Joseph Bourassa, 28, and Delvina Demers, 30, on their wedding day, July 23, 1888, in Saint-Fortunat-de-Wolfestown, Province of Quebec. By then, Joseph and Delvina had known each other for about 12 years, ever since Joseph and his five brothers, one sister and widowed mother, Rose Olivier Bourassa, settled on a farm on the 7th range road in Saint-Fortunat in 1876. Delvina’s family farm that had been settled on the 6th range road in 1859 was close by. Unlike her older and only sister, Marie Euphrasie, who had married at 16, Delvina hadn’t rushed into marriage. Throughout her life, she seems to have acted deliberately and purposefully, attributes she shared with Joseph, who a daughter later wrote “planned things out slowly but surely” (“s’organisait lentement mais sûrement”).
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From the Travel Notebooks of
Odelie Demers and Télesphore Demers
July 1898
The next day we went to Uncle Joseph Bourassa’s house, still in the company of Fortunat [Demers] and Hilaire [Aubin, Jr.], who filled the role of driver. Delienne [Aubin Lambert], her small daughter, Appoline, and Alphonsine [Demers] also came with us. After having lunch, we had some exercise, all while eating raspberries, which were not abundant. And we were also bothered with some rain which came pouring down in the afternoon.
The Travel Notebook of Odelie Demers, p. 58.
August 13, 1908.
It rained all night. At nine o’clock, we left to go to Joseph Bourassa’s house. There was a heavy rain which continued all morning, and there were some small rain showers in the afternoon. They were all in good health and appear to live rather well. I went to visit their land. It is in good order, the grain is better than average. He raises pigs for the market. At seven o’clock in the evening, Eusèbe Lamontagne and his wife and D’Assise Guay and his family came to visit us for the evening until midnight. We had a lot of fun, we spoke of everything that interests farmers.
The Travel Notebook of Monsieur & Madame Télesphore Demers, p. 64.
September 5, 1908.
Very sunny and cold. At eight o’clock in the morning, it was overcast, but at nine o’clock in the morning, it is very sunny and hot.
At ten o’clock, we went to Joseph Bourassa’s. He was at the ninth rang. He had gone to bring logs to the sawmill with his two boys. At five-thirty, it was clear and hot. At eight-thirty, Joseph arrives from the mill, and at nine-thirty we go to bed.
The Travel Notebook of Monsieur et Madame Télesphore Demers, p. 84.
September 12, 1898.
The weather is clear and cold. We prepare to go to Saint-Camille. I settled my account with Joseph Bourassa.
Les Notes de Voyage de Monsieur et Madame Télesphore Demers, p. 88-89.
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When did Delvina and Joseph first meet? Certainly no later than 1876 with the arrival in Saint-Fortunat-de-Wolfestown of the Bourassa family when Joseph was 16 and Delvina, 18. Perhaps she first saw him at a distance when he, his widowed mother Rose Olivier Bourassa, and his five brothers and only sister had ridden down the chemin du 6ème rang in a wagon or two and passed the Demers farm on their way to the new Bourassa farm on the 7th rang. More likely, they met after mass the following Sunday as the Bourassa family joined other parishioners on the steps of the church in the village center. One imagines Joseph, younger by two years, shy and quiet, not exchanging a single word with Delvina as his family was surrounded by a boisterous crowd, almost all strangers to him. Did Delvina even notice him? Or was she perhaps more interested in meeting and talking to his mother or his 14 year old sister, Marie-Anne?
Le perron or steps in front of the Saint-Fortunat Church. It was here that Delvina and Joseph were married in 1888 and where all their children would be baptized. The photo shows a group of parishioners gathering on the front steps of the church, built in 1872-73, as it would have looked from 1884, the year the clocher or bell tower was added, to 1901.
(Photo from the archives of the municipality of Saint-Fortunat, Québec,
and published in Vaillancourt, Eric, Histoire de Saint-Fortunat 103.)
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