Articles

--January 10, 2022. Canadian Casino Heritage and Lingo Canada’s casino and gambling industry has gone through a huge transformation over the years, turning into a multi-billion-dollar business. An industry that started with animal bone games thousands of years ago has transformed into lots of online casinos to choose from. As such, Canada is hailed as one of the countries where some of the earliest gambling games were conceived.

--November 29, 2017. The nominations are now open for the 2018 Marion Phelps Award and the 2018 Richard Evans Award. To view the nominating criteria or to download the forms, please click here! Please note that the deadline to make submissions is March 31, 2018.

--June 1, 2017. In the late 19th century, before there was television, movie houses or the Internet, people read. In addition to newspapers, which offered news and notice of current events, local libraries offered a selection of more timeless reading matter, mostly in the form of books.

By 1917, the reputation and actions of Lieutenant-Colonel Draper have crossed the Atlantic. When elections are announced in 1917, Draper is offered the Unionist candidature in Brome County. He accepts,yet stays at the front.

At the time of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Canada was propelled onto the international stage. The Sutton region indubitably reflected the Canadian fervor for the war effort at that time.

--December 5, 2016. REVIEW:A Genuine But Unrecognized Hero -- George Harold (Harry) Baker 1877-1916, by Serge Wagner, Patrimoine Bolton Heritage, 2016.

Benjamin Cate Howard (1865-1923) was born with a deep and solid Eastern Townships’ heritage - his grandparents from his father’s side had been Irish immigrants arriving in the Townships in the early 1820s, and a set of great grandparents from his mother’s side had been part of the Marlow pioneers in Stanstead, arriving from New Hampshire circa 1800. As it was, Ben Howard was born the second son to a farming family on what was known as the Howard Farm, Apple Grove, which was an area just a few miles northwest from where the old Marlow Settlement had been located - present day, Marlington.

The Richmond County Historical Society (RCHS) was formed in 1962. As part of our 50th anniversary celebrations, we have presented some photos and information from the past.

The Mills during the period of the French, British and Eastern Townships

The Woods (Burt) Store was located at the corner of Route 243 and Cemetery Road in Melbourne, Quebec. In 1887 the Upper Melbourne Post office, with H. L. Burt as Postmaster, was one of sixteen Richmond subscribers of the Bell Telephone Company of Canada.

Sir Casimir Gzowski, great-grandfather of Canadian broadcaster Peter Gzowski, and engineer for the St. Lawrence & Atlantic Railway, forerunner to the Grand Trunk, built this trestle over the St. Francis River at the north end of Richmond in 1852. (Photo courtesy of the Richmond County Historical Society Archives)

As I entered the Fort Chambly, old ghosts of people seemed to appear. I see some putting cannonballs in cannons and then light the wick. The sound is awfully loud! A tour guide then tells me about the history of the Fort Chambly… Fort Chambly was fist built in 1665. There were 4 forts. The first one was in wood. It was unfortunately too old so, they needed to replace it. They replaced it by another one in wood. It then accidentally burnt. Because the wood fort couldn’t protect itself from cannonballs and other explosives, they replaced the wood fort by a stone fort.

I would like to write about my ancestor William Thomas. William was born in England in 1784 and joined the army. He was in the 81st Regiment of Foot. The regiment was called “the Loyal Lincoln Volunteers”. He was sent to Canada to fight the war in 1812 called the Napoleon wars. He was sent to Quebec City and took a boat all the way to Hull to protect Lower Canada against the Americans.

In the month of May, the apples blossom. In fall, the apples are ripe and ready to be picked. Apple growing has been a main industry for Frelighsburg since 1930, but apples have been grown in the area for a long time. Frelighsburg is a good place to grow apples because of the gentile hills, the soils, and the pattern of the winds will blow in the area. Farmers began to change their farms to apple orchards. Adelard Godbout, who was once the premier of Quebec, had an orchard in the Frelighsburg area.

George was born in Napierville, in the province of Quebec, on September 29, 1836. His father was of Irish descent, and he was a farmer and a mill owner. The early days of George’s life was spent on the family farm and in his father’s mill.

In the 1800s railways were needed in the Eastern Townships to get to raw materials, for fast travel, the growth of businesses, and to fill in the desire to build more railway lines. In the past most people didn’t have cars to travel with or trucks to carry materials. Railways met this need.

The St. Francis College (1854-1898) played a prominent role on the education scene in Quebec.

Did you know that maple syrup is the oldest agricultural product in Quebec? It all began with the Indigenous peoples who called it “Sweet Water.” When spring returned and the maple sap was running the Indigenous peoples offered the boiled thickened syrup as a sacrifice to the Great Spirit. “Sugaring off” was largely a woman’s function in Iroquois communities. The men cut notches into tree trunks and small wooden troughs were stuck into the bark.