Sherbrooke, Quebec - History

History

The First Nations were the first inhabitants, having originally settled the region between 8,000 and 3,000 years ago. Traces of seasonal camps, characterized by arrowheads, scrapers, and other similar tools have been found. Terracotta objects dating from forestry (3000 to 1000 BCE) were also found, indicating that the region continued to be occupied by nomadic people during this period.

Upon the arrival of Samuel de Champlain in Quebec in 1608, this region was under the control of the Mohawks. France created an alliance through its missionaries with the Abenaki, located in Maine and Vermont. The French were driven to the valley of the St. Lawrence River near Trois-Rivières after a Mohawk victory in the war of 1660. Seeking to obtain control of the territory, the area around present-day Sherbrooke was a battlefield between the two peoples who had to travel to the region.

During the Seven Years' War between France and Britain, the Abenaki, still allied with the French, travelled along the rivers of the Eastern Townships, frequently near present-day Sherbrooke during British raids. The Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, ending the war, and soon after its recognition came the Independence of the United States. The Eastern Townships were under Abekani control for a few years, having practised hunting and fishing for centuries. However, the American Revolution attracted loyalists to the region who began to covet the land and obtain government grants.

The first European settler to reside in the Sherbrooke region was a French Canadian named Jean-Baptiste Nolain, of whom few details are known, except that he arrived in 1779 to engage in agriculture.

The first attempts at colonization occurred in 1792 on the banks of the Saint-François River. This settlement was known as Cowan's Clearance. In 1793, loyalist Gilbert Hyatt, a farmer from Schenectady, New York, established his farm not far from the confluence of the Massawippi River and Coaticook River, before the governor of Lower Canada officially awarded the land. In the next two years, 18 families came to live on the site. The Crown acknowledged Hyatt's ownership of the land in 1801. Hyatt built the first dam on the Magog River, in collaboration with another loyalist named Jonathan Ball, who had bought land on the north bank of the river. Hyatt then built a gristmill in 1802 on the south bank of the river, while Ball built a sawmill on the north shore. By constructing the mill, Hyatt effectively founded the small village that became known as "Hyatt's Mills". The village was named "Hyatt's Mills" until 1818 when the village was renamed after Governor General Sir John Sherbrooke at the time of his retirement and return to England.

In 1832 Sherbrooke attracted most of the activities of the British American Land Company (BALC) and benefited from the injection of British capital into the region. Manufacturing activities were established that harnessed the Magog River's hydropower. From 1835 Sherbrooke began to seek government support to establish a railway line, but this only became a reality in 1852 through the line connecting the cities of Montreal and Portland.

The second half of the nineteenth century saw the establishment of academic institutions which transformed Sherbrooke into a college town.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the city by train on June 12, 1939. Over 100,000 people were estimated to be in the crowd that greeted them. They were there to build goodwill for the British Empire before they confronted Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers during World War II.

Despite the town's English name and heritage, relatively few traces of the city's English past remain, and the vast majority of the city's residents speak French.

As part of the 2000–2006 municipal reorganization in Quebec, the city grew considerably on January 1, 2002, with the amalgamation of the following towns and municipalities: Sherbrooke, Ascot, Bromptonville, Deauville, Fleurimont, Lennoxville, Rock Forest, and Saint-Élie-d'Orford. Part of Stoke was also annexed to the newly expanded Sherbrooke.