Municipal Week – Did You Know that… (2)
Published on 17 September 2025
As part of Municipal Week from September 14 to 20, 2025, the Town of Sutton aims to highlight information of interest to all its citizens.
- The Town of Sutton was formed in 2002 by the merger of the Township of Sutton (officially surveyed in 1792 and officially becoming a municipality in 1855) and Sutton (a village municipality created in 1896 and becoming a town in 1962).
- The official history of the Township of Sutton begins in 1802 with the granting of the first lots to some 168 individuals.
- The first French-speaking settlers arrived in the Sutton territory in the late 1830s. The first French-speaker to hold a position within the municipality was Baptiste Saint-Pierre.
- The hamlet of Glen Sutton is very old: the first settler, who came from Vermont, settled there in 1799. Initially called Dodge, after the tavern located at the south end of Bridge Street, the hamlet was renamed Glen Sutton in 1861, at the initiative of the Scottish Member of Parliament for Brome. Glen means small valley in Celtic language.
- The first municipal council of the Township of Sutton, created on July 21, 1845, elected Moses Westover as mayor and George C. Dyer as secretary-treasurer.
- Feeling the need for a town hall, plans were prepared by Mr. W.M. Dow at a cost of $1,650. Construction of the building, entrusted to Alden Olmstead, began in 1859.
- In 1912, the town hall’s facade was renovated. The bill amounted to $5,000. It was shared between the Township of Sutton ($3,000) and the Town of Sutton ($2,000).
- On the night of April 15, 1898, a fire raged in the heart of the village, razing buildings between Dépôt Street and Pine Street. The Boright & Safford store (currently La Rumeur Affamée), which also served as a post office, was spared. Immediately after what was called “the Great Fire“, the municipal council created a volunteer fire department and the municipal water supply network to address the lack of water and coordination that became apparent during this traumatic event.
- Today, drinking water supply in the Sutton territory is ensured in three distinct ways: the municipal aqueduct in the Village sector, which draws its water from the Academy well (from the water table) + the municipal aqueduct in the Mountain sector which takes water stored in reservoirs (from upstream streams) + private wells outside these two sectors.
- The spring on Route 215, known as “the spring“, offers continuous drinking water to the many people who come to get their supply there. The water comes from and returns to the water table. It is not connected to the municipal aqueduct network. NOTE: Since April 2025, it has been under constant surveillance due to a slightly elevated manganese level. Currently, it is not recommended for pregnant women, breastfeeding women, and babies under one year old to consume it.
- All wastewater from both the Village and Mountain sectors is transported by the municipal sewer, by gravity, to the aerated ponds located near the municipal garage: these four open-air basins treat wastewater through an extremely monitored and controlled filtration system.