A vital cultural force in Eastern Ontario, the Franco-Ontarian community in Cornwall was established during the late 1870s when large-scale industrial expansion led to an influx of workers and tradesmen from Québec. By 1881 French-speaking residents comprised the largest single cultural group in the town. Supported by a number of religious and scholastic institutions, including l'église de la Nativité de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, the Francophone community grew steadily in the decades that followed. Increasingly it asserted its cultural distinctiveness, paying particular attention to language preservation and French education. Long-standing efforts to protect and advance the community's rights and interests in these spheres culminated in the opening in 1974 of La Citadelle, an all-French secondary school.

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Show me all markers in:  Cornwall, Ontario  |  Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry United Counties  |  K6H 1B6  |  Ontario  |  Canada

The Glengarry Fencibles
United Empire Loyalists
War of 1812
The Founding of Cornwall
Cornwall Canal
Right Reverend John Strachan
Cornwall Grammar School
The Rev. John Strachan in Cornwall
Captain Samuel Anderson
Inverarden

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