Desaulniers

History

By the 1890’s, Charles Alfred Paradis established numerous French Canadian settlements on the unusually rich fertile tract north of Lake Nipissing. As Verner, one of the early small communities began to grow, Father A.L. Desaulniers, a rival, decided to start another settlement farther north in Gibson Township. It was also east of the new French Canadian community of River Valley founded by Paradis.

The first wave of settlers arrived in 1895. They built and forged the beginnings of their new settlement, naming the community after Father Desaulniers. Technically the village held the name of Sainte-Anne-de-Desaulniers, the same as the future church. Homesteaders cleared their land in the summer, and worked in the lumber camps in the winter. Others found employment in the many small mills scattered throughout the area.

The post office first opened in 1895, along with a general store. After the Canadian Northern Railway arrived in 1913, the unexpected rail link helped solidify local lumbermen and farmers. In an instant, the town added a siding, station, water tower, a station agent’s home, and section houses. Around this time a cheese factory, operated by Lionel Vallières, also began production. Deasaulniers supported two schools; a public school, and a French Separate School. For a few years a second store was in operation.

During the prosperous years of 1915-16, the proud villagers erected a large, wooden church. It included a confessional, an altar, as well as a statue of the church’s patron, Sainte Anne. Unfortunately there was a serious problem. The church never consecrated the new house of worship. It was therefore never an official church. The reason for this was the bishop of Sault-Sainte-Marie Diocese, Monseigneur Scollard.

Scollard was an Irishman who despised the recent influx of French Canadian settlers in Nipissing District. The bishop thwarted every effort at French speaking colonization, to the point where it became a major deterrent to the development of future settlement schemes. Francophone parishes in and around North Bay had firsthand experience with Scollard. Even though the francophones formed the majority of Catholics, and contributed over 80 percent of its revenues, allocation of more than half the resources went to Anglophone parishes.

As the joyful residents celebrated their new church in 1916, they set off to receive Scollard’s praise and benedictions for the church. However instead of praise they received nothing but fierce opposition. Scollard liked to know and control everything. Initially he refused the residents’ request. His reasoning was that didn’t personally consult him. Eventually Scollard partially came to his senses and officially “opened” the structure on September 11th 1916. Full consecration never happened.

In the end the burden fell on the priests. The 25th of that same month saw the first mass celebrated by Father C. P. Thériault of the nearby community of Field. On July 29th 1917, they held a benediction ceremony for the statue but never consecrated the structure. Scollard was to hold his grudge until his death.

In its heyday, Desaulniers was a busy place. The streets that led to the Canadian Northern Railway Station, sported a store and hotel/rooming house. The station, and water tower which sat alongside the tracks while a sawmill sat in a nearby gully.

In 1947 Wilfred Philippe, purchased the general store and expanded it, selling groceries, hardware, pharmaceuticals, gas, feed and seeds. It also contained the post office as well as the town’s only telephone. A local co-op purchased the store in 1951. It lasted until sometime in the 60s.

As the community gradually declined in the 50’s, pasture replaced the homes and lots. Soon most of the main street was abandoned and the buildings torn down one by one. The post office closed in 1960. A new school, built in 1960 closed in 1970. Also long gone are the station, store and sawmill. Later the government realigned the highway erasing some of the town plan. The only business left was a small, lone chip stand.

Today the once busy road is empty and there’s almost nothing left. A few original homes remain occupied. All that remains are the foundations of the water tower and the ‘new’ school, an unoccupied ‘hotel’ and the collapsed shell of a cabin by the station.