Historical articles from the ETRC

In the late 1800s, Canadians began to organize more widespread celebrations of Dominion Day, to celebrate Canada’s confederation in 1867.  However, because many Canadians saw themselves as British, rather than Canadian, it was not until into the 20^th century that the holiday’s popularity began to grow and official celebrations were held.  The first official proposal to rename Dominion Day to Canada Day was brought before the House of Commons in 1946 but the bill did not make it through Senate.  It was not until 1982 that the name officially became Canada Day.

Dominion Day, and later Canada Day, was the date set for a number of important events, such as the first national radio network hook-up by the Canadian National Railway (1927), the inauguration of the CBC's cross-country television broadcast (1958), the flooding of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (1958), the first colour television transmission in Canada (1966) and the establishment of "O Canada" as the country's national anthem (1980).

The photographs presented here show some of the early celebrations of Dominion Day around the Eastern Townships, including a group gathered for Dominion Day at the Magog wharf in the 1890s, the Dominion Day parade in Granby in 1898 and a Dominion Day parade in Lennoxville.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record on 20 June 2011.

The founding of St. Helen's School (as Dunham Ladies' College), by the Reverend Ashton Oxenden, dates to 1875, though it did not open its doors until 1878.  The school was an Anglican private boarding school for girls located in Dunham.  Administered by a corporation composed of clergymen and lay people, Dunham Ladies' College encountered many financial problems and had to close from 1885 to 1888 and from 1890 to 1894. In 1913, with the College still facing financial difficulties, the Corporation leased it to the then principal, Miss Wade.  Under its new management, Dunham Ladies' College was renamed the St. Helen's School.

St. Helen’s School offered students a variety of subjects, including German, French, algebra, book-keeping, drawing, painting and music.  By the 1920s, sports had also become a prominent activity at the girls’ school with choices such as hockey, tennis, skating, skiing, basketball and horseback riding.  In 1898, 53 girls were enrolled at the girls’ school and with an enrollment of 60 in 1971, it had not changed much over the decades.  St. Helen's School closed in 1972 after almost a century of existence.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record on 1 August 2011.

Mid August marks the beginning of the time of year in the Townships when our agricultural roots really show; it’s fair season!  This region boasts a rich and long history of agricultural exhibitions, with many that continue to draw in large crowds each year.

The Beford Fair was founded in 1828 and is Quebec’s second-oldest agricultural exhibition.  Almost two decades later, in 1845, the Ayer’s Cliff and Cookshire Fairs got their start, organized by the Stanstead County Agricultural Society and the Compton Agricultural Society, respectively.  The Brome Fair and the Richmond Fair began in 1856 while the Sherbrooke Fair held its first exhibition in 1885.  Interestingly, many of the fairs started as traveling exhibitions that changed location each year until they were either given or purchased land to build permanent fairgrounds.  Each of these fairs, with the exception of Sherbrooke, are still going strong today, over a century and a half later.  While some things stay the same, others definitely change over time:  In 1941, it cost a mere 25 cents for adult admission to the Richmond Fair; today, it costs ten dollars.

Seen here are just a few images from some of the Townships’ fairs over the years, including a group picnicking at the Cookshire Fair in 1921, the cover of a Richmond Fair 1941 prize list and a view of the Ayer’s Cliff Fair ground around 1915.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record on 15 August 2011.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, fires in the city posed a significant threat as they could spread rapidly and consume entire city blocks, since the buildings were often timber frame structures tightly packed into concentrated areas.  Recognizing this threat, Sherbrooke’s city council passed a municipal by-law in 1852 that called for the establishment of the city’s first volunteer fire brigade.

Despite being founded in 1852, the volunteer fire brigade did not have a fire station until 1860, when the firefighters had acquired the old Methodist church to use as the headquarters.  In 1877, a suitable was constructed for the fire brigade near the present-day Séminaire St-Charles.  By 1889, there were three fire stations in Sherbrooke: No. 1 was the station mentioned earlier, located on Market (Marquette) Street; No. 2 was established in 1888 in the West Ward on London Street; and No. 3 was established in 1889 in the East Ward, located near the Aylmer Bridge.  Later on, as a result of demands from residents, stations No. 4 (at the corner of King and Murray Streets) and No. 5 (at the corner of Belvédère and McManamy) were constructed in 1911 and 1922, respectively.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record 26 September 2011.

Bustling farmers markets are not an uncommon scene during this time of harvests and Thanksgiving.  The first public market house in Sherbrooke was erected in 1838 and was the home of the Lansdowne market.  The market grew extremely popular over the years and was a source of local pride for residents of the Townships.  In fact, it was so successful that in 1920, representatives from both American and Canadian cities contacted Lansdowne’s committee in order to learn how to reproduce a similarly successful market.  

The Lansdowne market was well known for having plentiful amounts of high quality meats, dairy and, maple products offered by local farmers at exceptionally low costs.  The majority of the market was located in a heated interior and police officers were always on hand to keep an eye out for thieves and to enforce fair transactions and the anti-smoking and spitting by-laws.  Merchants were given guidance on how to display their wares in an attractive and appealing manner by the market’s organizers who prided themselves on running a clean, efficient and successful market. With these high standards it is no wonder that it became such an important fixture in the community. The Lansdowne market was located on the corner of King Street East and Grandes Fourches-sud, which was known as Lansdowne Street at the time. Large public markets began to disappear around the 1950s with the influx of large grocery chains.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record 11 October 2011.

One of our most well known prime ministers, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, spent several years of his life  in Arthabaska.

In 1866, Laurier went to the area on the suggestion of a friend in hopes that the country air might help in improving his health.  Although his health continued to have its ups and downs, Laurier became quite engrained in the local life of Arthabaska where he practised law prior to his political endeavours.  At the time, the area was attracting settlers and as a result, Laurier’s practice became very successful and grew to serve the nearby towns of Danville, Drummondville and Inverness.

Laurier was quite attached to the area and even when his political career required him to reside in Ottawa, he often returned to Arthabaska where he held many personal attachments. 

Image 1 depicts Laurier at a reception in Bromptonville.

Image 2 is a postcard of Laurier and Lord Aberdeen among others.

Image 3 is a letter to a friend James Miller who was a shopkeeper in Durham.  Laurier writes as to how much he recently enjoyed catching up with friends in Drummond county.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record 24 October 2011.

The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion, created in 1915 was made up of men primarily from Sherbrooke and the surrounding area.  Many of these men lost their lives during the First World War throughout which the battalion fought in several significant battles.  These included Passchendaele, the Somme, Vimy ridge, and Ypres. Captain Charles Rutherford was one of two members of the battalion who received the Victoria cross for his efforts. Rutherford was posted to the 5th CMR battalion even though he was not an Eastern Townships native.  At the 4^th Battle of the Scarpe, Rutherford accidentily advanced too far ahead of his men and ran into 45 German soldiers standing outside a pill box. He  approached the soldiers and bluffing, told them they were prisoners and successfully convinced them they were surrounded and should surrender. 

In September 1934, members of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion organized the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles Association to carry on the memory and the tradition of their battalion.  The ETRC is fortunate that it is now in possession of the association’s documents that contain source material on this significant battalion and its contribution in the First World War.

This article appeared in the Sherbrooke Record 7 November 2011.

Settlers were often few and far between in the first phase of settlement in the Townships and as a result, they usually had to depend solely on their families when it came to erecting shelter and barns.  Building a barn was an integral aspect of developing a farm to live off of within these new settlements as barns could serve multiple purposes.  Fortunately, as settlements grew into communities, it became traditional for these communities to come together to raise barns to help one another out.  Raising barns as a community was both efficient and economic and everyone was expected to pitch in when it was another neighbour’s turn.   The raising itself would not take longer than one or two days but it was the preparation that was the most time consuming what with accumulating the materials, as well as having them transported and prepared.  Although the tradition would continue for years to come, the popularity of barn raising petered out around the turn of the century.  Barns were built to last so most established farmers had their barns and the demand diminished.  As time passed, it became more common to hire workers to build and to make repairs.

Photo 1 is of a barn raising in Leeds in the beginning stages, c. 1913.

Photo 2 is the same barn in later stages of the raising.

Photo 3 is a barn raising in Dunham c. 1910.

With the official winter season soon setting in, snow will become a part of our daily lives where it will undoubtedly be both a delight and a hindrance.  In the early 19^th century, snow resulted in the further isolation of already very isolated settlers.   However, with the development of even the crudest roads, snow helped transportation to a certain extent.  With the use of sleighs, transportation was somewhat easier in winter and with frozen rivers and lakes, routes became shorter and more efficient.  Since farming was out of season it became the prime time to fell trees and do lumber work.

Near the latter half of the 19^th century, isolation was lessening and with rapid development occurring in the area, new roads were being built and agricultural transportation began to depend on trains in the winter.

With further modernization and the introduction of the motorized vehicle, traveling with snow and ice further adapted.  Variations of vehicles to deal with snow from snow rollers to blowers to plows developed and continue to change to this day.

Annual ploughing matches were a popular social event for townshippers from the late 19^th century continuing past the 1960s.  These matches were a chance to get together and compete and were commonly followed within a few days by a celebratory banquet where prizes were dispersed among the winners. Articles and updates summarising these highly anticipated matches as well as the banquet were typically featured in the Sherbrooke Record. During the match, there were usually several age categories and classes all of which were judged on a scoring rank based on crown, straightness of furrows, covering of grass, firmness, evenness, and uniformity of furrows, ins and outs, shape of land, and finish. These matches were organized by the Ploughmen’s Associations of which there were several in the area including the Sherbrooke Ploughmen’s Association, the Stanstead County Ploughmen's Association, the Missisquoi County Ploughing Association, and the St. Francis Valley Ploughmen's Association.  In fact, Bulwer, Compton  and Sherbrooke have since joined and they continue their ploughing matches to this day. In September 2011 they celebrated their 132^nd annual meeting.

In honour of Valentine’s Day here is a sampling of just a few postcards from the ETRC Archives which feature a Valentine’s Day theme.  The use and publication of postcards used to have surprisingly strict rules.  In 1895, Canada officially began to allow the use of postcards but no writing was allowed on the back of the card besides the addresses.  As a result, many companies allowed white space on the front alongside the imagery to be used for a message.  It was not until 1903 that the “divided postcard” was approved and correspondents could write on the back.  The front of the postcard became much more aesthetically appealing and resulted in a dramatic increase in postcard popularity.  A decade later, an increase in competition and pressure to reduce costs led postcard producers to introduce a white border in order to save on printing.

Today, postcards are most often produced for tourism purposes but in the early 20^th century, postcards were sent for all occasions. Not only sent by travellers, they were also used in place of greeting cards for holidays or even for no occasion at all besides that of writing a short note to a friend.  The ETRC Archives has an extensive postcard collection which portray a variety of Eastern Townships' locations as well as a range of themes.  They are useful resources not only for information found in their correspondence but also as a visual record of vintage imagery and historical scenes of the area.

Much of the historical references came from the website Postcards from Hamilton's Past (http://www.postcardsofhamilton.com/postcard_history.htm)