Cantley 1889 Articles
The following article first appeared in The Echo of Cantley Volume 34 no 2, August 2022. This article is made available for the enjoyment of others with the express permission of the Echo of Cantley.
A Bit of the Wild West in Cantley – George’s Western Valley Ranch
By Michael Rosen with the collaboration of Jacques Clermont
Many dream of the country life, but few realize these dreams. Not so with George Clermont. At the ripe old age of 27, with a young wife, four children (and another on the way), he pursued his 1950’s dream of farming in Cantley. A visionary, “do-er” and otherwise “bon-vivant,” he left a short but meaningful legacy in Cantley’s history.
George Clermont was one of eight children born in 1930 to Samuel Clermont and Irène Prud’homme in Ottawa’s LeBreton Flats “Mechanicsville”. He worked three summers on a farm in the Navan area, an experience that changed his life and those around him. He wanted to be a farmer. In the meantime, he started working as a labourer and a plumber.
While working in downtown Ottawa he frequented the lunch counter of Freiman’s Department Store where he met Raymonde Charron, a young girl from Pointe Gatineau, whose father worked in the bush as a log scaler for E.B. Eddy. They married in 1950 at Pointe-Gatineau’s Église-St-François-de-Sales. In 1957, they bought 198 acres of a mix of forest, cedar swamp and cleared fields in Cantley from Maurice Foley. Their property was bordered by chemins Denis and Taché. Today it includes such newer streets as Clermont, Maricourt, Fauvette and du Huard.
The Clermonts renovated the house on the property (today’s 166 chemin Denis) bringing it to modern standards, including indoor plumbing. For 20 years, George and Raymonde raised five children in a hardworking and pastoral life on the “Ranch”. Starting with six dairy cows and a few rabbits, the farm eventually included pigs and the boarding of many horses. George also had a second job working as a plumber/pipefitter in Ottawa/Gatineau.
For the children, helping around the farm was not an option. The family raised animals, cut and sold wood, and transformed a cow barn into horse stalls for riding lessons and eventually apartments. They built rue Beaumont and houses on rue Denis. George and son Jacques sold rabbits in the Byward Market. Raymonde took care of all the administration. George eventually named the operation “George’s Western Valley Ranch.”
The “Ranch” soon developed a regional reputation with rodeos, loudspeakers, bandstands and guided rides featuring George’s Canadians/Percherons/“Buckskins” and Pinto horses. In winter he gave sleigh rides. At age 13, son Jacques remembers proudly riding the lead horse in a parade on Eddy Street in Hull and guiding the 60s Quebec bleached-hair rock group “Les Classels” on horseback after their show to Manoir des Rapides, a hotel and night spot formerly on Highway 307.
Eventually George purchased another acre to build a new house at today’s 142 chemin Denis. He donated its existing small house to local firefighters for practising. In 1976 he sold part of his farm and began installing sprinkler systems full time. He retired as an inspector for sprinkler systems. George and Raymonde spent their last days at that house – Raymonde passed in 1997, George in 2010.
Jacques is their only child still living on part of where the Ranch once was. He worked for Cantley’s Public Works for 22 years. George and Raymonde’s sons, Michel and Pierre, and their grandsons, Yves and Roch, continued the Clermont sprinkler installation tradition. Their children Nicole, Jean and Pierre live in Gatineau, Québec City and Mexico/Lac Grant (near Messines) respectively.
George Clermont’s legacy in Cantley is simple — the “rue Clermont” where “The Ranch” used to be and the fact that two of his five children (Michel and Jacques), their three children and George and Raymonde’s many great-grandchildren continue to live and call Cantley their home — a legacy many of us aspire to.
