THE CHURCH OF LACHINE

On a Sunday in May, 1675, the canoe which convey-d the missionary, Mr. Bailli, capsized. Mr. Bailli succeeded in escaping by swimming, but the canoeman, George Allain, living in the lower part of Lachine, was drowned. This accident induced the Seminary to build à chapel at Lachine itself. Mr. Guyotte, a priest of the Seminary, was placed in charge of this work. This chapel, made up of piece upon piece, measured thirty-six feet in length and the same in width, and was built by Pierre Gaudin dit Chatillon, farmer and carpenter, having his farm near the rapids. It was opened to worship on Holy Thursday, 1676, under the name of the Ho'y Angels. It was at first served by mission by the priests of St. Sulpice, residing a'ways at La Presentation. The first curé of Lachine, Mr. Pierre Remy, was appointed on November 11, 1680 (1), but continued to live at La Presentation.

de M. Dollier, Supérieur du dit Séminaire, suivant l'agrément qu'il en avoit du dit seigneur évesque, qui après avoir desservi cette paroisse deux ans entiers en fust retiré par mon dit sieur Dollier et mis à la cure de Vilmarye pour la desservir, Mr. Perot qui l’avoit desservie estant deceddé ; et à la place du dit sieur Fremont y fust mis Mr Pierre Remy, prestre du dit Séminaire le 11e novembre, 1680, qui dessert encore cette paroisse.”

Mr. Remy states in the same document that all the marriages, baptisms and deaths which took placeat Lachine before the 12th of april, 1676, were recorded in the registers of Villemarie, ‘par les missionnaires qui ont desservi la coste de ‘“ Lachine par forme de mission.”

In another note, Mr. Remy gives the names of the missionnaries who acted from ‘‘ce lieu dit La Présentation ”, from 1673 to 1675; they were: ‘ Mrs. les abbés Salagnac de Fenélon, d'Urfé, Barthelemy, Le Bailly, Trouvé et Frémont.” These were in regular attendance. In 1674, M. de Fenélon was described by the Superior Council of Quebec, as ‘‘ptre, curé du boult de l'Isle de Montréal.” Jug. et Dél., vol. 1, p. 819 M. Remy has not transmitted the names of the temporary missionaries who visited Lachine from about 1666 to 1673.

Faillon, vol. 3, p. 356, says of the temporary missionaries: “Dès qu'il y eut des colons établis dans l'ile de Montréal et à la côte de Saint-Sulpice (Lachine), le Séminaire crut être obligé de leur envoyer un prêtre pour leur donner les secours de son ministère; ce qui faisait dire à M. de Laval, dans son Ætat de l'Eglise, qu'il envoya à Rome en 1661: L'ile de Montréal est partagée en diverses paroisses auxquelles les prétres résidant à Villemarie ont soin d'administrer Les sacrements et les autres secours spirituels. On envoya ainsi des prêtres d'abord à la Chine et à la Pointe-aux-Trembles, mais par manière de mission passagère et à certains jours seulement. De là cette formule dans les ordonnances du juge de Villemarie: Le présent acte sera lu et affiché à la Chine et à la Pointeaux-Trembles à l'issue des Messes qui s'y diront les premiers jours. Ordonnance de Talon, 1672.

(1) In another note, Mr. Remy says: ‘Le 10 novembre 1684, mon dit Seigneur l'Evêque.... envoya le titre de cette cure qui a toujours demeuré indécise, jusqu'à ce que l'on ait seu la volonté et l'acceptation de Messire Louis Tronson, prestre, Supérieur du Séminaire... si cette cure deineurera fixe ou amovible.

Te

It was only after the sale to Agathe St. Perre, in the autumn of 1ù | 1685, or during the winter of 1686, that he went to reside per- | manently in the wooden presbytery, constructed in 1680 at La-

chine, but which had been occupied until then (1686) only by the | Sisters of the Congregation, the curé accepting a small portion of 14 the building for the short stays that he made there. It even 18 seems that the venerable foundress, Sister Bourgeoys, was the first to teach at Lachine,

Mr. Remy, resided permanently at Lachine only after 1685. In 1701, he erected, almost wholly at his expense, the large stone church which was demolished only in 1869, to make room for | the Novitiate of the Oblat Fathers. The new church, we see at Lachine, was consecrated December 2nd, 1865 (1). !

At the time of the massacre of August 5th, 1689, the Fort La Presentation was not even ‘attacked and Mr. de Catalogne, who was on the spot, tells us that it was very well guarded. The population above the fort was not even visit:d by the Iroquois. The storm which favored their crossing from the Chateauguay river did not permit of their risking themselves above Dorval Island, where Lake St. Louis is several miles wide. The popula- LUN | | tion of Lachine, from La Presentation to Verdun, was not so for- fA tunate. René Chartier, proprietor of the farm occupied to-day | by Charles Décary, son of Jean, near the little Bouchard river, | his two sons and a small Indian, their slave, were massacred on the place where stands to-day the summer residence of Amable Lallemand. On the farm above, the property of J. B. O. Martin, nm the lot of Mr. Jos. Hutchins, the settler Jacques Morin, and one of his sons were made prisoners, and probably massacred at the village of the barbarous tribes His wife and four children L escaped the carnage. So did the wife of Chartier and a young LL: girl of fourteen. This latter, afterwards married Antoine Berthe-

THE LACHINE MASSACRE. l |

(1) The registers of Lachine make no mention of a cemetery till the year 1684, Before that time, every buria!l is stated to have been made in the chapel. The |: 4 first burial ‘‘dans le lieu destiné pour le cimetière de la paroisse de la Chine, au (fl à pied d'une croix plantée pour ce sujet”, was that of Louise Magdeleine André, {4 who died of fever on the 22nd of July, 1684 The first burial in the new stone LA church was that of Gabriel Perrin, August 4, 1703, The first burial in the old | 1] chapel was that of Le Roy de Maran, made in November 1676. Registres de LT Lachine, |

let, ancestor of the late Mr. Olivier Berthelet, The reader, who is anxious to have more details of these sad events, might consult my Vieux Lachine (1).

During the war of 1812-13, Dorval became the seat of operations of an important detachment of British troops on the farm of the Monet's now occupied by Benjamin Décary. Captain Roy, fether of MM. Rouer and Euclide Roy, went to Lachine with a corps of volunteers, and camped at a spot near the lock of to day. On reception of the news of the victory of Chateauguay, the volunteers returned to Montreal,