Vaudreuil-Soulanges
GenWeb |
These counties of Quebec cover a triangular region of the
province with the Ontario border on the west, the Ottawa River on the north, and the St.
Lawrence River on the south. The area was once part of the old French system of
seigneuries. It was for this reason that they became part of Quebec rather than Ontario
when Upper and Lower Canada were created in 1791. In the late 1970's the counties were
disbanded by the Quebec government became part of the administrative region called
Montérégie that covers the southwest part of the province.
The seigneury of Île Perrot was developed earlier than other lands in the counties because it was closer to Montreal and did not suffer the water transportation barrier of the Lachine Rapids. The seigneury of Île Perrot was granted in 1672 to the governor of Montreal Francois-Marie Perrot. It was Perrot who set up an early fur trading post at the fief of Brucy. Some years later the seigneury became the property of Charles Le Moyne and he sold the seigneury to Joseph Trottier Desruisseaux in 1703. It was the widow of Desruisseaux who began construction of Île Perrot's first church in 1740.
Granted in 1702, the seigneuries of Vaudreuil and Soulanges were not as quickly developed because they were situated upstream from the impassable Lachine Rapids. For this reason, the seigneuries were sparsely inhabited until the late eighteenth century.
The seigneury of Vaudreuil was originally granted in the early 18th century to Francois de Riguad, who was Marquis of Vaudreuil and posted as a Governor of Montreal. Riguad did little with the property sold the seigneury -- before returning to France in 1763 -- to Michel Chartier de Lotbinière. The seigneury eventually passed by marriage to Robert Unwin Harwood. It was Harwood who encouraged British settlers to the area. These settlers helped to establish the villages of Como and Hudson. Nearby, meanwhile, another village, Dorion, developed separately as a result of tradesmen of German descent.
The seigneury of Soulanges was once the property of Pierre-Jacques de Joybert. It is he who founded the town of Les Cèdres in 1720. Somewhat to the east of this town a battle was fought in 1776 between the King's Liverpool Regiment, who were helped by Native Americans, and American troops who had settled in Les Cèdres. The American troops, of course, were expelled.
The sons of the Marquis of Vaudreuil first received the Riguad seigneury as a concession in 1732. They did little with it. The village of Rigaud was not developed until after the College of Bourget was created in 1850with the arrival of the clerics of Saint Viateur.
At Pointe des Cascades, located on the Ottawa River, some of the first work in the region took place to improve river transportation. (It was also here that Baron of Lahontan visited as early as 1684 when a bloody was raged between the French and Iroquois in this area.) The French created the first river channel at the rapids in 1749 and later a lock, Canal Cascades, was built there in 1805. Canal Cascades and, another channel begun in 1759 on the St Lawrence River, Canal Coteau de Lac were later replaced by the Beauharnois Canal in 1845. In 1959 the Saint Lawrence Seaway replaced all of these.
Some historic points of interest in the area include:
- Masion Trestler, 85 Chemin de la Commune, Dorion, is a stone house built between 1798 and 1806. It was owned by Jean Joseph Trestler, once a mercenary in the Hesse Hanau regiment, and later involved in the area's fur trade.
- Maison Valois Génus, 331 Rue Saint Charles, Dorion, built in 1796 for militia captain Joachim Génus. It is a squared timber house on a high stone foundation which is representative of an architectural style that has mostly disappeared from Quebec.
Vaudreuil-Soulanges GenWeb Project/Projet GenWeb Vaudreuil-Soulanges |