The French Canadians
In the Inverness Township, only two French Canadians, Lazarre Rouey and Jean Desroches, obtained concessions between 1825 and 1840 but they do not seem to have ever settled permanently on their land. In 1831, twenty-three French Canadian families lived in the counties of Halifax, Tring, Leeds, Ireland and Broughton but none settled in the Inverness Township.
Contrary to the emigration movement of English Canadians, an important wave of French Canadian immigration towards the Inverness Township is attested after 1850. The French Canadians, whose population had grown considerably, moved away from the
seigneuries located in the St-Lawrence valley in search of new land on which to settle. The construction of the d’Arthabaska provincial road (Dublin Road) in 1848, facilitated this movement towards the township. Most of the families bought land belonging to English Canadians who were then leaving Inverness. The Charest, Roberge, Bergeron, Boucher, Bouffard, Rousseau and Royer families settled in Inverness during the 1860’s. Abbot Fafard left behind an account of the life of the first settlers of French Canadian descent.
In order to fully appreciate and understand the merits of these brave colonists who battle with such an immense forest, one must hear straight from their mouths the accounts of their sacrifices and hard work during the years following their arrival. The greatest difficulty they faced was a lack of roads which left them in a complete state of isolation. One must imagine these poor families living in small log cabins in the middle of the
forest. In order to visit a neighbour, they must walk across the forest for several miles. At night, only the wails of the storms and the moans of the animals can be heard. When these poor colonists find a bushel of grain, they need to make their way through the woods to the mill carrying a sac on their heads to have it ground and then bring it back in the form of flour the same way they came (Account of Ambroise Fafard, first resident priest of Inverness to the archbishop of Quebec in 1868).
In 1911, the French Canadians began to surpass in number the English speaking population in the Inverness Township. The French population of Inverness, however, dealt with the exodus of its own members toward the United States in the 20th century, and then with a more recent migration of the new generations that headed to the urban centers.
The Catholic church
Around 1860, the Catholic mission of Inverness was visited two to four times per year by
the priest of Saint-Sylvestre who celebrated mass in a private home. The first resident priest, Ambroise Fafard, arrived in Inverness in 1866:
I settled in with a Canadian family, to whom I owe much recognition for their hospitality. It is in the shelter of their home that I spent the first ten months of my stay in Inverness. A three room apartment was made available to me. One of the rooms was a small 10 x 8 bedroom where I celebrated mass on weekdays and kept the Blesssed Sacrament for the sick (Account of Ambroise Fafard to the archbishop of Quebec, 1868).
In January 1867, there were about fifty Catholic families living in Inverness. At that time, everything needed to be done as there was no Catholic church, no sacristy or presbytery in the village:
There are at least a dozen churches of different denominations in the Inverness Township. The village where I live alone contains five churches in a space of seven or
eight arpents. It is in the centre of this meeting place of protestant sects that I
arrived eighteen months ago to erect the foundations of a Catholic parish. No church, not
even a single piece of wood, not one single plank from which to build a cubbyhole. (Account of Ambroise Fafard to the archbishop of Quebec, 1868).
Abbot Fafard, who was looking for a place to establish the church and presbytery, was offered land at no cost by two generous citizens, Thomas Devaney , and a protestant, doctor James Reed. In the spring of 1867, construction work began and by the end of June, the divine office was celebrated in the presbytery. The blessing of the first Catholic church, dedicated to Saint Athanase, took place in December 1867. By 1960, the nearly centennial church made of wood is in need of repair. A decision is made that it be replaced with a new building. In December 1961, two weeks prior to the date set for its demolition, it is partially destroyed by fire. The new church, completed in the first days of the year 1962, could accommodate over five hundred people.
Ambroise Fafard, priest between 1866 and 1871 (Collection of Saint-Athanase church).
John Connoley, priest between 1871 and 1878 (Collection of Saint-Athanase church).
In 1871, an Irish priest took over abbot Ambroise Fafard’s position. Up until the end of
the 1920’s, the direction of the parish is entrusted alternately to a French Canadian priest
and to an Irish priest.
The former Catholic church built in 1867. During winter, parishioners get to mass by wagon, 1936 (Collection Lorena Gingras Turcotte).
The former Catholic church (Collection Lorena Gingras Turcotte).
Irish and Scottish Catholic pioneers rest together in the Catholic church (Picture Gilles
Pelletier)
The house of the Côté family on the rural routes 8 and 9 of Inverness. Henry Mimnaugh and his wife Elizabeth Mooney, both of Irish descent, built this house around
1860. In 1926, Henri Côté takes possession of the house (Collection Lorena Gingras
Turcotte).
The first Catholic school in the village of Inverness is built around 1869. Others are later
built on small rural routes (Collection Lorena Gingras Turcotte).
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Alfrédina Massé, teacher, along with her twenty three students during the annual
distribution of prizes and awards in 1915 (Collection Lorena Gingras Turcotte).
The village of Inverness around 1925 (Collection Lorena Gingras Turcotte).
