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A Group of People at Saunderson Falls

Black & white photograph of a group of nine people standing on the shore of a rushing river. At left, a man is perched partway up a tree trunk. Curé Labelle, a heavy-set man, is seen wearing a cassock and a wide-brimmed felt hat. At centre and right are six men and a teenaged boy wearing three-piece suits and top hats, caps or felt hats. Two of them are smoking pipes.

Photographer: J.-B. Villiot dit Latour
Date: [arounds 1880]
Source: Société d’histoire de la Rivière-du-Nord, Prévost family fonds
Reference no.: P020,S05,SS03,P16

Curé Labelle’s arrival in 1868 was a turning point in the history of the village of Saint-Jérôme. Tirelessly committed to developing the railroad and the settlement of the Northern Townships, Labelle, along with the local elite, helped make Saint-Jérôme the region’s economic hub. With the train station, the water power of the Rivière du Nord, economic and social vitality, and abundant skilled labour, Saint-Jérôme was attractive to investors, and many industries set up shop in this village north of Montreal, which was incorporated as a town in 1881. Saint-Jérôme came into its own, as the Reine du Nord (“Queen of the North”).