Introduction
During the early to mid-twentieth century, a flood of French-Canadian’s immigrated to some parts of New England. Many went where the jobs were in mill towns and/or where their family resided. With this major change in the ethnic population of New England towns, something that came along with it was a new culture, a new people: Franco-American’s.
Between the years 1880 and 1914, the largest number of Franco-American’s that had ever been in New England reached well over a million. Many of these people resided in mill towns such as Peabody, Massachusetts, Salem, Massachusetts, Lowell, Massachusetts, Manchester, New Hampshire, and other towns alike.
In Salem, Mass., the French-Canadian population clustered in an area of the city, the furthest point East in Salem, modernly referred to as the Point. Back at the turn of the 19th century, the Point was a neighborhood that was mildly settled. Only the beginning of the immigrants had started their lives there. It was a convenient walk to the Naumkeag Mills on modern day Congress St. and had enough available building space that the more immigrants that came, the more the district could stay French-Canadian.
Between 1900 and the 1940’s when the Point was booming with immigrants and French-Canadian culture, the Franco-American’s decided in order to truly preserve their roots, they needed to build a church. This church would have Masses in French and Latin so the people could understand the word of the Lord. The church would need to be close to their district so it would be easily accessible to everyone. St. Joseph’s ended up being right in the middle, on the edge of the Point. It was no more than a five minute walk from the brims of the Point neighborhood. The church was built: St. Joseph’s Church became the first church in Salem to give masses in French and Latin.
The Naumkeag Steam Cotton Mills owned the Pequot Mill which was Salem’s largest company from 1845 when it opened until 1953 when it closed. According to the official Shetland Park website, “In its heyday, the facility employed about 2,000 workers” (Shetland Park). A majority of these workers were those Franco-American’s who had built their lives in the Point and were now working low-wage jobs just to get by. Thanks to these blue collar workers, Salem’s economy was booming.
It came to be that the population of French-Canadians in Salem was so significant that many local, non-French speaking, businesses and people were doing everything they could to gain the business and/or friendships of those in the Point community. Businesses began purchasing advertisements to put on the bulletin board in St. Joe’s Church, but they would make sure the ads were in French so the community it reached out to would be able to understand it.
The impact the Franco-Americans had on Salem was so paramount and essential to the life Salemites were living 70-110 years ago. The French-Canadian’s helped boost Salem’s economy by working, they boosted Salem’s population by making it larger and building a whole new neighborhood, and most importantly, they brought their culture to Salem. Like many ethnic-specific neighborhoods, the Point had its own sense of family and community. The culture was shown through hard work, social interactions, and determination to create a home away from home. Salem would not be the same as it is today if it had not been for these French-Canadian immigrants, which they eventually came to be known as the Franco-American’s of Salem, Massachusetts.