Kildare and its surroundings
The Kildare, Laliberté, Lane, Forest and Labrèche roads crisscross a good part of the rural area of Rawdon. This web site will talk about the life of the first inhabitants of these roads.
Key dates in the history of Kildare
- July 13, 1799: proclamation of the legal existence of the township of Rawdon
- Around 1800s: arrival of American loyalists
- Between 1815 and 1820, arrival of Catholic Irish immigrants fleeing the revolution
- 1825: first census, with the Irish group accounting for 75% of the population, including Thomas Lane*, the ancestor from Ireland
- 1828: opening of the first French school
- 1834: mass at the first Catholic chapel
- Around 1850: arrival of families having left their overpopulated parish in the surrounding area (Saint-Jacques-de-Montcalm)
- 1886: construction of the Catholic church
- 1904: access to the telephone
- 1910: first train leaving Rawdon heading for Montréal for a eucharistic congress
- 1919: creation of two distinct municipalities, one being the village and the other being the township
- 1943: opening of a branch of the Caisses populaires Desjardins
- 1946: arrival of electricity
- 1955: construction of a new Catholic church
- 1957: closing of the range schools