Author: Jody Robinson
You would think that being presented with a photograph of an unidentified town with relatively substantial mining operations visible in the background would be fairly easy to situate and identify. Or, at least, that was my first thought when I saw this photograph of a long, building-lined main street with a distinct slope and large tailings piles seen in the background but, as it turns out, I was wrong. Looking at old topographic maps showing mining operations pointed to a few possibilities, including Robertsonville and East Broughton, but the lack of any visible church and slope of the street didn’t seem to quite fit. Finally, the lightbulb moment came from another photograph labeled as the Quebec Asbestos Corporation in East Broughton. The challenge had arisen because the mining town was actually East Broughton Station, a neighbourhood community connected to East Broughton but not shown in the photo.
Before the establishment of the mines, East Broughton Station was just that: a station stop along the Quebec Central Railway adjacent to East Broughton, which was a small village whose existence was largely to provide services, such as a church and a post office, to the surrounding farmers. In 1892, in the very early days of the mining operations, East Broughton had a population of 150. Around that time, Messrs. Walsh and Mulvena (likely Henry Mulvena and John H. Walsh) were getting an asbestos mine established in East Broughton. This mine would in time come to define the economy of the town. Initially, many of the miners worked seasonally and divided their efforts between mining and farming but as asbestos mining became more lucrative, employees went from being farmer-miners to miners and the part of the village known as East Broughton Station expanded to house them. By 1921, the population of East Broughton had grown to 1,709, with the asbestos industry solidly rooted as the dominant employer.
Although it had been operating for almost a decade, the Quebec Asbestos Corporation was officially incorporated in 1901 by a group of Townships men, including Henry W. Mulvena (district magistrate), John H. Walsh (railway purchasing manager); Arthur H. Anderson (railway purchasing agent); John Mulvena (farmer) and Thomas D. Walsh (railway agent). By 1915, however, Philip Carey Manufacturing, a company operating out of Ohio, had acquired Quebec Asbestos Corp. Focusing on asbestos and asphalt building materials, Philip Carey Mfg expanded their holdings in the province to include a processing plant in Lennoxville and offices in Montreal.
In 1949, Le Devoir published a scathing report by journalist Burton LeDoux on asbestosis, careless mining company owners, and the health of residents of East Broughton where he describes an asbestos dust that blanketed East Broughton Station and the inescapable cough that all mine employees suffered from during their long hours in the freezing, unventilated plants. His report on the critical health risks from work with asbestos was significant because it was the first to be written in French and widely circulated, doing a great to deal raise awareness among miners about how seriously they should be considering their work environments. While the employees of Quebec Asbestos Corp. chose not to strike in 1949, LeDoux’s exposé on East Broughton contributed to the 1949 strike at the Johns-Manville Company in Asbestos.
Facing declining demand for short fibre asbestos, the Philip Carey Company, which had become Carey Canada, finally closed the East Broughton asbestos mine in the spring of 1986. At the time of its closure, it employed 170 people. Despite this devastating blow to the one-industry town, East Broughton weathered the challenges and today its population is not that far from its asbestos-mining heyday. Decades have passed since the mine’s closure but its imprints on the town’s history are still visible, the tailings piles off in the distance.
As the depths of the Great Depression were starting to wane into the late 1930s, members of the Sherbrooke Chamber of Commerce put their weight behind the idea of throwing a spectacular event to celebrate Sherbrooke’s centenary in 1937, which would serve to boost the local economy and morale during those trying times. Only, it was later realized that the year 1837 bears no real historical significance and Sherbrooke’s 1937 celebrations were actually for a fake centenary.
It should be noted that the prominent political and business figures in Sherbrooke believed that 1837 was a date of real significance, being the year of Sherbrooke’s incorporation and the year the City’s first newspaper began. As the details of history have unraveled over the decades since then, however, it was noted that Sherbrooke was not actually incorporated at that time (that would not happen until 1852) but that 1837 was the first time “Town of Sherbrooke” was used. With more unraveling, it was found that even the first usage of the “Town of Sherbrooke” didn’t occur until 1839, and that the Sherbrooke Gazette was preceded by the St. Francis Courier and Sherbrooke Gazette, which began publication in 1831.
Real or fake, there is no question that Sherbrooke put together an impressive event for the month-long centennial celebrations, which were then rounded off with the Sherbrooke Fair. From the beginning, the organizers focused on Sherbrooke’s industrial and technological importance in the region, with much of the publicity referring to the “Queen City of the Eastern Townships” and “Electric City.” These were clear themes throughout the publicity and programming of the celebration. In particular, Sherbrooke’s electrical prowess was highlighted with light decorations and displays throughout the streets. All of the bridges and the main thoroughfares – King and Wellington Streets – were decorated with thousands of lights, and the programme included nighttime dances organized in the streets illuminated with multicoloured lights and live music amplified through speakers.
The other key theme of the events was the city’s history over the century. This was highlighted in various ways, beginning with opening ceremonies officiated by Sherbrooke’s Mayor Emile Rioux accompanied by actors portraying Gilbert Hyatt, one of the earliest settlers, and an “Indian Chief,” all surrounded by heralds, criers, a bugler, and a drummer. The historical theme continued throughout, including a historical pageant presented three times per week, a historical ball with participants in costumes from different periods, and a weekend where the Grand Trunk Railway’s oldest engine from the era when railway service first came to Sherbrooke in 1853 and the newest engine available – Canadian National’s 6000 – were on display. The historical pageant, itself, was an impressive production, which included 1,500 costumed performers, 270 dancers, and two choirs performing at the new amphitheater specially built for the centenary on the Sherbrooke fairgrounds.
The centenary events also hosted a number of dignitaries, including Premier Maurice Duplessis, Senator John Nichol, and Quebec’s Lieutenant Govenor Esioff-Léon Patenaude, and guests of historical significance, such as the son and daughter of Alexander T. Galt. Premier Duplessis’ visit included a radio broadcasted address where he praised Sherbrooke for its successes, remarking that “it has been rightfully said that Sherbrooke is the Queen City of the Eastern Townships – and what a graceful and charming Queen she is.” His observations also concluded that the harmony and “entente cordiale” between English and French in Sherbrooke should be an example to the rest of the province and the country.
It’s been more than eight decades since Sherbrooke’s Centenary but the event continues to live on in the collective memory through photographs and memorabilia that still surface regularly, making it an event with lasting importance, even if it was for a fake anniversary!
Horses, pigs, cows, sheep, flowers, fruit, vegetables, milk products, honey, maple syrup, machinery, and poultry (the latter including FIFTY categories of fowl). All – and more – were on display for the tens of thousands of people visiting Canada’s Great Eastern Exhibition held in Sherbrooke in the early 1900s.
For me, the Sherbrooke Fair is only a vague blip in my memory of childhood. While my family has always been faithful attendees and/or participants in the local fairs, the Sherbrooke Fair was not among those that we attended regularly. For some readers out there, however, the Sherbrooke Fair may hold fond memories of the exhibits, the livestock competitions, and the spectacle of it. And, in the early years of the fair: what a spectacle it was!
Founded in 1885 as the Eastern Townships Agricultural Association (ETAA), its beginnings came much later than its Townships counterparts in Bedford, Stanstead, Compton, Richmond, and Brome but it made up for its late debut with splash. The ETAA board of directors purchased part of the Terrill property on what was then Pine Street (later Parc Street, present-day du Cégep Street) for the exposition grounds and got to work building the grand stand, racetrack, dining hall, stables, and a machinery exhibition area. The first year of the fair, 1885, saw 15,000 visitors pass through the gates. Over the next four decades, this number would grow to 30,000 visitors on a single day at the height of the fair’s popularity.
From the beginning, the directors of the ETAA set their sights high and strove towards hosting an agricultural and educational event that went beyond the region to attract exhibitors from across the province, across Canada, and New England. In 1886, the ETAA won their bid to host the provincial and dominion exhibitions, positioning the Sherbrooke Fair as Canada’s Great Eastern Exhibition. In 1907, Sherbrooke again hosted the Dominion Exhibition and entered into the fair’s heyday.
New facilities and events were continually added to attract larger crowds. The grandstand went from accommodating 1,000 spectators to 8,500 by 1907, and over the years they added buildings to showcase hundreds of industries, businesses, arts and crafts, and expanded the facilities for livestock, including the Louis F. Codère building in 1949 to house the boys’ and girls’ Calf Club. Among the attractions featured at the fair over the years were a hot-air balloon launch and parachutist first included in 1888, an airplane fly-by in 1912, car races were added in 1923, which accompanied the pageants, acrobats, alligators, and visits from dignitaries that were among the long list of entertainment.
Some other notable highlights from the fair’s long history: a children’s day where children could apply for free admission to the fair (in 1928, 15,000 tickets were issued), for decades the mayors of Sherbrooke would declare a civic holiday for a day or half-day during the fair so that all residents could attend, and for at least a few years, included among the booths was that of the Post Office, where fair-goers could learn how to properly address letters and wrap packages.
While the Sherbrooke Fair’s decline can be attributed to a number of factors over decades, the first tangible signs can be seen with the loss stables and the 8,500-seat grandstand to fire in 1959 and 1961, and the demolition of many other buildings through the 1960s, which were never replaced in most cases. One particularly striking loss was the demolition of one of the fair’s most iconic buildings, the hexagonal main building, which was removed in 1966 to make space for the Palais des Sports and parking areas. This gradual move away from the agricultural focus of the fair was at least partly the result of the ETAA’s financial struggles and the consequential transfer of the fairgrounds property to the City of Sherbrooke in 1967.
The Sherbrooke Fair successfully celebrated their 100th year in 1985 but continued to decline into the early 1990s, when the Fair had to be cancelled in 1995 for financial difficulties. Fair organizers – by then the Corporation de l’exposition régionale agricole de Sherbrooke (CERAS)- were able to regroup for 1996 but in 1997, its final year, the fair was held without any sort of agricultural component and was followed by the dissolution of CERAS early in 1998.
For those who have lived in Lennoxville for decades, “Brickyard Road” may already be synonymous with Glenday Road in your mind. For the rest of us, however, Brickyard Road and Webster Siding, where the railway tracks cross Glenday, hold no frame of reference. You wouldn’t know it today but for half a century this railway crossing was once the location of a booming brick manufacturing industry.
The photos pictured here focused on capturing the incredible derailment of a CPR immigrant train on April 16th, 1913, carrying 717 passengers coming from Italy, Russia, and Austria bound for Montreal and beyond, where not a single life was lost and only two were injured. This, alone, is an interesting piece of history; to consider the thousands of immigrants who trundled through the Townships on the train, coming from the port in Halifax, on their way to what they hoped would be a better life. In fact, on that single day in April 1913, over 1,200 immigrants were supposed to roll right past Lennoxville if it had not been for the accident.
In addition to the accident, however, the photos unintentionally captured some of the impressive installations that once occupied this now humble stretch of dirt road. As early as 1882, bricks were being manufactured from the clay deposits on this spot that would become known as the “Webster Siding” on “Brickyard Road.” The construction of the International Railway Company’s line in the 1870s made it a viable industry as it made it easy to transport the bricks out of what was an otherwise inconvenient location. The Tylee Brothers were the first to exploit the area, and were in business until Robert Tylee’s death in 1891. By 1902, brick production had picked up again under direction of William R. Webster and the Eastern Townships Brick and Manufacturing Company. In 1908, the company was producing over 1.2 million bricks per year.
For unknown reasons, Webster sold the company in 1917 to William E. Loomis, who had previous experience working with the family firm D.G. Loomis & Sons, which had operated the Ascot Corner brickyard. During this period, the brickyard had the capacity to produced 5 million bricks per year, which were baked in coal and electric kilns. Visible in the train crash photos, it consisted of the brick plant, farm, and dwelling houses for employees.
By 1922, however, W.E. Loomis declared bankruptcy and the brickyard appears to have sat unused for a few years. Operations eventually resumed when it was acquired by a group of Sherbrooke businessmen, including W.R. Webster, Norman N. Walley, M.W. Mitchell, and J.E. McCrea, and operated under the name of the Sherbrooke Brick Company. During this period, it was producing 3.5 million bricks per year. With Walley’s death in 1927, the company faltered once more and was sold to the Eastern Townships Brick and Tile Company, overseen by J.D. Bertrand and Joseph-Augustin Tremblay. It was not long before the Lennoxville brickyard again encountered problems. The early 1930s are dotted with court cases against E.T. Brick for non-payment of bills and information suggests operations ceased around 1931.
By the time of the 1945 series of aerial photos the brickyard’s buildings had been completely removed, making photos such as these even more important in the documentation of our past and give life to the bricks that make up so many of the buildings in the area, particularly in Lennoxville and Sherbrooke.
These photos have been preserved and made available courtesy of the work done by the Eastern Townships Resource Centre and the Lennoxville-Ascot Historical and Museum Society.
Written by Justin Gobeil, summer student
What does the St. Michel Cathedral in Sherbrooke, St. Joeseph’s Oratory in Montreal, the Bank of Canada in Ottawa, and the Musée National des Beaux-Art du Québec have in common? They are all made of the same stone; more precisely, the grey granite extracted from the mountains of St-Sébastien, a small village located in the Eastern Townships. The granite industry has been flourishing in the region for more than a century. The granite, itself, however, is quite a bit older than that. The Appalachians were formed 350 million years ago and are believed to have been as tall as Mount Everest. The granite was made when a bubble of magma got stuck under the crust, giving it time to slowly cool down (instead of erupting like a volcano). With time, the tall mountain eroded, exposing the solidified plutons of granite, and leaving a much smaller mountain, the Mont St-Sébastien, standing at 820 metres. The granite found there is grey, with slight notes of pink.
Everything started when the settlers found interesting grey rocks in their fields while they were clearing their fields to be able to plant crops. At first, the granite was thrown into pile just like all the other rocks. But soon enough, they realized that this stone was different than the others. During the winters, they started cutting and using the granite for practical uses. Quickly, techniques for stone cutting were developed, leading to the construction in 1889 of the St-Sébastien Church, the first to be made of St-Sébastien Grey Granite in the region. As the surrounding villages built their own churches with the grey granite, it started to be recognized in the region of Quebec as one of the prettiest and most resistant ever found in the province. It is with these qualities in mind that it was chosen for the construction of the Basilica St-Anne-de-Beaupré and St. Joseph’s Oratory, which popularized the use of the grey granite for other religious or institutional purposes.
However, when the demand for the St-Sébastien Grey decreased (partially due to changes in architectural trends), the local industry shifted from extraction to a transformation mindset: Instead of extracting blocks in the local quarries, blocks of granite from all around the world are brought in the factories in order to cut and polish them before sending them to the project locations. The invention of the diamond-toothed circular saw allowed the creation of new industries: the counter tops and building cladding. Throughout the years, some companies became leaders in their field, giving them the opportunity to provide the granite for important memorial projects, such as the 9/11 memorial in New York, the World War II memorial and the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington, D.C., or closer to home, with the Fountain of Tourny, in front of the Parliament Building in Quebec City, or the National War Memorial in Ottawa. So next time that you are visiting one of those cities, pay attention, you might be looking at a piece of St-Sébastien and the Eastern Townships.
Rise at 5am, breakfast, drills, dinner, drills, tea, drills, lights out 10:15pm. Such was the routine of life while in militia camp in the 1880s and 1890s. A cursory glance might suggest days of drudgery but a dip below the surface tells a different story. The rural militia camps were not held every year and, when held, moved around the militia district, usually taking place in June following the planting of crops.
Lieutenant-Colonel Gregor Mattice, who had served in the Fenian Raids, was serving as the Brigade Major when camp was held in Sherbrooke in 1888. His brigade orders and the military reports provided to Parliament by Lieutenant-Colonel C.F. Houghton give us a picture of what went on during the ten days of camp. Finding an appropriate location for the more than 1,000 men and accompanying horses for the cavalry troops was no small feat and the Sherbrooke location, “beautifully situated” on the east side of the St. Francis River, was decidedly inadequate. The flattest part of the location had to be used for the tents, leaving only uneven and rough ground for drilling, which made battalion movements impossible.
From reports and the logbook entries, it was important to the organizers that the surrounding community came away with good impressions of militia camp and the soldiers. Efforts were made to ensure that the camp grounds were left clean, that bathing men were kept discreetly away from passersby, and that they were generally well-behaved while in camp. In turn, locals benefited from the camp with contracts for things like supplying the bread the men received as part of their rations. In the case of the 1888 Sherbrooke camp, the YMCA supported the men by providing free ice water, writing supplies, and reading materials.
Even though the men seem to have behaved themselves appropriately for the duration of the 1888 camp, it was not entirely without trouble. Private Donald McKay, reportedly only 16 years old at the time, of the Lake Megantic company of the 58th Compton Battalion drowned in the St. Francis River, even after swimming had been banned (except in small groups with special permission and supervision) following the recent drowning of private from the 53rd Battalion only a few days before camp began.
Despite the sad incident, the camp carried on with their scheduled activities, which included daily parades and band playing hours, and sports games as part of Dominion Day celebrations.
Last spring, the ETRC received the militia camp logbook for three camps in the Townships that were held between 1888 and 1895. The logbook is available in its entirety online for those who would like to take some time to step back into a part of our military past: https://www.townshipsarchives.ca/military-camp-log-book (click on the image of the cover to read the logbook).
Contributed by Allisha Hampton Pettigrew, Bishop’s University History student
Danville owes its beginnings to Simeon Flint who settled in the area in 1807 and named the town “Danville” after his former home in New England: Danville, Vermont. Early on, this rural town relied on various mills such as sawmills and potato farms to provide work for the people living there. Other industries were gradually established, such as like the furniture maker, James Boutelle, the Dominion Clothes Pin Company, as well as the Danville Chair Specialty Company, which was founded in 1910 and offered work to over 80 people.
At the turn of the century, Danville saw the rise in mining for asbestos in the next town over. As a result, Danville shifted to a residential area for many miners could live and the town square was home to many small shops where people could bustle in and out of, similar to how it is today.
Even though most of those living in Danville today travel to other towns nearby for work or are farmers, the Square and surrounding commercial area remain a core part of the community. Every autumn, the town has an art symposium where many local artists set up their artwork in buildings throughout the town for people to come visit. It provides a great way for the artists to become known throughout the town and surrounding areas.
The Danville Square is now home to small local stores and restaurants and La Mante du Carré is a café that also acts as public market where local artisans may sell their products, such as fruits and vegetables from local farms, bread, honey, pottery, plants and so many other items. The Danville Square has changed and adapted over the years to benefit the people of the town but the square still remains the heart of the town.
On the edge of the square in Danville is Trinity United Church. It was built in 1875 and remains as one of the oldest churches in Danville. There have been numerous churches in Danville: the Presbyterian church no longer in practice has been turned into a restaurant, Le Temps des Cerises, and the Adventist church was turned into a private home. Trinity United Church however is still in operation.
The Congregational minister Ammi J. Parker held the first services at the school and, in 1836, a Congregational church was built on the very same spot as the present location of Trinity United Church. In 1875, the church was rebuilt and is the same one that currently stands there to this day. Trinity United Church’s steeple is one that is easily recognized within the town and the surrounding areas; it sticks out above the other buildings and the structure has remained the same as it was when it was first built.
Trinity United Church’s activities have also remained mostly the same. The Church hosts a Sunday School where children from the area may come to learn more about the religion. The Church also hosts a number of different activities for its members and the community such as suppers, games of military whist and a Christmas play. Despite a mostly French population in the area, there is still a wide English following within the Church. English and French people from Danville and surrounding areas attend the services. Since Danville is home to quite a few churches, church bells can be heard ringing throughout the town. The steadfast presence of Trinity United Church as well as its activities serve as a comfort within a world that is always moving.
These days, with increased interest in self-sufficiency and recognition of the importance of bees in maintaining pollination, beekeeping feels almost commonplace in this area. A century ago, however, beekeeping was the realm of relatively few across the Eastern Townships. A perusal through old issues of the Sherbrooke Daily Record reveals an enthusiastic group of beekeepers, often expounding on the “splendid opportunities to keep bees.”
One apiary (also then known as a bee yard) that was a going concern for over a century was F.W. Jones & Son, established in Bedford in 1878. Not only did they harvest and sell honey across the country, Frank W. Jones was also well respected for his beekeeping products and leather coloured Italian bees (apparently well-suited to the Canadian climate), which they bred and sold. F.W. Jones even invented and sold his own honey comb foundation, known as the Jones-Weed foundation.
Later on F.W. Jones beekeeping supplies was taken over by his only daughter, Audrey, and her husband Richard Craighead, eventually to be sold to Propolis-ETC. During its height, F.W. Jones was one of Canada’s leading agricultural enterprises and Frank continually promoted the business and art of beekeeping, including through the foundation of Quebec’s Bee-Keepers Association.
On the east side of the Townships, among those with notable apiaries were John L. Kennedy in Stanbury and Charles Gill of Coaticook.
In 1914, a science in agriculture portrait noted that “an abundance of wildflowers and the rich clover fields afford the busy bees ample territory to work,” which is a characteristic that continues to flavour Townships honey today. If you have not yet had a chance to purchase some local honey, this is the summer to treat your taste buds!
A box covered with little holes, cords zig-zagging all over the place, connecting and disconnecting to jacks, speaking politely to clients all day long. This was the work of the telephone operator in the time before dialing a series of numbers connects you almost immediately to whomever you wish to reach. Once long distance calls were made possible through technology and businesses and homes were increasingly connecting to the telephone network, switchboards operated by humans were necessary for calls to reach their destination.
At first, switchboards were operated by young men but it was found that women tended to be politer to customers and it was not long before it became a female-dominated job. This new industry gave women an opportunity for some economic independence and work outside of the home. Although telephone operator work typically fell to young, single women, it became a life-long career for others, such as Rose (née Robinson) Thompson in Ayer’s Cliff.
It was uncommon for mothers in the early 1900s to have jobs outside of the home but for Rose Thompson, a widow, telephone operator work gave her a chance to support herself and her young son, Lysle. Following the sudden death of her husband, Cortez J. Thompson, in 1916, she moved from Cassville where they had farmed to Ayer’s Cliff. In 1919, Rose began to work at the switchboard of the Ayer’s Cliff exchange of the Eastern Townships Telephone Company and became the office’s manager in 1923; a position she would continue to occupy for 30 years.
By the end of 1953, Bell Telephone had acquired the Eastern Townships Telephone Company and Rose chose to leave her career as Ayer’s Cliff’s telephone operator and office manager at this time. At the E.T. Telephone Company’s final banquet in late 1953, of the twelve “telephone pioneers” (meaning the employee had over 21 years with the company) that were honoured, eight were women.
While the switch to the Bell Telephone network marked the end of an era for the locally-owned Eastern Townships Telephone Company, the manual switchboard would remain in place in Ayer’s Cliff and continue to be largely operated by local women until the spring of 1962.
Do you have local photographs of people at work at a switchboard or other memorabilia related to telephone offices and switchboards in the Townships? If so and you would be interested in donating them to the ETRC, please get in touch with us!
Barbara Rose Eardley-Wilmot was born June 30, 1915 to parents Rev. Canon Charles Revell Eardley-Wilmot and Rose Meredyth Bowen. Her father, Charles, served as an Anglican minister at various churches throughout the Diocese of Quebec from 1908 to 1941, when a stroke forced his early retirement.
By the time they found themselves in Hatley in 1923, it was Barbara’s third home in her eight years, which was not unusual for a clergy family. In the early years at Hatley there was one particular Christmas that stood out in Barbara’s memory as she later described the year when the Eardley-Wilmots made sure that Christmas came to a family that had little money and a very sick wife/mother.
That year, Rev. Eardley-Wilmot’s wife, Rose, directed her two oldest children, Barbara and Cecily, to wrap some of their own presents up for the two children and to find decorations (cookies, ribbons, tags) for a small tree the Reverend had cut for the less fortunate family. The Eardley-Wilmots even prepared their own turkey for them, content with chicken for themselves. In her recollection of Christmas morning, Barbara wrote: “All up, had some breakfast, horse all ready and harnessed to the cutter, bricks in place, turkey to keep them warm in their pan, and away we go, Dadie, Barbara and Cecily, the trip would be about ¾ of a mile, all goes well, dashing through the snow, when the horse balked. We had changed direction onto a side road where we were headed, and run into a big KAHOO. This was a large snowdrift, higher than the horse, and though I got out and talked to him, all he would say was ‘neigh.’ Cecily and I tried to knock some snow out of the way, then we heard bells. There was the other rig [cutter] behind us. Thank goodness, Dad had brought a shovel, just in case, so we were soon back on course.”
The Eardley-Wilmots successfully delivered all of the Christmas goodies to the family that year and this act of giving would remain etched into their memories for a lifetime. Even though Barbara and Cecily were young at the time, probably around ten and eight years old, they remembered this particular Christmas with a special fondness, recounting it decades later with detail.