At the time Le Progrès was publishing, Windsor was much smaller than it is today. In 1881, the city limits went from the Detroit river to the north up to Tecumseh Road to the south. To the west, the city stopped at Crawford Avenue, to the east, it went no further than Langlois Street. For all intents and purposes, development ended at Elliot Street; everything South of that remained agricultural land. (Map, 1881 Historical Atlas of Essex and Kent).

For more than twenty years, under the heading of “Ville et Comté” (“Town and County”), Le Progrès presented a grab-bag of news, rumours and gossip from all over Windsor and surrounding communities , , , . In addition to these general items, the paper also regularly featured local news from all of the communities (Map, 1881 Historical Atlas of Essex and Kent). that now comprise the city of Windsor.

Five miles west of Windsor was the town of Sandwich , , , founded by Loyalists from Detroit in 1797. Home to Assumption parish, Sandwich at the time of Le Progrès was the county seat for Essex, the episcopal headquarters for the London diocese and the site of the provincial court-house. Just east of Windsor was an area known as Les Outaouais , , named after an old First Nations village that had once stood at the foot of present-day Louis Street. Further east was the community or Walkerville (, , founded in 1856 when the American distiller Hiram Walker bought 486 acres to establish a business of Canadian soil. Continuing upriver, one came to Sandwich East Township, which would later include the town of Riverside. At the time, this area included settlements at Little River and Pilette Corners . There was another important settlement south of Windsor, in the area known as Grand Marais , , which was then part of Sandwich West Township.

Le Progrès and its competitors provide us with glimpses of daily life in Windsor at the end of the 19th century. The city was truly bilingual, with French Canadians comprising about 50% of the population. A humourous dialogue between a francophone vendor and anglophone client at the Windsor Market, though clearly meant to be satirical, is probably not too far off from the type of exchanges that took place daily in a bilingual city . The Windsor Market was an important establishment in an area that was largely agricultural and Le Progrès shows concern for the state of the facilities . Elsewhere in Le Progrès, we come across many other establishments that we still recognize today, in one form or another, such as Mackenzie Hall , Hotel Dieu hospital , , the Dominion House Tavern , , Jules Robinet’s store at the corner of Mill and Sandwich , , and Climaque Janisse’s funeral service .

Le Progrès notes the passing of several notable Windsor citizens. For example, there is a detailed obituary for Father Wagner, founder and pastor of St.Alphonsus Parish who also built Hotel Dieu Hospital . When Vital Ouellette dies, Le Progrès runs a special mourning issue for the namesake of Windsor’s main street, featuring columns edged in black , . There are obituaries for notable citizens such as one-time mayor of Windsor John Coventry and well-known merchant William Bartlett . Hiram Walker makes frequent appearances in the pages of Le Progrès . An article covering a banquet in honour of the anniversary of The Windsor Record in 1891 gives us a good indication of the who’s who of Windsor at the time (at least the who’s who of Liberal sympathizers!) . Le Progrès does not limit itself to the upper classes, however, as it honours the passing of many ordinary folks who contributed to Windsor’s social and economic well-being , .