Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Coaticook

Coaticook, a town in Stanstead county, Quebec, is situated on the Coaticook river, 20 miles south of Sherbrooke. The land now occupied by the town was settled, between 1825 and 1850, by United Empire Loyalists, who had originally located farther west. A village took shape in 1853, on the construction of the Grand Trunk Railway (now the Canadian National Railway) between Montreal and Portland. It was incorporated as a village in 1864 and as a town in 1884. It is the trading centre for a thickly populated agricultural district and has flourishing industries, such as saw, woollen, knitting, and cotton mills. Its name is derived from the Iroquois word Krvaktakwak meaning "something crooked which straightens itself"; used by the Indians in designating the Coaticook river. According to others, the name is derived from two Abnaki words, koa, pine, and tegw, a river - "The River of the Pines." The population in 1864 was entirely English-speaking. It has a population of about 4,414 [in 1948], of which 3,646 are French-speaking. It has two newspapers (l'Étoile de l'est and Observer). See A. Gravel, Histoire de Coaticook (Sherbrooke, 1925).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 92.