SHED ASCOT CORNER
Welcome to the shores of the Saint-François, this beautiful river that follows through the heart of our territory. You will discover on these walls a few of our founding families, bridges that have tied us together, and the paths that we have travelled over time. Hope you enjoy your visit!
The Ascot Corner name reflects both its history and territory. The post office which opened in 1864 adopted this toponym as an established name.
The word Corner conveys the North-East corner of the Ascot township where the first families settled, near the entry point of the Saint-François River.
However, this word also means junction, recalling the crossroads to Sherbrooke, Westbury and Lennoxville which the pioneer hamlet already had in 1830’s. This crossroad designates a territorial particularity. Ascot Corner is exceptionally found at the crossroads of the four corners of the townships of Ascot, Stoke, Westbury and Eaton.
In 1901, these four townships each yielded a parcel of their territory to allow for the creation of the municipality which was a unique case in the region.
The coat of arms commemorates the cluster from which the municipality originated from by illustrating the contour of its territory and its founding townships. Ascot’s is represented by gears, which are symbols of its dynamism and its beginnings at urbanism. The maple leaf is a reminder of the Stoke township Sugar shack, pine refers to the Westbury’s forestry industry and the wheat head symbolizes Eaton’s agricultural nature.
In the center, the blue ribbon as a symbol for the Saint-François River, dotted with islands, flows through Ascot Corner East to West. At the pinnacle of the coat of arms, under the sun, hills evoke the municipality’s topography.
In red, on this old map, is the open pathway in the region in 1835 by the British American Land Company to facilitate the sale of its lots to British colonists. It also indicates the village that gave birth to the municipality.
In green, the cleared portions are interspersed with black dots representing buildings. Two settlements can be seen. One is found along the road towards Lennoxville, Old Road, which was the first access road to Ascot Corner (today’s chemin Biron). The other is located near the road which travels along the Saint-François River towards Westbury.
In 1891, the road network entered a new era with the construction of the covered bridge between the Ascot and Eaton townships. On the Ascot side, the bridge ends near the panoramic Shed, where vestiges of its foundation are still visible.
Built for horse-drawn vehicles, this long wooden bridge did not accept the arrival of motorized vehicles well. In 1931, the government prohibited trucks from crossing the bridge and motorists were hesitant to cross it as well.
The well awaited construction of a new bridge, upstream from the covered bridge began in 1936. The work included repair work on the road and stretched out over the next two years.
In 1938, the Sherbrooke artist and decorator Antonio Montour immortalised the municipality’s panorama, a few months before the demolition of the covered bridge located on the far left of the tableau. The new bridge is featured in the center of this work of art.
The gravel quarry can be seen on the side of the valley and one can guess what a chimney from the Ascot Corner brickyard on the hill on could be the far right.
The original painting of impressive size is exhibited in the Ascot Corner municipal council room.
The passage of Québec Central convoys punctuated municipality daily life for more than a century. The railroad reached Ascot Corner in 1874, marking the very first milestone that will favor the Haut- Saint-François’ development.
As early as 1875, the Sherbrooke based company introduced regular service, which allowed people to go into town and return home in the same day. The lines reached Lévis in 1881 and Québec in 1921.
It’s union with other railroad networks notably, the Canadian Pacific and Canadien National in Sherbrooke, opened a vast market for local businesses. Ascot Corner exports among others copper mineral and bricks. Cheese from its creamery is sold as far as Great Britain.
Starting in the 1940’s, the improvement of the road network led to the decline in the use of trains. The Québec Central passenger service ceased in 1956 and merchandise transportation in 1994.
The brickyard was the economic driving force for the municipality for more than 50 years. The Levasseur artisanal bricade which opened in 1889 is quickly bought by Sherbrooke anglophone industry professionals. At the beginning of the 1900’s, the facility produced 30 000 cooked bricks per day.
Édouard-Louis Darche, Ascot Corner’s general merchant, then became shareholder of the brickyard and sole owner in 1918. Ten years later, he introduced electricity and modernised operations. Following his death is 1937, his sons took over. Sold once more in 1947, the brickyard closed in 1949.
Reputable throughout Québec, Ascot Corner bricks were inter alia used to build the Angus factory in Montréal and several paper factories in East Angus, Brompton, La Tuque and Berlin in New Hampshire. These were abundantly used in Sherbrooke notably in the construction of the Saint-Charles seminary, Paton factory and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital.
Pioneer families of American and British origin had their own schools by the mid-1830’s. The building, neighbouring their cemetery was located near the current Ascot Corner town hall. Said school was also a place for community meetings and religious services lead by Dudswell and Westbury pastors.
In 1863, some one hundred anglophone families lived in the territory along with a dozen or so francophone families, notably the Biron brothers established as soon as 1830 on the road that bears their name today.
The arrival of the railroad in 1874, facilitated French-Canadian immigration, but also the departure of several anglophones in the region. Some will head West which was accessible by train as early as 1885.
In 1901, The first Ascot Corner municipal council is composed of six French Canadians, including the mayor, and two British pioneer descents: the Hall and Goddard council members.
The passage from the 19th to the 20ieth century marks a turning point in Ascot Corner’s history. The Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka church was built in 1894, its presbytery in 1895 and the official parish was founded in 1898.
Darche, general merchant, built his store around 1890, bought a large home and its ground level housed the municipality office. In 1901, the English school is yielded to the Catholic school board, which then made it bigger.
The school will be used up until the creation of a mixed convent in 1952. A boy’s college was then built which would become in 1988 what is currently known as Source-Vive.
The old convent, transformed into a multifunctional center, today houses ten or so community organisations linked to sports, leisure, and culture. Between city and country, Ascot Corner offers a welcoming living environment to its three thousand inhabitants.
Édouard-Louis Darche, merchant is closely tied to the development Ascot Corner. Churchwarden, municipal council member and school commissioner, owner of the brickyard as well. He had sixteen children with his wife Georgianna Simard. At the time of his death in 1931, his eldest son François-Xavier took over.
Sold in 1948 to the Bergeron family, the general store burnt down in 1952 and the parish people helped rebuild it. The Bergeron grocery/butcher shop, then expanded and served the people for approximately forty years.
The municipality has a long sporting tradition and has three well-equipped parks. The Grand Parc Pomerleau, visible from the 112, offers among others soccer fields, a skating rink in the winter, pool in the summer and a water access ramp for canoes. The Dubreuil and Goddard Park welcomes tennis and volley-ball enthusiasts.
Shed Cookshire-Eaton
Welcome to the Cookshire-Eaton municipality. This location offers an excellent view of our region with a panoramic view that extends to the New Hampshire mountains.
For a long time, Aboriginals were the only ones to work the land of this immense territory. The arrival of settlers in the Eaton township at the turn of the 19th century marked the beginning of a new era. Over time, land clearing and agriculture shaped the landscape by creating fields, prairies and pastures interspersed with farm buildings. You will discover here a few pages of our agricultural history.
Before the Township people’s openness to colonisation, small groups of Abenakis sometimes traveled in the region. They live mostly from hunting, fishing, and gathering, but they also in season cultivated some open land near rivers.
Aboriginals used companion planting for the “three sisters” crops: corn, squash, and beans. Corn protected squash from blazing sun and wind, whereas the squash leaves served as ground cover to prevent erosion all the while maintaining its level of humidity. Beans would climb up corn stalks toward the light and in return would fix the nitrogen level in the soil.
These indigenous plants were adopted by European settlers upon their arrival to America, as did the recipe for the fabrication of maple syrup. Regarding companion planting, it is today one of the organic farming cultivation techniques.
When American pioneers arrived in the township in the 1790’s, they found themselves in the middle of the forest. They opened clearings, then sowed the grain between the stumps to produce their first crops. In 1798, a year after his settlement, settler Rufus Laberee succeeded in planting more than three hectares of wheat with the help of his sons, aged 12 and 8.
In 1800, 9% of the township land is already cleared. Men are not equipped to remove the stumps, so they burn them on site. They boil and decant the hardwood ashes to make potash. This first commercial production will provide them with a good source of revenue for a long time.
Most of the pioneer families have farming experience acquired in New England. They ensure their livelihood with diversified production through rudimentary tools and the driving force of cattle harnessed to yokes.
There are fields of wheat, barley, buckwheat, millet, corn, and oat as well as flax, hemp, and tobacco. In vegetable gardens potatoes, peas, turnip, beans, squash, and pumpkin etc. are grown. They also raise cattle, cows as well as sheep, mainly for their wool. Sugar and syrup are provided through the sugar shack.
Like the Abenakis before them, pioneers gather berries and practice trapping, hunting, and fishing. During the first years, their fields are sometimes destroyed by bears. Two settlers will have 26 of their sheep killed by wolves.
Then, a few French Canadian and British immigrants settled in Eaton. In 1831, the township has 125 families living in it of which more than one hundred make a living through farming. Breeding flourished, and by 1835 a local farmer was able to export 100 oxen to Quebec City.
The township settlers sell their salt to local places that sell potash, such as the one in Eaton Corner built circa 1805. In the 19th century, Québec has several hundreds of potash factories, a caustic alkaline which is very much in demand in England where the cotton mills use it to bleach cotton fibers.
In 1850, Canadian shipments reach 12 000 tons. The industry’s decline, with the arrival of new bleaching agents will not have an impact in Eaton where land clearing is almost finished.
Mid 19th century, the cleared areas have considerably increased. Several Eaton farmers now have 12 to 25 hectares of land to cultivate, and a significant number of agricultural holdings extend over more than 80 hectares.
A hundred or so families have thus cleared close to three quarters of the Township. Often relatives, these landowners play a leading role in the regional economy.
During this era, farmers favour harvesting oat and barley and diminish their surfaces devoted to wheat and corn. They abandon buckwheat for rye and potato planting increases. The most significant change can be seen in the beef cow herding industry which becomes more professionalised.
In the 1880’s, the township has fifteen large cattle farmers. The Federal minister John Henry Pope, of which his Angus and Hereford cattle herds are reputable across the country is the leader of these rural capitalists.
Eaton farming will not change much during the first decades of the 20ieth century. It will, however, profoundly change after that.
After the 1930’s crisis, the growth experienced which followed the Second World War was quickly interrupted by a stagnation period of farming product prices. Several farmers experiencing debts are forced to go bankrupt. Between 1940 and 1970, the number of farms declined by 60% in the Eastern Townships. Those that survived largely turn to dairy farming.
Today, farming activity in the great Haut-Saint-François region have diversified. Cattle, dairy and pig husbandry remain predominant, but we also harvest a lot of fodder for sale purposes as well as grains and protein crops such as soy.
Fish and sheep farming have developed. They now provide more than half of the production in the Eastern region. The fruit and vegetable sector experiences a sustained increase in the last several years.
In Cookshire-Eaton in particular, Christmas tree farming is well established for many decades, and is favoured by the proximity to the American market. Organic fruit and vegetable production present since the end of the 1960’s, has been affirmed since 1990 as an important regional specialty. Some maple producers are also organic certified.
During the summer and fall, several public markets allow people to directly reconnect with people that cultivate the regional territory and notably that of the old Eaton township.
Denis Palmer the artist who painted the artwork hanging in the shed, has a bachelor’s in architecture. He participated in various watercolour, graphic arts and drawing workshops in Sweden and the United States. He has also traveled and practiced his art in South America, Scandinavia and elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Western Canada and the Martimes. The artist favours watercolour and landscapes that allow him to capture the decor and people of his homeland, the Eastern Townships such as, harvesting maple syrup, Remembrance Day, the Cookshire agricultural fair, labour competitions, auctions, Sawyerville bar life or daily activities between friends and neighbours reflecting life. Denis Palmer thus records stories, anecdotes, and arguments which he then tries to incorporate into his works.
Shed Dudswell
Welcome to Dudswell on the shores of lac Adolphe, downstream from the lac d’Argent. You will find yourself at the heart of what once was called le village Français (French village), where the Marbleton catholic population lived. Said population was differentiated from the village Anglais (English village) located near St. Paul’s Anglican Church.
An anchor point, for Reverend Chapman, architect, and builder, the Marbleton people also saw the rise of a woman destined for greatness. Eva Tanguay became at the beginning of the 20ieth century the greatest star of American vaudeville.
You will encounter on these walls’ other creators from our territory such as, the painter Stuart Main and his daughter Wendy de Bishopton, Ralph Gustafson, a poet native to the long-lost village of Lime Ridge, and sculptor Louis-Émile Beauregard, a member of a Saint-Adolphe parish pioneer family.
Marbleton and Bishopton, both sectors of our municipality, are also known for the quality of the heritage its people have built. Rich in history, nature, and its people, we wish you a great visit in Dudswell and hope you will make great discoveries!
Born in Marbleton in 1878, youngest child in the Dr. Octave Tanguay and Adèle Pageau family, Eva grew up near Lime Ridge in the long-lost village of Harding’s Corner. She became inseparable from her neighbour and friend Mabel Barker, the Dominion Lime Co. manager’s daughter. Both children lost touch in 1883 when the Tanguay’s exiled to Holyoke, Massachusetts.
In 1886, when she was eight years old, Eva participated in an amateur contest where her costume created from an old umbrella, generated taunting from the crowd. Questioned by the animator, the girl explained that she created her costume herself because her family was poor and asserts with confidence that she wants to become a famous actress. Eva sang in front of a captured audience and won first prize, a well-deserved dollar.
In 1888, she replaced last minute a young star who fell ill in a company which was touring Holyoke. Eva traveled with said troupe on the road for five years. Beginning in 1900, shows and triumphs accumulate. In 1908, her fee reached $3500 a week, which was an astronomical amount at the time. After having run in New York, productions went on tour for months. Eva amassed a fortune estimated at two million dollars.
The superstar’s career slowly declined in the 1920’s. In 1927, she married for the second time and quickly divorced. Eva returned to the stage, but with no success. Also ruined by the 1929 crash, she moved seven years later into a small bungalow in Hollywood. She died in 1947 surrounded by her niece, a nurse, and a neighbour.
After her début at 10 years old in the title role of Little Lord Fauntleroy, Eva Tanguay commenced her Broadway career in her early twenties. She would play a lot of roles and appear in several musical comedies with successful songs. Her choreography and dance interpretation of the seven sails in A Vision of Salome were sensational.
Creative, the artist creates several of her costumes herself with such audacity and surprising eccentricity. Her vaudeville numbers, electrifying presence and her complicity with the public made her the style’s queen. Variety magazine said that Eva was to Vaudeville what Babe Ruth is to baseball, Dempsey to boxing and Chaplin to the theatre.
Eva and Mabel Barker, childhood friend, reconnected in 1900 when Eva was on tour in the city. Happy coincidence, Mabel made a career in classical singing. They passed a memorable week together.
In 1947, a few weeks after Eva’s death, her old comrade agrees to an interview with a Sherbrooke newspaper. Diving into her souvenirs, she recounts the moment she met Eva again in Montréal the way she had known her in her youth, with a heart of gold and full of life.
At that time, I was singing professionally in Montreal, and I went to see her. We had a wonderful week together when she was free from the theater. I found her the same lovable girl, never forgetting old friends or favor, and with a heart of gold. I will always remember her as a tousled headed girl full of life and the joy of living.
Mabel (Barker) Bradley
Sherbrooke Daily Record, March 1, 1947
Upon his arrival in Marbleton, the pastor began construction of St. Paul’s church and its interior furnishings. Several churches were built after that following his plans, inter alia in Bishopton (Church of the Good Shepherd) and East Angus. Chapman will also build both homes where his family lived and the first school in Marbleton.
A sports enthusiast and nature lover, Thomas Chapman is a pioneer for outdoor leisure activities. He camps every summer in a tent with his wife and children on the shores of lac d’Argent, organizes a fishing club and participates in the construction of the Club House. He then builds a chalet on one of the two islands on the lake.
He also explores Bald Peak; the culminating point of mount Stoke. At age 72, in 1896, he decides to build a refuge and clears the path up to the summit with his horse Dolly, and the help of an old friend who worried about him working alone. This remarkable achievement opened access to the future Mont Chapman, well-known to Sentiers de L’Estrie enthusiasts.
The reverend is an entrepreneur at heart. He notably invented the snow plough which he patented and will be used in Marbleton for a long time. He also was committed to regional development by sitting on the Board of Québec Central, of which the railroad reached Dudswell in 1875.
To ease the exportation of lime, Chapman obtained permission for the construction of a connection toward Lime Ridge, after having himself performed the field survey to demonstrate the project’s feasibility. This railway will be used for approximately twelve years, until the arrival of the Maine Central line in 1888.
Circa 1903, nearing 80 years old, Thomas Chapman made one last round of the Eastern Townships to promote road improvements. In 1912, Québec Central organized a special convoy from Sherbrooke to Marbleton for the exceptional Dudswell pastor’s funeral.
Both these archived images, taken 25 years apart, are a testimony to Dudswell industrial development after the arrival of the train in Lime Ridge in 1876. Manpower thronged and as far as Sweden. Circa 1895, Carl Gustafson, a photographer came to join his brother who was a dynamiter at the quarry.
He quickly found work at the general store owned by James Barker, manager of the Dominion Line Co., Carl married James Barker’s eldest daughter, Ella in 1898. Circa 1904, the couple settled in Sherbrooke, but it is in Lime Ridge, in her parent’s house that she gave birth to their son Ralph in 1909.
Ralph Gustafson, in his younger years, discovers his natal village when he visited his grandparents. Lime Ridge would later be the inspiration for a book, that remains unpublished. Poetry will be at the heart of his work. A graduate of Bishop’s University and then Oxford in England, he published his first collection of poems in 1935.
He then lived in New York, where he worked for the British Information Service during the war. His Canadian poetry anthology published in 1942, won him international acclaim. After his wedding in 1958, he settled in North Hatley and taught at Bishop’s from 1963 to 1979.
Gustafson published some twenty collections of poems and received the Governor General award for Fire on Stone in 1974. He also translated a few of Alfred DesRochers’ poems with whom he shared a love for the Eastern Townships. Ralph Gustafson was designated as a member of the Order of Canada in 1990 for his exceptional contribution to Canadian literary heritage.
Grandson of a pioneer, Louis-Émile Beauregard always loved working with wood. He was initiated to carpentry at a young age by his father, eldest of a family of eleven children he quickly built toys for his brothers and sisters.
He reconnected with his passion as an adult and became the archivist of his childhood rural world. Picturesque scenes of daily life and farming, implements and horse-drawn vehicles create an exceptional panorama of bygone era. These implements, for the most part functional, are reproduced to scale with the utmost precision.
Louis-Émile Beauregard was notably municipal secretary for 12 years and Saint-Adolphe-de-Dudswell postmaster from 1962 to 1987. He devoted all his free time to his passion, some of his works demanded more than 500 hours to complete. Upon his death in 1989, his legacy is 66 wooden models of which 64 were given by his family to the Dudswell municipality.
STUART MAIN
An East Angus native, Stuart Main the painter, discovered his love of drawing in childhood when he was hospitalized in the city. After high school, he took a three-year graphic art correspondence course and in 1957 started a professional career as an illustrator for advertising agencies in Montréal.
The artist affirms himself as a landscape painter in the early 1970’s, at the time he settled in Bishopton with his family. His oil paintings notably represent typical Eastern Township landscapes but also of regions such as Charlevoix and Saguenay. Nature and rural Québec architectural heritage are constant sources of inspiration for him.
Retired from illustrating in 1992, Stuart Main then devoted himself full time to his pictorial work. His paintings today are part of countless collections in Québec and Canada and the United States. He also signed several portraits on demand as well as self portraits.
WENDY MAIN
Wendy, the painter’s daughter, has been making stain glass and glass mosaics for many years, after having worked as a gardener and landscaper for many years. Made in her Dudswell workshop, her works are the echo of her love of nature and her sense of harmony.
Shed East Angus
As the name implies, the Parc des Deux Rivières is located where two important rivers meet: The Saint-François and Eaton rivers.
THE SAINT-FRANÇOIS RIVER
The Saint-François River is the main river in the Eastern Townships. It is one of the largest basins in Québec, it covers a 10 230 square kilometre area of which approximately 14% can be found in the United States. Its source is located at Lake Saint-François in Lambton. The river heads south, crossing the Haut-Saint-François territory going through East Angus and in Lennoxville branches off to the north. It ends in Lake Saint Pierre, where the Saint-Lawrence River widens after having travelled a little over 200 kilometers.
THE EATON RIVER
The Eaton River is one of the main tributaries of the Saint-François River. It is fed by two main branches that come together a few kilometers upstream from Cookshire. It is the Eaton Nord (North River) and Eaton Sud that have their headwaters in the mountain range borders. Its basin covers approximately 200 square kilometers.
AMERINDIAN Presence
Archeological searches on the East Angus territory have allowed to identify a dozen sites where Amerindians settled long before the arrival of the first settlers in the region. In existence for at least 10 000 years on the Saint-François River, Amerindians had a way of life based on hunting, fishing, and gathering. They would travel great distances every year to exploit the wildlife and aquatic resources essential to their survival.
Amerindians would also have to travel to find the necessary materials to make their weapons and tools, such as projectile tips and knives, along with stone scrapers they used daily. On the East Angus site, archeologists have discovered tools made with stone coming from as far as Mount Kinéo in Maine, Berlin in New Hampshire, and Lake Champlain in Vermont. Amerindians invented the bark canoe to make traveling and long trips easier. This boat was easy to transport on the men’s backs when came the time to circumvent falls and rapids which constituted a navigational hazard.
Confluences like this one were sought-after rest areas. Amerindians would pitch their wigwams to rest all the while exploiting the rampant aquatic resources at the time. The Saint-François River was once considered one of the greatest salmon rivers in Québec. There have been two important salmon pools in the current East Angus city limits one of which is near the confluence in front of the park. One could find an abundance of eels and sturgeons in the rivers as well. In the 1930’s and 1940’s sturgeon was still fished in East Angus
Shed Hampden
The Franceville colony
The name Franceville, designates a portion of the Mont-Mégantic National Park and reminds us of the presence of French immigrants in the region at the end of the 19th century. Records of fifteen or so families such as the Constant, Fongellaz, Gabert, Laumaillier, Oisel, Pinoteau family, established in the vicinity of Chemin de Franceville can be found in the archives.
A dozen old stone foundations have been identified near the that road of which a few were found on park’s territory and on the ecological Samuel-Brisson reserve. The wild apple trees along the road are said to be offspring of trees that were planted by French settlers, perhaps by the Pinoteau family who were gardeners by trade.
Recruitment of French colonists
The Franceville establishment responds to the resettlement efforts following the exodus of a major part of the population to the United States. Québec wants to repatriate those who exiled and attract French immigrants to the region. In 1871, he published a brochure for them about colonisation in the Eastern Townships. Immigration agents travelled France’s countryside to recruit settlers.
Hope for a better life, far way from the hardships in Europe
The migrants left a France ravaged by war with Prussia (1870-1871) and a Europe shaken by a severe economic crisis. This marked the beginning of great periods of French immigration to Québec. Between 1870 and 1914, close to 30 000 French people temporarily or permanently settled in Canada.
Harsh Reality
Contrary to the Piopolis and Notre-Dame-des-Bois settlers, French colonists were not supported by a colonization society. Upon their arrival in the region in the 1870’s, there was no chapel or community building. Nothing was organized to welcome them. Furthermore, they were completely isolated, distanced from the village core.
No land clearing had been done in the area they settled in, at the border of the Hampden and Marston Township. All their lots are made of standing wood. It is hard to imagine what these European colonists must have felt faced with all the work that had to be done to survive. They however, rolled up their sleeves and were determined to overcome this hurdle. Their first winters were particularly difficult.
The Northern side of the Mountain
The colonisation agents had promised French immigrants a territory that would be easy to develop and suitable for agriculture, but the chemin de Franceville lots are located on the Northern side of the Mont Mégantic mountain. The uneven terrain, granite rocks, slopes that reduce sun exposure, the presence of marshy areas, all of which limit the agricultural potential of the settler’s land.
To make matters worse, this is the region that gets the most snow in Southern Québec. We now know that the harvest season in the Mont Mégantic is approximately 100 days, compared to 120 days in the Sherbrooke area.
A colonization that does not take root
The arrival of the Scotstown railroad in 1878 improved the region’s economic situation. In Franceville, the wood industry provides work for several settlers. A sawmill is built at McLeod’s Crossing on chemin Victoria, a few kilometers from the colony. The name of this village, at the crossing of the railroad between Scotstown and Milan, reminds us that this area was populated by the Scottish people and such as early as the 1840’s.
The Scottish presence in the areas then declined much like that of the French a few decades later… Despite their efforts, life remained very difficult for the Franceville settlers and exiles quickly ensued. Pioneers are gradually replaced by French Canadians that were used to the extreme climate.
It must be said that these European immigrants do not have a “patriotic” vision of colonisation, contrary to French Canadians who settled in Notre-Dame-des-Bois, La Patrie or Saint-Léon de Marston (Val-Racine). When they understand that they cannot improve their situation, they hop on the train and try their luck elsewhere such as in Montréal or the United States. At the turn of the 1900’s, Franceville is nothing but a memory.
MINING
Immigration land for the French settlers, the Franceville region also welcomed syenite mining. This stone was used to build monuments and buildings. The quarry was located on the hillside of the North-Western side of Mont Mégantic. The discovery of this deposit and its first artisanal mining dates to 1892. Mining evolved over the next 60 years. Vestiges demonstrate that the main entry to the quarry was 44.2m wide by 9m high. Some other small openings near the main one are visible over more than 800 metres. Approximately six men worked at the quarry in the winter of 1929, a time of year when settlers are available, and transport is made easier because of the hardened roads due to cold weather. Heavy stone shipments are horse-drawn on a 4km distance up to the Scotstown railroad. Said quarry was mined periodically by various companies until 1955. Notable a 3-ton derrick, a forge, a small wagon on wooden rails and a draught horse stable can be found. The camp could house approximately fifteen workers.
THE END OF OPERATIONS
Although this mine was in operation for 6 decades, this syenite deposit did not offer optimal returns. The intervals between the variable and consecutive joints (strata or natural cracks) often too close for commercial usage. Large blocks can be obtained, but the waste proportion is very high. The presence of zircon also renders polishing more difficult. Furthermore, over time, the stone loses its brightness and green colour tends to turn marbled yellowish brown, a phenomenon that can be observed on the tombstones in the Scotstown cemetery. These factors along with a miner’s death explains the abandonment of the quarry in the mid 1950’s.
VESTIGES
Several vestiges are a testimony to the Mont Mégantic’s mining activities. Cut stone, stone waste, walls with traces of forging, some equipment such as a derrick remind us of the regional settler’s hard labour.
SYENITE
The main rock in the quarry is alkaline medium-grained about 4mm dark green syenite. It is defined as a magmatic plutonic rock. Its formation is the result of a geological process which gave birth to the Mont Mégantic mountains. About 125 million years ago, the pressure pushed the magma through the cracks in the Earth’s surface. Syenite was created deep inside by the crystallisation of the magma, under a thick layer of sedimentary rock. This less resistant rock, eroded over time to allow for syenite to emerge, a rock that is a lot harder.
EXTRACTION
The following images are taken from the article title, Tools and Machinery of the Granit Industry, written by Paul Wood. They illustrate the miner’s work at the Hillside quarry in Vermont at the end of the 19th century. The Mont Mégantic quarry resembled that of Hillside and used the same extraction techniques. In the 1930’s, rock extraction was done in several steps. After chalk marking the vertical and horizontal holes, the quarrymen would forge very deep the sides, back and front of the block to extract. Holes were then drilled on the sides and back of the block to insert black powder (less powerful than dynamite).
After the explosion, the stone was divided into smaller blocks with the help of black powder or by using chocks and wedges. The blocks were hoisted with a derrick to finally be transported to the rendering and cutting sites. Every often-dangerous step required a lot of know-how from the quarrymen.
THE MONT MÉGANTIC MOUNTAINS
On the Appalachian plateau, a magnificent circular ridge emerges circling an imposing central mountain. Mont Mégantic is a mountain that is 8kms in diameter and has 8 summits of which three of them are more than 1000m high. Mont Mégantic is the culminating point of the mountain at a 1105m altitude. It is surrounded to the North by the Franceville mountain, to the East by the Victoria and Saint-Joseph Mountain and to the West by the Pain de sucre mountain. Between the Mont Mégantic, Franceville and Pain de sucre mountains runs the mountain’s stream. This stream flows into the Salmon River which in turn spills into the Saint-François River. Even though Mont Mégantic is in the heart of the Appalachians its geological origins make it a Montérégie mountain much like Mount Saint-Hilaire or Mount Royal. Approximately 125 million years ago, magma made its way through a network of cracks. Not having succeeded at going through the rock, it rather cooled down and became stiff before reaching the surface. Once the intrusion of magma at Mont Mégantic’s origins in place, erosion used the mineral matter. Solid magma being harder than the surrounding rock, eroded more slowly letting this magnificent mountain emerge.
THE HEAVENLY GATES
Surrounding the northern half of Mount Mégantic, the Franceville mountains form a geologically exceptional semicircular ridge. The des cimes path goes around this remarkable ridge and is interspersed with vantage points. One of the most impressive is La Porte du ciel, where a vertiginous opening on the valley can be observed. In front of this breathtaking panoramic view, we get the feeling that the Earth and skies intertwine before our eyes. The Northernmost point of the mountain culminating at 835m, is where the Le Pic de l’aurore is located which is another, impressive look out area from where you can gaze out over the mysterious inner valley of the Ruisseau de la Montagne. Covered in moss, maple, pin and birch trees, the forest that covers the Franceville mountains is rooted in a syenite base. This mineral was previously mined on the North-Western side of the Franceville mountains. Surrounded by the Franceville peaks, the Mont-Mégantic National Park a grand territory with a unique atmosphere, a gem that is both shared and protected.
SCOTS MARSH
Bordered by a magnificent hardwood forest and criss-crossed by the meandering McLeod Creek, the Scots Marsh is home to a rare diversity of flora and fauna. Trees, shrubs, reeds, bulrushes, herbaceous plants, and mosses in the habitat permanently covered by a thin layer of shallow water. Dragonflies, fish, salamanders, beavers, small game, moose, great herons, ducks, teals as well as other shorebirds eat and live there. In addition to providing shelter and food for numerous species, this wetland is teeming with life, filters and purifies runoff, preventing droughts and floods by retaining water, and regulating the flow of watercourses. Fed by McLeod Creek, which joins the Salmon River a few sinuosities further, the Scots Marsh is undoubtedly a unique place to explore, offering total immersion in a unique, rich, and little-known natural environment.
Shed Lingwick
Welcome to the shores of the Salmon River. The name of this Saint-François affluent is a reminder of the era when fish would come to spawn in the waters, before the construction of dams and the drive era toward East Angus and Brompton paper industries.
This site was part of the road network in the region for more than 125 years. In the 1840’s, he saw Scottish Township pioneers of the canton cross on a ferry. A first iron bridge was built circa 1852 and was used when the French Canadians arrived at the end of the 19th century. Said bridge was replaced by a concrete one in 1924, which was demolished in 1972 after the realignment of route 108.
On these walls you will find a few pages of history reminding us of the culture and solidarity of the two main communities that built Lingwick Township. The community spirit people have today is part of the legacy they have left us.
The regional pioneers are fueled by a profound sense of belonging to their respective religions. The construction of a place of worship is a priority, for both French Canadians and Scottish people.
Partly built through communal efforts, the churches bear witness to the rootedness of communities in the Township. They enable families to express their faith while strengthening social cohesion.
More than 400 Scottish men, women and children settled in Lingwick Township in 1838 and in 1841. Evicted from Lewis Island, in the North, most of the people speak only Gaelic, a Celtic language. Supportive in this ordeal, the less fortunate Gaels will build their own homeland here. Emigration from Lewis Island to Lingwick will continue up until the 1890’s.
Families all arrived with their Gaelic bibles. They are Presbyterian, a religion that will for a long time prohibit the use of musical instruments in their churches. The rich repertoire of Gaelic psalms will be sung together a cappella. Outside the church, oral tradition is shared through community bards and poets.
The first mobilization of the French-Canadian community is geared toward obtaining religious services. Initiated in 1905 by Nazaire Bouffard and Mathias Caron, a request signed by 22 fathers of Lingwick Catholic families is addressed to the Bishop of the Sherbrooke diocese. The families would have to wait several years before obtaining a church. The construction contract was awarded to a Lambton contractor in 1911, and the building was completed during community work parties.
Choosing Sainte Marguerite of Scotland as a parish patron is a symbolic gesture for Scottish origin constituents, which will come in great numbers to the church’s benediction. This church today is part of the municipality’s heritage.
Francophones who settled in the townships at the turn of the 20ieth century quickly develop ties with their Scottish neighbours, who like them believe in support and solidarity. Scottish people will come to help build the Catholic church.
French-Canadian and Scottish farmers share machinery and lend a helping hand during harvest time and for big jobs. This esprit de corps in experienced on job sites and while driving, where each person must be able to count on his or her colleagues.
In the 40’s, when a fire demolished the M. MacLeod residence on the corner of rang Galson, men from both communities came to help rebuild his house. Women prepared meals for the workers and mutually helped each other. Support and helpfulness are an integral part of daily life.
Family residences have also been the first gathering spaces for meetings and parties. Scottish people gather for their ceilidhs, and French Canadians for their get-together. Dancing is a must when a piano or a violinist in present in the home. Francophones have their singalong songs and the Scottish have their Gaelic repertoire.
The most famous township ceilidhs were held at the Red Mountain school and at the Gaelic bard Finlay McRitchie’s home. Finlay will however see the use of the ancestral language starting to decline, because children of Scottish descent where all schooled in English. Louise MacLeod-Rancourt (1917-2010) was the last person in Lingwick to speak Gaelic, along with French and English.
Built in Gould in 1901-1902, the Town Hall welcomed anglophone social activities. Francophones started using it in the 1940’s and both communities shared memorable moments with local musicians.
The Sainte-Marguerite church hall, built in 1939, was used for religious and community activities. It was demolished in 1960 to allow for the construction of the Notre-Dame de France convent. Since 1992, this building houses the municipal office and a dozen social, cultural and leisure organizations. The tradition of community helps and involvement in Lingwick is very much alive.
Manon Rousso, Renown photographer
Manon Rousso, renown photographer is known for her exterior portraits. She integrates surrounding rural landscapes in her work and deems herself lucky to have access to such ecological diversity. For her, this natural form frame is “a colossal exterior studio”.
The arrival of digital technology in her traditional photography life, linked to film, forced her to overcome a new daily challenge; that of remaining passionate and to hold on to her art, in a way. For her, the important part as an image creator is to listen to her interior voice, to express herself in all her creativity all the while having the audacity to go beyond her intuitions to “love oneself in all we do and to flourish by doing what one loves.”
Recipient of numerous awards and accolades, Manon Rousso is a Lingwick native and still lives there.
Shed Weedon
Welcome! On these walls you will find a few pages of history that remind us of the forest’s key role in the development of Weedon. Additionally, the following three key figures, Toussaint-Hubert Goddu (pioneer), Germain Biron and Doris Lussier settlers born in Fontainebleau and descendants of one of the first families in the township will be presented.
For settlers who practice subsistence farming the forest represents an obstacle to overcome to obtain workable land. A sizeable portion of the trees cut down during the clearing process is simply burned. The hardwood ashes are used to make potash which is traded against food or essential goods.
However, the forest also helps pioneers survive. It provides wood to build things, for heating purposes, to make handles for tools, fences, and furniture. Additionally, the forest allows for the hunting of game, harvest of maple sap and wild garlic.
In 1848, a year after the arrival of the first group of settlers, Pierre Fournier built a sawmill then a grain mill, functioning with hydraulic energy from the Weedon River. Families now have wood planks for building and flour to make bread.
The drive era began circa 1854, when Cyrus Clark built a gigantic sawmill at Brompton Falls. He quickly erected two dams, one where the Aylmer dam is located and the other at the mouth of lac Saint-François, to facilitate wood floating to his mill.
The Clark company, who also built a paper factory circa 1870, closed in 1893. Brompton Pulp and Paper’s rein who also possessed factories in Bromptonville and East Angus, began in 1903.
These industries employ several loggers on their work sites in the winter and teams of drivers in the spring. Driving is also done on the Salmon River, the Saint-François’ main tributary. The chronicle at the time gives a good idea about the amplitude of such an activity:
June 21, 1916. The last of the Brompton Co. logs, that is more than 50 000 000 feet of wood, have passed through the St-Gérard floodgates. The floating of logs on the St-François River has also ended. Our brave workers have come back safe and sound.
The Bromptonville mill closed in 1948, however, driving which is dangerous for man and disrupts the river’s ecology would continue toward East Angus for a few more years.
For the past thirty years, the magnificent pine, spruce, birch, elm, ash, walnut, cedar, hemlock forests which abound in Weedon Township, have been extensively exploited for the timber trade; and today this rich exploitation takes place on a larger scale than ever before.
Every year, in addition to the countless logs of pine, spruce and whitewood, which are floated down the Saint-François River to the Brompton Falls sawmills, or manufactured at the vast steam mills of MM Trahan and M. C. Tanguay, thousands of carts loaded with lumber, telegraph poles, pulpwood, hemlock bark, etc. are shipped by rail to Québec City, Sherbrooke, St-Hyacinthe, Montréal and Trois-Rivières, and to many parts of the United States.
Undoubtedly, this local trade circulates money in the parish; it's manna that we must strive to collect; but on the other hand, this forestry operation will only be profitable to the farmers insofar as the careful cultivation of their land will be the queen of their thoughts and the object of their labors.
Excerpt from Notes sur la paroisse St. Janvier de Weedon, 1891, by Venant Charest abbot, Weedon agricultural commissioner
The forestry industry rose with the arrival of the Québec Central train in 1875. Weedon now has access to an external market and a phenomenal quantity of railroad ties, posts, wood pulp, as well as heating and construction wood is exported. Attracted by this resource, an American company opened a wood alcohol factory in 1908.
Several sawmills are in operation. A county deputy from 1904 to 1916, Napoléon Tanguay’s sawmill is located near the confluence of the Salmon and Saint-François River. There is also a sawmill in Saint-Gérard and five sawmills on the Weedon River. The last one built by the Rousseau family burned down in 1978.
Weedon also welcomes transformation companies, such as door and window manufacturers. Charcoal stoves are used from 1935 to 1980, a period during which trucks replaced trains. The region experienced its first reforestation efforts upon the initiative of Donat Magnan who planted more than a million trees.
The municipality today has a few wood transformation factories and close to 200 forestry vocation properties. In 1960, Domtar who bought back the Brompton Pulp and Paper stocks, owns close to 7000 hectares which is 30% of the territory. Most of the wood harvested is transported, as it was in the past, to pulp and paper mills and sawmills.
Toussaint-Hubert Goddu (1794-1879), the first township settler, born in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu. Fearless, he enlisted at 18 in the Anglo-American war from 1812-1815 and quickly became lieutenant. Services rendered during this conflict earned him a 500-acre land grant in Weedon in 1835.
Goddu now 41 years old, lives in Sainte-Marie-de-Monnoir where he remarried after several challenges. His first wife dies while giving birth to their 9th child and three of his sons died at a young age. The Weedon land grant gave him a push and he spent the summer of 1835 clearing parcels with two hired hands. However, the isolation trumped his determination, and he quickly left the region.
In 1837, he participated in the Patriot rebellion and is condemned to several months of exile. Back in the country, this previous school master and militia major worked as a carpenter, farmer, and merchant. A widower again, he comes back to Weedon in 1865 where he lives with his daughter Éloïse and his son-in-law Jean-Baptiste Brodeur. He died in 1879 and was buried in Montréal.
Germain Biron (1795-1869), originally established in Westbury, then moved to Weedon, which he knew from hunting there before, in 1841. He built the cabin, with the help of two of his sons that would be a home for his wife Élisabeth, a Baie-du-Febvre native just like him and their five other children.
For six long years, the Biron’s will be the only habitants of the township. One can only imagine their joy when a dozen families arrived in 1847. Germain Biron takes pleasure in calling these new settlers his “brothers from des pays d’en haut”. His eldest daughter and son-in law are part of these new settlers.
Passing through Sherbrooke in January 1848, the pioneer obtained a religious servicing promise. The colony welcomed the visit of a priest a month later. 1848 also marks the opening of the first cemetery, located on Biron land. Childhood diseases took a lot of children; 38 children and 4 adults were buried. Their mortal remains were transferred in 1858 to the new parish cemetery where Germain Biron has been resting since 1869. Élisabeth Boisvert, his courageous wife died the following year.
A Fontainebleau native, Doris Lussier is part of the fifth generation of Lussier’s living in Weedon. From Joseph, established in 1849, to Antoine, then Donat, and Doris, their local roots have nourished life and the works of this profoundly humanist scholar.
He lost his father at the age of 4 and moved to Lambton in 1924 when his mother remarried. After attending a local one-room schoolhouse he continued his schooling in Québec by obtaining a Masters from the Faculty of Social Sciences from Laval University in 1944. He become a secretary to Georges-Henri Lévesque, the faculty’s founder, taught a few years and created his well-known père Gédéon. A souverain militant along with René Lévesque, he is the author of a dozen books.
Doris Lussier, who had two sons with his wife Alice Gagnon, died in 1993 and his ashes have been laid to rest in the Fontainebleau cemetery.
JEANNINE BOURRET has been devoted to painting and engraving for more than thirty years. She works and lives in the Estrie region (Sherbrooke). Nature, time that passes by and what we leave behind are along with her daily observations and souvenirs from trips the foundation of her works.
Douglas Beauchamp wrote during the Albert Rousseau awards “Jeannine Bourret is inscribed in the tradition of artists that are looking for new ways to express themselves. Her great mastery of multiple painting and engraving techniques, her keen interest for exploration, and her audacity in the rendering of her compositions highlights triumphantly the quality of her art.”.
Jeannine Bourret has solely exhibited her art in more than sixty exhibits and an equivalent number of times in collective exhibits in Canada, the United States, France, England, and Spain. Her paintings are part of several public and private collections