Hawkesbury, ON

Hawkesbury is a town in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell in Eastern Ontario, Canada. Hawkesbury is the third most bilingual town in Ontario, with about 70% of its inhabitants being fluent in English and French. Franco-Ontarians make up 89% of the population.[3] The Long-Sault Bridge links it to Grenville, Quebec to the north. This bridge, crossing Chenail Island, is the only interprovincial bridge between Ontario and Quebec east of Ottawa. Hawkesbury is about halfway between Ottawa and Montréal. Etymology The name Hawkesbury derives from a combination of Hawks, a family name, and bury, a transformation of berry (castle).[4] History Founded in 1798, Hawkesbury was named after the Right Honourable Charles Jenkinson, Baron Hawkesbury.[5] Thomas Mears and David Pattee, two Americans, entered into a partnership in 1805, in order to harness the power of the lower Ottawa River and built the first sawmill on the Upper Canada side of the river. The town of Hawkesbury developed around this mill.[6] Mears also built the Union, the Ottawa River's first steamer. Demand for timber during the Napoleonic Wars created a boom. The mill complex continued to grow for at least the next half century, and by 1870 it included 145 different saws and created over 35 million board feet of lumber per year.[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawkesb...