Month: February 2026

By Jazmine Aldrich

Oh, what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh!

Come on it’s lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you!

What would holiday carols be without sleighing? From Santa’s magic sleigh pulled by a team of reindeer to tales of joyous sleigh rides in good company, sleighs are an indispensable part of our holiday traditions.

Though rarely used by most Townshippers, nowadays, sleighs were a staple of wintertime transportation into the early 1900s. The idyllic scenes of horse-drawn sleighs painted by Melbourne artist Frederick Simpson Coburn (1871-1960) certainly attest to the prevalence of sleighing in Townships history. Without touching on their industrial importance, let’s explore the importance of sleighing in transportation and recreation.

In 1903, J.S. Mitchell & Co. in Sherbrooke advertised its “Fine Swiss Sleigh Bells” as a New Year’s gift idea, while E.W. Abbott & Son in Lennoxville recommended the whole “two-seated and one-horse sleigh” as a gift. F.L. Bean, whose business was situated across from the Albion Hotel in Sherbrooke, proposed that “a pair of fur robes for your friend’s sleigh would probably suit him first rate for a New Year present.” In the same issue of the Sherbrooke Examiner – predecessor to the Sherbrooke Record – P. Biron of East Sherbrooke proclaims the superior craftsmanship of his own handmade sleighs and carioles.

By 1915, the shifting means of transportation was making itself known in local advertising: J.S. Mitchell & Co. endorsed the Clark Heater – “a neat, compact, durable and finely finished device that yields just [the] degree of heat desired” – achieved, they claim, through the burning of its Clark Coal Brickletts (sold separately). Before the Clark Heater, however, sleigh-riders were already finding a myriad of ways to keep their feet warm; for example, A.H. Foss sold soap stone foot warmers for 25 cents each at his shop on Wellington Street, in Sherbrooke. “There is nothing quite so satisfactory,” proclaim J.S. Mitchell & Co., “as comfortable, warm feet on a cold day whether in an Auto, Sleigh or Carriage.” I can’t argue with that!

Sleigh rides were not all comfort and luxury, however: many sleighing accidents resulted in a range of injuries, from dislocated shoulders, to cracked ribs, or worse. These accidents sometimes reveal further evidence of shifting modes of transportation; for example, Mr. S.L. Spafford’s horse was frightened by the Lennoxville street car in January 1899 and backed into the car, smashing the sleigh but fortunately, sparing Mr. Spafford any bodily harm. In other instances, sleigh runners caught on obstacles such as railway tracks and caused accidents, including at least one that involved the driver being dragged 30-40 feet by the reins and – fortunately – coming out of it without any serious injuries.

Sleighing was still important enough in 1921 to make it into the weather report. A report on Christmas weather forecasts across Canada indicated the relative temperature (mild, cold), the weather (overcast, snow, clear), and the sleighing conditions (good, fair) – where applicable; Vancouver and Victoria’s sleighing conditions are notably absent, on account of the forecasted “green Xmas”.

No matter the weather or the sleighing conditions, we at the ETRC hope that a happy holiday season is enjoyed by all, and offer good wishes for the New Year. If you are interested in learning more about our local history, please contact the ETRC Archives.

By Jazmine Aldrich

A little birdy told me that our friendly local English daily celebrates its 129^th birthday, this month, so I am joining in the festivities with a peek at their history through their archives!

Did you know that the Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) holds the archives of the Sherbrooke Record? The archives were first loaned to us in 1980, and formally donated in 1997 on the occasion of a second donation. Perhaps their one-hundredth anniversary in 1997 felt like the right occasion to commit their legacy – so far – to the safekeeping of an archive, or perhaps they felt a premonition of disaster to come.

In the early morning hours of Saturday, January 2, 1998, the building, presses, and equipment belonging to The Record were destroyed in a devastating fire, along with many of their archives not yet deposited with the ETRC. Not accepting defeat, however, The Record was back to publishing by the following Wednesday out of temporary offices borrowed from the Eastern Townships School Board.

The archives in The Record fonds (P101) at the ETRC do not include copies of the newspaper, itself; being a publication, The Record is preserved by Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) and back issues can be consulted for free using the digital platform called BAnQ Numérique. Many of the ETRC’s other archival fonds and collections include clippings from the newspaper relating to the subjects of those fonds and collections.

Rather than keeping copies of the newspaper, The Record fonds contains documentation relating to the management of the business, including carriers’ route lists, circulation records, press room production reports, and more. The archival fonds also contains over one thousand photographs, and that number is growing rapidly.

Since early 2025, the ETRC has been collaborating with the Sherbrooke Record to gradually acquire its photographic archives, which number in the tens of thousands of photographs. Four Bishop’s University students completing internships with the ETRC have had the opportunity to sort through some of the photograph subject files, deciding which photographs will be kept and which will be returned to The Record. The interns then scan the photographs that are retained for our archives so that The Record can have digital copies for future use. Each file that is kept is described and labelled for easy retrieval and the photographs are rehoused into archival-grade plastic sleeves for long-term storage. We at the ETRC are proud of this collaboration between our organization, the newspaper, and Bishop’s University’s History department. Looking ahead, I hope that we will continue to mark these important milestones in the Sherbrooke Record’s story – documenting it all through their archives. If you are interested in consulting the archives of The Record or any other archives in our holdings, please contact the ETRC Archives.