This article is taken (abridged, slightly adapted) from Chapter 5 of my PhD thesis. The chapter serves as an overview of Townships history and is not, nor meant, to be definitive. Please note that any views on named communities are those of my respondents (whose names have been changed) and not my own.
Lost in space: A History of the Eastern Townships
[…] I am sorry we settled here, wife and children; the seasons are so short, and unfavourable for the growth of wheat. The only sure crops are potatoes and grass […] Many settlers have suffered most dreadfully, such provisions as they would not have had in a workhouse in England. Children have suffered from want of clothes in this cold climate, and not half enough food to live upon; such misery we hope never to witness again, and not in our power to relieve […] I would by no means advise a man with a family to come. No matter for a single man, for if he does not find one place suit, he can move on, until he does find one. (Letter from Asher Jones to the ‘Reading Mercury’- reprinted in the ‘The Times’ 24th December 1840).
Whatever the sufferings of the said Asher Jones of Bury Township, his fellow settlers did come to terms with the short growing seasons, freezing temperatures and the cost of living. This chapter examines the legacy of Asher Jones and his contemporaries, by examining the Townships at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In common with the previous chapter, this chapter provides an historical context. However, although the Eastern Townships are part of Quebec, the discourse produced in this chapter stands in strong contrast to the macro-historical discourse of Quebec, as outlined in the previous chapter. In essence, this chapter serves a similar, yet contrasting purpose to the previous chapter. Like the previous chapter, it provides a degree of historical context. However, more importantly, the chapter provides a macro-history of the Eastern Townships as it is commonly constructed. This macro-historical discourse or mémoire is still unfolding, in the present. The ‘memories’, issues, wars, laws and charters from the past, speak into present discourses concerning the Eastern Townships in just the same ways they do in relation to the history of Quebec. This macro-historical construction provides a very different, one could say ‘opposite’, articulation of history in relation to Quebec’s history. Therefore, although part of Quebec, this overview of the Eastern Townships, provides a perspective which is in almost total opposition to that which I have laid out in the previous chapter.
Although the Townships are predominantly rural and are in Quebec, their history and contemporary circumstances differ considerable from what might be called, the standard narrative of rural life in Quebec, over the past two-hundred or more years. Most importantly, the Townships were initially predominantly English-speaking and not French-speaking as most of the rest of rural Quebec. Townships villages were never the settlements of the seigneurie, the rang, the curé, and the subsistence farmer or fisherman, but were historically Protestant, English-speaking and governed locally, more on an American New England style ‘town meeting’ model, rather than a theocracy headed by a priest (Little 1997, 8). Although the Townships are mostly French-speaking today, the region has one of the highest proportions of English-speakers outside of Montreal.
Surprisingly little has been written about the Eastern Townships, either as history or for tourists in recent years. A recent exception is Kesteman et al’s work ‘Histoire des Cantons de l’Est’ (1998) which is one of a series on all the regions of Quebec, commissioned by Institut québécois de recherche sur la culture. This work is, without doubt, the fullest and most comprehensive history of the Townships written in the twentieth century. Unfortunately no such equivalent exists in the English language at present. The most substantive histories of the Townships in English were written in the mid-nineteenth century, notably those of Thomas (1866) and ‘Mrs’ [Catherine Matilda] Day (1863, 1869).
Two centuries of change: From Yankees to Québécois
The Rough Guide to Canada (Jepson et al 1998) describes Quebec's Eastern Townships “as once Quebec's best kept secret”. Without doubt, this region of Quebec, starting about 60km South-East of Montreal and spreading down to the American border, is virtually unknown to visitors outside Quebec and New England. During the past century this region has changed from being a predominantly English-speaking region, to a predominantly French-speaking region. Morril (1917, 23) identifies four main stages in the development of the Eastern Townships.
Firstly, from about 1793 to 1813 the main settlers were ‘loyalist’ settlers from New England.
Secondly, after the Peninsular War (which ended in 1814) a period of settlement from Britain began.
Thirdly, this process was intensified from the 1830s onwards, with extensive immigration from all over the British Isles.
Fourthly, from the mid-nineteenth century onwards the French-Canadian population grew. This was due to two main factors. Firstly, there was the ‘push’ factor of overpopulation on the seigniorial lands (see Chapter 4). Secondly, there were increasing economic opportunities in railway building, through industrialisation and also through mining (Bissionette 1985, W G Ross 1996).
Prior to the beginnings of widespread European settlement in what came to be known as the Eastern Townships, in the aftermath of American independence, the area was occupied mostly by Abenaki native peoples, and possibly by the Iroquois to a lesser extent (Taylor 1908, 8, Kesteman et al 1998, Chapter 2).
The land south of the St Lawrence was opened up by Royal proclamation in 1791. A number of conditions were attached to the take up of land which included loyalty to the king (see Taylor 1908, 16-19). In defining the term ‘Township’ [canton], Jacques Gagnon (1989, 156) writes, “Précisons qu’il s’agit d’une division d’artpentage établie en 1792 pour toutes les terres du Québec non èrigées en seigneuries”. Therefore the land pattern of the Eastern Townships is also characteristically different from the seigniorial rang system which Boubreau et al (1997, 40) refer to as “…forme dominante du paysage rural québécois”- the semi-feudal land use system, which I described in chapter 4. Thus this region of Quebec is not part of the traditional québécois theocracy which existed prior to the Quiet Revolution, which has informed, as counterpoint, contemporary Québécois nationalism.
The Eastern Townships are so called as they are located east of Montreal in contrast to the ‘western’ townships of the Outaouais and Ontario. Townships were also demarcated in non-seigniorial lands of the Gaspésie, as well as elsewhere in British North America (see Russell 1973, 25-28). Theoretically, each Township in Quebec was a square of 10 miles by 10 miles (Kesteman et al 1998, 15), though often this was made impossible by the constraints of physical geography (Russell 1973, 25). Conventional wisdom maintains that the first settlers were mostly American loyalists, although this is now often disputed (Epps 1992, 7). However, the British government did give loyalists outright land grants so that they could settle in the Eastern Townships and elsewhere in Canada (Russell 1973, 26).
Many of these loyalists in the Eastern Townships arrived via Vermont, which joined the United States in 1791 as the fourteenth state. According to McCaw (1988, 149) many thought that Vermont (technically an independent republic from 1777) would join Canada. Vermont was also a bone of contention between the states of New York and New Hampshire (both of the original thirteen) who desired to acquire this territory sandwiched between them (Swift 1977). As Epps (1992, 7) notes, not all of these ‘loyalists’ necessarily fought for the British in the American War of Independence. Many at this stage were more concerned about economic opportunity and it has been claimed that many did not realise that they had left the United States at all, as the border was not well defended at this time (Dresser 1935, 93). Settlers from England, Scotland and Ireland (both Protestant and Catholic), as well as a small number from other European countries later joined these ‘loyalists’. Settlement was promoted through the publication of pamphlets, distributed in Britain. Bennett disputes the importance of these, suggesting that word-of-mouth was probably much more important (Bennett 1998, 25). Settlement was also influenced by strong ‘push’ factors in the British Isles, notably overpopulation and rising rent prices in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, and the Irish Potato famine in the mid-nineteenth century (Gmelch 1980). Additionally settlement was promoted through the local press.
With the arrival of Irish Catholics and French-Canadians from the 1830s onwards, the Catholic Church began to prosper in the Eastern Townships (Gmelch 1980, 28). Although the historical legacy of a population under control of the Roman Catholic Church has less credence in this region, it is evident from the work of Ross, that English-speakers believed that the French simply did as the priest told them to do (Ross 1943, 457). However, some villages in the Eastern Townships like Knowlton in Brome County have remained stronger bastions of the English language in Quebec. There was initially a high degree of ethnic segregation between different communities in the Townships. Saint-Sylvestre had a majority Irish population between 1831 and 1871 (McQuillan 1999, 271). Bennett (1998, xii) claims that between 1851 and 1891 some communities were up to 95% Gaelic-speaking.
Thus whilst the origins of the Eastern Townships were predominantly English-speaking and Protestant, this rapidly changed from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. Firstly, land opened up in the west of Canada and the United States, encouraging the emigration of English-speakers. Secondly, there was increased French-Canadian in-migration. Many of these arrived with the building of the railway, but they followed numerous other trades too (Bellevance 1984, 98, Bissionette 1985). The influence of the Catholic Church on the French population helped to ensure that the birth rate remained high over this period, whilst the English suffered a low birth rate and an ageing population (Blanchard 1947, 356-357).
Some communities, particularly those in the north of the Townships, became majority French-speaking before the turn of the twentieth century. This process has essentially continued until the present day. Many older residents of the Townships can relate directly to this historical narrative having been bought up in an English-language society, yet seeing this disappearing now before them. Many can trace their ancestry back to the American Loyalists. A former schoolteacher reminisced about one of her professors at the Teaching College speaking of the ‘Eastern Township Yankees’.
Where are the Eastern Townships today?
The actual geographical extent of the Eastern Townships is the subject of some debate and most contemporary definitions define an area smaller than the Townships demarcated in 1791. Figure 5.2 maps some of the different definitions used by historians, geographers and government agencies to define the Townships. I have accepted a broad definition of the Townships, which I believe is faithful to the geography expressed by the people to whom I spoke. This geography includes the communities of Drummondville, Thetford Mines and the site of Townshippers Day 2000, St Felix-de-Kingsley (I say more about this later). All these communities lie outside the ‘Cantons de l’Est’ as defined by Tourisme Québec, but are historically part of the ‘Townships’ and seen by residents as such.
Historians of Canada and of Quebec have largely ignored the Eastern Townships. The region represents an enormous linguistic and historical deviation, from the narrative of Quebec’s history I outlined in the previous chapter. This demonstrates that English in Quebec has huge historical significance, which challenges the historical, and also the contemporary conception of Quebec as a French society. English born local historian Bernard Epps articulately expresses this perspective, so I will quote him in full.
Most Canadian historians either ignore the Eastern Townships of Quebec entirely or mention it in passing as a minor aberration. Those who ignore it may be safely ignored in turn but those who mention it in passing almost always get it wrong by calling it ‘loyalist country’ settled ‘mainly by loyalists’ and full of ‘loyalist architecture’. In reality, there may have been quite as many pioneers who fought for the Revolution as against it while the overwhelming majority were far more interested in free and fertile land than in politics (Epps 1992, 7).
However, Epps follows up this comment citing a more serious, even sinister error about ignoring Townships history in the history of Quebec.
Today, the Eastern Townships is a bit of an embarrassment to pure laine nationalists who like to think of their homeland as taken by force at the Conquest. Consequently, there is continuing pressure to erase the Eastern Townships entirely – first because it is English, secondly because there is no acceptable French equivalent for ‘township’. […]
Consequently, ‘Estrie’ was invented in 1946 as a replacement but has not been employed since to mark the same historical region. The ministry of tourism likes to exclude ‘Les Bois-Francs’ while other government agencies divide at Lake Memphremagog and call only the eastern part ‘Estrie’. The idea seems to erase everything which made the Eastern Townships unique and integrate it into the rest of Quebec. They are succeeding to the extent that the Eastern Townships may soon exist only in history (Epps 1992, 8).
This conundrum results largely from the reterritorialisation of French-Canadian nationalism, from French-speakers in Canada to all residents living in the Province of Quebec. To form a state a nation requires a territory. The Eastern Townships consist of a significant well-rooted English minority, in certain areas a majority. For many of these being a Quebecer is not, and cannot, be formed upon the French language. They are Quebecers in the sense that they and their ancestors have lived in Quebec for many generations. However, many residents, especially older residents have little or no knowledge of the French language; therefore they cannot relate to the Parti Québécois’ contention that the French language is the dominant component of being québécois and having a québécois (in the sense of being a resident of Quebec) identity.
The Eastern Townships has a very powerful imagined geography in the view of English residents especially. Charges of conspiracy, like those of Epps (1992), derive from the fact that according to Quebec government region the Eastern Townships (as defined in the late eighteen century) do not exist. As a recent report stated,
Today the region covers about 16,000 km² and includes 17 MRCs in the administrative region of the Estrie, and parts of Montérégie, Centre-du-Québec and Chaudière-Appalaches. (National Human Resources Development Committee for the Linguistic Minority 2000, 63).
Thus the Eastern Townships have been spilt between a number of Quebec’s regions. Yves Laframbois (1996), in his beautiful book on villages in Quebec uses these official Quebec regions to structure his book. Rather than Knowlton being classified alongside other Township settlements cited like North Hately and Georgeville (Estrie), Knowlton is put in Montérégie, in the same region of the town of Dewitville, which lies about 50km south -west of Montreal. In other words the imagined geographies of Quebec regional identities do not match the physical boundaries set by the Quebec government in the case of the Townships, where historical boundaries are more important (at least to English-speakers). Laframbois does not deny the existence of the Eastern Townships; in fact he acknowledges ‘Les Cantons de l’Est’ in his introduction but does not use the Cantons as a regional construct, within which to frame his work. He says, “Dans les Cantons de l’est, le modèle présente d’autres particularités”, making an exception of them on historical grounds vis-à-vis other regions of Quebec (Laframbois 1996, 15), whilst simultaneously being bound by modern Quebec government boundary constructs in the organisation of his book.
Thus the Eastern Townships is a region of Quebec, which is well defined in the minds of the residents with whom I spoke, and in organisations such as the Townshippers Association. Whether by conspiracy, ideology, oversight or administrative pragmatism, the boundaries of the Eastern Townships have been changing (mostly shrinking) since 1791. As Little notes “Even the borders of the region we are studying have been defined somewhat arbitrarily, since there has never been an official political and administrative jurisdiction known as the Eastern Townships.” (Little 1997, 7).
The Townships as a multicultural society.
The Eastern Townships has long been a multicultural society, not just English and French. The English community was born out of the immigration of people from all the composite parts of the British Isles, all of who had their own distinctiveness. Whilst being anglophone, Irish Catholics had much in common with the French-Canadians, notably their faith as well as their hostility towards the British (McQuillan 1999, 265). Many Irish Catholics did assimilate, (linguistically and culturally) into the French Canadian community, but others did not. The Irish Catholics shared their faith with the French-Canadians and their origin and language with the Irish Protestants, a situation which led the power struggles with both groups (McQuillan 1999, 267). The arrival of the Irish meant that Catholicism could no longer be an agent of French-Canadian nationalism in North America, as anglophone priests and bishops were now required (Louder et al 1993, 4). Thus the Townships became a backdrop for complex relationships and power struggles, which invoked questions of ethnicity, faith and language, with different groups sharing different aspects of these identities with each other. Religiously speaking, the Townships were initially a free-for all as far as the English-speaking population was concerned, with Anglicans, Methodists, Baptists and others competing for converts (Noël 1988).
The emergence of ‘English’ and ‘French’ Quebecers is an outcome which emerged from a past society of more than two groups of people. The idea of the ‘English’ being ‘driven out’ of the Townships remains a common one. This attitude is the overall theme of the work of Ross (1943, 1950, 1954). One of her respondents reported,
I must say that I like them personally, and find some of them very fine people. My neighbour, a Frenchman, is a fine, educated man. I couldn’t possibly have a better neighbour. Educated Frenchmen always look up to us ministers, as they would to a priest. He’s very broad in his religious views too. He says that he knows that we will all get to heaven, no matter what our religion is (Cited in Ross 1950, 198).
More recently, Sharon Bohn Gmelch (1980) in her study of the remnant of Scottish consciousness in the Townships, comes very close to my own perspectives on nationalism in the Townships.
Although the Scottish and French-Canadian residents of Compton County co-exist peacefully, a certain amount of tension and ill-feeling is present. Individuals may have very positive interpersonal relationships with members of the opposite group, yet harbor resentments and prejudices which become overt only in periods of crisis such as during wars, economic depression, and political campaigns (Gmelch 1980, 35).
Of recent concerns about the Quebec separatist movement she comments,
Despite such opinions, most Scots do not direct their resentments against the local French-speaking population but against the Quebec government and the French community in general (Gmelch 1980, 38).
This discourse makes use of the concepts I discussed in Chapter 2. This is an example of a hostility that is directly towards an entire group, but not to individuals in general. Blame is apportioned, not to individual French-speakers, but to the more impersonal ‘forces’ of government and ‘the French community’. These ideas as they relate to my findings will be discussed in later chapters.
Geographer Raoul Blanchard (1947, 354) comments that relations between the English and French were good, despite the inferiority complex of the French. Dresser also commends the multicultural nature of the Townships. He bears testimony to a culture of distinctiveness, yet at the same time co-operative and complementary of one another.
In the course of the replacement of one race by the other, intimate and cordial relations have been established between them; but almost entirely without racial fusion. Mutual understanding and community of interests have long given a broad tolerance of each other’s preferences that assures the rights of both. A neighbourly harmony pervades even the smallest communities, that affords a wholesome example to larger divisions of the Dominion’s complex population (Dresser 1935, 100).
More recently the municipality of Ville de Lac Brome has been described as,
The compatible union of so many municipalities has enhanced the happy marriage of the town founding peoples. English and French live side by side in perfect harmony, in profound mutual respect, without sacrificing any of their culture or uniqueness (Granby-Bromant Regional Development Corporation 1994, 3).
This spirit of the togetherness of English-speakers and French-speakers has very long-standing heritage, as Maggie Bothwell’s poem from 1868 entitled ‘The dominion O’ Canada, oor hame’, written in Scots dialect testifies. This is from the ninth stanza.
Ye sons o’ ancient Normandy,
And Erin’s children dear,
And ye the pride of Albion’s isle,
Wha mingle wi’ us here
Let a’ the feuds o’ ancient days
Lie buried wi’ the slain,
But side by side defend the rights
O’ Canada, oor hame.
Maggie Bothwell (1868) printed by Taylor (1937, 13).
There has also been acknowledgement of the British heritage of the Townships, even in communities where there are no longer any English-speakers. In the late 1970s there was a move afoot in the ‘entirely’ French community of Stornoway, to change the name of the town. However, the mayor M. Legendre, drew attention to the fact that the Scots had arrived in the community before the French and resisted the proposed name change (Bennett 1998, 45).
The legacy of this process of the past century-and-a-half is that the Eastern Townships has an English-speaking minority, which is one of the largest in Quebec outside the Island of Montreal. The Townships are home to Bishop’s University, the only English-language University in Quebec outside Montreal. A member of the Townshippers Association told me that a tacit bilingualism is accepted in many parts of the Townships, despite French being the only official language of Quebec.
Issues facing the Eastern Townships.
It would be wrong, however, merely to portray the Eastern Townships as the remaining battleground between the English and French languages in Quebec. Whilst linguistic issues and nationalism are the focus of this study it is important to draw some attention to some the ‘bread and butter’ issues of the Townships. Like other rural areas in Quebec, in Canada, and in the western world in general, the Eastern Townships are facing the problems of outmigration, especially of young people, high unemployment, poor access to health facilities and low incomes (see Vachon 1995 for an example). Many schemes have been put in place to try and address some of these problems, both in the Townships and elsewhere. Most recently, there has been a strong emphasis on local development and empowering local people (Dugas 1983, 72-73, Laplante 1999a, 1999b), in contrast to large-scale government efforts, which seemed to make very little impact (Dugas 1983, 72, Vachon 1995, 107).
However, problems vary considerably between rural communities and localised cultures and histories can be more important than ‘natural’ advantages of their physical geography. Bélanger (1994, 1997) found considerable differences between two neighbouring communities he studied, one of which was characterised by fights and rivalries, whilst its neighbouring community is more cohesive and able to form proper social and economic development (1994, 75-76).
These localised cultures and differences are evident in the Eastern Townships too. A youth worker in Richmond told me that the town was experiencing problems with Hell’s Angels and drug dealers. On the other hand Drummondville is beginning to prosper, partly due its location on the Trans-Canadian highway, halfway between Montreal and Quebec City.
One thing that’s interesting, out here in Drummondville, an area that used to be primarily an agricultural area. There’s often a lot of incentives for businesses to set up in the area and also because of the highways and the airport, you have the infrastructure there already. They actually right now have one of the highest immigrations, people coming from Montreal, people coming from urban areas out to this place because this place is rural place so they’re able to get cheap land, things like that. But they’re growing rapidly, in fact they are becoming more urban…[David]
In contrast Stanstead, on the US (Vermont) border has been struggling for many years and I was told about a culture of hopelessness ingrained there. This has made it very difficult for anybody to help.
Stanstead feels so beaten down and let down by, the Quebec government […] A lot of good things have been done, but the majority of the people still feel that Stanstead is a sort of dead-end town and there’s a lot of social assistance there and there’s a lot of domestic violence, all the things that go on there, that occur or accompany economic hard times. It makes it a very difficult community to break into. Its not the only community like that in the Townships, but for many it is the supreme example of that type of thing. But Stanstead is beginning to get on its feet. I think it will. [Jeff].
The Eastern Townships contains communities which vary considerably in terms of their economic bases, social class and local power dynamics. Communities developed around wool, cotton, leather, textiles, metal-working, tobacco, mining and chemicals (Kesteman et al 1998, Chapter 8, see also W G Ross 1996). With 40% of household heads being retired, Ross identified Hatley as a retirement community as early as the 1960s. He predicted the subsequent rise of the ‘Anglo-Saxon retirement village’ in the Townships (Ross 1967, 60). The linguistic question is an issue of course, but it is true to say that there are many more dimensions to Township conflicts, such as the buying of second homes by wealthy Montrealers. This especially evident in some of the most beautiful villages such as Hatley, Knowlton and Georgeville, all majority English-speaking villages featured by Laframbouise (1996). There are also conflicts over local development, between those who wish to see industry in the area to provide employment, and those who like living in the Townships precisely because, ‘there is not a lot going on’ as one respondent told me.
The Townshippers Association has seized strongly on the ideology of ‘community development’, in terms of attempting to improve communities and provide English-speakers with assistance in their own language and help them get access to English language services. In sum, the Townships consist of a French majority living amongst a significant English minority. The MRCs of Brome-Mississquoi (25.2%), Memphrémagog (17.7%) and Haut St-François (15.3%) have the highest anglophone minorities. 6 municipalities in the Townships have an anglophone majority, using the definition of Eastern Townships used by Roberge and Morin (1989, 96). Whilst many debates on issues in the Eastern Townships transcend linguistic lines, it is however the case, that from time to time the language divide becomes highly politicised.
Every year a ‘Townshippers Day’ is held in a different Township. The 2000 event was held at St-Felix-de-Kingsley. The organising committee were all speakers of both English and French, and the slogan for the event was ‘Always in Harmony’, paying tribute to the working together of the English and French communities in the Townships. Townshippers Day is an event rather like a large village fete. At the St-Felix-de-Kingsley event, there were a variety of stalls selling ‘traditional’ Township crafts as well as dancing and singing. Representatives from the Montreal media were in attendance, as were representatives from the Quebec and Canadian governments.
This article has done far more than merely provide ‘an introduction’ to the Eastern Townships. It has drawn attention to the macro-historical discourse of the Eastern Townships. Like the history of Quebec outlined in the previous chapter, this mémoire of the Eastern Townships provides some of the resources upon which the identities and nationalisms of Townshippers are drawn. Like the history of Quebec, the history of the Eastern Townships continues to unfold in as well as informing the present. It is subject to change and reinterpretation in light of events and changing circumstances.
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