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October 5, 2004 -- As an amateur genealogist, I felt duly intimidated trying to conquer Canadian genealogy from Texas! When my father, Richard GRAY died in 1999, I found several documents linking him to Rawdon. With a hope and a prayer, I contacted Beverly Prud’homme at the Rawdon Historical Society to see if they had any information on the GRAY family from there. I sent what little information I had. My father was the son of George William GRAY & Alice Elizabeth WARD; George’s parents were John William GRAY, and his wife was Bertha Jane HIGGINS. That didn’t get us very far.

The first settlement at Rawdon occurred in the lower corners of the township early in the nineteenth century possibly between 1815 and 1820.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier, one of Canada's most illustrious Prime Ministers was born in the village of Saint-Lin in the Laurentians in 1841. Laurier studied law at McGill University where he received his degree in 1864. The young lawyer practiced in Montreal for a few years, but soon moved to the Eastern Townships, where he served as editor of a small newspaper in L’Avenir.

Tamaracouta Scout Reserve was opened as a Scout Camp in 1912 with funds provided by a group of generous citizens led by Colonel E. A. Whitehead. Originally a farm, the property formerly belonged to the Dawson family of Mille Isles.

When most people—especially Montrealers—talk about going to “the Laurentians” they are referring to the rugged but pristine recreational and wilderness areas in southwestern Quebec, including the impressive ski hills and trails in and around Saint-Sauveur, Val-David and Mont-Tremblant.

1) Deux-Montagnes refers to which of the following? a) A lake. b) A town. c) An MRC. d) All of the above. 2) Which of the following is a lake in the Laurentians? a) Lac des Six îles. b) Lac des Seize îles. c) Lac des Soixante îles. d) All of the above.

1) d) All of the above. 2) b) Lac des Seize îles, between Morin Heights and Arundel. 3) c) The municipality is situated at the northeast extremity of the old Milles-Isles Seigneurie, which took its name from the Milles-Isles or (Milles-îles) River, which was famous for its many islands, and which separates the Laval Island from the north shore. 4) a) The lake was christened by Saint-Jérôme magistrate Benjamin-Antoine Testard de Montigny in honour of his seven sons.

Born Maude Babin in St. Andrews East in 1869, Maude Abbott was orphaned as a young child by the death of her mother. The first cousin (once removed) of that other distinguished native of St. Andrews East, Prime Minister Sir John Abbott, Maude Abbott was adopted by her maternal grandmother, who had Maude’s family name legally changed to Abbott.

After Champlain and the first Europeans appeared in the New World some 400 years ago, the Algonquins became embroiled in the fur trade and in the bitter British-French-Indian wars of the seventeenth century.In 1653, the Iroquois drove the hunters of the “Petite Nation” into a corner on the shores of Le Petit-Lac-Nominingue where they, with their families, were massacred. A little more than a hundred years later, loyalist refugees and soldiers fleeing the American Revolution in 1776 fetched up in the lower Laurentians where they began farming.

Herman Smith-Johannsen is considered one of the world’s great ski pioneers. Born in Norway in 1875, he was a mechanical engineer by training, educated in Norway and Germany. As a young man, his career took him to the United States.

1) Sainte-Adèle was named in whose honour? a) The patron saint of skiers. b) The wife of a local politician. c) Maurice Duplessis’s aunt. d) None of the above. 2) The former name of Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts was what? a) Agathaville. b) Lac-des-Sables. c) Sainte-Agathe-des-Champs. d) All of the above. 3) Saint-Lin-Laurentides is the birthplace of which Canadian Prime Minister? a) Sir John Abbott. b) Brian Mulroney. c) Louis Saint-Laurent. d) Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

1) b) Adèle Raymond, who was the wife of Member of the Legislative Assembly Augustin-Norbert Morin. Morin had donated land for the erection of a church at this location. 2) b) Lac-des-Sables is the former name of Sainte-Agathe. It is also the lake around which the town is built. 3) d) Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was prime Minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. 4) d) All of the above. 5) a) Saint-Lin-Laurentides is actually in the adjacent Lanaudière Administrative Region. 6) a) Big Hill.

Author’s note: This is the product of the combined efforts of three people. Without the assistance of Daniel Parkinson as researcher and editor, this would be just another history of Rawdon. Thanks to his unwavering support and generous input, I am able to claim that this is the most accurate history of Rawdon available. The second person is Glenn Cartwright, who supplied information, leads to pertinent documents, and who was responsible for this article being posted on the Internet. To these two gentlemen I extend my thanks and appreciation.

The Argenteuil Agricultural Society, best known for its sponsorship of the Lachute Fair, celebrated its 175th anniversary in 2000. Founded in 1826, the Society has held an annual fair ever since. Today, the Lachute Fair is one of the oldest continuous fairs in Canada.

Morin Heights has been celebrated as a centre for cross-country skiing for many years. Much of this reputation can be credited to the Viking Ski Club, established permanently in Morin Heights since the 1950s and active in that part of the Laurentians since its beginnings in the winter of 1929-30.

Very, very long ago – over a billion years at least – the first mountain range on Earth was squeezed upward by the movements of tectonic plates deep beneath the surface of the planet. These first mountains are still here, although altered by ancient volcanic activity and worn and scraped by several ice ages. In Quebec, this mountainous area is called the Laurentians.

(Continued from Part 1)

Born in Saint-Michel-de-Bellechasse in 1803, Augustin-Norbert Morin was one of eleven children of a prosperous farming family. Though not robust physically, he showed quick intelligence and was encouraged by the local priest to study at the seminary in Quebec City. Morin had great academic success and chose to study law.

“I hate politics… I hate notoriety, public meetings, public speeches, caucuses, and everything that I know of that is apparently the necessary incident of politics - except doing public work to the best of my ability.” John Abbott (1891) Born in 1821 in St. Andrew’s East (now Saint-André-d’Argenteuil), John Abbott was the son of an Anglican minister. At the age of seventeen, Abbott went to work in the dry-goods trade, where he learned bookkeeping and business. In 1849, he married Mary Bethune (1823-1898). The couple had nine children.

Thousands of tributaries, streams, springs and small lakes contribute to the headwaters of the North River system. Most of them seem to bubble right out of the ground as though the Laurentian Mountains were a place where water itself was created. This extraordinary system ties the whole lower Laurentians together in its sustaining web, belying the arbitrary-sounding name that it bears. Ironically the North is the southernmost river in the Laurentians. It is also the least navigable and generally runs at a higher elevation.