Local History

There is no evidence of any settlement of Europeans, English or French, in the Ste-Agathe area prior to the community that began with the Dufresnes and the Menards in 1849. There may have been camps for coureurs de bois and for lumberjacks, but nothing more. Loyalists and British veterans had been settling along the Ottawa Valley since the end of the American War of Independence, and they tended to move upstream along the tributaries. Thus the English towns of Lachute and Brownsburg a little further upstream along the North River from St.

In Dr. Grignon's Album Historique de Ste. Agathe, written in 1912 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the parish, he describes the first three colonists who homesteaded in our region. These three men, Narcisse and Olivier Ménard and their brother-in-law Jean-Baptiste Dufresne, had clearly responded to A.N. Morin's initiative in encouraging homesteading of the north country. Despite Morin's noble efforts with potatoes, however, the real economic mainstay would never be the farm, but rather, the pine tree, and these three men were well equipped to exploit it.

The signing of La Grande Paix by the Iroquois and the French in Montreal in 1701 brought to an end the wild days of the French-Indian Wars. These wars reflected the European conflicts: the French fought the Iroquois who were allied with the British, while the Huron, Nipissing and Algonquin were either neutral or took the side of the French. As we saw last time, the Weskarinis, who were the indiginous people of our Laurentian area, were casualties of these wars, having been massacred by the Iroquois on the shores of Petit Lac Nominingue in 1751.

According to Serge Laurin, the author of Histoire des Laurentides, the Algonquin Amerindians who lived in this region were the Weskarinis, a small branch of the Lower Algonquin tribe. The Upper Algonquins lived in the Abitibi region.
For the entire article, click here: http://www.ballyhoo.ca/history/TheWeskarinis.shtml

The Laurentians are situated in the Grenville geological province, a slowly moving land mass that collided with the Canadian Shield a billion years ago. It is precambrian. That means that is it was formed before there were any signs of animal life. The cambrian period began with the first signs of animal life only 650,000,000 years ago.

For the entire article, click here: http://www.ballyhoo.ca/history/InTheBeginning.shtml

As the economy of the lower Laurentians evolved after the start of settlement in the 1830s, certain areas thrived and grew, or withered and dwindled at different times.

The following is based on information contained in Jo-Anne Brownlee’s excellent booklet, A Self-Guided Historical Tour of Clarendon, published by the Municipality of Clarendon in 2005, and Noms et lieux du Québec : dictionnaire illustré, published by the Commision de toponymie du Québec.

Churning butter by hand was tricky; milk was set out in pans, so that the cream could rise. Various types of churns -- dash or cradle churns -- were then used to churn cream. If the butter would not set, this was often blamed on hexing. Butter was stored in barrels in a cool place, and the surplus sold in town. It might take six days to take it there even in an express wagon: two for the trip each way, and two to sell the wooden tubs of butter at the Byward market [in Ottawa]. Eventually, however, butter and cheese were made in small, often cooperative factories.

In 1861 Thorne was separated from Clarendon and joined with Leslie to form a new municipality, with James Martin as its first mayor. At that time its population of 465 was made up of people of mixed national origin.

Ten years later, when the municipality was separated from Leslie under the mayoralty of John Rennix, it had seen and influx of German settlers.

Thorne's main village, Ladysmith, was first called Upper Thorne Centre. Later, the name Danzig was proposed, but in 1902, at the end of the Boer War, the name Ladysmith was chosen to honor a village in South Africa.

Named after a county in Sussex, England, Chichester is primarily a farming and lumbering community. The municipality was incorporated in 1855 with John B. Poupore as its mayor.

The municipality is dominated by two small hamlets: Chichester and Nicabeau. Chichester, located just across the river from Chapeau, was once a thriving community with numerous sawmills, a grist mill, shingle mill, blacksmith shop and two hotels. Chichester now serves as more of a summer resort area, offering a grocery store and garage facilities.