Heritage

The founders' place is designated as a local historic place for its value with regards to the founding of the Higho of Cocagne by the three Desroches sisters on a spring day in 1832. Before the parish of Saint-Antoine was given its name, in 1873, the new colony was called the Higho of Cocagne. In 1832, the three sisters, Marguerite, Geneviève and Barbe Desroches accompanied their husbands to a sugar cabin on what is today called Grub Road. After the three women had ventured in the forest, where they found the elevated land and fertile ground, Marguerite planted a stick in the ground and said: "This is my land, you my sisters, can claim your land after, which Geneviève and Barbe, in fact did... on the sites of what are today the old cemetery and the stone church. These sites were the first three properties in the village. The following year, in 1833, the sisters and their husbands settled on the land and became the first inhabitants of Saint-Antoine. Other families followed them and established themselves permanently.