The Naming of Mont Rolland

When looking at the names of places, including roads and schools and even mountains and rivers, we have to look at what was going on in the world and locally to understand the temper of the times during which those names were chosen. What would have caused that choice, the story behind that name? In our current times, does the choice seem odd or inappropriate, or has it stood the test of time?

Sergeant Jean-Pierre Rolland first saw the North American continent in June 1755 while he and his fellow soldiers were cod fishing to supplement their diet after a month at sea. Arriving at Quebec, his company was swiftly transferred to Montreal and west into the Iroquois territory. They served first under Major-General Jean Erdman, Baron Dieskau and then under Louis-Joseph de Montcalm, the terror of the British. Rolland and his men experienced victory until the decisive battle on the Plains of Abraham. After that defeat and the subsequent loss of Montreal, the surrender agreement gave the French soldiers the opportunity to return to France, but five years of life in the New World, and his fiancée, Marie-Joseph Guertain, convinced Jean-Pierre Rolland that he did not wish to continue to serve his king, but would stay as a civilian in Canada.

Their lives were difficult, and the young couple had only one son, Pierre, who survived to adulthood. Pierre was forced to abandon his father’s farm to mounting debts and moved his family, including his young son Jean-Baptiste, to St. Hyacinthe

Jean-Baptiste Rolland saw no prospects in the rough life of a farm worker in St. Hyacinthe and left his family’s home on foot at 18 years of age in 1832. He had 30 cents in his pocket and was determined to go to Montreal, a distance of three days’ walk. He arrived in Montreal in early April and set about finding himself a job. Montreal was a busy city with thousands of immigrants and other rural young people like Rolland. Cholera plagued the city and political strife mounted. By 1834 Rolland was a printer’s apprentice for the controversial publication La Minerve, the newspaper founded by A.-N. Morin, one of the Patriotes who would be arrested in the 1837 uprisings. French-Canadian history dwells on this period and many of the most touted heroes are Patriotes who took a stand for their principles. Some, including Morin, Viger, Marchand and of course many priests, finished their lives leaving no estate, justifying the old perspective that either the French-Canadians aspired to be priests or notaries, or that the then-current political-economic system disadvantaged them. Rolland did not know he was handicapped. He believed in making a successful business, and, starting with 30 cents, he built an empire. By 1840 he was a master printer and that year he and a partner, John Thompson, opened their own print shop. Two years later, he set up on his own, opening a bookstore. He was 24 years old. Over the next years he sold books, paper and paper products, imported books in French, English and German, and published textbooks. In 1859, his eldest son Damien joined him, and by 1872 his other sons had joined the growing family firm. He was a benefactor to his neighbourhood on Rue St. Denis in Montreal, and between 1872 and 1879 was involved in the construction of many buildings in this sector. He was co-founder of the Bank of Hochelaga, which became the Provincial Bank and subsequently merged with the Banque Nationale. In 1879 his career turned full circle with his acquisition of La Minerve, the newspaper where he began working 47 years earlier. As we shall see, this did not end his family’s involvement in the undertakings of Augustin-Norbert Morin.

The real growth of his enterprises began in 1881. Curé Labelle learned that J.-B. Rolland wanted to manufacture his own paper, and he encouraged the entrepreneur to examine a site in St. Jerome, where the train had recently arrived. Father and sons risked all to open their first paper plant in 1881-2. Jean-Baptiste by rights could have retired with great dignity and wealth, but instead at the age of 67 he started over again with his sons. Under their guidance, La compagnie de papier Rolland grew into a great enterprise. In 1887, with the business securely in the hands of his sons, Jean-Baptiste Rolland decided to retire. He was 72 years old. Sir John A. MacDonald named him to the Senate, where Senator Rolland felt he could continue to contribute to the country that he had helped to build. A year later he passed away.

In 1902, his sons opened a second paper mill on the North River in Ste. Adele, that same town where Rolland’s predecessor and the original owner of La Minerve, A.-N. Morin, had experimented with potato farming in an attempt to encourage French Canadians to establish themselves in the Laurentians. Three years later, in 1905, the government opened a post office called Mont Rolland to service the large population surrounding the mill, and in 1918, a new parish called St. Joseph de Mont Rolland was created, separating it from Ste. Adele. It wasn’t until the 1960s that its name was shortened to Mont Rolland.

Mont Rolland was amalgamated with Ste. Adele in 1997, and the name survives today as a sector of the original town.