Buckingham, Quebec

Buckingham was a city located in the Outaouais region of the province of Quebec. Since January 1, 2002, it has been part of the amalgamated city of Gatineau which merged five former municipalities, including Masson-Angers, Buckingham, Hull, Aylmer, and Gatineau, into a single entity. According to the 2011 Census the population of the town was 23,589 at that time.

It was in 1799, that land in this area was granted to John Robertson, a former member of a British regiment. The first people settled in Buckingham in 1823 and the first mill was built. More people would move to Buckingham in the years that followed.

In 1812, Napoleon Bonaparte initiated a continental blockade which forced Great Britain to look to other sources for importing lumber. Soon, large wooded areas were discovered in Lower Canada, including the area that would become the Outaouais region. The lumber industry would be central to the region's economic development for over a century with wood pulp continuing to be important for several decades afterwards. It was only in 1837 that the first sawmill was built by the Bigelow group.

Throughout its history, the city of Buckingham's economy has been dominated by the Maclaren dynasty, which controlled several spheres of activities.

The Maclaren family, who have resided in the region since 1840, have dominated the lumber industry in the Outaouais for over a century. It was in 1864, that James Maclaren launched the family's activities in Buckingham by building a sawmill. The company became J. MacLaren & Co. and later The James Maclaren Company Limited. James' two brothers later acquired the company after his death in 1892 and then launched a match company in Buckingham in 1894 which was incorporated a year later. The Maclarens later gained control of the hydroelectricity market in the community and also real estate development and sports facilities. The company would build a hydro dam along the Du Lièvre River, just north of Buckingham, at the start of the Great Depression. They would later build another one near Masson during the 1950s.

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