was revived in the 1970s when the Island was planning Confederation centennial celebrations.
An organization calling itself The Brothers and Sisters of Cornelius Howatt felt that the planned celebrations were of "an ostentatious nature," and that the issues of Island identity and independence Howatt had championed were still topical in 1973.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
Frederick Thornton Peters
Awarded the DSO, DSC & Victoria Cross
Charlottetown-born Frederick "Fritz" Peters (1889-1942) was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1942.
The VC is the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.
Peters, son of the Island's Attorney General and first Liberal premier, was a captain in the Royal Navy on a mission to attempt to capture Oran Harbour in Algeria to prevent it being sabotaged by its French garrison.
He was in command of the sloops HMS Walney and HMS Hartland, packed with British commandos, soldiers of the 6" U.S. Armoured Infantry Division and a small detachment of U.S. Marines.
He led a "suicide charge" against the boom defences into point-blank fire from shore batteries. Both ships were lost.
Capt. Peters, blinded in one eye, was the only survivor of the Walney's crew of 17. He was taken prisoner but released when Oran was captured.
He was the first Canadian to be awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Cross. He was en route to England when his plane crashed and he was killed. He has no known grave.
With permission from 'Prince Edward Island Place Names' David E. Scott 2011
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