Danville, Quebec
Encyclopedia
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...
in the administrative region of Estrie
Estrie
The Estrie is an administrative region of Quebec that overlaps mostly the Eastern Townships. Estrie, a French neologism, was coined as a derivative of est, "east."...
, in the Canadian province of Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. As of the 2006 Canadian Census, the population was 4,041.
Danville is on a stretch of the Chemin Craig
Chemin Craig
The Chemin Craig Road was a road created in the early 19th century at the order of James Henry Craig, Governor of British North America. It was intended to connect Quebec City with the United States and to promote settlement of the Eastern Townships.-History:...
, a road built in the 19th century connecting Quebec to New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
. The town is about 70 miles (112.7 km) north of the Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
border. American loyalists
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...
from New England began arriving in 1783 and gave the town its name in memory of their hometown in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
of the same name: Danville, Vermont
Danville, Vermont
Danville is a town in Caledonia County, Vermont, United States. It was named for the 18th-century French cartographer Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville...
.
Until 1976, the population of Danville was two-thirds Anglo-Protestant. This proportion was reversed during the mid-1970s when part of the younger generation migrated to English Canada
English Canada
English Canada is a term used to describe one of the following:# English-speaking Canadians, as opposed to French-speaking Canadians. It is employed when comparing English- and French-language literature, media, or art...
or to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
The city has many heritage buildings, including three Protestant churches (Adventist, Anglican and United), a Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
evangelical church and a Roman Catholic church.
Danville has two primary schools: a French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
school, École Masson; and an English-speaking school known as ADS (Asbestos
Asbestos, Quebec
-Communities:*Asbestos*Trois-Lacs-External links:***...
-Shipton-Danville).
At the centre of the city is a square formed by the enlargement of an intersection. A memorial for soldiers killed in the First World War and Second World War stands in the centre of this square. Another memorial, to Private Timothy O'Hea
Timothy O'Hea
Timothy O'Hea VC was born in Schull, County Cork was an Irish recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.-VC:...
, is erected in front of the former City Hall.
Once a busy town inhabited by workers of the nearby Johns Manville asbestos
Asbestos
Asbestos is a set of six naturally occurring silicate minerals used commercially for their desirable physical properties. They all have in common their eponymous, asbestiform habit: long, thin fibrous crystals...
mine
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
, the town has quieted down considerably since the mine's closing. A magnesium
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...
smelter called Magnola, part of Noranda (using mine tailings from local asbestos mine) set up a facility in the town not long ago, but ended up closing it due to increasing foreign competition. Rolling fields in the area make for good farming, many farms having been around for over a century. Both dairy and beef cattle are raised in the area, although other livestock is common.
Each year the town has an art symposium, where artists from the area gather in the towns many churches, to display their artwork.
Notable historical residents
- Daniel Johnson, SrDaniel Johnson, SrFrancis Daniel Johnson, Sr., PC was a Quebec politician and the 20th Premier of Quebec from 1966 until his death in 1968.-Background:...
- Premier of QuebecPremier of QuebecThe Premier of Quebec is the first minister of the Canadian province of Quebec. The Premier is the province's head of government and his title is Premier and President of the Executive Council....
from 1966 until his death in 1968 - Mack SennettMack SennettMack Sennett was a Canadian-born American director and was known as the innovator of slapstick comedy in film. During his lifetime he was known at times as the "King of Comedy"...
- An innovator of slapstickSlapstickSlapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...
comedy in filmFilmA film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...