The growth of the town of Chatham from 1860 to 1930 can be closely tied to the Catholic Church. There are still many signs today to show how closely one was tied to the other. No one person did more to strengthen those ties than Bishop James Rogers.
Rogers was born in Ireland in 1826. The family moved to Nova Scotia when James was only five. From a very young age he knew he wanted to serve the church. By the age of 25 he had become Father Rogers. He ministered in many parts of Nova Scotia from 1851 to 1858.
In 1860, New Brunswick was made into two dioceses. In the Catholic Church, a diocese is a large piece of land. Each diocese is governed by a bishop. One town is chosen as the center of the diocese. The centers of the two dioceses in New Brunswick were Saint John and Chatham. It was in 1860 that Father James Rogers became Bishop of Chatham diocese. The diocese took in all of northeastern New Brunswick from Moncton to Edmundston. Today, this area is four dioceses.
Bishop Rogers was only 34 when he came to Chatham in 1860. He soon found out what a huge job he had been given. There were few people in the diocese. Also, they were living far apart. Bishop Rogers was very worried about the problems facing the Indians and French people in his diocese. He was also worried about the sick people at the Tracadie Lazaretto. A lazaretto is a hospital for people who have leprosy. By 1868, he was able to get seven “Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph” to come from Montreal. Things quickly got better at the Tracadie Lazaretto.
These same Sisters began the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Chatham in 1869. They also opened St. Michael’s Academy in 1871. The first class was made up of 32 young women. Later St. Michael’s Academy was built in 1931.
Bishop Rogers had other churches and schools built throughout Northern New Brunswick during these years. For example, the school for the people of Newcastle was opened in 1854. Rogers also began St. Michael’s College in Chatham in 1860. At first, classes were held in the same building as the Church. This building burned down in 1878 and was rebuilt the same year. Bishop Rogers also greatly helped in the opening of a French college at Caraquet in the early 1870’s.
The Chatham diocese was very poor in those days. They could not pay their teachers. St. Michael’s College was closed for thirty years. But it had been Bishop Rogers who laid the groundwork for the college. The College was finally reopened in 1910. It was renamed St. Thomas College. It was left to younger men like Father James M. Hill to make St. Thomas College grow in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Bishop Rogers retired in 1900 and died in 1903. But the schools, churches, and hospitals he had built are still being used today. Bishop Rogers played an important part in the history and growth of the Miramichi.