In the 1880s the demand for workers saw families move to Cornwall from Quebec thereby making Cornwall a bilingual community. Many of the French Canadians settled close to the cotton mills creating Cornwall’s East End. Unsafe working conditions and underaged children in the mills prompted MP Dr. Darby Bergin to be the first to champion safety legislation in Parliament. The cotton mills were the first buildings in Canada to be electrically lighted with a system designed and installed by Thomas Edison.