West carleton

Huntley

The land for Huntley was allocated in 1818 , and in 1819 the first settlers arrived - descendants of Irish Protestants who moved from under Richmond . In 1822, the first large batch of immigrants from Ireland arrived, and the next waves arrived in 1823, 1826 and 1828. All immigrants were natives of the Irish cities of Tipperary, Cavan, Ferman and Tyrone. In 1832, Irish Catholics from Cork County also settled here. The fertile soils in the area of ​​the village determined the leading role of agriculture in its economy, and the Carp Fair quickly became popular.

Fitzroy

In 1819, the first family of settlers appeared on the site of modern Fitzroy, whose head was Charles Schirreff. Soon after, land was allocated for the new settlement, although the rest of the inhabitants began to arrive only in 1823 . The Shirreff family, whose initial allotment of 3,000 acres was later expanded to 4,500 acres and which installed mills on the Karp River at its confluence with the Ottawa River , became one of the most influential in Fitzroy in the first years after its founding. In 1825, a family of Marshalls, relatives of the Shirreffs, set up a smelter nearby and joined the river trade. Charles Schirreff dreamed of mass settlement of the region west of his land and spent a fortune on the promotion of this plan, but failed to convince government officials, and Fitzroy remained a quiet periphery.

Thorbolton

Even before the founding of Torbolton, in its modern territory, logging for the Royal Navy of Great Britain was carried out. Forest remained the main product of this region even after Torbolton was founded. The first settlers in these parts were Scots, and the new settlement was named after one of the titles of the Dukes of Richmond , who were also barons of the Torbolton (named after the village in Scotland). The land for the new village was allocated in the winter of 1822 - 1823, the former navy lieutenant Daniel Byrd became its first resident. Byrd's house has survived to the present.

Further History

In 1870, the south of Fitzroy, the north of Huntley, and almost all of Torbolton were destroyed by a large fire, which dealt a crushing blow to the timber trade in the region. Later, a railway passed through these places, at the end of the 19th century a newspaper began to be published, and telephone communications were made in the first decade of the next century. In 1974, Torbolton, Fitzroy, and Huntley were united in the city of West Carleton, which in turn was incorporated into Ottawa's municipal borders in 2001 .

West Carleton is located in the western part of Ottawa. In the east, the district borders on Kanata , in the north - with the Ottawa River; from the south it is limited by highway number 7 and the Queensway highway. The former city forms the backbone of the West Carleton March constituency, which also includes the former northern rural Ropes. The district’s total area is 763 km², making it the largest Ottawa constituency in size ^[1] .

According to the 2006 census ^[2] , 21,455 people lived in the West Carleton March constituency, of which 15,145 were aged 15–65. The total number of children under the age of 18 years was 5460 people. The average size of a family living in the same house or apartment was 2.8 people.

For the vast majority of the population, the first mother tongue was English (only 1240 people indicated French as the first mother tongue and another 1275 people indicated other languages). 10.5% of the population (2,295 people) were born outside of Canada, mainly in Europe and the United States.

A little more than 5,000 residents of the district had higher education and about the same - secondary specialized or vocational education (mainly at the college level). According to the 2006 census, the unemployment rate in the okrug was less than 5% (610 unemployed with a total of 12,595 people of working age). The median income per person per year (before taxes) was a little over 37 thousand dollars , per family - about 91 thousand dollars.

• Bob Sherrif. The History of the Upper Canada Side of the Ottawa River Between Shirley's Bay to the East and the Madawaska River to the West // A Background Study for Nomination of the Ottawa River Under the Canadian Heritage Rivers System. - QLF Canada, 2005. - P. 227—229.
• Huntley History at the Huntley Historical Society website