JETS) Is a Refereed Journal Published Biannu- Ally (Fall and Spring)

JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

EASTERN TOWNSHIPS RESEARCH CENTRE / CENTRE DE RECHERCHE DES CANTONS DE L’EST EDITORIAL AND MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE COMITÉ DE RÉDACTION ET DE GESTION Jonathan Rittenhouse Bishop’s University (Drama), Editor

J. Derek Booth Bishop’s University (Geography) Peter Gossage Université de Sherbrooke (Histoire et sciences politiques) Marie-Paule LaBrèque Acton Vale Rina Kampeas Executive Director, ETRC/CRCE Jean Levasseur Bishop’s University (Études françaises et québécoises) Monique Nadeau-Saumier Bishop’s University

CONSULTANTS Guy Laperrière Université de Sherbrooke (Histoire et sciences politiques) J.I. Little Simon Fraser University (History)

COMITÉ EXTERNE DE RÉDACTION EXTERNAL EDITORIAL COMMITTEE G. Caldwell Martinville D. Cartwright University of Western Ontario A. Désilets Sherbrooke J-M. Dubois Université de Sherbrooke J-C. Dupont Université Laval M. Echenberg McGill University M-P. LaBrèque Acton Vale L. Lacroix Université du Québec à Montréal G. Lane Lennoxville G. Laperrière Université de Sherbrooke M. Lessard Université du Québec à Montréal J.I. Little Simon Fraser University J.O. Lundgren McGill University A. Mercier Collège de Sherbrooke R. Milot Collège de Sherbrooke M. Phelps Knowlton C. Rose Bishop’s University H. Senior McGill University A. Sirois Sherbrooke P. Southam Université de Sherbrooke I. Tait Champlain College R.W. Vaudry University of Alberta B. Young McGill University JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

No 13 Fall-Winter / Automne-Hiver 1998–1999

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / REMERCIEMENTS

The editors of the Journal of Eastern Townships Les rédacteurs de la Revue d’études des Cantons Studies/Revue d’études des Cantons de l’Est de l’Est/Journal of Eastern Townships Studies gratefully acknowledge the financial tiennent à remercier de son assistance of: généreux soutien financier :

THE BÉLANGER-GARDNER LA FONDATION FOUNDATION BÉLANGER-GARDNER La Revue d’études des Cantons de l’Est (RECE) est une revue scientifique publiée deux fois l’an, à l’automne et au printemps. Les articles parus dans la RECE sont répertoriés dans l’Index des périodiques canadiens, Canadian Index et CBCA. La revue peut être consultée dans la base de données CBCA Fulltext de Micromedia et dans celle de l’Index des périodiques canadiens de la Information Access Company. Nous invitons les chercheurs et chercheuses de toutes les disciplines des sciences sociales et humaines à nous soumettre des articles portant sur les Cantons-de-l’Est. Nous acceptons des textes de 2 000 à 7 000 mots, saisi sur traitement de texte à double interligne, et présentés selon les normes de publication de la discipline de spécialisation. Le texte imprimé doit être accompagné d’un fichier sur disquette (WordPerfect 6.1 ou un logiciel compatible). Veuillez faire parvenir vos articles au : CRCE Casier 132 Université Bishop’s Lennoxville (Québec) J1M 1Z7

The Journal of Eastern Townships Studies (JETS) is a refereed journal published biannu- ally (fall and spring). JETS is indexed in the Canadian Periodical Index, Canadian Index and CBCA. The journal is accessible online in Micromedia’s CBCA Fulltext database and Information Access Company’s Canadian Periodical Index database. We welcome manuscripts relating to the Eastern Townships in all disciplines of the social sciences and humanities. Manuscripts in English should be between 2,000 and 7,000 words and conform to the principles of the JETS stylesheet. Please supply one copy of your text in manuscript, double-spaced throughout, and one copy on floppy disk (Word- Perfect 6.1 or compatible equivalent). For a copy of the stylesheet or to submit manuscripts, write to: ETRC Faculty Box 132 Bishop’s University Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7

Illustration de la couverture : « Concert at Pershore Abbey », croquis de Kay Kinsman (Source : Service d’archives du CRCE, fonds Kay Kinsman) Cover illustration: “Concert at Pershore Abbey,” sketch by Kay Kinsman (Source: ETRC Archives Department, Kay Kinsman fonds) Design : VisImage Impression / Printing: Imprimeries Transcontinental, division Métrolitho Dépôt légal / Legal deposit: 1er trimestre 1999 / 1st quarter, 1999 © 1999 ETRC/CRCE et les auteurs / and the authors NO 13 FALL-WINTER/AUTOMNE-HIVER 1998–1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE DES MATIÈRES JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

ARTICLES Tribute to Robin B. Burns / Hommage à Robin B. Burns / Harvey White & Guy Laperrière 5 Robin B. Burns: Community Historian / Louis-Georges Harvey 9 The Eastern Townships in the First World War: The First Hundred Days / Robin B. Burns 17 Résumé 37 A Recent History of Flooding in the Massawippi Drainage Basin / Norman K. Jones 41 Résumé 56 George Slack: A Pioneer Townships Clergyman / Richard D. Moysey 59 Résumé 69 Un 150e anniversaire; l’Association des Établissements Canadiens des Townships (1848) / Marie-Paule Rajotte LaBrèque 75 Abstract 79 NOTE DE RECHERCHE La grève d’Asbestos : comment transformer une défaite syndicale en succès médiatique / Jacques Gagnon 83 COMPTES RENDUS Sherbrooke 1802–2002. Deux siècles d’histoire. Exposition permanente au Centre d’interprétation de l’histoire de Sherbrooke / Hervé Gagnon 91 Trois villages miniers des Cantons de l’Est au Québec : Albert Mines, Capelton, Eustis par W.G. Ross / Recensé par Jean-Marie M. Dubois 97 ARCHIVES Kay Kinsman and Bishop’s: The Kinsman Papers / Selected and introduced by Jack Eby 101

BIOBIBLIOGRAPHIES/NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 123

TRIBUTE TO ROBIN B. BURNS / HOMMAGE À ROBIN B. BURNS

Editor’s Note In honouring its late founder, the Eastern Townships Research Centre has already renamed its annual lecture the Robin Burns Lecture. To further commemorate Robin Burns’ presence in the community and his commitment to local research, this issue of JETS publishes some personal reflections by colleagues alongside an article Dr. Burns had been working on at the time of his death. Dr. Louis-Georges Harvey, Chair of the Bishop’s History Department, who edited the article for publication, introduces it for us, writing about Robin Burns Dr. Burns’ life-long contributions to commu- Photographed at a nity history. We hope all our loyal subscribers family gathering in 1992. and readers enjoy these celebrations of this / Photo prise en 1992. parti cular “gentleman and scholar.” (Source: Mary Ann Burns)

Note de l’éditeur En hommage à son regretté fondateur, le Centre d’études des Cantons de l’Est a déjà rebaptisé sa série de conférences annuelles, « Les conférences Robin Burns ». Pour mieux souligner encore une fois l’importance de l’implication du Dr Burns dans notre organisme et dans la communauté en général, nous avons choisi de présenter dans ce numéro de RECE des réflexions personnelles de certains de ses collègues, ainsi qu’un article sur lequel il travaillait encore peu avant son décès. Le Dr Louis-Georges Harvey, chef du département d’histoire de l’Université Bishop’s, a eu la gentillesse de préparer l’article pour sa publication et nous le présente, en soulignant la longue contribution du Dr Burns aux recherches en histoire de la communauté. Nous espérons que cet hommage à un érudit et à un gentleman saura plaire à tous nos loyaux lecteurs. 6 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Remembering Robin: A Few of Many Thoughts Harvey White Department of Religion, Bishop’s University

obin and I arrived at Bishop’s the same year, thrown around R the periphery of the old guard. We became friends, part of the new recruits that slowly and inevitably became a new old guard. It was a post at which Robin stood with wisdom, maintained by a strong sense of duty to his new academic home — a domicile that he tended often above and beyond any call, and never for the sake of the recognition he deserved. One evening early in our tenure, during a poker game, Robin made a comment concerning some issue of national economic pol- icy. He said, “That’s not rational.” It was the way he said it that struck me. It was as though in those words, spoken unpretentious- ly, he was calling up centuries of accumulated wisdom. It was more than the judgement of a professional historian. He would often say such things in that way. He was, to be sure, an historian. He knew the madness that await- ed people and institutions and nations when they ignored their roots in that which transcends them. Those roots included tradition: its legacy of the search for the best, and its lessons of the impositions of the worst. For Robin this was not only a matter for the historian: it was a moral and theological position that informed much of what he did — indeed, who he was. So he lived it naturally and easily because that was essentially Robin. And, consistently, he took on tasks that demanded much of him. He gave his most when doing the right thing involved someone or something that he loved and valued. The last involvement, though only one of many, was service on a committee whose job was no less than determining a future for Bishop’s in the face of drastic budget cuts. We could see it drain his energy. We could see his concern. And although we wished, for his sake, that he not do that job, at the same time we knew that he had to, and that there was no one better to inject some rationality into the process. That’s why the University — the institution — misses him and owes much to him. Just as Bishop’s was not merely a place for Robin to teach, so the Eastern Townships was not merely a place for him to live. He studied it appreciatively and lectured on its history to his classes as well as to many groups throughout the region. His Eastern Townships Research Centre and this journal bear witness to his devotion of time and energy. Tribute/Hommage 7

Both Robin and Mary Ann came from Montreal, and — typically — they retained close ties with their friends there while making friends here. Many of his Montreal friends were students he taught and motivated during his time at Concordia. But Robin and Mary Ann were at home in the Townships. One got the impression that was so even before they moved here and bought their house over- looking the St. Francis River in Ascot. That home was where they raised Christopher and Steven, now graduate students in Physics and Classics respectively, and where they welcomed and entertained (and sometimes cared for) their friends. A true aficionado of sports, Robin felt watching a game was best done with friends and appropriate refreshments. Because his love of sports was combined with his love of Bishop’s, he was a Gaiter fan par excellence. When he was unable to attend football games because he was hospitalized, he would telephone and ask how the Gaiters did (and why). Bowl games (super or otherwise) were often watched with friends at his home. Following Robin’s death a moment of silence was observed at a Bishop’s basketball game in his honour. That was how it should be. And finally, he was his own person and somewhat out of place in the (post-) modern world — a fact he recognized. He would occasionally state that he would have to step aside to make room for the next generation with its methods and with its attitudes. He had the satisfaction that he had contributed to the education and upbringing of the best of that generation; but sometimes he failed to recognize that people like him should never step aside, because they and what they give are invaluable and irreplaceable.

Quelques souvenirs de Robin Burns Guy Laperrière Département d’histoire et sciences politiques, Université de Sherbrooke

’ai connu Robin Burns surtout entre 1987 et 1989, alors qu’il Jprésidait le Centre de recherche des Cantons de l’Est, au conseil duquel il m’avait invité. En tête d’un procès-verbal, je le vois s’appeler “chairman” et, à la fin, “chairperson”, ce qui montre bien l’influence que des collaboratrices aussi dévouées qu’Andrée Chartrand ou Monique Nadeau-Saumier purent avoir sur lui. On dira par la suite “the Chair”, ce qui donait toute une solennité au poste, qu’il occupait avec la dignité requise. Il menait les réunions avec 8 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

rondeur et bonhomie, n’imposant jamais son point de vue, sachant écouter et toujours très sensible aux personnes. Il fut le véritable moteur qui mit en marche ce Centre, qui mène depuis lors, sans tambour ni trompette, mais avec efficacité, son petit bonhomme de chemin. En 1989, Robin partit en année sabbatique, avec un projet sur les Cantons-de-l’Est et la Première Guerre mondiale. Je n’ai jamais vu de livre ou d’article de lui, si ce n’est son « The Montreal Irish and the Great War » (CCHA, 1985). Peut-être est-ce parce que je ne lis pas assez de revues d’inspiration irlandaise... Je savais bien qu’il était le spécialiste de D’Arcy McGee, dont il a écrit la biographie pour le tome XI du Dictionnaire biographique canadien. On me dit qu’il a entrepris bien des recherches, dont son perfectionnisme l’a empêché de publier les résultats. On reconnaît là un syndrome présent chez plus d’un de nos collègues universitaires. Cela les prive d’une partie de la “gloire” et du renom qui s’attache à la fonction de professeur; cela ne les empêche pas de fournir, dans la mesure de leurs moyens et avec beaucoup de bonne volonté, une contribution appréciable à la formation des étudiants et à l’avancement collectif des connaissances. Parti trop tôt, Robin Burns restera dans ma mémoire comme un collègue distingué, plein d’humour, simple et fort apprécié. ROBIN B. BURNS: COMMUNITY HISTORIAN Louis-Georges Harvey Bishop’s University

s a historian Robin Burns delighted in stepping out of the Ivory ATower and venturing into the multiple communities of which he was a part. The Bishop’s community, the Irish-Canadian community, the English-Quebec community and the Eastern Townships community were forums where he practiced his craft. His intimate connection to the communities around him in turn had a profound influence on Robin Burns’ research and more scholarly work. In its purest form the historian’s vocation is to preserve the collective memory of a community. In less complex, pre-literate societies individuals charged with preserving and passing on traditions and history held a place of honour. The professional historian of today is quite another beast altogether. Aspiring to objectivity and scientific rigor, historians more often than not have left the com- munal aspects of their craft to the “amateurs” who cluster around local historical societies. Some recent articles describe a chasm devel- oping between the historical profession and the communities it should be serving. We feel guilty about this estrangement, as well we should, but we all seem too busy to do anything about it.1 Robin Burns never allowed the chasm to develop, and he found fellowship and his greatest vindication in his community contacts. At one level this may have something to do with his relatively early start in the profession or with his passion for Canadian history, which was of immediate interest to the communities he served. More likely, however, is that Robin’s career spanned a period when communities of all kinds were forced to re-invent themselves in the light of historical developments. Canadian and Quebec history from the 1960s to the 1990s had an immediate impact on the communities Robin cared about. The multiculturalism policies of the fed- eral government made pride in ethnic origins both fashionable and profitable for cultural communities in the 1970s and 1980s. It might be argued that the Irish in Canada never really needed to be reminded of their origins, still, Irish-Canadian history flourished through those decades. In these same years the English-Quebec community 10 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

was largely invented as an object of historical study, and the Eastern Townships community, and particularly its anglophone component, also developed a growing self-consciousness. As a citizen and member of the faculty of Bishop’s University, Robin Burns felt a responsibility to share in the definition of the multiple community identities flowering around him. As a historian he understood better than most the importance of rooting those new identities in the past. In the case of the Townships the historical record was rich and offered fertile ground to researchers. Settled later than many areas of the province, and opened first to English and American settlers, the history of the region spoke eloquently of struggle and diversity. One of Robin Burns’ most important accomplishments as a historian, and perhaps the most eloquent legacy of his career, was the establishment of the Eastern Townships Research Centre (ETRC). For years this project occupied most of his time, as he struggled to obtain both funding and collections to house in the new centre. Robin understood that such a centre should not be the sole preserve of aca- demics, but that it had to serve the community around it. And in many ways Robin himself provided the connection. He sat on the boards of numerous local historical societies and even cooperated with government commissions studying place names. Year after year he spoke to local groups throughout the region. He was always available for interviews, either in print or on the radio. And every few years he taught an evening or summer course, which invariably attracted large numbers of local history aficionados. Through these and other associations Robin Burns helped produce tools which would be invaluable to future generations of historians, both popular and academic. Burns, for example, was instrumental in the publication of one of the first significant bibliographical research aids for the history of English speaking Que- bec, a compilation edited by Brendan O’Donnell. Not only had O’Donnell begun the work as his research assistant during his time at Concordia, but Robin was instrumental in securing funding for the project and assuring its publication under the auspices of the ETRC and Bishop’s University.2 These varied and numerous activities made the Eastern Townships an important reference point to him, but it was far from the only community to capture his interest and benefit from his service. It was in service to the Irish-Canadian community that Robin also par- ticipated in the movement to create a national historic site at Grosse Isle, the famous island camp where tens of thousands of Irish immi- Louis-Georges Harvey 11 grants died in the 19th century during their imposed period of quar- antine upon landing in British North America. Robin was also an active member of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies, whose annual conference in 1993, which he organized, was held at Bish- op’s University. Most notable in Robin’s service to his multiple communities were the dozens of talks he gave over the years to small, local historical societies and groups. After his death, as I was preparing some of his papers for transfer to the university archives, I found a file folder bulging with letters from such societies thanking him for his most recent talk. Sometimes the subjects were obviously assigned by the local organization. In such cases Robin no doubt drew on his wealth of knowledge in local or Irish-Canadian history, and in many cases he clearly presented papers drawn from his research. In other talks he discussed topics which reflected his interests, Thomas D’Arcy McGee or World War I, but always with a local reference thrown in. Invariably the letters not only thanked him for coming to speak to them, sometimes through snow or ice storms, but also for “making history come alive” or “teaching us something about our past.” Indeed, his students at Bishop’s had long known of his powers as a speaker, and of his effectiveness at personalizing history through the use of first person accounts or anecdotes about historical figures. This method, effective in the classroom, was hugely successful in less formal contexts and before audiences not specifically trained in the discipline. Through these talks Robin brought history to the communities around him and in doing so he acted as an able and successful ambassador for our profession. Robin Burns’ passion for history and his commitment to community also found expression in his research and in the many articles he published. Robin entered the profession at an exciting time for Canadian history. In Canada the sixties witnessed a flowering of historical scholarship which quite naturally accompanied the development of graduate programs in Canadian universities and the celebration of the Centennial of Confederation. Robin’s choice of Thomas D’Arcy McGee as a subject for study was no doubt a product of these times, but McGee was an interesting choice for other rea- sons. He was without a doubt the most prominent Irish-Canadian figure of Canadian history. A Father of Confederation, McGee was mostly remembered for the passion with which he defended the Confederation project, and the grandeur of the national vision he proposed. He was also the only Father of Confederation to be cut down by an assassin’s bullet. His dominant image in the history 12 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES books was that of prophet of and martyr to Confederation. Like many young historians Robin Burns launched his career by taking aim at the myths created about his subject. In an early paper presented before the Canadian Historical Association in the Cen- tennial year, a young Robin Burns assailed the myth, well established in the historiography, that McGee’s contribution to Confederation was less substantial than that of the other major players. Burns described the myth using a sports analogy: They [historians] tend to assume that the Fathers had all the character of a football team. Macdonald was the quarterback. Brown had the power and determination of a fullback. Cartier was there to keep the French members on the team, while Galt called the signals. With talent such as this, the Confederation team won the day, but, it was alleged, not without some support from the British referees. But when it came time to assign McGee a position on this team, the only place left was that of cheerleader.3 Implicitly, Burns was also challenging a myth which owed something to McGee’s cultural background. However, his article stuck to the point that McGee, like the other Fathers, saw the economic aspects of Confederation as an integral part of his “New Nationali- ty.” Robin went so far as to suggest that McGee was one of the few men of his age to truly understand the implications of a transcontinental economy. Finally, the article firmly situated its subject within the context of the social and economic forces at work behind the Confederation deal. “McGee,” wrote Burns, “was a political representative and public spokesman for a good section of Montre- al businessmen.”4 In the end, Burns argued, McGee was not so different from Macdonald or Cartier. Most of Robin’s work on McGee was about debunking myths and finally coming to terms with this important figure in Canadian history. His research, which resulted in the doctoral dissertation he defended in 1976, not only helped to restore McGee to his proper place as one of the architects of Confederation, it also situated him within the Irish-Canadian community and in the context of Irish nationalism and nationalist movements in North America. In articles such as “From Freedom to Tolerance: D’Arcy McGee the First Martyr” and “‘The Follies of One and Twenty’: D’Arcy McGee and Young Ireland, 1842–1849” Burns presented a McGee whose nationalist sentiments had been tempered in the North American context. An ardent opponent of Fenianism, McGee had also contributed to Confederation by convincing Canadians of Irish origin to reject this radical nationalist option. Robin admired this moderation of nation- Louis-Georges Harvey 13

alist ardor in his subject and he associated it with a patriotism which was a particular by-product of the Canadian condition.5 One of the consistent themes in Robin’s work on McGee is pre- cisely that of his relationship to the multiple Irish communities he encountered in the United States and Canada. His rise and fall in Canadian politics was also directly related to his role as spokesman for the Canadian and particularly the Montreal Irish. In this sense, although his approach was biographical, Robin’s work on McGee had a strong community focus and tended to highlight moderation and accommodation while not neglecting the hard realities of nineteenth-century Canadian politics. Robin Burns produced a number of articles and countless papers on McGee and his dissertation is still considered an essential source.6 He had returned to the subject in recent years, but had not completed his biography of McGee at the time of his death. It was his interest in Irish-Canadian history which led Robin to consider the second focus of his scholarly work, the First World War. Indeed, his first work on the subject was a study of the response of the Montreal Irish to the War. In this article Robin took a more explicit- ly community based approach, one that sought to measure the impact of disaffection on recruitment among Montreal’s Irish. In “Who Shall Separate Us? The Montreal Irish and the Great War,” Robin tells the story of the formation of the Irish Canadian Rangers, the battalion created by Montreal’s Irish elite in the first months of the War. The Rangers combined Protestant and Catholic, and had both a Catholic and a Protestant chaplain. Ironically, though, the Rangers “began their campaign to fill their ranks on the very day of the Dublin uprising.” Thereafter enlistments fell off, but Burns is careful to point out that in this the Irish were no different from other Canadians, whose enthusiasm for the War had clearly waned by 1916.7 In some ways the story of the Montreal Irish and the Rangers par- alleled that of other Canadians who attempted to form community- based military units. The Rangers would be disbanded after they arrived in England, although they were kept together for a publici- ty tour of Ireland which showcased them as an example of religious cooperation.8 For Burns, however, the moral of the Rangers’ story was that the more significant divisions within the Irish of Montreal were not related to religion but rather to social class. For, while this article highlights the experience of the Montreal Irish and their con- tinuing connection to Ireland, Burns’ message is also about the community as essentially Canadian. The most important characteristic of that new identity was the ability to overcome divisions which had 14 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

their roots in the “old country.” Moderation, cooperation, community, and patriotism were themes which cropped up time and time again in Robin Burns’ work. It was inevitable, given his increasing involvement in the community around him, that these themes would lead him back to the East- ern Townships. Here the historical record, and particularly that related to the First World War, offered a unique opportunity to combine those themes into a study of the experience of French and English- speaking Townshippers. Robin embarked on the project with great enthusiasm and he mentioned in conversation several times that the Townships experience challenged the old notion of French Canadi- an antipathy to the call to arms in 1914. In Sherbrooke, at least, French Canadians led enlistments among the native-born through the first months of the War. More importantly though, Burns found a sense of community in the Townships which superceded ethnic divisions and spoke eloquently of patriotic sentiments and a will- ingness to sacrifice what was most dear for King, to be sure, but mostly for country. Robin’s work also tells of the naïve expectations of a small community in the first months of what would become the most horrible conflict the world had ever witnessed. Unfortunately, Robin did not live to complete what would have been an important and revealing community study. His papers, deposited in the Bishop’s University Archives, contain box after box of research notes and photocopied records relating to the experience of Townshippers during the War. The only record we have of what his book might have looked like is a fairly complete working draft of its first chapter, covering the first hundred days of the War in Sher- brooke and the Townships. That chapter appears in this volume, immediately following these comments. With the help of Michael Childs, a colleague in the history department, I have added endnotes and made light corrections and editorial changes to the text. These were kept to a minimum, however, in order to preserve Robin’s emphasis and interpretation. Readers should thus keep in mind that what follows is essentially a draft. At the same time the text is quintessential Robin Burns. It has a touch of his gentle humour, and the same emphasis on community, cooperation and patriotism which marks all of his work. The theme of cooperation between French- and English-speaking Town- shippers predominates, but there is also a real sense of community, of a small town watching its sons and husbands go off to war. Burns brings this to life in descriptions of parades and speeches, and his account of the confusion over how to fly the Union Jack properly. Louis-Georges Harvey 15

Finally, the text offers a brief glimpse of Robin’s skill at personifying history, when the chapter is introduced and concluded using the words of Charlie Westgate, a young Townships recruit of 1914. Few of us who knew Robin will be able to read this without smiling at his wit and without a profound sense of disappointment that the end of his story will never be told. The article which follows, then, is a fitting testimony to Robin’s unique style and to his skill as a historian. It evokes the themes that were dearest to him and which inspired his professional life. Through his commitment and service to community Robin Burns made a powerful and lasting contribution which reminds us of the real meaning of the word “historian.” He will be missed by his colleagues in the profession and by the many communities he enriched through his tireless efforts.

NOTES 1 This is particularly true of Canadian history. See M. Brooke Taylor, “Canadian Historiography”, in A Global Encyclopedia of Historical Writing (New York: Garland, 1998), vol. 1, p. 138. 2 Brendan O’Donnell ed., Printed Sources for the Study of English- Speaking Quebec, Eastern Townships Research Centre Series, no. 2 (Lennoxville: Bishop’s University, 1985). 3 R.B. Burns, “D’Arcy McGee and the Economic Aspects of the New Nationality”, Canadian Historical Association, Historical Papers (1967), p. 95. 4 Ibid., p. 103. 5 R.B. Burns, “From Freedom to Tolerance: D’Arcy McGee the First Martyr” in Robert O’Driscoll and Lorna Reynolds eds., The Untold Story: The Irish in Canada, vol. I (Toronto: Celtic Arts, 1988); “‘The Follies of One and Twenty’: D’Arcy McGee and Young Ireland, 1842–1849” in James Noonan ed., Biography and Autobiography: Essays on the Irish and Canadian History and Literature (Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1993). 6 R.B. Burns, “A Critical Biography of Thomas D’Arcy McGee (1825–1868)”, unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, McGill University, 1976. 7 R.B. Burns, “Who Shall Separate Us? The Montreal Irish and the Great War” in The Untold Story: The Irish in Canada, vol. II (Toronto: Celtic Arts, 1988), p. 575. 8 Ibid., p. 577.

THE EASTERN TOWNSHIPS IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR: THE FIRST HUNDRED DAYS Robin B. Burns Bishop’s University

n June, 1914, a group of Sherbrooke citizens met to organize the I Sherbrooke Peace Centenary Committee. Like many across Cana- da and the United States, they were making plans to celebrate the century of peace that had existed between the two countries since the treaty ending the War of 1812 had been signed at Ghent on Christmas Eve, 1814. Two days after the Sherbrooke meeting, Arch- duke Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo. When it came time to celebrate the Peace Centennial, Canada was at war. Thirty-two thousand Canadians, including several hundred from the Eastern Town- ships, celebrated Christmas Eve in uniform overseas. One of those Townshippers was Charlie Westgate of Cookshire. He was with the Canadian Expeditionary Force on Salisbury Plain. Christmas in England had seemed strange for someone from southern Quebec. It does not seem to me as if Xmas has really come and gone, [he wrote his mother] no snow that day, the grass nearly as green as in the spring. We had to imagine ourselves at home with a couple of feet of snow and about 20 degrees below. He was understandably homesick. “I would have liked to be home at Xmas,” confessed Charlie, “…it could not be.”1 The Eastern Townships region of Quebec is a good place to test some of the generalizations that have been made about Canada and Quebec during the First World War, particularly those concerning the attitudes of English- and French-speaking Canadians towards the War. One of the most contentious issues to bedevil the four years of war arose as early as the first month as the first Canadian contingent was training at Valcartier.2 Some English Canadians drew attention to the apparent and dramatic discrepancy between the number of French and British Canadians in uniform. There were a great number of men with names like Charlie Westgate; comparatively few with names like Maurice Provost. According to their cal- 18 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES culations, there were only 1,245 French Canadians, less than four percent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force.3 Those who defended French Canada’s contribution emphasized that French Canadians were native born, many generations removed from their European roots and without the same emotional ties to either Britain or France. Of the nearly 33,000 so-called British- Canadian volunteers on the other hand, 70 percent had been born in Britain; their mothers were in England, Scotland and Ireland, not in Canadian towns like Cookshire. English Canada was also described as a more urban society, hit hard by the depression of 1913–1914 and where large numbers of unemployed were available for, and attracted to, military service. Quebec was portrayed as a more rural society where the young men were needed on the farms. Their economic role was declared to be vital to increased agricultural production, one of the most important objectives of the national war effort. How did the demographic, economic and social structures of the Eastern Townships compare with Quebec and Canada? According to the Census of 1911, the French Canadians were in a comfortable majority in the region, representing 73% of the 240,000 people who resided there and nearly reflecting the balance in the province as a whole, where French Canadians represented 80% of the population.4 English-speaking Townshippers were listed under the general category of “British Origin”; “Canadian Origin” or “American Origin” had no place in the 1911 Census of Canada. Thus it is impossible to know how many residents of the region were the descendants of the American pioneers who had opened the area for settlement around the turn of the nineteenth century. A Townshipper who spoke English in 1911 and who may have been the descendant of a United Empire Loyalist or of an early American settler when asked his or her origin would have had to say English, Irish, Scotch, or perhaps German or Dutch, depending on the origin of the father. Those of “British Origin” represented 25% of the population of the region. The vast majority of these 60,000 people had been born in North America: 52,000 or 86 percent. With respect to place of birth, they were much like their French-speaking neighbours. Taken together British and French Canadians accounted for 98% of the total population of 240,000, and 94% were native-born. This meant that there were very few of what some contemporaries called “the foreign element.” In this regard the Eastern Townships was very different from the Prairies or large Canadian cities. There was nothing to compare with Berlin, Ontario, where a statue of the Robin B. Burns 19

Kaiser was proudly displayed. German Canadians may have been the third largest ethnic group in Canada after the British and the French, but there were only 546 people of German origin in all of the East- ern Townships and only 36 of these were males born in Germany. There was a concentration of 84 Austro-Hungarians in the mining towns of Megantic, and when 600 pounds of explosives disappeared in the early days of the war, they were immediately suspected.5 After the initial scare, though, there would be little fear of an uprising of German or Austro-Hungarian reservists in the Townships. The nearly 14,000 Townshippers of Irish origin were included under the general British category in the 1911 Census. It has been assumed that the vast majority were English-speaking, although there was probably a significant rate of intermarriage between Irish- and French-Canadian Roman Catholics. If the one person of Irish origin in St. Alphonse, in Compton County, had married within the parish he or she would have had to take a French-Canadian partner, for the 247 other inhabitants were all French Canadian. The language of the household and the children can only be conjectured. Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent was born in 1882 in the village of Compton. His mother was Irish and his father French Canadian. According to his biographer, he spent his early years under the impression that mothers naturally spoke English and fathers, French.6 Quebec was not particularly rural, despite what romantics and apologists urged. After Ontario, Quebec was the most industrialized and urbanized province. The Eastern Townships on the other hand was much more representative of the old rural Quebec that was passing. Seventy-five percent of Townshippers lived in rural parishes, townships and villages. Sherbrooke was the only city which had more than 15,000 people. The next largest centre was Thetford Mines with just over 7,000. There were only nine other urban centres with more than 2,000 people. The city and towns of the Eastern Townships, moreover, were not bastions of English-speakers. Of the 54,000 people who lived in urban centres, over 57% were French Canadian, and they were the majority in Sherbrooke and every other town. English-speaking Townshippers were still overwhelmingly rural. Nearly four out of every five lived in townships, parishes and villages, almost the same percentage as French Canadians in the region. There was a geographical distinction in the rural areas: English-speaking Town- shippers were concentrated in the southern counties; French- Canadian Townshippers in the northern. Thus, like the Townshipper 20 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES who spoke French, his English-speaking counterpart was typically native-born and living in a rural area. Would then reactions to the war be comparable? After language and geographical location within the region, perhaps the most significant cultural difference between the two groups was the presence of eight-and-a-half thousand people in the English- speaking community who had been born in the United Kingdom. This may have helped to reinforce a British identity and imperial connection. On the other hand, such sentiments may have been tempered by an almost equal number of people who had been born in the United States. In any event, when war was declared and flags were unfurled, many did not know how to fly the Union Jack properly. The Sherbrooke Regiment’s colour-sergeant observed that many patriotic citizens of Sherbrooke were flying it upside down. They could not be blamed, he added, for the local post office had been flying it that way regularly.7 Some public service organizations had dif- ficulty even finding a flag for their meetings. One of the first wartime acts of a local chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire was to purchase a Union Jack to be loaned out for public meetings of patriotic organizations.8 Farther north, in Richmond, the County Council decided that the war warranted the painting of the flagpole at the court house to accommodate a new flag. In nearby Melbourne, one resident, described as a “well-known citizen,” asked why all the flags were flying. “To jolt the German aviators,” he was told.9 There were two other important features of the English-speaking community. First, it was the largest English-speaking community in the province off the island of Montreal. Second, the Eastern Town- ships was the only region in the province where English-speaking settlers—American pioneers and emigrants from the British isles— had arrived before the French. These features contributed to the lin- gering impression that the region was predominantly English. As late as 1990, the newspaper La Tribune, celebrating the 80th anniversary of its founding in 1910, congratulated the “… fondateurs courageux qui, dans un environnement anglophone, faisaient le pari de publier un quotidien francophone.”10 The economic and social positions occupied by some English- speakers was even more important in giving the Townships an Eng- lish character. English-speaking farmers had a reputation of being more successful than their French-speaking neighbours. Perhaps it was due to their ancestors having been first on the scene, and being able to select the best locations. English farms would have been Robin B. Burns 21

farmed for more generations, and theoretically, should have had more acreage under production and equity accumulated for capital investment in machinery. The region’s mines and mills were also owned and managed by English-speakers. These had been developed by private capital, most of it from outside the region. Their products were extracted or man- ufactured for national and international markets. The more the East- ern Townships industrialized, the more the dominance of the Eng- lish language and its speakers was reinforced. This is not to say that all English-speaking Townshippers were successful farmers or businessmen. Far from it. Nor is it to suggest that French Canadians were subsistence farmers, hewers of wood, drawers of water, or industrial workers. There was a French-speaking elite in the Townships, but because of the economy’s structure, its activity was confined to the professions, small-scale enterprises and politics. The social domination of the Eastern Townships by English-speakers was reflected in the local militia. There were six militia regiments in the Eastern Townships before the First World War. Four were mounted rifle units and were situated like the points of the compass. To the north, there was the 11th Hussars of Richmond County. In the east, in Megantic and Compton, there was the 7th Hussars. Regimental regalia proclaimed “United Empire Loyalists” but this was nonsense. The 7th’s ranks were filled with Morrisons, Macleods and McDonalds, reflecting the Scottish character of the counties’ early colonists who arrived early in the 19th century. Ironically, in Shefford, Brome and Missisquoi, the westernmost counties where the descendants of the few Loyalists were concentrated, the local regiment was called the 13th Scottish Light Dragoons. In the south, the 26th Stanstead Dragoons protected the border with the United States “For King and Empire.” The first priority of the Canadian militia was to defend against an American invasion. Eastern Townshippers, many the descendants of Americans, with family and friends across the line and about to celebrate the peace centennial, probably found it difficult to take this official threat seriously. The inspection reports for the summer camps of 1913 and 1914 described each unit as seriously under strength. Eight years earlier the Militia Council had refused the 7th’s request that the Governor-General be made the Hussars’ Honorary Colonel because of its poor efficiency. Major W. Melrose of the 26th Stanstead Dragoons published a book just before the war to try to arouse more enthusiasm. Entitled The Stanstead Cavalry, it traced the 22 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

military traditions of voluntary service back to the American colonists and the French and Indian Wars but admitted, “We in the Province of Quebec do not take quite as keen an interest in our County regiments as they do in Ontario and the West….”11 The country militia regiments, although reorganized, renumbered and renamed from time to time, did have a long history in the East- ern Townships. This meant that almost all of the officers and non- commissioned officers were English-speaking. This was not the case in the city of Sherbrooke where there were two infantry regiments, the long established and English-speaking 53rd Sherbrooke Regi- ment and the recently formed French-speaking 54e Carabiniers de Sherbrooke. From the point of view of efficiency and manpower, the 53rd was much like the mounted rifle regiments in the country. In 1913 it was six officers and 235 men below its authorized establishment of 540. The inspecting officer at the annual summer inspection of that year rated the unit as “fair to good” but was most con- cerned about the medical officer who was absent without leave and the fact that the regiment did not have a qualified adjutant, sig- nalling officer or musketry officer. The 54e, on the other hand, was rated as “good to very good,” it was only 2 officers and 18 men below establishment and all of its officers were qualified. The extraordinary display of a united and enthusiastic patriotism that was evident in most Canadian cities when war was declared that August was also apparent in Sherbrooke. Even before the Empire for- mally declared war, Lieutenant-Colonel Émile Rioux, commanding officer of le 54e Régiment, les Carabiniers de Sherbrooke, sent a telegram to the Minister of Militia advising that all of the officers of the regiment had volunteered to serve.12 Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Baker of the 13th Scottish Light Dragoons and Member of Parliament for Brome did the same. The Minister of Militia, the effervescent Sam Hughes, was over- whelmed with similar offers from across the country. The result was confusion. The carefully laid plans for mobilization were dis- carded. Eventually, general orders called out Sherbrooke’s two infantry regiments.13 In the days that followed, the 54e Régiment and the predominantly English-speaking 53rd began to drill and parade in the streets of Sherbrooke. The men in the units and the citizens who watched sang 0 Canada, God Save the King, and La Marseillaise. By the second week of the war, the two regiments began to parade together. “[It was a] scene unparalleled in the history of Sherbrooke,” reported the Record.14 On the llth, the men of the 54e marched from their armoury on Belvedere to join the 53rd at its armoury on Robin B. Burns 23

Williams Street. The combined forces then marched towards the centre of the city, led by the senior regiment and its band. When they reached the intersection of King and Wellington, they halted. Sol- diers and citizens then sang the national anthem. Speeches followed. It was announced that 180 men from the 54e Régiment had volunteered for the Canadian Expeditionary Force, approximately the same number as had volunteered from the 53rd. Amidst the shout- ing and cheers, Senator Rufus Pope sounded the only sombre note when he declared that some present would not return. And to those brave boys who may find green graves beneath the sod of European lands we will erect monuments here in Sher- brooke, and on them inscribe the story of the bravery of the young men of the two great races who have given their lives for their countries.15 The speech must have been delivered from very near the location where the Sherbrooke war memorial is now situated. Many who had volunteered would not in the end sail with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. About half of the volunteers from each regiment failed to pass the initial medical examination. In addition to being in good health, one had to be between the ages of 18 and 45, 5'3" in height, and have an expanded chest measurement of 33.5 inches. Chest size and eyesight were the two principal tests the local volunteers failed. If under the age of 21, one had to have parental permission; if married, one had to have the written permission of one’s wife. The number of wives refusing permission surprised authorities. “[I]t was never expected that it would be so generally invoked,” complained an Ottawa colonel. Local branches of the Canadian Patriotic Association tried to ease the burden by raising money to support the wives and children of volunteers who would be adversely affected. Some employers offered to continue to pay employees who joined. Bishop’s University continued to pay its recently appointed lecturer in natural science, Mr. Qua, one half his salary after he volunteered.16 The Sherbrooke notarial firm of Beron and Begin offered to draw up wills and other legal documents for volunteers at no charge. The Sherbrooke Med- ical Society offered the free services of its member doctors to soldiers’ dependants who could not afford to pay.17 Recruiting for the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force was left to the local militia units. The emphasis was on infantry, then artillery, so the region’s four mounted rifle regiments were ignored. Sherbrooke’s two infantry regiments would be respon- 24 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

sible for the first efforts, although Montreal’s 5th Highland Regiment was authorized to send Lieutenant Greenshields and some pipers into the hills of the Townships to rally the Scots.18 In less than three weeks, Sherbrooke’s two militia regiments had recruited over 200 medically qualified men. They left on Sunday evening, August 23, to join the Expeditionary Force which was being assembled and trained at Valcartier. One hundred and eight men were from the 53rd and 120 from the 54e.19 The Sherbrooke Record and La Tribune estimated that more than half the city’s total population turned out that Sunday evening. The men first assembled at their respective armouries and were addressed by their commanding officers. Lt. Col. Rioux declared that the number of volunteers from le 54e Régiment “was a source of great satisfaction” and the chaplain, Mgr. Tanguay, added that the cause was “righteous” when congratulating the men on “their devotion to their country.”20 The 53rd, accompanied by its band, arrived at the depot first and entrained. Then the 54e band could be heard as the regiment marched down King Street preceded by the Union Jack and Tricolore. The ladies of the Patriotic Association provided each man with a boxed lunch and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union distributed white ribbons with a text from scripture. Despite the patriotic airs played by the two bands at the railway station, “The seriousness of the situation tempered the enthusiasm,” noted a reporter, “… and from hundreds of hearts silent prayers for the safety of the men went forth instead of cheers.”21 It has not been possible to determine how many of the first Eng- lish-speaking volunteers had been born in Canada and how many in the United Kingdom. Impressionistic evidence suggests that those who were British-born were in the large majority. Commenting on the volunteers from the 53rd, the Sherbrooke Record observed, “The opportunity of assisting in the defence of the Empire is being eager- ly seized by young men now in Canada whose homes are in the British Isles.”22 Fifteen men joined up from Waterville; most were employees of the bed and mattress company who enrolled in the Army Service Corps which was attempting to make Valcartier hab- itable. A city councillor boasted that with a population of 1,000 Waterville was making the largest contribution of any town in Cana- da. He also expressed his disappointment “… that only 20 percent of all ranks going were Canadian born.”23 A contributor to the Stanstead Journal made the same observation a year later in a piece of doggerel, Robin B. Burns 25

When we looked over our heroes to see who had answered the call, It took but a swift glance to tell us, that they were Old Country lads all.24 On the basis of this evidence, one has to conclude that there were many more native-born French Canadians who left Sherbrooke that Sunday than native-born English Canadians. The numbers of volunteers from the 53rd and 54e regiments were hardly sufficient to constitute a battalion. At Valcartier, most were put into the 12th Battalion, a unit made up of men from the Mar- itime Provinces and Quebec City. Eventually the Townshippers would be organized into that unit’s “F” Company. The men now sub- mitted to another month of training, medical testing and inocula- tion. Regimental numbers were assigned and a nominal roll prepared just prior to embarkation at the end of September. The nominal roll indicated country of birth, military experience, and the address of the next of kin and provided the opportunity to learn a little more about some of the volunteers from the Eastern Townships. Seventy-eight men of the 109 who had volunteered from the 53rd Regiment in Sherbrooke were now with the 12th Overseas Battal- ion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Fifty-two of these 78 had been born in Great Britain; only 19 English-speaking volunteers had been born in Canada. As for the French-Canadian volunteers who had left Sherbrooke, there was no French-speaking battalion in the first contingent to welcome them at Valcartier. Canada had rejected the recommendation from Britain that it organize such a unit. French Canadians from Montreal and Military District No. 4 found a home in one company of the 14th Battalion; but not those from the Eastern Town- ships and Military District No. 5. They were scattered. Twenty-six of the original 120 were put into the 12th. All 26 had been born in Canada and the addresses of their next of kin were in the cities and towns of the Townships. The remaining 94 did not sail with the first contingent that September. Other men from the region found other ways to Valcartier and the first contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. Captain Charles Fraser, son of South African War veteran Lt. Col. H.R. Fras- er of Sherbrooke, joined the 8th Rifle of Quebec City. He was given command of one of the companies of the 12th Battalion, probably “F” Company. There were thirty-three others in that battalion who had not been with those who left Sherbrooke on 22 August but who had served with Eastern Townships regiments or whose next of kin had Townships addresses. 26 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

There were also sixteen who may have heard the pipers from Montreal’s 5th Highland Regiment. They were now wearing kilts in the 13th Battalion, the Royal Highlanders of Canada. Most had been born in Canada and few had Scots names. The battalion was com- manded by Lt. Col. Frederick Loomis, a native of Sherbrooke, and the highest-ranking officer in the first contingent from the Eastern Townships. He had experience in the ranks in the militia and then as an officer in Sherbrooke’s 53rd. He was commanding officer of Montreal’s 5th Highland Regiment when war broke out, but he failed to impress at least one volunteer during manoeuvres at Val- cartier: Colonel Loomis lost his head as usual & messed things up completely… so that the umpire declared us out of action. The Colonel is quite excelling himself in giving wrong orders, & generally messing things up, & the general opinion throughout the whole regiment, is that sooner we get rid of him the better.25 Colonel Loomis was not sacked, and the battalion would have only seven months before it found itself in the Ypres Salient. The Eastern Townships boasted of one native son who enjoyed the rank of brigadier-general, but he was not with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was W.T. Heneker, son of Richard Heneker, who had been one of Sherbrooke’s most successful businessmen and prominent citizens. Heneker had graduated from the Royal Mili- tary College in Kingston and had gone on to a career in the British army. His younger brother was also serving in the British army. Both had friends in Sherbrooke and a third brother still resided there. Their letters and news reports would serve to link the community to the Imperial forces. Two local batteries of the Canadian Field Artillery had also been asked to raise volunteers. They were the 15th Battery from Shefford and the 22nd from Sherbrooke. One officer and 130 men left for Val- cartier at the end of August. Forty-five were French Canadians, all but eleven in the ammunition column.26 The response to the call to arms was united but quite modest when compared with Ontario and the West. The high percentage of native-born Canadians in the Eastern Townships was probably one explanation for the low turnout. As Professors Granatstein and Hits- man have observed, “…Canadians had initially little evident desire to go overseas to fight for King and Empire.”27 There were also new economic opportunities in factories and on farms. Headlines announced, “Big Business Boom is Anticipated.”28 An advertising Robin B. Burns 27

campaign urged businessmen to expand production not only for the war but to take over markets once dominated by European com- petitors. The whole world is looking to the North American Continent—to Canada and the United States—for much of its provisions, machinery, textiles, boots and shoes, beverages, vehicles, cement, brick, earthenware, fancy goods, fur, glass, garments, paper, soap, tobacco, wood products and much else.29 Local firms benefited immediately from war orders. A week before the volunteers left, W. Blue and Co., whose president, John Harry Blue, was a major in the 53rd Regiment and a loyal Conservative, received a contract for 20,000 khaki trousers. New machines were installed and plans were announced to operate 24 hours a day for five weeks.30 Paton textile mills, the largest in Canada, obtained what was described as “an enormous order” and Mr. Paton declared that the plant would work around the clock for six weeks, “…if he could secure the necessary help.”31 A month later, Dominion Tex- tiles reported that its ten mills were working to full capacity and that workers who had been working on 70% time were now working three and four time shifts a week.32 Yet there was concern about the long-term prospects. Canada had been in a depression when war was declared and some feared economic dislocation. The official line was optimism. In his weekly column, “The Onlooker Comments,” the Onlooker wrote, There are business men who believe that by next spring, even if the war should continue, general business in Canada will be materially better than it was last spring and prior to the opening of the war.33 Under the circumstances, the businessman who stayed home and attended his business was doing patriotic work. The Onlooker reprinted a poem to this effect from the London Daily Chronicle. It was entitled “The Man Who Keeps His Head.” There’s a man who fights for England, and he’ll keep her still atop, He will guard her from dishonor in the market and the shop, He will save her homes from terror on the fields of Daily Bread, He’s the man who sticks for business, he’s the man who keeps his head.34 Two days earlier, an article had surveyed the economic situation and concluded, “… the Eastern Townships is suffering less from depression, incidental to the war, than any other part of the country.” In addition to the textile mills, the pulp and paper mills at 28 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Windsor, East Angus and Bromptonville were said to be booming. The reports from Canadian Rand and Canadian Fairbanks, iron foundries, were “emphatic that business is ‘picking up’.” Other companies were expanding or building new facilities: Canadian Cot- ton, Brompton Pulp and Paper, Sherbrooke Machinery and Hamil- ton Shoes. There must have been a stockpile of pulpwood, for demand was said to be low. There was also little demand for lum- ber and asbestos, but dealers “… are not worrying and anticipate an early return of active market conditions.”35 Farmers also benefited. Quebec’s Minister of Agriculture, speaking at the annual Sherbrooke Exhibition, declared, “This was probably the best opportunity the farmers had had for forty years.”36 War had fortunately been declared before the harvest and farmers were able to benefit from the much higher prices and producers were said to be obtaining “splendid returns.”37 The army’s demand for horses seemed insatiable and the region was close to Valcartier. Farmers were reported as doing so well from the sale of horses that they were urged to contribute 10% of the sales to the Patriotic Fund. The provincial government, like other provinces, declared that it would donate food to Britain, in its case four million pounds of Quebec cheese.38 Thus, in the first months of the war, one could perform one’s patriotic duty in the Eastern Townships in the factory and on the farm as well as in the army. Sowing fall rye and wheat was now described as “A Patriotic Act” which would also result in profit. “Do you wish to serve the Empire and at the same time secure an excellent return from your labor?” the article asked.39 One of the region’s most prosperous farmers hoped that banks would see their way clear to the patriotic effort by easing credit restrictions for farmers so that they might invest in expanded production. To date, there has been no evidence to suggest that bankers followed the example of notaries and doctors. Increasing demand brought higher prices and the Canadian min- istries of Agriculture and Labour said that they would keep an eye on the situation. Twenty-eight Sherbrooke merchants promised more. “It will be understood that prices may increase,” the advertisement proclaimed, “but we, as loyal Canadians, promise to carry on our business with the least margin of profit.”40 The ad went on to urge people not to stockpile, “Forget the war during business hours—Great Britain cannot lose.” The producers of breakfast cere- als went one step further and announced that their prices would not be raised. On August 25, 1914, the Canadian Postum Cereal Co. Robin B. Burns 29

ran an advertisement declaring The war has just begun What will the end be? There’s one food that will not advance in price— a food Europe is now calling for— GRAPE NUTS A food for War and Peace41 Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes promised “No War Prices” and “Notwithstanding the enormous advance in the price of Corn…. the price would remain ten cents a package.”42 The war and patriotism, summed up in the slogan “Patriotism Produces Prosperity”43 were linked to buying and selling in other commercial advertisements. Postum and Kellogg’s were not the only American companies to attempt to capitalize on the situation in Canada through their branch plants. Six weeks after the war began, the Gillette Safety Razor Co. announced a new model, the “Bulldog.” “It’s British to the hilt, and looks the part.”44 A local entrepreneur invented a new card game called “Shoo the Kaiser” and for 40 cents a patriot could order the deck of cards from the Sherbrooke Record, three decks for a dollar. Twenty-two cents would get you a War Atlas from the same newspaper and the jeweller and optometrist, A.C. Skinner, urged an eye examination so that readers could follow the war news without eyestrain. It was hoped that all militia units would come to full strength to provide volunteers for overseas and local defence. Plans for a second contingent were announced before the first sailed from Britain. Memories of the Fenian raids were evoked as articles drew attention to the thousands of enemy reservists in the United States who might invade Canada. There was also discussion of Germany sending an expeditionary force to invade Canada through the state of Maine whose extensive woodlands bordered on the Townships. The German ambassador to the United States fuelled this discussion when he declared that since Canada was a belligerent, a German invasion would not be a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Fears were dampened when the Governor of Maine described an invasion as “absurd” and the ambassador issued a clarification saying that his earlier remarks were merely theoretical. In addition to volunteering together, English- and French- speaking Townshippers demonstrated other examples of cooperation and unity during the first months of the war. Members from both communities rallied to support the Patriotic Association 30 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

in its efforts to raise voluntary contributions for the support of families whose welfare was jeopardized by the absence of the principal wage-earner. La Patrie, whose population was hardly prosperous and, with the exception of two persons of Irish origin, entirely French Canadian, donated $100.00 to the Patriotic Fund.45 At a loftier level, the Premier of Quebec announced that the Province’s employees would follow the example of some companies and donate one day of one month’s wages to the fund. The report emphasized that this included the Premier himself, Sir Lomer Gouin.46 Work on behalf of the Patriotic Association also brought members from both communities to the same speakers’ platform. At the annual Sherbrooke Exhibition, it was announced that 5% of all prize money would be donated to the fund. After the French-speaking Minister of Agriculture declared that the war would be a boom for farmers, the English-speaking Provincial Treasurer and M.P.P. for local Richmond County, P.S.G. Mackenzie, added that he believed the war “would tend to cement those two great races in Canada into closer bonds of unity.”47 The sentiment seemed to be echoed by Father Lamoureux at the founding of a branch of the Patriotic Asso- ciation in Missisquoi. It was reported that he “roused the meeting to such enthusiasm by declaring at this juncture there were no French Canadians….”48 Perhaps he was a reader of La Patrie and was para- phrasing its famous editorial that there were now no English Cana- dians or French Canadians but one people united in a common cause. Father Messier’s address, in French, to a similar meeting in Cow- ansville was reported more fully. He seconded the motion put by the Hon. W.W. Lynch, Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Bed- ford. We, the citizens of Cowansville and Sweetsburg, in public meeting, assembled on this twenty third day of September, 1914, to affirm our unalterable allegiance to the British Throne, and record our unfailing determination to rally to its support, particularly in this time of war. Father Messier declared that French Canadians were loyal to Great Britain, loved its liberty and constitution, would do their duty, “as loyal citizens of the Empire,” and were prepared to “suffer” in its defence. He asserted that French Canadians had helped to save Canada for the Empire during the War of 1812. He also drew a distinction between the duty to Britain and the affection for France. While France was “his motherland … France was not his country,— Robin B. Burns 31

Canada was his country … before France.”49 Townshippers were prepared to pay more than lip service to the Canadian Patriotic Association. Towards the end of September, some citizens of Sherbrooke decided to launch a fundraising drive. To date, only 116 had subscribed a total of $6,487; women volunteers were reported as being more successful than men, and “Poorer classes” more generous. The new goal would be $25,000. The campaign began with a concert at His Majesty’s Theatre, on Wellington Street. The hall was liberally decorated with British, French and allied flags, and after introductory remarks from the mayor and a report from Col. Fraser about the less than satisfactory contributions so far, the audience heard the Liberal Member of Parliament from Shefford, the Hon. G.H. Boivin. He repeated the now familiar clichés about French Canadians, the British Empire and liberty and the Union Jack, then asked how anyone would like to see the German flag “on the public buildings and legislative halls of Quebec.” Senator Pope got down to the practicalities to address the problem of soliciting donations. He objected to sending letters, as letters were “a cold thing.” Instead, he advocated sending out women collectors, as he believed they pos- sessed a deeper sense of patriotism than men, and were willing to endure greater suffering and privations.50 By now the women of the region had become so active in the cause that the Sherbrooke Record began to run a column which appeared almost daily, “What Eastern Townships Women Are Doing For the Patriotic Fund.” Whether it was because women were already doing so much or because it was deemed unladylike to canvas, Sen- ator Pope’s recommendation was not acted upon. Instead, 60 men, organized into eight teams, were chosen. The names were a Who’s Who of Sherbrooke. Three of the teams were French Canadian. Together they surpassed their goal by $5,000. Sherbrooke women had another occasion to demonstrate the same inter-group co-operation in an appeal for Belgian relief. J.E. Poutre announced that the profits from sales in his department store for two days would go to that cause. Women volunteers, another Who’s Who of Sherbrooke, would be in charge of the eleven depart- ments on 2 and 3 November. Again, both the English- and French- speaking communities were well represented. Relations between the two communities in the Townships appeared to be good during those first hundred days of the war. This was not the case in other parts of the country and province and 32 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

these tensions had an impact on the region. First there were the complaints from some in Ontario about the small number of French Canadian volunteers at Valcartier and about Quebec not doing its part in the war. The article in the Sherbrooke Record about French- Canadians proposing to organize a battalion of their own for the second contingent was immediately preceded by a report that a member of Montreal’s Canadian Club had introduced a resolution to expel Henri Bourassa from the Club.51 The news at the end of November was of much greater significance. A judge in Toronto had upheld the government of Ontario’s Regulation 17 banning the use of French as a language of instruction in the province’s public schools. Some in Quebec would interpret this to be a declaration of war on the French in Canada by English Canadians. Two regular weekly columnists in the Sherbrooke Record rallied against the attacks on their French-speaking neighbours. The first and longer article was written by the Saturday feature writer, The Onlooker. He began by arguing that he was not defending French Canadians, “for the simple reason that the French Canadian does not need any defence.” Rather, the article was intended to “call to the notice of those who are not of this older race of Canadians” the many contributions which this “purest type of Canadian” had made to Canada. It cited writers, a poet, sculptor and statesman then focussed on the authorship of 0 Canada, recalling the combined enthusiasm it had evoked during the Quebec Tercentenary celebrations six years earlier. “At present we are a people of many peoples,” he concluded. English, French, German, Austrian, and others in plenty, we indeed are. But the only man among them who proves a traitor to his adopted country is he who emphasizes instead of forgets the racial differences.52 A more folksy rebuke came two weeks later from the other Saturday feature writer, Uncle Joe. Alluding to a local medical doctor who was reported to have been wounded while attending to casualties in Antwerp, Uncle Joe commented, “I suppose the fanatics who are jeering at the loyalty of our French Canadians will argue that Dr. Beland is a Scotchman.”53 And when another doctor, E.J. Williams, announced his intention of joining a stationary hospital overseas, his colleagues presented him with luggage and an address from doctors Hume and Ledoux. They declared that his appointment was an honour, not only to himself but to “the whole medical fraternity of this district.” They referred to his research, his Robin B. Burns 33

contribution to the new hospital, his free lectures to nurses and first aid classes and his efforts to improve the sanitation and hygiene of the community. The address concluded with the hope “…that, ere- long, you may return to our midst crowned with the laurels of an approving conscience and country.” Of the thirteen doctors who signed the address, six were English and seven were French.54 Martial enthusiasm seemed to wane once the volunteers left for Valcartier and the Patriotic Fund had reached its goal. Overseas, the men were enduring the wet, cold and mud of Salisbury Plain, longing for action and France, for anything that would take them from that camp. Most published letters home tried to focus on a bright side such as comradeship and sites visited while on leave. By November, however, the patience of some was wearing thin and complaints began to appear in the press about the terrible accom- modations and poor equipment. In Sherbrooke volunteering seemed to have stopped and the 53rd Regiment failed to come to full strength. An appeal by Major Bayley at the beginning of November was followed by two public letters from Sherbrooke women. The first commented on the poor turnout at a parade and asked, “… where are all the hundreds of young able- bodied men of Sherbrooke?”55 The second was from a mother with one son overseas and two others with the 53rd. “How many mothers in Sherbrooke can say the same?” the letter asked. “I take a walk down town and see Wellington Street crowded with fine able-bodied young men who should be ashamed of themselves.”: “They are not asked to go to war,” she added, “they are asked to enlist for home defence.”56 Neither appeal had much effect, for a week later, less than 200 men turned out.57 There was other evidence of waning enthusiasm and even dissent. The Record carried George Bernard Shaw’s advice that “private soldiers of both armies should shoot their officers and return to their homes,” although beneath the headline “G.B.S. At It Again.”58 One letter writer questioned the need for $30,000 for the local Patriotic Fund.59 Another was worried that it might divert much needed mon- eys from other worthy charities like the orphanage and “the Old Peoples’ Home.”60 Some went so far as to question the authenticity of German atrocity stories. Father Saint-Jean, a native of Rock Forest and parish priest in Richmond, visited Belgium and reported, “The Germans were stern in their enforcement of their regulations, but no acts of savagery, such as have been reported in despatches, came directly to his attention.”61 One letter writer, describing himself as “a Britisher who has some old-fashioned notions about the fitness 34 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

of things” challenged the reports that thirteen Red Cross nurses had had their hands cut off and that the German army had destroyed Rheims cathedral. When I read and hear of men of prominence in this and other communities speak of the German as “brute” and “barbarian”— the same German of whom we spoke yesterday in terms of admiration on account of his material and, perhaps, intellectual progress—I marvel much.62 The local press was surprisingly objective and fair in its treatment of Germany and Germans during the first months of the war. It carried little stories now and then introducing readers to German military and political leaders with their photographs almost as if they were contestants in a sporting event. Typical of these early entries was a portrait of General August von Mackensen beneath which was the following caption. The leader of the German forces against Russia is credited with one of the most brilliant feats yet chronicled in the present war. When his army was almost entirely surrounded by the Russians he succeeded in bringing it through, not unscathed, but still capa- ble of carrying on the offensive. The Iron Cross of the first order was conferred upon him recently.63 The Sherbrooke Record’s first page once featured a painting of naval vessels attributed to the Kaiser who was described as “no mean artist.” The Duchess of Connaught, wife of the Governor-General, was identified as the daughter of a Prussian prince and niece of the Kaiser. The Stanstead Journal reminded its readers that some of the United Empire Loyalists were German and one of its articles reported on the reception in Berlin for German “War Heroes.”64 The Empire was not at war with the German people but fighting against militarism, “kultur,” and the ambition for world-rule. And when The Onlooker wrote about Canada being a people of peoples, he included Austrians and Germans. There was also some dissent among local clergymen. The Rev- erend Mr. Burt’s sermon in the chapel of Bishop’s University sup- porting the war was to be expected from an Ontario-born Anglican clergyman and Professor of Philosophy. The Congregationalists of Quebec seemed to be a little more uncomfortable when their con- vention met at Melbourne in October. Those who spoke on the subject of the war were all from Montreal. The cleric from Melbourne who presided over the opening service did not mention the war at all in his sermon. It was after the service that the Reverend G. Ellery Robin B. Burns 35

Read delivered an address entitled “Can War be Justified from the Christian Standpoint?” According to the Reverend Mr. Read, it could, as it was a war “… against the curse of militarism [and] a great sacrificial movement in harmony with the highest interests of humanity, for it was a war against war.”65 It was reported that con- siderable discussion followed, but the nature of the discussion was not reported. The Reverend Mr. J.B. Belford of Richmond spoke on “the Spirit of Brotherly Love” and was followed by a former Methodist from Belfast who described his joy at becoming a Con- gregationalist. Another clergyman from Montreal spoke of some of the spiritual benefits of the war. The great impulse given to the temperance movement by the restrictions placed on the liquor traffic. Then men were giving more attention to prayer; our soldiers and sailors carry with them a copy of the Bible and the sailors carry in their hate a short prayer which they are requested to use daily. The war is also resulting in a great spiritual awakening. The final presentation was by the Reverend Hugh Pedley, also from Montreal. “Mercilessly he stripped war of its glamor and attraction and showed it in its hideous repulsiveness.”66 The most extraordinary clerical statement on the war during this period came from a Baptist minister in Sherbrooke. He went so far as to describe the war as a just and divine retribution on England, France and Belgium for their national sins towards England for having forced the opium trade upon China at the point of the sword, France for her scepticism and for driving the Huguenots from that country, … Belgium for crimes com- mitted in the Congo….67 There was a lull in war fervour as winter and Christmas approached. The news that Fall had gone from the brink of disaster to the promise of early victory. The French government had retreat- ed to Bordeaux as the German army advanced; then the tide was stemmed at the Marne and the German army went on the defensive. Perhaps the war would be over by Christmas after all. In the Eastern Townships, the harvest was in and the boom from the first war contracts was over. Local authorities began to plan for the distribution of relief among the unemployed. They believed “that probably the worst situation this winter would arise in the cases of those who, till lately, had been steadily employed at high wages and were now completely out of work.”68 The Sherbrooke Symphony Orchestra, which had cancelled its season so that sub- 36 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

scribers could donate the price of their subscriptions to the Patri- otic Fund, now sponsored a concert to raise money for the unemployed.69 It failed to attract the kind of response that the campaign for the Patriotic Fund had a month earlier. Unemployed men would now be available for a second recruiting drive that would soon begin. There had been complaints that the first contingent had ignored the mounted rifle units of the Eastern Townships. The prospect of such a force in the next contingent fired the imagination of one North Hatley resident, “Think of it, my readers, an Eastern Town- ships Mounted Rifle Brigade….”70 The authorization to recruit the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles from the Townships was contained in General Orders, dated Christmas Eve 1914. In the meantime, the innocence of the first months of the war was passing. Overseas, the military authorities issued orders forbid- ding soldiers from corresponding with the press; at home, the new censor closed the mails to American newspapers which were deemed to be pro-German.71 On the last Saturday in November, the weekly columnist in the Record, the Onlooker, considered the impact of the first 100 days of the war. He was struck at the way the public had become accustomed to news about death and suffering so quickly. “We read of thousands of casualties without shock. …[W]e do not cry out against such awful slaughter….” He tried to explain it by sug- gesting that the world at war had seemed to come under a spell and so long as it lasted, “let us be glad.” When the spell is gone [he warned] and some human instinct bids us see those battlefields aching with the burden of their dead and dying, kind fathers, loving sons, brothers, lovers and husbands,… then shall the full shock of the change this crime of civ- ilization has worked come over us. He believed that the war, in just 100 days, had changed the world forever. If the world ever was inclined to be too gay, that accusation will not again be laid against the generations of men and women who have lived during the last hundred days and more.72 And the Canadian Expeditionary Force, with its volunteers from the Eastern Townships, had yet to go into battle. Christmas 1914 was a season for innocence at home and hope abroad. Innocently, Charlie Westgate’s mother had cooked him some chicken for Christmas and had sent it to him in England. Char- lie wrote to say that it had all spoiled. “It seems common talk Robin B. Burns 37 amongst the soldiers here,” he added hopefully, “that the war will be over before this time next year, perhaps by June.”73

RESUME Cet article était censé devenir le premier chapitre d’un livre que feu Robin Burns projetait d’écrire sur la vie des gens des Cantons-de-l’Est pendant la Première Guerre mondiale. L’article présente d’abord des données démographiques permettant de comparer la situation des deux communautés linguistiques des Cantons-de-l’Est à cette époque. Le texte offre ensuite un compte rendu du déroulement des événements alors que les Cantons-de-l’Est voyaient partir les recrues durant les premiers mois de la guerre. Le thème dominant est celui de la coopération entre francophones et anglophones dans les Can- tons-de-l’Est, mais il se dégage aussi une véritable impression de communauté, la perception d’une petite ville qui voit ses fils partir pour la guerre.

NOTES 1 Sherbrooke Daily Record (henceforth SDR), February 15, 1915. 2 R.C. Brown, Robert Laird Borden (Toronto: Macmillan, 1975), vol. II, p. 19. 3 J.L. Granatstein and J. M. Hitsman, Broken Promises: A History of Conscription in Canada (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 23. 4 Information in this section is derived from the Census of 1911, but Dr. Burns’ manuscript and notes do not contain a precise listing of the volumes and tables he used. See Fifth Census of Canada, 1911 (3 volumes) (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1912–1915). 5 SDR, August 11, 1914. 6 Dale Thomson, Louis Saint-Laurent: Canadian (Toronto: Macmillan, 1968). 7 SDR, August 15, 1914, p. 8. 8 ETRC Archives, I.O.D.E. fonds, King George V Chapter, Minutes, November 5, 1914. 9 SDR, September 28, 1914, p. 5. 10 La Tribune, 21 February, 1990. 11 W.M. Melrose, The Stanstead Cavalry (Hatley: 26th S. Dragoons, 1912). 12 SDR, August 3, 1914. 38 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

13 A.F. Duguid, Official History of the Canadian Forces in the Great War 1914–1919. General Series. Volume I, August 1914–September 1915. Appendices and Maps (Ottawa: King’s Printer, 1938), Appendix 32, p. 29. 14 SDR, August 10, 1914, p. 1. 15 SDR, August 11, 1914. 16 Bishop’s University Archives, Corporation of Bishop’s University, Minutes, June 16, 1915, p. 352. 17 SDR, August 31, 1914. 18 SDR, August 14, 1914. 19 SDR, August 24, 1914. 20 Ibid. 21 Ibid. 22 SDR, August 14, 1914. 23 SDR, August 18, 1914, p. 6. 24 Stanstead Journal, December 2, 1915. 25 Imperial War Museum, Lt. S.V. Brittan Collection, Diary, September 17, 1914, p. 3. 26 SDR, August 29, 1914. 27 Granatstein and Hitsman, p. 24. 28 SDR, September 1, 1914. 29 SDR, August 26, 1914, p. 2. 30 SDR, August 18, 1914. 31 SDR, August 11, 1914, p. 6. 32 SDR, September 10, 1914, p.7 and September 11, 1914, p. 6. 33 The Onlooker, SDR, September 17, 1914. 34 Ibid. 35 SDR, September 17, 1914. 36 SDR, September 10, 1914, p. 1. 37 SDR, September 17, 1914. 38 SDR, August 19, 1914. 39 SDR, September 1, 1914, p. 3. 40 SDR, September 19, 1914. 41 SDR, August 25, 1914. 42 SDR, August 26, 1914. 43 SDR, October 7, 1914. 44 SDR, September 19, 1914. Robin B. Burns 39

45 SDR, September 1, 1914. 46 SDR, September 29, 1914. 47 SDR, September 10, 1914. 48 SDR, September 17, 1914. 49 SDR, September 26, 1914. 50 SDR, September 22, 1914. 51 SDR, September 24, 1914. 52 SDR, November 14, 1914. 53 SDR, November 28, 1914. 54 SDR, September 22, 1914. 55 SDR, November 6, 1914. 56 SDR, November 7, 1914. 57 SDR, November 13, 1914. 58 SDR, November 13, 1914. 59 SDR, November 5, 1914. 60 SDR, October 26, 1914. 61 SDR, October 19, 1914. 62 SDR, November 5, 1914. 63 SDR, January 4, 1915. 64 Stanstead Journal, March 11, 1915. 65 SDR, October 23, 1914. 66 SDR, October 26, 1914. 67 SDR, November 20, 1914. 68 SDR, November 11, 1914. 69 SDR, November 18, 1914. 70 SDR, November 17, 1914. 71 SDR, November 13, 1914. 72 SDR, November 28, 1914. 73 SDR, February 5, 1914.

A RECENT HISTORY OF FLOODING IN THE MASSAWIPPI DRAINAGE BASIN Norman K. Jones Bishop’s University

Introduction Flooding occurs when the flow of a stream increases to the point where the stream channel no longer can contain the discharge of water. The excess water spreads out on to the adjoining floodplain. This is a natural event common to all rivers, often being extremely beneficial to soil and vegetation development. In Canada flooding occurs regularly in all regions, often associated with spring runoff, but not necessarily restricted to that time of year. Although spring snowmelt is the most common cause of flooding in Canada (Andrews, 1993), other causes include intense rainstorms, ice jams and other obstructions, and glacier outburst floods. In Quebec spring snowmelt during frontally generated rainstorms is the major cause of flooding in general; spring ice jams and intense summer convectional storms are other specific causes. Little work has been completed on flooding in the Eastern Town- ships or in the Massawippi drainage basin in particular. This is despite the fact that, in an anecdotal sense, flooding is a well-known phenomenon throughout the region. The Massawippi River and its tributaries are excellent examples of streams that are known to flood; yet there exists little documentation of the periodicity or severity of these events. This paper is an attempt to alleviate this situation by contributing to the knowledge of flooding in the Massawippi River drainage basin during the period 1964 to 1994 inclusive. This time period was chosen because adequate stream discharge records for the basin are available starting in 1964. A thirty-one year period is considered extensive enough for general conclusions on flood behaviour to be made. The paper focuses on the recent history, timing, location and magnitude of locally hazardous floods. In addition, the relevance of both the climatic and geomorphic characteristics of the basin to flood initiation is analyzed. Data collected for this study were obtained from various sources. 42 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Geographic data on the physical and topographic character of the drainage basin were obtained primarily from 1988 1:20,000 scale topographic maps provided by the Gouvernement du Québec, min- istère de l’Énergie et des Ressources, Service de la cartographie, and secondarily from field reconnaissance; meteorological and stream discharge data were provided by the Gouvernement du Québec, ministère de l’Environnement et de la Faune, Direction de la météorologie et Direction du milieu atmosphérique; land cover data were obtained from the Gouvernement du Québec, Ressources naturelles, Bureau régional de Sherbrooke (forêts).

Study Area The Massawippi drainage basin is a sub-basin of the St. Francis drainage basin in southern Quebec covering an area of approximately 1,670 km2 (Fig. 1 and Table 1). The basin receives an average annual precipitation of 104 cm, measured at Lennoxville (Boisvert, 1972). Approximately 46% of this precipitation falls from May to September, approximately 28 cm of the total, or 27%, as snow. (Note, this latter figure refers to the water equivalent depth of snowfall, not the resulting snowcover depth.) Thus, a relatively rich supply of water is available locally and this rich input has created numerous stream channels of various lengths in the Massa wippi basin. In total the basin drainage network is composed of over 2,061 km of stream channels (Table 1). The longest, that of the Coaticook River, exceeds 82 km from its origin at Horton Pond in northern Ver- mont, to its confluence with the Massawippi River just south of Lennoxville (Fig. 1). However, most stream channels present in the basin, over 76%, are comparatively short often measuring less than 4 km. These first-order streams, that is streams without tributaries, are the primary suppliers of water to the drainage network because of their high frequency. Thus, they are of importance in terms of flooding. The surficial geology, or physical character of the landscape, is an important control in the development of the drainage network. A history of the development of the natural landscape over the past 100,000 years is provided by Dubois and Parent (1989). The basin is part of a dissected plateau surface known as the New England Upland (Cooke, 1950). A general northwest slope of the plateau surface influences a northward flow of streams to the St. Francis River, and ultimately to the St. Lawrence. Stream valleys are cut through relatively soft sedimentary rocks, principally impure limestones over- lain by sandstones, while the hills of the basin represent more resis- Norman K. Jones 43

Figure 1. Massawippi River Drainage Basin – Principal Locations tant monadnocks of granite and quartzite. It is the widespread presence of these hills and the gradual, continuous land slope which contribute to the creation of numerous short streams, a low number of long streams, and very few lakes. Lake Massawippi, which has been enlarged somewhat by the dam near its north end, is the only relatively large lake present. Smaller water bodies, such as Lake Lyster, Norton Pond and Averill Lake, clustered in the extreme south of the basin (Fig. 1), act as water collection areas and stream sources. Most small streams are consequent of post-glacial age. Their valleys are poorly developed, cut in glacial sediments for the most part (cf. Larocque et al., 1985). Large streams occupy preglacial valleys cut approximately 100 m into the general plateau level (Cooke, 1950). Examples of the large type include the Coaticook, Moe and 44 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Table 1 Land Cover Data Source: Gouvernement du Québec, ministère des Ressources naturelles, Bureau régional de Sherbrooke (forêts) Norman K. Jones 45

Ascot Rivers. In all cases the large valleys are graded with few falls or rapids, valley bottoms are moderately wide and flat with moderate meander development. Overall, the large streams in the basin follow the general slope of the land and are little influenced by the strike of the underlying bedrock. They are superimposed. However, a few anomalous characteristics do occur. Deep, narrow gorges are present at Coaticook, Dixville and Moe River villages. These are recent features where glacial sediment blocked wide channels forcing the streams to develop their present channels past the obstructions.

Factors Affecting Flooding Climatic factors: As in most regions of Canada, the principal climatic factors affecting flooding in the Massawippi basin are rain and snowmelt. Rain is able to affect a flood event in two ways. First, simply a large amount of rain over a continuous, extended period of time, usually days, can initiate widespread, long duration flooding. As introduced above, the study area receives greater than 73% of its total precipitation as rain, usually over 75 cm per year. Extended rain events are therefore not unusual in this region. Second, rainfall intensity, usually measured in centimetres per hour, can initiate a flood event. Most intense falls of rain result in “flash floods,” flood events that occur in a relatively short period of time, with sharp hydrograph peaks and with a minimal spatial effect. In the Massawippi basin these occur as frontal storms in all seasons, and convectional storms in summer. Snowmelt becomes a major factor in flood initiation when the air temperature remains above freezing for an extended period of time during winter or early spring. In order for flood events to be considered snowmelt-initiated rather than rainfall-initiated events there must be less than 25 mm of rainfall and a maximum temperature of greater than 0° C over four days, the three days preceding the flood event and the event day (Irvine and Drake, 1987). Of course this assumes an existing snowcover, with a positive relationship existing between annual average snowfall and the frequency of snowmelt initiated floods (Irvine and Drake, 1987). By comparison with the peakiness of rain floods, the runoff generated by snowmelt is quite lethargic. Stream hydrographs tend to have less sharp peaks and longer duration. The high amounts of snowfall received by the Massawippi basin means it is prone to snowmelt floods, especially in late winter and early spring when air temperatures fluctuate around the freezing point. The warm temperatures associated with snowmelt also influence 46 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

the break-up of river ice and the increased possibility of ice jams. These occur preferentially upstream of built obstructions, such as bridges and dams (see Plate 1), but also can occur at meander bends and narrow reaches of river channel. Ice jams are often associated with snowmelt-initiated flood events since the warm temperatures, which cause snowmelt also, lead to river ice melt and break-up.

Geomorphic factors: There exist six principal geomorphic factors influencing the degree of flooding a drainage basin might experience: drainage basin area, basin circularity, length of longest channel, bifurcation ratio, drainage density, and basin ruggedness. In addition, the land cover and use have both direct and indirect influences on flood potential and yet are not solely related to the geomorphology; climate and human activity play roles. See Table 1 for a summary of various geomorphic characteristics of the Massawippi basin. The drainage basin area reflects the volume of water generated from rainfall and snowmelt. Primarily, the larger the basin the greater the volume of water available for stream flow and the greater the discharge of water from the basin. Secondarily, the larger the drainage basin the more temporally extended flood events will be. In the case of the Massawippi basin, at over 1,670 km2 it is the second largest sub-basin of the St. Francis drainage basin; only the Magog drainage basin at approximately 2,023 km2 is larger. Thus the Massawippi River has a relatively large source of water and a high potential for long-duration flooding based on this factor. Basin circularity is a measure of basin shape, an instrumental factor in determining the rate at which water is delivered to the main streams and the basin outlet. Circular basins result in runoff from various parts of the watershed reaching the outlet simultaneously. A shorter time from flood initiation to peak flood will occur. A long, narrow basin of equal area will exhibit a hydrograph with a longer time lag to peak and the resulting flood crest will be more subdued. The Massawippi drainage basin is near circular with a length/width ratio of 1.05. That is, the basin is only slightly longer than it is wide when measured at maximums. Thus, the study basin shape should increase the severity of the local flood hazard, especially at the basin outlet. Also, the Massawippi basin’s near-circular shape decreases the duration of flood events, lessening the prolonging effect of a large basin size. Similar to the basin shape, the length of the longest channel is related to water travel time. The shorter the longest channel, and Norman K. Jones 47

Plate 1: An ice jam along the Massawippi River at the railway bridge near Lennoxville, April 1992. (Source: J.D. Booth) channels in general, the faster water is delivered to the basin outlet and the greater the flood crest will be. The combined length of the Coaticook and Massawippi Rivers at 82 km represents the farthest distance runoff would have to travel in the study basin, from the origin of the Coaticook in northern Vermont to the mouth of the Mas- sawippi where it joins the St. Francis River. This is a relatively short distance for a basin of this size. Assuming a constant water velocity of approximately 1.0 ms-1, or 86 km/day, typical for the two rivers, runoff would take less than 24 hours to travel from basin source to outlet. Travel times on most other channels would be reduced, except for the main branch of the Massawippi River where the presence of Lake Massawippi would cause water storage. Lakes and wetlands tend to decrease flood potential by storing large volumes of water and influencing subdued flood peaks. Analysis of large-scale topographic maps and data collected by the Bureau régional de Sher- brooke (forêts) indicate that in 1990–1991 approximately 4.3% of the Massawippi basin was covered by lakes and wetlands, a slight decrease from the 4.7% measured for 1970–1971. The transformation of small areas of wetlands around Lake Massawippi may account for this slight decrease. However, overall, the Massawippi basin has a relatively quick response to water input and, again, a short time period to flood peak. 48 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

The next geomorphic factor, the bifurcation ratio, is a measure of how many times stream channels split, or conversely, how many times two channels come together to create a larger one. It is a measure of the number and internal arrangement of stream channels. Bifurcation ratio is usually discussed with basin shape to determine their combined effect on flood severity. Strahler (1964) suggested two extremes: circular basins with low bifurcation ratios and approximately equal runoff channel lengths would have dramatic flood peaks, whereas elongate basins with unequal channel lengths would yield longer duration, more subdued flood peaks. A low bifurcation ratio would be 2.25, a moderate one 4.0 and a high one 17.0 (Strahler, 1964). The Massawippi basin, therefore, with its circular shape and moderate bifurcation ratio of 3.7, must be expected to demonstrate a moderately dramatic flood peak. Drainage density represents the length of stream channel per unit area in a drainage basin, usually measured in kmkm-2. An increase in drainage density means an increase in the severity of flooding, since there exists more stream channel available to transport water. Basins with low drainage density either have low water input in the form of precipitation or a higher soil infiltration rate; precipitated water is routed to the soil not the stream channels. In humid regions of the world, such as southern Quebec, drainage densities usually range from 0.55 to 2.09 kmkm-2, with an average of about 1.03 (Lang- bein, 1947). Based on measurements taken from large-scale topographic maps, the Massawippi basin has a drainage density of 1.23 kmkm-2, slightly higher than average. A slightly higher severity of flooding can be expected here than in basins of comparable climate. It should be noted that, since most Canadian floods occur in spring when infiltration and interception rates are low, humid basins such as the Massawippi receive proportionally more runoff at this time of year than any other. In fact, drainage density may be tem- porarily increased in spring because of the creation of short-lived, first-order streams that cease to flow after complete snowmelt. Tak- ing into consideration the timing of flood events, drainage density may be an even larger influence on flood potential in the Massa - wippi basin than at first assumed. Basin ruggedness is a product of drainage density and basin relief. Often referred to as the Ruggedness Number (Patton, 1988), this vari- able is especially useful because it summarizes the interaction between maximum basin relief and basin dissection. Maximum relief is defined as the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points, and dissection refers to erosion by streams. Thus, Norman K. Jones 49

a highly dissected basin of low relief is as rugged as a moderately dissected basin of high relief. An increase in the basin ruggedness is accompanied by an increase in peak discharge. The Massawippi basin with a Ruggedness Number of 0.91 is characterized by relatively moderate ruggedness due to its moderate drainage density and relatively moderate maximum relief of 738 m. Taken together with the relative scarcity of lakes on this terrain, basin ruggedness will influence a slightly higher than average potential for flooding. In general, an increase in vegetative cover, especially in forest cover with its high density, means less severe flooding because of the effect vegetation has in intercepting rainfall and utilizing relatively large amounts of infiltrated water for photosynthesis and growth. For example, in the Massawippi basin, data from the analysis of large-scale topographic maps and the Bureau régional de Sherbrooke (forêts) show the percentage of land covered by forest increased from 53% in 1970–1971 to 62% in 1990–1991. This increase was matched by a decrease in agricultural land from 42% to 33% during the same 20-year period. Yet, no obvious change in flood frequency occurred during this time period (Table 1). Thus, although an increase in forest cover should result in fewer, less severe floods, in early spring, when most Canadian floods occur, the ground is frozen, infiltration is essentially zero, vegetation are mostly dormant and the land cover factor is less important. Most precipitation is routed to the streams as runoff at this time of year.

Flood History Since no official study has been made nor records kept of flood events in the Massawippi drainage basin, it was necessary to com- pile a history of flooding from a content analysis of local print media, specifically The Sherbrooke Record, La Tribune and The Town- ships Sun. Newspaper accounts have the advantage of easy accessi- bility and using three sources increases the chance of a flood event being recorded for inclusion. One major disadvantage of this research method is the propensity for newspapers to cover only major events, overestimate damages and, occasionally, confuse flood damage with erosion damage (Kreutzwiser and Gabriel, 1992). The possibility of the newspapers utilized in this study covering only major events is low; these are local newspapers that attempt to report all local events, large or small. Also, since damage amounts are not specifically analyzed here, this disadvantage is moot. Additionally, general information on the flood history of southern Quebec came from government publications (e.g.: Andrews, 1993). 50 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Table 2 Data Source: Gouvernement du Québec, ministère de l’Environnement et de la Faune

The principal locations of floods in the Massawippi basin are shown on Figure 1. All of these locations are susceptible to flooding primarily because of their low elevations, less than 150 metres above sea level. Secondarily, Locations 1 and 3 are areas of major river confluence, with ice jams being influential at Locations 1, 2 and 3. At Location 1 bridges over the Massawippi River and the confluences of the Massawippi with the Moe and Coaticook Rivers are key points of channel constriction and water and ice build-up; the confluence of the Moe and Ascot Rivers is also susceptible. At Location 2 a dam present immediately downstream of Lake Massawippi provides a Norman K. Jones 51 constriction point, as does the confluence of the Massawippi and Niger Rivers at Ayer’s Cliff, Location 3. Location 5 represents a highly meandering reach of the Coaticook River, each meander bend pro- viding a possible point of water build-up and overflow. Location 4 at Stanstead is the least flooded one, simply being an area of low elevation. A total of twenty-three flood events were reported in the thirty- one-year study period at these locations (Table 2). A comparison of the peak stream discharges experienced during these events to the mean, or average, discharge calculated for the same dates is provided in Figure 2. Note the large difference between the peak and mean discharge for each event. On average, the peak discharge is approximately 3.6 times the average discharge for the same dates. In extreme cases, such as the December 1973 and 1990 events, the peak discharge is over eight times larger than the normal one. These large differentials are caused by the very low average discharges on those dates, not extreme peaks. It is interesting to note that the three largest peak discharges all occurred in the month of April: 1969, 1982 and 1994. It is during this month that the combined effect of heavy rainstorms, either extended or sudden intense storms, and warm temperatures leading to rapid snowmelt and ice jams, can create the most dangerous flood conditions. Of the twenty-three total flood events noted on Table 2, eighteen events were rainfall influenced. Examples when rainfall was the principal causal factor include the early March 1979, late March 1989 and late December 1990 events. In these cases extended rainfall that occurred over several days preceding flooding initiated and sustained flooding. Due to the timing of the rainstorms, that is in winter and early spring, very little of the water input was blocked by vegetation interception, or routed to soil or groundwater storage. Most vegetation would be dormant and frozen ground would block any infiltration. Minor amounts of water may have been stored in the snowpack, although in December the snowpack is usually relatively thin reducing the effectiveness of this storage location during this month. The precipitation input flowed directly into runoff, quickly filling then overtopping the stream channels. Intense rainfalls in the Massawippi basin were the primary cause of flooding in several instances, including, for example, the April 1970, March 1979 and April 1982 events. These floods occurred due to a sudden input of rain over a short period of time, usually less than 24 hours; thus they could be termed “flash floods.” Again, because these events occurred in early spring little precipitation was 52 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

intercepted or infiltrated. A detailed view of the April 1982 flood is provided in Figure 3; all data are relevant to the Massawippi River outlet at Lennoxville. Note that there are actually two flood peaks present. On April 1 the river rises to a discharge of approximately 178 m3s-1, well over the average discharge for that date of approximately 105 m3s-1, as a con- sequence of four days of above freezing temperatures causing increased snowmelt, and two days of rainfall. However, for the next ten days the river discharge drops and stays below average until April 17. On this date relatively high temperatures begin to cause high rates of snowmelt and an increased discharge, over two times the average. Then, on April 18, a sudden, intense rainstorm of 59.6 mm initiates an unusually high discharge of 395 m3s-1 and extensive flooding throughout the Massawippi basin. Warm temperatures, and attendant snowmelt, keep river discharges danger- ously high until April 23. After this, even though temperatures remain relatively high, the snowpack has been almost exhausted and river discharge drops to around average by April 30. Snowmelt played at least a partial role in the initiation of 16 flood events, including the 1982 event, and snowmelt alone was respon- sible for 3 of the 23 flood events analyzed: April 1978, March 1986 and early March 1989 (Table 2). In those instances only minor amounts of rain were recorded while warm temperatures caused rapid snowmelt. Note that on 12 other occasions rapid snowmelt was the primary cause of flooding, secondary factors being rain or ice jams (Table 2). In each instance a rapid snowpack melt was accompanied by rain or ice jams. Rain was the secondary factor on 10 occasions, ice jams added significantly to the flood hazard on three occasions (Table 2). Plate 2 shows the Massawippi River near Lennoxville druring the April 1992 flood, an event in part initiated by ice jamming. The possibility that a flood event of a certain size will re-occur can be estimated by calculating its exceedance probability. This statistic measures the probability that a flood of a given size will be exceeded each year. For example, the April 1982 flood has an exceedance probability of 6.3% (Table 2). Thus, there is a 6.3% chance that an event this size could be exceeded in size each year. The 1994 peak discharge, the largest during the study period, has a 3.1% chance of being exceeded each year. Further, by using the exceedance proba- bilities for all floods of the study period, an estimate of the 100- year flood can be calculated. A flood this size occurs on average only once every 100 years and has a 1% probability of occurring each Norman K. Jones 53

Plate 2: Looking upstream along the ice-clogged Massawippi River to the railway bridge near Lennoxville, April 1992. (Source: J.D. Booth)

year. This is often the maximum flood size used by municipalities for flood hazard planning purposes. In the Massawippi basin, based on the 31 years of data available, the 100-year flood would have an estimated discharge of 422 m3s-1, exceeding in size all floods recorded during the study period. The 1994 flood had a peak discharge of 408 m3s-1 and represents a 63-year flood; the 1982 event with a peak discharge of 395 m3s-1 represents a 41-year flood.

Summary This analysis of flooding in the Massawippi drainage basin allows several insights into flood behaviour in this area. A historical analysis based on print media reveals that the 31-year study period experienced 23 floods in 19 of those years. The basin has a rich history of flood events. Only 12 of the 31 years studied did not experience a flood event, with 4 years, 1974, 1976, 1989 and 1990, each expe- riencing two events. The vast majority of the floods (18) occurred during March and April. The 4 remaining flood events occurred during brief periods of winter thaw and, with the exception of the December 22–23, 1990, event, were limited in extent. All of these floods but two took place in an extensive area immediately south of Lennoxville. Its location near the basin outlet, on 54 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Figure 3 Data Source: Gouvernement du Québec, ministère de l’Environnement et de la Faune extensive low-lying floodplains, with river constrictions by bridges and the confluence of four rivers, made this a flood-prone area. The dam at North Hatley made this location the next most flooded, although a limited area was actually flooded. Ayer’s Cliff, being low-lying and located at a confluence of two rivers, and the intensely Norman K. Jones 55

meandered lower Coaticook River areas were almost as frequently flooded as North Hatley. Stanstead, with a small local floodplain, experienced floodwaters only during the two largest events. As might be expected, climate plays a key role in flooding in the Massawippi basin. As evidenced by a detailed look at one of the largest floods on record, April 1982, most floods are initiated by a combination of an extensive melt of a thick snowpack and sudden, intense rainstorms, with ice jamming exacerbating the flood problem in areas of river constriction. Flooding caused by snowmelt alone or rain alone is less probable. On average flood discharges exceeded the average by almost four times; during extreme events this increased to eight-fold. The largest discharge of 408 m3s-1 occurred during April 1994. For the most part, Massawippi basin floods have a tendency to flashiness and are usually short-lived. The 100-year flood would exceed in discharge all recorded events with an estimated discharge of 422 m3s-1. Perhaps less expected is the important role played by the geomorphology of the basin. The large drainage area captures a large volume of the water generated by rainfall and snowmelt; the near- circular basin shape, relatively short length of the longest channel and relatively high stream channel bifurcation ratio result in a rapid water travel time, with runoff from various parts of the watershed reaching the outlet at Lennoxville simultaneously. Moderate drainage density and basin ruggedness parameters maintain the flood severity caused by the four preceding parameters. Since floods occur in winter or early spring when the ground is frozen, soil characteristics, and land cover and use are not dominant factors. Flood frequency in the Massawippi drainage basin is climatically based but the severity of these floods is increased by the basin geomorpho logy. One important component of flood hazards not investigated extensively during this research project was the human involvement. Obviously, since there would not exist a flood hazard in a drainage basin without the presence of people, they will play a key role in hazard initiation and severity. The Massawippi basin is no exception. The construction of bridges and dams across local rivers has already been indicated as influencing flooding in the basin through the initiation of ice jamming. Thus, the next phase of this research into flood hazards in the Massawippi drainage basin will focus on the human involvement in local flooding, including the role of dam construction and the human response to this hazard. 56 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research project was made possible by grants from the Eastern Townships Research Centre and the Bélanger-Gardner Foundation. Valuable research assistance was provided by Darren Bardati and Meredith Watkins. Derek Booth kindly supplied the photographs. Positive and very constructive criticisms of the manuscript were made by Derek Booth and an anonymous reviewer.

RESUME Le risque d’inondation présent dans le sud du Québec est un phénomène qui, quoique bien connu, n’a jamais été étudié en détail. Cet article rend compte de la nature et de l’histoire des inondations survenues dans le bassin hydrographique de la rivière Massawippi. Les données sur lesquelles repose cette étude ont été tirées de plusieurs sources : analyses cartographiques, levés de terrain et analyse des journaux locaux publiés au cours de la période qui fait l’objet de cette étude, soit de 1964 à 1994. Cette période couvre 31 années, dont 23 ont vu se produire des phénomènes d’inondation. La majorité de ces inondations se sont produites pendant les mois de mars et d’avril. C’est également à ce moment de l’année que sont survenues les inondations les plus graves, alors que des inondations moins importantes se sont produites pendant de brèves périodes de dégel hivernal, particulièrement au mois de décembre. La plupart des inondations se sont produite dans la région située immédiatement au sud de Lennoxville; c’est là qu’a eu lieu la plus importante des inondations étudiées ici, en avril 1994. Les inondations résultent de la combinaison de deux facteurs : une fonte rapide et importante de la neige et l’arrivée soudaine de fortes pluies. La géomorphologie du bassin hydrographique, en particulier sa taille relativement vaste et sa forme presque circulaire, contribue au caractère périodique et à l’intensité des inondations qui s’y produisent.

REFERENCES Andrews, J., ed., 1993. Flooding: Canada Water Book. Ottawa: Ecosystem Sciences and Evaluation Directorate, Economics and Conserva- tion Branch, 171 p. Boisvert, J.-J., 1972. Les traits Essentiels du climat de l’Estrie. Sherbrooke: centre de recherches en aménagement régional, Université de Sherbrooke, 133 p. Norman K. Jones 57

Cooke, H.C., 1950. Geology of a Southwestern Part of the Eastern Town- ships of Quebec. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 257, 142 p. Dubois, J-M.M., and Parent, M., 1989. Les derniers 100 000 ans d’histoire du paysage naturel des Cantons de l’Est. In: Dubois, J-M.M., (ed.), 1989. Les Cantons de l’Est: aspects géographiques, politiques, socio-économiques et culturels. Sherbrooke: Les Éditions de l’Université de Sherbrooke, pp. 28–49. Irvine, K.N., and Drake, J.J., 1987. Spatial analysis of snow- and rain- generated highflows in southern Ontario. The Canadian Geographer, 31(2), pp. 140–149. Kreutzwiser, R.D., and Gabriel, A.O., 1992. Ontario’s Great Lakes flood history. Journal of Great Lakes Research, 18(1), pp. 194–198. Langbein, W.B., 1947. Topographic Characteristics of Drainage Basins. U.S. Geological Survey Water Supply Paper 968C, pp. 125–157. Larocque, G., Larocque, A., Bail, P., Morisette, A., and Dubois, J-M.M., 1985. Barrage morainique et superimposition : exemple dans la vallée de la rivière Coaticook, sud du Québec (Canada). Photo- interprétation, 85(3), pp. 1–9. Patton, P.C., 1988. Drainage basin morphometry and floods. In: Flood Geomorphology (Baker, V.R., Kochel, R.C., and Patton, P.C., eds.). Toronto: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 51–64. Strahler, A.N., 1964. Quantitative geomorphology of drainage basins and channel networks. In: Handbook of Applied Hydrology (V.T. Chow, ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill, pp. 40–74.

GEORGE SLACK: A PIONEER TOWNSHIPS CLERGYMAN Richard D. Moysey Kingston, Ontario

arly in July, 1836, a 26-year-old retired naval officer, just arrived from England, could be found making his way from EMontreal to the Eastern Townships, accompanied by Mr. Mof- fatt of the British American Land Company. The sailor, George Slack, no longer interested in a career at sea, intended to purchase a farm to which he could bring the young lady he shortly hoped to marry. With no prospects in England, he had been drawn to Canada as a country reputed to offer inducements to emigrants of moderate means.1 Reaching Sherbrooke on 4 July, George purchased a house, with 200 acres of land, in the Township of Eaton. He took possession immediately and the sea- man turned farmer began a new career in the country where he would spend the rest of his days.2 George was born in London in 1810,3 one of seven children: five boys, Thomas, Edward, George, Henry and Frederick; and two girls, Jane and Eliza.4 His father, Thomas Cartwright Slack, died accidentally when George was but five years old, leaving his mother, Jane Hester, a clergyman’s daughter, to bring up the family by herself.5 She saw that her boys were well educated, first by a family gov- erness and then, in George’s

case, by a village clergyman. A Notman photo of George Slack Later he attended a grammar (Source: Slack Papers, school in Reading under the in the possession of the author) 60 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

mastership of a Dr. Valpy, a noted classical scholar. Eventually his mother, finding the strain of raising her family too great to carry alone, married Captain Michael Halliday of the Royal Navy. Two children were born of this marriage.6 Meanwhile, George, who had been drawn to the sea from an early age, left school in 1827, joined the Royal Navy, and was assigned to a frigate of the North American squadron stationed at Halifax. He served there and in the Mediterranean until 1832, when, back in England, he volunteered to join an expedition to Portugal.7 George was soon in the thick of a Portuguese civil war, fought between the supporters of Donna Maria da Gloria, the rightful heir to the throne, and those who supported her uncle, Don Miguel the usurper. He had signed with the rank of mate on the 44-gun frigate the Donna Maria, and took part in three spirited naval engagements with Don Miguel’s fleet.8 He described his experience of the last one, off Cape St. Vin- cent on 5 July 1833, as follows: The action commenced about 3 P.M…, each ship steering straight for its designated opponent…. [O]ur ships became necessarily exposed to a furious fire…. [A]fter laying our opponent alongside to leeward…we ran our jib-boom into her rigging and carried her by boarding. The slaughter was frightful…. On this occasion, although commanding the foremost quarters on the main deck…and engaged in the thick of the melée [sic] in boarding,…I escaped with a slight sword-cut on the left hand.9 In between his days at sea George served at Oporto, which was besieged by the Miguelite forces.10 Later he was put in charge of a small garrison on the coast, where, on one occasion, he became engaged in single combat with a powerful guerrilla chief, whom, he wrote, he was “enabled at length to disarm and make prisoner.”11 Serving for a short while as a gun boat commander, he took his discharge and returned to England, as there was no chance of advance- ment in the Portuguese service and the Miguelite forces had been defeated. For his service George was awarded the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword, an honour he shared with the Duke of Wellington.12 Still restless on his return from Portugal, George enlisted in the service of Spain, spending six months on a schooner blockading the port of Bilboa.13 Once again, he was forced to admit that there seemed to be no future in this service either, so he returned home for the last time. As his daughter Eliza described it, “He brought back after those years of warfare by land and sea, a little money, a head full of ambitious plans, and a certain sailor-like handiness and hope- Richard D. Moysey 61

George’s painting of his farm at Eaton. (Source: Collection of Mrs. Mary Jack, Kingston, Ontario) fulness which never left him.”14 In the year before he decided to leave for Canada he was unemployed, during which time he culti- vated a taste for oil painting.15 Some of his work, especially certain paintings depicting naval actions in Portugal, demonstrated real talent.16 Of the farm on which he settled at Eaton, George later wrote: “This proved a very injudicious selection, being too far removed from the more improved parts of the country, especially as I might have had, at that time, my choice of any locality.”17 However, he applied himself to improving what he had, and, in a letter of 4 March 1837 to his brother Edward, he described his progress. The winter had been “lone and dreary…not having even a neighbour with whom I could occasionally pass an evening.” He continues: The weather begins to be fine and the sun is getting great power in the middle of the day…. The grand season of deer hunting is about commencing, as the snow will soon have a hard crust, which will bear a man on snowshoes but thro’ which a deer or moose will break…. Consequently they are soon overtaken and killed. I have been exercising on snowshoes today and shall soon be able to run in style. As for his farm, he says: The thing that requires most improvement is the meat stock and sheep and pigs also. Of the former I have fine shorthorned Durham bull and heifer…. I should be pleased if I had, or was able 62 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

to procure, two or three North Devon cows in order to breed a better class of working oxen, in which most necessary kind of stock we are rather deficient. Threshing machines are not required as the winter is so long and as you must keep a man on thru the winter, if he had no threshing he would frequently have nothing to do…. Besides grain will never be the staple produce of this country…. It must depend more on the advantages of graz- ing.18 George remained on his farm, repairing and fitting up the house, during his first year of residence. In the autumn of 1837, however, he determined to visit England, and sailed from New York in Decem- ber. He spent the winter in England, returning to Canada in the spring after having visited his fiancée Emma Colston. Emma lived with her great-aunt, who objected to the match with George. That summer the aunt died. He wrote, “[E]very obstacle to our union was removed. Returning therefore to England in the autumn of 1838, I was married on the 15th of January, after an engagement of five years, to my ever dear wife.”19 Together with friends, a Mr. Lloyd and his family, George and Emma sailed for Quebec on Easter Monday. Mr. Lloyd, who had come to Canada with George on his previous trip, had purchased a farm near Sherbrooke.20 It is a measure of the hazards of travel in those days that every ship in which George had crossed the Atlantic save one was lost on its next voyage.21 They either foundered on the high seas or were wrecked in the St. Lawrence. In spite of these dangers, however, George came well laden in all his journeyings from England. On his first trip he arrived with a bedstead; a chest of drawers; a silver canteen; a supply of sheets, towels, kettles; and other assorted house- wares. In the spring of 1838, he brought with him, among other items, a plough, a turnip slicer, a set each of double and single harness, a cavalry saddle, seeds, and a complete wardrobe. In addition, he had been commissioned to bring a communion set and 10 prayer books for the Rev. Lucius Doolittle and a whole hunting outfit (horn, saddle, bridle and breastplate, gauntlets and more) for someone called Austin.22 Once back on the farm, George and Emma settled down to the quiet routine of country life. George had named his property Wood- cote Place, after his mother’s home in Epsom, England. At Eaton three children were born to the couple, a daughter, Eliza, and two sons, Edward and Henry.23 At this time George became involved in the founding of Bish- op’s College, Lennoxville. In a letter of 20 March 1841 to his godfa- Richard D. Moysey 63

“For the drawing which is here engraved, the Society is indebted to one of its Missionaries, the Rev. G. Slack, who visited England last summer, and who has delineated a scene with which his experience had made him familiar. Mr. Slack is stationed at Granby, in Shefford, not far from the source of the Yamaska, in the diocese of MONTREAL. When the Bishop visited Granby in 1843, the district had neither a Church nor a Minister.... On Trinity Sunday in that year Mr. Slack was ordained, and appointed to the district; and, at a subsequent visitation..., the Bishop had the gratification of consecrating a handsome church at Granby, and confirming 29 persons, in the presence of a congregation which numbered 250 souls....” (Source: S.P.G., Quarterly Report, January 1851. Copy in the Slack Papers.) ther, J.W. Birch, he bemoaned the fact that he lived in a country “torn to pieces with religious dissension, a prey to the wildest extrav- agances and most melancholy delusions, where zeal without knowledge abounds.” Citing the need for an institution to counter this malaise, he reported that a plan for such had been proposed. At that time, the scheme was confined to himself, his friend Lloyd, and the Rev. Lucius Doolittle, though the Bishop of Montreal had been advised.24 Consequently, George had been asked to write to friends in England for support, and in addition to Birch, he also appealed to his mother. She replied favourably, but asked to see an outline of “the whole intention of the plan, that I might have something to show.”25 By October a prospectus had evidently been prepared, George having sent a copy to Birch.26 This did not satisfy his mother. The following March, she wrote, “There should be a banker appointed to secure money as I cannot take money for public use into my own hands…. Mr. Birch would give a subscription directly but who is to take it?”27 Once these details had been taken care of, George was successful in getting help from his English friends.28 When the college commenced operations, he became a trustee.29 64 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Accordingly, as has been noted with amusement in his family, Bish- op’s came into existence in good part through the combined efforts of the firm of “Slack and Doolittle.” George came from a family of Anglican Evangelicals: this faith his career at sea had done nothing to shake. He wrote: During the first winter of my sojourn in Eaton…the Right Rev. G.J. Mountain, Bishop of Quebec,… being on his trienneal [sic] confirmation tour, became my guest, our families having been acquainted in the old country. I drove him, upon this occasion, to visit the newly arrived emigrants in the settlement of the B.A. Land Company at Bury. Finding a large body of emigrants without any provision for religious ministrations amongst them, the Bish- op proposed to the Rev. J. Taylor, the minister of the church of Cookshire, that he should visit them one Sunday in each month. Not wishing to leave the church at Cookshire unsupplied upon these occasions, the bishop inquired whether I would be willing to conduct the public service on these Sundays…. I willingly con- sented to do so, on condition of being duly authorized. The bishop therefore gave me a licence to act as lay-reader….30 In a report made to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.), in England, Bishop Mountain described George as a “religious man, whose example and influence have much benefited the neighbourhood.”31 This was George’s first step towards his call to the sacred ministry. He acted as lay-reader until 1842, when Bishop Mountain asked if he would be willing to present himself as a candidate for the priesthood. He rejected the idea at first, but fearing that he “was disregarding a plain call of duty,” he agreed and was ordained deacon in May, 1843.32 As his first charge, the bishop offered him the choice of three missions: Port Neuf, Clarendon, and Granby, of which he chose the last, including the village of Milton. Selling the farm and the stock, the family moved to Granby that same spring. There, as there was no parsonage, they were forced to board with a village family.33 The Granby mission had been started by the Rev. Thomas John- son of Abbotsford, who, at his own expense, had purchased ten acres of land for a church. The frame of the building was already there when George arrived, and it was covered in during the summer. In the meantime, services were held in the schoolhouse, George con- ducting his first on 23 June. The church, when completed, cost $1,600. Once again, George drew on his English friends, who contributed $600. The generous Rev. Mr. Johnson provided $100 plus the roof shingles!34 Richard D. Moysey 65

All now seemed set for a fruitful ministry and a happy future, but as he later wrote: “the Almighty disposer of events was preparing for me a trial more severe than any that had hitherto fallen to my lot.”35 George had gone to attend a funeral five miles from Gran- by, when a messenger was sent to tell him that his wife was very ill. He hurried back to her side, but, with no medical aid at hand, little could be done for his dear Emma. She died on the morning of 30 August 1843. Buried first within the foundation of the new church, the following spring her body was removed to the new church bur- ial ground. That same year, George’s mother died in England.36 Bearing up through these tragic times, George was ordained priest in May of 1844. He had purchased a small property opposite the church, on which a house was built, and he and his children moved into it in the fall of that year. In the following January, he married Isabella Ann Johnson, daughter of the Rev. Mr. Thomas Johnson, who had started the Granby mission. It was a happy choice, as Isabella became a good mother to his three children and helped him in the work of the parish, especially with the Sunday School. Dur- ing their stay in Granby, the couple produced three more children: Thomas, Fred, and Joseph.37 In the spring of 1850, the Granby mission was divided from Mil- ton, and the S.P.G. purchased a glebe and parsonage in the latter place. George assumed this new charge, and he and his family moved there that same spring. At Milton their last child, Harriet, was born.38 Attached to Milton was yet another mission, at South Rox- ton, where George held services in a schoolhouse, occasionally preaching to French Protestants in their own language.39 At this time, George was having financial problems, which were severe enough that he was obliged to go to England for help. The letters that he wrote while away have survived and provide an interesting account of his trip.40 He left Montreal at the end of May, 1850, on the sailing ship Great Britain. The passage down the St. Lawrence was slow: being held up in Lake St. Peter by strong easterly winds, the ship took three days to reach Quebec City. While there, George went ashore and called on the Bishop of Quebec, George Mountain, from whom he learned that the division of the Diocese of Quebec into the two dioceses of Quebec and Montreal had finally been settled. A Dr. Francis Ful- ford from England was to be the Bishop of Montreal, and as George would be located in his diocese, he planned to call on his new bishop when in London. As his first letter was postmarked “Isle Verte” on 6 June, it had apparently taken more than a week for the ship to 66 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

reach the Gulf. His second letter was started at sea (ever the sailor, he carefully described his position as Lat. 47.4 N Long. 48.3 W) and finished in London. The passage had been so uneventful that the only excitement he could report was the birth of a baby girl. Dis- embarking at Folkstone, he took the train to London, his first jour- ney by rail, where the welcome from his aunts and uncles was emotional. But, as George put it, joy never kills. After a few visits in the country, George returned to London and called on Dr. Fulford. Later the two of them met with the Archbish- op of Canterbury, John Bird Sumner, who enquired about the state of the Church in Canada. George was also present at a farewell dinner for Dr. Fulford given by the Rector of St. George’s, Hanover Square, and attended by fourteen other clergy, including one Ernest Hawkins of the S.P.G.. This was the period in which the Oxford (or Tractarian) Movement was creating dissension in the English Church. George was interested to note that these “were clergy rather of the old fashioned school but not the least degree tinctured with Puseyism; indeed they ridiculed the absurd proceedings of the Trac- tarians.” He, however, was keeping an open mind and had been to some of the Tractarian churches: “I make a point of going everywhere and seeing, hearing and judging for myself.” On this visit, George saw a good deal of his half-sister and half- brother, Jane and Michael Halliday. Indeed, while he was there, Jane married her cousin, John Halliday, and sailed for Burma at the same time George returned to Canada. Michael was a clerk in the House of Lords who, George was somewhat miffed to find, had an annual salary of £350 while he was struggling by on £100.41 Michael was also an accomplished painter who had been taught by some of the more prominent members of the Pre-Raphaelite school. His work was obviously of quality, some of it still appearing in auctions today.42 Meanwhile, George travelled about England by train, and he was greatly impressed. “You go everywhere by railroad and fly over the country at tremendous speed…. The carriages are comfortable, the fares low and the arrangements at the stations most excellent.”43 His correspondence with his family from this period shows that he was fortunately able to get his financial affairs into somewhat better shape before leaving London. Sailing from Southamp- ton, he arrived home early in November. Back in harness, George resumed the ministry to his scattered charge. In addition to the mission at South Roxton, there was also another at Upton, and sometimes his travels to these remote places proved hazardous. One of his parishioners wrote: “I remember one Richard D. Moysey 67

Sunday at South Roxton, during a freshet, a number of us had gath- ered and were waiting for Mr. Slack. It was the general impression of the congregation that he could not get across the Mawcook River. ‘He’ll come, he’ll come,’ said Squire Sanborn, ‘a little water won’t stop him.’ And, sure enough, his good Charley’s head appeared over the bridge, hurrying his precious load on time. Many were surprised, as Charley drew up to the door, to see not only Mr. Slack but his daughter, Miss Eliza, who was every bit as fearless as her father and made a practice of accompanying him on many of his dangerous trips.”44 George’s driving skill was recognized by Bishop Fulford, among others, who relied on him to pilot him over the rough roads in the newer parts of the country and once made the rounds with him of the parishes up the Ottawa River.45 He would also drive friends from Milton to places like Chambly, a respectable distance, much to the appreciation of those who benefited from this kind- ness.46 The only other mode of travel at that time was by stage, and that too had its hazards, George once losing his cloak on the trip from Sherbrooke to Granby. In 1861 George was appointed Rural Dean and, in 1864, he moved to the parish of Bedford. Here, in his usual energetic way, he organized a Sunday School and set about repairing the church and visiting the sick. In those days the shut-ins were often con- sumptives whose cases were hopeless, and he would try to while away their weary hours by reading to them.47 The Slacks were in Bedford during the Fenian Raids. At the anx- ious time of the 1866 raid, the women of the family were sent to Farnham for their better protection and safety. George’s daughter, Eliza, however, felt that this was an act of cowardice and walked back the twelve miles from Farnham to be with her father.48 In those ner- vous times, defending the frontier was a real concern, and George had corresponded with the Adjutant-General’s office about the advisability of locating an army camp at Bedford.49 There is no evidence, however, that anything came of it. In their many years in the Eastern Townships, George and his family acquired a wide circle of friends. While they did a surprising amount of visiting, they also maintained a lively communication by correspondence with both Townships and Montreal friends. Fortu- nately, some of this has survived and provides vivid glimpses of life at the time. One service that George, and presumably all clergy, had to provide was help in the finding of servants, which was not always a simple task. For example, he was thanked for finding Mary Ann only to learn all too soon that Mary Ann wanted to go back to her 68 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

mother and did Mr. Slack know of anyone suitable to “take her place in the kitchen?”50 Fortunately, other girls he found places for seem to have lasted longer, there being no record of their wanting to go home. The letters deal with these and a variety of other concerns. During the period of the American Civil War, one friend learned after more than a year-and-a-half of the death of her sister and nephew in the South.51 In 1868 George was elected to the Executive Committee of the Diocese. One of his Montreal correspondents had a good deal to say about Church politics, particularly on the subject of the election of a new bishop that same year. She wrote: “The irrepressible Doc- tor Balch [an American priest on the staff of the Cathedral] is as lively as ever. Writing to the newspapers and upsetting people as much as possible. There is a great fear here lest he should be bishop.” She needn’t have worried; he wasn’t elected.52 The artistic talents that George developed in England were not neglected when he came to Canada. He painted several views of the area around Eaton, and one of his farm (reproduced with the present article). Later on, he sent the sketch depicting a “Canadian Mis- sionary Preaching in a Log House” to the S.P.G., who printed it in their quarterly paper, as reproduced with this article.53 It also appears that he maintained musical interests. His daughter Eliza spoke of his singing fragments of Portuguese and Spanish war songs that he had picked up in his earlier years,54 and his mother’s sister Eliza Newell wrote from England that she was glad to learn he had taken up the flute again.55 In the spring of 1872, when returning by train from a meeting of Bishop’s Corporation, George was involved in a train wreck near St. Hyacinth. As he described it in a letter to a friend, “the car left the track and rolled down an embankment of 25 feet, breaking to pieces at the bottom.”56 He suffered two broken ribs, and his injuries weak- ened him to such an extent that he had to resign from his parish and go to live with his son Fred, who was now a doctor in Montreal. Over the next two years, other complications developed; but in June 1874 he was still able to write to his daughter Harriet. Apparently he had recently attended the Diocesan Synod and was upset at the “determined party spirit of the ‘soi disant Evangelicals.’” They had attacked the Rev. Edmund Wood, the High Church rector of the Church of St. John the Evangelist. George claimed that he had “not the slight- est sympathy with any shade of Ritualist extravagance.” He adds, “but when it is plain that every attack is levelled at poor Wood…and when one sees the quiet, laborious, self-denying spirit of the man, I Richard D. Moysey 69

for one cannot countenance his persecution.”57 Evidently, George always showed sympathy and understanding for his fellow man, whether or not he shared his views. George was confined to his bed and his condition steadily wors- ened, and on the morning of 4 July 1874 he breathed his last.58 His funeral took place in St. George’s Church, where the Dean of Mon- treal paid a warm tribute to his memory.59 His body was then taken by train to Granby, where he was buried beside his first wife, Emma, in the parish cemetery. Many tributes were made to George in the Montreal and Town- ships press, including the following: In mission and parish he was indefatigable, and there are many now living who have reason to recall his name with gratitude, not only for his ever ready council and aid in spiritual matters, but for benefits which are characterized by the world as substantial. In personal intercourse Mr. Slack was always happy and cheerful, even under physical suffering: one of those rare men whom even in joy and sorrow, it does one good to meet.60 A big man in every way (family tradition states that he weighed nearly 300 pounds in his later years!), he lingered long in the memory of all who knew him. His second wife, Isabella, outlived George by 27 years. She died at the home of her daughter Harriet in Melbourne61 and was also buried in the cemetery in Granby.62

RESUME Arrière-petit-fils de George Slack, l’auteur fait un survol de la carrière de ce missionnaire anglican du XIXe siècle par le biais de ses mémoires publiés, de la correspondance familiale et des comptes- rendus de la Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (S.P.G.: Société pour la propagation de l’Évangile). George Slack, né en Angleterre en 1810, vient au Canada à l’âge de 26 ans (après une carrière navale), se marie et achète une ferme à Eaton, dans les Cantons-de-l’Est. Sa vocation religieuse lui fait accepter un poste de missionnaire à Granby pour la S.P.G. puis le mène à être ordonné prêtre anglican en 1844. Les mémoires et la correspondance de George Slack fournissent de vifs détails du quotidien et des responsabilités d’un prêtre missionnaire engagé, souvent appelé à répondre aux besoins de plus d’une paroisse isolée des Cantons-de- l’Est et toujours profondément engagé dans la vie ecclésiastique du diocèse. 70 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

NOTES 1 George Slack, Personal Memoirs of a Canadian Missionary, S.P.G., in a Letter Addressed to his Children, (Montreal: John Lovell, 1859), 19. Hereafter Personal Memoirs. This was presented as a “memorial of the family of which you form a part, in order that you may preserve a recollection of your British ancestry, which you might otherwise in the lapse of time be in the danger of losing”(3). He lists his forebears in the seventeenth century (3-10), gives an account of his naval career in Portugal and Spain, and describes his arrival and early years in Canada. The copy consulted is in the Slack Papers, in the possession of the author, hereafter referred to as SP. Most of the materials consulted for the present article are in the SP. 2 Personal Memoirs, 19. 3 Personal Memoirs, 11. 4 Personal Memoirs, 5. 5 Personal Memoirs, 6. 6 Personal Memoirs, 11. 7 Personal Memoirs, 11–12. 8 Personal Memoirs, 12–17 9 Personal Memoirs, 16–17. 10 Personal Memoirs, 14. 11 Personal Memoirs, 17. 12 Eliza Montgomery, “Rev. George Slack—Formerly Rector of Bed- ford,” extract from the Fifth Report of the Missisquoi County Histori- cal Society, 1913. The version cited in this article is in unpaginat- ed typescript in the SP. Hereafter referred to as Montgomery. Eliza Montgomery was George Slack’s daughter and the eldest of his children. Her husband, Rev. Hugh Montgomery, was rector of Philipsburg. 13 Personal Memoirs, 18. 14 Montgomery. 15 Personal Memoirs, 18. 16 The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Quarterly Paper for January 1851, 3n. A copy of this issue of the Quarterly Paper is in the SP. 17 Personal Memoirs, 19. 18 Letter from George Slack to Edward Slack, 4 March 1837, SP. Only a few of George’s letters from Canada remain in the consid- erable body of correspondence to be found in the SP. There are a number of letters to him from his mother, Jane Halliday, and his Richard D. Moysey 71

half-sister, also called Jane Halliday, as well as correspondence from his aunt, Eliza Newell, and other English relatives. There were also many from Canadian friends. 19 Personal Memoirs, 19. 20 Personal Memoirs, 19-20. 21 Personal Memoirs, 20. 22 Information drawn from invoices in SP; lists entitled “Commis- sions for Austin,” “Commissions for Mr. Doolittle,” “My own Outfit,” in SP. 23 Personal Memoirs, 20. 24 Letter from George Slack to J.W. Birch, 20 March 1841, SP. 25 Letter from his mother, Jane Halliday, to George Slack, 17 August 1841, SP. 26 Letter from George Slack to J.W. Birch, 29 October 1841, SP. 27 Letter from his mother, Jane Halliday, to George Slack, 3 March 1842, SP. 28 D.C. Masters, Bishop’s University: The First Hundred Years (Toronto: Clark, Irwin, 1950), 11. “As early as 1841 Slack was writing vigorous and able letters to his friends asking for support for the project,” writes Masters. 29 Christopher Nicholl, Bishop’s University, 1843–1970, Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1994, 23. 30 Personal Memoirs, 20–21. 31 From the report of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel for 1841, Bishop Mountain’s account of his visitations. Copy consulted at Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada, Toronto. 32 Personal Memoirs, 21. 33 Personal Memoirs, 22. 34 Ven. W.B. Longhurst, “History of St.George’s Church, Granby,” The Montreal Churchman, February 1932. 35 Personal Memoirs, 22. 36 Personal Memoirs, 22. 37 Personal Memoirs, 22–23. 38 Personal Memoirs, 23. 39 Montgomery. 40 Letters from George Slack to his wife, Isabella, 28 May 1850, 13 June 1850, 1 July 1850, 4 October 1850, SP. These letters are the source of the information in this paragraph and the two that follow. 72 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

41 Letter from George Slack to his wife, Isabella, 16 July 1850, SP. 42 During current work on a biography of Michael Halliday, the author came across the record of a sale of his work which took place at Sotheby’s, London, 30 March 1994. 43 Letter from George Slack to his wife, Isabella, 31 July 1859, SP. 44 Ted Bullock, “Recordings,” Sherbrooke Daily Record, 8 July 1933. Bullock is quoting from a book published before 1927 by his grandfather, William Henry Bullock. 45 Montgomery. 46 Letter from Susy Yarwood to George Slack, August 27 (no year), SP. The letter was sent to George during his years in Milton, 1853–1861. 47 Montgomery. 48 George H. Montgomery, Missisquoi Bay (Philipsburg, Que.), (Granby, QC: Granby Printing and Publishing Co.), 1950, 113. George Montgomery was Eliza Montgomery’s son. 49 Letter from Col. MacDougall to George Slack, 18 September 1866, SP. 50 Letter from Jessie Bowen to George Slack, 20 October 1848, SP. 51 Letter from Mary Rhodes to George Slack, 4 July 1864, SP. 52 Letter from Lucy Simpson to Mrs. George Slack, 22 October 1868, SP. 53 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Quarterly Paper, January 1851. 54 Montgomery. 55 Correspondence of Eliza Newell with the Slack family, SP. Eliza Newell kept in close touch with her Canadian relatives, and in 1855 she received a visit from her namesake, George’s daughter Eliza. When she died in 1863, George inherited £1,200, which happily put an end to any financial worries he might still have had at that time. 56 Letter from George Slack to an English friend, no name, n.d., SP. 57 Letter from George Slack to his daughter, Harriet Meigs, 26 June 1874, SP. 58 Newspaper clipping, newspaper and date not identified, SP. 59 Clipping from The Granby Gazette, n.d., SP. “The large attendance at his funeral at St. George’s Church, Montreal, and the elegant tribute paid to his memory by the Dean of Montreal showed the high appreciation in which he was held in that city.” 60 Montgomery, quoting from unspecified Montreal newspaper. Richard D. Moysey 73

61 Personal communication by the author’s mother. 62 Photograph of gravestone in the author’s possession.

UN 150e ANNIVERSAIRE; L’ASSOCIATION DES ÉTABLISSEMENTS CANADIENS DES TOWNSHIPS (1848) Marie-Paule Rajotte LaBrèque Acton Vale

ans l’histoire de la colonisation du Québec, on peut dire que 1848 est une année charnière au cours de laquelle l’intérêt se Dportera particulièrement sur les Cantons-de-l’Est, que l’on désigne encore sous le nom des “Townships”. Cette période agitée est traversée par de sérieuses mutations politiques, économiques et sociales, et l’on perçoit la fin d’un certain ordre des choses. Le gouverneur Elgin est en poste depuis un peu plus d’un an et il a reconnu le nouveau ministère formé par Robert Baldwin et Louis- Hyppolite LaFontaine. Le Parti réformiste au pouvoir recrute ses appuis dans les deux Canadas et on y retrouve d’anciens patriotes comme Augustin-Norbert Morin et George-Étienne Cartier. La montée de l’influence religieuse se dessine; le recrutement du clergé augmente et Mgr Ignace Bourget, évêque de Montréal, favorise de grands mouvements de piété1. Inévitablement, le rôle politique de l’Église s’accroît, teinté parfois de nationalisme. Les grands problèmes sont repris et débattus dans de nombreux journaux d’allégeances diverses, et la presse catholique prend sa place. Cependant le pays est en proie à une crise profonde à tous les niveaux; le commerce et l’agriculture stagnent, et les gens des campagnes se dirigent vers la ville ou tendent à émigrer aux États-Unis en grand nombre, phénomène déjà bien établi depuis longtemps. Le chômage sévit et on redoute de nouvelles épidémies comme celle de 1847 apportée par les pauvres Irlandais. Ces calamités se répercutent sur la démographie; on enregistre même une baisse de la nuptialité2. Les pouvoirs civils et religieux cherchent des solutions, et on croira en trouver une dans la conquête du sol par la colonisation de nouveaux territoires, les “Townships” en particulier, futurs Cantons-de-l’Est. Pour les Canadiens français, il s’agit d’un revirement important, puisque ce coin de pays leur est toujours apparu comme hostile. L’enquête commandée par la Chambre d’assemblée en 1822 sur la 76 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

colonisation avait bien révélé une méfiance viscérale envers la tenure soccagère ainsi que l’inquiétude sur le sort de la langue et de la religion3. Les députés canadiens réclamaient l’extension de la tenure seigneuriale « dans les terres incultes de la Couronne ». L’octroi d’une charte à la British American Land Company en 1832 afin d’attirer des colons britanniques dans les cantons provoqua une vive opposition, qui s’exprima par la suite dans les 92 résolutions de 18344. Lord Durham s’employa lui aussi à étudier la colonisation de ces terres et il pointera les erreurs du système, la spéculation et les concessions abusives5. Malgré ces perceptions négatives, la situation a changé et les Cantons-de-l’Est connaissent certains éléments d’organisation civile et religieuse. En 1829, six comtés sont délimités à partir de l’ancien Buckinghamshire, les premiers bureaux d’enregistrement ouvrent en 18306 et le district judiciaire devient Cour du Banc du roi trois ans plus tard7. Par une ordonnance de 1839, le Conseil spécial permettait même aux simples missions d’acquérir des biens pour des fins religieuses et éducatives en dehors des anciennes paroisses8; quelques noyaux catholiques encore précaires se formaient à Drummondville, Sherbrooke et dans les Bois-Francs. Devant l’échec de l’immigration en provenance des îles Britanniques, le jeune Alexander T. Galt, nommé commissaire de la Compagnie des terres en 1844, imprimait un changement complet d’orientation à cette entreprise en se tournant vers les Canadiens français avec des offres de terres9. Autre promesse de progrès, après avoir atteint Saint-Hyacinthe en 1848, on s’affairait à compléter le tracé du chemin de fer pour relier Montréal à Portland (Maine) tout en traversant les cantons10. C’était le commencement d’une ère nouvelle et, là aussi, perçait l’influence de Galt. C’est à ce moment que se manifeste l’abbé Bernard O’Reilley, missionnaire à Sherbrooke11; à partir du mois d’octobre 1847, il adresse aux journaux une série de lettres qui démontrent les effets déplorables de l’émigration des Canadiens vers les États-Unis. Comme solution, il propose la colonisation des terres vacantes des cantons; de plus, il préconise la fondation d’une « association qui présiderait à l’émigration des familles canadiennes, qui obtiendrait pour elles les terres les plus avantageuses »12. Comme on l’a déjà suggéré ailleurs, cette idée n’aurait-t-elle pas été suscitée par son concitoyen Alexander T. Galt qui, lui-même, cherchait à vendre les terres de sa compagnie13? L’abbé O’Reilly sait retenir l’attention des lecteurs et le groupe de l’Institut Canadien, fondé à Montréal en 1844, décide d’appuyer sa campagne dès le mois de mars 184814. Il s’agissait d’un cercle à Marie-Paule Rajotte LaBrèque 77

vocation culturelle d’abord, mais de tendance nettement libérale et qui vouait une grande admiration à Louis-Joseph Papineau, rentré de son exil en France. Les journaux accueillent favorablement leur initiative et l’on répète de plus en plus le mot d’ordre, « Emparons-nous du sol », qui soulève l’enthousiasme15. Les choses seront menées rondement : on organise une grande assemblée publique pour fins d’information et l’élection du comité provisoire le 5 avril suivant au Marché Bonsecours. Ce fut un triomphe; les journaux rapportent qu’une foule estimée à 8 000 personnes avait suivi les discours, voté pour les officiers et approuvé les projets de colonisation de la nouvelle Association des Établissements Canadiens des Townships. Mgr Ignace Bourget, évêque de Montréal, en acceptait la présidence, et l’on portait Papineau, grand tribun et anticlérical reconnu, à la vice-présidence. Afin de recevoir l’appui du gouvernement, le comité présenta un mémoire à Lord Elgin, au château de Ramezay, le 19 avril 184816. On y exposait les buts de l’Association et on ciblait certains territoires pour une action immédiate, en particulier dans les comtés de Sherbrooke, Mégantic, Drummond et Shefford. D’autant plus que la British American Land Company était toute disposée à offrir des conditions avantageuses. Mais comment les promoteurs entendaient-ils financer de si vastes entreprises? Au départ, l’Association de la propagation de la foi fournissait le modèle des centuries et décuries pour recueillir les cinq sous par mois auprès de chaque membre17. On sollicitera les dons du côté de personnes généreuses comme Lord Elgin, qui souscrit £20 et Mgr Bourget qui offre £1.518. Mais une somme considérable pour l’époque, soit £20 000, proviendra du gouvernement britannique en règlement inespéré des frais engagés par le Canada-Uni pendant la grande épidémie de typhus de 1847, et cela, grâce aux interventions du gouverneur19. Cependant, un moment décisif approche; le 10 juillet 1848, une deuxième assemblée a été convoquée afin de compléter les élections du bureau de direction. Déception : seulement 250 personnes s’y présentent et les souscriptions sont au point mort. Un nouveau venu vient contester l’élection à la vice-présidence, c’est George-Étienne Cartier qui s’oppose à Papineau, une manipulation politique évidente20. La manoeuvre échoue, mais l’Association est discréditée et ses jours sont comptés quand Mgr Bourget abandonne la présidence en septembre21. L’arrivée de Papineau au sein du comité devait lui fournir une tribune politique grâce à ses amis de l’Institut Canadien, mais cette tactique avait ruiné leur beau dessein. Toutefois, en quittant l’Association des Établissements Canadiens 78 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

des Townships, Mgr Bourget ne renonce pas à certains engagements pris avec la British American Land Company. Comme il le mentionne dans un mandement, l’Association de la Propagation de la Foi « devrait acquitter une partie des fonds qu’elle prélève aux fins des Établissements des Townships »22. Et c’est au petit village de Roxton Falls (d’abord connu sous le nom de Metcalfe), dans le comté de Shefford, qu’on lancera le mouvement23. Dès l’été de 1848, les colons arrivaient dans ce « nouvel établissement », qui sera inauguré solennellement le 17 janvier 1849 en présence du délégué de l’évêque de Montréal. Les certificats de donation des lots pour l’église et le presbytère ainsi que la ferme du curé seront remis à Mgr Prince par nul autre que le commissaire de la Compagnie des terres, Alexander T. Galt24. Au mois de septembre suivant, la colonie comptait 330 habitants et la Propagation de la foi y avait investi £200 pour la chapelle-école25. On assistait enfin à une première entreprise de colonisation concertée, avec des chefs et un plan précis26. D’autres associations de colonisation s’étaient formées en même temps, comme à Québec et dans Bellechasse, et l’Association de Montréal renaîtra de ses cendres en 1850 sous le patronage exclusif des évêques. Le réveil définitif fut sonné en 1851 par la publication du fameux mémoire des douze missionnaires des Cantons-de-l’Est, Le Canadien émigrant, un réquisitoire accablant sur le sort des colons “canadiens” abandonnés à eux-mêmes et victimes du marasme général27. Ce document, intégré aux rapports du comité de l’Assemblée législative sur la colonisation, allait influencer profondément les politiques futures28. L’oeuvre des prêtres colonisateurs se continuera pendant un siècle dans toute la province et pas seulement en faveur des Cantons-de-l’Est; rappelons la présence du curé Hébert au lac Saint-Jean, du curé Antoine Labelle dans les Laurentides, l’ouverture du Témiscamingue et de l’Abitibi. Surtout, les pouvoirs publics assumaient maintenant leur part de responsabilité dans la mise en valeur du territoire en vue de répondre aux besoins de la population. La colonisation était devenue une oeuvre nationale. Ce n’est pas un mince bilan pour un mouvement dont les débuts révélaient une grande ambiguïté, mais les suites démontrent qu’il est apparu à un moment où il répondait à un besoin profond. Malgré ses lacunes évidentes et sa durée éphémère, l’Association des Établissements Canadiens des Townships de 1848 a déclenché une prise de conscience collective et a contribué au développement de toute la province de Québec. Marie-Paule Rajotte LaBrèque 79

ABSTRACT The year 1848 was a significant one for the colonization movement in Lower Canada. The difficult economic situation had led to large-scale emigration into the United States and both political and religious leaders were looking for solutions. At that precise moment, Father Bernard O’Reilly, Catholic missionary at Sherbrooke, exposed the sad condition of Eastern Townships colonists in newspaper articles and speeches and called for some sort of association to organize the settlement of the Townships as an alternative to emigration. His plea was taken up by l’Institut Canadien de Montréal, an avant-garde group of young men, and the Association des Établissements Canadiens des Townships was launched in April 1848 at a huge meeting of 8,000 sympathizers. Bishop Bourget of Montreal and Louis-Joseph Papineau were chosen as president and vice-president, respectively. Action was to be taken in the Townships counties. Partisan politics and public disaffection soon led to the movement’s disintegration, but Bishop Bourget had time to start a colony at Roxton Falls in Shefford County. Other similar associations undertook various projects and colonization missionaries remained active for almost a century. Subsequently, the government could no longer avoid its responsibilities. Although its existence was brief and shaky, “l’Association des Townships” did bring to the forefront the problems of settling vacant lands and stemming the loss of our population to the United States. It showed the way to future developments for the whole province.

NOTES 1 L. ROUSSEAU, « Crise et réveil religieux dans le Québec du XIXe siècle », dans Interface, vol. 11, no 1, janv.–févr. 1990, p. 24–31. J. MONET, La première révolution tranquille, (trad.) Montréal, Fides, 1981, p. 164. 2 F. OUELLET, Histoire économique et sociale du Québec 1760–1850, Montréal, Fides, 1966, p. 468. 3 I. IVANHOE, « La colonisation de la Province de Québec (1821) », dans Annuaire statistique, 9e année, Québec, Province de Québec, Bureau des statistiques, 1922, p. 366. 4 G. PARENT, Deux efforts de colonisation française dans les cantons de l’Est, 1848 et 1851, Sherbrooke, Département d’histoire, Université de Sherbrooke, 1980, p. 13–14. 5 J.G.L. DURHAM, Le Rapport Durham, Document, traduit et présenté par Denis Bertrand et Albert Desbiens, Montréal, Édition de l’Hexagone, coll. Typo, 1990, p. 190 ss. 80 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

6 E. KOLISH, Nationalismes et conflits de droit : le débat du droit privé au Québec. 1760–1840, Montréal, HMH, 1994, p. 135. 7 J. GAGNON, Petite histoire politique des Cantons de l’Est, Sherbrooke, Collège de Sherbrooke, 1983, p. 5. 8 S. PAGNUELO, Études historiques et légales sur la liberté religieuse en Canada, Montréal, C.O. Beauchemin & Valois, 1872, p. 176–77. 9 O.D. SKELTON, The Life and Times of Sir Alexander Tilloch Galt, Toronto, Oxford University Press, 1920, p. 44–50. 10 Skelton, op.cit., p. 71. 11 Originaire d’Irlande, étudie à Québec, ordonné à Nicolet; missionnaire à Sherbrooke, 1846–1848 : Allaire, Abbé J.B.A., Dictionnaire biographique du clergé canadien-français, les Anciens, Montréal, s. éd., 1910, p. 404–405. 12 L. POULIOT, Monseigneur Bourget et son temps, tome III, L’évêque de Montréal. Deuxième partie : la marche en avant du diocèse, Montréal, Bellarmin, 1972, p. 41. 13 J.I. COOPER, « George-Étienne Cartier in the Period of the ‘Forties », dans Canadian Historical Association, Report, 1938, p. 77. 14 La séquence des événements est très bien exposée dans L. POULIOT, op. cit, chap. III, « Du typhus à la colonisation », p. 39–55, et G. PARENT, op. cit, p. 32–82. 15 L. POULIOT, p. 35–36. 16 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 47. Ce mémoire aurait été rédigé par Papineau lui-même : L. POULIOT, op. cit., p. 48. 17 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 34. 18 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 73. 19 L. POULIOT, op. cit., p. 50 –51. 20 J.I. COOPER, op. cit., p. 76. 21 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 68. 22 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 76, citation du texte de Mgr Bourget. 23 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 93. 24 Montréal, Association de la Propagation de la Foi, Rapport, 1849, « Rapport sur les missions des townships de l’est», p. 35–38. 25 Idem, Rapport, 1850, lettre de M. Leblond, ptre, missionnaire, sept. 1849, p. 9. 26 J.I. LITTLE, Nationalism, Capitalism and Colonization in Nineteenth Century Quebec: The Upper Saint Francis District, McGill-Queen’s, 1989, ch. 4, « La Reconquête: The Church, the State and the Colonization Roads Project of 1848 », p. 80–100. Intéressante analyse du mouvement de colonisation dans les Cantons-de-l’Est. Marie-Paule Rajotte LaBrèque 81

27 « Douze missionnaires des townships de l’Est », Le Canadien Émigrant, Ou pourquoi le Canadien-Français quitte-t-il le Bas-Canada , Québec, s. éd., Impr. Côté, 1851, 46 p. 28 G. PARENT, op. cit., p. 107–108.

LA GRÈVE D’ASBESTOS : COMMENT TRANSFORMER UNE DÉFAITE SYNDICALE EN SUCCÈS MÉDIATIQUE Jacques Gagnon Collège de Sherbrooke

’il y a une grève qui a marqué la mémoire collective du Québec, c’est bien la grève d’Asbestos, qui fête cette année son Scinquantième anniversaire. D’autre conflits de travail auront fait couler plus de sang, aucun n’a fait couler autant d’encre. Rappelons les événements. Le jour de la Saint-Valentin 1949, 5 000 mineurs d’Asbestos, Coleraine, Black Lake et Thetford se mettent illégalement en grève pour réclamer une hausse salariale de 15 cents l’heure, la perception obligatoire de la cotisation syndicale par l’employeur, l’élimination de la poussière d’amiante et une certaine forme de participation à la gestion. La grève devait durer quatre mois et demi et être marquée par de fréquents affrontements entre les grévistes et les briseurs de grève recrutés dans les villages voisins. Les épisodes les plus dramatiques se produisirent dans les premiers jours du mois de mai : appel des évêques du Québec à la générosité de leurs ouailles en faveur des grévistes; blocage des accès de la ville d’Asbestos par les grévistes; lecture de la loi de l’émeute sur le parvis de l’église et intervention musclée de la police provinciale de Maurice Duplessis. Le conflit allait se dénouer à la fin de juin grâce à la patiente intervention de l’archevêque de Québec, Mgr Maurice Roy, devenu médiateur officieux entre le gouvernement provincial, les compagnies minières et les syndicats. Le règlement prévoyait uniquement une augmentation de salaire de 10 cents l’heure, le réengagement de la plupart des grévistes et l’absence de représailles de la part des compagnies… Il faut donc mettre Asbestos au compte des grèves perdues. Qui plus est, dans son article « La grève et le bon Dieu », Hélène David ajoute qu’il s’agissait de la dernière intervention significative du haut clergé québécois dans un conflit de travail. « Ce conflit devient le moment paradoxal où l’intervention de l’Église dans la lutte du côté des ouvriers marque la disparition du pouvoir idéologique de l’Église sur l’État, lui- même engagé dans des rapports économiques industriels »1. 84 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

Comment, dès lors, la grève de l’amiante en est-elle venue à symboliser la victoire du syndicalisme au Québec? C’est là qu’il faut dépasser l’événement pour voir ce qui l’entoure et ce qui s’ensuit. D’abord, la couverture de presse. Gérard Pelletier disait posséder un dossier de plus de mille découpures de presse extraites des seuls journaux québécois publiés au moment de la grève. Et il renchérissait : « Si j’ajoutais à ce nombre les articles et reportages consacrés à la grève par les journaux canadiens des autres provinces et les périodiques étrangers, le compte dépasserait les deux mille »2. Mais limitons-nous aux articles que monsieur Pelletier a vérifiés de visu. Il mentionne d’abord le rôle éminent joué par la presse catholique, à laquelle il faut ajouter Le Devoir, qui avait justement M. Pelletier comme reporter à Asbestos durant toute la durée de la grève, ce qui valut à ce quotidien le record de couverture de l’événement, soit plus de trois cents dépêches et reportages. Le conflit impliquant des syndicats catholiques, il était un peu normal que les médias de cette obédience lui consacrent une large couverture, d’autant plus que le haut clergé québécois y accordait une attention particulière. Quant aux autres journaux du Québec ou du Canada — mis à part La Tribune de Sherbrooke — leur présence sur le terrain fut sporadique, mais on comptait tout de même 33 envoyés spéciaux à Asbestos au moment le plus chaud de la grève, les 5 et 6 mai 1949. Au début des années cinquante, cet imposant matériel journalistique avait déjà permis la rédaction de trois thèses et mémoires universitaires : à l’Université Fordham de New York, à l’Université de Toronto et à l’Université de Montréal. C’est aussi au début de cette décennie que naît l’idée d’un livre sur la grève d’Asbestos, commandité par Recherches sociales, un groupe de syndicalistes et de chercheurs dirigé par Frank R. Scott, de l’Université McGill. Toutefois, ce n’est qu’en 1956 que le volume paraît enfin, après que sa coordination soit passée de Jean Gérin-Lajoie à Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Mentionnons les neuf auteurs principaux de ce pavé de 430 pages intitulé La grève de l’amiante, une étape de la révolution industrielle au Québec. Il y a là trois syndicalistes (Jean Gérin-Lajoie, Gérard Pelletier et Maurice Sauvé), deux professeurs de la Faculté des sciences sociales de l’Université Laval (Fernand Dumont et Gérard Dion), deux avocats (C.A. Lussier et Pierre Elliott Trudeau), un journaliste (Réginald Boisvert) et un économiste (Gilles Beausoleil). D’autres universitaires et syndicalistes vont collaborer à l’ouvrage sans avoir leur nom en tête de chapitre : Eugene Forsey, Jean-Charles Falardeau, Fernand Dansereau, Yves Martin, L.L. Hardy et Jean-Paul Geoffroy. On reconnaît dans ces signatures plusieurs des artisans de la Révolution tranquille à Québec Jacques Gagnon 85

Le cliché le plus célèbre de la grève d’Asbestos fut pris par Louis Jaques, photographe du Standard de Montréal, le 6 mai 1949. Il représente le jeune mineur thetfordois Laurent Bernatchez arrêté à Asbestos et escorté par deux agents non identifiés de la Police provinciale. et du French power à Ottawa. Mais n’anticipons pas. Pour l’heure, La grève de l’amiante suscite déjà toute une réaction. Cette levée de boucliers est essentiellement due au premier chapitre et à l’épilogue du livre, signés par Trudeau. Les meilleurs biographes de 86 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

Trudeau, Stephen Clarkson et Christina McCall, en parlent comme d’une « analyse incisive—en grande partie inspirée par Scott—du nationalisme réactionnaire et dysfonctionnel en vigueur au Québec »2. Il n’en fallait pas davantage pour que les deux grandes revues engagées du Québec de l’époque montent aux barricades. La revue jésuite Relations y va d’une critique pointue des textes de Trudeau en quatre articles signés par le père Jacques Cousineau (de novembre 1956 à mars 1957). La revue L’Action nationale n’est pas en reste avec deux articles de Pierre de Granpré et Jean Blain, et six autres de François-Albert Angers (d’octobre 1956 à octobre 1958). Après la réplique de Trudeau à Cousineau, parue dans Cité libre en mai 1959, le combat finit faute de combattants. Mais on n’a pas fini d’entendre parler de la grève d’Asbestos pour autant. Au cours des années soixante, la relève est prise par deux revues savantes : Relations industrielles (avril 1964) et Sociologie et Sociétés (novembre 1969). En 1970, le livre de 1956 est réédité, deux ans après l’accession de Trudeau au poste de premier ministre du Canada. De plus, un chapitre est consacré à la grève dans un ouvrage collectif du Canada anglais. Au milieu des années soixante-dix, la grève d’Asbestos intéresse toujours l’édition canadienne anglaise : le livre de Trudeau est traduit en anglais en 1974 et deux autres études paraissent dans des ouvrages collectifs consacrés aux grèves canadiennes (Isbester, 1974, et Teeple, 1978). Puis l’abbé Gérard Dion y va d’une réévaluation personnelle dans les Mémoires de la Société Royale du Canada en 1979. Ajoutons à titre de curiosité un article soviétique de 1984. Au début des années quatre- vingt-dix, l’historien Jocelyn Létourneau étudie dans deux articles la “construction” de l’histoire de la grève d’Asbestos. Enfin, l’auteur de la présente note de recherche rédige sa propre contribution à paraître bientôt dans Les Cahiers d’histoire du Québec au XXe siècle. Voilà pour la production savante. Mais qui aurait cru que la grève d’Asbestos allait se romancer, se théâtraliser, voire s’audio-visualiser? C’est pourtant le cas dès 1956 avec Le feu dans l’amiante, roman de Jean-Jules Richard, sympathisant communiste. Puis il y a publication en 1968 de la pièce Charbonneau et le Chef du père dominicain John T. McDonough; la pièce sera traduite et montée de 1971 à 1973 par Le Trident de Québec. L’Office national du film du Canada produit une courte série diapositive datée de 1974 et surtout un moyen métrage de 1996 réalisé en collaboration avec les films Virage : 49 — Un souffle de colère. Enfin, Gilles Carle et Jacques Lacoursière font revivre la grève d’Asbestos dans leur série télévisée Épopée en Amérique … en se servant des images filmées au cours de la grève de Murdochville en 1957. On le voit, l’intérêt pour la grève d’Asbestos ne s’est pas démenti Jacques Gagnon 87 pendant près d’un demi-siècle. Pourquoi cet engouement? D’abord, il faut bien voir que les principaux porte-parole de la grève de 1949 sont de véritables archétypes. Jean Marchand, secrétaire général de la CTCC, incarne le prolétariat conscientisé par la Deuxième Guerre mondiale et Lewis Brown, président de la compagnie Johns-Manville, illustre le grand capitaliste sûr de son fait, donnant son interprétation de la grève et la faisant publier dans tous les journaux du Québec. Mgr Charbonneau se campe en saint Thomas à Becket face à un Duplessis faisant figure de nouvel Henri II. Le dramaturge McDonough a bien saisi cette dimension exemplaire du conflit. Mais n’oublions pas que la grève d’Asbestos a été une victoire syndicale pour le moins mitigée et que Duplessis est resté solidement au pouvoir jusqu’à sa mort, alors que Mgr Charbonneau est muté en Colombie britannique. Par ailleurs, la grève d’Asbestos n’a connu ses premiers vrais “propagandistes” qu’en 1956 et leur étude n’a été rééditée qu’en 1970, longtemps après que ses auteurs aient fait leur marque ailleurs. Les uns sont devenus ministres puissants à Ottawa, d’autres se confirment comme des universitaires prestigieux ou de grands commis de l’état. Comme événement historique, la grève d’Asbestos a ainsi profité de la notoriété ultérieure de ses premiers défenseurs… Bref, il serait peut-être temps de reléguer la grève d’Asbestos au grenier ou, plus joliment dit, d’en faire un objet muséal. La résonnance un peu mythique de l’événement, l’abondance de la production intellectuelle et même artistique qu’elle a suscitée au fil des ans, mériteraient sans doute qu’un de nos grands musées nationaux consacre une exposition au cinquantenaire de cette grève historique.

REFERENCES 1 DAVID, H. « La grève et le bon Dieu », Sociologie et Sociétés, vol. 1, no 2 (novembre 1969), p. 275. 2 PELLETIER, G. « La grève et la presse », chap. 8 in P.E. Trudeau, dir., La grève de l’amiante, Montréal, Éditions Cité libre, 1956, 430 p., p. 277–318, 279. 3 CLARKSON, S., et MCCALL, C. Trudeau : l’illusion héroïque, Montréal, Boréal, 1995 (version originale en anglais, 1994), 526 p., p. 62. 88 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

BIBLIOGRAPHIE DE LA GRÈVE D’ASBESTOS Les thèses et mémoires universitaires ISBESTER, I. Another Look at the Asbestos Workers’ Strike of 1949, Lennoxville, Bishop’s University, 1963. MCKENZIE, G.M. The Asbestos Strike: The Press and Public Opinion, Toronto, University of Toronto, 1950. PÉPIN, F. La grève de l’amiante à Asbestos, Montréal, Université de Montréal, 1952. SHAY, M.E. A Preliminary Review of the Asbestos Strike: A Study in the Dynamics of Social Change, New York, Fordham University, 1950.

“Le” livre et les articles polémiques TRUDEAU, P.E., dir. La grève de l’amiante, Montréal, Éditions Cité libre, 1956, 430 p. Réédité en 1970 à Montréal aux Éditions du Jour; traduit vers l’anglais en 1974 par James Boake à Toronto chez James Lewis & Samuel. ANGERS, F.A. « Pierre-Elliott Trudeau et la Grève de l’amiante, Réflexions préliminaires », L’Action nationale, Montréal, sept. 1957, p. 10–22. Idem. « Confusion et généralisations hâtives », oct. 1957, p. 87–99. Idem. « Les défauts de notre société », nov. 1957, p. 291–304. Idem. « C’est la faute aux nationalistes », déc. 1957–janv. 1958., p. 351–367. Idem. « Mais ils n’étaient pas socialistes », mai–juin 1958, p. 570–585. Idem. « Pierre Elliott Trudeau et la grève de l’amiante », sept.–oct. 1958, p. 45–46. BLAIN, J. « La grève de l’amiante », L’Action nationale, Montréal, oct. 1956, p. 172–178. COUSINEAU, J. « Une recherche récente sur les faits d’une grève », Relations, Montréal, nov. 1956, p. 315–317. Idem. « Le sens d’une grève : une interprétation controuvée », déc. 1956, p. 343–346. Idem. « Une méthode historique sans valeur », fév. 1957, p. 37–40. Idem. « Vue surréaliste de notre histoire sociale », mars 1957, p. 64–67. DE GRANPRÉ, P. « Le social et le national. Sur des idées de Pierre Trudeau et Réginald Boisvert », L’Action nationale, Montréal, oct. 1956, p. 126–141. TRUDEAU, P.E. « Le père Cousineau, s.j., et “La grève de l’amiante” », Cité libre, Montréal, mai 1959, p. 34–48. Jacques Gagnon 89

Les textes de revues et ouvrages spécialisés CHARPENTIER, A. « La grève de l’amiante: version nouvelle », Relations industrielles, Québec, PUL, avril 1964, vol. 19, no 2, p. 217–238. DAVID, H. « La grève et le bon Dieu », Sociologie et Sociétés, Montréal, PUM, nov. 1969, vol. 1, no 2, p. 249–276. DION, G. « La grève de l’amiante : Trente ans après » in Mémoires de la Société Royale du Canada, Ottawa, 1979, 4e série, T. XVII, p. 31–40. GAGNON, J. « La grève de l’amiante, suite et fin », Les Cahiers d’histoire du Québec au XXe siècle, Montréal, Centre de recherche Lionel-Groulx, à paraître début 1999. GARRY, C. « The Asbestos Strike and Social Change in Quebec », in W.E. Mann, dir., Social and Cultural Change in Canada, vol. 1, Vancouver, Copp Clark, 1970, p. 252–261. ISBESTER, F., « Asbestos 1949 », chap. 6 in I. Abella, dir., On Strike: Six Key Labour Struggles in Canada, 1919-1949, Toronto, James Lorimer and Co., 1974, 196 p., p. 163–196. KOLONEKO, V.A., « Asbestovaia Zabastovka 1949 G. I Ee Rol V Istorii Kanadskogo Katolicheskogo Sindikalizma », Amerikanskii Ezhegodnik, 1984, p. 89–108. LETOURNEAU, J. « La grève de l’Amiante entre ses mémoires et l’histoire », Journal of the Canadian Oral History Association, no 11, 1991, p. 8–16. Idem. « La mise en intrigue. Configuration historico-linguistique d’une grève célébrée : Asbestos, P.Q., 1949 », Recherches sémiotiques / Semiotic Inquiry, vol. 12, nos 1–2, 1992, p. 53–71. TEEPLE, G. « The Asbestos Strike of 1949 », chap. 5 in R.M. Laxer, dir., Union Organization and Strikes, Toronto, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1978, 103 p., p. 80–94.

Les productions littéraires et audio-visuelles MCDONOUGH, J.T. Charbonneau & le Chef, Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1968, 128 p. Traduit vers l’anglais en 1974 par P. Hébert et P. Morency à Montréal chez Leméac. RICHARD, J.J. Le Feu dans l’amiante, Toronto, Chezlauteur, 1956. Réédité en 1971 à Montréal chez Réédition-Québec, 212 p. SAINT-PIERRE, J. La grève de l’amiante 1949, Ottawa, ONF et Musée national de l’homme, 1974, 15 p. et 30 diapos, coll. Histoire du Canada en images, série 1, vol. 18. 49 — Un souffle de colère, réalisatrice, S. Bissonnette, Montréal, ONF et les films Virages, 1996, 1 vidéocassette (51 min. 30 sec.), couleur, 4" x 7,25". « Le temps de Duplessis », 12e épisode de Épopée en Amérique, G. Carle, réalisateur, Montréal, Histoire à voir, distribution Imavision 21, 1997, 1 vidéocassette (51 min. 30 sec.), couleur, 4" x 7,25".

SHERBROOKE 1802–2002. DEUX SIÈCLES D’HISTOIRE. EXPOSITION PERMANENTE AU CENTRE D’INTERPRÉTATION DE L’HISTOIRE DE SHERBROOKE Hervé Gagnon Musée Colby-Curtis Université de Sherbrooke

epuis juin 1998, le Centre d’interprétation de l’histoire de Sherbrooke offre à ses visiteurs une nouvelle exposition Dpermanente intitulée Sherbrooke 1802–2002. Deux siècles d’histoire. Comme l’indique son titre, cette exposition offre un survol global de l’histoire sherbrookoise en attente du bicentenaire prochain. L’exposition explore d’abord brièvement la formation du milieu physique. Grâce, notamment, à quelques croquis efficaces, le visiteur est amené à comprendre que les Cantons-de-l’Est et une partie considérable de la Nouvelle-Angleterre reposent sur la chaîne de montagnes des Appalaches, ce qui explique le relief et le paysage de la région. On y présente aussi les Abénakis, qui occupent ce territoire un siècle avant que Sherbrooke ne soit créée. Jusqu’à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, ceux-ci convergent saisonnièrement vers la jonction des rivières Saint-François et Magog, où ils se livrent traditionnellement à la chasse, à la pêche, à la cueillette et aux échanges, comme le démontrent les pointes de flèches et autres pièces archéologiques exposées. Le second thème de l’exposition, « De lieu de passage à terre d’accueil », traite des premiers moments de la colonisation du territoire. À compter de l’Acte constitutionnel de 1791, en effet, les Townships sont officiellement ouverts à la colonisation et le droit de propriété des colons est reconnu. Gilbert Hyatt, loyaliste originaire du Vermont, s’établit dès 1793 dans le canton d’Ascot, puis remonte vers le nord, à la limite du canton d’Orford, devenant ainsi le fondateur officiel de Sherbrooke. Une petite communauté 92 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

(93 habitants en 1800) se développe autour d’un moulin et d’une scierie, d’abord sous le nom de Hyatt’s Mills puis, en 1818, de Sherbrooke, en l’honneur de Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, gouverneur du Canada de 1816 à 1818. Graduellement, le territoire est établi, grâce au travail d’arpenteurs comme Joseph Bouchette, dont on peut admirer les instruments. L’exposition souligne donc avec justesse le fait que l’histoire des Cantons-de-l’Est est intimement liée à l’indépendance américaine et au mouvement loyaliste qui en émerge, qui altère profondément la composition démographique du Haut- et du Bas-Canada. Elle propose toutefois un discours historiographique contemporain qui évite les clichés habituels liés aux loyalistes et insiste tout autant sur le fait que la disponibilité de terres arables selon la tenure anglaise constitue aussi une source de motivation pour les colons potentiels. Le troisième thème de l’exposition, « La naissance d’une communauté, 1802–1851 », retrace le développement initial de cette communauté encore embryonnaire. Au début du siècle, Sherbrooke est un lieu de services avec son barrage, ses moulins, sa forge, ses moulins à carder, sa cordonnerie, sa tannerie, sa distillerie et ses commerces de détail. En 1823, Sherbrooke devient le chef-lieu du district judiciaire de Saint-François. Viennent avec ce nouveau statut les institutions indispensables à la vie urbaine comme des églises catholiques et protestantes, un palais de justice, des écoles, une prison, un journal local. Deux députés défendent dorénavant les intérêts de Sherbrooke à la Chambre d’assemblée du Bas-Canada. Avec la création de la British American Land Company (BALCO) en 1833, un tournant s’amorce. Sous l’égide d’Alexander T. Galt, commis de la compagnie, le développement industriel s’ajoute aux objectifs de peuplement de la BALCO qui, installée à Sherbrooke en 1835, implante l’infrastructure nécessaire au développement économique : ponts, barrages, tracé des rues. Une bourgeoisie d’affaires se développe rapidement à Sherbrooke et s’associe à celle de Montréal. Le sort de Sherbrooke est fixé : elle sera une ville industrielle. Comme de nombreuses municipalités québécoises du XIXe siècle, elle se développe à l’américaine, autour d’un centre-ville constitué à la jonction des cours d’eau qui fournissent l’énergie nécessaire à l’industrie. Divers éléments interactifs permettent notamment au visiteur de l’exposition d’explorer les notions de transformation industrielle de matériaux. En 1852 s’amorce un grand tournant avec l’arrivée du chemin de fer, traité dans le quatrième thème, « Une capitale régionale en devenir, 1852–1913 ». Sherbrooke abrite alors 2 998 habitants, dont Hervé Gagnon 93

487 à peine sont francophones. Elle devient alors un lieu de transit important entre Montréal et Portland et reçoit la même année le statut de ville. Des manufactures comme la Paton, la Dominion Textile, la Kayser, la Water Blue et d’autres encore s’y installent, faisant des textiles et de la métallurgie les principaux secteurs d’activité industrielle de Sherbrooke. Qui dit industrialisation dit urbanisation et accroissement de la population. Comme les autres villes industrielles, Sherbrooke doit implanter les structures nécessaires à une population plus nombreuse. C’est ainsi que l’on voit apparaître, à compter de 1875, une préoccupation accrue pour l’hygiène publique mais aussi des égouts, des aqueducs et l’électricité. Autre caractéristique du développement des villes industrielles, des quartiers résidentiels (dont on trace un bref historique) se développent selon le statut socio-économique de leurs habitants. Le quartier Nord sera celui de la bourgeoisie industrielle et d’affaires anglo-saxonne alors que Canadiens français et Irlandais partageront d’autres quartiers. Le développement économique s’accompagne évidemment d’une croissance de l’activité commerciale de gros et de détail, qui se concentre surtout dans la rue Wellington. La seconde moitié du XIXe siècle constitue la principale période de croissance de Sherbrooke, dont la population atteint 16 000 en 1901, la majeure partie en étant constituée d’une main- d’œuvre industrielle d’origine canadienne-française (majoritaire dès 1871) et irlandaise. Des communautés religieuses prennent en charge l’éducation et la santé de cette population, qui a aussi accès à un nombre impressionnant de services culturels, notamment dans les domaines du théâtre et de la musique. Au même titre que cette période représente la principale charnière dans l’histoire sherbrookoise, elle constitue le cœur de l’exposition tant par les moyens interactifs utilisés (reproductions de journaux d’époque, jeu permettant d’explorer l’évolution démographique, etc.) que par la muséographie, qui offre entre autres la reproduction stylisée d’un wagon de train où le visiteur pourra faire une pause et intégrer à loisir les notions reçues. Le cinquième thème, « Détresse et euphorie, 1914–1945 », traite de l’impact des deux conflits mondiaux sur Sherbrooke. On y voit l’industrie prendre l’expansion typiquement associée à l’état de guerre à compter de 1914 mais aussi les effets désastreux du krach économique de 1929, qui entraîne des fermetures d’usines et un ralentissement marqué de la production, malgré les mesures sociales mises de l’avant par la ville en parallèle avec les programmes fédéraux et provinciaux. On y voit aussi Sherbrooke célébrer avec 94 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST

pompe, en 1937, un centenaire imaginaire dans le but d’attirer de nouvelles industries. Contrairement au portrait général, la Seconde Guerre mondiale ne relance pas l’économie sherbrookoise, qui demeure en difficulté jusqu’aux années cinquante. C’est dans cette section que l’on retrouve le plus grand nombre d’objets originaux. Le dernier thème, « Une ville en mutation, 1946–2002 », aborde non seulement l’histoire récente de Sherbrooke, qui atteint le statut de capitale régionale, mais aussi ses perspectives d’avenir. On y voit naître en 1954 l’Université de Sherbrooke, qui deviendra l’un des principaux employeurs locaux, ainsi qu’une source majeure de services professionnels et d’expertise scientifique. La seconde moitié du XXe siècle voit le profil de Sherbrooke subir une profonde mutation. Fondée par une élite anglophone, Sherbrooke est à 96 % francophone en 1996. L’économie régionale, basée sur l’industrie pendant un siècle, effectue une transition vers les services. Conséquence de nouveaux règlements de zonage, qui créent de nouvelles zones commerciales, le centre commercial de Sherbrooke se déplace de la rue Welllington vers le plateau Marquette et vers la rue King Ouest. Sherbrooke 1802–2002. Deux siècles d’histoire aborde l’histoire sous un angle avant tout socio-économique, sans pour autant négliger les aspects culturels et l’anecdote (toujours prisée dans une exposition récapitulative). S’adressant avant tout au grand public de la région sherbrookoise et aux groupes d’âge scolaire, l’exposition adopte un style simple et clair. Elle présente par ailleurs une muséographie vivante et créative qui allège considérablement l’effort intellectuel normalement requis par la visite consciencieuse d’une exposition et a su tirer le meilleur profit d’une surface d’exposition relativement restreinte. On y retrouve notamment plusieurs trouvailles interactives simples mais ingénieuses qui maintiendront aisément l’attention des petits et des grands. L’aspect ergonomique de l’exposition laisse par contre à désirer par moments. Pensons notamment à ces textes imprimés en jaune sur fond noir dont la lecture est difficile et à ces vignettes et gravures parfois très basses, qui s’adressent avant tout aux enfants et qui ne peuvent conséquemment être observées que dans une position relativement inconfortable par un adulte. On retrouve dans Sherbrooke 1802–2002. Deux siècles d’histoire des objets originaux provenant majoritairement de la collection de la Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke, auxquels s’ajoutent quelques emprunts auprès de musées de la région. On y exploite abondamment les sources iconographiques les plus riches en histoire Hervé Gagnon 95 régionale, notamment les gravures de W.H. Bartlett (Canadian Scenery, 1842) et de Joseph Bouchette (British American Land Company, 1836), ainsi que d’intéressants éléments architecturaux adroitement intégrés à la muséographie et les riches fonds photographiques et cartographiques de la Société d’histoire de Sherbrooke. Certains relèveront le faible nombre d’objets originaux présentés dans Sherbrooke 1802–2002. Il faut cependant comprendre qu’il s’agit ici de l’exposition permanente d’un centre d’interprétation et non pas de celle d’un musée. Bien que les différences entre ces deux types d’institutions muséales tendent de nos jours à s’estomper, une différence fondamentale demeure : celle du statut de l’objet au sein de la démarche d’exposition. Quoiqu’il emprunte de plus en plus les méthodes de mise en exposition des centres d’interprétation, le musée continue de fonder ses expositions sur les collections d’objets dont il assure la conservation. À l’opposé, même si le centre d’interprétation expose un certain nombre d’objets originaux et possède même parfois des collections, sa démarche gravite autour d’un concept d’interprétation qu’il met en forme en ayant recours à toutes les ressources disponibles—dans le cas présent des bandes audio, des jeux, divers dispositifs interactifs et même un poste internet donnant accès au site web de la ville de Sherbrooke. L’objet original, s’il y a une place, n’occupe pas le centre du processus d’interprétation, qui vise la communication avant la mise en valeur. Dans ce contexte, ceux qui espèrent musarder paisiblement pendant des heures en se délectant à la vue d’objets originaux seront déçus. Ceux qui, par contre, désirent faire un survol agréable, simple et habilement mis en scène de l’histoire sherbrookoise apprendront une quantité étonnante de choses et sortiront de l’exposition ravis. Dans un autre ordre d’idées, et bien que la clientèle du Centre d’interprétation de l’histoire de Sherbrooke soit fortement francophone, il est permis de se demander si un visiteur anglophone se sentira confortable avec en main un cahier contenant la traduction des textes français qui, qu’on l’admette ou non, rend la visite moins conviviale. Des contraintes d’espace et d’argent, auxquelles toutes les institutions muséales font face, ont sans doute mené à choisir cette solution. Des visites commentées dans les deux langues officielles sont toutefois disponibles. Reposant sur une solide synthèse de l’historiographie régionale, cette exposition est le fruit de la collaboration du Centre d’interprétation de l’histoire de Sherbrooke avec des universitaires locaux. Au sein d’une société où la communication et les services 96 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST occupent une place centrale, les institutions muséales ont en effet développé une expertise qui permet à la recherche universitaire d’atteindre efficacement le grand public et l’on note, au sein de la communauté universitaire québécoise, une tendance à s’impliquer de plus en plus dans la production muséale, pour le plus grand bien des visiteurs. L’exposition est complétée par un catalogue abondamment illustré, rédigé par Andrée Désilets. TROIS VILLAGES MINIERS DES CANTONS DE L’EST AU QUÉBEC : ALBERT MINES, CAPELTON, EUSTIS par W.G. Ross. Sherbrooke, GGC Éditions, coll. Patrimoine, 1996, 171 p., 105 fig., 14 tabl. Recensé par Jean-Marie M. Dubois Université de Sherbrooke

e livre est une traduction, par Jean-Alfred Renaud, des Services de traduction Version de Sherbrooke, de la mise à jour d’un Couvrage publié pour la première fois en anglais (Ross, 1972). Cette première édition, qui avait été suivie de plusieurs réimpressions, avait vu le jour à la suite des travaux de l’auteur ainsi que de ceux de 18 de ses étudiants qu’il a dirigés de 1965 à 1972. (On peut consulter la référence des travaux non publiés des étudiants dans l’édition de 1972.) La présente édition comporte deux modifications principales par rapport à celle de 1972 : un épilogue a été ajouté et le chapitre 5 a été scindé en deux chapitres, soit les actuels chapitres 5 et 6, pour une meilleure compréhension. L’objectif du livre est de montrer l’évolution de trois villages miniers de la plus vieille région minière du Canada, villages dont le sort est lié à l’épuisement de la ressource, à la chute des prix ou tout simplement à l’attrait des jeunes pour le travail et la vie dans des villes plus importantes, entre autres facteurs. Outre une préface qui permet de se familiariser avec le contexte de l’ouvrage et une courte introduction qui situe le sujet, la matière est divisée en six chapitres judicieusement ordonnés. Le premier chapitre porte sur le développement de l’industrie minière au Québec. L’accent est mis sur l’augmentation de la demande en cuivre, surtout pour l’armement, engendrée par la guerre de Sécession aux États-Unis (1860–1865). C’est l’augmentation des prix qui est à l’origine de l’exploration et de l’exploitation minières de la région, et la facilité du transport vers les États-Unis par voie ferrée a fait le reste. Mais, comme le mentionne l’auteur, l’évolution des trois villages a été influencée par une interaction plus complexe de facteurs géographiques, économiques 98 REVUE D’ÉTUDES DES CANTONS DE L’EST et technologiques aux plans local, national et international, que l’on peut découvrir tout au long de la lecture de l’ouvrage. Le deuxième chapitre porte sur les origines des trois villages, de 1863 au tout début du XXe siècle. L’auteur présente en détail les activités d’exploration et d’exploitation qui y ont lieu, mais en mettant l’accent aussi sur l’emplacement et l’aménagement des villages ainsi que sur les caractéristiques générales des habitants. Dans le troisième chapitre, l’auteur nous initie de façon beaucoup plus poussée à la vie quotidienne de ces villages et de leurs habitants en 1905. Une importante documentation et de nombreuses photographes rendent ce chapitre très vivant. (Quatre-vingt-onze photographies peuvent être consultées dans un album à la fin de l’ouvrage.) Dans le quatrième chapitre, l’auteur met l’accent sur les problèmes environnementaux qui résultent de l’activité minière, tels la pollution de l’air et de l’eau liée aux activités de transformation, la déforestation excessive découlant des besoins en bois de construction et de chauffage ainsi que des émanations de fumées toxiques, l’altération du paysage par les terrils de résidus stériles et par les ouvrages de retenue ou de dérivation d’eau des cours d’eau avoisinants. Le cinquième chapitre porte sur la dernière décennie de l’exploitation minière, celle de 1930. On y voit la vie des habitants au début de l’ère de l’automobile et des modifications technologiques de l’automatisation jusqu’à la fermeture de la dernière mine, à Eustis, en 1939. Dans le dernier chapitre, l’auteur décrit les modifications progressives survenues dans les villages et chez la population après la fermeture des activités minières. Il rend surtout compte de la situation vers 1970, grâce à un travail effectué sur le terrain et à un sondage mené auprès de 74 % des ménages. Les données sur la population portent principalement sur l’origine des résidents, l’âge, la langue (66 % sont anglophones), la religion et l’occupation (71 % travaillent à l’extérieur, surtout à Sherbrooke et à Lennoxville). Ce chapitre comporte également des données sur l’habitat et sur les cicatrices toujours visibles de l’activité minière. En fait, ce ne sont plus que des villages-dortoirs où l’on ne retrouve plus de services, même pas de magasin général ou de station d’essence. L’ouvrage se termine par une conclusion-synthèse et un intéressant épilogue où l’auteur raconte sa visite à la mine de Capelton, récemment réouverte sous forme d’attrait touristique. Le livre est édité sous une couverture souple. L’édition est bien Jean-Marie M. Dubois 99 faite, sauf en ce qui a trait aux figures et tableaux : plusieurs ne sont pas cités dans le texte; le titre est souvent absent, incomplet ou différent de celui qu’on retrouve dans la liste; la source et l’échelle sont fréquemment absents; plusieurs figures et tableaux ne respectent pas le système métrique. Malgré les coquilles des figures et des tableaux, c’est un ouvrage fort intéressant et révélateur de certaines activités à l’origine des Cantons-de-l’Est qui sont mal connues si on les compare aux activités industrielles de centres aujourd’hui plus importants. La qualité de son contenu, sa facilité de lecture et son coût très raisonnable (22,95 $) donnent à ce livre un intérêt évident pour toute personne voulant s’informer, non seulement sur la petite histoire des Cantons-de-l’Est mais également sur l’histoire du Canada et du Québec.

REFERENCE ROSS, W.G. Three Eastern Townships Mining Villages Since 1863: Albert Mines, Capelton and Eustis, Quebec. Lennoxville, Department of Geography, Bishop’s University, 1972, 187 p.

KAY KINSMAN AND BISHOP’S: THE KINSMAN PAPERS Selected and introduced by Jack Eby Bishop’s University

n August 5 this past summer, Bishop’s University mourned the passing of Kay Kinsman, whose final seventeen years Owere inextricably and fascinatingly connected with this institution. St Mark’s Chapel was full as her family joined with the numerous friends from Bishop’s and the town of Lennoxville in celebrating her remarkable life and career, and her association with us. The Archives Department of the Eastern Townships Research Centre at Bishop’s has received a number of donations of materials related to Kay, illustrating her life and career. While they are not yet all catalogued, the present study is meant to give a sample of what may be found there. Much of the collection consists of artwork, notably a number sketchbooks, notebooks, and watercolour books from different times in her life. There is also material relating to different shows, a generous file of press clippings, and a number of photographs. Many will be surprised to learn, however, that the writings Kay left behind are in many ways as interesting as her paintings. She did spend most of those seventeen years as a student, so one of the greatest treasures in the archives consists of papers handed in through the years for different professors at Bishop’s. Although there are examples of good, straight- forward scholarship, many assignments reveal either the lyrical or the mischievous side of her character. Most of them include delightful title pages, and often additional drawings or paintings later in the text. There are, in addition, several substantial works not connected directly to courses Bishop’s: her McGill thesis, a superb lecture entitled “The Way to Compostela,” as well as several literary surprises.

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Kay Kinsman had already lived a long and interesting life before she arrived in Lennoxville in November of 1980, and had a lifetime of learning before she signed up for her first-ever university course at 102 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Bishop’s in January of 1981. That being said, Lennoxville and Bishop’s were the perfect setting for “a single senior woman with a lot of catching up and a whole lot of living yet to do,” as her son Jeremy remarked in his eulogy. Kay’s earlier life has assumed almost mythical proportions among locals through frequent retelling and embellishment. She should have written an autobiography. Her early years were chaotic. Her father died of typhus before she was born: “I was a posthumous child,” was the way her accounts of her life inevitably began. Although Illustration No. 1. born in Los Angeles, in 1909, Caricatures found on the inside cover of the Pro- she was taken back to Mexico gramme of the Annual Spring Exhibition of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1949). (Pencil) where her grandfather ran the (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) railways. Her lot would have been quite different if there had not been a revolution there in 1911. The grandfather ended up in prison, and Kay and her mother were forced to flee back to the U.S. It was at a local convent school in Texas, at the age of 4, that Kay’s artistic skills left their first mark. Finding tortillas more interesting to make funny faces with than to eat, she upset the lunchroom deco- rum and earned a rebuke from the Mother Superior. In revenge, she drew a priest sitting on the toilet and got expelled. Happily, her mother placed greater value on her creativity and individuality than on the correctness of her demeanour. Those who loved her always would. The family eventually moved to Cuba after her mother remarried. She was sent on to the Anglican boarding school in Mandeville, Jamaica. Here, again, at the age now of 9, her life was turned upside down, when her mother died while on a visit. She would develop a self-reliance and independence to deal with what life dealt her, but at the same time she managed to keep her sense of humour and an internal joy that expressed itself so clearly in her art. Indeed it would become more and more apparent that art was both her retreat and Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 103 her calling. When Kay reached 18, her grandmother decided that secretarial school was a proper training for life; Kay’s response was to sign on as a junior reporter for the Havana Times. One of her assignments was interviewing Al Capone, which she did in a bar in Havana, and I wish we had a sketch of that! Her newspaper career was brief, however, because in 1930, after she received an inheritance and could make her own choices, she was off to Paris and art school. Here her talent blossomed. The regimen in the drawing course was severe—sketch, sketch, sketch. Twenty sketches a day and more, of anything, of everything. Through training she developed the wonderful skill of catching a glimpse of life on paper, which would be her trademark ever after. The skill at observation was her own— assessing the character of her subject and translating it with a few deft strokes of the pen, or seeing what the rest of us overlooked. She also perfected her watercolour technique. The lush foliage and brilliant colours of the Caribbean no doubt impressed her from an early age, and her perception of colour later in life was always rich; even when she painted an old white house with a black roof, reds and crimsons, purples, blues, greens and browns always flowed from her brush. Seeing her paintings of Jamaica explains much about

Illustration No. 2. “Looking up the High St. Broadway”. (Pen and ink, mid 1970s) (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) 104 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Illustration No. 3. Sketch of a side-door to Pershore Abbey. (Newspaper clipping from the late 1970s) (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) her later style. Paint was always applied with great freedom and dispatch. “Watercolour must be spontaneous” she once said; “in other words you must paint from the stomach, and to my way of thinking it should be entirely impressionistic.” Kay met the Englishman, Ronald Kinsman, in Paris and they fell in love. His career was in business and after their marriage it took them first to Switzerland, then to New York, and in 1939 to Mon- treal, where Kay would live for the next 33 years. He rose to be VP of Alcan, and entertained himself and others in amateur musicals. She brought up the children, in a rather unorthodox way, studied at Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 105

the Art School of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (with Ann Sav- age and Arthur Lismer), and painted. While the archive has no paintings from this period, there is a charming set of impromptu caricatures—the artistic aristocracy of Montreal one supposes—captured on an MMFA exhibition programme from 1949 [Illustration No. 1]. Ronald took time to prepare an M.A. thesis for McGill on the history of Montreal, and through this Kay’s interest was directed to the older parts of the city, which even in the 1940s were disappear- ing in the face of progress. In addition to their historical importance, her paintings of old Montreal drew critical attention, and found their way into many collections. Some of the fruit of these years would later be captured in the Montreal Sketchbook, which was published in 1967. The Montreal years would end not long after Ronald’s death in 1965. Kay moved to England in 1972 to be near some of her family, and settled first in the picturesque Cotswold village of Broadway. Here she discovered the charms of English provincial life, which she captured in her Broadway Sketchbook, published in 1974. This volume further revealed the literary side of her talent, as her subtle and humorous way with words is almost on a par with her drawings. She also lived for several years in the nearby village of Pershore, home to a great medieval Abbey. The more ancient sites of England stirred an interest in medieval life and times that Kay was to develop for the rest of her life, culminating ultimately in an M.A. thesis of her own.

Illustration No. 4. Quick sketch “Monk cleaning floor”, found in the “Élan” sketchbook, (from the church in Léon?). (Ball-point pen, 1983) (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) 106 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

Illustration No. 5. “Medieval Humour”. (Watercolour, n.d.) (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 107

Her work also found critical success in England, with solo shows in Pershore and Malvern, and exhibitions at the Royal Water Colour Society and Royal Academy of Graphic Artists in London, among others. The archive holdings begin with her English period. The collection includes a number of watercolour sketchbooks, with some excellent paintings. There are also a number of sketches, among them a fine pen-and-ink “High Street, Broadway” [Illustration No. 2], and from the Pershore years the reproduction of a fine drawing of a side door, Pershore Abbey [Illustration No. 3]. The literary skills seen in the Broadway Sketchbook are brought to mind in a series of essays describing her subsequent experiences in Pershore. These are gath- ered together under the title “The Bells of Paradise.” There was evidently a plan to publish these essays in book form, with appropriate sketches, but it seems that the project was never carried through, possibly because Kay moved back to Canada. The texts survive, however, and make delightfully entertaining reading. The wicked Kay we all knew can be seen, for example, in the chapter marked “Soirée Musicale”. [Excerpt No. 1.] It might be worth the effort to get the whole project into print, even without the sketches that were origi- nally meant to accompany it. Rather at loose ends, Kay returned to Canada in 1980, now 71 years old. Almost by chance she moved to Lennoxville that Novem- ber, settling first in the Speid house with Janet Motyer. As Jeremy noted, she still had some “catching up” to do. In January of 1981, she applied to Bishop’s University (as a Special Undergraduate), and thus began a new era in her life—as a student. That term she dabbled in her first academic Fine Arts course (not a total success), in Music History, and in Spanish, which despite the many years since Cuba and Mexico, came back triumphantly. That summer she tried a course in early British History. She was hooked. Most of the Bishop’s community really had no idea who this lady was, but they would soon learn. In the fall term of 1981, she applied full-time for the B.A. programme in Fine Arts—this after a successful career as an artist! She did not really need a Fine Arts degree, and indeed kept getting side- tracked, intellectually, into Music (she had earned a diploma in piano from the Toronto Conservatory of Music at the age of 57), into Languages (Spanish, French, Italian, to be joined later by German, Latin, and Old English), into History and English literature. In the end, she did not earn a B.A. in Fine Arts, but a specially concocted one in “Liberal Arts”—the much-vaunted mission of Bishop’s, after 108 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES all—and she accepted her degree in 1983. That summer she made a trip that had long been on her mind, following the pilgrimage route across northern Spain to the great medieval shrine of Santiago de Compostela. It brought together her increasing fascination with medieval history, architecture, iconography, music, and lifestyle, which would soon crystalize with her study of John of Fornsett, who she believed made this pilgrimage in the 13th century. There are notebooks full of her observations and lecture notes taken on the subject, often supplemented by quick sketches of architectural details or other subjects that caught her fancy [Illustration No. 4]. Later that year, her experiences were presented in the form of a lecture, “The Way to Compostela,” given at Bishop’s and also in French at the Musée des beaux-arts in Sher- brooke. This work shows us a different writer—a serious one. Although there is still some of the satirist, we also recognize a keen observer—of the landscape, of the art and architecture, and of the people. The prose is most elegant [Excerpt No. 2.]. Academically, Kay hardly skipped a beat, re-applying in the fall of 1983 (a Special Undergraduate again), now just taking the courses she wanted, sometimes more than once! More Fine Arts, more Music, and more Languages, and now courses in Classics as well. Never a semester did she skip, although she would in the meantime be starting on an M.A. in English at McGill. Her interest in medieval times had flowered and she now combined it with her love of England, and of music, in her thesis on one of the most famous compositions of Medieval times, the canon Sumer is icumen in written, as she wished to prove, by John of Fornsett, monk of Reading Abbey. Her thesis skillfully combines intellectual curiosity, a good deal of hard research, and her own evocative prose, and forms a fitting summit to her scholarly career. Excerpt No. 3, taken from a chapter entitled “Medieval Lyrics,” illustrates all of these elements. In the archives also we find sheaves of notes and preparatory studies for the final work. She was awarded her M.A. from McGill in 1987, at the age of 78. As a footnote to this study, Kay had planned to write a semi-fic- tional children’s story around the character of John of Fornsett. She spoke often of this project, and indeed seems to have written a fair amount of it. Chapters 1–3 and 9–12 are found in the archives in a virtually complete form. What has happened to the rest? From an attached list of contents, we know that more than 12 chapters were planned. The sections we have, such as Chapter 3 “Daemon’s account,” [Excerpt No. 4], are delightful in their recreation of Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 109 medieval life and times, and we can only regret that she apparently did not finish this project. Nor do we have any artwork to match the text, something that she surely contemplated. Only Kay, by the way, could transform this delight in all things medieval into a vignette like “Medieval Humour” [Illustration No. 5]. Back at Bishop’s, Kay continued to take classes. By 1989, there were enough credits for a second B.A. Her interests had moved back in time to ancient Greece and Rome, and she had decided on Clas- sics as her new major. At convocation in 1989, she accepted this second B.A.. At the same ceremony, however, Bishop’s presented her with an honorary doctorate (D.C.L. Honoris Causa, which she could

Illustration No. 6. “Olive tree and birds from Tomb of the Triclinium”. (Watercolour, 1989). Taken from the assignment “The Attitude of the Etruscans to Animals and Vice Versa as Gleaned from Their Drawings” prepared for Classics 207 (Prof. Coyne). (Source: ETRC Archives, Kay Kinsman fonds) 110 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES have translated). In one sense it was awarded because she was by this time a campus fixture—our own permanent undergraduate. But in a more profound way, she had truly earned it as one of the most honorable examples of the inquisitive mind ever to pass through this university. Her surviving essays reflect the breadth of her interests, and her consistently fresh approach to learning. Consider, for example, her essay on “The Relationship between Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione and Ladies of the Renaissance,” written ostensibly for a Drama course. It would take Kay to remark that Raphael’s ladies all look “vacuous” and then seek the cause. (Find out why in Excerpt No. 5.) Or consider the blend of Classical art and contemporary animal rights (Kay spent time on the barricades defending baby seals) in her paper “Ani- mals in Etruscan Art,” which incidentally contains brilliant freehand recreations of the Etruscan originals [Illustration No. 6]. She was, in fact, a perfect student, even if she did not always get her footnotes right, and did not always use periodicals. As time went along, she had more and more a way of defining her own essay topics (which usually led to an excuse for some sketches or paintings). Her essays often became highly entertaining as the need to prove her scholarship receded. Their style was sui generis—any attempt to correct or amend them at this stage only made the professor look pedantic. Giving a grade was no easier [Excerpt No. 6]. What can you do with an essay entitled “Shakespeare and Parent- hood”? It was, she rightly observed, virtually the only thing about Shakespeare that no one has written about. She does justice to the subject [Excerpt No. 7]. In class she mumbled and made rude remarks, she wickedly made fun of those who deserved it, and she frequently used both her professors and her fellow students as subjects for sketches. (They were generally obliged to stay still.) The citation at her 1989 convocation speaks from the professor’s point of view: In class Kay is a joy and a challenge. She is a joy because for her learning is something to be relished, and knowledge something to be enjoyed, not stored up like gold to a miser. She is a challenge because, as in her art, her free spirit rebels against the ortho- dox, the pretentious, the dull, the humourless. She has more pizzazz than most students one quarter her age. A class full of Kays would be chaotic, but it would be a class full of ideas and stimulation, a class full of life. In the fall of 1989, Kay carried on at Bishop’s (once again a Spe- cial Undergraduate). More Classics, Fine Arts, and Music, as well as Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 111

History, Drama, Philosophy, and Languages. After 1993, as her health gradually failed, there were fewer courses per semester, and more audits than credit courses (although she was loath to arrive at this point). Her last course came in the winter of 1996, when she was 86 years old. Her artistic career continued with great vigour through all these years. She would head off every summer to Spain, or the south of France, or Russia, or wherever, and come back with a portfolio full of paintings and sketches. Until the end she was still planning to visit Jeremy in Rome. Even in her 80s, she would set up on her little stool on a country road to paint an old house or barn; or put pen to paper in the chapel, or at the mall, or on a car-seat (incogni- to), to sketch humanity passing by. Local recognition came with a major retrospective at the Musée des beaux arts in Sherbrooke, in 1987, and with several shows at Bishop’s. The first of these was “Life on Campus” and was held in the old gallery in the Student building, in 1991; the second was a retrospective held in the new Artists’ Cen- tre, in 1995. The town of Lennoxville received its own Sketchbook, complete with running commentary, in 1990. (Note that copies of all three Sketchbooks—Montreal, Broadway, and Lennoxville—can be viewed in the rare book room at Bishop’s University.) And work has already begun on a proposed Bishop’s Sketchbook that will chronicle Kay’s unique association with the university over the years and seal her special place in our hearts. Here then, is a portrait of Kay Kinsman as an author, with a few small samples of the artistic treasures that have come to the archives. Everyone who knew her will recognize her voice in these excerpts, but few will have realized how accomplished a writer in many styles she was, and many will regret that this side of her talent was so little acknowledged in her lifetime.

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Excerpt No. 1. From “The Bells of Paradise,” an unpublished series of essays on life in Pershore, Worcestershire [ca. 1979].

Soirée musicale xcept for the noise of tipsy youth spilling out of pubs at closing E time on Saturday night, and adorning the Abbey Park trees with festoons of loo paper, there’s not really much one could call the “car- nival spirit” in Pershore. So, excitement when, on my first Christmas here, an invitation 112 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES was dropped through the slot of the front door of the Little House. It read: “You are cordially invited to attend a gala Christmas dinner given by the Pershore Drama and Operatic Society”.” (And in small print): Tickets: Two pounds fifty pence, entitling guest to dinner and one glass of wine.” Aha! This was more like it! A chance to meet the Monde Music, conversation, wit, and a glass of wine. Suave gentlemen bowing to kiss one’s hand. Ladies wearing family emeralds. But—what to wear? Finally, I decided on the long tartan skirt and black turtle-neck pullover, (de rigeur costume for chilly Cotswold halls) and Yves St. Laurent dabbed behind the ears. Off I went to sample Pershore’s night life. Now, St. Andrew’s Hall, where the dinner was to be held, is a fine and suitable place for penitential flagellation (IF you happen to be a remorseful Benedictine Monk) or, in lighter moments, for gregorian chanting. But medieval arch and bleak stone wall are not conducive to levity in this latter part of the twentieth century. Lit- tle scarlet candles and sprigs of holly on all the tables helped a little, but not much. Just the same, I refused to be daunted. I paid my fee, hung up my overcoat, and looked around at the guests. The suave gentlemen who were going to bow and kiss the tips of my fingers, those expected ladies in emeralds—they had not yet arrived. There seemed to be a great many Whistler’s mothers and a sprinkling of grandfatherly gentlemen. Then, I spotted the Vicar. He was light- house in a dense fog. He was an oasis in a boulder-strewn desert. And, usually, an unfailing source of fun. Tonight, though, he was busy looking after his sheep. No help there! Ah well. There I was, and there was that glass of wine to look forward to. Disregarding the air of mistrust worn by the five female occupants of a table laid for six I asked, meekly, if I, too, might sit there. Cold assent. I sat. Now, my mother taught me always to keep the wheel of conversation turning at dinner parties, no matter what the circumstances, and that it was the duty of a guest to sing for his supper. But my mother had never sat down with five frosty ladies of the Pershore Operatic and Drama Club at their annual Christmas dinner. There are, in Worcestershire, three reliable conversational gam- bits: one, the weather—two, roses—three, one’s dog. The second was plainly ridiculous in December, the third awkward to introduce, which left number one. “Nice weather we’re having,” I said bravely to the right-hand lady. She looked distraught and giggled faintly. “On the other hand,” to Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 113 the left-hand lady, “it might rain. You never know, do you?” She looked about to faint. “My lord,” I thought, it’s a table of mutes. They’re from an Institution!” What to do? My mother never told me how to act sitting at table with mutes. So, I plunged wildly on. If they were mutes, they were probably deaf, so what did it matter what I talked about? I found myself describing a recent incident in Quebec in which I was involved. A fellow guest—with whom I’d made friends at a small hotel where I was staying—came to my room one evening. Why me, I couldn’t say. Anyway, Deirdre, for such was her name, offered to share her “hash” with me. “I could easily spare you a couple of joints,” she said. No matter what the circumstances, it always grati- fies me not to be considered a square by the young. I gingerly fin- gered the plastic tube she handed me, filled with what looked like old horse manure. Dierdre gave a sharp glance. “Never smoked, have you?” she asked. I admitted it sheepishly. “Well, then,” said she, “You’d better shut your windows before you start.” “Why” I asked innocently, “must I shut the windows before I start?” “Because,” Dierdre answered ominously, “first time you smoke hash you’re liable to think you can fly!” (My son has since told me that she was probably thinking of L.S.D. However—) I looked around at this point in my story to see if there was any glimmer of interest on the wooden faces of the five mutes. They looked quite blank. One of them turned to another and said: “So you haven’t seen Irene lately?” That was when I gave up. Hauled down the flag. Gone, now, any hopes of dark suave gentlemen who bow and kiss your finger tips. Plainly, too, the emerald ladies were not going to come to St. Andrew’s that night. Who did come, was a tall and massive bosomed lady, who sailed across the floor towards me like a Carthaginian trireme. “We’re all going to gather round the piano, now”, she said, “and have a jolly sing-song.” And that’s when I fled. Past the gothic arches I sneaked, out of the door into cold winter’s night. Back to the Little house. There, I poured myself a large gin and tonic, hoisted up by tartan skirt and, with my feet comfortably crossed on the coffee table, I began to laugh.

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Excerpt No. 2, taken from “The Way to Compostela,” lecture presented in 1983 (pp. 15–17 of the typed version).

fter a while we left the Basque country and then we came to A the lovely medieval town of Puente la Reina with its three arched stone bridges over the river Elbro. It was built for the pilgrims by the Queen, Dona Mayor, in the eleventh century and is still as good as ever. A priest wearing a beretta and a soutane passed me. I said “Good morning Father” and he grinned and said “Hola!”. But it was terribly hot and I had no dark glasses. A nice lady named “Conception” allowed me to sit and paint in the shade of her verandah. She even insisted that I wear her wide-brimmed straw hat that she’d brought, she said, from Mexico. I was so sad to see the half-starved kittens running around her garden. “In Canada”, I said, “we get our cats fixed”. She laughed. “We’ve no money for that”, she said. “Anyway, they all soon get run over by cars!” I wonder what the Moor-slayer would have thought? But then, of course, he came long before Saint Francis. Now on to Logroño. It was fiesta time and no rooms to be had. We tried everywhere. I’ve found a note scribbled on my sketch pad which says, translated, “Go to the store on the corner of Colmillos and Barranca, just past the gasoline pump. Ask for Ezequiel and tell him you were sent by Tomas the baker. He has rooms”. I guess this Jo-sent-me business didn’t work with Ezequiel, for we seem to have gone on. I remember passing the sad ruins of an ancient pilgrims’ hospice where now, this afternoon, a man with his gun and dog seemed after rabbits. It was terribly hot. In Colmillos, once a prosperous little village at the base of an old Moorish castle, I drank three cokes, one after another. I thought of the pilgrims plod- ding along this dusty road with only a gourd of water to refresh themselves. I sat in the car and sketched the castle perfunctorily. A waggoner plodded slowly by, his wooden two-wheeled cart drawn by oxen. He came over to give my sketch a critical eye. “I paint, too, you know, Senora. I have done many paintings I would like to show you ...!” “Oh Lord, I prayed silently—Not here please Lord not here! We got to Burgos next, once the great capital of Castile. Here was the palace where Philip the Fair died of convulsions on drink- ing a glass of cold water too soon after tennis. His mad wife, Juana la Loca, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, distraught, refused to allow him to be buried. It was August, too, and extremely hot. How- ever, her confessor persuaded her to at least put a lid on the coffin. Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 115

We visited the great Pilgrim Hospital on the outskirts of Burgos where pilgrims received two loaves of bread a day and meat and salad three times a week. A good pub! Then the monastery of Las Huelgas, founded by Alfonso VI and his wife Eleanore (who was the sister of Richard the Lionhearted). Here are interred the medieval monarchs of Castile, surrounded by the small pathetic sarcophagi of all of their poor little children—one wee tomb only two feet long. Las Huelgas was once the most aristocratic convent in Spain. The nuns were enclosed. Once there were over one hundred, now, only two terribly elderly ones, on the brink of the grave. The Abbess was so grand that it was said that if the Pope could marry he’d take for a wife the Abbess of Las Huelgas. There is a great statue of St. James here in the chapel with an articulated arm, so that the saint could lift his sword and dub the knights of Santiago. The ladies of Burgos are the most elegant I have ever seen—the children the most exquisitely dressed. As to the teenagers, in pony tails and convent tunics and los “blue jeans”, they were mostly chewing bubble-gum. I mused that it must be a Spanish virginity symbol.

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Excerpt No. 3, taken from the M.A. thesis (McGill, 1986) titled “Sing Cuccu Nu”, pp. 35–38.

Medieval Lyrics he thirteenth century was a resplendent period of history which Tis called by one author, “the Magnificent Century,” and by another “The Age of Faith,” and which is considered by many to be the heyday of the Middle Ages. It was at once the age of pageantry and credulity, of saints and unicorns, of noise of trumpets, of vibrant colour, of religious ecsta- sy and of unparalleled cruelty. It witnessed the piety of St. Francis as well as the horrors of the massacre of the Albigensians, the perfidy of King John and the nobility of William the Marshall; the learning of Robert Grosseteste; the intellectual genius of Roger Bacon and the Vision of Dante. It is also believed by many that John of Fornsett, monk of Reading and dominant personality of this paper was born in this period. From those earliest dark days in England which followed the departure of the Romans, the arts and music—and particularly music—continued to develop. Music in England, was always high- 116 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES ly estimated. Great deference was shown the bard with his harp, and in fact he was held equal in rank with the priest and the warrior. Alfred the Great was a notable harpist, Saint Dunstan was an accomplished organist, and Richard I a polished poet and musician, to mention only three examples. With the passing of time there appeared the scop and the glee- man, the Saxon composers of mystical lays, (Caedmon), then the minstrels, and in liturgical music those great anonymous composers of the Worcester Fragments and the Winchester troper. By the thirteenth century a wave of music, instrumental as well as vocal, seemed to be spilling over the land. What gave birth to this phenomenon? Was it the fortuitous min- gling of the genes of the poetry-loving Gaels with the music-loving Kelts? And with it the zest of the Vikings for dramatic and blood-cur- dling sagas combined with the Norman’s art of the chanson de geste? Recollect that the first Norman to arrive at the Battle of Hast- ings was not the Duke of Normandy but his favourite minstrel Taille- fer, who, mounted on a great horse and waving this sword in time to music, singing, led the Normans into battle. It is the musical background in particular that we will now try to explore. Long before the Norman Conquest, the people of the mist- cloaked island had acquired a reputation for musical ability. There is the frequently quoted excerpt by Giraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales), from his Description of Wales, which establishes the fact that by the twelfth century polyphony was the normal thing in what he calls “west country.” He goes on to describe the music that they make in “many notes and phrases”, and it certainly sounds like a rondellus. He is also probably describing the provenance of those sources that practised voice exchange, an increasingly notable factor in English medieval music. It is interesting to note that several of the surviving pieces originated in a region no more than twenty or thirty miles to the east of the Welsh border, which therefore covers the area containing Leominster Priory and Worcester. Leominster was a cell of Reading Abbey and so the musical connection here seems to be clearly established. One can also visualize the environment in which John of Fornsett may have been nurtured. A treatise from Bury St.Edmunds was written by an anonymous Englishman (c. 1272). He was a much travelled man and describes the people of Navarre and the English as being “specially musical.” He also gives some useful historical information naming Johannes Filius Dei, Makeblite of Winchester, and one Blakesmit, “a singer in the palace of Our Lord Henry the Last.” He makes allusion to the Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 117

“ditones and semi-ditones”, (major and minor thirds), which, he says, are generally reckoned as dissonances but: ...in some places, for instance in that part of England which is called West-country they are thought the best for consonants and are much used by organists. Thus is appears that pythagorean tuning was not in use in the west of England, although evidently still the norm everywhere else. There is strong reason to think that it is in England that harmony matured, and we can suppose that west-country organists used tuning similar to ours. Now, when thirds were made consonant a har- monic bass was secured, and it is not surprising that the country where this was done should be musically in advance of other countries. “Among the many glories of England”, says Henry Davey, “the creation of artistic music must be reckoned among the highest. Musical historians now admit that the history of English music is longer than that of any other nation.” The most active centres of the cultivation of polyphony until the mid-fourteenth century were undoubtedly the great Benedictine abbeys, and in England there are actual musical remains from Read- ing, Worcester, and Bury St. Edmunds. In recent years so many fragments even of religious and secular lyrics have been found that a book compiled by Carleton Brown contains ninety secular lyrics alone, of which some even have their musical notes. Ernest H. Sanders says: How significant a role music played in medieval England is indicated by the large number of scraps—fly leaves, paste-downs, and detached fragments of polyphonic music of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that have been discovered in the last twenty years. He continues, “one realizes that England has a larger number and variety of sources of medieval polyphony than any other area of music.” Growing familiarity with these ancient lyrical compositions moves us at the depth of feeling and emotion revealed, at the imagery and power of expression of these anonymous authors of the thirteenth century. It is interesting too, to see how the identical lyric turns up in so many places at once, carried no doubt by bards and troubadours, jongleurs and pilgrims so that one sometimes sus- pects the existence of a medieval “hit tune”. These would become so popular that bits of their melodies were used again and again as can- 118 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

tus firmi. Probably many of them penetrated monastery and abbey walls and were familiar tunes to John of Fornsett and his brother monks. The most pious of monks must have been glad to get away from the Opus Dei once in a while.

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Excerpt No. 4, taken from a incomplete story based on the life and adven- tures of John of Fornsett.

Chapter III Damien, the Best Friend fter collation, we rose and thanked God for our peas-porridge, A salt herrings and bannocks (Wednesday’s usual fare) and made our way to the east cloister. This was where we singing-boys had our lessons, seated around our teacher on a circle of tree-stumps, and with three boys to a Donatus. I did not like Donatus. I did not like Latin and I hated the skill with which Brother Marius handled his switch when we made a mistake. On that May day Brother Marius’ switch was hard at work because the air was full of the heavy perfume of May flowers and bird song. My mind was not on Latin grammar. My mind was on the joys of hawking and of tilting at the quatrain, and Brother Marius’ switch was on the alert to keep our noses to the grindstone. Then, help came to us boys when into the cloister swept the under-prior with a small red-headed boy in tow. This was the first time, but not the last that John was to save us from a switching. He was seven years old at the time, scared but still defiant, and he managed to stick his tongue out at us. I liked him from that moment. We all rose and bowed low to the under-prior as we had been taught to do. “This is John,” said the under-prior, “who has come all the way from Fornsett in Norfolk to be a singing-boy in our music school. Welcome him!” He then turned to John. “Boy,” he said, “worship God, avoid Titibulous, and listen to your betters.” So saying, he swept away. Thus John came to us. He was to be my best friend. John was brave. He, alone, dared to climb the cypress tree that grew in the cloister garth, and from its heights to make queer squeaking noises, pretending he was a bat, in order to frighten poor Brother Innocent, whom we had discovered to be terrified of bats! It was John who tied together the latchets of Brother Lucius’s san- dals at vigils and again, it was John who, while apparently inton- Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 119

ing Gregorian chants in the approved reverent manner, would make his eyes cross under cover of his hood and cause us all to giggle. That boy! And we loved him, because he never tattled on our misdeeds and frequently took the blame for our misdemeanors and for us received the switch on his little behind. Whatever happened later, John of Fornsett was my friend and I am proud of it!

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Excerpt No. 5, taken from the essay “The Relationship between Raphael, Baldassare Castiglione and Ladies of the Renaissance”, written for Drama 222A (Prof. L. Green).

little while ago, while taking a course in the History of Art, our A class was shown slides of Renaissance art. Of course Raphael fig- ured greatly. What was rather puzzling, though, was why one of the world’s greatest painters would choose to give his female models facial expressions of such vacuous detachment that it often amounts to imbecility. However, my query was regarded as being not only malapert but even impious! So the question remained unanswered, until one day in Drama 222A we were given as a reading assignment the Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione, and the truth about Renaissance ladies finally dawned. Baldassare Castiglione was born in 1478, to a very rich and aristocratic family of Mantua. When he reached young manhood he became a model courtier in the court of the powerful Sforzas in Milan, and then later served in the same capacity at the court of Urbino…. Now a chapter in Il Cortesano is devoted to his female counterpart and here is where the trouble begins! If the Renaissance atmosphere of liberal thought was hard on the courtier, it was really tough on the courtier’s lady. Under Feu- dalism (and particularly during the period of the Crusades), a woman was often a power to be reckoned with. She could even have a fiefdom and indeed many great abbesses did. In her husband’s absences at wars she had full power over his domain. In love she had autonomy and the double standard had not yet appeared. Although chastity was a good thing, if the lady had also produced other off- spring sub rosa—so long as her lord and master was sure of his seed, any by-blows were useful as extra warriors. Take Elinore of Aquitaine, while still nominally the Queen of France; she did not hesitate to 120 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES dally with Henry II, and got away with it! Four hundred years later in the Renaissance Ann Boleyn and other wives of Henry VIII tried the same thing and look what happened to them! With the Renaissance, woman’s power became more and more curtailed, until suddenly she was nothing but a second-class citizen. From being a suzeraine her role changed to that of servitor and now she becomes a vassal of her spouse and entirely subservient to him. Could this be some sort of pathetic play-acting insisted on by him to enact the good old days when her lord and master was himself servitor to his feudal lord and master? Now his knightly role has disappeared, and as his position diminishes, so indeed does hers. She is reduced to vassalage and becomes completely aestheticized. Her role and main occupation is merely to charm. “A lady who lives at court must have a pleasing affability above all else.” “She must have comely conversation suited to time, place and station of person with whom she speaks.” “She must strictly observe certain limits and not exceed them.” “She must be a complete stranger to bodily excess—she must have a soft and delicate tenderness and her conduct must be prudent, and she should have a womanly sweetness in very movement.” (She sounds like a beautiful marshmallow.) “Let her take care not to offend men by indiscreet praising of herself.” “She must listen with a slight blush of shame to all lewd talk and never show unbridled familiarity with the other sex!” “It is not seemly for her to carry weapons, play tennis, ride or wrestle, or other things suitable only to a man.” “I would not wish her to make ungainly movements. Likewise the musical instruments she plays should be appropriate. What an ungainly thing it would be to see a woman playing drums, trumpets or other like instruments! …. And now, here is the missing piece of the jig-saw puzzle which features the ladies painted by Raphael. He was, in fact, a very close friend and enormous admirer of Castiglione, and did, in fact, reside for a while at the ducal court of Urbino, where, you see, he, too, became brain-washed. So this explains the matter of the lack of any mental activity apparent on the face of the pure and lovely but empty face of the Madonna della Sedia, as she looks vacantly from her canvas with all the joie de vivre of a strawberry milk shake….

******** Kay Kinsman / Jack Eby 121

Excerpt No. 6. Often a professor would be at a kind of loss. These remarks are taken from a paper lacking a title page, and are therefore anonymous. We all sympathise.

ay, I find myself not quite sure what to say about your paper and K how to mark it. Looked at as a formal essay there are a number of serious problems—incorrect endnote and bibliographical form, lack of a clear thesis in a proper introduction, poor organization of your argument, irrelevant material introduced and an overly collo- quial style…. It actually seems more like a magazine article than anything else (and I don’t mean to be at all disparaging by that comment). What I have ended up doing, essentially, is giving you an “impression” mark, taking into account your research and your general fluency in writing….

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Excerpt No. 7, taken from the essay “Shakespeare and Parenthood,” written for Drama 223 (Prof. Green).

t must me obvious to any amateur psycho-analyst that William I Shakespeare must have disliked his parents. This is understand- able. Nobody (except for Cordelia in King Lear), liked their parents much in those days. Children in Elizabethan times were regarded with deep distrust and disdain as being merely raw and dreadfully un-finished adults who would, hopefully, one day turn into normal human beings. So, with this in mind they were mercilessly whacked, fed on bread and water and punished in dark closets with the Christian aim of helping them to grow up properly. No child protested or “talked back”. If he did he was as good as gone to Hell. Now, of the two sorts of parents, viz., fathers and mothers, Shake- speare preferred fathers. Mothers got short shrift usually. When his mothers were not being utterly inane they were pathologically terrible. Take for instance that old grue Lady Macbeth. She says: How tender to love the babe that milks me! But, I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from its bone- less gums and dashed its brains out. Why, the old bat! Even Grendel’s mum would never have said a thing like that! She loved her son, ogre or not, and when Beowulf tore off Grendel’s arm she fought savagely to avenge the death of her boy. That’s mother love! However, in the same play (Macbeth) 122 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

you get MacDuff. When he receives the news of his family’s mur- der (while he is lying low himself at the English court of Edward the Confessor) he feels terrible. He says: “My wife? All my pretty ones? Did you say all? O hell kite, all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop!” He is truly upset and off he goes to fix the Macbeths. But, one cannot help asking one self why in the world had he gone off and left his family in the first place, alone and unprotected in their Scottish castle when he must have been acquainted with the Macbethian family trait of bumping off people?…. But he must be followed by the Elsinore families in Hamlet where no one can get along with anyone else and it is a case of dog eat dog. Take Hamlet’s father. He has been murdered and turned into a really vindictive and grisly ghost. He arrives on the Elsinore battlements on the stroke of midnight and hovers green and ghostly among the swirling clouds of mist. He, naturally, is out to get even with Ham- let’s mother Gertrude who is really the reason for his being a ghost at all! Queen Gertrude is a sort of silly woman, but one can sympa- thize with her because having lived for thirty years or so with Ham- let’s father, a rigid and an upright man, and boring like so many Scandinavians, she is ready for tea and sympathy from anyone. Besides, I suspect she was approaching the climacteric and felt that life was passing her by, and who was around, for heavens’ sake except Claudius? It all had a terrible effect on Hamlet who turned mean. This is one trio of parents whom one would certainly not want to be a child of…. 123

BIOBIBLIOGRAPHIES / NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

JEAN-MARIE DUBOIS est professeur au Département de géographie et télédétection de l’Université de Sherbrooke depuis 1972. Il est spécialisé en géographie physique, principalement des Cantons-de-l’Est et de la région de l’estuaire et du golfe du Saint-Laurent. Il s’intéresse également à l’histoire régionale, à la toponymie et au phénomène des vignobles au Québec. JACK EBY is Professor and Chair of the Music Department at Bish- op’s University and teaches courses in music history and literature. It was in this capacity that he first met Kay Kins- man. His research is mainly in the field of French sacred music in the 18th century. HERVÉ GAGNON détient une maîtrise et un doctorat en histoire ainsi qu’une maîtrise en muséologie. Professeur associé au Département d’histoire et de sciences politiques de l’Université de Sherbrooke, il enseigne l’histoire et la muséologie. Il a également enseigné à l’Université Bishop’s et à l’Université de Montréal. Il s’intéresse particulièrement à l’histoire culturelle du Québec et l’étude de la pratique historique en milieu muséal. Depuis 1986, il a oeuvré à divers titres dans les musées d’histoire du Québec. Né à Asbestos, JACQUES GAGNON a étudié et travaillé à Asbestos, à Black Lake et à Thetford. Il enseigne maintenant au Départe- ment des sciences sociales du Collège de Sherbrooke. LOUIS-GEORGES HARVEY is Associate Professor and Chair of the His- tory Department at Bishop’s University. He teaches in the areas of American and Quebec history, and the history of the Americas in comparative perspective. His areas of research specialization include book history, the history of political discourse, and the study of cross-cultural communication. He is the author of numerous articles published in scholarly journals and collections across North America. NORMAN K. JONES is Associate Professor and Chair of the Geogra- phy Department at Bishop’s University. His research interests presently include flood hazards in the Eastern Town- ships, and the formation of glacial landforms. Recent publications focussed on the development of glacial landscapes in coastal Nova Scotia, the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, and the Himalaya of northern Pakistan. 124 JOURNAL OF EASTERN TOWNSHIPS STUDIES

MARIE-PAULE RAJOTTE LABRÈQUE est une historienne diplômée de l’Université de Montréal (MA) et de l’Université Laval, où elle a été chargée de cours au Département d’histoire. Elle concentre ses recherches et ses travaux sur les Cantons-de- l’Est et collabore au Dictionnaire biographique du Canada, qui a publié une vingtaine de ses notices, surtout sur des personnages de notre région. RICHARD MOYSEY is the great-grandson of George Slack. He resides in Kingston, Ontario. Those wishing to subscribe to JETS can obtain information from: Eastern Townships Research Centre Faculty Box 132 Bishop’s University Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Tel: (819) 822-9600, ext. 2647 Fax: (819) 822-9661 E-mail: [email protected]

Ceux et celles qui désirent s’abonner à la RECE peuvent se renseigner en s’adressant au : Centre de recherche des Cantons de l'Est Casier 132 Université Bishop’s Lennoxville (QC) J1M 1Z7 Téléphone : (819) 822-9600, poste 2647 Télécopieur : (819) 822-9661 Courriel : [email protected]

Publication of this journal is made possible by support to the Eastern Townships Research Centre from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, Bishop’s University, and Bishop’s University Foundation. La publication de cette revue est rendue possible grâce à l’appui du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, du ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, de l’Université Bishop’s et de la Fondation de l’Université Bishop’s au Centre de recherche des Cantons de l’Est. Centre de recherche des Cantons de l’Est Eastern Townships Research Centre ISSN 1192-7062