Guadeloupe, Zurich, Melbourne, Venice: this summer The duty trip… to Quebec and Ontario! Second report of a series on these villages here whose name is best known for their international cousins.
Former MP Paul Steckle remembers a time when German and French were spoken in the Ontario village of Zurich, where he grew up and still lives. This era is over, but the traces of the unique past of this municipality are still visible today. Many Ontario villages are named after major European cities, but few can tell as compelling a story as that of Zurich.
The breeze from Lake Huron lulls the journey through the village, which is surrounded by lush green fields. A little less than 1000 people live there. On the main street, the Havasu café, owned by Bekah Pfaff since December 2021, is surrounded by Swiss-style buildings. “The village was not rich”, remarks the Zurich photographer Sandra Regier, who accompanies The duty when he visited, but some rustic buildings are still there.
Frederick Knell did not build them all, but it is to him that we owe the village, the only one reminiscent of Germany in all of Huron County. Seeking a better life, the Swiss German landed in the region in 1854, lured by the promise of arable land. He gave the community the name of the canton from which he originated: Zurich. Within a few years, some 300 other Germans — from states like Hesse and Bavaria — followed him.
The region that includes Zurich had something to dream about, so much so that another community—the French Canadians—decided to settle there at the same time. Their presence is now somewhat masked by the name given to the village. However, the French speakers were numerous, proud, and idealistic. The dream of a French-Canadian borough in Zurich remained unfinished. The fact remains that the French fact is still present in the village.
For a few decades the two communities lived separate lives, but today they are one, giving Zurich a unique character and its residents a mixed history. Mennonite families like the Steckles now have kinship ties with the Regiers, of French-Canadian origin. And Germans like the Ihrigs, owners of a vineyard in Zurich and natives of Hesse, reclaimed land that once belonged to French Canadians.
Saint Joseph
You have to drive south on the Zurich-Hensall road for a few minutes to see the street names change from German to French. It is at the end of this road, at the intersection of the Bluewater highway, that you can see Saint-Joseph, where French Canadians settled in the 19th century.e century. Technically, we’re still in Zurich—there’s no town hall in St. Joseph, and businesses there say they’re based in Zurich—but locals will tell you it’s a place distinct.
At the intersection, Napoléon Cantin, who died in 2005, laid out a park dotted with commemorative plaques to ensure that this story will not be forgotten. Napoleon worked it in honor of his grandfather Narcissus, one of the most influential figures of Saint-Joseph. Narcisse Cantin was a good friend of Brother André — who is said to have “healed” members of the community during two visits to Saint-Joseph — and a dreamer who hoped to build an 80-kilometre canal from Lake Huron to Lake Erie. The First World War, however, came to confuse his plans.
It is now his great-grandson Marc who has taken the torch from Napoleon’s hands. “I would like to go back in time and say to Narcisse: ‘We have to come up with a plan. [pour le canal]“,” he says around the dining room table of Loretta Ayotte, his colleague at the Saint-Joseph Historical Society. On the table, he lays books telling the history of the community, including one written by an ancestor of his wife, Pauline, seated at his side. But Marc Cantin, an American by birth, does not need it: he recites his family history in an encyclopedic way.
French is no longer spoken in Zurich, but the French-Canadian language and culture still define the identity of the three people gathered around the table. Loretta has taught it in area schools; in her basement, she keeps a seat from the old Montreal Forum and a photo taken with Guy Lafleur when she was a teenager. Marc Cantin speaks with enlightened eyes from Montreal. “I love sitting down and hearing French around me,” he says. “I can feel French in my blood,” testifies his wife, Pauline.
architectural jewels
There is no German equivalent of Marc Cantin in Zurich, observes Sandra Regier, but in the absence of a storyteller, the German community can count on cultural monuments, such as the Lutheran church of St. Peter’s. The tower of the latter is equipped with a mechanical clock – one of the only of its kind in the country – which was designed by the German George Hess in 1878. George Hess “sent clocks everywhere” explains David Yates, a teacher retired high school student who wrote books on Huron County history.
The church is located a short walk from the main Zurich intersection, where George Hess designed the object. The yellow building where his workshop was is still present; it is recognized by the clock that adorns it. In the town centre, the buildings of yesteryear such as the former building of George Hess mingle with new constructions, such as the library, which Marc Cantin built. An obsolete building with a Swiss frontage was demolished to build it.
“We had two butcher shops; we don’t have any today. We had two grocery stores; now we have one,” recalls former Liberal MP Paul Steckle, who entered the House of Commons in 1993 when Jean Chrétien was elected. But as evidenced by the construction of the library, Zurich has experienced a certain revival in recent years, and the process has accelerated during the pandemic with the opening of new addresses.
The next generation of businesses
Bekah Pfaff, who grew up near Zurich, is one of the new generation of entrepreneurs in the village. She opened the friendly Havasu cafe in December and prepares almost everything she sells there. “People around here want a place where they can gather, so they’re very supportive of me,” says Bekah Pfaff. This has allowed him to build friendships with customers, even though his café has only been open for seven months. One of the customers, Jorge, sometimes brings him empanadas.
Since the café opened in winter 2021, other traders have opened up shop. Ruth and Anneka Zehr now have an eco-responsible store in a room adjacent to the café; an Indian restaurant will soon be open to the public in the heart of downtown; and a music school that had left one of Zurich’s two main streets will soon return. “Residents want local businesses, we saw a movement during the pandemic,” notes Bekah Pfaff.
Jason Ingram has also benefited from the tourist boom during the pandemic. In 2011, after a few years spent in Cornwall, near the Quebec border, where he worked in the sheet metal industry, the native of Hensall, very close to Zurich, “come home” to buy the Ducharme orchard . The scenic spot is off Lake Huron along the Bluewater Highway in St. Joseph. “My dad always made beer and wine at home,” says Jason Ingram.
On August 26 and 27, Jason Ingram, Bekah Pfaff and the rest of the community will reunite at the Zurich Bean Festival, the village’s biggest celebration, for the first time in three years. Tens of thousands of visitors usually descend on the village every summer to eat community-prepared bean dishes, listen to local music and stroke vintage cars. “It’s a big deal,” says Jason Ingram.