The earliest history of the Shawville area remains shrouded in the mists of time. The region as a whole was occupied by Algonquin hunting peoples. For millennia they roamed the vast forests of the region, setting out occasionally on the great river we now call the Ottawa to trade with tribes farther in the interior of the continent or eastward to those on the St. Lawrence. The earliest European presence in the region is little better chronicled. The Ottawa continued its role as a major transportation route to the heart of the continent. The future site of Shawville, however lay six miles north of the river. While local legends about nearby clashes between European trappers and natives abound, the documented history of the area is confined to the early nineteenth century.<\/p>\n
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The earliest settlers in the area were Irish Protestants from county Tipperary who came to Canada after the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815. Many had first settled in the Carp Valley in Carleton county on the Upper Canadian side of the Ottawa River. Local lore tells us that Thomas Hodgins, John Dale and his wife Elizabeth, set out from this colony in the summer of 1821 to search for new land to settle. It is believed that they paddled up the river landing in a small bay some forty miles upriver. The two men then set off northwards in search of a suitable place to homestead. They fought thick bush, insects and swamp, until on the second day it is said they reached a Shaw’s letter upon discovering the village would be clearing where a beautiful spring bubbled out of the ground named after his family. They decided that this was where they would begin their new farms.<\/p>\n
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Before the decade was out, many other families from Carleton joined them in the new township of Clarendon. Before long, businesses were set up to serve the farming community that was sprouting around the original settlement.\u00a0 This area became known as \u201cThe Center.\u201d By the 1840s, Clarendon Center had become a small, but thriving village. As the farms grew and prospered, so did the village. By the 1870s the Center had grown enough to be erected as a municipality in its own right. On January 12, 1873 a new municipality was announced by proclamation. The new town would be called \u2018Shawville\u2019 in honour of one of its most influential and prosperous families, the Shaws.<\/p>\n
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So began the history of a town that has not forgotten, and is still intimately tied to its agricultural hinterland. From its earliest settlement to the present day, farming has been the raison d\u2019etre of the town. It is interesting to note that those springs that were discovered so many years ago, today supply the town of Shawville with its drinking water. Indeed our past is tied to our present!<\/p>\n"},{"key":"main_text_french","label":"Main Text (French)","value":"
L’histoire la plus ancienne de la r\u00e9gion de Shawville se perd dans la nuit des temps. La r\u00e9gion dans son ensemble \u00e9tait occup\u00e9e par des peuples de chasseurs algonquins. Pendant des mill\u00e9naires, ils ont parcouru les vastes for\u00eats de la r\u00e9gion, empruntant de temps \u00e0 autre la grande rivi\u00e8re que nous appelons aujourd’hui l’Outaouais pour commercer avec les tribus situ\u00e9es plus \u00e0 l’int\u00e9rieur du continent ou vers l’est, avec celles qui vivent sur le Saint-Laurent. La premi\u00e8re pr\u00e9sence europ\u00e9enne dans la r\u00e9gion n’est gu\u00e8re mieux document\u00e9e. L’Outaouais a continu\u00e9 \u00e0 jouer son r\u00f4le de voie de transport majeure vers le c\u0153ur du continent. Le futur site de Shawville se trouve cependant \u00e0 six miles au nord de la rivi\u00e8re. Si les l\u00e9gendes locales sur les affrontements entre trappeurs europ\u00e9ens et autochtones abondent, l’histoire document\u00e9e de la r\u00e9gion se limite au d\u00e9but du dix-neuvi\u00e8me si\u00e8cle.<\/p>\n
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Les premiers colons de la r\u00e9gion \u00e9taient des protestants irlandais du comt\u00e9 de Tipperary qui sont venus au Canada apr\u00e8s la fin des guerres napol\u00e9oniennes en 1815. Beaucoup d’entre eux s’\u00e9taient d’abord install\u00e9s dans la vall\u00e9e de Carp, dans le comt\u00e9 de Carleton, sur la rive canadienne de la rivi\u00e8re des Outaouais. La tradition locale raconte que Thomas Hodgins, John Dale et sa femme Elizabeth sont partis de cette colonie au cours de l’\u00e9t\u00e9 1821 \u00e0 la recherche de nouvelles terres \u00e0 coloniser. On pense qu’ils ont remont\u00e9 la rivi\u00e8re en pagayant et qu’ils ont d\u00e9barqu\u00e9 dans une petite baie situ\u00e9e \u00e0 une quarantaine de miles en amont. Les deux hommes sont ensuite partis vers le nord \u00e0 la recherche d’un lieu propice \u00e0 l’\u00e9tablissement d’une famille. Ils lutt\u00e8rent contre des buissons \u00e9pais, des insectes et des mar\u00e9cages, jusqu’\u00e0 ce que, le deuxi\u00e8me jour, ils atteignent, dit-on, la lettre d’un certain Shaw, qui d\u00e9couvrit que le village serait situ\u00e9 dans une clairi\u00e8re o\u00f9 une belle source jaillissait du sol et portait le nom de sa famille. Ils d\u00e9cid\u00e8rent que c’\u00e9tait l\u00e0 qu’ils commenceraient leurs nouvelles fermes.<\/p>\n
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Avant la fin de la d\u00e9cennie, de nombreuses autres familles de Carleton les rejoignent dans le nouveau canton de Clarendon. Rapidement, des entreprises s’installent pour desservir la communaut\u00e9 agricole qui se d\u00e9veloppe autour de la colonie d’origine. Cette zone est connue sous le nom de \u00ab The Center \u00bb (le centre). Dans les ann\u00e9es 1840, Clarendon Center \u00e9tait devenu un petit village prosp\u00e8re. Le village s’agrandit et prosp\u00e8re au fur et \u00e0 mesure que les fermes se d\u00e9veloppent. Dans les ann\u00e9es 1870, le centre s’\u00e9tait suffisamment d\u00e9velopp\u00e9 pour \u00eatre \u00e9rig\u00e9 en municipalit\u00e9 \u00e0 part enti\u00e8re. Le 12 janvier 1873, une nouvelle municipalit\u00e9 est annonc\u00e9e par proclamation. La nouvelle ville s’appellera \u00ab Shawville \u00bb en l’honneur de l’une des familles les plus influentes et les plus prosp\u00e8res, les Shaws.<\/p>\n
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C’est ainsi qu’a commenc\u00e9 l’histoire d’une ville qui n’a pas oubli\u00e9 et qui est toujours intimement li\u00e9e \u00e0 son arri\u00e8re-pays agricole. Depuis le d\u00e9but de la colonisation jusqu’\u00e0 aujourd’hui, l’agriculture a \u00e9t\u00e9 la raison d’\u00eatre de la ville. Il est int\u00e9ressant de noter que les sources d\u00e9couvertes il y a tant d’ann\u00e9es alimentent aujourd’hui la ville de Shawville en eau potable. En effet, notre pass\u00e9 est li\u00e9 \u00e0 notre pr\u00e9sent !<\/p>\n"},{"key":"stop_Number","label":"Stop Number","value":""},{"key":"Image_2","label":"Image 2","value":false},{"key":"image_3","label":"Image 3","value":false},{"key":"image_4","label":"Image 4","value":false},{"key":"image_5","label":"Image 5","value":false},{"key":"image_6","label":"Image 6","value":false},{"key":"image_7","label":"Image 7","value":false},{"key":"image_8","label":"Image 8","value":false},{"key":"next_walking_tour_stop","label":"Next Walking Tour Stop (English)","value":""},{"key":"next_walking_tour_stop_copy","label":"Next Walking Tour Stop (French)","value":""},{"key":"home-button-english","label":"Home Button (English)","value":"https:\/\/shawville.ca\/walking-tour\/"},{"key":"home-button-french","label":"Home Button (French)","value":"https:\/\/shawville.ca\/fr\/visite-a-pied\/"}],"yoast_head":"\n