History Articles

The municipalities of Alleyn and Cawood boast of many beautiful lakes and rivers. Fishing and hunting are excellent, and there are very good snowmobile trails. Danford Lake, located at the intersection of Hwy. 301 and the Harrison/Cawood Road in the north-east end of Pontiac, is the main village. The municipality was erected in 1877. Its first mayor was Robert J.Bradnor. The original settlers, who were mostly of Irish descent, worked in the lumber industry.

Sheen, Esher, Malakoff & Aberdeen
Irish people who emigrated to Canada in the 1830's to escape the potato famine and religious persecution were for the most part the settlers of Sheenboro. Some set up homes in the area of McGillvery Lake because there were washouts caused by the spring floods near the Ottawa River.

Before the first European settler arrived, the first nations peoples, the Algonquins and the Iroquois, fought each other for control of the river. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Hudson's Bay Company set up a trading post in the region. The first Europeans settlers established themselves on the south shore of the River Island. In 1840, a church was built at Rapides Paquet, which later became a ferry stop.

In 1611, Nicolas Vignau, a white scout, landed at what is now Portage du Fort with a party of Algonquins. On their way to tribal headquarters at Allumettes Island, they had to portage overland for the first of a series of five difficult cataracts.

In 1694, the famous military engineer Louis d'Ailleboust, Sieur de Coulonge, established a fur trading post hear the mouth of the Coulonge River. The stretch of cataracts that led to Fort Coulonge became known as "le portage du fort" and this is how the settlement at the foot of the rapids got its name.

1. Which of the following is NOT an island in the Ottawa River?
a) Ile-aux-Allumettes.
b) Ile-du-Grand-Calumet.
c) Ile-Morrison.
d) Ile-Quyon.

2. Which of the following is NOT a municipality in the Pontiac?
a) Bristol.
b) Mansfield-et-Pontefract.
c) Kazabazua.
d) Litchfield.

1) d. (No such island).
2) c. (Kazabazua is in the Gatineu Valley).
3) b.
4) c. (Pinus resinosa, or Norway pine, as the early pioneers called it).
5) d.
6) b.
7) c. (Les Oblats de Marie-Immaculée had a mission here).
8) c.
9) a.
10) b. (Bryson lost its title to a booming Campbell's Bay in 1926).

--May 16, 2007The Pontiac Museum, which is located at the Fairgrounds in Shawville, and which is run by the volunteer Pontiac Historical Society, needs your help! The museum is housed in the former Shawville railway station, which was built in 1886 by the Pontiac Pacific Junction Railway. Home to the museum since 1976, the former station is now in need of repair.

The earliest settlers in the Shawville area were Irish Protestants from County Tipperary who came to Canada after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. Many had first settled in the Carp Valley on the Upper Canada side of the Ottawa River. Local lore tells us that Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth set out from this colony in the summer of 1821 to search for new land to settle. It is believed they paddled up the river, landing in a small bay some forty miles upriver. The two men then set off northward in search of a suitable place to homestead.

Lumbering and farming attracted the first settlers to Campbell’s Bay, which was incorporated as a municipality in 1904. E.H. Workman was the first mayor. The village was named after Lieut. Donald Campbell, a soldier in the Scottish Regiment, who was granted a large amount of land. The main drag, Front Street, is unique in that its buildings are on one side of the street only, giving everyone a majestic view of the Ottawa River.

The village of Bryson was named after the honorable John Bryson, MP for Pontiac. Incorporated in 1873, its first mayor was Walter Rimer.

Located on the banks of the Ottawa River, Bryson was an inland port for passengers and freight heading north-west-ward during the era of steamships. Near Bryson, there are ruins of an old grist mill. People came from as far away as Fort Coulonge to have their grain milled.