Aylmer Road: 175 anniversary of its macadamization in 2025, 2 of 4

With Britannia Road becoming increasingly busy and, as a result, falling into disrepair, in 1833-1834, Charles Symmes and other landowners met with Road Commissioner John Chamberlin to ensure that the roads complied with the law. On June 16, 1834, Chamberlin ordered the construction of a 30-foot-wide road with seven bridges from Union Bridge to the western limits of the township, namely Britannia Road and Eardley Road.Arriving in the early 1830s, Irishman John Egan, nicknamed the “King of the Outaouais,” would become one of the most influential and powerful figures in the Outaouais region. At one time, he was one of the richest men in Canada. A timber baron like Symmes and Conroy, he also invested in sawmills, log slides, steamboats, and the first railroads, and he became an early partner of Joseph Aumond. When the landowners of Aylmer obtained the creation of an independent municipality in 1847, he became its first mayor, then the member of Parliament for Ottawa County the following year. At that time, it was generally at Conroy's hotel that all this took place, as evidenced today by the plaque affixed to the wall at the entrance to the hotel, indicating that the first public municipal meeting of Aylmer was held there on August 30, 1847.

At that time, Britannia Road was mainly used by horse-drawn carriages, carts, wagons, and stagecoaches, but as Aylmer grew and more and more settlers headed west, not to mention the transport of goods to logging sites, the road once again fell into disrepair. So, in 1841, the Road Board (chaired by John Egan) for the Municipal District of Sydenham (which became the municipality of Hull Township in 1845) quickly considered setting up a company to macadamize Britannia Road, with a toll in return. But it was not until 1849 that the government amended two laws to authorize this type of private company.Thus, on November 14, 1849, a public meeting of the residents of the village of Aylmer and the surrounding area was held at the British Hotel. Joseph Aumond, supported by Robert Conroy, proposed the formation of a joint-stock company (the Bytown & Aylmer Union Turnpike Co.), with a share capital of £2,000, divided into 400 shares of £5 each. The directors then met to elect their president, John Egan, secretary, Robert Archibald Young, treasurer, Aimé Lafontaine, and engineer, James Dyson Slater, of Bytown.

Subsequently, as authorization from the municipality was required when a road crossed it, it was decided on December 10 that the company president would submit a letter to the Aylmer City Council to obtain this authorization to macadamize the section of Aylmer Road within the municipality's boundaries. I must say that this was a rather comical situation. In fact, it was President John Egan who, on the same day, presented the letter in question to the municipal council (of which he was the mayor!!!). Another troubling element at this council meeting on December 10 was that Robert Conroy had done work on the section of Main Street between his two hotels, the British and the Auberge Symmes, and he presented an invoice to the council. It was a somewhat embarrassing situation for everyone. In short, a committee was assigned to evaluate the work done by Conroy, and at the same time, the municipal secretary-treasurer, James Finlayson Taylor, was asked to prepare a bylaw to allow the Bytown & Aylmer Union Turnpike Co. to macadamize Main Street. The meeting was then adjourned until the following week. On December 17, the committee's report and the draft bylaw prepared by Taylor were presented. Ultimately, the company would be allowed to macadamize Main Street, but it would pay most of the bill submitted by Conroy, who, it should be noted, was also a member of the company's board of directors.