The earliest settlers in this area, Joseph La Rocque-Brune and Raymond Duffaut, had located by 1791. Five years later Nathaniel Treadwell, a land surveyor and speculator from Plattsburgh, New York, acquired the seigneury of Pointe-à-l'Orignal, some 23,000 acres. Treadwell built a sawmill and a grist-mill and opened roads. By 1812 a small community was established here named L'Orignal after the moose found in the Pointe area. In 1816 it became the capital of the newly-created Ottawa District. The court-house was erected in 1825 and four years later a post office was opened. An influx of French-speaking settlers increased L'Orignal's population which numbered 400 in 1850. In 1876, with a population of over 800, it was incorporated as a Village.
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