Lumbering and farming attracted the first settlers to Campbell’s Bay, which was incorporated as a municipality in 1904. E.H. Workman was the first mayor. The village was named after Lieut. Donald Campbell, a soldier in the Scottish Regiment, who was granted a large amount of land. The main drag, Front Street, is unique in that its buildings are on one side of the street only, giving everyone a majestic view of the Ottawa River.
The earliest settlers in the Shawville area were Irish Protestants from County Tipperary who came to Canada after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. Many had first settled in the Carp Valley on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River. Local lore tells us that Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth set out from this colony in the summer of 1821 to search for new land to settle. It is believed they paddled up the river, landing in a small bay some forty miles upriver. The two men then set off northward in search of a suitable place to homestead.
--May 16, 2007
The Pontiac Museum, which is located at the Fairgrounds in Shawville, and which is run by the volunteer Pontiac Historical Society, needs your help! The museum is housed in the former Shawville railway station, which was built in 1886 by the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway. Home to the museum since 1976, the former station is now in need of repair.
1) d. (No such island).
2) c. (Kazabazua is in the Gatineu Valley).
3) b.
4) c. (Pinus resinosa, or Norway pine, as the early pioneers called it).
5) d.
6) b.
7) c. (Les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée had a mission here).
8) c.
9) a.
10) b. (Bryson lost its title to a booming Campbell's Bay in 1926).
1. Which of the following is NOT an island in the Ottawa River?
a) Ile-aux-Allumettes.
b) Ile-du-Grand-Calumet.
c) Ile-Morrison.
d) Ile-Quyon.
2. Which of the following is NOT a municipality in the Pontiac?
a) Bristol.
b) Mansfield-et-Pontefract.
c) Kazabazua.
d) Litchfield.
Incorporation and Construction
The railway line to Maniwaki was incorporated in 1871 under Quebec Statute as the Ottawa and Gatineau Valley Railroad Company to build “from or near the village of Hull to a point at or near the confluence of the Desert and Gatineau Rivers,” (Maniwaki). Included in the first Board of Directors were such prominent Gatineau Valley individuals as E.B. Eddy, Alonzo Wright, John MacLaren, Andrew Pritchard, and Patrick Farrel.
In Memory of Chelsea’s Historic Cemeteries: Stories of the Old Chelsea Protestant Burial Ground, Chelsea Pioneer Cemetery, St. Stephen’s Cemetery, and Chelsea’s Homestead Plots
Here is a historical book with a difference. It traces the story of Chelsea’s community development in relation to its well-preserved cemeteries and the people buried in them.
The saw and grist mills were the first commercial ventures in Clarendon. They were established mainly as a means of fulfilling the basic needs of the early settlers since they needed lumber for houses and farm buildings, and the grain needed to be ground to make flour and animal feed.
Easy access to clay and limestone in Clarendon made bricks and mortar a logical venture. Clarendon lime kilns were built as early as the 1860s and many bricks were made by hand. In 1888, while there were a few brick industries already in operation in Shawville, two additional brickyards were set up in Clarendon.