Before 1869, the territory was frequented by the occasional fisher or hunter and inhabited by Algonquins.
In the second half of the 19th century, Father Antoine Labelle invited people to “go up” to the Northern Townships to settle on undeveloped land, in order to counter the exodus of thousands of French Canadians to the United States.
For many years, farming, woodcutting, and log driving were these settlers’ bread and butter. There’s no doubt that they would have sold their souls to find a way to get by! The first church of the township of Amherst appeared in 1878.
Well before the township became official, squatters from Chelsea, Grenville, Morin-Heights, and elsewhere settled there. The resulting disorderly organization of the population made the municipality unique in that it contained three villages: Rockway Valley, Saint-Rémi-turned-Amherst, and Vendée.
Originally from Londonderry in Ireland, the township’s inhabitants crossed the Rivière Rouge to settle in the southern part of the township in 1877; they were all English-speaking and Protestant.
The most defining legacy of the founding families is the St. George’s Anglican Church built in 1912 by Charles and John Sinclair, carpenters by trade and pioneers.