Local History

Built in 1875, Potton Springs Hotel and its famous sulphur springs attracted thousands of guests from all over eastern North America. The most important local attraction in its day, the spa had its own railway station and post office.

Compassionate Return
“Compassionate leave to Canada will only be granted in very exceptional cases in which extreme hardship would be caused to the individual concerned or his dependants, if he did not return. It must be demonstrated that the hardship could not be alleviated in any other manner.”

This month the McCord Museum of Montreal opens an exhibit entitled “Being Irish” to celebrate over 250 years of the Irish presence in Quebec. Usually what comes to mind when referring to our Irish history is Montreal and, to a lesser extent, Quebec City, where people of Irish origin have been, and have remained prominent in large numbers consistently for over two centuries. However, less known but equally important is the Irish rural heritage in Quebec. One area, first occupied by Irish settlers, was the vast tract of unsettled wilderness, to the north of the St. Lawrence.

The death toll in a pandemic can be staggering, but a supplementary measure of devastation can also be read into the stories of survivors.

In May 2008, I got a call from Heather (Stone) Foley, who lives in Rawcliffe, Quebec. She told me James Stone was visiting from BC. I had been a classmate of Heather’s throughout grade school in Grenville and a good friend of her younger brother, James. But I had only seen him two or three times in the intervening fifty years.

Lac Carlin, also known as Carling Lake, is just northwest of Pine Hill, Quebec, along Highway 327, in the lower Laurentians. Today it is the site of an upscale golf course and hotel…a classy resort destination.

The 1851 census of Grenville Township identified a population of 1,200, split evenly between Catholics and Protestants. The break-down by ethnic group was 362 French Canadians, 544 English-speaking Canadians, and 187 Irish-, 77 Scottish-, 28 English- and 2 American-born immigrants.

During World War Two, the fabric of No. 2 Company of the Canadian Forestry Corps drew heavily on the English-speaking sons of Argenteuil, leveraging their skills with the axe and the crosscut saw, honed on the family bush farms of their native county. No. 16 Company was formed around their French-speaking “bucheron” counterparts.

Looking northward from Grenville, about three miles, one sees the Laurentians rising sharply a few hundred feet, presenting a formidable barrier. To the northeast, a stream called the Kingham River cuts through, draining a small valley which reaches back into the hills at the eastern edge of Grenville Township.

The River:
The history of Lanaudière is first and foremost a story of the great settlement movement along the St. Lawrence River, the only major highway for the original inhabitants and, later on, for the new arrivals from France.

The Indigenous heritage has been traced back as far as the 14th century through archeological sites in Quebec. Today, in the far north of the region, the village of Manawan remains a reserve where a community of Attikamek lives.