Gazetteer for Pontiac County, Quebec

Contents
   Table 1. Gazetteer of selected places of Pontiac County, Quebec
   Table 2. Corrections from the Geomatics data base
   Table 3. Establishment dates of early townships from the Crown lands grant book
   Table 4. Further information on the early establishment of Pontiac County, Quebec

Links
   Renfrew Co. GenWeb main page
   Gazetteer for Renfrew County, Ontario
   UOVGG main page

This gazetteer describes the communities in the Upper Ottawa Valley area, Pontiac County, Quebec, Canada as an aid in locating places and giving the correct spelling of place names.

Table 1 below describes 233 communities, villages, towns, and townships as well as a few lakes, islands, capes, and rapids that appear on current 1:250,000 scale maps. These places are reported by geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude); and the 1:50,000 scale map sheets of the Canadian National Topographic System (NTS).

Many jurisdictional changes have been made since the townships were first described and contemporary maps often do not identify the boundaries of the original townships. To facilitate reference to early records the original and current township names are both listed.

Tables 2 to 4 provide further remarks, notices of corrections and establishment dates for the earliest townships and municipalities.

Table 1. Gazetteer of selected places of Pontiac County, Quebec

Abbreviations

Sources

The names, NTS map sheet numbers, latitudes, and longitudes for Quebec were taken from Energy Mines and Resources (1997) “Concise Gazetteer of Canada.” First edition. Readers can consult Canada’s toponymic agency, Geomatics Canada, Natural Resources Canada, to verify spellings; to obtain latitude longitudes; to determine distance between localities; to list nearby localiies within a specified radius; or to search for additional place names.

The compiler was not aware of a map resource for concession and lot numbers for Pontiac County, Quebec and so these cannot be listed. If you are aware of sources of maps decribing the concessions and lots of Pontiac County please contact the UOVGG webmaster.

Explanations and comments

The major towns and villages are usually autonomous municipalities. As an aid to locating these towns the above table describes these towns by their originating township. For example Bryson, Campbell’s Bay and Portage-du-Fort were originally within the perimeter of Litchfield Tp. Fort-Coulonge is in the Mansfield Tp. area.

Aldfield Tp., Onslow Tp., and Eardley Tp. were originally part of Pontiac County and are presently in Mun. de La Pêche and Mun. de Pontiac, MRC Des Collines. Similarly the village of Quyon is in MRC Des Collines. These three townships are included here as part of the Pontiac County because of their long-time association with the county. Edwards Tp. and Eddy Tp. front on the upper Ottawa River at Holden Lake opposite Head, Clara and Maria Tp. Mun., Renfrew County; however, they are treated here as outside Pontiac County as they are in the Quebec MRC of Temiscamingue (NTS map sheet 31L/08).

Many physical features appear on the 1:50,000 scale maps; however, for the sake of brevity these are not reported here. One larger place (Grand-Calumet) was inadvertantly not reported on the 1:250,000 NTS map. One place (Biddy's Hole) has a community symbol (small circle) and yet the place is not labelled on the 1:250,000 NTS map. The spelling Île-aux-Allumettes is used for the island; however, the two townships are spelt L'Isle-aux-Allumettes.

Some places straddle the boundary between two townships. These are shown with a forward slash, “/.” Thorne-Lake, Clarendon Tp. and Rosenthal, Radcliffe Tp. are at the junction of three townships. All spellings have been checked against the Geomatics database.

Table 2. Corrections from the Geomatics data base

250K = 1:250,000 scale NTS map

Table 3. Establishment dates of early townships from the Crown lands grant book

Dates townships first erected from the Crown Land Grant book 1763 to Dec. 31, 1890, transcribed Nov. 2000 by Mrs. Elsie Sparrow, Archivist, Pontiac Archives. Eardley Tp. from Sullivan, Landry, and Nephin (1980, 15). The comments are from a letter, Nov. 29, 2000, Mrs. Elsie Sparrow, Campbell’s Bay, Que. to Stephen Gray, Victoria, B.C.

There is no record of Geugues Tp. or Petit Allumette in the Geomatics Toponymic database. Île Hawley was rescinded and the island renamed Île Morrison. There is a Duhamel Tp. in Témiscamingue on map sheet 31M/06 and no listing for Duhamel Tp. in Pontiac Co. Calumet Tp. was presumably renamed Grand-Calumet Tp. The MRC Pontiac (1997) at www.mrcpontiac.qc.ca/ilecalumetv_a.htm describes that "Calumet Island was erected as a township in 1846, with F. X. Bastien as mayor."

Table 4. Further information on the early establishment of Pontiac County, Quebec

Source: Sullivan, Stella; Landry, Brenda; and Nephin, Helen 1980. “Welcome to the Pontiac” County of Pontiac Historical Research. English and French, 23 pages and map. [Booklet gratiously donated by Mrs. Elsie Sparrow, curator of the Pontiac Archives, Nov. 2000.]

Sullivan et al. (1980) may not be correct about the name change for Church Tp. Dorion and Church Townships are shown as separate townships on the NTS map sheet 31K, Deep River edition 2B (1977).