Cowansville is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
in south-central
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada, located on Lac Davignon north of the
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
border. It is the seat of
Brome-Missisquoi, a
regional county municipality. The population as of the
Canada 2021 Census was 15,234.
In recent years, Cowansville has seen its commercial activity blossom mainly due to its proximity to a major freeway,
Autoroute 10, and the Eastern Townships ski resort region.
History and name
Jacob Ruiter was the first person to settle on the current site of Cowansville. In 1800 he built a flour mill, and then a saw mill. In 1805, Ruiter named the small town as Nelsonville, in honour of British admiral, Lord
Horatio Nelson, who was killed in the naval
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...
.
The city's current name is due to Peter Cowan, a merchant from
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
who settled in the area in 1836 and become
postmaster in 1841. In order to avoid the mail being sent inadvertently to another city named Nelsonville, close to
Hamilton in
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...
, he decided to change its name.
During the 1870s, the construction of the South Eastern Railway linking Montreal to Cowansville and the opening of the first bank, the Eastern Townships Bank, contributed to the expansion of the small city, which allows many businesses settle in the area. The municipality detached from the district of
Dunham, and incorporated on the January 1, 1876 and officially was named Cowansville. In February of the same year
James O'Halloran was acclaimed as Mayor by the town council. Cowansville saw a strong industrial growth during the 20th century, and became a city on June 25, 1931, and has grown since World War II by various annexations, such as Sweetsburg in 1964.
The municipality has a current population of over 12,000. The main economy is based on the industrial sector, in particular textiles. There is also a hospital, Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins, a municipal court, a
federal penitentiary
The Federal Bureau of Prisons classifies prisons into seven categories:
* United States penitentiaries
* Federal correctional institutions
* Private correctional institutions
* Federal prison camps
* Administrative facilities
* Federal correctio ...
, and a Nature Centre close to Davignon Lake.
Cowansville is the seat of the
judicial district
A judicial district or legal district denotes the territorial area for which a legal court (usually a district court) has jurisdiction.
By region Europe Austria
In texts concerning Austria, "judicial district" (german: Gerichtsbezirk) refers ...
of Bedford. It is also the birthplace of the artist and botanist
Faith Fyles.
Demographics
In the
2021 Census of Population
The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...
conducted by
Statistics Canada, Cowansville had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.
Notable people
*
George Harold Baker (1877-1916), was a lawyer, political figure, soldier and Member in the Canadian House of Commons, as a Conservative Member of Parliament
Morning Glory: Canada's own WWI war horse
/ref>
See also
* List of cities in Quebec
References
External links
Ville de Cowansville
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Quebec