PRESENTATION ON THE INTERPRETIVE PANEL PROJECT

AT THE PARKS CANADA SITE IN FRELIGHSBURG

“THE BATTLE OF ECCLES HILL OF 25 MAY 1870”

Introduction

Managed by Parks Canada and located in the municipality of Frelighsburg in the Province of Quebec, the Battle of Eccles Hill Memorial is a significant Canadian Heritage Site. On 17 October 2008, Mr Laurent Busseau, historian, together with Ms Judy Antle, archivist at the Missisquoi Historical Society (MHS), submitted a proposal for an interpretive panel to Mr Michel Filteau, Manager – Heritage Presentation at Parks Canada.

An action plan was then agreed upon for the installation of an interpretive panel at the Eccles Hill historical site by the spring of 2009. This document is a technical presentation of the design for this panel.

The purpose of the document is a request for administrative support from the Missisquoi Historical Society in securing the necessary funding from Parks Canada for the realisation of this project.

Presentation of the project planned for spring 2009

The Missisquoi Historical Society shall take charge of the funding process and technical aspects of the Eccles Hill project. The support of Parks Canada is paramount in raising the project’s visibility among sponsors.

Several steps are required to carry out the project:

- budget planning

- financial planning

- potential sponsor identification

- partnership agreements with local municipalities and the MRC de Brome-Missisquoi

- follow-up with Parks Canada technical services

Some financial and technical sponsors have already been identified:

- Bélanger Garner Foundation

- Townshipper’s Foundation

- Fond culturel du Centre Local de Développement Brome Missisquoi

- Société d’histoire de Brome

- Société d’histoire de Frelighsburg

- Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network (QAHN)

- Eastern Township Research Center (Bishop University)

- Municipalities of Frelighsburg, Saint-Armand and Stanbridge East

Historical and Educational Objectives:

Historian by profession, Mr Busseau approached the MHS with a proposal for a project aimed at highlighting the historical significance of the memorial erected at Eccles Hill in 1902. The project involves installing an interpretive panel and producing a brochure to increase understanding and appreciation of this site by tourists and residents of the Eastern Townships.

The Eccles Hill Memorial at Frelighsburg is an important historical marker. The Battle of Eccles Hill is a little known event in the history of the Eastern Townships, Quebec and Canada.

The historical content of the project shall be provided by Mr Busseau under the supervision of the MHS. All the work done in carrying out the project shall also to be under the supervision of the MHS.

The installation of an interpretive panel on the very site of the Battle is the first step in a larger plan to establish a new historical anchor point in the county. The primary aims of the panel are:

- to raise awareness of the site

- to explain the historical context

- to tell the story of the men involved and of the facts

In addition, a brochure is to be produced to inform national and international tourist organisations of:

- the location of the Frelighsburg site

- the layout of a welcome trail

- local historical events

- the existence of the memorial and of the interpretive panel

The wine industry and the Brome-Missisquoi commons are not the only tourist attractions that generate revenue and inject fresh money into the local economy. Other programmes, such as the “Chemin des Cantons” tourists trail and the Eccles Hill Memorial attract many tourists.

The location of the panel at the site is very important and must take into account the following criteria:

- ease of access

- ease of reading

- removal of eyesores (electrical cables, drains, pipes)

- year-round maintenance

Historic Presentation of the Battle of Eccles Hill

The village of Frelighsburg was the scene of an armed conflict between British Canada and Irish insurgents living in the Unites States in the 19^th Century. Conquered militarily by the English in the 17^th Century, the Irish people had remained faithful to the idea of an independent Ireland.

In 1858, in New York, a secret society, The Fenian Brotherhood, was established to make war against the British, including in the British in Canada. The word “Fenian” is from the Gaelic “Fianna”, the Celtic name of a legendary band of Irish warriors of the 3^rd Century.

Well organised and well trained after the American war on independence, between 1861 and 1865, many Fenian insurgents crossed the Canadian border at several points, including in Vermont, near Frelighsburg, in June 1866, at Pigeon Hill. After three days, they were pushed back across the American boarder by Canadian militiamen from Montréal.

A second invasion was attempted on 25 May 1870 under the command of a former federal army officer, John O’Neill, who gathered a band of 400 Fenian volunteers to invade Frelighsburg passing through Eccles Hill.

On the Canadian side, a local militia was established by Asa Westover and Andrew Ten Eyck. Made up of inhabitants of Frelighsburg and Dunham, this new Home Guard under the command of Asa Westover, was also known as the Red Sashes because of the red sashes they wore.

To avoid being taken by surprise, Westover established a network of spies dispatched to Vermont. These men were then able to alert Westover to the presence of a group of Fenians at Franklin, Vermont. At the border crossing at Eccles Hill, the Red Sashes engage the Irish insurgents, killing two and wounding some 40 others. Their determination would end forever the Irish raids into Lower Canada in the 19^th century.

The memorial erected in 1902 by the government of the British Dominion of Canada and the Missisquoi Historical Society provides no relevant information on those past events. The interpretive panel is designed as an educational aid to remedy this lack of information at the site itself.