A Trois-Rivières Bridge Runs Aground at St-Pierre-les-Becquets

1814…

War had broken out in 1812 between the United States of America and Great Britain; British troop movements were needed to bring support along the border and to push the Americans back. In that context, a great many soldiers were travelling along the St. Lawrence River.

Soldiers of His Majesty’s 81^st Regiment drowned while crossing the Saint-Maurice on a ferry, for there was no bridge at that time to span the river.

In 1830, the authorities finally decided to build a bridge on piles.

The urgent need to move troops quickly and safely had faded, but the need to ensure practical communication between Québec and Montréal by way of the north shore of the river had become unavoidable. The need to link the town of Trois-Rivières and the settlement of Cap-de-la-Madeleine efficiently had grown pressing; ships carried goods and passengers, but the chemin du Roy (the King’s Highway) could no longer tolerate being cut by watercourses.

A sum of 75 pounds was therefore granted to François Normand and 25 pounds to Pétrus Noiseux, both of Trois-Rivières, to draw up the plans and carry out the project.

In the “Statuts provinciaux du Bas-Canada” [Provincial Statutes of Lower Canada] of 26 March 1830, under the reign of King George IV, the “Très-Gracieux Souverain” [Most Gracious Sovereign] was petitioned to grant permission to build a bridge.

In 1832, the bridge was erected by François and Édouard Normand. It was firmly anchored in the bed of the river by piles and carried a deck of heavy planks, all of it in wood, of course; ironwork joined these elements together and strengthened the whole. It must be said that none of this was enough to withstand the ice jams that formed on the watercourses, especially when obstacles stood in their way…

…For in 1836 the bridge gave way, carried off by the ice and the violence of the current. The debris scattered at the mouth of the Saint-Maurice and was borne farther along by the spring breakup. It ran aground on the shore of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, probably a kilometre or two west of the church, and soon aroused the curiosity and the covetousness of local people.

On 13 March 1837, the notary Antoine-Prosper Méthot of Saint-Pierre was informed that he had been given the mandate to announce at the church door the sale by auction of the bridge debris a little later on.

Noël Dion and Henry Neault, who lived beside the river nearby, dismantled several structures to make them easier to move, work that took more than ten days. Being already on the spot, they bought a good quantity of debris: beams, planks, stakes and iron.

Numidique Mailhot and Wilbrod Demers bought several hundred pounds of iron and scrap. They probably knew they could resell it at a profit.

Salomon Vézina and Louis Olivier Mailhot witnessed the transactions.

The sale came to 7 pounds, 7 shillings and 7 pence; once the expenses of the auction crier, the witnesses, the work of Dion and Neault, the announcement at the church and the notary Méthot’s long correspondence with the authorities had been deducted, the government was left with 4 pounds, 9 shillings and 10 pence.

As a footnote, let us note that the Duplessis bridge, built over the Saint-Maurice between 1946 and 1947, collapsed in 1950.

Jocelyne Lafond and Alain Manset, SHGLB

References:

Archives du Séminaire Saint-Joseph

1831 census (Library and Archives Canada)

Greffe du notaire PA Méthot

Statuts provinciaux du Bas-Canada 1830

Les armées de la guerre de 1812, Olivier Millet