Pierre Thibodeau and Guillaume Blanchard, the first European settlers in Albert County, arrived in 1698, founding what would eventually become known as the Shepody and Hillsborough areas. Born in 1631 in Poitre, France, Pierre Thibodeau, a 67 year old man at the time, chose the area at the base of Sheopy Mountain, because of its large fertile marshes, waterways full of fish, and forest full of game. In fact, all future Acadian settlements in the area, including those in Moncton and Memramcook, were started because of the first settlement established by Thibodeau at Shepody.
This grindstone likely comes from the Thibodeau mill in Shepody, which was established in 1700 using flour mill equipment purchased from a Boston Merchant. Nothing is known about what happened to these Acadian settlers after 1704, until the Expulsion of the Acadians. The grindstone is therefore one of the few remaining representations of the Acadians’ presence in the Albert County, as the settlements were destroyed when the British returned, shortly after the Battle of the Petitcodiac in 1755.