We celebrate the heritage of the Hon. William Henry Steeves, Father of Confederation; the Steeves Family; and the Hillsborough and Albert County region.
Hillsborough was first established as Blanchard's Village around 1700, and was the home of Acadian farmers. These people led the way in dyke building and land reclamation, but they were expelled by the English in 1755 from what was then Nova Scotia. By 1763, they had moved up the valley to The Bend (Moncton) and down the other bank of the Petitcodiac River. They took up land grants in the Fox Creek area and are still residing there.
German immigrants arrived in this area via Pennsylvania in 1766, first landing in Moncton and later taking over the empty fields around Hillsborough. They resumed the dyking, reclaiming large tracts of land still farmed by Hillsborough families today. The most prominent family was that of Heinrich and Rachel Stief and their seven children (later Steves and Steeves), who were the founders of a family amounting to over 250,000 people worldwide. Quite a legacy indeed!
The museum is located in a charming Colonial mansion filled with light from its many windows. The original cottage was finished in 1812, and, in 1814, William Henry Steeves was born here as the oldest of eleven children. He became a Father of Confederation and, later, a member of the Senate. The cottage was enlarged around 1840 when William's father Joseph became rich. This, together with later additions, brought the size of the house to 6000 sq. ft.
The house was later used as the residence of the Mill Managers of the Albert Manufacturing Company (later the Canadian Gypsum Company). When the mill closed in 1980, the lands were purchased by the Village of Hillsborough, and in 1983 the house was leased by Heritage Hillsborough Inc. for use as a museum dedicated to the Hon. William Henry Steeves, the Steeves Family, and the history, peoples, and natural resources of Hillsborough and Albert County.
