DORVAL

Not more than twenty years ago, Dorval was known only as the market of the lumbermen who brought down and anchored their immense rafts for months at a time, during the summer season and even during winter. They had to go elsewhere in 1877, owing to the injunctions of the Courts, granted at the request of certain river side proprietors. It is from the decision of the Court of Appeals that dates the prosperity of Dorval, although for several years before, the beauties of the locality had attracted the attention of some amateurs of country life. In 1854, Sir George Simpson, acquired the three Dorval Islands from J. Bte. Meloche, the grandson of Antoine, for $4000. He erected on one of them a superb villa, which was occupied by himself and at times by General Williams. It was also at Dorval, on the Shackell property, that the military men of the times had their summer me:s, and the small cemetery, at the corner point of Dorval Island, contains the remains of several soldiers who died during their stay in the country.