88 F. C. WURTELE ON 
auction on Tuesday, August 4th, 1846, at 11 o’clock, in the forenoon, at the court-house 
in Three Rivers. An order-in-council, of July 29th, fixed the upset price, at £3,000. 
The sale took place as ordered, and the forges were adjudged to Mr. Henry Stuart for 
£5,575, thirty bids, in all, having been given by Messrs, T. Hart, Henry Stuart, Matthew 
Bell, and Judah. Mr. Stuart offering to purchase the fiefs St. Etienne and St. Maurice, 
a report was made by the commissioner of crown lands, dated September 19th, 1846, 
recommending their sale to him for £4,500. But by order-in-council they were advertised 
to be sold by public auction on November 3rd, the upset price to be £4,500. The sale 
took place and the fiefs were adjudged to Mr. Henry Stuart, for £5,900 currency, according 
to the advertised conditions. Forty bids were given over the upset price, two by Mr. 
Hugh Cameron, and the rest by Messrs. George Pacaud and Henry Stuart, mostly of £25 
each. Mr. Stuart commenced operations vigorously, and expended large sums of money in 
the latest improvements in machinery. He repaired the big house, increased the staff of 
workmen, and a French engineer induced him to invest more money on new works, 
which soon proved to be utterly useless. 
So Mr. Stuart leased the place for a term of four years, on certain conditions, to the Hon. 
James Ferrier, of Montreal, from 1847 to 1851, who carried on the works with great 
success, owing to a strict system of economy in every department, proving that profits 
could be realised. In November, 1851, his term expired, and Messrs. Andrew Stuart and 
John Porter, of Quebec, purchased the forges and fiefs St. Etienne and St. Maurice from 
Henry Stuart, by assuming the payment of the balance of the purchase money owing to 
the Government. 
Their occupation was not successful. The whole place seemed to have deteriorated. 
They tried to get concessions from the government on the terms of their purchase, but it 
seems without success. The forges fell into disuse, and the purchasers into arrears with 
the Government. The lands were nearly all squatted on by actual settlers, and in addition 
to this, the part of the lands bordering on the River St. Maurice was crossed by the booms 
of Mr. George Baptist. These gaye rise to many difficulties, and the Crown, in order to 
solve them, determined to bring the property to sale, and, under cover of its mortgage, 
bought in the whole, when having protected Mr. Baptist’s rights, it settled with the settlers 
by disposing of the lands as follows. The following is taken from report of Crown 
Lands for 1861, headed “The Crown Domain ” :— 
“ The Forges of St. Maurice, together with a number of lots in the township of St. 
Maurice, for which titles had not been issued by the original purchasers to the settlers, 
were seized in virtue of a judgment obtained by the court for non-payment of the balance 
of the purchase price of the property, and sold on the 22nd October. The forges not 
bringing the value set upon them by the Crown, were acquired by the latter for $7,200, 
and are now for sale. Nearly all the lands, most of which were squatted upon and 
improved, were also bought by the Crown to be disposed of to the settlers.” 
The following extract from the “ Report of Crown Lands ” for 1862, relates to the final 
disposal of the property by tender :— 
“The Forges of St. Maurice, purchased by the department in 1861, at sheriff's sale, 
in the case of Regina vs. Stuart et al., after due advertisement (by tender) were sold to Mr. 
Onesime Heroux, of St. Bernabé, for $7,000, of which he paid one-fourth cash, and the 
balance is exigible in three equal annual instalments with interest. The township of St. 
