Gagnon

History

During the 1870’s and 1880’s numerous French Canadians left the crowded province of Quebec to find new grounds in Prescott and Russell Counties. Establishment of the villages of Casselman and Limoges took place by the late 1880s. In between them another small settlement was beginning to take form as well. It became known as Gagnon.

In 1889 two men, Morris Shaver and Peter Kelty, each established sawmills within sight of one another. Shaver also built a hotel on the same land, located alongside the 3rd concession line.

The sawmills became prosperous and were dispatching the wood products to the large centres by means of the railway passing between both of them nearby Gagnon’s main intersection, the 3rd concession line, and the Gagnon Side road. The Canada Atlantic Railway (later CN), which opened in 1882, provided much-needed transportation to the mill. A few years later, the railway set a flagpole from which the train, without stopping, was picking the hooked outgoing mailbag. With the incoming and outgoing mail and the establishment of a post office, the place became known as Gagnon, in the name of the first postmaster. The large quantity of wood put on freight floats soon necessitated the building of a loading ramp named McCauley Siding.

The residents of Gagnon applied for and received the rights to form their school board and erect a schoolhouse. That led to the establishment of a Roman Catholic Separate School, RCSS No 4 in 1893. French Canadian families at the time were typically large resulting in a well-attended school. At time there were up to 60 pupils per year which must have been quite a load for the teachers. Centralization of the school system led to its closer in 1965, when at which time the students took the bus to the village of Limoges.

In 1903 Calixte Chevigny established the village’s first general store, situated right at the crossing. A post office opened in the store in 1906 with Odilon Gagnn serving as postmaster until 1921. Arthur Charbonneau established a butcher shop in 1909 that was well patronized by local residents.

Then, the mills began to falter, for want of lumber mainly due to the great fire of 1897 that devastated all of the wooded area. The two mills and the hotel closed one after the other. The land where Peter Kelty’s mill once stood changed hands in 1914. Shaver’s land which included both the hotel and mill fell under new ownership in 1920. Both men had passed away by that time.

Although lumbering came to an end, the French Canadians were no longer dependent on the lumber trades, having established prosperous farms. The area along with most of Prescott and Russell became well established in dairy production. In 1922, Remi Huneault built a cheese factory situated between the school and the general store and Moïse Laflèche became the owner in 1928. The enterprise, while well serving local farmers, encountered financial difficulties caused by the Great Depression. A family of cheesemakers, V. Dionne & Fils, were the creditors. They took over factory and operated it until 1948 when they sold it to local shareholders. They sold the cheese locally and exported the excess to larger communities. During World War II, defence authorities requisitioned it for allied soldiers abroad.

The general store also changed ownership over the years. Emile Millette purchased it in 1921. In 1923 he sold it to Alex Pommainville. Fire destroyed the building in the spring of 1928. Simeon Gagnon re-established the business in his nearby homestead, along with the postmaster’s wicket. The store didn’t last very long and closed in 1931 because of another fire.

Gagnon’s industrial decline was slow, rather than sudden. Although the 1920’s to 1960’s were prosperous years for Gagnon, they were based mainly on agriculture. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930’s, some gave up farming and left the area entirely. Many of the remaining farmers purchased the abandoned farms to enlarge their own plots. Some of the less fertile farmlands became part of the newly formed Larose Forest. A period of rural depopulation followed until a new country style period attracted residents that decided to establish themselves on smaller lots. Over time fields grew over and today young wooded lots are creeping around where industrial Gagnon used to sit and where numerous homesteads stood scattered about nearby the crossing.

Many of the newer homes now site further east and west from the centre of Gagnon. Realignment of the intersection at the crossing resulted in more changes. Construction of Highway 417 cut Pommainville Road in half. The road which used to be over 1.6 kilometres long is now a 125 metres long grass laneway, ending in a young forest. Annexation of Gagnon, Limoges, Casselman led to the formation of the much larger municipality of Nation covering a large area of eastern Ontario.

Gagnon faded away with the closing the mills, the butcher shop, the hotel, the general store, the post office, the cheese factory and the school. Today over 100 houses lie along Route 300 crossing Gagnon, a number of small businesses and farmland. In 2002, former residents erected an historic site on the land of the former general store. It commemorates the village of Gagnon that provided so much employment and prosperity in the early twentieth century. From exit 79 of highway 417, visitors can travel north some 125 metres before turning east for another 3 kilometres on Route 300. Following the erection of the historic site, former residents began holding an annual picnic on the second Sunday of every June. In 2004, under the leadership of Denis Gagnon, 37 former residents contributed to the publishing of a 200 page book authoring some 90 anecdotes and life episodes at Gagnon.

Although the official name vanished, the heart of the community remains. A new era for Gagnon is now emerging.

Many thanks to Edgar Pommainville and Denis Gagnon for providing the photographs and additional information on Gagnon.