7. Edmundston: churches, hospitals, schools and colleges

The mission of Our Lady of Little Falls, now Edmundston, was founded in 1872 and was served by the parish priest of Saint-Basile until 1880. Saint-Jacques also called Trout River consisted of six districts where about twenty French Canadian and Irish families lived. The district near the St. John River became the parish of Madawaska or Little Falls in Edmundston. Its first parish priest, Father Louis Côme D`Amours, was also parish priest for Saint-Jacques, however he chose to live in Little Falls. His successor in 1908 was Father William Conway, who served as parish priest for fifty-three years. With the installation of the Murchie Mill and later the Fraser Mills, the construction of railroads and the coming of the Canadian National railroad yard, Edmundston made huge progress in the first half of the twentieth century. The parish of Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs was founded on the eastern side of the Madawaska River in 1938. The parish of Notre-Dame-du-Sacré-Coeur covers the area between the Boucher Bridge and the First Nation Maliseet Reserve in 1950. The schools grew in numbers and two hospitals, a college in Edmundston and one in Saint-Basile, an orphanage, a retreat house, an educational centre and a convent of the Sisters of the Holy Sacraments were founded in the new diocese of Edmundston. This diocese was made up of the parishes of Bathurst diocese located in the counties of Madawaska, Victoria and western Restigouche.