History
The railroad
The bobbins mills
History through images
Since
the middle of the 19th century until the beginning of the Second
World War the fate of the Township of Bolton has been one of territorial
dismembrement.
In the book "History of Brome County", written by Rev.E.M.Taylor,
it is mentionned that "Bolton was originally the largest of
the townships. Its northern line was nearly nineteen miles in extent.
It has been subjected to many divisons. It was bounded on the north
by Shefford, South Stukely and Orford; on the east by lake Memphremagog
and Hatley; on the south by Potton township and the lake; and on
the west by Brome.
The original grant was erected into a Townships by Letters Patent issued
August 18, 1797 to Nicolas Austin."
Joseph
Bouchette, Surveyor General of Lower Canada, in his work written
in 1815 and entitled 'Description topographique de la Province du
Bas-Canada' describes Bolton as follows:
"Bolton was one of the first Townships created. The topography is rough and somewhat mountainous, being traversed diagonally by a chain of hills where several rivers have their source, and which divide the watersheds of the Yamaska and other large rivers to the north from those which drain into the Missisquoi River and lake Memphremagog, in the other direction. The soil in the lowlands is more or less arable, the western sector being better with a few well cultivated establishments producing all types of grains.
Bolton Centre around 1875. There are several grain mills on the streams which run through this area. Several roads have been built to access other Townships. The population is not very large, amounting to approximately 800 hardy souls" - translated from French original verion.
Since the middle of the 19th century until the second World War, the township
of Bolton was subject to a gradual territorial dismemberment which give
way to the township of Magog (1849), the municipality of West Bolton (1876),
Eastman (1888), Austin (1938) and St-Étienne de Bolton (1939). Today,
the municipality of East Bolton represents less than 25% or 81km2 (31mi2)
of the original area of the township.
Yet, such a reduction in size does not mean that East Bolton has been left
without any resources. On the contrary, a varied landscape dotted with
lakes, marshes, mountains and short valleys forms together with the beautiful
valley of the Missisquoi river where are nestled the settlements of Bolton
Center and South Bolton, a most balanced and harmonious territory.
Over a hundred years ago, the township of Bolton was the theater of thriving
economic development with the exploitation of the Huntingdon copper mine,
situated on the west shore of the Long Pond. In 1866, it employed over
100 hard working men to produce two hundred tons of ore per month. Unfortunately,
a decade later the mine ceased to operate due largely to a major drop in
the price of copper after the Civil War in the United States. On the other
hand, the existence of the mine became the main factor of the railway development
in the township.
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Bolton Centre circa 1875
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The
railway in East Bolton
It was the heydays of railway construction where companies got formed to build
their own ideal stretch of railway for the purpose of developing this section
of the country rich in lumber and minerals. Among those companies, we have the
Missisquoi & Black Rivers Valley Railway which started in 1871 the construction
of a local resource railway that would extend from Richmond to the north to Mansonville
and Highwater to the south.
But the difficulty of raising funds for that purpose coupled with the problem
of eligibility to subsidies has been such that ten years later the only section
of the project that came to be realized was the one from Huntingdon Mine (called
Dillonton) to Bolton Center and South Bolton. Then the company took the name
of Missisquoi Valley Railway after having dropped the northern section of the
project.
At the turn of the century the CPR who, by then, had acquired most of those local
companies, completed the original project of M&BRV. But the geographic limits
of the North Missisquoi Valley could not permit a sufficient development of the
natural resources to support a profitable freight traffic of a railway.
On April 1st 1936 the railway service came to an end on the 22.8 miles of the
line between Eastman and North Troy, Vermont. After 60 years of economic development,
including a few economic crisis and a long period of stagnation, the railway
through Bolton was abandonned.
A few years later, the township got again dismembered to form the municipalities
of Austin (1938) on the east and St-Étienne-de-Bolton (1939) on the north
west. The remaining part of the township formed, as mentionned earlier, the municipality
of East Bolton.
The post W.W.II period brought about the promise of a new era of prosperity to
East Bolton. The construction of the autoroute 10 from Montreal to Sherbrooke
in 1963-64 and the improvement of the route 245 between Eastman and South Bolton
gave to the villages of East Bolton (Bolton Center and South Bolton) a direct
access to the autoroute and opened the natural resources of the municipality
to a rising economy - resort and recreation- which has become since then its
major economic base. |
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