Every year, former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary spend part of their summer vacation in North Hatley. If the Clintons have set their sights on this picturesque village thanks to their friendship with bestselling author Louise Penny, they are only following an American tradition that goes back more than 150 years.
North Hatley’s origins are tied to the American Revolutionary War in the 18th century. About 40,000 Americans loyal to the British crown decided to leave their country and seek refuge in British North America. By the end of hostilities in 1783, nearly 2,000 American Loyalists had already settled in the vast territory called the Province of Quebec.
The immigration challenge
This wave of immigration presented the British authorities with major challenges. How can we reward the king’s loyal American subjects by granting them land without alienating the French-speaking people? In 1791, Britain finally found a solution. It divided the province into two parts: Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
It was the new Lieutenant Governor of Lower Canada, Alured Clarke, who was tasked with opening the new province to colonization. In February 1792 he announced that the area south of the “St. Lawrence River” near the border would be granted to those who wanted to settle on Crown land. However, the process was complex and got off to a slow start.
Alured Clarke Photo credit: The Fusilier Museum London / Public domain
Familiar names for tourists
Two men, a British man and an American, waited more than 11 years to be granted nearly 24,000 acres of land in the new community of Hatley.
Henry Cull, originally from Dorset, England, was a businessman who settled in Quebec around 1784. Unable to make a fortune from trading, he began speculating on land. In 1803, he allied with Ebenezer Hovey, an early Loyalist from Connecticut, to form a 33-member association to manage the claim.
Cull eventually acquired the lands on the Massawippi River and the northern end of the lake. With his American partner, he paved the way for other Americans from Massachusetts and New Hampshire. They were called LeBarons, Wadleighs or Hoveys, names that will be familiar to tourists visiting the village today.
Steamboat on Lake Massawippi around 1904. Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
The arrival of the railway
The Americans were also responsible for North Hatley becoming a popular vacation spot in the late 19th century. Two factors were crucial.
First, the village was finally connected to the railroad network to provide access to the Eastern Townships from the United States.
In 1871, the Massawippi Valley Railroad (MVR) built a new rail line between Newport, Vermont and Lennoxville, passing through North Hatley. The Connecticut & Passumpsic Railway, which had connected Boston and Newport since 1864, leased this new section. Suddenly North Hatley was accessible to summer visitors from New England and beyond.
The other factor that played a decisive role in the transformation of the small, peaceful village was the very special circumstances of the time. The period from 1865 to 1877 corresponded to the era of post-Civil War restructuring in the United States.
North Hatley more popular than her country
But restructuring was not synonymous with reconciliation. The large Southern families, accustomed to spending their summers in New England before the war, decided to avoid Yankee country and settle in North Hatley instead.
In 1886, a new trend began to emerge when Dr. Powhatan Clark, a Baltimore resident and friend of the LeBaron family, built a second home in North Hatley. Other Americans followed his example.
Powhatan Henry Clarke Wikimedia Commons / Public domain
The most famous was Henry Atkinson, owner of Georgia Power in Atlanta, who built a large summer residence in 1900, inspired by George Washington’s residence at Mount Vernon.
In the 1950s it became a hotel called Manoir Hovey, perpetuating the name of the man who deserves to be considered North Hatley’s first American pioneer.