(copyright 2018 Dennis M. Doiron)
Hilaire Aubin, almost 26 years old, and Marie Euphrasie Demers, only 16, look calm and determined at the start of their marriage, unaware of the many tragedies they would face. This tintype photograph was most likely taken on their wedding day in the parish of Saint-Gilles-de-Beaurivage, Québec, January 16, 1856.
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June 1898 - Disraeli, Québec
We finally arrived at Disraeli [by wagon from Saint-Hilaire-de-Dorset]. It was ten minutes to four, and as we had thought we would be arriving by train, I had told Uncle Hilaire Aubin of our coming, and he had come to meet us. But seeing that we had not disembarked from the train at ten o’clock, he had gone to the sawmill of the messieurs Champoux. We were completely unaware that he had come to the village. After we had gone to the Begin Hotel for several hours of rest, we were informed that my uncle had arrived early in the morning to meet us.
To take a break from the wagon, we went for a walk in the village. Passing by the church, we entered and observed that they were celebrating “forty hours.” We prayed to the Blessed Sacrament, after which we returned to the Hotel Begin. But we observed on our arrival that our uncle had not yet returned. Not knowing in which part of the village to find him, we preferred to wait there than to search for him, but hardly had ten minutes passed when we saw him coming. After greeting him, we put ourselves back on the road to Saint-Fortunat. Éva boarded my uncle’s wagon, and I continued with Fortunat.
The Travel Notes of Odelie Demers, Part 4 at 50-51.
June 1898 - Saint-Fortunat, Québec
We took advantage of the first break in the rain to go [from Uncle Joseph and Aunt Delvina Boursassa’s farm] to the village and to Uncle Hilaire Aubin’s house, which was our refuge each evening. But we had hardly gotten underway when a violent storm struck us. Arriving at the house, it was necessary to wash our overcoats, which were covered in mud. As my aunt [Marie Euphrasie] was wondering what she could prepare us for supper, we all said at the same time, "milk porridge." As soon as it was said, it was done. My aunt prepared us a good potful, which was swallowed in a wink of the eye.
The Travel Notes of Odelie Demers, Part 5: Saint-Fortunat at 59.
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June 1908 - Berlin Falls, New Hampshire
My sister Marie [Euphrasie], the widow of Hilaire Aubin, is leaving with us for a trip to Canada at eleven-forty in the morning. All her trunks are packed and ready to go. Joseph Lambert [the husband of Marie Euphrasie’s daughter, Délienne] drove the women and the baggage to the station in his wagon. I made it there on foot accompanied by Édouard Lambert, but having arrived a little late, I did not have the time to check my bags. I left my baggage checks with Joseph Lambert, who expedited the bags for me to Richmond, Québec on the four o’clock train. We took the first train for Québec City. It was eight-ten in the evening when we left. We arrived in Lévis at eleven-thirty at the Intercolonial Station. From there we went to the Kennebec Hotel and arrived at midnight. As the hour was rather late, we took to bed as soon as possible.
The Travel Notes of M. et Mme. Telesphore Demers, Part 1: Sanford to Saint-Anne-de-Beaupré at 6.
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A Brief History of the Family of
Hilaire Aubin and Marie Euphrasie Demers
Marie Euphrasie Demers was born in 1840 in the part of Saint-Gilles in the seigneurie of Beaurivage which would later become the parish and town of Saint-Agapit. She was the second child and oldest daughter of Damase Demers and Euphrosine Lamontagne. In the first half of the 1830s and before his marriage in 1838, Damase had moved from Saint-Nicolas in the seigneurie of Lauzon to settle in nearby Saint-Gilles on land that fronted the Chemin du Rang bas de la paroisse, the Lower Parish Range Road. One of Damase’s brothers, Euphrasie’s Uncle Magloire, also farmed on neighboring land during the same period.
In 1835, Marie Euphrasie’s Uncle Germain, another brother to Damase, married widow Margaret Lambert Aubin, who had four surviving children from her marriage to Hilaire Aubin, Sr, including their son Hilaire, Jr, who was only five years old when his mother remarried. Although Uncle Germain also owned land on the Chemin du Rang bas de la paroisse (he sold part of his land there to his brother Magloire), he farmed and lived on the old family farm on the Chemin Vire-Crêpes (Flipped Crêpes Road) in Saint-Nicolas.
Germain had inherited the farm from his father (and Marie Euphrasie’s grandfather) Henry-Aristoboule Demers. It was there that Hilaire, Jr, was raised with older brother Jean-Baptiste Octave (1827-unknown), younger brother Barthelemy (1832-1903), and sister Esther (1822-1866) (the other children from from his mother’s first marriage), and with his half-brothers from the marriage of Germain and Margaret: Alexandre (1835-1910), Jean-Évangeliste (1839-1892), and Honoré (1842-1920).
Because of the short distance between Uncle Germain’s farm on the Chemin Vire-Crêpes in Saint-Nicolas and the farm of Marie Euphrasie’s father in Saint-Gilles (about 11 miles or 19 kilometers) and the usual close ties among families during that time, it is likely that Marie Euphrasie would have seen Hilaire often during her childhood. At some point in the 1850s, the two began courting, and when she was only 16, they married in the church in Saint-Gilles in 1856.
We don't know where they lived immediately after their wedding, but it doesn't appear that they had their own farm; rather, it seems likely that they would have lived and worked with his parents on their farm in Saint-Nicolas or her parents’ farm in Saint-Gilles. Hilaire most likely worked as a day laborer, a journalier, on other farms in the area and in logging camps or chantiers during the winter months. Through this work, Hilaire would soon be able to save enough money to purchase land in the Eastern Townships.
More than two and a half years after they were married they had their first child, a son, Didance, who was born in Saint-Gilles, so they were apparently living in that town there by this time. In May 1859, they had their second child, another son, Nazaire, who was also born in Saint-Gilles. Some time after this birth and before the birth of their next child, daughter Délienne, who was born in June 1861 in Saint-Julien-de-Wolfestown, the family had moved from Saint-Gilles to settle in the section of Saint-Julien that would later become the parish and municipality of Saint-Fortunat.
Although we don’t know exactly when Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie moved to Saint-Julien, it is probable that they would have moved there with her parents in 1859, the year they sold their farm in Saint-Gilles and settled on the Chemin du 6ème rang, the 6th Range Road, in Saint-Julien. Given the rough condition at the time of the Craig and Gosford Roads that led settlers to the Eastern Townships and the challenges of clearing the forest and building farm houses and outbuildings once there, it seems likely both families would have gone together and with perhaps others from Saint-Gilles, such as Hilaire's brother Barthelmey, to help each other along the way and after their arrival in Saint-Julien.
Beginning in 1859 and into the early 1870s, the large extended family group living on farms along the northern end of the Chemin du 6eme rang in Saint-Julien would grow to include at least the following:
- Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie at rang 6, lot 4;
- Barthelemy Aubin (Hilaire’s brother) and his wife, Elisabeth Dupere, on rang 5, lot 4;
- Honoré Demers (Hilaire’s half-brother) and wife, Victoria Lamontagne, also at rang 5, lot 4;
- Évangeliste Demers (Hilaire’s half-brother) and his wife, Adelaide Boucher, also on a farm at rang 5, lot 4;
- Damase Demers and Euphrosine Lamontagne (Marie Euphrasie’s parents) at rang 6, lot 10;
- Théodore Demers (Marie Euphrasie’s brother) and wife, Philomène Lamontagne, at rang 6, lot 9;
- Télesphore Demers (Marie Euphrasie’s brother) and wife, Henriette Lamontagne, at rang 6, lots 4 and 5;
- Damase Demers, Jr, (Marie Euphrasie’s brother) and wife, Rebecca Lantagne, at rang 6, lot 4;
- Simon Lamontagne and wife, Marie Legendre (the parents of Victoria, Philomene, and Henriette who married into the Demers family), at rang 5, lot 3, and
- Janvier Lamontagne (a son of Simon and Marie) and his wife, Marguerite Pelletier, also at rang 5, lot 4.
Detail of the Map of the District of St. Francis, Canada East of 1863, showing a portion of Wolfestown that includes the 4th, 5th and 6th rangs. The small Bulstrode River, which flows toward the northwest, is in the 6th rang. The 5th rang is to the northeast of the 6th rang and the Chemin du 6ème rang is approximately on the line between the two.
Collections de la Bibliothèque des sciences et de génie Service des bibliothèques et archives, Université de Sherbrooke.
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A satellite image of the same area, showing the Bulstrode River between Route 263 (the Chemin du 7ème rang) and the Chemin du 6ème rang. The various Aubin, Demers and Lamontagne properties were in the 5th and 6th rangs (on both sides of the northern end of Chemin du 6ème rang) and between the large bend in the Bulstrode River and the Route de la Grand Ligne. Much of this land is still open fields.
Map Data copyright 2017 Google.
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Despite the demands of farm and family, Hilaire was active in the life of the new community. On November 2, 1871, he was a signatory (with the use of his “mark” in lieu of a signature) to the petition which requested the Archbishop of Québec to establish the parish of Saint-Fortunat; on February 12, 1872, he was appointed by the curé, the pastor, to the syndic, the committee for overseeing the construction of the church; on July 28, 1872, he was appointed by the curé as one of three marguilliers, council members, to the first conseil de Fabrique, the parish administrative council; in 1873, he was appointed to the second church council as marguillier en charge; and from 1877 to 1879, he was elected to serve on the town council.
When a new church bell was consecrated on December 13, 1876 in the presence of Monseigneur Antoine Racine, the Bishop of Sherbrooke, Hilaire was one of the godfathers of the bell and Marie Euphrasie one of its godmothers. (Traditionally, the ceremonial inauguration of church clocks were likened to baptisms, with the clocks given names and godparents, like newborns at their baptisms. The name given the clock is not known.)
Sometime shortly before or in early 1880, Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie and all their children, excluding Nazaire, emigrated to Lewiston, Maine to work in the mills or other jobs in that growing manufacturing town. As was very common at the time, the Aubin family most likely went to Lewiston to earn money to pay off farm debt with the ultimate goal of returning to the family farm. By this time, Nazaire, their oldest son, was married and appears to have purchased farm land from his father at rang 6, lot 4, which bordered land that Hilaire retained on rang 6, lot 4. Presumbably, Nazaire farmed both parcels of land during the time his father lived in Lewiston.
The 1880 Lewiston City Directory lists Hilaire as “Aubien, Helaire, laborer” and says that he was living on Lincoln Street near the Grand Trunk railroad station. The next city directory, for 1883, also includes Hilaire, with the added information that he lived at 110 Lincoln Street. Although there were later city directories published in the 1880s and 1890s, neither Hilaire nor other members of the family are listed in them.
We don't have much information about the Aubins’ stay in Lewiston, but we do know that they very quickly suffered additional deaths in the family, with their five year old daughter Lumina dying in 1880 and two sons, Noë, 18, and François, 14, dying within months of each other in early 1882. With these last deaths, only four, or less than a third, of Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie’s 13 children lived to adulthood.
Hilaire Aubin, circa 1880, in Lewiston, Maine. Hilaire was a cultivateur, a farmer, in Saint-Gilles and Saint-Fortunat before emigrating to Lewiston, where he worked in the cotton mills. Another French-Canadian emigrant who worked in the mills of Manchester, N.H., could have been speaking about Hilaire and others who worked in Lewiston at the time:
Why did our people leave Canada and come to the States? Because they had to make sure of a living for their family and themselves for a number of years, and because they greatly needed money. The wages paid by the textile mills was the attraction. Here and wherever else they went, they didn't like to become citizens and feared it for more than one reason. They couldn't speak English, and for that, let me tell you, was a big handicap. . . . Most of them hadn't come here to stay. What they wanted most was to go back to their Canadian farms with the money earned from the textile mills.
Philippe Lemay, textile worker.
Doty, C. Stewart. The First Franco-Americans: New England Life Histories from the Federal Writers' Project 1938-1939, p. 24-25. (The University of Maine at Orono Press. 1985.)
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Marie Euphrasie Demers Aubin, circa 1880, in Lewiston, Maine. By this time, she had already lost six children and would lose three more while living in Lewiston. Only four or her 13 children lived to adulthood. According to various census reports, she could read, but not write, in French. Like most in his generation, Hilaire was illiterate.
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Délienne Aubin, left, oldest daughter of Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie, and a Mademoiselle Rousseau wearing work clothes and holding textile mill tools, including shuttles and bobbins. Lewiston, Maine, circa 1880. Délienne married Joseph Lambert, from Somerset (now Plessisville), Québec, in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Lewiston on April 17, 1882. The 1920 U.S. census states that her native language was French and that she could read and write, but does not say in which languages.
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We don’t know when Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie left Lewiston to return to Saint-Fortunat, but they are listed there in the 1891 Canadian Census with only their youngest son, Hilaire, still living with them. When Odelie and Éva traveled to Saint-Fortunat in 1898, they stayed at Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie's new home, which was located in the village behind the church near the corner of the Rue Principal and the Route du Cap, rather than on their old farm on the Chemin du 6ème rang.
At this time, Hilaire was 68 years old and Marie Euphrasie, 58. Although the 1901 Canadian census lists him still as a cultivateur, his niece Angelina Bourassa Leblanc would later describe him as now being a menuisier, a finish carpenter and cabinet-maker, which seems appropriate given his age and that he was now living in the center of the village, rather than on their old farm on the 6th rang. In her journal, Odelie mentions that their son Hilaire is also living in Saint-Fortunat in 1898 as a bachelor and owner of a sawmill several miles from the village, and that their daughter Délienne was visiting Saint-Fortunat from Berlin, N.H. with her young daughter, Apolline. Although Odelie does not mention their eldest son, Nazaire, he appears to be still living in Saint-Fortunat where he had a farm on the 6ème rang (his youngest child was born there in 1897), and their youngest daughter Zenaïde, who was a nun, was living perhaps in Yamaska, Québec, where she is recorded in the 1901 Canadian census.
Hilaire died in 1903 at age 73. Shortly before his death, he used his skills as a menuisier on a special project. According to his niece, Angelina, Hilaire searched in his woodlot for an ash tree that he cut down and sawed into planks to make into his own coffin. After cutting the pieces, he applied three coats of linseed oil on them, stored the lumber in his attic under a system of weights to prevent warping, and then instructed his wife to have a neighbor, Israël Beauchesne, assemble the pieces upon his death. As a child, Angelina remembered seeing the coffin before it was placed in the grave, and forty years later, when her father, Joseph Bourassa, died and was buried in the plot next to Hilaire, the gravedigger reported that he had seen the still intact coffin.
After Hilaires death, Marie Euphrasie moved to live with her daughter Délienne in Berlin, N.H. In 1908, her brother and sister-in-law, Télesphore and Henriette Demers, visited her there, and she then accompanied them for at least a part of their long trip through Québec. Marie Euphrasie died in Berlin at 82 in 1923.
Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie’s eldest son Nazaire moved away from Saint-Fortunat to live in the Lake Saint-Jean area of northern Québec, where he died in 1935. The oldest daughter, Délienne moved from Berlin, New Hampshire to Westbrook, Maine. She died there in 1940. Daughter Zenaïde continued serving as a nun until her death in Sainte-Hyacinthe, Québec in 1941, and their youngest child, Hilaire, Jr, emigrated to the United States where he continued to live until his death in Florida in 1950.
Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie Demers Aubin looking as confident and self-assured as in their marriage photograph taken over 40 years earlier. Circa 1900. Location unknown.
Their niece, Angelina Bourassa Leblanc wrote in 1978 that Hilaire was “a hardworking, honest and thifty man, who had learned to fend for himself.” (« Homme travaillant, honnête et économe, il apprit à se débrouiller. ») Sounding much like an epitaph, its praise applies equally to Marie Euphrasie, and is reminiscent of a longer passage written by the Quebec historian, teacher and priest Lionel Groulx (1868-1960) to describe his parents of the same generation as Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie. His words could serve as praise for many in that generation who cleared and farmed the remote rangs in Québec´s countryside during the mid-19th century.
"Our father was not only a farmer, but an artisan. He worked with wood, leather, iron. None of the farm tools were made anywhere but in the family’s workshop. Our mother baked, sewed, knitted, weaved, cleaned the house and did the laundry. She made all our clothes, using a hand-loom for most of them; she had time even to weave rugs for others to earn a little money for the family’s nest egg; she braided straw for our hats, made our leather shoes, maintained her garden, made soap, supervised the farmyard, milked the cows, and during the busy times in the fields, she always found the time to go give a hand. One evening after school when I went to search for the cows, I remember seeing my mother in the middle of a field on top of a high stack of wheat. With the pitchfork in hand, she was threshing the wheat. Yes, they were a race of courageous people, a race that appears extinct, and which tried hard not to raise us to be a bunch of weaklings."
Lionel Groulx, Mes memoires, tome 1, p. 14 Fides, (1970) (I, p. 14). (Translated by Dennis M. Doiron). You can read an online version of the book, in the original French at WikiSource:
https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Mes_m%C3%A9moires_(Groulx),_tome_I/Mes_M%C3%A9moires.
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Genealogical Information
Born: 22 February 1830 in Saint-Nicolas (now a part of the city of Lévis), the Seigneurie of Lauzon, Province of Canada (now the Province of Québec), to Hilaire Aubin and Marguerite Lambert. (After the death of her husband in 1833, Marguerite married Germain Demers in Saint-Nicolas in 1835, with whom she had three children.) Baptized: 23 February 1830 in Saint-Nicolas. Godparents: Francois Xavier Lambert (uncle and the husband of Julie Lamontagne, one of Ambroise Lamontagne’s daughters; Ambroise was also the father of Euphrosine Lamontagne Demers, Telesphore Demers’ mother) and Marie Aubin, unknown relationship.
Married: 15 January 1856 in Saint-Gilles-de-Beaurivage, to Marie Euphrasie Demers, the daughter of Damase Demers and Euphrosine Lamontagne.
Died: 21 August 1903 in Saint-Fortunat-de-Wolfestown, Province of Québec. Buried: 24 August 1903 in the new (now the old) cemetery in Saint-Fortunat.
Marie Euphrasie Demers
Born: 30 October 1840 in Saint-Gilles to Damase Demers and Euphrosine Lamontagne. (The Demers farm was located along the Rivière Noire in the part of Saint-Gilles that will become the parish and municipality of Saint-Agapit in 1867.) Baptized: 01 November 1840 in Saint-Nicolas. Godparents: Jean-Baptiste Gouse (unknown relationship) and Julie Lamontagne, aunt.
Married: 15 January 1856 in Saint-Gilles, to Hilaire Aubin, Jr.
Died: 21 January 1923 in Berlin, New Hampshire. Burial: unknown location, perhaps in Berlin, N.H.
Their Children
Didance Aubin
Born: 23 August 1858 in Saint-Gilles. Baptized: 23 August 1858 in Saint-Gilles. Godparents: unknown.
Died: 17 February 1867 in Saint-Julien-de-Wolfestown. Buried: 19 February 1867 in Saint-Julien.
Nazaire Aubin
Born: 2 May 1859 in Saint-Gilles. Baptized: 3 May 1859 in Saint-Gilles. Godparents: Jean-Baptiste Aubin, uncle, and Marie Lamontagne, perhaps aunt Julie Lamontagne, a sister to Euphrosine Lamontagne Demers.
Married: 27 October 1879 in Saint-Fortunat to Clarissa Gosselin.
Their children : Clara (1880 - 1955), Lumina (1881 - 1965), Emelia/Emelie (1883 - 1946), Josaphat (1884 - 1924), Emile (1888 - 1946), Emma (1890 - 1896), and Hedwidge (1891 - 1937).
Died: 3 May 1935 in Sainte-Monique, Lac Saint-Jean Est, Province of Québec. Buried: 7 May 1935 in Sainte-Monique.
The Family of Nazaire Aubin and Clarissa Gosselin, circa 1893. Unknown location.
Sitting: Nazaire holding Emma, Josaphat, Emile, Clarissa holding Hedwidge.
Standing: Emelia/Emelie, Lumina & Clara.
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Délienne Aubin
Born: 30 June 1861 in Saint-Julien-de-Wolfestown. Baptized: 30 June 1861 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: unknown.
Married: 17 April 1882 to Joseph Lambert in the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Lewiston, Maine.
Their children: Joseph (Adelhard 1883-1884), Marie Lydia Zenaide (1887-1887), Appolina (1890-1979), Joseph Achille (1892-1893), Marie Anne (1895-1895), and Marie Odelie Aubin (1900 - 1900, at about 6 months).
Died: 5 April 1940 in Westbrook, Maine. Buried: in Saint-Anne Cemetery, Berlin, New Hampshire.
Zenaïde Virginie Aubin
Zenaide Aubin, circa 1880.
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Born: 2 November 1862 in Saint-Julien, now Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: 4 November 1862 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Théodore and Philomène Lamontagne Demers, uncle and, later, aunt. (Théodore and Philomène were married in 1865.)
Never married. She was a nun with the order of the Sisters of the Presentation of Marie.
Died: 22 July 1941 in Sainte-Hyacinthe, Province of Québec. Buried: location unknown.
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NoëAubin
Born: 14 December 1864 in Saint-Julien, now Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: 15 December 1864 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Damase Demers, great-uncle (Telesphore Demers’ father), and Marie Legendre Lamontagne (great-aunt, Henriette Demers’ mother).
Married: never married.
Died: 1 February 1882 in Lewiston, Maine. Buried: in Saint Peter’s Cemetery, Lewiston, Maine.
Marie Alvina Aubin
Born: 15 July 1866 in Saint-Julien. Baptized: 16 July 1866 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Évangeliste Demers, uncle (a half-brother to Hilaire Aubin) and Victoria Lamontagne, aunt (the wife of Honoré Demers).
Died: 13 September 1877 in Saint-Fortunat. Buried: Presumably in the Saint-Fortunat Cemetery near the church which took its first burials that year. The bodies in that cemetery were relocated to the new cemetery, now called the old cemetery, or vieux cimitière, in 1898.
François Télesphore Aubin
Born: 29 January 1868 in Saint-Julien (now Saint-Fortunat). Baptized: 29 January in Saint-Julie 1868. Godparents: Télesphore and Henriette Lamontagne Demers, aunt and uncle.
Died: 25 April 1882 in Lewiston, Maine. Buried: Saint Peter’s Cemetery, Lewiston, Maine.
Arcade Leonide Aubin
Born: 31 December 1868 in Saint-Julien (now Saint-Fortunat). Baptized: 3 January 1869 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Honoré Demers, uncle, and Adelaide Boucher Demers, aunt (Évangeliste Demers’ wife).
Died: 15 September 1869 (nine months old) in Saint-Julien. Buried: 16 September 1869 in Saint-Julien.
Jean-Baptiste Aubin
Born: 24 June 1870 in Saint-Julien. Baptized: 24 June 1870 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Eugene Lemay, cousin, and Celina Garneau, cousin.
Died: 22 July 1870 (at one month old) in Saint Julien. Buried: 24 July 1870 in the Saint-Julien cemetery.
Hilaire Pierre Aubin
Born: 31 July 1872 in Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: 1 August 1872 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Florian Lemay and Esther Langlois, friends of the family.
Hilaire Aubin, son of Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie Demers Aubin,
and his son Roland, circa 1907, Biddeford, Maine.
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Married: 17 August 1903 in Saint-Fortunat to Exilia Dubois.Their children: Roland Joseph (1905-1985).
Died: died in 1950 in Lakeland, Florida. Buried: in Carpenters Home Cemetery, Lakeland Park.
Marie Exilia/Emilie Aubin
Born: 19 May 1874 in Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: 19 May 1874 in Saint-Fortunat. Godparents: Nazaire Aubin, her brother, and Adelina Demers, unknown relationship.
Died: 12 September 1877 in Saint-Fortunat. Buried: Presumably in the old Saint-Fortunat Cemetery near the church which took its first burials that year. The bodies in that cemetery were relocated to the new cemetery, now called the old cemetery, or vieux cimitière, in 1898.
Lumina Aubin
Born: 19 May 1875 in Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: as “Marie Philomene” on 19 May 1875 in Saint-Fortunat. Godparents: Stanislas Laitres and Camille Vermette Laitres, neighbors.
Died: 15 June 1880 (five years old) in Lewiston, Maine. Buried: in Saints Peter and Paul’s cemetery in Lewiston, Maine.
Pierre Aubin
Born: 24 October 1876 in Saint-Fortunat. Baptized: 26 October 1876 in Saint-Julien. Godparents: Theode Gosselin, the husband of Virginie Lamontagne, one of Simon Lamontagne’s daughters, and Celanire Aubin, unknown relationship.
Died: 16 December 1876 (at one month old) in Saint-Fortunat. Buried: 18 December 1876 presumably in the old cemetery near the Saint-Julien Church.
Notes on the Text
The family photographs in the post, as is the case for many of the family photographs throughout the blog, come from the collection of Anita Demers Olko, who has been collecting them in both the United States and Québec for decades. Many of the photos were found on field trips to Québec with Claire Demers Rivard, the sister of Edmund Demers, in the 1990s.
The given names of Marie Euphrasie Demers Aubin and her mother, Euphrosine Lamontagne Demers, pose a challenge. The name Euphrasie and Euphrosine are used in various documents for each of the two throughout their lives, as well as another alternative name, Frazile. I have chosen to call the mother “Euphrosine” throughout the blog because that name seems more formal and, therefore, more appropriate for the older of the two women, and for the daughter I have added Marie to Euphrasie, the two are in her baptism record and she is called Marie by her brother Télesphore in his travel notes. Using the two names “Marie Euphrasie” together helps to further distinguish the daughter from the mother.
On the location of the Damase Demers farm in Saint-Gilles, the location of German Dermers farm on Chemin Vires-Crepe in Saint-Nicolas,and the sale of neighboring land by Germain Demers to his brother Magloire Demers, I have relied on the research of Juliette Aubin the former genealogist for the Historical Society in Saint-Nicolas, which she communicated to me in several emails dated January 13 and 28, 2016, October 4, 6, and 9, 2016, and November 3, 2016.
We know that the family of Damase Demers and Euphrosine Lamontagne left Saint-Gilles to settle in Saint-Julien-de-Wolfestown in 1859 because of a three page autobiography written by Télesphore Demers in is own hand in the 1910s. This document will be a subject of a blog post in the near future.
The location of the home of Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie in the village at or near the intersection of the Rue Principale and the Route du Cap was pointed out to me by Cécile and Jeanne d´Arc Leblanc on two different occasions. They both grew up in Saint-Fortunat, but could not remember which of the two houses near the intersection was the Aubin home (both houses look quite similar).
On Hilaire's activities in Saint-Fortunat, see Eric Vaillancourt, Histoire de Saint-Fortunat (2012): as signatory with his “mark” in lieu of a signature on petition dated November 2, 1871 to archbishop of Québec to establish the parish of Saint-Fortunat, p. 60; elected on July 28, 1872 as marguiller, or member, of the first parish counsel, p. 70; elected on February 12, 1872 to the syndic, or committee, for the construction of the church building, p. 86; named as one of the parraines, or godfathers, and Marie Euphrasie as a marraine, or godmother, to the first church bell at ceremony on December 13, 1876, p. 95; on making his own coffin for assembly after his death, p. 199; appointment in 1873 as the second marguiller en charge of the parish council, p. 309; his son Nazaire elected mayor in 1894, p. 313; his brother Barthélemy elected to town council 1873, p. 314; Hilaire’s election to town council from 1877 to 1879, p. 14.
Additonal information on Hilaire and Marie Euphrasie can be found in Angélina Bourassa-Leblanc, Jeanne d’Arc Leblanc, et Cécile Leblanc, Notes Généalogiques sur une Branche des Familles Leblanc, Bourrassa, Bouffard, et Demers at 450 (Unpublished, in French, second ed. 2008. Victoriaville, Québec), including the story about Hilaire making his own coffin. With the permission of Cécile and Jeanne D'Arc, that story is provided in its entirety below:
« Homme travaillant, honnête et économe, il apprit à se débrouiller. Il cultivait la terre, la défrichait et se construisit une maison et des bâtiments pour les animaux. Etablissements encore existants aujourd´hui. Ces constructions datent des années 1871. Il exerçait en plus le métier de menuisier au village de St-Fortunat ce qui laisse croire qu’il fut l’artisan de son foyer comme il le fut pour la préparation de son cercueil. Au coeur de sa forêt, il choisit un frêne qui servirait éventuellement de cercueil. Il le coupa en longueur en fit le nombre de planches nécessaires. Le vernis n'existant pas, il appliqua trois couches d'huile de lin, déposa dans le grenier avec un système de poids afin que le bois ne se courbe pas. Il avait mandaté son épouse afin que le moment venu, le voisin, Monsieur Israël Beauchesne, ouvrier, puisse rassembler les parties pour en former un. Notre mère, Angélina Bourassa, a vu ce tombeau. Il ressemblait à ceux de nos jours, de couleur brune, ne portant aucune sculpture ou dessin sur le dessus et les côtés, il était terne n'ayant pas été vernis. Au moment de l'enterrement de notre grand-père Bourassa, quarante ans après le décès de Monsieur Hilaire Aubin, le fossoyeur remarqua que le cercueil demeurait presque intact. »
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