The Emerging Road: Building a Lifeline Across the Townships

Heather Darch, Missisquoi Museum

Poor Reverend Cotton! When he moved to Missisquoi Bay in 1804, he was burdened with homesickness and a longing to remain connected to his family and a level of civility left behind in England. A persistent complaint from the good Reverend in his letters to his family, besides the “thousand inconveniences”, was his inability to move through the “hideous wilderness” from one community to another with relative ease. His efforts to travel to major centres such as St. Johns (now St. Jean-sur-Richelieu) or Montreal in order to find some familiar comforts were always thwarted by hardships along the way. His descriptions of roads and travel were usually punctuated with phrases such as “long and tedious” or “inconvenient and difficult”. Charles Cotton’s letters even had to be directed through the United States to a coffee house in Philadelphia for ships heading to England. It was not unusual for a letter from his sister to take eight months to reach him in return. It is a testament to his faith and mental fortitude that he remained in Missisquoi County for the rest of his life despite his complete sense of isolation.

Initially, travel across the Townships was through a trackless wilderness of forest and swamps. Settlers had to cut and break their own way to find their land claims. As there were no roads, there were no wheeled vehicles and all hauling, even in summer, was done on sleds which carried loads short distances for further transport by water. The route to travel into the Eastern Townships was limited to one principle trail known as the Magog Road. It stretched from the shores of Missisquoi Bay to the shores of Lake Memphremagog. Those going to Hatley crossed the lake on the ice or on a ferry, which operated in the better weather, to Georgeville, then known as “Copp’s Ferry”.

For many years the Magog Road was only a blazed or “spotted” trail in the forest with scarcely a cabin along the route. To travel the “road” was a trial of endurance, and unfortunately, early accounts of the route all recounted treacherous conditions or tragic endings. In 1799 for example, a Dr. Frisbie left St. Armand on horseback in winter. He was followed the next day by a traveller on snowshoes. The second man met up with the ill-fated Dr. Frisbie, who had frozen to death, in Bolton Pass.

Until 1820 the route was not considered passable for wheeled vehicles so could only be travelled on horseback or on foot. In 1826 a united effort was made to improve the road. A subscription of $1,100 was raised by concerned citizens, and work was undertaken to enhance its condition. In 1830 a government grant was secured and the road was developed into a state so that wagons could pass on it tolerably well.

The mail stages started along this route beginning in the late 1830s, but the impetus that really made the road a major connecting route came with the emergence of the railroad from Laprairie to St. Johns in the 1840s. This meant that mail and travelers from Montreal could be taken from St. Johns to Stanstead-Plain where they could change to the American stage heading to Boston. The hotel keepers along the Magog Road set up “stage lines” which meant a regular schedule of wagons crossed over the Townships to accommodate freight and people. If one was travelling from Montreal, a stage was taken in the evening to St. Johns so as to catch the very early stage for Stanstead the next day. “Through in one day,” the advertisements read, and horses were changed every 20 miles.

After leaving Mott’s Hotel in St. Johns, the stage crossed the Richelieu River to St. Athanase (Iberville) over the Jones Bridge built in 1837. From here the road passed south east of Mt. Ste-Thérèse on the left (formerly Mt Johnson and now Mt. St-Grégoire) and straight along the plank road built by Sir James Kempt. The Kempt road made its way to Stanbridge Township, through Notre-Dame de Stanbridge south to Mystic, to Riceburg and to Chandler’s Hotel in Stanbridge East. At Levi Stevens’ Hotel in Dunham, another stop was made for passengers and then on to Brome Village at Gilman’s Corners (Junction 104 & 215). The road is still marked today as “Stagecoach Road”. William Clement and later Thomas Prime operated a tavern just east of the village. Prime’s Tavern was considered new and modern in the 1840s. The rough ride on the stage road would head to Bolton and drop into the Bolton Pass. The road descended 300 feet in half a mile and the steep grade often required an additional team of horses to climb when travelling the opposite direction. Originally this section of the road was only a trap line and was not improved into a road until the 1840s. Once across the lake to Copp’s Ferry, Friend Bigelow’s tavern offered friendly and comfortable accommodations to the weary traveller. The road then continued over to Stanstead-Plain where it stopped at Benton’s or Studdert’s Hotel.

It is hard for one to imagine today what being isolated truly means. In this world of internet, cell phones, mass media and super highways, we are always connected. Travelling to Stanstead today can be accomplished easily across the Eastern Township’s autoroute. For the settlers of Missisquoi Bay, communicating with loved-ones or reaching markets was nearly impossible until the gradual emergence of the lifeline known as Magog Road.

Sources for article: Yesterdays of Brome County Volume 6, The Brome County Historical Society, Knowlton QC 1985. & Then and Now in Missisquoi Volume 10, Missisquoi Historical Society

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