The town of Quyon kicked off its 150th anniversary celebrations over the weekend, with a history-themed trivia night at Gavan’s on Friday and the opening of a 25-year-old time capsule at the Quyon United Church on Sunday.
The trivia night, organized by the Quyon Community Association (QCA), saw 19 teams pack the bar, racing to answer questions about everything from the most common tree in Canada to historical facts about the town’s founding 150 years ago.
“We put together a little slideshow with historical images,” said Laura Stewart, one of seven members of the QCA. “There were questions from 150 years ago and about our founder John Egan.”
The town of Quyon was established in 1875. According to a book by James Robinson called How Quyon Came To Be, the first people to live in the area were the Quionontateronons, an Algonquin nation. The Huron word means “people who live between the river and the mountains.” The word “Quio” means “river” in the Huron language. In 1874, the name was officially changed to Quyon.
In 1846, during the peak of the timber industry, Irish lumber baron John Egan built a sawmill and a grist mill on the Quyon River, where it meets the Ottawa River. The mill was used to transform pine logs arriving from upstream into square timber, which was then sent via waterways to Quebec, and onward to the British market.
By the 1850s, Quyon was the centre of the region’s timber trade, and the official proclamation setting up the village of Quyon was issued in 1875.
Stewart said the 150th anniversary celebrations over the course of the next year will be a collaboration between the town’s many community groups.
“The Quyon Community Association, we kind of took it upon ourselves to gather these people from the other organizations and say, ‘If you’re holding an event, could you put a 150th spin on it?’” Stewart said. “And that way, we can engage the community and keep the momentum of celebrating the 150th throughout the year.”
The group, composed of residents Brenda Clarke, Luke Young, Melanie McCann Lang, Lindsay Hamilton, Brian Sloan, Laura Stewart and Chris Provost, also launched a logo for this year’s celebrations.
“The logo is a throwback to the 100th and each part is thought about,” Stewart said. “There’s the river, the mountains, there are feathers for Indigenous culture, there’s wheat for our agriculture, there’s a log driver, and a picture of our mill.”
VHS, old newspapers unveiled in time capsule
On Sunday the Quyon United Church opened an urn its congregation had packed with special momentos and sealed on Jan. 16, 2000, 25 years prior, almost to the day. Reverend Patricia Power said while it was not officially a 150th anniversary event, she was happy the opening of the time capsule coincided with the town’s first weekend of anniversary celebrations.
Jill Young was at the capsule’s opening on Sunday. She was also at its sealing 25 years ago.
Inside, there was a letter from her, telling a story about a hockey rivalry between her and Jared Hamilton that ended with Hamilton, a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, wearing an Ottawa Senators jersey to church one Sunday.
“I’m glad at what I put in because it was a really fun memory of Jared and I with the hockey sweaters,” Young said. “He cheered for Toronto and I cheered for the Senators and we’d make each other wear the other team’s jersey depending on who lost the night before.”
Included in the letter was a photo of Jared all dressed up in Senators memorabilia. The friends still keep the tradition going, these 25 years later.
“When they first started talking about unsealing it, I was like, ‘I have no memory of this,’” Young said. “So I was actually really surprised.”
Also in the time capsule were two VHS tapes, one with the church’s 1999 Christmas concert on it, annual reports from the church, notes and letters from the congregation, a message from Isabel Black, the reverend at the time, a copy of THE EQUITY and the Ottawa Citizen, a mug from the 125th anniversary of the town and photos of the congregation.
Chris Provost is the chair of the church and joined shortly after the time capsule was sealed. He led the opening with the help of the children in the congregation.
“I think that was my favourite part,” Provost said. “Getting to see [the kids], and they were excited to see what was in it and some of the items, like VHS tapes, that they have no clue what it is.”
Provost said that this showed just how much can change in a short period of time. Along with Young and Power, they expressed interest in putting together another time capsule for the future.
“It’s kind of funny how quickly some things have come and gone,” Provost said. “Twenty-five years isn’t that long.”
Other events coming up this year to celebrate the milestone anniversary include a community bonspiel in March, an Easter egg hunt at the library in April and a car rally in October, among many others.
