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The origins of the seigneurie: 1683-1738The seigneurie des Mille-Iles was conceded in 1683 to Michel Sidrac du Gué de Boisbriand, a military officer. As no concession of land was made, it returned to the Royal Domain in 1714. That same year, the enlarged seigneurie was again conceded to his two sons-in-law, Jean Petit and Charles Gaspard Piot de Langloiserie. In 1718, the two sons-in-law divided the territory into two; Langloiserie obtained the eastern part, which then became the Blainville section, and Petit took the western portion, which was known as the Rivière-du-Chêne or Dumont, following the marriage of the female heir Petit to Eustache Lambert Dumont in 1733.
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The arrival of the first colonists: 1739-1760The initial occupation of the Rivière-du-Chêne section began in 1739 with the arrival of the first colonists, who had come mainly from île Jésus and from the Terrebonne region. Between 1739 and 1760, Eustache Lambert Dumont, by himself or through his attorneys, conceded a total of 66 parcels of land, which bordered the Mille-Iles, the Chêne and the Chicot rivers.
In 1752, seigneur Dumont obtained, following the original seigneurie, a new fief of four and a half leagues across by three leagues deep, and this increase extended northward to the borders of the future Saint-Sauveur parish.
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The veritable progress of the seigneurie 1762-1807The real development of the seigneurie began in 1762 with the arrival of seigneur Eustache-Louis Lambert Dumont. Dumont quickly became the first and main developer of the seigneurie. Right away, he undertook to build a flour mill and a saw mill at the mouth of the Chêne River. In addition, he intensely pursued the concession of lots which his father had already begun. Thus, around 1785, the Grande-Côte, the Côte du Lac, the Grand and the Petit Chicots, and land on both sides of the Chêne River became almost completed conceded sectors of colonization.
In 1770, seigneur Dumont gave to the Fabrique a large parcel of land bordering the King's Highway, on which to build a church. With the flour mill at one end and the church, built in 1783, at the other, the future village of Saint-Eustache was developed. In less than thirty years, almost all of the urban lots were conceded. The colonists who established themselves there were mostly artisans, shop owners and a few professionals.
Thanks to seigneur Dumont, colonization continued to increase throughout the entire Rivière-du-Chêne section. The côtes Saint-Nicolas, Saint-Louis, Petit and Grand Saint-Charles, Saint-Augustin, des Anges and des Saints were quickly developed. In the census of 1790, the Rivière-du-Chêne section, with 2,385 inhabitants, greatly surpassed the neighbouring seigneuries of Blainville, Lac des Deux-Montagnes and Argenteuil. In Lower Canada, the Saint-Eustache parish was the fourth most populated parish behind Montreal, Quebec and Assomption.
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Agricultural difficulties and armed uprising: 1805-1837Before 1800, the farming of wheat represented 80% of agricultural production. However, beginning in 1805, increasing competition from Upper Canada, outmoded agricultural techniques and the parcelling of lands forced a very high number of censitaires to leave wheat farming. Little by little, following the poor harvests of 1826 and 1827, wheat was replaced by potatoes, oats and increased animal husbandry.
The Patriote movement, which spread throughout the district of Montreal especially from 1834 on, found numerous partisans among the discontent and indebted farmers of the seigneurie. On December 14, 1837, the British army under the command of General John Colborne, comprised of 1,250 men and 8 cannons, pitilessly crushed some 250 Patriotes led by Dr. Jean-Olivier Chénier.
Among the immediate consequences of this confrontation were the killing of one hundred or so Patriotes and the burning of 65 houses in the village. Over the following years, several families left the Saint-Eustache region. The repercussions were felt also at the level of the socio-economic structure: during the 1840's, the seigneurial regime declined very quickly and was finally abolished in December 1854.
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The beginnings of the municipal regime: 1845-1860Beginning in 1845, a new administrative entity, the municipality, quickly replaced the seigneurial regime. The Municipal Corporation of the village of Saint-Eustache was established in 1848, followed by that of the parish in 1856.
The abolishment of the seigneurial land system allowed the colonists of former seigneuries to see better days ahead, which brought on the progressive modernization of farming equipment, such as grain threshers and iron ploughs. In both of the local municipalities, the development of industry brought about the opening of flour mills, cheese factories and butter factories.
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The agricultural crisis and the restructuring of the economy: 1870-1931In the beginning of the 1870's, the United States refused to import Canadian agricultural products, and at the same time competition created by cereals from Western Canada became a factor. Those two factors and the weaknesses of regional agriculture brought about a general crisis that persisted until the beginning of the 20th Century. With a population of 3,287 inhabitants in 1861, the old parish of Saint-Eustache experienced a decrease in population to 1,699 inhabitants in the 1911 census. Fortunately, to remedy the situation, several farmers in the Saint-Eustache region gave up farming cereals and turned to horticulture and fruit tree farming, particularly orchards. In the urban zone, or the village, a few small industries were established, among which were a Windsor preserves factory in 1890, the food preserves company in 1899 and later, the David-Lord preserves factory.
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The creation of new municipalities: 1921-1961In 1900, in the area where the Great Mill had been built, at the outfall of the Lac des Deux-Montagnes, there was a small core of the population. Around 1915, the building of a railway that linked that territory to Montreal led to the development of a significant residential area, without counting the visits by numerous vacationers. Attached to the Municipality of the parish of Saint-Eustache until that time, a village by the name of the Village de Saint-Eustache-sur-le-Lac was erected on that territory in 1921, and became, in 1958, the Ville de Deux-Montagnes.
To the west of Saint-Eustache-sur-le-Lac, the sandy beaches bordering the Lac des Deux-Montagnes began to attract numerous vacationers beginning in the 1930's. In 1958, the territory included between the Ville de Deux-Montagnes and the limits of the parish of Saint-Joseph-du-Lac was detached from the Parish of Saint-Eustache and formed, in 1961, the Ville de Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac.
In 1948, the village of Saint-Eustache obtained the status of city. Its land, surrounded by the ladn belonging to the Corporation of the parish, did not favour its expansion. At the beginning of the 1960's, the building of Highway 640 seemed to separate even more the urban sector from the rural section. Finally, in 1972, the City and the Parish merged to become the Ville de Saint-Eustache. The population increased from 15,000 in 1971 to 44,000 in 2000. This unprecedented demographic expansion, coupled with industrial growth and a very competitive agricultural sector made Saint-Eustache the largest urban agglomeration in the Lower Laurentians.
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