History Articles

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.

If you had to name a première river that flows from the very heart of the Laurentians, you would surely choose the Rouge. The Rouge River runs 220 km, originating in the Réserve Faunique Rouge-Matawin, northwest of Mont Tremblant, and follows a winding course southward. Eventually it tumbles down the south face of the Laurentians and empties into the Ottawa River, just west of Calumet, near the very place I was born. The Rouge has everything; slow meandering turns, lots of white-water rapids ranging from Class I to V in intensity and several spectacular un-runnable waterfalls.

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.

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.

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 publication, Cemetery Heritage in Quebec: A Handbook, has just been released. The book, published by QAHN and written by Matthew Farfan, project leader of QAHN's Cemetery Heritage Inventory and Restoration Initiative (CHIRI), is available in softcover format.

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.

A major concern for the entire historical community of Quebec has been, and remains, our vast and varied religious heritage. Regardless of language or denomination, our cities, towns and countryside are populated by empty, or seasonal, or much diminished churches, many of which have old cemeteries attached to them.

The Township of Abercrombie, comprising Shawbridge, a part of Piedmont, the village of Ste. Adele, and Fourteen Island Lake, was named for General James Abercromby. Exactly why he should have been so honoured is a bit of a mystery. It could be someone’s sense of humour — an encrypted message to the future inviting us to look back and see that the victors in war are not always winners.

Nominingue is above all a lake! On the native peoples’ route to their hunting and fishing territories. Algonquins, Iroquois and others travelled the tributaries of the Ottawa: the Nord, the Rouge, the Petite-Nation, the Lièvre et the Gatineau. It was their custom to name locations they visited on their travels. Does "Nominingue" have its origins in the Iroquois or the Algonquin languages? Who could tell? According to Mr. B.A. de Montigny, Nominingue means in Iroquois: "red paint".