2,438 miles
May 26 –
Verner is one of 17½ former towns, villages, townships and unorganized
communities that were amalgamated into West Nipissing, an administrative
“municipality” surrounding the western half of Lake Nipissing.
It is the
most bilingual community in Ontario, with 73.4% of its population fluent in
both English and French. Verner, in
particular, is a strongly francophone community. When I “bike” along the streets of the town,
I see that most signs are bilingual, with the French first. I haven’t seen much of this kind of signage
farther west, and now I expect that I am approaching a truly mingled
culture.
Many of the
late 19th century settlers immigrated to the area from Southern Michigan in
order to preserve their language, and many Ontarians emigrated to Michigan. It has been estimated that one in four people
in Michigan have ancestors who were born in Ontario.
Next to the
large stone Catholic church of St. Jean Baptiste, is an historical plaque
honoring one man who urged French-speaking Catholics from Michigan to settle in
the region of Verner.
This Catholic Oblate monk[1],
Abbé Charles Alfred Marie Paradis, came from Quebec as a missionary, and recommended
the colonization of the region.
 |
| Building the Log House |
He prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake,
wrote pamphlets, painted in watercolors, & worked on the compilation of an
Ojibwa dictionary. After retirement, he took
up farming in this area.
 |
| Co-opérative Régionale de Nipissing |
The Verner community serves as an agricultural hub for the surrounding area. It has farm equipment dealers, an agricultural co-op, & a consumers' co-op as well. I wonder if any Michigander Finns were involved in this co-op movement, or if it's the result of such a strong multiethnic agricultural co-op movement from the 1920s.
[1] Oblate monk: dedicated to God’s service, but living in the world.
info: Wikipedia.com
images:
Google Images & Google Street Views
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