Pointe-aux-Trembles: a dictionary recounting 350 history of eastern Montreal on the occasion of the founding of one of the oldest parishes on the island of Montreal

It was in Pointe-aux-Trembles that the actors Christian Bégin and Gibert Sicotte and the singer Richard Séguin were born, we learn from Historical Dictionary of Pointe-aux-Trembles which appears on the occasion of the 350^e anniversary of this borough in eastern Montreal.

“This is the oldest parish on the island after Ville-Marie,” says Pierre Desjardins, the project manager of this gigantic project which required 2,000 hours of work by a team of volunteers passionate about regional history. members of the Pointe-aux-Trembles History Workshop.

Founded in 1694, the parish “knew the Iroquois” before becoming a municipality, a city then a municipal district, as the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, wrote in her introductory remarks.

300 entries

Currently in press in preparation for the official launch of the celebrations, the 176-page work tells us a lot about the three and a half centuries of history that have marked the eastern tip of the island. From the Académie Roussin, a secondary school built in 1914 and which still exists, to the “zouaves” of the Chapelle de la Réparation, a group of papal soldiers founded in 1955, there are some 300 alphabetical entries that we discover in this richly illustrated document.

We can see the first baptism certificate celebrated in the parish, on October 30, 1674, that of Paul Pérot. The first marriage took place two weeks later, when Anne Poitron said yes to Jean Berger.

The document gives a lot of space to the buildings of the district, the best known being this mill, the first version of which was erected in 1671 to allow the settlers to grind their grain, and rebuilt on the current site in 1719. We learn a lot from it also on the archaeological excavations which revealed a very active pre-colonial indigenous presence.

The banks were the scene of a tragic event that occurred in 1687 when the Iroquois attacked the French, leaving several dozen dead on both sides. It was in Pointe-aux-Trembles, near Clémentine-de-la-Rousselière Park, that the English general James Murray landed with 3,800 soldiers to take Montreal in 1690.

Teamwork

Mr. Desjardins, who worked as a school administrator for most of his career after training in history and geography in the 1960s, is particularly proud of the “teamwork” that made this remarkable work possible.

The former president of the Pointe-aux-Trembles History Workshop invites citizens to come visit the borough museum, where the public can discover numerous objects and artifacts that bear witness to its rich past.