Saint-Jacques, Quebec
Municipality in Quebec, Canada From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint-Jacques (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ ʒak] ) is a 26 mi² (67.34 km²) rural municipality in the Lanaudière region of Quebec, Canada, part of the Montcalm Regional County Municipality with a population of 4,300 year-round residents.[5][6] The municipality is notable for its natural beauty and horticulture. Officially founded in 1774 by thirty Acadian families who managed to escape by boat to Quebec after forced expulsion, Saint-Jacques is part of the region known as the "Acadian cradle of Lanaudière."[7]
Saint-Jacques | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Built in 1927, l'ancien bureau de poste is the oldest post office in the municipality. | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Nickname: "The Acadian cradle of Lanaudière" | |
 Location within Montcalm RCM | |
  Saint-Jacques Location in central Quebec | |
| Coordinates: 45°57′N 73°34′W[1] | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Quebec |
| Region | Lanaudière |
| RCM | Montcalm |
| Settled | Mid 18th-century |
| Constituted | May 20, 1998 |
| Named for | Jacques Degeay |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Josyanne Forest |
| • Federal riding | Montcalm |
| • Prov. riding | Joliette |
| Area | |
| • Total | 67.20 km2 (25.95 sq mi) |
| • Land | 67.17 km2 (25.93 sq mi) |
| Population (2021)[3] | |
| • Total | 4,302 |
| • Density | 64/km2 (170/sq mi) |
| • Pop (2016–21) |  8.3% |
| • Dwellings | 1,939 |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| Postal code(s) | |
| Area code(s) | 450 and 579 |
| Highways[4] |  R-158  R-341 |
| Website | www |
"The Great Upheaval" (Fr. "le Grand Dérangement") began in the fall of 1755 and lasted until 1778.[8][9] "The first removals ... [of] approximately 7,000 people were from settlements around the Bay of Fundy" in present-day Nova Scotia.[6] The majority were expelled by ship to the "continental colonies or France," but 225 fled south to Quebec.[8] They would go on to found a handful of new Acadian villages, or “Little Cadies,” including Saint-Jacques, which is why the Saint-Jacques coat of arms uses the same colors as the Acadian flag.[6][7][10]
Over the years, the territory has been known by various names:[1]
- Saint-Jacques-de-la-Nouvelle-Acadie (ca. 1770)
- Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan (1832-1917)
- Saint-Jacques-de-Saint-Sulpice
- L'Achigan
- Nouvelle-Acadie
- Terres-Promises
- Saint-Jacques-de-Montcalm
The name Saint-Jacques was given in honour of Jacques Degeay (1717-1774), priest of L'Assomption from 1742 to 1774, who supported the Acadians in 1766.[1]
Originally called Saint-Jacques-de-la-Nouvelle-Acadie to commemorate the Acadians' second pioneering effort and Father Jacques Degeay who helped them, the municipality provided the settlers key resources for living off the land.[9][11][12] The site provided ready access to "hardwood ... with which [to] build homes, barns, poultry houses, hog barns, sheep pens.... ploughs, tables, chairs, or tool handles ... and "soft wood" — the white pine especially — [for] cabinets, hutches, bowls and shoes."[9] Although the first houses, built in 1768, were wood, by the beginning of the 1800s, they were being built of stone, which was also plentiful.[10][9] An oft-repeated adage explained such abundance this way: "Our fathers lost Acadia; In return, [we] found the richest lands of Lower Canada.... In [our] veins flow[s] the purest French blood."[10]
In 1772, the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan was founded.[1] That same year, the villagers hired a priest and, in 1775, they built their first church.[12] Nine years later, they began cultivating tobacco, which became so essential it is pictured on one of the four quadrants of the municipality's coat of arms.[9][13] Other agricultural crops followed: corn, grain, as well as dairy farms in the swine industry, vegetable farming, the farming of mink, and maple trees, eventually leading to the development of off-season industries and factories.[9]
In 1835, its post office opened with the abbreviated name of Saint-Jacques. In 1845, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Jacques-de-Saint-Sulpice or L'Achigan was formed, but abolished in 1847 to become part of the County Municipality of L'Assomption. In 1855, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Jacques(-de-l'Achigan) was reestablished.[1] By 1895, Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places described Saint-Jacques this way:
SAINT JACQUES DE L’ACHIGAN, a post-village of Québec, co. of Montcalm, 13 miles N.N.W. of L'Assomption. It has a church, a convent, a brewery, &c. Pop. 800.[14]
In 1912, the Village Municipality of Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan was created when it ceded from the parish municipality. Its name was shortened to Saint-Jacques in 1917, and 3 years later, the name of the parish municipality was also abbreviated.[1]
In 1998, the village municipality and the parish municipality merged to form the new Municipality of Saint-Jacques.[1]
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1996 Population based on revised count. Population amounts prior to 1998 are total of Saint-Jacques Village and Saint-Jacques Parish. Source: Statistics Canada[3][15] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Private dwellings occupied by usual residents (2021): 1,892 (total dwellings: 1,939)[3]
Mother tongue (2021):[3]
- English as first language: 0.6%
- French as first language: 97.1%
- English and French as first language: 0.9%
- Other first language: 1.3%
- Saint-Jacques is a destination for outdoor activities such as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and hiking.[16]
- In addition to the Parc des Cultures, which uses arts, horticulture and ornament to memorialize the municipality's history, it also hosts the hiker-friendly Parc de la Coulée.[16]
- The Maison de la Nouvelle-Acadie (Home of the New Acadia) is a small museum that traces the eight-part story of the Acadian arrival in Canada from 1604 to the foundation of Saint-Jacques in 1774.[17]
- Several structures are listed on both the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec and the Canadian Register of Historic Places:[18][19]
- l'ancien bureau de poste
- l’église de Saint-Jacques
- la maison Louise-Pariseau
- le parc des cultures
- le parc Grand-Pré
- la maison de la Nouvelle-Acadie
- le couvent des sœurs de Sainte-Anne
- le centre culturel du Vieux-Collège
| French-language Schools | English-language Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Governance | Commission scolaire des Samares | The Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board |
| Elementary | École de Grand-Pré[20] | Joliette Elementary School in Saint-Charles-Borromée[21] |
| High School | École Saint-Louis-de-France[22] | Joliette High School in Joliette[23] |
- Francis Cassidy (1827–1873), lawyer and Mayor of Montreal for three months, dying in office
- Bernard Landry (1937–2018), Premier of Quebéc from 2001–2003
- Marcel Dugas (1883–1943)
- Gisèle Ricard (1944–2021), composer
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
