| St. Joachim, December 9, 1910, Memories: | ||||||
| Contact: There is a transition here , as a few pages of the photocopy of the original journal, switched from French to English. The original journal is written in a beautiful long hand , this has caused a difference in the number of the pages. This leaves me to speculate that perhaps some of the original diary had been lost or altered for some reason, it is a wonder to me actually, as to how any of it has survived . The mention of the fire at the church in St. Boniface is too brief to be due to any other circumstance other then loss of pages of the original journal or its alteration in editing. Considering the political climate and the dissension between the Orangemen and the Catholics at the time, any thing was possible and the Father Lestanc could have had unfavorable views . Or perhaps I have been watching too much modern day news where it seems conspiracy theories are rampant? In any event, the fire was a shame as no doubt a good deal of the historical records were lost. The person that did the translation of this article did not enter into it the few pages that had been written in English . As my wife, Winona, typed the complete transated article into the computer she entered into it, the few pages of English that I had copied previously. ( sort of a team effort you might say, I of course played the minor role.) Had it not been through the efforts of Winona , who by going to all of the work and trouble, from the securing of the photocopy from Mr. Bissonette through the typing of it on the word processor, this part of history may have lain dormant for years. A good deal of the credit belongs to my sister , Clara Laroque, of Missoula, Montana , through her efforts, a translator from the University of Montana was found, who would do the translation at a price her and I combined could afford. At the price most translators charge,which by the way is astronomical, It is no wonder a lot of this type of material reposes in archives or churches in Canada.
( Melvin D. Beaudry )
In was in office at St.Boniface when a fire broke out and destroyed the rectory and cathedral on the 14th of December, 1860. (Page 14 of the diary) Pages 9-14 are in English. Father Lestanc's arrival the mission of Qu'Appell, his bout with smallpox and his subsequent travel to Woody Mountain.
I left St. Boniface on the first day of September 1870 with a good Half Breed ( Antoine Hamelin) in a Red River Cart. This Hamelin was going to winter somewhere in the buffalo county with the good intentions of feasting on buffalo meat and trading with the Indians, in the hopes of coming back, next spring, with full cargoes of buffalo robes and other furs. He was a very good man, a very good catholic as well as his wife. He had three or four young children-- he was hired to Bishop Tache to take me to Qu'Appelle (qwah-pell), a distance of three or four hundred miles. Our means of traveling in those days were a little slower then what we possess today. What now takes twenty hours used to take twenty days. Fortunately we had good tents and plenty of provisions. Along the road, nearly every day, kind providence extended a paternal hand over us in the shape of a rabbit or a pheasant. Every morning I said Holy Mass. My good Hamelin and family as well as three or four other Half Breed families who composed our little caravan, came to mass and assisted in piety. One of these families was that of , Monsieur-Elzear Page, he was the uncle of the, Reverand Father Beaudry of St. Albert. (It is possible that Father Lestanc is speaking of two different eras in relation to the time these people were liveing when he wrote this in 1910. My father, Daniel Beaudry, had in his possession for years, pictures of a Father Patrice Beaudry. I now have those same pictures. I also have a picture of Father Beaudrys grave in the, Oblate Cemetery, at the St. Alberts Museum at Saint Albert, Alberta. The inscription on the stone states that he died on the 22 of September 1947. at the age of 74 years, this means that he would have been born in 1873. This priest was a relative of my father, if I had ever been told what the relationship was, I have forgotten. Mr. Eleazar Page is listed as being born in 1838 and was married to Margurite Breland born in 1846. I am at this minute looking at a copy of the Certificate of Birth and Baptism of my great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste Beaudry , it states he was 3 months old at the time of Baptism , his parents were , Joseph Beaudry and Louise LaDoucer. And his sponsor listed as, Margurite, Breban ( This was no doubt meant to be Breland) she wouldn't have been the wife of Eleazar Page because of the ages listed, but certainly a relative of his wife, possibly an aunt or even the wifes mother. The baptism took place at the Church of Lac Ste. Anne in Lac Ste. Anne, Alberta on the 23rd day of March 1845. (Actually before the confederation of Canada in1867, the western portion of Canada consisted of British Columbia, Nothwest Territories and Ruperts Land. My grandfather, Noel Beaudry whose parents were Baptiste Baudry (Beaudry) and Nannesy L' eveille (Nancy Levellie) has on his baptism certificate as being baptized on the day of his birth which was Christmas day of 1866. at St. Albert, Alberta, his God-parents being Augustin Hamelin and Pelagie Baudry (Beaudry). Although that there are differences in the spelling of names at times the difference is not so vast as you wouldn't know that in most cases it was the same person or a near relative. Noel Beaudry my grandfather, along with his only surviving sibling Francoise who later died at the age of 12 or 13 in 1881. were orphaned at the time of the small pox epidemic in the late 1860's and early 1870's. Hundreds of Metis, and no one will ever know for certain, the number, the thousands upon thousands of full blooded Indians that died at this time. As the the responsibility of being a God parent was taken seriously at the time, My grandfather Noel Beaudry and his sister Francoise, no doubt were taken in to be raised by their respective god-parents, if indeed they too hadn't perished from the small pox, -- countless numbers of children that had survived were raised by others at this time. Most if not all of these people had some blood, or by marriage, relationship to one another, the story now continues. (Melvin Beaudry) |
