Townships Heritage WebMagazine

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.

Religion and education were two of the primary necessities for immigrants, mostly from New England, who settled in the Hatley region following the opening of the Eastern Townships in 1792. in the late 1790s, several familes settled about a mile or so north of the present village of Hatley; amongst these was the family of Deacon Bond Little.

The Story of Sherbrooke's Ingersoll - Rand, commonly just called the Rand, is not only the history of a prolific industry, but a glimpse into the lives of the thousands of men and women who worked there. In Sherbrooke, almost everyone knows someone who worked in the sprawling west-end shops of the Rand.