Brief return in time

EASTMAN (founded in 1888), now grouped since May 30, 2001 with Stukely (founded in 1796), is a municipality located on the western edge of Orford Mountain, an area of 74 km2, where there are several lakes ( Argent, Orford, Parker, Stukely) and through which the Missisquoi River also passes.

Just 100 kilometers east of Montreal, via Highway 10 known as the Eastern Townships (Exit 106) and less than 50 kilometers from Sherbrooke, Eastman is at the meeting point of Brome, Shefford and Stanstead Counties.

Today crossed by the road 112, the municipality will have been serviced previously (early 1800) by the cars pulled by horses and which used the Chemin des Diligences. A relay for the travelers, where the crews were also rotated, was at the Silver Valley Hotel. Later (1887-1888) came the Canadian Pacific Railway with its wood-fired locomotives and feeding water to the springs of the fields on the course.

The first village (called Dingmans’ Flats, six families of Dingman lived there) first developed around the Silver Lake and since 1880 the name of Eastman is used for the Post Office. The Eastman name probably comes from the name of one of the partners of pioneer and land dealer Nicholas Austin, John Eastman.

Land clearing, cultivation and the local copper mines Huntingdon, Ives and Bolton (1860) provide livelihoods for the first settlers. It is also noted that the copper ore extracted from these mines was shipped to the United States by carts and railroad and was used for the manufacture of weapons during the American Civil War. A clothes pin factory, adjacent to a very successful wood mill (Eastman Lumber Company), was born. This mill supplied wood for the construction of bridges in the region. A large sawmill operated on Amber Creek at the junction of Lake Orford and Lake Argent and in the same borough were a butter factory, a cheese factory, a butter tin factory and a forge.