Monument « Sons of Martha »

En 1925, la St. John River Power Company, avec le premier entrepreneur Parson & Ed de Moncton, ont mis en place des plans pour la construction d'une centrale électrique à Grand-Sault. Les travaux ont débuté le 10 août 1926.

Le contrat a ensuite été pris en main par la Dominion Construction Company, dont le président était Harry McLean.

Temporairement, la ville a connu un boom avec le plein emploi en grande partie à cause du projet énergétique, couplé avec le grand nombre de travailleurs dans le moulin Burgess et la construction de plusieurs nouveaux bâtiments. La construction de la centrale a également amené de nombreux nouveaux résidents, dont certains sont restés après le passage du boom.

Pendant la construction, deux travailleurs ont perdu la vie dans des accidents.

Le premier accident s’est produit le 23 mars 1927, quand Elmo Dumont est mort d’admission lorsqu’une voiture de ciment est tombée sur lui. Il est venu d’Advocate, en Nouvelle-Écosse et a été ramené chez lui pour être enterré.

Le second accident s’est produit le 11 novembre 1927, lorsqu’un jeune homme de Grand-Sault, Vern St. Amand, a été tué sur le coup par un boulon qui lui a traversé la tête. Il n’avait que 17 ans, les funérailles ont eu lieu à l’église de l’Assomption ici le 14 novembre.

Monsieur McLean reconnaissait qu'il n'aurait pas réussi à amasser sa fortune sans l'apport des travailleurs ordinaires. Afin de reconnaître ce fait, il érigeait un monument aux travailleurs sur chaque chantier de construction sur lequel on lisait le célèbre poème de Rudyard Kipling, The Sons of Martha (Les fils de Martha).

Le Monument érigé pour le projet hydroélectrique de Grand-Sault a été installé initialement près de la soupape d'approvisionnement d'eau, mais a été déménagé par la suite au Parc O. B. Davis près des chutes.

Lien disponible en anglais seulement.

The Sons of Martha Rudyard Kipling (1907)

The Sons of Mary seldom bother,

for they have inherited that good part;

But the Sons of Martha favor their mother

of the careful soul and the troubled heart.

And because she lost her temper once,

and because she was rude to the lord her guest,

Her sons must wait upon Mary's Sons,

world without end, reprieve, or rest.

It is their care in all the ages to take the buffet and

cushion the shock.

It is their care that the gear engages; it is their care

that the switches lock.

It is their care that the wheels run truly, it is their care

 to embark and entrain,

Tally, transport, and deliver duly the Sons of Mary by land

and main.

They say to mountains "Be ye removed. "They say to the

lesser floods, "Be dry."

Under their rods are the rocks reproved - They are not

afraid of that which is high

Then do the hill-tops shake to the summit - Then is the bed

of the deep laid bare,

That the Sons of Mary may overcome it, pleasantly sleeping

and unaware.

They finger death at their gloves' end where they piece and

repiece the living wires.

He rears against the gates they tend: They feed him, hungry

behind their fires.

Early at dawn, ere men see clear, They stumble into his

terrible stall,

And hale him forth like a haltered steer, and goad and turn

him till evenfall.

To these from birth is belief forbidden; from these till

death is relief afar.

They are concerned with matters hidden - under the earthline

their altars are

The secret fountains to follow up, waters withdrawn to

restore to the mouth,

And gather the floods as in a cup, and pour them again at a

city's drouth.

They do not preach that their God will rouse them a little

before the nuts work loose.

They do not teach that His pity allows them to drop their

job when they damn-well choose.

As in the thronged and the lighted ways, so in the dark and

the desert they stand.

Wary and watchful all their days that their brethren's days

may be long in the land.

Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood

to make a path fair or flat-Lo,

it is black already with blood some Son of Martha

spilled for that!

Not a ladder from earth to heaven, not as witness to any

creed,

But simple service simply given to his own kind in their

common need.

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed - they know the

angels are on their side.

They know in them is the grace confessed, and for them are the mercies multiplied. They sit at the feet - they hear the word - they see how truly the promise runs. They have cast their burden upon the Lord, and - the Lord he lays it on Martha's Sons!