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D

r. Grignon, in his Album historique de la Paroisse de Ste-Agathe-des-Monts suggests that Octavien Rolland gave rise to the huge influx of wealthy businessmen who purchased large properties in our area. In French, these people are called villégiateurs. It translates as “people who stay, sojourn or vacation in the country”, but to date I have failed to find an English noun that expresses the same meaning.

While we know that he was not the first villégiateur, Mr. Rolland bought the huge peninsula that had been the estate of Curé Thibodeau. As you will recall, Curé Thibodeau perished in a fire that destroyed the presbytery in 1888. Four or five years later, Octavien Rolland purchased his property and henceforth, during that golden age of Ste. Agathe, the peninsula would be known as Rolland’s Point.

Octavien Rolland, described simply as ‘libraire’ by Grignon, was one of four sons of Jean-Baptiste Rolland, founder of Rolland Paper and one of the great Canadian entrepreneurs of the last century. J.-B. Rolland’s grandfather was a sergeant in the French army that came to protect New France against the British. After the French capitulation in 1760, Sergeant Jean Pierre Rolland decided that he preferred this new land to the France he had left behind and he declined the treaty offer allowing for repatriation of French soldiers.

We know from Lantier Rolland’s family history “Mon voyage dans le temps” that Jean Pierre married Marie-Joseph Guértin in Verchères in 1760. His only son, also Jean Pierre Rolland, moved to St. Hyacinthe in the wake of serious financial setbacks, with his young son, Jean-Baptiste, in tow.

J.-B. Rolland saw no prospects in the rough life of a colonist in St. Hyacinthe, and left his family’s home on foot at 18 years of age. He had 30 cents in his pocket and was determined to go to Montreal, a distance of three days’ walk. He arrived in Montreal in early April 1832 and set about finding himself a job. By 1834 he was a printer’s apprentice for La Minerve, the influential newspaper founded by A.N. Morin. By 1840 he was a master printer and that year he and a partner, John Thompson, opened their own print shop. Two years later, J.-B. Rolland broke off on his own, opening a bookstore. He was 24 years old. Over the next years he sold books, paper and paper products, imported books in French, English and German, and published textbooks. In 1859, his eldest son Damien joined him, and by 1872 his other three sons had joined the growing family firm. He was a benefactor to his neighbourhood on Rue St. Denis in Montreal, and between 1872 and 1879 was involved in the construction of many buildings in this sector, and was co-founder of the Bank of Hochelaga, which became the Provincial Bank and subsequently merged with the Banque Nationale. In 1879 his career turned full circle with his acquisition of La Minerve, that newspaper where he began working 47 years earlier. As we shall see, this did not end his involvement in the undertakings of Augustin Norbert Morin.

The real growth of his entreprises had only begun. In 1881, Curé Labelle learned that J.-B. Rolland wanted to manufacture his own paper and he encouraged the entrepreneur to examine a site in St. Jerome, where the train had recently arrived. Father and sons risked all to open their first paper plant in 1881-2. J.-B. by rights could have retired with great dignity and wealth, but instead at the age of 67 he started over again with his sons. Under their guidance La compagnie de papier Rolland grew into a great entreprise. In 1902, they opened a second paper mill in Mont Rolland, that same town where a generation before, Rolland’s predecessor A.N. Morin had experimented with potato farming in an attempt to encourage French Canadians to establish themselves in the Laurentians. In 1887, with the business well in the hands of his sons, J.-B. Rolland decided to retire. He was 72 years old. Sir John A. MacDonald named him to the Senate, where Senator Rolland felt he could continue to contribute to the country that he had helped so much to build, but unfortunately, a year later he passed away.

Over this century, La compagnie de papier Rolland, with a reputation for high quality paper products, continued to grow and expand, acquiring plants and companies across Canada and in the United States, remaining under the management of the Rolland family into the 1980’s.

Thus an important new family joined the Ste. Agathe community and theirs is but one of the great family stories of our Ste. Agathe heritage.

Joseph Graham has written a book that features a select number of stories of Laurentian places and how they got their names. To learn more, click here.

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This material may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written permission of the author. © Joseph Graham