On 29th April, 1970 under the Municipal and District Council’s Act 1969 fifty-five (55) square miles, comprising dense jungle, small settlements, a Bauxite Complex, and over firty thousand (50,000) people, and approximately sixty (60) miles up the Demerara River was declared a Town.
Originally called Macmarburg a dimunitive for Mackenzie/Wismar/Christianburg-it was officially designated as Linden by the first Mayor Egbert Benjamin after a Community wide call for a better name for the area in February 1971.
Now twenty-five years (25) after this historic event, a young and vibrant team of Councillors faced with grave depression in the Bauxite Industry, where the greater part of wage earners in the town are either directly or indirectly connected to the Bauxite Industry, along with a feeling of great insecurity of employment, is tasked with building a strong Community, and the foundation laid by their predecessors.
A stranger on his first visit to Linden, can hardly help being impressed by the remarkable difference between the two (2) sides of the river, which is only about one hundred (100) yards wide at this point. However, should he make investigations leading up to the development of the land on both banks, the apparent difference would no longer be appalling.
Linden as a Township is comprised of what were formerly the three (3) distinct and distinctly different-settlements of Mackenzie, Wismar and Christianburg. Christianburg, the oldest settlement in the area dates back to the days of the Dutch occupancy. These new colonialists first settled at Arague on the east bank of the Demerara River, about one mile from Christianburg, which was then known as Stabroek. These early settlers were mainly involved in sugar cane farming and rubber bleeding. The Dutch Governor at the time was a Christian Finnette, and he and his wife (who was a descendant of the Burgs-a prominent family in the Hague), lived at Stabroek from where extensive rubber bleeding took place. Later as the rubber plantation extended, Governor Finnette renamed the area Christianburg-joining his first name with that of the Burgs.
After the English invasion in the year 1803, John Patterson, a Scottish Engineer came to this country at the invitation of the english, to set up living quarters for Government officials. (He also built the Eve Leary barracks) Patterson chose Christianburg for his logging operations, using slaves, Dutch settlers and Amerindians as his work force. This mixed group were to form the nucleus of permanent settlers, and their names such as D’Anjou, DeClou, Fiedtkou, Jones, Adams, Couchman and Allicock are still scattered throughout the area.
In these early days Patterson transported logs by trying them together alongside a punt in which he and his wife lived, and using slaves with paddles and oars transported the logs down the river. Such trips lasted more than a week and many of the slaves, inexperienced as they were, lost their lives along the way. » Read the rest of this entry «
