French Canadians began to settle in Hearst in 1912 during the construction of the National Transcontinental Railway. Over the years, the French-speaking community in Hearst – once a minority – grew to 89 per cent of the population with francophones taking on leading cultural, economic and political roles. Institutions such as the Catholic Church and the Université de Hearst, founded in 1953, have played important roles in Franco-Ontarian education and society.