Editor's note:

Citing security and other reasons, the Town of Waterville recently announced that it will be officially removing the designation "Gilbert Hyatt Highway" from the stretch of Route 143 that passes through its territory, and that henceforth the road will be known simply as "Route 143."

Waterville's announcement has raised the ire of a number of local residents, who feel that because Loyalist Gilbert Hyatt was one of the area's first settlers, his name deserves to be remembered. They argue that an important part of Eastern Townships' history will be erased if the name of the road is changed.

The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada has weighed in on the question, and has sent the following open letter to the municipality and to regional media outlets:

Mr. Kimball Smith,
Ville de Waterville

Dear Sir,

As President of the UELAC, I receive many queries from people across this country, and quite frequently from other countries, seeking information about the Loyalists and the Loyalist era. I try to answer those I can, and direct others to sources which can help. When I know not where to turn, we publish the question in our weekly newsletter. The answers from those readers never cease to astonish me, as they come from anywhere in our country or even beyond, and the depth and breadth of knowledge that those readers have of our Canadian history is phenomenal.

As I am sure you know as well as I, our ancestors have been just as likely to move elsewhere as to remain in one place. Yet it is the evolving history of a community which makes up a significant part of a community’s persona - as many have said, we are in part what has gone before us. We absorb the history of the community from the people, from the buildings, from the names, even from the history books. From those we learn what our ancestors, and the community ancestors, struggled with, mourned, and celebrated.

In this sense of understanding ourselves within our community and its history, we kindly ask that you preserve the name of the “Gilbert Hyatt Highway”, as representation of a period in our history when we came perilously close to losing to the rebel side of the American Revolution, when the rebels sat on the doorstep of Quebec City late in 1775, and the seven years of struggle which followed. When confronted with such a name, unknown to them, many will query it’s source. From that flows the history lesson about one of the contributors to the formation of your province, and of mine.

As an historical or heritage organization, the UELAC’s vision statement reads: “To enrich the lives of Canadians through fostering public awareness of our national history....”. Although we do of course have a focus on the Loyalist era, we cheer for history from First Nations before the Vikings, French and British to recent Trudeau, Mulroney and Chretien eras. Like our population of today, the Loyalists were a cultural mosaic - Native, Black, German, French, Dutch, Scottish, English and more. Many of them spent years in refugee camps in Machiche, Sorel, New York and others, awaiting the outcome, and then seeking a new home in the wilderness

Thank you for helping to capture a piece of our history only a few years ago with the naming of the “Gilbert Hyatt Highway”; please help us pass that history to others by preserving it.

Loyally

Douglas W. Grant UE President, UELAC

Tel: (416) 921-7756
Fax: (416) 753-7202
doug.grant@insurance-canada.ca