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BY-GONE
IS: THE 19th CENTURY. The end
of the Empire and the occupation which succeeded it in 1814-15 brought a
procession of foreign garrisons housed at the commune's expense. Thus the
commune had to face again a tradition which it would have
preferred to see gone for good. On 17th January 1871 a 9,000-strong
Prussian column, come to lay siege to Dijon, invaded the region and
occupied it until the final liberation of the Côte d'Or department. The
railway line from Dijon to Langres via Is-sur-Tille was built from 1863,
in accordance with a promise made by Napoleon III during a visit to Dijon
three years earlier. In 1882 the Châtillon-sur-Seine line was opened and
the one to Gray in 1886. Thus Is-sur-Tille found itself at the junction of
the Eastern and Paris-Marseille networks. A large community of railway
workers came and settled locally and a district to accommodate them was
built to the East of the town. A
document written by Joël Mangin translates as follows:- "In 1900 the 1,719 inhabitants of Is-sur-Tille were involved in a wide variety of activities. An 1884 jobs census lists the following: Cultivation: vines; wood; cereals; nurseries; honey; fruit; vegetables; hops; reputed truffles. Industries: wood merchants; saddlers; brewery; nail factory; rope-maker's; cutlery works; draper's; grocer's; tinsmith's; seeds and flours (correct spelling); clock-maker's; oil-works; wool merchants; mechanics; doctors; milling; chemists; fancy goods and novelties; tailors; dyers; veterinary surgeons; wholesale wines; cabinet- maker's; mustard factory. So it's a long list of mainly cottage-industry type activities"
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