Louiseville is a town

Types of municipalities in Quebec

The following is a list of the types of local and supralocal territorial units in Quebec, including those used solely for statistical purposes, as defined by the Institut de la Statistique du Québec....

 in the Mauricie

Mauricie

Mauricie is a traditional and current administrative region of Quebec. La Mauricie National Park is contained within the region, making it a prime tourist location. The region has a land area of 35,855.22 km² and a 2006 census population of 258,928 residents...

 region of the province

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

 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....

 in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. It is located near the mouth of the Wolf River (Rivière du Loup) on the north shore of Lac Saint-Pierre

Lac Saint-Pierre

Lac Saint-Pierre is a lake in Quebec, Canada, located on the Saint Lawrence River between Sorel-Tracy and Trois-Rivières, downstream and east of Montreal. Including its shoreline, islands, and wetlands, the lake is a nature reserve...

.

Louiseville is twinned with Soissons

Soissons

Soissons is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in northern France, located on the Aisne River, about northeast of Paris. It is one of the most ancient towns of France, and is probably the ancient capital of the Suessiones...

 in France and Cerfontaine

Cerfontaine, Belgium

Cerfontaine is a Walloon municipality located in Belgium in the province of Namur. On January 1, 2006 Cerfontaine had a total population of 4,546. The total area is 83.45 km² which gives a population density of 54 inhabitants per km²....

 in Belgium.

History

The area was originally part of the Rivière-du-Loup Seignory

Seigneurial system of New France

The seigneurial system of New France was the semi-feudal system of land distribution used in the North American colonies of New France.-Introduction to New France:...

. This seignory was formed in 1665 by Intendant Jean Talon

Jean Talon

Jean Talon, Comte d'Orsainville was a French colonial administrator who was the first and most highly regarded Intendant of New France under King Louis XIV...

 and granted in 1672 to Charles Dugey Rozoy de Mannereuil, officer in the Carignan Regiment

Carignan-Salières Regiment

The Carignan-Salières Regiment was a Piedmont French military unit formed by merging the Carignan Regiment and the Salières Regiment in 1659. The regiment began their existence in combat against the Ottoman Empire before being reorganized to consist of twenty-four companies before being sent to...

. The seignory was thereafter also known as Rivière-Mannereuil for some time.

In 1714, a mission was formed by the Récollets

Recollets

The Récollets were a French branch of the Roman Catholic order, the Franciscans , which developed out of a reform movement that began in the 15th century in Spain and established itself in France in Tulle in 1585, at Nevers in 1592, at Limoges in 1596 and in Paris in 1603...

 who dedicated it to the patronage of Anthony of Padua

Anthony of Padua

Anthony of Padua or Anthony of Lisbon, O.F.M., was a Portuguese Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order. Though he died in Padua, Italy, he was born to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal, which is where he was raised...

. In 1722, the Ursulines

Ursulines

The Ursulines are a Roman Catholic religious order for women founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.-History:St Angela de Merici spent 17 years leading a...

 owned the seignory and attempted to change the name to Saint-Antoine-de-la-Rivière-Saint-Jean but the settlement became known as Rivière-du-Loup or Rivière-du-Loup-en-Haut after the seignory or local river.

In 1816, its post office opened. In 1845, the Parish Municipality of Rivière-du-Loup-en-Haut was formed, and abolished two years later in 1847. It was reestablished in 1855 as Saint-Antoine-de-la-Rivière-du-Loup, named after the parish patron and the seignory. In 1878, the main settlement separated from the parish municipality and formed the Village Municipality of Rivière-du-Loup. Just one year later it was renamed to Louiseville in order to avoid confusion with another town called Rivière-du-Loup in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The new name was a tribute to Princess Louise Caroline Alberta

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll

The Princess Louise was a member of the British Royal Family, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Queen Victoria and her husband, Albert, Prince Consort.Louise's early life was spent moving between the various royal residences in the...

, the youngest daughter of Queen Victoria, who had planned to visit the Mauricie that same year.

On January 1, 1989, the parish and village municipalities merged again and became the Town of Louiseville.

Demographics

Population trend:

• Population in 2006: 7433 (2001 to 2006 population change: -2.5 %)
• Population in 2001: 7622
• Population in 1996: 7911
• Population in 1991: 8000

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 3365 (total dwellings: 3519)

Mother tongue:

• English as first language: 0.9 %
• French as first language: 97.6 %
• English and French as first language: 0.6 %
• Other as first language: 0.9 %