River John is an unincorporated community in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
It is located near the mouth of the River John on the Northumberland Strait, halfway between Pictou and Tatamagouche near the boundary with Colchester County. It is on Nova Scotia Trunk 6 and the designated tourist route, the Sunrise Trail.
River John was colonized by Europeans during the 18th century and its port and the proximity of plentiful timber led to the development of a small shipbuilding industry.
Today the local economy is based on the seasonal industries of fishing, agriculture, and tourism. The area is a popular summer cottage location for residents of Halifax and other urban areas in the province. The village supports a few local shops, a library, several churches, a post office and a volunteer fire department. The K-9 school was closed in 2015.
The Nova Scotia folklorist W. Roy MacKenzie (1883–1957) lived in River John, as does novelist Linda Little.
History
The river was originally called Caijebouguac (lonely river) by the indigenous Mikmaq. ‘River John’ has a name of French origin but the English named the river Deception River, although this name has been lost and is used only by very few elderly residents. The name ‘River John’ came to be as almost all of the original settlers had the name John; John George, John Patriquin, etc. The name River John is a beautiful and euphonious name that isn't as well known as it deserves, because of the hundreds of vessels built and registered in the area and designated from other ports in its early days. Now the village is very modern in business, but the famous river sunsets will always hold a glimpse of the past.
The first official settlers in River John were four men and their families who did not want to pay as tenants in the nearby village of Tatamagouche. At the time the land was part of the Philadelphia grant owned by a company that had no longer use for it, so it was sold off. In 1785 John Frederic Patriquin, John George Patriquin, George Frederic Langill (or Langille) and James Gratto each built their log cabins near each other originally and then more settlers came in each taking their own land.
School
In 1808, the school was opened under Reverend John Mitchelle who came from Amherst to River John, with Christopher Perrin as the schoolmaster teaching his pupils to read, write, and count in French with classes being held in just local houses. In 1818 the first school was built with James Hogg and Edward Lynch as some of the first teachers that year. Another school had to be built at the cross roads of Main and what is now School Street, but was torn down in 1968. There were also small schools located on the properties of the late Rev. John Mitchelle and the late D. Mackay Ross. Each surrounding rural community had their own one room school house, Mountain Road, Louisville, Marshville, Cape John, Seafoam, Melville, Hodson, Hedgeville, Bigney, Welsford, and Toney River.
The River John Consolidated School was built in 1968 at the top of School Street with a few hundred students attending, with the new addition built in 1985 around when one of the old schools was torn down near it. Until its closure in 2015, the school held students from primary through to nine. Students in senior high had to then travel by bus to West Pictou High School in Lyons Brook, and more recently Northumberland Regional High in Alma.
Newspaper
The Pioneer community newspaper began publishing in 1877 on every Thursday in River John, with a subscription rate of 50 cents for the year. The Pioneer contained business ads that were prominent during the shipbuilding days, carriage building, local events such as kitchen parties, fancy goods and patient mediation ads since the paper was edited and published by J. D. Gauld who was the owner of the drug store.
With the decline of shipbuilding which resulted in loss of many businesses in the late 1880s, the Pioneer ran its last issue. Here are examples of inserts within the original newspaper: In the February 27th issue, 1879, notes “Mrs Bates, better know here as Miss Anne Swan, the Nova Scotia Giantess, has presented Mr Bates with a child. 30 inches in length, 16 inches across the chest and 22 pounds in weight.”