Acadians from the Petitcoudiac and Shepody (French:
Chipoudy) regions were the first pioneers to settle in the area and founded Sylvabreau in 1730, followed by the
Melanson family at Ruisseau-des-Renards (Fox Creek) in 1746 and the
LeBlanc and
Boudreau families at Chartersville in 1776. Prior to the arrival of Acadian settlers, the southern part of the province was inhabited by the
Algonquin people.
Sylvabreau/Battle of the Petitcodiac The
Battle of the Petitcodiac was fought on September 2, 1755, during the British expulsion of the Acadians, after the capture of
Fort Beauséjour. The Massachusetts-British force was soundly defeated by troops from
Boishébert, Acadian militia, and
First Nations' warriors. At the mouth of the Nacadie Creek (Hall's) settlements such as le Coude (The Bend), Sylvabreau and the surrounding hamlets were destroyed. Even after these raids, Acadians returned to these villages and the numbers grew as the deportation from peninsular Nova Scotia continued, followed by the deportation from present-day
Prince Edward Island and
Cape Breton. Victory for the British occurred three years later (1758) during the
Petitcodiac River Campaign (
:fr:La bataille du Cran) which resulted in the deportation of the Acadians that lived along the Petitcodiac River or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations.
From municipality to town to city Dieppe was known as Upper Village after the Expulsion and was settled by the
Surette,
Maillet, and
Thibodeau families, while
Chartersville was called Leblanc's Village and also included members of the Boudreau's clan. Prior to 1800, Pierre Bourgeois had established himself on the (
Ruisseau des Renards) Fox Creek salt marsh. Agriculture, forestry and some fishing sustained these Acadian families up until the mid-1800s, when shipbuilding and railways created employment opportunities for Acadians around the Moncton area. After a bridge was completed in 1867 at the mouth of Hall's Creek (
Nacadie during the French settlement at
Le Coude), a road was constructed that link the incorporated Town of Moncton's Westmorland Road (Main Street) to the (French Village) Dieppe area. This road went through farmland that had belong to the Leger family and intersected the old road (Acadie Avenue) that had taken travellers up and around Hall's Creek to the community of Lewisville to get to Moncton. By 1900, the little area around the intersection became known as
Léger's Corner, and with the increasing traffic from the bridge, merchants became attracted to the corner and soon set up shops and services around the intersection. Prior to the First World War, a small residential development was erected, and the community continue to grow until the Second World War. Then a population explosion occurred. Léger's Corner received the largest influx of military personnel in southeastern New Brunswick. Ten thousand airmen (due to the airport) and their support staff arrived overnight in 1940, and soon temporary warehouses and housing were erected. When Léger's Corner became incorporated as a municipal village in 1946, the community was renamed
Dieppe, after a port in France on the English Channel, to honour the 913 Canadian servicemen who took part (and as a result died)in the Dieppe Raid, the bloody landing by Allied soldiers, on August 19, 1942, during the
Second World War. Then, part of Lakeburn was annexed in 1946 and Dieppe-East in 1948. A referendum (262 for, 232 against) marginally favoured the village to incorporate as the Town of Dieppe in 1952. At that time, Dieppe had over 3,000 inhabitants within its boundaries. Growth continued unabated throughout the 1950s and 1960s as Dieppe annexed the villages of Saint-Anselme and Chartersville and the local service districts of Dover-Fox Creek (Upper Dover), the parish of Dorchester (part), and the parish of Moncton (part), the latter in 1973. With its rural expansion came a growth in population exceeding 8,500 in the 1981 census. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Town of Dieppe, like the rest of the region, went through an economic downfall which limited its growth in population. By 2001, the Greater Moncton area and Dieppe's economy flourished and with it came a population increment of nearly 15,000 in 2001 to over 23,000 in 2011. To preserve its heritage, culture and identity as a community in Southern New Brunswick, Dieppe opted to incorporate itself as a city on January 1, 2003. At that time it became New Brunswick's eighth incorporated city. Maps of Dieppe from the 1960s show Champlain Street below Acadie Avenue as Main Street and above the intersection as Airport Road. ==Neighbourhoods==