Except for a few places like Windsor and La Pointe de Montréal (at Detroit), New France was unable to maintain permanent settlements in the Pays-d’en-Haut. After the Seven Years’ War (1756 – 1763), most of the French Empire in North America came under British rule, with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763. During the American War of Independence, waves of Loyalist settlers flowed into the British colonies. From then on, the sizeable anglophone population took over in what was to become Ontario.
Beginning in 1793, maps showed the place-names Gloucester, Nepean, Osgoode and North Gower. Carleton County was formed in 1798, and Gloucester became a township in 1850. The area attracted workers, especially for the lumber industry and related commercial and economic activities.
The region’s economy was spurred by the choice of Ottawa as the nation’s capital in 1857; soon there were more diversified activities, a new elite and a growing middle class. Businessmen like Charles Cummings provided services to the expanding population. His Cummings Island included a general store, a post office for all of Janeville, a stable and lumber yards. A wooden bridge was built on the Rideau River in 1836.
As an improvement, a toll bridge was added in 1845. Then in the early 1890s, the City of Ottawa constructed a metal bridge, called the Cummings Bridge or the Janeville Bridge, depending on who was referring to it. Both names appeared in the town records. Note that Janeville, which officially became a village in 1873, was located in the south part of Vanier, whereas Clarkstown was in the north.
Muséoparc Vanier Museopark
Eastview resulted from the merging of three villages: Janeville, with its anglophone majority, Clarkstown and Clandeboye, the francophone districts. Beechwood Avenue, the location of Mr. Clark’s property, was already an established thoroughfare. Janeville benefited from the crossing of the Bytown-Prescott rail line, built in 1854, which facilitated the transport of lumber and various industrial products. More and more factories appeared, along with the labour force to operate them. Janeville and Clarkstown flourished as a result of this economic activity, and their population grew because of their convenient proximity to factories and federal government offices. Seeking to acknowledge the linguistic reality of his city, Mayor Gérard Grandmaître had the name “Eastview” changed to “Vanier” in 1969 in honor of the former Governor General, Georges-Philéas Vanier. In 2001, Vanier became part of Ottawa.
