Why Is the Region Named after Evangeline? 5 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     Maximeville School, 
     
     1937. This school was 
     
     built in 1899. Over the 
     
     years it had an annual 
     
     enrolment of about 15 
     
     students. In 1963, it was 
     
     the first of the schools in 
     
     the Evangeline Region to 
     
     close its doors. The build- 
     
     ing was destroyed in a 
     
     fire in August 1993. 
     
     (Abram’s Village Handi- 
     
     craft Centre Collection) 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     M@ Evangeline, a Tale of Acadie 
     
    
   
   
    
     Evangeline is the main cha ter in an epic 
     
     the United States by Henry 
     
    
   
   
    
          
     
    
   
   
    
         
     
         
     
        
     
         
     
    
   
   
    
     e'8 briel Lajeunesse 
     
     young lovers from Grand-Pré, hows Scotia. On the day of their betrothal in | 
     
     1755, they are separated and deported by the British to the Anglo-American 
     
     colonies. After many years of wandering in search of her fiancé, Evangeline 
     
     takes refuge in a convent in Philadelphia where she becomes a nun. Hs is in 
     
     a hospital that she finds her beloved Gabriel on his death bed. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Translated into many languages, Longfellow’s p em became an 
     
     tional success. This story o Deportation, 
     
     brought world attention to the fate of the Acadians. As the Acadians 
     
     selves became familiar with the poem, they identified with Longfellow’ 
     
     sympathetic interpretation of their past and with the heroine who symbol- 
     
     ized the innocence of their ancestors. 
     
    
   
   
    
         
     
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     In the Acadian land, on the shores of the Basin of Minas, 
     
     Distant, secluded, still, the little village of Grand-Pré 
     
    

    
     Lay in the fruitful valley. Vast meadows stretched to the eastward 
     
     Giving the village its name, and pasture to flocks without number. /