Meilleur's Bay is situated on the Ottawa River, on Highway 17 about 10 miles west of the town of Deep
River, which is 20 or so miles west of Pembroke ON as you come from Ottawa. Depending on how detailed your map is, you may see a place
called Point Alexander a few miles west of Deep River. Meilleur's Bay is just west of Point Alexander.
Meilleur's Bay was named after my great-great-grandparents, Joseph Seraphin Meilleur (1840-1901) and his wife
Elmire (Polly) Moore Meilleur (1846-1939). Polly was born in the Rolphton area. Joseph Seraphin was born in St. Martin (Laval QC) and
settled in the Rolph area with his wife and young family at some point in the 1870s. They ran a "stopping place", which was a hotel with
stables for the teams of men and horses who hauled logs out of the bush and onto the river to await the spring log drive. There were
stopping places all along the lumbering routes on either side of the Ottawa River in those days. An excellent museum, called The
Schoolhouse Museum, is located just off Highway 17 at Meilleur's Bay on land that was once owned by J.S. Meilleur and later by his
son John Meilleur.
Two of Joseph Seraphin Meilleur's brothers, Georges and Felix-Alfred, also came from St. Martin to the
Ottawa River in the late 1860s. Georges lived in Rolph Twp. Alfred settled in Chapeau QC, on Allumette Island in the middle of the river
near Pembroke ON, where many of his descendants still live.
A very good book on the early lumbering days in the
Point Alexander-Rolphton area, including a bit on the Meilleurs, is Staying the
Run: A History of the United Townships of Rolph, Buchanan, Wylie and McKay, by Jennifer Mercer. It's available for $15 from the
Rolph, Buchanan, Wylie and McKay Historical Society, RR #1, Deep River, ON, K0J 1P0.
Joan Finnigan has written quite a few very interesting books about pioneer days along the Upper Ottawa River, including Laughing All
the Way Home and Tallying the Tales of the Old Times. Meilleurs are mentioned in both of these books. There is also a
good book about the early days of Allumette Island, For Singing and Dancing and All Sorts of Fun, by I. Sheldon Posen. There's
quite a bit in that book about Meilleur's Hotel.
from John Levesque.
