British American Land Company:
Born in England in 1817, Alexander Galt immigrated to Sherbrooke in 1835 to work for the newly created British American Land Company, which was chartered to settle large tracts of land in the Eastern Townships. Galt rose steadily in the company, eventually becoming high commissioner in 1844, a post he held until 1855.
Born in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in 1916, Jean-Jacques Bertrand attended the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe and later, the Université de Montréal where he studied law. His political career began in 1948 when, under the banner of Maurice Duplessis' reigning Union Nationale, he was elected to the National Assembly.
To date the only Premier of Quebec native to the Eastern Townships is Daniel Johnson Sr., who was born in Sainte-Anne-de-Danville in 1915. The son of an Irish Catholic father and a French Canadian mother, Johnson first entered provincial politics in 1946 in the by-elections held that year.
Although not an Eastern Townshipper by birth, Joseph-Adélard Godbout adopted the Townships in midlife, buying in 1930 a century-old farmhouse near Frelighsburg, where he was later buried, and where his family still resides.
To date, Louis S. St-Laurent is the only Canadian Prime Minister born in the Eastern Townships. His life began in Compton in 1882. St-Laurent's parents, a French Canadian father and an Irish mother, ran a general store and were of modest means.
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.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, one of Canada's most illustrious Prime Ministers, spent much of his adult life in the Eastern Townships. Laurier, who was born in Saint-Lin in the Laurentians in 1841, studied law at McGill University where he received his degree in 1864.
The young boy was standing in front of a small wooden table on which laid a birthday cake with four lit candles. You could see the gleam in the little guy’s face, and his underlying smile of knowing that this was his day to be celebrated, and his day alone. Dressed in a clean white shirt, dark slacks, and a clip-on bow tie, we could sense what he was thinking as he continued his bright-eyed stare into the candles. We could almost feel his wonder at what other miracles life would bring, and that this birthday was certainly one of them.
Whether we realize it or not, when travelling through the streets of our towns, we are in fact travelling not only through local history, but in many cases our world history. When we ask ourselves, "What’s in a name?", we are already "en route" to discovering what binds us all today, a proud heritage in our past, whether we were born here or not.
The early history of the Eastern Townships Telephone Company is also the story of Carlos Skinner. A jeweller and watchmaker by trade, and a native of Waterloo, Skinner, according to writer Paul Delaney, was a "man of boundless energy with an abiding curiosity in new scientific developments."