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D

r. Luc-Euseble Larocque moved back to St. Jerome after a successful hiatus in California during the gold rush. There is no record of how much money he made or how he made it, but it was clear he did not make it ruthlessly.

The records show that he acquired farmland from the Crown in the spring of 1852 in what was then the most remote part of the French Canadian colonial frontier, the northern limits of Ste. Adele, in what is today a part of Ste. Agathe. His acquisition was on the shore of a lake called Lac de la Réunion, (present-day Trout Lake) so named in honour of the uniting of the Canadas under Lord Durham.

He was among the earliest colonists, but his profile was very different from what the minister of colonisation was contemplating. He was not a refugee of the collapsing seigniorial system desperate to eke out a farm in the wilderness. He was a man of significant independent means. Most colonists arrived on a predetermined farm, really no more than a woodlot, with a lease that stated that if they could build a house and meet basic other criteria, then they could apply for the title to the property. Larocque simply purchased the property he wanted. He purchased several farms, and seems to have had a scheme whereby he would install farmers, aid them to set up, and collect rent from them, having invested his money into revenue properties. In other words, in the midst of the collapse of the seigniorial system he wanted to create a new seigneury.

Perhaps he was encouraged in his efforts by his brother, Father Larocque, who would become the first priest of the new parish of Ste Agathe in 1862, or perhaps he wished to help create a parish. Whatever his intentions, his plans were doomed by his big heart and his profession. While he managed to find farmers who would rent and develop the farms, he did not manage to collect any rent. Instead, having fallen in love with the north, he travelled each spring, ostensibly to collect the rent, but ultimately to minister to the sick on his farms. He so loved his country life that he spent the summers writing poetry to his wife who preferred to stay in their comfortable home in St. Jerome. He never succeeded in convincing her to move up with him for the summer, but to reassure him that she shared in his appreciation of the beauty of the up-country she painted landscapes inspired by his poetry. Eventually he gave half of one of his farms to the newly organised parish and his brother, newly recognised as the Monsignor, named a new street in his honour. Thus, the first street behind the Catholic Church in Ste. Agathe became la rue Larocque.

Dr. and Mrs. Larocque died leaving little more than her landscape paintings and his poetry to their daughter in St. Jerome and his remaining properties were sold to cover his losses, but today, rue Larocque, a quiet residential street, bears witness to his generosity.

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