Proulx Cheese Factory
On June 26, 2026, a provincial plaque was unveiled at the Caledonia Community Centre, in St-Bernardin, The Nation Municipality. The plaque was then permanently installed near the corner of Concession Road 6 and Roger Lalonde Sideroad, in front of the former Proulx Cheese Factory, St-Bernardin.
The bilingual plaque reads as follows:
PROULX CHEESE FACTORY
Built in 1890, the Proulx Cheese Factory is one of the few remaining buildings of its kind in Ontario. It reflects the importance of locally run rural enterprises to the province’s agricultural development and the central role that cheesemaking had in the region. In the mid-1860s, cheesemaking moved from family farms to small rural factories where milk was easily sourced from surrounding farms. These factories once totalled over 1,200 in Ontario, largely manufacturing for export — including the growing cheddar trade with the United Kingdom. The industry began to decrease by the 1930s with significant change in the dairy industry. Closed in 1957, the Proulx Cheese Factory was rescued from demolition in the 1980s, earned a heritage designation in 1989, and was then carefully restored. In 1991, it became the Caledonia Art Centre and then privately owned. The building stands as a silent witness to an era when agriculture and its subset of cheesemaking were vital to the community. It is a symbol of the importance of local farm economies to the legacy of cheesemaking excellence.
FROMAGERIE PROULX
Construite en 1890, la fromagerie Proulx est l’un des rares bâtiments de ce type encore présents en Ontario. Elle témoigne de l’importance des entreprises rurales locales pour le développement agricole de la province, ainsi que du rôle central que jouait la production fromagère dans la région. La production fromagère se fait dans des fermes familiales jusqu’au milieu des années 1860, puis dans de petites fromageries rurales, qui s’approvisionnent en lait auprès d’exploitations environnantes. Ces établissements, qui seront à leur apogée plus de 1 200 en Ontario, sont en grande partie tournés vers l’exportation, compte tenu notamment du commerce florissant du cheddar avec le Royaume-Uni. L’industrie commence à décliner dans les années 1930, sous l’effet des profondes transformations du secteur laitier. Fermée en 1957, la fromagerie Proulx est sauvée de la démolition dans les années 1980; elle obtient le statut de lieu patrimonial en 1989 avant d’être soigneusement restaurée. En 1991, elle devient le Centre d'art de Caledonia, puis passe sous propriété privée. Le bâtiment est aujourd’hui le témoin silencieux d’une époque où l’agriculture et, par extension, la production fromagère revêtaient une importance vitale pour la collectivité. Il incarne le rôle des économies agricoles locales dans la préservation d’un savoir-faire fromager d’excellence.
Historical background
Overview
The story of the Proulx Cheese Factory is intimately connected with the changing economic and social conditions of rural Eastern Ontario in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Built in 1890 by Samuel Fraser,1 the cheese factory building came at a time when small-scale factory cheese production across southern Ontario was on the rise. Beginning in the mid-1860s, cheese production migrated from family farms to small cheese factories located in the countryside where milk was easily pooled from surrounding farms and manufactured into cheese. Some factories also produced butter and other dairy products. Most of the cheese manufactured at this time was for export, including the growing cheddar trade with the United Kingdom. However, some of the cheese produced was also consumed locally.2 While the expansion of rural cheese factories and production was impressive during the nineteenth century, Canada’s cheese exports to Britain peaked in 1903-04, and by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, cheese exports had fallen by 20 percent.3 Once totalling over 1,200 factories across Ontario, the number of cheese factories fell by more than 40 percent between the early 1900s and the 1930s as the industry increasingly shifted to larger-scale, corporate fluid milk and multi-product dairy plants that served growing urban markets.4 While the increase in dairy production and other mixed-farm commodities in the nineteenth century was partially a response by farmers choosing to diversify and stabilize their farm incomes as wheat prices became increasingly volatile on the international market,5 over the course of the twentieth century chaotic market conditions and increased international competition also drove down dairy prices.6
The precarity of cheesemaking into the twentieth century is illustrated by the experiences of the subsequent owners of the Proulx Cheese Factory (cheese factory 709) building over the decades.7 After the building was sold by Fraser to East Hawkesbury resident and cheesemaker Alexander McDonald, McDonald relocated it in 1918 to property he purchased at Proulx in 1916 from Adélard Charlebois.8 While McDonald had been employed as a cheesemaker since 1901,9 he appears to have left the industry shortly after he established the Proulx Cheese Factory.10 When the 1921 census was taken, McDonald’s occupation had changed from cheesemaker to labourer.11 By the following census in 1931, he was reported to be unemployed at the time but working in the construction industry as an independent engineer.12 As a younger son in a farm family, and thus unlikely to take over the family farm, it is not surprising that McDonald would choose to become a cheesemaker, which was considered a respectable non-farm rural profession.13 Cheesemaking was nevertheless highly seasonal and insecure. Even makers who owned factories and could set manufacturing rates that covered their fixed costs and other expenses noted the downward pressure on rates, and therefore their earnings, and many began to leave the business. Evidence from Eastern Ontario also suggests that rates were lower because of the smaller scale of the factories and increased regional competition.14 Conditions for most cheesemakers only worsened over the course of the twentieth century.
Still, opportunities also existed for cheesemakers, and when Arthur Régnier purchased the Proulx Cheese Factory in 1935, his business continued until its closure in 1957 following major changes in the dairy industry. Born in Embrun, Ontario in 1898,15 Régnier was the second youngest of six sons at the time of the 1901 census.16 Similar to McDonald, it is unlikely that Régnier would have inherited the family farm, and therefore he sought other employment. After marrying Clara Lamesse in 1924,17 Régnier became employed as a storekeeper and eventually a cheesemaker when he purchased the Proulx Cheese Factory.18 It was not long before the local St-Bernardin community was noting their new cheesemakers’ social activities in the community column of the Ottawa-based French daily newspaper Le Droit.19 The Proulx Cheese Factory was an important local enterprise that supported local farmers and the St-Bernardin community by purchasing milk and cream and manufacturing cheese and butter. The cheese was largely sold for export to buyers in larger cities like Belleville, but cheese curds were sold locally.20
Another important legacy of the Proulx Cheese Factory was Arthur Régnier’s son, Laurent Régnier, who worked for a time at the family factory before finding international success as a renowned cheesemaker based in Ville de Brossard, Québec. While still working for his father, Laurent was already making a name for himself. Laurent, along with fellow United Counties of Prescott and Russell resident and cheesemaker, Osias Ranger, was featured in a 1950 edition of Le Droit for the prize-winning cheese he exhibited at the Cornwall Cheese Exhibition. The exhibition featured 285 exhibits from 123 cheesemakers competing for prizes.21Later in 1959, Laurent was again featured in Le Droit, but this time as the cheesemaker for the new “fromagerie ultra-moderne” in Plantagenet. The new facility cost $225,000 to build and was reportedly one of the most modern cheese factories in the province. With a processing capacity of 100,000 pounds of milk per day, the factory employed a tanker truck and five more regular trucks to collect milk from farmers around the region.22 Laurent was pictured explaining the new factory equipment to a group of visitors.23More than 500 people attended the opening of the new Chamberland Cheese Factory, including Father Raoul Guibord, who blessed the property and encouraged all farmers in the region to support the venture.24 While more and more small-scale cheese factories were closing during this period (in Eastern Ontario, more than 301 cheese factories closed or switched over to butter between 1941 and 1956 leaving 113 in operation), newer and larger modern facilities were touted as the future of dairy processing.25 In 1962, Laurent again made newspaper headlines when he won the Singleton Trophy at the Ottawa Winter Fair for the excellent cheese he submitted for the competition.26 By 1969, Laurent had moved from Ontario to Ville-Brossard, Quebec, to manage the cheese department at the Montreal Dairy Producers Cooperative. His cheesemaking success was recognized internationally by that time, having won the Bledesloe Perpetual Challenge Trophy for the best cheddar cheese in the Commonwealth at a competition held as part of the Royal International Dairy Show in London, England in 1969. The same cheese also won the first prize for the best cheddar made in Canada. Le Droit commented on how the cheesemakers in Russell and Prescott would be pleased to learn of Mr. Régnier’s success, noting his history in the region. The newspaper also commented that “Parions que pendant son séjour en Angleterre, le premier ministre Pierre-Elliott Trudeau insistera pour manger du fromage canadien, surtout quand le champion du Commonwealth est un ‘gars de chez-nous.’”27
The Proulx Cheese Factory eventually closed, and Régnier sold the building to Jean-Charles Ranger in 1957 due to financial difficulty. The chaotic markets and low prices of a pre-supply management era caused hardship for milk producers and small-scale dairy processors and manufacturers alike,28 but the importance of the local cheese factory for area farmers during its years of operation should not be ignored, nor should the legacy of cheesemaking excellence that resulted.
Today, The Nation Municipality is home to one of the oldest cheese cooperatives in Canada and the last to survive in Eastern Ontario: The St-Albert Cheese Co-operative. The St-Albert Cheese Co-operative is well known for its quality cheeses, having won top awards at international cheese competitions, and for continuing the region’s history of cheesemaking success.29
Beyond the central place of cheesemaking to the property’s history, it should also be acknowledged that the main building itself remains in an excellent state of conservation due to the efforts of its owners, especially since the 1980s. Like most cheese factories, the unassuming architecture employed when the building was constructed illustrates the largely utilitarian nature of such structures. Although simple in design, when the property was purchased by Jeannine Maës in 1987, the main building and additional building in the rear of the property (reportedly used as a creamery) needed significant renovations before they could be transformed into her planned art gallery and local artisan workspace. A native of Belgium and an artist known for her miniatures and hand-painted furniture, Maës sought to designate the property as one of architectural and historical value under the Ontario Heritage Act, recognizing the significance of the building’s heritage, its importance as one of the few factories of its kind left in the region, and its potential as a local art and cultural centre. As the first building in Caledonia Township to have been approved for heritage status at that time, the Proulx Cheese Factory building’s designation was a significant accomplishment and allowed for the funding partnerships required for its subsequent successful restoration. Maës took great care to retain the original windows, door openings, and modest interior of the main and secondary buildings. Although the restoration was a slow and expensive process, when Maës opened the Caledonia Art Centre in 1991, she quickly began hosting local art exhibits, musical performances, a series of art courses, and she announced plans for further expansion. While the opening of the centre was successful and well supported by the community, and the property was a valuable cultural hub and tourist centre, ultimately the high capital costs of the project and interest rates on the property became too onerous for the venture to bear.30 Despite the eventual closure of the Caledonia Art Centre, it continued to function as a working and living space for local residents, including housing a woodworking and fine furniture shop for a time and now a private residence.31
A rural property situated at the corner of a concession and its sideroads, the Proulx Cheese Factory remains not only a symbol of the importance of local economies and community initiative but also the myriad of individuals who laboured and lived within its walls. From settler farmers and enterprising cheesemakers to the skilled workers and newcomer artisans of various heritage who occupied the space over the years, the building is a lasting testament to the bilingual and multicultural heritage of the region.
The Ontario Heritage Trust acknowledges the research and writing of Dr. Jodey Nurse in preparing this paper. The Trust and Dr. Nurse gratefully acknowledge the invaluable support provided by Jean-Denis Méthot and Marc-André Lavergne. Thank you to all the members of the Heritage and Culture Steering Committee of The Nation Municipality for championing this project.
© Ontario Heritage Trust, 2026
1 Records have suggested that Samuel Fraser built the original cheese factory in 1890 before later selling it to Alexander McDonald where it was subsequently moved to Proulx Corner in 1918; see “THE CORPORATION OF THE TOWNSHIP OF CALEDONIA IN THE MATTER OF THE ONTARIO HERITAGE ACT, 1974, S.O. CHAPTER 122…NOTICE OF PASSING OF BY-LAW,” The Review [Vankleek Hill, Ont.], 18 January 1989, p.1.; and St-Bernardin, 1912-2012 (St-Bernardin, Ont.: Société historique et culturelle de St-Bernardin, 2012), p. 441. However, the only records for a Samuel Fraser in the county show that it was not long before Samuel, who was born in 1870 to a pioneering Scottish farm family in Hawkesbury, Ontario, “felt the call to the Christian missionary” and entered McGill University in 1897 before later attending Yale University and completing his theological training at the Auburn Theological Seminary, in New York. Once he graduated in 1901, he became ordained in the ministry of the Presbyterian Church and spent time on missions in various regions across Canada and the United States before leaving the ministry and eventually settling in Claresholm, Alberta. He remained living there and working in the real estate business until his death in 1947. See “Funeral Services for S. L. Fraser Friday Afternoon,” Claresholm Local Press [Claresholm, Alta.], 27 November 1947, p. 6. See also Statistics Canada fonds, RG31-C-1, 1891 Census of Canada, Hawkesbury Village, Prescott, Ontario, family number 5, Library and Archives Canada; and Statistics Canada fonds, RG31, 1931 Census of Canada, Macleod, Alberta, page 13, Library and Archives Canada. Therefore, Samuel’s history suggests that perhaps it was another Fraser who originally owned this building, as there were several Frasers in the region during this period who were engaged in farming and cheesemaking, including Neil Fraser (born in 1871). After graduating from the dairy school at Guelph, Neil Fraser became one of the leading cheesemakers in the region and operated cheese factories throughout the area; see “Neil Fraser,” Dictionary of Glengarry Biography, (accessed December 6, 2025); and Statistics Canada fonds, RG31, 1921 Census of Canada, Vankleek Hill Town, Prescott, Ontario, page 20, Library and Archives Canada.
2 Heather Menzies, By the Labour of their Hands: The Story of Ontario Cheddar Cheese (Kingston, Ont.: Quarry Press, 1994), p. 60.
3 Felicity Barnes, Selling Britishness: Commodity Culture, the Dominions, and Empire (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022), p. 37.
4 Hayley Goodchild, “Building ‘A Natural Industry of this Country’: An Environmental History of the Ontario Cheese Industry from the 1860s to the 1930s,” (Ph.D. diss., McMaster University, 2017), 1-2, 254; and “The Reluctant Cheesemaker: Craft Work and Conflict in Ontario’s Nineteenth-Century Cooperative Cheese Industry,” Histoire sociale/Social History 54, no. 111 (September 2021): 264. See also E. Melanie DuPuis, Nature’s Perfect Food: How Milk Became America’s Drink (New York: New York University Press, 2002), p. 83.
5 See Robert E. Ankli and Wendy Millar, “Ontario Agriculture in Transition: The Switch from Wheat to Cheese,” The Journal of Economic History 42, no. 1 (March 1982): 207–215; and Robert E. Ankli, “Ontario’s Dairy Industry, 1880–1920,” in Canadian Papers in Rural History VIII, edited by Donald H. Akenson (Gananoque, ON: Langdale Press, 1992), pp. 261-75.
6 Roy C. Barnes, “The Rise of Corporatist Regulation in the English and Canadian Dairy Industries,” Social Science History 25, no. 3 (2001): 394. See Jodey Nurse, “Milk is Milk”: Marketing Milk in Ontario and the Origins of Supply Management,” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 28, no. 1 (2018): pp. 127-56.
7 All cheese factories in Canada were given an identifying number. Proulx Cheese Factory was listed as cheese factory 709 when under the ownership or management of William Lalonde, a number that remained with the factory until its closure; Dominion of Canada, Department of Agriculture, List of Cheese Factories and Creameries in Canada and Registered Numbers (Ottawa: Department of Agriculture, Branch of the Dairy and Cold Storage, 1925), p. 15.
8 St-Bernardin, 1912-2012 (St-Bernardin, Ont.: Société historique et culturelle de St-Bernardin, 2012), 441; see also Land Registry of Ontario, Township of Caledonia, Lot No. 7 in the 5 Concession, number 149, “Adelard Charlebois & wife” to “Alex. McDonald,” 21 December 1916.
9 Statistics Canada fonds, RG31-C-1, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, family number 107, page 13, Library and Archives Canada; and Statistics Canada fonds, RG31-C-1, 1911 Census of Canada, Hawkesbury East, Prescott, Ontario, family number 12, page 2, Library and Archives Canada.
10 McDonald is recorded as the owner of Proulx Cheese Factory in 1918, but he is not found in later lists published in the 1920s; Dominion of Canada, Department of Agriculture, List of Cheese Factories, Creameries, Skimming Stations; also Condensed Milk Manufacturers, City Milk Vendors and Ice Cream Manufacturers, etc., in Canada (Ottawa: Department of Agriculture, Branch of the Dairy and Cold Storage Commissioner, 1918), p. 21.
11 Statistics Canada fonds, RG31, 1921 Census of Canada, East Hawkesbury Township, Prescott, Ontario, p. 19, Library and Archives Canada.
12 Statistics Canada fonds, RG31, 1931 Census of Canada, Prescott, Ontario, page 2, Library and Archives Canada.
13 Goodchild, “The Reluctant Cheesemaker,” p. 267.
15 Born to Désiré Régnier (father) and Mélina Derigé Laplante (mother), Arthur Régnier’s parents emigrated from Quebec and eventually established a farm in Cambridge, Russell County. Embrun, Saint-Jacques, Baptism, Marriage, Burial, 1892-1905, page 419, no. 66, Ottawa Roman Catholic Archdiocese.
16 Statistics Canada fonds, RG31-C-1, 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, family number 13, page 2, Library and Archives Canada; and Statistics Canada fonds, RG 31, 1921 Census of Canada, Cambridge Township, Russell, Ontario, p. 11.
17 Registrations of Marriages, RG 80-5, 1869-1928, reel 687, Archives of Ontario.
18 Dominion Franchise Act, List of Electors, 1935, Electoral District of Russell, Rural Polling Division No. 2, Cambridge Township, page 2, line 295 and 296. Ottawa: J. O. Patenaude, I.S.O., King’s Printer, and published by John T. C. Thompson, Dominion Franchise Commissioner. Library and Archives Canada.
19 “St-Bernardin, Ont.,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 13 May 1936, p. 5.
20 The Proulx Cheese Factory financial records that were kept for 1956 and documented by the factory’s secretary, George Méthot, were shared with the author from the private record collection of Jean-Denis Méthot.
21 “Une exposition de fromage à Cornwall,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 29 November 1950, p. 6.
22 “Plantagenet dotée d’une fromagerie ultra-moderne,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 3 March 1959, p. 16.
23 “FROMAGERIE MODERNE A PLANTAGENET;” Le Droit [Ottawa], 3 March 1959, p. 16.
24 “BENEDICTION A PLANTAGENET,” and “Plantagenet dotée d’une fromagerie ultra-moderne,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 3 March 1959, p. 16.
25 Menzies, By the Labour of Their Hands, p. 108.
26“Le trophée Singleton à M. Laurent Régnier,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 25 October 1962, p. 37.
27 “Du Haut de la Tour,” Le Droit [Ottawa], 11 January 1969, p. 2.
28 See Nurse, “Milk is Milk”: Marketing Milk in Ontario and the Origins of Supply Management.” Also, the 1956 financial records documented by the factory’s secretary, George Méthot, and shared with the author from the private record collection of Jean-Denis Méthot, also testify to the financial difficulty of the Proulx Cheese Factory in its last years.
29 “A Brief History of the St-Alberta Cheese Co-operative,” St-Albert Co-op, (accessed October 27, 2025).
30 A collection of largely undated newspaper clippings from 1988 to 1991 and other supporting documentation originally compiled by Maës and copied and provided to Jean-Denis Méthot, a member of the Heritage and Culture Steering Committee of The Nation Municipality, neighbour to the Proulx Cheese Factory property, and son of the former factory secretary, George Méthot, was shared with the author.
31 After the closure of the Arts Centre, the building served as a private residence and, for a time, a woodworking studio before it returned to a private residence only. For its operation as a woodworking and fine furniture shop, see “Cheese End Woodworking is on the move,” The Review [Vankleek Hill, Ont.], 26 May 2018, (accessed October 10, 2025).