Yamachiche

Yamachiche
Municipality
Motto: Harmonie et Fierté ("Harmony and Pride")
Location within Maskinongé RCM.
Yamachiche Location in central Quebec.
Coordinates: 46°16′N 72°50′W / 46.267°N 72.833°WCoordinates: 46°16′N 72°50′W / 46.267°N 72.833°W[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Quebec
Region	Mauricie
RCM	Maskinongé
Settled	1702
Constituted	December 26, 1987
Government[2]
• Mayor	Michel Isabelle
• Federal riding	Berthier—Maskinongé
• Prov. riding	Maskinongé
Area[2][3]
• Total	106.90 km^2 (41.27 sq mi)
• Land	106.51 km^2 (41.12 sq mi)
Population (2011)[3]
• Total	2,787
• Density	26.2/km^2 (68/sq mi)
• Pop 2006-2011	1.0%
• Dwellings	1,226
Time zone	EST (UTC−5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC−4)
Postal code(s)	G0X 3L0
Area code(s)	819
Highways A-40	Route 138 Route 153
Website	www.municipalite .yamachiche.qc.ca

Yamachiche (French pronunciation: ​[ja.ma.ʃiʃ]) is a municipality in the Mauricie region of the province of Quebec in Canada.

Etymology

The name Yamachiche was first used to identify the Little Yamachiche River (Petite rivière Yamachiche) which runs through the town. It came from the Native American (possibly Cree) words iyamitaw (meaning "much") and achichki (meaning "mud"). Therefore Yamachiche could have the general meaning of "muddy river", which is a characteristic of this stream. In Abenaki, it was identified as Namasis (small fish) and Obamasis (small white fish).^[1]

The name has gone through many spelling variations: Machiche, Ouabmachiche, Yabamachiche, Hyamachiche, Yamachiste, Amachis, à Machis, à Mashis, Machis, Augmachiche, Ouamachiche, Yabmachiche, etc., which have mainly affected the name of the river, whereas the parish and municipal names have remained more stable.^[1]

History

Church of Sainte-Anne-d'Yamachiche built in 1794

In 1653, the area was part of a fief granted to Pierre Boucher de Grosbois, Governor of Trois-Rivières, and in 1672, it was formally ceded to Grosbois. The Grosbois or Machiche Seignory was 1.5 leagues long by 2 leagues deep along the shores of Lac Saint-Pierre. But because of war with the Iroquois, it could not be colonized until the beginning of the 18th century.^[4]

In 1703, the first colonists, the three Gélinas brothers, settled in the area and by 1706, there were 7 families. That same year, the name Yamachiche first appeared in the census. In 1711, the first chapel was built, dedicated to Sainte Anne by Récollet Siméon Dupont, and the Parish of Sainte-Anne was formed in 1722. A year later, the settlement consisted of about 20 families and 100 persons.^[1][4]

In 1725, the Chemin du Roy (French for "King's Highway") was built connecting it with Louiseville and Pointe-du-Lac. In 1764, the West Grosbois Seignory was purchased by Conrad Gugy, thereby becoming the first French-Canadian Seignory in English possession. Between 1765 and 1790, Yamachiche grew quickly with new settlers from Acadia (Acadians expelled by the English) and from the United States, particularly Loyalists from Massachusetts.^[1][4]

In 1828, the Saint-Barnabé and Saint-Sévère Parishes were formed by separating from the Sainte-Anne-d'Yamachiche Parish. In 1831, the post office opened. In 1845, the Municipality of Yamachiche was founded but abolished in 1847. It was reestablished in 1855 as the Parish Municipality of Sainte-Anne-d'Yamachiche, with Francois Gerin-Lajoie as first mayor. In 1878, the first train came to Yamachiche, followed by the telegraph in 1880.^[1][4]

In 1887, the village itself separated from the parish municipality and became the Village Municipality of Yamachiche, with George Felix Heroux as first mayor. In 1895, telephone was installed in Yamachiche and street lighting in 1904.^[1][4]

In 1973, the railway station (Canadian Pacific) closed, but in 1975, the new Quebec Autoroute 40 opened, providing access to Yamachiche with 3 interchanges. In 1987, the village and parish municipalities were merged to form the current Municipality of Yamachiche.^[1][4]

List of Mayors

Yamachiche's first local government was established in 1855. From 1887 to 1987, Yamachiche was divided into a parish municipality and a village municipality. Each entity had its own local council and its own mayor. Both structures were merged in 1988 with only one municipal council and one mayor.^[5] Officially, municipal elections in Yamachiche are on a non-partisan basis.

Parish Municipality of Sainte-Anne-d'Yamachiche # Mayor Taking Office Leaving 1 François Gérin-Lajoie 1855 1858 2 Joseph Lacerte 1858 1860 3 Charles Lajoie 1860 1864 4 Madore Gélinas 1864 1868 5 Raphaël Boucher 1868 1870 6 Georges-Horace Proulx 1870 1872 7 Héli-Léonard Héroux 1872 1875 8 Joseph Bellemare 1875 1877 9 Alexandre Daveluy 1877 1878 10 François-Sévère Lesieur Desaulniers 1878 1879 11 François Lacerte 1879 1880 12 Antoine Lamy 1880 1881 13 Thomas Ricard 1881 1882 14 Louis Dussault 1882 1884 15 Arthur Lacerte 1884 1885 16 Joseph Lapointe 1885 1886 17 Élie Lacerte [6] 1886 1887 18 Thomas Dufresne 1887 1889 10 François-Sévère Lesieur Desaulniers 1889 1892 19 Esdras Lamy 1892 1896 20 George L. Duchêne 1896 1907 21 Honoré Lapointe 1907 1912 22 Jean-Baptiste Fréchette 1912 1913 23 Théodore Bourassa 1913 1914 24 Thomas A. Lamy 1914 1915 25 Élie Bellemare 1915 1917 26 Georges Proulx 1917 1921 27 Joseph L. Desaulniers 1921 1923 25 Élie Bellemare 1923 1925 28 Alexandre Gignac 1925 1929 29 Omer E. Milot 1929 1933 30 Joseph Gauthier 1933 1935 31 Alcide Bellefeuille 1935 1937 32 Alide L. Desaulniers 1937 1939 33 Henri P. Milot 1939 1941 32 Alide L. Desaulniers 1941 1949 34 Clovis Héroux 1949 1953 32 Alide L. Desaulniers 1953 1959 35 Fleurimond Pellerin 1959 1961 36 Philias Isabelle 1961 1967 37 Gaston Houle 1967 1973 36 Philias Isabelle 1973 1978 38 Marcel Duchesne 1978 1979 39 Jacques Landry 1979 1986 40 André Chainé 1986 1987

Village Municipality of Yamachiche # Mayor Taking Office Leaving 1 Georges Félix Héroux 1887 1899 2 Arthur Héroux 1899 1900 3 Pierre Gaspard Bellemare 1900 1901 4 Napoléon Pellerin 1901 1905 5 Joseph Boucher 1905 1906 6 Adrien Milot 1906 1908 7 Moïse Carbonneau 1908 1908 4 Napoléon Pellerin 1908 1909 8 Napoléon Bellemare 1909 1910 9 Hyacinthe Trahan 1910 1912 10 Napoléon Samson 1912 1912 11 Eugène Lesieur 1912 1916 12 Victor Descôteaux 1916 1919 13 Didier St-Louis 1919 1921 14 Pierre Bellemare 1921 1923 15 Hercule Descôteaux 1923 1925 16 Dionis Villemure 1925 1927 17 Eugène Maillette 1927 1929 18 Raoul Duchesne 1929 1931 14 Pierre Bellemare 1931 1935 19 Charles-Édouard Girardin 1935 1943 20 Omer St-Louis 1943 1951 21 J. Sylvio Villemure 1951 1953 20 Omer St-Louis 1953 1957 22 Émile Pellerin 1957 1961 23 Charles-Denis Girardin 1961 1973 24 Roland Girardin 1973 1982 25 Raymond Bellemare 1982 1987 Merged municipality # Mayor Taking Office Leaving 1 André Chainé 1988 1991 2 Louise A. Bellemare 1991 1999 3 Michel Isabelle 1999 Current

Demographics

Population trend:^[7]

• Population in 2011: 2787 (2006 to 2011 population change: 1.0%)
• Population in 2006: 2760
• Population in 2001: 2631
• Population in 1996: 2776
• Population in 1991: 2784

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents: 1160 (total dwellings: 1226)

Mother tongue:

• English as first language: 0%
• French as first language: 99.1%
• English and French as first language: 0.5%
• Other as first language: 0.4%

Notable people from Yamachiche

• Louis-Onésime Loranger (1837-1917), a Canadian politician
• Nérée Beauchemin (1850–1931), poet and physician
• Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (1824–1882), poet and novelist

Footnotes

1. "Yamachiche (Municipalité)" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 2010-01-05.
2. Geographic code 51020 in the official Répertoire des municipalités (French)
3. "(Code 2451020) Census Profile". 2011 census. Statistics Canada. 2012.
4. "Quelques dates importantes de l'histoire d'Yamachiche" (in French). Municipalité de Yamachiche. Retrieved 2010-01-06.
5. Conseil municipal de Yamachiche
6. Élie Lacerte was the Conservative Member of the Canadian House of Commons for the district of Saint Maurice from 1868 to 1874 and of the Legislative Assembly of Quebec for the district of Saint Maurice from 1875 to 1878.
7. Statistics Canada: 1996, 2001, 2006, 2011 census