Laurentian Heritage WebMagazine

The Ogier family of Chêne-de-Cur, Sarthe, France, are the descendants of Philippe Ogier, secretary to King Charles V (1338-1380) of France. Ogier's role was one of influence and there are many official notations in the Paris Parliament and the administrative records of the realm that confirm the noble status of the family. In respect of their long tenure of office, during his reign, Louis XVI awarded the title of Count to the head of the family. In this way the Ogier family, which had holdings in Ivry, not far from Paris, obtained the title Comte Ogier d'Ivry.

Laurentian development did not all take place around the big lakes like Lac des Sables and Lake Manitou. Many people came here for the wilderness pleasures available on some of the smaller lakes, surrounded by many acres of what was once farmland, but which has now grown back into extensive forest holdings. It began with the arrival of the train in 1892, and among the families that chose that route were several of the descendents of John Molson and Sarah Inslay Vaughan.

Sir Mortimer Barnet Davis was born in Montreal on February 6, 1866 to Samuel Davis and Minnie Falk Davis. The senior Davis couple had emigrated from England in 1861 and Mortimer was their third son, one of seven children. He attended Montreal High School and upon graduation joined his family's cigar business: S. Davis and Sons. By the time he was 21, he was already someone to contend with. He experimented with tobacco and is credited with having established its cultivation in Canada.

The story of Douglas Lorne McGibbon is the story of the forgotten benefactor of Ste-Agathe and of tuberculosis treatment in Canada. D. Lorne McGibbon may well have given all he had to Ste. Agathe in his fight against the disease.
For the entire article, click here: http://www.ballyhoo.ca/history/DLorneMcGibbon.shtml

In 1895 Alfred Baumgarten acquired the St. Aubin farm on the Tour du Lac. This was the property from which the small village received its first public water supply through wooden pipes, 17 years earlier, the property that Dr. Lallier, Curé Thibodeau and Edouard St. Aubin exploited through La Compagnie de l’aquaduc de Ste. Agathe des Monts.

For the entire article, click here: https://www.ballyhoo.ca/regional-history.html

Dr. Grignon, in his Album historique de la Paroisse de Ste-Agathe-des-Monts suggests that Octavien Rolland gave rise to the huge influx of wealthy businessmen who purchased large properties in our area. In French, these people are called villégiateurs. It translates as “people who stay, sojourn or vacation in the country”, but to date I have failed to find an English noun that expresses the same meaning.

In 1894, Dr. Camille Laviolette of Laval University convinced the Provincial Government to set aside a large parcel of Laurentian property for the creation of a forestry reserve. His plan was to build a tuberculosis sanitarium in a completely protected environment. The proposal, originally drafted in 1893, was accepted in July 1894. Dr. Laviolette had studied in Paris, London and Berlin. He was a member of la Société Française d’Otologie et de Laryngologie de Paris, a specialist at l’Institution des Sourdes et Muettes, and was a medical doctor at the University of Laval.

Théophile Thibodeau became curé of the parish of Ste. Agathe in 1878 and simultaneously homesteaded a large peninsula at the far end of Lac des Sables. He was the community’s spiritual leader during Ste. Agathe’s most difficult years. He inherited a parish that was just discovering that the fields would not yield, and the local farmers were either leaving or looking for other ways to make a living. Several of these hard-working pioneers built hotels.

In 1894 Harper’s Magazine carried an article about the Laurentians by McGill University principal Sir William Dawson. A young nurse in New York, upon reading it, decided that she had to visit, and set off to Ste. Agathe. Her name was Elizabeth Wand, and her seven year love-affair with our area is documented in her memoirs.

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

Curé Labelle’s time, 1868 to 1891, was one of great change in Ste Agathe. While the town grew, the forests almost disappeared and along with them went species of wildlife we’ll never know. When Jacques Cartier first visited the St. Lawrence River in the 1500’s, he reported fauna of much greater variety than we find today. His chronicler made particular mention of the large number of seals that lived in the St. Lawrence valley. The horsehead, or grey seal, is mentioned, along with its smaller cousin, the harbour (phoca)or dotar.