History of Moncton - First Incorporation

First Incorporation

The prosperity engendered by the wooden shipbuilding industry allowed The Bend to incorporate as the town of Moncton in 1855. The first mayor of Moncton was the shipbuilder Joseph Salter. The town was named after Lt. Col. Robert Monckton, the British military commander who had captured Fort Beauséjour a century earlier. A clerical error at the time the town was incorporated resulted in the misspelling of the community's name which has been perpetuated to the present day.

Two years later on August 20, 1857 the European and North American Railway opened its line from Moncton to the nearby Northumberland Strait port of Shediac; this was followed by the E&NA's line from Moncton to Sussex and on to Saint John opening in 1859. The arrival of the railway initially didn't have a significant impact on Moncton as the E&NA was headquartered in Shediac, where it maintained its locomotive shop.