Articles
Tracing your family roots can be challenging, many times disappointing, more often that not frustrating yet rewarding. As I have been “chasing down” my family, I have been fortunate to have made contacts with other individuals who not only share the passion for genealogy, but our families are sometimes related to each other. Our paths crossed by way of Argenteuil and Terrebonne counties in Quebec and sometimes in Montreal.
Author’s note: From response received from visitors to the Rawdon Historical Society website, there seems to be a great interest in Rawdon during the middle of the last century. In response to this interest, I have dug out my collection of the Rawdon News Bulletins and tried to portray Rawdon as it was at that particular time. I admit to using this source extensively for the following article, but I know that the editor and his staff would give whole hearted approval, were they still here.
This Georgian house was built in the 1830s for Col. Charles MacDonell, an officer in the British army, who organized the Argenteuil Rangers during the 1837 Rebellion. He married Ann Turner, the niece of the English painter J.
The many stone buildings in Cushing attest to its importance as a commercial centre in the 19th century. Lemuel Cushing, said to have been the most successful businessman in the county, built this imposing store in the 1830s. With a wharf situated on the [nearby] Ottawa River, Cushing was also involved in the fur trade as well as inland commerce.
Grenville had a military presence because of the canal. The original canal was designed and constructed by the Royal Engineers between 1819 and 1833. It was part of the St. Lawrence, Ottawa, and Rideau system which was built at a time when the United States' threat was real. Next to the canal is the lock-keeper's house.
Sometimes called "the Barracks", as it was commandeered by the British army and used to house soldiers during the Rebellion of 1837, this building was originally erected by General C. J. Forbes as a warehouse to protect equipment serving the old Carillon Canal. Later, it became the Sovereign Hotel, and in 1934, with the help of Dr. Maude Abbott and Dr.
Les Publications du Québec has just released a new book, titled Les ponts couverts du Québec. Produced in association with Quebec’s Ministry of Transport, the book is the first comprehensive study of the covered bridge phenomenon in the province.
The tiny Lower Laurentian hamlet of Mille Isles was once a thriving town centre for an active pioneer farming community. Settlement began as early as the 1830s by mainly Irish Protestant emigrants. Today the Municipality of Mille Isles, which is only a 40-minute drive from Montreal, is a growing residential area for both commuters and second homes on its many small lakes.
This place, the chef-lieu of the county of Argenteuil, is located on the North River, 9 miles from the Ottawa and 44 north of Montreal. It is also on the line of the Canadian Pacific Railway, -- formerly the Q. M. O. & O. Railway.
This township is bounded on the north by Mille Isles, east by the Seignory of Two Mountains, south by the Seignory of Argenteuil, and west by Wentworth, and contains about 23,660 acres and the usual allowance for highways. It has several beautiful little lakes, and much fine scenery.
Two competing waves of migrationto the Laurentians got under wayin the early 1840s, according to historian Serge Laurin. One, says Laurin, wasFrench-Canadian and Catholic, the other wasEnglish-Canadian and Protestant. Both occurred at precisely the same time; both followed different routes.
Curé Antoine Labelle could not have developed the upper Laurentians if he had not been empowered and supported by Ignace Bourget, Bishop of Montreal. Bourget was one of the most powerful clerics in Quebec during the 19th century. From his inauguration in 1840 to his death in 1885, he led the Quebec clergy in filling a leadership vacuum in French Canada. The Laurentian colonisation and the creation of the towns north of Ste. Agathe were among the many accomplishments of the clergy, but they could not tolerate criticism.
Lachute is at the centre of the early English-speaking settlements of the Laurentians, and many historic trails lead back to it. There is no mystery as to where its name came from, though. Both La Riviere du Nord and La Chute appeared on maps made during the French regime, prior to 1760 and the property was designated as a seigneury as early as 1682. All the same, the land where the town is today and some of its surrounding area was once described as Lane's Purchase, and was first officially called the Parish of St-Jerusalem.
1) Brownsburg is named in whose honour?
a) William Brown, who established a brewery there, the first in Canada.
b) George Brown, an early pioneer who built a mill.
c) Jeremiah Brown, a Methodist preacher.
d) None of the above. The town is actually named after a village in England.
The following passage, by naturalist and travelogue writer T. Morris Longstreet, was written long before the days of modern insect repellents and nylon tents with ultra-fine mesh.It contains valuable information and advicefor campers venturing deep into the Laurentian woods in the month of June.Matthew Farfan, Editor
St. Mungo's Church (Presbyterian), a solid structure, built after the fashion of the old style Scotch country-parish churches, stands in a fine position on the bank of the Ottawa River, about midway between the villages of Grenville and Carillon.
This pleasant little village or hamlet, which has recently sprung into some prominence on account of being the site of the Cartridge Factory, and near the lately discovered granite quarry, was, in early years, made a place of no little importance by the erection of Brown's mills.
Though considerable pains were taken to obtain a more complete history of the Anglican Church here, they were fruitless... Itinerant ministers visited St. Andrews, and preached in the early years of her history; but the first church formed was the Church of England, by the Rev. Richard Bradford, as early as 1811.
This place is located on the Ottawa, about three and a half miles west of Grenville, and it is doubtful if the scenery around it is surpassed in beauty by that of any other village in the province. It is situated on a high, level tract of ground less than half a mile in breadth, which is bounded by the river on the south, and on the north by a mountain rising abruptly, and running parallel with the river.