Saint-Jacques, Quebec

Originally called Saint-Jacques-de-la-Nouvelle-Acadie to commemorate the Acadians' second pioneering effort and Father Jacques Degeay who helped them,^[12] the municipality provided the settlers key resources for living off the land.^[10][13][14] The site provided ready access to "hardwood ... with which [to] build homes, barns, poultry houses, hog barns, sheep pens.... ploughs, tables, chairs, or tool handles ... and "soft wood" — the white pine especially — [for] cabinets, hutches, bowls and shoes."^[10] Although the first houses, built in 1768, were wood, by the beginning of the 1800s, they were being built of stone, which was also plentiful.^[11][10] An oft-repeated adage explained such abundance this way: "Our fathers lost Acadia; In return, [we] found the richest lands of Lower Canada.... In [our] veins flow[s] the purest French blood."^[11]

Over the years, the territory has been known by various names:^[1]

• Saint-Jacques-de-la-Nouvelle-Acadie (ca. 1770)
• Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan (1832-1917)
• Saint-Jacques-de-Saint-Sulpice
• L'Achigan
• Nouvelle-Acadie
• Terres-Promises
• Saint-Jacques-de-Montcalm

In 1772, the parish of Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan was founded.^[1] That same year, the villagers hired a priest and, in 1775, they built their first church.^[14] Nine years later, they began cultivating tobacco, which became so essential it is pictured on one of the four quadrants of the municipality's coat of arms.^[10][15] Other agricultural crops followed: corn, grain, as well as dairy farms in the swine industry, vegetable farming, the farming of mink, and maple trees, eventually leading to the development of off-season industries and factories.^[10]

In 1835, its post office opened with the abbreviated name of Saint-Jacques. In 1845, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Jacques-de-Saint-Sulpice or L'Achigan was formed, but abolished in 1847 to become part of the County Municipality of L'Assomption. In 1855, the Parish Municipality of Saint-Jacques(-de-l'Achigan) was reestablished.^[1] By 1895, Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World Containing Notices of Over One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand Places described Saint-Jacques this way:

SAINT JACQUES DE L’ACHIGAN, a post-village of Québec, co. of Montcalm, 13 miles N.N.W. of L'Assomption. It has a church, a convent, a brewery, &c. Pop. 800.^[16]

In 1912, the Village Municipality of Saint-Jacques-de-l'Achigan was created when it ceded from the parish municipality. Its name was shortened to Saint-Jacques in 1917, and 3 years later, the name of the parish municipality was also abbreviated.^[1]

In 1998, the village municipality and the parish municipality merged to form the new Municipality of Saint-Jacques.^[1]

Private dwellings occupied by usual residents (2021): 1,892 (total dwellings: 1,939)^[3]

Mother tongue language (2021):^[3]

• Saint-Jacques is a destination for outdoor activities such as snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and hiking.^[17]
• In addition to the Parc des Cultures, which uses arts, horticulture and ornament to memorialize the municipality's history, it also hosts the hiker-friendly Parc de la Coulée.^[17]
• The Maison de la Nouvelle-Acadie (Home of the New Acadia) is a small museum that traces the eight-part story of the Acadian arrival in Canada from 1604 to the foundation of Saint-Jacques in 1774.^[18]
• Several structures are listed on both the Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec and the Canadian Register of Historic Places:^[19][20]
  • l'ancien bureau de poste
  • l’église de Saint-Jacques
  • la maison Louise-Pariseau
  • le parc des cultures
  • le parc Grand-Pré
  • la maison de la Nouvelle-Acadie
  • le couvent des sœurs de Sainte-Anne
  • le centre culturel du Vieux-Collège