Several British and French-owned colonization companies began operations in eastern Compton County during the 1870s. Though their priority was to sell timber rather than establish settlements, the nationalistic proponents of colonization preferred these companies to the undisguised timber operators. The settlement shown in this painting was established on the Salmon River in 1873 as the headquarters for the Glasgow Canadian Land and Trust Company. Only enough hardwood forest had been cleared to provide building materials for the settlement. A dam had been constructed, but only the stone foundation of the new mill is complete. The heavy timber spans give the bridge a solid looking appearance and the road is smooth enough to accommodate the coach and four arriving from Lennoxville. The mail carrier and stage driver's family operated the company's two-story, square timber boarding house, fifth from the left. Next to it is the company's office and store, the only building with a foundation and white clapboard siding. The siding must have been carried to the spot from a distant sawmill. All the other houses but one are simply log cabins without brick chimneys. Some of the Scottish workers apparently brought their families with them, for a brightly-clad girl and her dog can be seen beside one of the cabins.
After purchasing 28,000 hectares from private owners, the Glasgow based company invested $30,000 in International Railroad stocks in order to guarantee the railway's passage through Scotstown. The company also acquired a 4,000-hectare crown land grant, mostly in Hampden, Ditton, Marston and Clinton Townships. In order to attract the settlers it was obliged to establish on its crown land reserve, the company offered to lend them fifteen dollars for each half hectare they cleared until they had reached the ten hectares required for full title to forty hectares.
This sum could be repaid by working for the company. The manager soon began to complain of the QuΘbec government's lack of support and even became a political opponent of the Honourable J.H. Pope. Although the company introduced very few settlers to the area, it did manage to pursue its logging operations until 1894.
