Eastern Townships Trivia Quiz #6: Townships "Firsts"
(January 10, 2003)

Matthew Farfan

1. Billy Connor was the first person to accomplish which aquatic feat?
a) Diving to the bottom of Lake Massawippi
b) Kayaking the St. Francis River all the way from Sherbrooke to the St. Lawrence
c) Swimming the length of Lake Memphremagog

2. Who built Canada's first gasoline powered automobile?
a) Henry Seth Taylor
b) Frank Sleeper
c) George Foote Foss

3. The first person in the world to send wireless broadcasts of voice and music was born in the Eastern Townships. His name was:
a) Reginald Fessenden
b) Guglielmo Marconi
c) Thomas Edison

4. Who was the first (and only) Townships-born Prime Minister of Canada?
a) Sir Wilfrid Laurier
b) Louis St-Laurent
c) Sir John Abbott

5. What was the first railway to penetrate the Eastern Townships?
a) The Quebec Central Railway
b) The Massawippi Valley Railway
c) The St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railway

6. In 1993 (over 125 years after the fact), Canada Post issued a 43-cent stamp to commemorate which Canadian "first"?
a) The first visit of a reigning English monarch to Canada
b) The first automobile built in Canada
c) The first trans-Atlantic blimp journey, which departed from Sherbrooke

7. Paquetteville (or Saint-Venant-de-Paquette) was the site of what "first" in 1907?
a) The first French Catholic school in the Townships
b) The first rural Caisse populaire in North America
c) The first government-funded lunatic asylum in Quebec

8. What was the first newspaper published in the Eastern Townships?
a) The Sherbrooke Record
b) The British Colonist and Saint Francis Gazette
c) The Farmer's Advocate and Eastern Townships Advertiser

9. Which Olympic events were held in the Eastern Townships in 1976?
a) Yachting (on Brome Lake)
b) Equestrian Sports (at Bromont)
c) Rowing (at the Université de Sherbrooke)

10. What Townships-born creator of the silent-era "Keystone Kops" gave both Charlie Chaplin and Bing Crosby their first big breaks, and was later awarded a special "Oscar" in 1937 "for his lasting contribution to the comedy technique of the screen"?
a) Mack Sennett
b) Buster Keaton
c) W. C. Fields

ANSWERS