History
Spread across 2 733 km2, the MRC du Granit is primarily rural with agriculture dominant in the northern sector and forestry in the south. The town of Lac-Mégantic emerges as the urban centre of the region. Designated by the name of granite, one of its principal natural and industrial resources, the MRC du Granit is located in Estrie at the entryway to Beauce and Maine and lies adjacent to the Appalachian Mountains along the U.S. border.
The distance from main urban centres, as well as, the sentiment to be neither “beauceron” nor fully “estrien” has developed special values founded on autonomy, innovation and perseverance. Thus, the local population assumes its own cultural identity very apparent in the dynamic force and vitality, both social and economic, that characterizes the region.
Amerindian Presence
Following the Amerindians was a first European presence in the 17th century. Water routes by the Chaudière River and the Kennebec River enabled easier travel and the territory was witness to several movements. The French settlers and Jesuits who were on good terms with the Abenaki were forced to cede their lands to the British after the war between France and England in 1713. The result was the loss of Acadia and of French possessions south of the Appalachians.
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Passage of Col. Benedict Arnold’s Army
The conquest in 1759-1760 of New France by the British removed from Megantic its characteristic as a border territory. The British then reigned. In the summer of 1761 Capt. John Montresor, a British surveyor, mapped the area and described its rivers and lakes. During the American War of Independence against England, Col. Benedict Arnold used Montresor’s report as a guide to direct troops via the waterways of Maine, Lake Megantic and the Chaudière River to attack the city of Quebec in 1775. Having been reduced from 1 100 to 600 men, the ill-fated expedition endured harsh winter conditions and was beset by unexpected difficulties that finally resulted in defeat and Arnold’s capture by the British. After the siege of Quebec in May 1776, the surviving American soldiers retraced their steps and made way back to New England. During that arduous journey through the wilderness in the fall of 1775, Arnold’s expedition suffered hardship, loss of life and destruction of equipment. This passage of the army left behind traces and occasionally one may yet discover the remains of guns or sabres such as those made into the honorary keys of the Town of Lac-Mégantic.
Scottish Immigrants The Eastern Townships has over time experienced several waves of immigration. Important among new arrivals were the Scottish Highlanders who had become “burdensome” to their property owners in the isles of northeast Scotland and were forced to leave their ancestral lands according to agreement between the Canadian government and the British American Land Co. (BALCO). The first Scottish immigrants would arrive in Quebec City in 1837. Shortly thereafter, colonists came into the townships via the St. Lawrence River, the St. Francis River and the Salmon River to Gould and Lingwick. Colonization was very difficult for these poor newcomers in majority from the Isle of Lewis who were used to building thatched houses of stone and peat (black houses). Here welcomed by dense forest, the simple task of mastering the axe to chop wood was an urgent need!
1856 marks the establishment of Scots in the Megantic area. William McLeod, Rory Murdo, John McIver and their families were the first settlers to populate the wilderness of the township of Marston. With great effort and not until 1877, a road was at last completed uniting the two banks of the Chaudière River and connecting the region to the outside world. Today charming chapels, cemeteries, and place names among other things bear testimony to a very unique and rich Scottish heritage.
WITH THE RAILROAD COMES DEVELOPMENT Within a generation or approximately a quarter century from 1852 to 1877, the virgin territory of Lake Megantic opened up to settlement, population growth and forestry production. Malcolm Matheson from the Isle of Lewis, Télesphore Legendre of Stornoway, Alexandre Ross and Jerry Ham are the first entrepreneurs to construct buildings that were fundamental to the burgeoning town of Megantic.
The arrival of the railroad from Sherbrooke in 1878 was essential to the development of the region, and twinned with efforts of the first colonists, it permitted the development of a route from “Ness Hill” to the site called “La Chaudière”. This route corresponds today with Laval and Frontenac Streets, the main thoroughfares into downtown Lac-Mégantic.
Reference: Histoire de Lac-Mégantic, Jean-Pierre Kesteman, Ville de Lac-Mégantic, 1985
