Voici des extraits d'un document préparé par notre cousin Bob Barsaloux.
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| Fabrique de savon Barsalou |
The Barsalou Soap Factory was founded by Joseph Barsalou and built in the 1870s. It is considered a Montréal landmark. The original soap factory burned down around 1899 and it took several years to rebuild. The current building was completed about 1901.
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| Joseph Barsalou |
Joseph’s sons, Hector and Adolph-Érasme, fought with the city and Iroquois Bridge Company, which built the Jacques Cartier Bridge, over property rights. According to the initial bridge plans, the traffic on the bridge was to travel onto Bordeaux Street. However, Hector Barsalou, the owner of a soap factory on De Lorimier Avenue near De Maisonneuve Blvd, obstinately refused to let his building be expropriated by the city to make way for the entrance to the bridge. As the expropriation laws were different in those today, the engineers had to come up with a way to circumvent the factory, so they added a fairly sharp curve around the building.
In the early 1920s, progress was knocking at the city's doors. As early as 1917, more than 6,000 cars were rolling through the streets of Montreal. The port was still the second largest in North America, despite being closed in winter. One particular project mobilized the city's energies: a plan for a highway bridge 3.4 km long linking the island of Montreal to Île Ronde and St. Helen's Island, and then crossing the river to Longueuil.
The Jacques Cartier Bridge was inaugurated on May 24, 1930, nearly five years to the day after ground was first broken. Initially called the Harbour Bridge, it was later officially named the Jacques Cartier Bridge after the French explorer who had discovered Canada 400 years earlier.
There was, however, a price to be paid for this project. Starting in 1926, a series of expropriations decimated the working-class neighbourhood of Ste. Marie. Construction was known to start in the backyards of homes that had been expropriated but not yet demolished. However, one property owner wouldn't budge. Hector Barsalou stubbornly refused to sell his soap factory at the price offered by the city and as a consequence, the bridge would have to follow a pronounced curve. It was soon known as “the crooked bridge.” On August 9, 1926, a cornerstone was laid in the bridge's pier at the corner of Notre Dame and St. Antoine streets. It held a time capsule containing 59 objects, including annual reports of the Board of Harbour Commissioners of Montreal, coins, aerial photographs of the port, plans of the cities of Montreal and Longueuil, and even a plan of the bridge. The memory of the capsule lives on, even though no one knows its exact location!
This is probably where the term “Stubborn as a Barsalou” originated. En français on dit "Tête de roche de Barsalou".
Visiting the former Barsalou factory purchased by P & G in 1935 and sold to Familex during WWII, former Barsalou employee, Lucien Tremblay recalls a 200-pound soap carving of a horse's head which hung over the entrance as a symbol of the Barsalou soap products.
"A Good Brand Dies Hard"
With the opening of P &G new Pointe Claire plant next spring, a 22-year cycle in Quebec manufacturing will be complete. In 1935, P &G of Canada purchased the respected firm of Joseph Barsalou & Sons, famous in Quebec as makers of Barsalou and Tete de Cheval soaps. One former employee of the Barsalou Company remains with P & G, bridging the gap between past and present. Lucien Tremblay, order and traffic clerk in the Montréal district sales office, was with Barsalou Bros. 15 years and has been with P & G 20 years. Shortly after P &G took over the Barsalou products, the company shifted production to Hamilton and used the Barsalou factory as a warehouse. During WWII it was sold to the manufactures of Familex household products and has been there ever since. At the time of the purchase, sales of Tete de Cheval in Quebec equaled the combined volume of the two most popular P &G brands. In fact, Gold Soap, one of the original products in the Hamilton factory was literally put out of business in Quebec by Tete de Cheval. Today yellow laundry soaps have eventually disappeared in the face of more modern household cleaning products like synthetic detergents. An end to Barsalou production was recommended many times during the past decades, but orders kept coming in from Quebec, where families had used the soap for generations. Proof that a good brand dies hard, shipments of Barsalou soap were made right up to June of 1957. (22 years after the company was sold.)
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| Hector Barsalou |
A quick history lesson about the Jacques Cartier - Harbour - Bridge
The Jacques Cartier Bridge was inaugurated on May 24, 1930, nearly five years to the day after ground was first broken. Initially called the Harbour Bridge, it was later officially named the Jacques Cartier Bridge after the French explorer who had discovered Canada 400 years earlier.
There was, however, a price to be paid for this project. Starting in 1926, a series of expropriations decimated the working-class neighbourhood of Ste. Marie. Construction was known to start in the backyards of homes that had been expropriated but not yet demolished. However, one property owner wouldn't budge. Hector Barsalou stubbornly refused to sell his soap factory at the price offered by the city and as a consequence, the bridge would have to follow a pronounced curve. It was soon known as “the crooked bridge.” On August 9, 1926, a cornerstone was laid in the bridge's pier at the corner of Notre Dame and St. Antoine streets. It held a time capsule containing 59 objects, including annual reports of the Board of Harbour Commissioners of Montreal, coins, aerial photographs of the port, plans of the cities of Montreal and Longueuil, and even a plan of the bridge. The memory of the capsule lives on, even though no one knows its exact location!
This is probably where the term “Stubborn as a Barsalou” originated. En français on dit "Tête de roche de Barsalou".
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| Publicité savon Barsalou |
This is an article from the 1957 #4 Moonbeams Scrapbook
"A Good Brand Dies Hard"
With the opening of P &G new Pointe Claire plant next spring, a 22-year cycle in Quebec manufacturing will be complete. In 1935, P &G of Canada purchased the respected firm of Joseph Barsalou & Sons, famous in Quebec as makers of Barsalou and Tete de Cheval soaps. One former employee of the Barsalou Company remains with P & G, bridging the gap between past and present. Lucien Tremblay, order and traffic clerk in the Montréal district sales office, was with Barsalou Bros. 15 years and has been with P & G 20 years. Shortly after P &G took over the Barsalou products, the company shifted production to Hamilton and used the Barsalou factory as a warehouse. During WWII it was sold to the manufactures of Familex household products and has been there ever since. At the time of the purchase, sales of Tete de Cheval in Quebec equaled the combined volume of the two most popular P &G brands. In fact, Gold Soap, one of the original products in the Hamilton factory was literally put out of business in Quebec by Tete de Cheval. Today yellow laundry soaps have eventually disappeared in the face of more modern household cleaning products like synthetic detergents. An end to Barsalou production was recommended many times during the past decades, but orders kept coming in from Quebec, where families had used the soap for generations. Proof that a good brand dies hard, shipments of Barsalou soap were made right up to June of 1957. (22 years after the company was sold.)
A business could also order Barsalou Soap by the barrel. Flocons de Buanderie Special – Special Laundry Flakes was sold in 100 pound barrels for business use.
Mais ce n'est pas tout.....
Joseph Barsalou and sons were also responsible for building and maintaining the bridge across the river at St. Hyacinthe, which is called the Barsalou Bridge or Le Pont Barsalou. Initially, this was a toll bridge. It allowed the farmers to cross the river and bring their produce to the Barsalou mills in St. Hyacinthe. Mr. Barsalou was also a shareholder in the St. Hyacinthe Bank and I was told, he received the bridge tolls.
Well, that's all for today folks.
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| Publicité savon Barsalou |
