FrancoAmerican Gravy: Stories from Québec to Cohoes, New York

Yetto, Rivet, Mylott Picnic at Saratoga Lake, circa 1950 and Under Age Drinking!

2012-01-29T20:54:00.000-05:00

There once was a time when a camp at the lake was really a camp. It was rough living, no soft chairs and picnics weren't set up on patios. Food was simple and beer was cheap. After WWII, Americans wanted to have a little fun with their friends and family. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, the effects of alcohol on toddlers, wasn't given much thought and you see what I mean when you watch this clip! In this home movie, Rivet, Yetto, Mylott, and LaMarche families and more gather together at Saratoga Lake where someone was renting a camp. Don't be shocked when you see adults giving beer to toddlers - it was a totally different state of mind back then.

By the way, all four families -Rivet, Yetto, Mylott and LaMarche were French-Canadian family names with Anglicized spellings and/or pronunciations

Many of the children in the video are alive so I won't be naming young folks. There are many older folks who have passed and I do recognize - Al Rivet, Art Mylott, Doris LaMarche, Walker Yetto. You can catch a glimpse of a very young Margaret Yetto sitting on the picnic bench near the end of the clip. There's several other adults who I don't know....I would love help from any Yetto or LaMarche who might be able to name some of the adults!

In 1912 Canoe Upset; Boy Drowned

2012-01-28T13:46:00.002-05:00

Spring flooding in the Mettowee River can be especially dangerous. Almost one hundred years ago, in June 1912, Willard Mylott son of George L. and Mary E. Wilson Mylott, drowned in the raging waters. Willard was a twin but his twin brother, Willis, died in infancy. Willard's brother, Richard, survived the ordeal in the river.

The Mettowee River, Washington County, NY in Early Springtime

A Cousin is Writing...are you a Reader?

2012-01-16T15:11:00.004-05:00

Ok..it isn't exactly genealogy but it is storytelling and I thought you all would like to know!
Here's a link to new work by a cousin....Adrift by Stefan Rivet and here is his bio!

Convergence and Confluence

2012-01-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

If you follow this blog you know it is dedicated to three individuals, Arthur Mylott, Al Rivet and Dorothy Wills. When expanded, it traces four French Canadian Families: Mylott or Millot dit Champagne, Rivet, and Bissonnette and Beauvais families. An interesting fact comes to light as the family tree expands backwards to the 18th century, Arthur and Al , Arthur and Dorothy, Al and Dorothy as well as Al and Dorothy and Arthur together, are all cousins several times over! They have several ancestors in common or in other words, they have several recent common ancestors in old Québec. Call it "convergence". It is an interesting fact how individuals who live in close geographical proximity, share the same language, economy, religion and customs are more likely to intermarry and develop complex extended families. It is just a fact of life in closed social groups and one that is changing as complex communication networks (Facebook, internet) and international travel are the new "norm". As diversity increases, no one is surprised with wide cultural and genetic mixtures. I can still remember my surprise meeting a mother from Yemen, dressed in traditional hijab and abaya, who communicated to me in Spanish. Her husband was Cuban and she couldn't speak English. At my work it is not at all uncommon for a child to have grandparents from Jamaica, west Africa, Latino America, Italy or Ireland.

CONFLUENCE
French speaking Québec families shared the Catholic religion and an agricultural livelihood. Marriages were made between 2nd and 3rd cousins with dispensations from Catholic bishops. Several brothers often married several sisters. They seldom entered into marital relationships with English, Scotch or Irish after the English took control of Québec with the conquest we call the French and Indian War. The French Québec marriage pool was initially limited to the finite number of French families who lived in villages along the St Laurent River. Like the honeycombed structure of bone matix, close interrelationships solidified Québec society together.

A CLOSER LOOK AT CONVERGENCE
So let's consider instances where the family of Al Rivet, Arthur Mylott and Dorothy Wills converged. We will look at a few of the most recent ancestors common to all three families. To do this let's return to the post of September 18, 2011 about Our Forefathers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment. About midway through the story, it states Louis Robert and Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne were members of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment and common forefathers to three of the five families the story focused on.
For the sake of clarity, let's take a closer look at Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne. Nicolas was born in Pont sur Seine, Champagne, France and married Marie Barbe Neveu on August 20th, 1667 in Québec. The line of their daughter Marie Anne Sylvestre, continued to both Arthur Mylott and Al Rivet making them 8th cousins once removed. Dorothy Wills, through her mother Elizabeth Bissonnette's line, descended from Nicolas Sylvestre, the brother of Marie Anne and youngest child of Nicolas Sylvestre and Marie Barbe Neveu, making Dorothy a 7th cousin once removed of Arthur Mylott and also a 7th cousin twice removed from Al Rivet! Interestingly, Al Rivet is a cousin to himself - Nicolas Sylvestre and Marie Barbe Neveu are his grandparents via his paternal grandmother and his maternal grandfather! Louis Riel, the leader of the Métis Rebellion in Manitoba, also could have claimed Sylvestre and Neveu as "grancestors".
Another Quebec couple, Jacques Lussier (1646-1712) and Catherine Clerice (1653-1715) are common great "grancestors" of Arthur Mylott, Al Rivet and Dorothy Wills (and, by extension, any of their siblings).

MORE INSTANCES of CONVERGENCE
According to my genealogical research, Al Rivet and Arthur Mylott have at least eleven cousin relationships, Arthur Mylott and Dorothy Wills have eight cousin relationships, and Al Rivet and Dorothy Wills have seven cousin relationships. There are probably more because my research on convergences in these families has only been in the Québec families and hasn't yet looked at Acadian "grancestors".

Any comments? Comments are most welcome and appreciated.

Christine Wills

2011-12-10T16:59:00.001-05:00

1951-2011

Daughter of Robert Wills and Doris Laurent

Rest in Peace, Chrissy

Chrissy at Kaydeross Park, Saratoga Lake

Christine loved her dogs, horses, goats and all animals fiercely - caring more about their welfare than her own. She was free spirited, unpredictable and generous with what she had. I hope she is riding wild horses now, in fields of gold.

More about Eels

2011-12-01T19:22:00.001-05:00

One year ago, I posted a story about eels on this blog. Eels provided an inexpensive meals for many ancestors in the north east. I must confess I have never an opportunity to partake! Now it seems eels are vanishing from the great rivers and there may never be a chance to know what our French Canadian ancestors experienced. In October, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) ran a story abut the vanishing eels in the St Lawrence River...

Saint Lawrence seaway eels slipping intooblivion

by Guillaume Lavallee (AFP) – Oct 20,2011

KAMOURASKA, Canada — Standing in tall rubberboots in mud smeared with gooey algae, Bruno Ouellet tugs on massivenets strewn across the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, hoping tosnag just a few eels. "The fishing isn't good," the47-year-old says. "In the early 1980s, you could catch 1,000eels in a cage, but today I've only got three and I have to work justas hard."

For centuries, aboriginals and later Frenchcolonists fished eels from the shores of the mighty waterway atKamouraska, Quebec about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northeast ofMontreal.

Then suddenly, the eel population collapsed andonly a handful of fishermen are still tending their nets here, fromSeptember to October each year. The eels of this region reproduce in theSargasso Sea in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. The larvae migrate towards Canadian shoreswhere they are fished, or they go on to inland lakes and rivers wherethey grow into adult eels that eventually return to the waters nearBermuda to start over the cycle.

Researchers and fishers noted a decline in thepopulation starting in the 1980s. "It's a freefall," saidGuy Verreault, a biologist with the Quebec ministry of naturalresources.

Pollution in the Great Lakes is partly toblame. Also, 12,000 dams and other obstacles wereerected along the eels' migration route on the Saint Lawrence Rivertowards the Great Lakes over the years, hindering their reproduction. "Of the eels that do manage to overcomethese obstacles (on their way to freshwater basins inland), 40percent later die in the hydroelectric turbines on their way back tothe Sargasso Sea," Verreault said.

Twenty years ago, fishermen caught up to 400tonnes of eels per year, but now their annual catch is less than 40tonnes, he estimated. The odorous, fatty white meat was smoked andexported to Germany and Japan. But nowadays, the lean harvest ismostly sold to Chinatowns in North America.

The government of Quebec in 2009 bought backmost of the eel fishing permits issued over past decades, in aneffort to prevent a total collapse of the fishery. Today, there are just 14 licensed eel fishersin these parts, including Gertrude Madore, a 75-year-old redhead whowas the first and maybe the last woman to be licensed by theprovince. In the past, fishermen would cross the muddybeach on horseback to bring the eels back to their village. "Therewere spots where the horses got stuck so we had to haul the eels outin sacks on our backs; they would wiggle and we'd fall face firstinto the sludge," Madore recalled. "Today we have tractors, but there are nomore eels," she said.

According to Canadian government statistics,the number of young eels entering inland lakes and rivers through theSaint Lawrence has dropped to less than three percent of the numbersrecorded in the 1980s. During the same period, the population hasremained stable in other North American coastal waters. Biologist Louis Bernatchez of Laval Universityin Quebec City believes the divergence in the population numbersinland and in coastal waters in North America may be due to geneticchanges. "It takes an eel with specific geneticqualities to make it to the upper Saint Lawrence river," heexplained. "Generations of eels were crushed in electricturbines, and so these (robust) qualities are less present among thispopulation."

"If it continues, the eel will disappearfrom these parts," he said. Biologists say if it can be done it will take25 to 30 years for the eel population to bounce back in these waters.

On the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, thelast eel fishers tend their nets, breathing in the salt air blowingfrom the ocean and listening to geese squawking above as they begintheir annual migration south for the winter.

"My children and my grandchildren willcontinue to fish. One day, things will change back to the way theywere," Madore said hopefully.

Art St Hilaire's Little Pleasures

2011-11-25T17:53:00.001-05:00

One of the fellows atop this building on the campus of RPI, Rensselear Polytechnical Institute,

repairing brickwork is Art St. Hilaire, a mason by trade.

Arthur St. Hilaire

A family contributor and grandson emailed FrancoAmerican Gravy with memories of Art St Hilaire's small pleasures and his character.

"Pip" also enjoyed his Camels -- several packs a day, in fact -- until thesummer of 1977 when an X-ray showed an unidentifiable spot on hislung. He never smoked again after walking out of the doctor'soffice that day. For someone who smoked so heavily, Pip nevercomplained when he stopped and as far as I remember it didn't affecthis disposition one bit. It was just something he had to do, so hedid it, he didn't complain, and he moved on with life. Lots of packsof unopened camels stayed undisturbed in the old "smoke stand"for at least two or three years after that, when he gave them away. That's one of the most important lessons I learned from him, atemplate for handling unpleasant situations, or things that seemoverwhelming: Just do what needs to be done and get over it;something better is bound to be on the other side. In his case, whoknows how many years he added to his life by stopping smoking in1977?

Anothersimple pleasure -- very Franco-American, as I understand it -- was afondness for pickled pigs' feet (pied de cochon). Yuck!

Inlater years, the biggest pleasure was sitting around and chewing thefat with anyone who was around -- at the American Legion bar, wherehe was an "honorary member" (never actually having served in the military), at home with whoever stoppedby, at his friends Marge and Danny's "camp" on the NY sideof the Crown Point Bridge on Lake Champlain.

Life's little pleasures

2011-11-25T11:05:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving time and I am thinking about simple pleasures that make me thankful. Then I get thinking about the people in my life who have passed on....and some of the simple things that brought them happiness and small pleasures.

Dad, Uncle Al, Uncle Bob immediately came to mind..

Al Rivet loved "Good & Plenty"

Bob Wills loved eight track tapes

Art Mylott loved reading science fiction by Edgar Rice Burroughs

AND

And all three loved Camels cigarettes until they all gave up smoking!

And now I need help from family and friends to learn what simple things gave small pleasures to ...

Larry Wills
Edgar Mylott
Milo Mylott
Ray Rivet
Arthur St Hilaire
Walker Yetto

If you are a daughter, son, grandson, granddaughter, niece, nephew and can remember a few simple pleasures they enjoyed please email me at FrancoAmericanGravy@gmail.com and let me know. I'll post your replies!

French Huguenots: First Thanksgiving and First Pilgrims to North America

2011-11-20T15:21:00.000-05:00

At Thanksgiving time three years ago, the New York Times published an Op-Ed written by Kenneth C Davis, the author of America's Hidden History. It truly made its impression on me, forcing me to try to understand why the collective memory of the United States pays such tremendous tribute to the New England pilgrims. Perhaps because the the Plymouth pilgrims survived at the cost of so many natives people's lives and grimly pushed their righteous cause to above others they are remembered, canonized and immortalized. The dead cannot speak their story, so I went to the library to borrow America's Hidden History. The first chapter, about the massacre of the French Protestants in what is now a suburb of Jacksonville, Florida, certainly forced me to remember there were so many others who came to North America to escape religious freedom and servitude. Most did not survive. The first pilgrims were not the founders of the Plymouth colony, they were the French Huguenots of Fort Caroline.

From the New York Times on November 26, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

A French Connection

By KENNETH C. DAVIS

TO commemorate the arrival of the first pilgrims to America's shores, a June date would be far more appropriate, accompanied perhaps by coq au vin and a nice Bordeaux. After all, the first European arrivals seeking religious freedom in the "New World" were French. And they beat their English counterparts by 50 years. That French settlers bested the Mayflower Pilgrims may surprise Americans raised on our foundational myth, but the record is clear.
Long before the Pilgrims sailed in 1620, another group of dissident Christians sought a haven in which to worship freely. These French Calvinists, or Huguenots, hoped to escape the sectarian fighting between Catholics and Protestants that had bloodied France since 1560.
Landing in balmy Florida in June of 1562, at what a French explorer had earlier named the River of May (now the St. Johns River near Jacksonville), the French émigrés promptly held a service of "thanksgiving." Carrying the seeds of a new colony, they also brought cannons to fortify the small, wooden enclosure they named Fort Caroline, in honor of their king, Charles IX.
In short order, these French pilgrims built houses, a mill and bakery, and apparently even managed to press some grapes into a few casks of wine. At first, relationships with the local Timucuans were friendly, and some of the French settlers took native wives and soon acquired the habit of smoking a certain local "herb." Food, wine, women — and tobacco by the sea, no less. A veritable Gallic paradise.
Except, that is, to the Spanish, who had other visions for the New World. In 1565, King Philip II of Spain issued orders to "hang and burn the Lutherans" (then a Spanish catchall term for Protestants) and dispatched Adm. Pedro Menéndez to wipe out these French heretics who had taken up residence on land claimed by the Spanish — and who also had an annoying habit of attacking Spanish treasure ships as they sailed by.
Leading this holy war with a crusader's fervor, Menéndez established St. Augustine and ordered what local boosters claim is the first parish Mass celebrated in the future United States. Then he engineered a murderous assault on Fort Caroline, in which most of the French settlers were massacred. Menéndez had many of the survivors strung up under a sign that read, "I do this not as to Frenchmen but as to heretics." A few weeks later, he ordered the execution of more than 300 French shipwreck survivors at a site just south of St. Augustine, now marked by an inconspicuous national monument called Fort Matanzas, from the Spanish word for "slaughters."
With this, America's first pilgrims disappeared from the pages of history. Casualties of Europe's murderous religious wars, they fell victim to Anglophile historians who erased their existence as readily as they demoted the Spanish settlement of St. Augustine to second-class status behind the later English colonies in Jamestown and Plymouth.
But the truth cannot be so easily buried. Although overlooked, a brutal first chapter had been written in the most untidy history of a "Christian nation." And the sectarian violence and hatred that ended with the deaths of a few hundred Huguenots in 1565 would be replayed often in early America, the supposed haven for religious dissent, which in fact tolerated next to none.
Starting with those massacred French pilgrims, the saga of the nation's birth and growth is often a bloodstained one, filled with religious animosities. In Boston, for instance, the Puritan fathers banned Catholic priests and executed several Quakers between 1659 and 1661. Cotton Mather, the famed Puritan cleric, led the war cries against New England's Abenaki "savages" who had learned their prayers from the French Jesuits. The colony of Georgia was established in 1732 as a buffer between the Protestant English colonies and the Spanish missions of Florida; its original charter banned Catholics. The bitter rivalry between Catholic France and Protestant England carried on for most of a century, giving rise to anti-Catholic laws, while a mistrust of Canada's French Catholics helped fire many patriots' passion for independence. As late as 1844, Philadelphia's anti-Catholic "Bible Riots" took the lives of more than a dozen people.
The list goes on. Our history is littered with bleak tableaus that show what happens when righteous certitude is mixed with fearful ignorance. Which is why this Thanksgiving, as we express gratitude for America's bounty and promise, we would do well to reflect on all our histories, including a forgotten French one that began on Florida's shores so many years ago.
Kenneth C. Davis is the author of "America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women and Forgotten Founders Who Shaped a Nation."

In May 2010, I briefly visited the Fort Caroline National Historic Site on the Saint John's River where the French Huguenots settled. Here's a few photographs:

A French Bread Oven just like the ovens along the roadside in Québec!

Shell Midden

Goodbye October

2011-10-31T20:49:00.000-04:00

Haven't been blogging too much in October for a few reasons....work at my job has been very busy, there's that tinge of carpal tunnel problems the longer I stay at the keypad, autumn has been too beautiful to stay indoors and finally, my affectionate cat is back on my lap every time I sit down to write. I don't want to leave FrancoAmerican Gravy empty for the month of October, so here are photos taken in the past two days in the Lake George and Champlain Valley of New York. Here they are...some taken before the snow dusting and some afterwards...

Addie K. Johnson, wife of John Mylott, and Death on the Docks of New York City: TyphoMalarial Fever - a Discarded Diagnosis

2011-09-25T13:35:00.000-04:00

In the 21st century, clinicians know typhoid fever and malaria as two distinct diseases. However, in the 19th century, even experienced physicians may have been unable to to distinguish between them. When a doctor couldn't determine, the "catch all" diagnosis, "typhoidmalarial fever" was often used. This was the case in the death of great grandmother Addie K Johnson.

Addie K Johnson married John Mylott in Whitehall New York on the 15th of February 1882. Their marriage did not make its sixth anniversary because Addie Johnson died on New Year's Day 1888 on a canal boat docked in the Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn, New York. John Mylott was a Champlain canalman and navigated the water from New York Harbor to the St. Lawrence. Addie and John had several children in that short time: Walter Robert Mylott 1882-1934, Milo Benjamin Mylott 1884- 1937, George Leslie Mylott 1887-1964 and possibly an infant, Eleanor 188?-188?.

The Atlantic Boat Basin in Brooklyn where Champlain Canal

boats docked while in New York Harbor

It was customary for the wife and kids to live aboard in canaling season. So John, Addie, Walter, Benjamin, Leslie and Eleanor were, no doubt, all aboard the canal boat on many trips. December was late in the season to be traveling the Champlain canal and Hudson River and perhaps in 1887, the ice had not yet formed on the river so they made the trip to New York City with some cargo. Then something went wrong because on December 10th,1887 a doctor began attending Addie while the boat was docked in the Atlantic Basin in Brooklyn. Twenty one days later, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 1888, the young mother was dead on the family's canal boat.

Cause of Death:
TyphoMalarial Fever
Meningitis and Convulsions
click on image for more detail

In the 21st century, there is no such diagnosis called TyphoMalarial Fever. Some of the credit in determining the fact that these are two separate diagnoses - before the advantage of modern microbiology and laboratory techniques, goes to the father of modern medicine, William Osler. A Canadian physician, Osler practiced in Montreal and later Baltimore where he was one of the four founders of John Hopkins Medical School. His famous contribution to medical literature, "The Principles and Practice of Medicine", a classic blend of keen observation, listening to complaints of patients, clinical experience was published four years after Addie K's death. Below is an abstract of a paper written in 2004 firmly giving Osler credit for his keen ability to differentiate typhoid from malaria.

Infectious Disease Clinics of North America: 2004 Mar;18(1):111-25.

Osler on typhoid fever: differentiating typhoid from typhus and malaria.

Cunha BA..
Early in the history of medicine, physician had a difficult time differentiating acute febrile illnesses without localizing signs. Typhoid fever and malaria share common features, which caused diagnostic problems during the 1800s. Physician even introduced a new term, typho-malaria, a testimony to their diagnostic confusion. Osler, consummate clinician and careful observer, had vast experience with typhoid fever and malaria. He was able to easily discern between the key features of both of these infections. He also relied on fever patterns to clearly differentiate typhoid fever from malaria. Osler is credited for debunking the term typho-malaria. His clinical description of typhoid fever remains unsurpassed. Clinicians still can benefit greatly from reading Osler's clinical description of typhoid fever.

On a personal note, I doubt great grandmother Addie K. died from malarial in the midst of winter in New York City. The 1887-1888 winter, by all accounts, was unusually cold and later produced the "The Great White Blizzard of 1888" on the east coast and "The Children's Blizzard of 1888" in the upper mid west. Addie K's death certificate states the doctor began caring for her on December 10th. Malaria in New York City in December? It is much more likely Addie succumbed to typhoid due to using water for cooking and drinking directly from the Hudson River while navigating to New York City or while docked in the Atlantic boat basin. Sewerage into the river ran freely from the cities along the river - Troy, Albany, Kingston, Newburgh, Yonkers and Manhattan. Sanitation on barge boats was not treated and went directly into the waters and if Addie used a bucket dipped into the river water for her cooking, there was a good chance the culprit was typhoid.

There is one other possibility and that is that the death certificate is completely wrong. There is some evidence that Addie had an infant girl, Eleanor at the time of her death. Perhaps, the cause of death was puerperal fever, an infection after childbirth. We will never know.

Today, due to modern sanitation, hand washing, and a typhoid vaccination, typhoid fever and puerperal fever are infrequent.

The Lancet, 2002 Oct 26;360(9342):1339.

Addie K's body was returned to Whitehall and she is buried with her family in the North Granville Cemetery along NY route 22.

Raymond A Rivet 1922 - 2007

2011-09-23T21:10:00.001-04:00

Raymond A Rivet was only eighteen months old when his mother, Marie Louise Lacasse Rivet died. He was raised, along with his older siblings, by his father's third wife, Malvina Hamel. He married Rose, the girl his older brother dated but left behind for military service in World War II. While Raymond joined the US Coast Guard, Al joined the army and was deployed to Europe. Raymond began dating Rose, eventually marrying and moving in to the house on 28 Summit Street in Cohoes. Below is their wedding photograph...

Raymond and Rose on their Wedding Day

I never got to know Uncle Ray very well but I know he was a quiet and unassuming person with down to earth taste and a good father to his boys with a steadfastness when times were hard that lasted to the very end of his life.

Sitting at tables.... a young man, Ray is the young gentleman sitting on the right side , second from the front. The occasion for the gathering is not known.

Sitting at tables....an older man now, Ray is at his son's wedding

Finally, here is his obituary from the Albany Times Union:

Our Forefathers in the Carignan-Saliéres Regiment

2011-09-18T19:51:00.000-04:00

If you are a descendant of a Mylott, a Glode, a Wills, a Beauvais, a Bissonnette, a Yetto, a St Hilaire or a Rivet on this site, you have an ancestor, at least one and probably more, who was in the Carignan-Salieres regiment. In the mid 1660s, the Carignan-Salieres, veterans of the war with the Ottoman Empire, recruited new young men in France to be sent to the colony in Québec to protect the economic interests of the crown from the Iroquois nation. The Iroquois, assisted and encouraged by the Dutch and later English interests in New England and New Amsterdam, picked off settlers in the French Colony - sometimes there were massacres of entire settlements in Montréal, called Ville Marie at that time. The Champlain - Richelieu water corridor made raids into Quebec from New England a straight shot. The reverse was also true, French interests and allies used the same corridor to raid New York and New England.

Twelve hundred troops began arriving in June 1665 and were immediately put into service building Fort Sorel and Fort Ste Anne on Isle la Motte in Lake Champlain, now a part of Vermont. They also constructed Fort St Jean, Fort Ste Therese, and Fort St Louis (later Fort Chambly), all on the Richelieu River.

In January of 1666, the middle of winter, 300 under equipped troops were sent on a fool's mission into enemy territory by the Québec governor. Traveling over a hundred miles, starving and hypothermic, they arrived in the Dutch settlement of Schenectady where the kind farmers fed and sheltered them. They returned to Quebec having learned a brutal lesson that many upstate New Yorkers know too well. Don't go into the north country without the proper equipment in the middle of January!

Scapulurs worn around one's neck.
Made by nuns for divine protection of the soldiers.
Displayed at the museum at Fort Chambly

Then in the fall of 1666, there was another expedition to Iroquois country. Traveling form Québec, French soldiers reached their destination in the Mohawk Valley, west of Schenectady in two to three weeks. This time, they were successful destroying several Mohawk villages. Their efforts earned a peace between the Iroquois and French settlers after more than two decades of guerilla war by Iroquois.

After the peace was made in 1667, the regiments were disbanded and returned to France. However, over 400 men choose to remain in Quebec, marry and start families there. We are the descendants of many of these soldiers.

Below is a link to a gorgeously written document of the individual names of soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiments.

A Listing of Soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment

The Bissonnette (Wills), Beauvais (Wills), Millot (Mylott), Glode-Poissant and Rivet-LaCasse families all have forefathers who served in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment. Although this list is a work in progress, it is a beginning to identify all Carignan-Salieres forefathers of the families on this site. You may note in the list below, some individuals are in more than one family; they are ancestors in two families and some like Louis Robert and Nicolas Sylvestre, are ancestors in three families. Here is the list thus far:

In the Glode-Poissant family there are at least sixteen:

Louis Badillac dit Laplante

Jean Besset dit Brisetout

Jean Bricault dit Lamarche

Jean Brochu dit La Fontaine

Michel Brouillet dit Laviolette

Etienne Charles dit Lajeunesse

Pierre Couc dit LaFleur

Jean Delpé dit Pariseau

Julien Dumont dit LaFleur

Jean Gazaille dit St Germain

André Jarret dit de Beuregard

Jean Lavallée dit Petit Jean

Pierre Menard dit Lapierre

Issac Paquet dit Lavallée

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jacques Têtu dit Larivière

In the Bissonnette family there are ten:

Bernard De Niger dit Sanssoucy

René Dumas dit Rencontre

Antoine Dupré dit Rochefort

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Aubin Lambert dit Champagne

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jean Robin dit Lapointe

Antoine Rousseau dit LaBonté

Jacques Suprenant dit Sanssoucy

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Beauvais family there are eight:

Francois Biville dit Le Picard

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers

Nicolas Bonin dit St Martin

Julien Lord dit Montagne

Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintogne

Jacques Paviot dit LaPensée

Pierre Morin dit Champagne

In the Millot family there are three:

Francois Chagnon dit LaRose

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Rivet and LaCasse families there are seven:

Francois Chagnon dit LaRose
Antoine Emery dit Coderre
Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers
Julien Lord dit Montagne
Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintonge
Eustache Prévost dit Lafleur
Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne

Broad Street in old Waterford

2011-09-17T20:13:00.002-04:00

It really isn't hard to recognize the main thoroughfare in Waterford if you are familiar with the territory. All the essentials are there - the town tower. The electric poles and unpaved road probably would this place this between 1890 and 1900. If anyone can contribute to better dating, please put your information in the comments. This is the image of the town and business neighborhood my grandmother, Edith Lida Glode, and her parents Alex Glode and Angeline Allard all knew well.
Alex and Angeline were born and married in Champlain, NY where they made their living as canalers and raised the first half of their family. Before my grandmother was born in 1890, they made Waterford their home. So this view of Broad Street was part of their life when they were not traveling on the canal.

The photo below may be of Marie Angeline Allard, daughter of canalers, wife of a canaler and mother of canalers....the photo was kept with a few others of canalers. If it isn't Angeline, it is just fine with me because this is the way I like to think of her and all the women who made their homes on the Champlain Canal. Their apron is on and they are ready for cleaning, cooking, navigating, and minding the children and grandchildren! Let's go work!

The Cohoes Falls, Cohoes, NY

2011-08-12T18:10:00.004-04:00

Just north of the Harmony Mill is the Cohoes Cataract...raging in spring, a gurgle in late summer and autumn, an ice castle in winter. The waters of the Mohawk were diverted just before the falls, harnessed for power generation and water flow through the New York State Barge Canal. Growing up around Cohoes, one learned early to defend the legend of Hiawatha descending the Cohoes Falls and vanishing in to the white mist. This Mohawk legend is Cohoes' claim to a time before the Dutch colonials.

Click on image to enlarge and read

Cohoes Falls in Spring

Harmony Mills

2011-08-11T08:05:00.006-04:00

Harmony Mill #3 in Cohoes, NY has been rescued. You can now rent a luxury apartment at The Lofts at Harmony Mills and sleep comfortably inside the once cavernous mill where several of my ancestors worked as child laborers. Actually the #3 is just one of the many mills in the complex and I have no idea who worked in which building and when. The first mill, built by Peter Harmony, was constructed in 1837. When I last viewed it, there were no signs of activity in that building. The #2 mill, at the northern end of #3, was built in 1857 and has been demolished. Some structures in the complex are believed to have actually been built over the original Erie Canal using canal stone in the foundation work. This was possible because as the Erie canal was enlarged, its path was redesigned and relocated, and even put to other uses for power generation along the mill.

Below is a view of the eastern facade of #3 with the Mohawk River in the foreground. I will never cease to be amazed at the shear size of this mill. According to the Self Guided Tour of the Harmony Historic District published by The Spindle City Historic Society, the #3 mill was built in 1866 with an addition in 1872 making it the largest "complete" cotton mill in the nation.

Harmony Mills from Northside, Waterford 2008

The Pinnacles of Harmony Mills

Harmony Mill from Northside with the Steeple of St Agnes

Uncle Johnny and his Chihuahua named "Dimples"

2011-07-26T21:14:00.009-04:00

Sometime in the 1970s, I had dreams of being a professional photographer. During that time, I made a small black and white study of Uncle Johnny, a carpenter by trade, while he was sanding new pine flooring in a building. His little dog, Dimples, was always there at his side. She wasn't an easy going pup and she didn't like anyone getting too close to Uncle Johnny. This little dog and Uncle Johnny lived with us for nine years after his wife's death. Dimples didn't live more than a month or two after Uncle Johnny's death in 1985. She wouldn't eat and became depressed. She truly missed him.

Johnny Wills and his Dogs

2011-07-26T20:59:00.005-04:00

Uncle Johnny always had animals and at one time during his first marriage owned a farm in Gansevoort, NY where he had a talking parrot. However, I will always remember Uncle Johnny as a lover and owner of Chihuahua dogs.

"Uncle Johnny"

John Albert Wills

(1910 - 1985)

Dogs Unknown

Earl and Dogs

2011-07-26T07:15:00.006-04:00

I do not have many photos of Earl Wills, my Uncle Larry, but this one is a treasure. He is young and he is handsome. This may have been taken while he was in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) out west during the Great Depression.

Earl Larry Wills

(1920 -1974)

Dogs Unknown

Dorothy and her Dogs

2011-07-26T07:01:00.007-04:00

The Wills love their dogs....if there is any doubt just visit the blog called FiveSibes at Cousin's Blog about her Siberian Huskies. In the next few posts I am going to try to highlight old photos of the Wills generation who have passed on with their dogs and a few other animals.

Dorothy Mae Wills (1916 -1997)

Dogs Unknown

Cat Unknown

and a cat...

The Marriage of Louis St Hilaire and Eliza Paré on 24 November 1884 in St Patrice de Sherrington, Québec

2011-07-13T18:53:00.001-04:00

This is an image of Louis St Hilaire and Eliza Paré with their five children. The old photograph is from Lea's albums and she wrote below the names of the children: Alfred, Albert, Helen, Arthur, Agnes but it is not certain exactly who is which child.

Below is the church record of the marriage of Louis St Hilaire and Eliza Paré, the grandparents of Arthur Louis St Hilaire (1918-1996) as well as many other grandchildren. According to the 1910 US census, this couple emigrated in 1892, about eight years after this marriage. One of the stories of Louis St Hilaire and his beloved horse is "embedded" in this post about Cohoes.

TRANSLATION: On November 24 1884, after the publication of one ban of marriage made at the prone of our parochial mass between Louis St-Hilaire residing in this parish, son of age of the late Louis St-Hilaire & Emelie (Nilie) Mongeau of this parish on the one part and Eliza Pare also of this parish minor daughter of the late Zephirin Pare and Mathilde Lessard of this parish of the other part, the dispensation of the other two banns having been granted by the Rev. Mr D.A. Marechal, vicar general, having found no impediment nor opposition to the said marriage and with the consent of the parents of the minor party, we the undersigned pastor of Sherrington received their mutual consent in marriage and gave them the nuptial benediction in the presence Joseph St-Hilaire, brother of the groom, Zephirin Pare brother of the bride, both along with the groom undersigned with me. The bride declared that she was not able to sign. Lecture given.
/s/ Louis St-Hilaire
/s/ Joseph St-Hilaire
/s/ Zephirin Pare
/s/ Rosalie Lessard
/s/ J. H. Carrieres priest

Day 7: Last Day on the French Canada Tandem Tour!

2011-07-05T20:31:00.003-04:00

Day 7 Cowansville to St. Bernard de Lacolle
Rides of 45 or 51 miles
This is an amazing day of riding on mostly flat country roads, returning to St Bernard. Bike through Mystic, to see the imposing twelve sided barn built by the Walbridge family. Enjoy this barn, now a museum and national heritage site. Ride along Lake Champlain, into the US, with its wonderful lakeside views and restaurants. We pass old stone buildings and wonderful countryside in Vermont and New York. Then we return over the border to Canada and St Bernard.

More roosters! Québec loves roosters! This one protect the garden -

A scare rooster!

Eight sided barn in Mystic

Another covered bridge over the Brochette River

Brochette River translates to Pike River

At the covered bridge we met and spoke with this young man riding his bike. He was a farmer who now allows his son to direct the family business. He told us he came to this area of Stanbridge sixty years ago from Belgium. He was a teenage soldier in WWII and remembered well the Battle of the Bulge. He farmed the corners near the covered bridge and his wife cultivated a beautiful garden across the way. Now days he suffers from macular degeneration - but gets around on his bike. He pointed out the locations of the sawmill, now gone and an area in the Brochette River where there was a small dam to power the mill. He told us Charlotte Trottier Desrivières, née Guillimin, the wife of James McGill, founder of McGill University in Montréal, was a native from these parts. Set back in the woods off the road was a "mansion" (it was- I could see it from the road) that had something to do with Charlotte and McGill....

Searching online I found this site in French from the Notre Dame de Stanbridge site. The Google translation is..not very good but here it is...

Malmaison in Notre-Dame de Stanbridge

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 9:54 Ginette Gendreault

MALMAISON OF OUR LADY OF STANBRIDGE

Family Desrivières

In 1801, King George III conceded to Hugh Finlay, 31.000 acres in the western part of the Township of Stanbridge.

Hugh Finlay died the same year and it is James McGill, who became owner of the concession.

James McGill, born in Glasgow, Scotland (1744) had married Marie-Charlotte Guillemin, widow of Joseph Amable Trottier said Desrivières, who had left two son, François and François-Amable Hyppolithe.

James McGill died December 19, 1813 and bequeathed to the "Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning," $ 40,000, and its ownership of Burnside for the construction of a College or University. (McGill University in Montreal was built in 1821).

François-Amable Stanbridge inherits the territory of the death of his adoptive father, his brother Francis Hyppolithe died following a duel in 1799.

In 1830, François-Amable, in turn, dies and bequeaths to his two son François-Henri Guillaume and all his possessions and conceded the territory of Stanbridge formerly Hugh Finlay.

1842-1877: "Malmaison"

Both the son of François-Amable Desrivières then settled around 1841, this territory loyalist with the aim to grow their business, which consists in treating wood, grain, flour, and later in transport their goods by train. (1860)

At the place called "Malmaison" on the river called "Pike River" a village is formed and a community develops. A dam is built across the river to enable a sawmill and a gristmill on both sides of the River. A bridge is needed to enable residents and workers to go to one or the other mills. Desrivières then build a chapel, a station (the Central Vermont Company), a general store, post office, school, and that a community is formed, so that by 1848, the place called "Malmaison" the name of the family residence Desrivières, which now has more than 200 people, is constituted as a municipality is that of Our Lady of the Angels of Stanbridge, as the first mayor with Mr. Henri Desrivières, the the most influential man of the time. The latter was also the prefect of the Corporation of the County of Missisquoi, a position he held in 1856 and 1857.

This town, one of the first to be established in this part of the Province of Lower Canada, which included lots numbers 1 to 146 of the eighth concession of 31,000 acres Sabrevois and the Township of Stanbridge, administer this great country for over forty years until March 21, 1889 while the Government of Quebec formed from the same area three new municipalities: Stanbridge-Station, St-Ignace de Stanbridge and Notre-Dame de Stanbridge.

Stanbridge St Charles or "couture": 1850 - 1889

A two and a half miles north of Malmaison, there was a craft center known as St Charles Stanbridge which is commonly called "couture", the name of the largest owner of the place.

Joseph Couture, (son of Julien) was an ambitious and enterprising man, who, seeing the prosperity of other villages and towns Stanbridge, decided to establish several companies around the power of water given to him by the Pike River.

Enjoying a water level higher than at Malmaison, the small craft center of "couture" has been growing faster than the first and has been gaining importance in industry, commerce, population and this at the expense of Malmaison.

Thus in 1880, there are between each other: a flour mill, a sawmill, a carding mill and a large plant tissues, all properties of Joseph Couture, and to complete the "picture" a butter factory, a tannery, a blacksmith shop, several general store, a post office, a school and a beautiful new church opened December 25, 1879 at midnight mass.

Proud of a growing population, St Charles de Stanbridge, March 21, 1889 became the Municipality of Notre-Dame de Stanbridge.

On June 27, 1913, a Decree of Council of the Government of Quebec annexed to the Municipality of Notre-Dame de Stanbridge lots numbers 1 to 105 of the Lordship of Sabrevois belonging to the Municipality of Notre-Dame des Anges, which was dissolved the same days.

Notre-Dame de Stanbridge was the first town in several areas: in fact, this is the first municipality was incorporated in the Province of Lower Canada, it is here that the first Catholic church was built in 1843 and is the first village of the township of Stanbridge to have had a predominantly French-speaking population in the nineteenth century, a territory reserved only for English-speaking Loyalists.

By the way of our day or was located Malmaison ie Desrivières in the row, near the covered bridge, it is difficult to imagine that this site was once a hub of activity for the family as significant as Desrivières for the 200 people who lived there and it drew the resources necessary for their well being.

As against the village of Notre-Dame de Stanbridge, some activity still prevails. While progress has eliminated the majority of companies of the nineteenth century. The place will remain peaceful and "pastoral" as the circular tourist. The river, which is for giving so much power hydraulic continues to delight us and make our village a better place to live.

My sources: Album of the centenary of Notre-Dame de Stanbridge

Missisquoi, a Store of Memories, Vol. XII

********

Then I found, on the same site, photos of the mill, the general store, and the busy community that once thrived near the covered bridge! Everything the old veteran was talking about to us was about how, at this very corner we were on, there was once a thriving commercial community. Time passes; it all changes. The mill, the store, the commerce have all disappeared... but he remembers so well and we, passing by for a brief moment on our tandem, can only gasp for the meaning and the memory.

Good day Québec!

Until the next time.

Day 6: Sightings on the Route to Cowansville

2011-07-05T14:11:00.002-04:00

Day 6 Knowlton to Cowansville
Rides of 27 or 30 miles
Two routes travel to Cowansville, a lovely older town. The northern route lets you visit a great winery, Domaine les Brome (285, chemin Brome) for tastings. You continue north to Bromont, to let people spend more time in this nice small town. Ride along quiet, winding river roads and cross another wooden covered bridge. The southern ride travels down valley roads to Sutton (circa 1802), for a midway stop and restaurants. Ride on to Cowansville, with its 14 bridges including another covered bridge! Follow Cowansville walking (biking) tour and enjoy the opulent Victorian style houses.

Below: Still trying to figure out the meaning of this frequently sighted road sign...B.D. translates it as "Be careful of our or the children, she might be yours."

Note the Rooster over Garage Door

At Valentin's, the best Poutin in Cowansville!

Day 5: those darn roosters!

2011-07-05T14:00:00.002-04:00

Day 5 Lac Brome, Ducks, Mont Echo, & East
Rides of 12, 19 and 38 miles
With three loops, you can combine rides for morning and afternoon fun. Leave enough time to join the visit to Canard du Lac Brome, where duck is their specialty. A tour and a cooking demonstration is included. One ride circles Lac Brome, with it's beautiful eastern shore. Another loop circles Mont Echo, with a chance to visit Forge Art and to ride the quiet but hillier terrain south of Knowlton. A longer loop rides east and north, returning along Lac Brome. Or take a rest day, walking historic Knowlton. Visit Knowlton's historic museum, which includes a fire tower, 1854 schoolhouse, and a WW1 Fokker aircraft!

While Knowlton is all about ducks, I found myself thinking about roosters again. It all started when I spotted the interesting World War I poster, below, in the Brome County Historical Society Museum. It is a recruiting poster in French trying soliciting French Canadians to help France overcome Germany. While I was not surprised to note Germany is represented by an eagle, I thought the representation of France as a rooster a little disingenuous, especially after I wrote about roosters last month. And the rooster looks pretty small compared to that big eagle!

A WWI war trophy brought back to Canada.

Meanwhile the famous Brome ducks were all about in Lac Brome, behaving politely in the restaurant where we ate that evening:

Day 4: Chitty Chitty Bike Bike, Cycling , Cows, Covered Bridges, Chocolate

2011-07-05T13:51:00.002-04:00

A perfect day! cycling, fresh air, fresh water and chocolate! By the way, during the week our tandem bike, a semi-recumbent Viewpoint built by Bilenky, was christened by LK with a very appropriate name: Chitty Chitty Bike Bike. By Day #4, there was no changing the name. So the day moved forward and so too did Chitty Chitty Bike Bike.

Then came the cow. This cow didn't know what to make out of Chitty Chitty Bike Bike. Perhaps she thought we were another cow approaching a little too quickly along the bike path for her pace. She eyed us cautiosly. Assured that the cow was a cow and not a bull (duh), Chitty Chitty Bike Bike wheeled on!

Curious Canadian Cow

Covered Bridge over the Yamaska River....Where Chitty Chitty Bike Bike rested a while

a short rest at a covered bridge

Yamaska River

back on the road

in Farham, a rest spot at the chocolatier

and sightings of Angelica, (Angelica atropurpurea) in the Parsley family along the stream banks on the side of the road...These plants were 5 to 7 feet tall, and the crowns the size of a beach ball! It may be a weed but it was beautiful!

Day 4: Wayside Shrines (Croix de Chemin) in Québec

2011-07-04T22:09:00.016-04:00

Day 4 Tour Description
St Jean sur Richelieu to Knowlton
Rides of 51, 53 or 58 miles
Most of this ride is through flat countryside, ending with easy climbs after Bromont and around Lac Brome. A dedicated bike path can be used to shorten the beginning. Cross a covered bridge while following the river road. Enjoy the atmosphere of Bromont and visit its chocolate museum. Ride along the beautiful shoreline of Lac Brome. Arrive at Auberge Knowlton, a historic inn and our home for the next two days.

While cycling through southern Québec we passed many wayside crosses or shrines, a European Catholic tradition continued throughout Québec. The painter Horatio Walker who captured everyday Québec peasant life, made several paintings of farmers pausing to pray at wayside shrines.

According to the Encyclopedia of French Cultural Heritage in North America many wayside shrines remain:

"Nearly 3,000 wayside crosses are still standing along the highways and byways of the Province of Quebec. They represent a precious heritage - a legacy of the past. The first crosses were erected by Jacques Cartier as a symbol of territorial appropriation. Later, the pioneers used them to mark the founding of a village and French Canadian peasant farmers (then known as habitants) did the same upon staking their land claims. All sorts of reasons have led French Canadians to put up wayside crosses: farmers set them up close to their fields for divine protection; parish priests erected them to indicate the site of a future church; parishioners raised them up on the halfway point along a concession or range road, where they would gather for the evening prayer. Although wayside crosses are first and foremost religious objects, over time they have taken on a more heritage-oriented significance, their distinctive outline characterizing a particularity of the Quebec countryside that has come to be associated with the faith of the French Canadian forefathers."

Although the numbers of wayside shrines in Québec are less than in decades past, they are still present in the rural landscape where we cycled. Here are photos of six wayside shrines we saw on our trip.

Day 3: Along Chambly Canal to Fort Chambly

2011-07-04T16:01:00.005-04:00

Day 3 Tour Description
St. Jean, Chambly and Glass Art
Rides of 21, 34 or 48 miles
Bike along the river roads, the canal bike path, or further west within sight of the Montreal skyline. Ride to Chambly, and stroll along its historic streets. Chambly is a 'must see' little town. Visit Fort Chambly, a magnificent French fortification located at the Richelieu River rapids.
See Studio des Verriers du Richelieu on the return ride to St Jean sur Richelieu, where you can meet artisans transforming ordinary glass into something extraordinary.

Then and now, starting from St Jean sur Richelieu...

The boat basin then

The boat basin now

The Richelieu River then

The Richelieu River now

the road then

the road now

and the wheels of change keep turning as a new bridge is built over the canal

A new bridge is being constructed south of Pont #9 connecting Ile Ste Thérèse with St Jean

This year, Roger continues tending Pont #9 over the canal,

but after the new bridge is completed the old bridge will remain open for extended periods

reducing the need for a bridge attendant

Along the Chambly Canal....then and now....

to Chambly, then and now

and the fort...

and now..

The park ranger told us the archaeologists found a lot of jawbones from this fish

in the fort's garbage dump. Hope the soldiers thought they were tasty!

Once a convent, now the Chambly town offices

Day 2 of Québec Bike Touring: Making Friends along the Route!

2011-07-04T14:46:00.001-04:00

A Tandem Teams with Two Passengers on the road into St Jean!

Day 2: L'Acadie in St Jean, the Church of St. Marguerite de Blairfindie

2011-07-04T12:30:00.005-04:00

Luckily when we stopped in L'Acadie on the route to St Jean sur Richelieu the church and a small museum in the sacristy was open. L'Acadie in St Jean was founded by the Jesuits as a settlement for exiles from L'Acadie in present day Nova Scotia after they were expulsed by the British during the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). Here is a link to a short history of the Acadian Deportation and further links. Acadian Ancestral Home is a great source of in depth information about this historical event and the impact on the people.

The church facade

Remembrance Cross of the Acadian Deportation

The Roof Lines

The presbytery

The museum

The sexton in Breton style

Day 2: Farms, Farms, Colorful Roofs, Stone Houses - and more Farms

2011-07-04T11:26:00.003-04:00

Day 2 Tour description
St. Bernard de Lacolle to St. Jean sur Richelieu via Napierville and the Patriot Highway
Rides of 34, 37 or 55 miles
We ride up the Richelieu River valley, to St Jean sur Richelieu, with a choice of three routes. Visit historic Fort Lennox, an authentic British fortification on an island in the middle of the Richelieu River. Learn about the daily lives of the 1830's soldiers. Travel up the road of the Patriotes, through gentle farmland. Visit the beautiful stone church just past the Acadia River. Or take the longer route to enjoy the countryside and it's broad farmlands, and a great view of the Montreal skyline. Arrive in St Jean sur Richelieu, with its downtown alive with restaurants and art. Our auberge is on the river and is filled with the art collection of the owner, who has been encouraging biking for over 20 years!

A young family from Colorado cycling from Montréal to Westport NY

and right about here we discovered our first and only flat tire during the tour!

Day 1: Odelltown Methodist Church, Lacolle, Québec

2011-07-03T23:30:00.004-04:00

We made it to the "only once a year" 11am church service at the Odelltown Methodist Church in Lacolle. This was special. Joseph Odell was a Tory from Poughkeepsie New York who brought his large family to Canada probably to escape the torment of persecution of the colonial revolutionaries who are called patriots in the USA. Names and designations can be so relative because in British Canada, he was given land an the honorific title of United Empire Loyalist. He received compensation from the British in the form of land and settled Odelltown which is now a part of Lacolle. The beautiful stone church was constructed in 1823.

The stables where horses and wagons awaited the end of services

Interior

Funds to restore the interior ran out in the 1970s;

the work was not completed

The chandelier is a replacement. The original was stolen a few years ago

Coal/wood stoves - there's no electricity

The services and the preacher were inspiring as the parishioners celebrated 188 years of community, continuity and perseverance. Descendants of the English Settlers of Lacolle remain in this small community. To this day, the church has no electricity and that seemed quite appropriate for this historical church that was the site of a War of 1812 battle between Americans and Canadians - the American were routed. The second battle occurred twenty six years later when both French and English colonists rose up against the British colony government in the Lower Canada Patriot Rebellion. The Loyalists were said to number 200 and the rebels 1200.

"During the Patriot rebellion, the Odelltown church was the site of the most decisive battle of the year. November 9th 1838, 500 Patriots attacked the church where 200 loyalists were barricaded. The arrival of reinforcements forced the Patriots to flee to the United States. We can see today the monument commemorating the loyalists who died in that battle."

Some references state the rebellion was a French Canadian rebellion and often call it the "Papineau Rebellion". However, there were also leaders with Scotch and Irish surnames - Nelson, O'Callaghan and Mackensie. Lewis Odell was one of the Loyalist leaders who overwhelmed the rebells at the church.

Odell family members are buried in the Jackson cemetery off Montée Guay

Day 1: Lacolle, Hemmingford

2011-07-03T22:50:00.000-04:00

Day 1 Tour Description
Around Beautiful Southern Quebec along the Apple Route
Rides of 24, 34, 41, 46 or 49 miles
We tandem through apple orchards and rich farmland on rolling, quiet roads. Bike past stone farm houses with flared roof lines and rock walls, built by Irish, Scottish, and American Loyalists who settled here. Enjoy the tastes of regionally made cheeses, wines, and foods, from small business through out this ride.
Visit the Ciderie du Minot, to see how cider was made in Breton farms in the 19th century. The family brought their press with them across the Atlantic, building their Ciderie around it.
See your first inukshuk, stacked rocks in a human form, a tradition of the Inuit people and the 2010 Winter Olympics sign for welcoming friends. Visit Hemmingford's historic village with its nice shops and restaurants. The church of Saint-Jean-Chrysostome is one of the many architectural sights to see this week.

This was our first full day of cycling and it was absolutely stunning! We started out early in the houring - around 7am becasue we wanted to make the once a year only church service at the Odelltown Methodist Church on the south side of Lacolle.

Just a few moments north of the USA border and west from St Bernard de Lacolle, we began seeing stone gardens and inukshuks...

and alpaca farms....with tall fences. Do alpacas jump?

Tandem Cycling, Fort Chambly, the Chambly Canal and Spring Floods in Montérégie, Québec

2011-07-03T19:54:00.004-04:00

The most obvious thing we noticed while cycling in Montérégie were the signs of the recent flooding. Many of the areas we cycled through were hit hard by the rising spring waters of Lake Champlain that drains north in to the Richelieu River. At our first hotel, Auberge Premier in Lacolle, our tour's reserved rooms had been given to families displaced by the floods. Their homes were ruined so mightily they couldn't remain and couldn't return. They lost so much, it was a small thing for us to not have the ground level rooms where cyclists could easily store bikes. Two days later at Auberge Harris, I met a delightful nine year old girl frolicking in the swimming pool. Speaking only French, she relied on her mimere nearby to help me understand her family lost their home in St Blaise sur Richelieu on account of the inundation. Her family was living in the hotel while their home was being restored to a habitable condition. Meanwhile, endless days in the hotel made her eager for playing with any hotel visitor offering to play underwater tag in the pool. And of course, Fort Lennox was still closed to the public but opening up soon - officials hoped. The town of Venise en Québec, directly on Lake Champlain's Missisquoi Bay looked like it was still recovering with bulldozers, wrecked campers and vacationers in abundance. Below is a map of the high waters in La Montérégie.....

At Fort Chambly, park service personnel told me the waters were high on the grounds but did not enter the fort or destroy the interior. The walkway around the fort and along the side of the Richelieu, seen in the photos below was torn by the waters and blocked off.

Accès Interdit...

Although I am not completely certain why it was that parts of the Chambly canal near to Chambly were drained, it was quite apparent it was closed to nautical traffic. Was this a consequence of the floods? Below is a dry canal inside Chambly.

Of course, for tandem cyclists there wasn't any problem! Pedal on!

Tandem Biking In Québec

2011-07-03T18:22:00.001-04:00

In a Rouses Point window - USA side of the border

Summertime is here and I am breaking from strict family history and genealogy to have a little fun. Over the past seven days, I have been bicycling in Québec with an extraordinary group of people who love their tandem cycles and their cycling partners. Modern tandem cycles look nothing like the picture I posted above! Instead they are very efficient machines built with the latest technology. So over the seven days, couples that include a captain and a stoker, rode from 25 to 60 miles a day enjoying the Québec scenery in a way that a car ride could never offer.

The trip was offered by "Gear-To-Go Tandems" out of Saranac Lake, New York. Capable tour conductors Rich and Lindy were host, hostess, mechanical know how about gears, wheels, chains, derailleurs and brakes, and endless sources of help and information.

In my next several posts I will share some of the great finds of this cycling trip through the homeland of my ancestors in Montérégie and the Richelieu Valley as well as the Eastern Townships, where Loyalists Greek immigrants, Scotsmen and Irish descendants added the perfect flourishes to the trip.

What a wonderful week with fantastic people, tandem teams, places, houses, gardens, farms animals, churches, and so much more with thanks my tandem captain and.....

French Canada

Saturday, June 25th through Sunday, July 3rd

Join us for a week long tandem tour in French Canada, with its spectacular people, foods, and traditions. Ride your tandem in Montérégie and the Eastern Townships, south and east of Montréal. Enjoy the cultural and architectural heritage, riding through hamlets and villages considered the most beautiful in Quebec.

This is a fun tour with lots to see and tandem friendly rides. Mostly flat to rolling riding on quiet country roads. Tour old forts, visit an old cidery and ride past apple orchards. Visit a duck farm and an art glass studio. Come on north and enjoy. Bon Voyage!

FrancoAmerican Legends in California

2011-06-23T19:57:00.005-04:00

One summer day in 1976, I visited with two legends in California....

Below: Maire Claire Yetto neé Rivet and her brother Joseph Albert Rivet in a small town in the San Bernardino Mountains.

I have written about Joseph Albert Rivet in several other posting on this blog. In this posting I will write about his sister Marie Claire.

Below: Marie Claire Rivet

Marie Claire Rivet was born in Cohoes, New York in 1918. Her parents were Joseph Paul Emile Rivet and Marie Louise Lacasse. She married Walker Yetto (origin of surname: Guertin). They raised their family in her family home on Summit Street in Cohoes overlooking the Harmony Mill and the Hudson Valley. Their situation was complicated after she was hurt in a serious traffic accident: a tractor trailer truck hit her vehicle and she sustained neck injuries. Soon thereafter Walker was injured in a recreational vehicle. Then in 1965, after several years of poor health, Walker Yetto died and Claire struggled to maintain her home and family. As a widow, she came to a decision - leave New York and settle in California where her brother Al had moved years before. She packed everything in her car and moved. She found a job working as a rural mail delivery person. Her work started early at the local airport where she picked up heavy sacks of mail despite her physical pain from the neck injuries. She bought her own home and lived there until her death in 2003. She was my mother's best friend. She was my Aunt Claire.

She is a legend. Her life was not a picnic...it was hard starting from her childhood with a very stern father who was never remembered for kindness. Her mother died when she was five years old. Her stepmother Malvina Hamel was remembered as kind and gentle. Claire birthed children who lived to become adults and she miscarried others. She worked all her life and she worked hard. When misfortune came into her life she never looked for pity. She was strong; perhaps the strongest. When I visited her a few years before she passed on, she was happy, self-sufficient, and gracious despite the long oxygen tubing she trailed about her home as she conducted her daily chores. That week I last visited, she asked me to make her vegetable stir fry, my specialty. I did and she loved every bit of it! Simple things made her happy. She was tough. She never gave up her faith. She never gave in. She loved her children and grandchildren.

Here are a few more photos from that day at Aunt Claire's home including some of the Joshua trees surrounding her home:

Ancestral Millot-Mylott Home: Villiers-le-Sec, France

2011-06-21T21:03:00.001-04:00

Nicolas Damien Millot dit Champagne, the Mylott forefather, was born in Villiers-le-Sec in Champagne, France in 1737. He enlisted in the Company de Guyenne to fight for France in the Seven Years War, called the French and Indian War in the United States. A photographer, Ludo has posted beautiful photos of the church in Villiers-le-Sec on Panoramio...here is a link.

Québec, roosters, feathered hats, kitchens and the watercolors of Annelein Beukenkamp

2011-06-20T21:01:00.002-04:00

When an artist creates an object (painting, musical score, acting performance) I believe, it is a very personal interaction between the artist and the source of inspiration. Afterwards, if the artist chooses to share her created object with others, she is letting it go. For the observer, the listener, the audience the object may become something totally different than the artist intended. This is not a negative thing. The artist has shared her creation - a selfless act. In doing so, others claim it or buy it, interpret it or distort it, take it unto themselves and make it their own. Sometimes the creation acts upon the observer in ways one could never anticipate. I offer you an example....the roosters of Annelein Beukenkamp.

Click to view the detail but do not copy.
This image is copyright protected

Three years ago when I started spending more time visiting Québec, I started noticing images of roosters around and around...in restaurants, souvenir shop windows, galleries. After a day in Québec City, I thought I was seeing roosters everywhere! Finally I saw the most beautiful roosters in a small shop....they were watercolors that somehow made the feathers look so real. Feathers have to be difficult to paint. After all, they are usually wrought with detail....tiny repetitive detail that make them so unique. Now a days, unless you work directly with birds you may not have many opportunities to appreciate the variety and detail of feathers. I obtained an appreciation for feathers growing up in my mother's antique shoppe where feathers were quite common. There were always old Victorian ladies hats with plumage about in the shoppe. Often the feathers were dyed some distasteful gaudy color but sometimes one would come upon unadulterated feathers. What a fine they would be!

To appreciate her roosters, take a look at Annelein Beukenlamp's blog here; More of her roosters are on her website.

Click to enlarge. Image is copyrighted- don't copy.

Well, seeing Beukenlamp's watercolors of roosters started me thinking about the feathered hats in mom's antique shop. Gradually Beukenkamp's roosters became my roosters as they revived my childhood memories. From the feathers in the antique shoppe, I moved on to an earlier faint memory as I recalled images of roosters in my mother's kitchen too! Mom was an antique dealer which meant she had endless sources of roosters! Gradually the memory of ceramic roosters, pictures of roosters, tin Jello molds in the shape of roosters, salt and pepper shaker roosters, cookie jar roosters and more all came back to me. When one rooster left the kitchen, it was replaced by another. They were not the beautiful roosters of Beukenkamp but they were roosters. Somehow Beukenkamp's roosters made me aware!

An ugly rooster cookie jar

Were roosters special to just my mother or are roosters special to the folk of Québec? or perhaps to people all over the world? A rooster in every pot? To find answers, I searched the world wide web. First I found specialty farms like Cherry Creek Canadians. They have very handsome roosters and preserve a special breed of chicken called the Canadian Chantecler pictured below.

A very, very handsome rooster at Cherry Creek Canadians

In my search for answers, I found this page about Culture of Québec on Wikipedia. This lead to a current exhibit at the Museum of Popular Québec Culture in Trois-Rivières about rooster weather vanes and animal folk art.

seems like there is an emphasis on roosters when I look at the images.....

The exhibit is open until January 2012.

Then I found folk art for sale....

Folk art Rooster $1800 (Canadian)

Another interesting Québec rooster is the sculpture at Au Diable Verte in Glen Sutton. Au Dieble Verte (Green Devil aka the deep green woods) is a winter vacation destination with interesting accommodations like treehouse cabins and outhouses. They appear quite proud of their rooster. Unfortunately, at the English website I cannot get information about the sculptor...but it looks like a fearsome creature when the sky looks grey and stormy.

So there is evidence that Canadians love their roosters. I must admit, none inspired my memory like the watercolor roosters of Annelein Beukenkamp. Perhaps because I came upon her watercolors in Québec, it confirmed the interconnections among my mother, her kitchen, and her French Canadian mother and grandmother. A special charm, a rooster in every Québec and FrancoAmerican kitchen!

Thank you to Annelein Beukenkamp who allowed me to post images of her watercolors and thank you to her roosters for conjuring up the memories of my mother's kitchen.

Postcards of the Champlain Canal: Waterford to Whitehall

2011-06-15T22:03:00.001-04:00

Following the Champlain Canal through New York State in postcards....scenes from Waterford to Whitehall.

The canal from Lake Champlain to Waterford was officially opened in 1823. When you read the chronology of events of the Champlain canal, it seems repairs, fixes, enlargements, improvements and plugs were started the day it opened and never stopped! The postcards below are not arranged in any chronological order. If theres any order it would be from south to north. Therefore in some images the canal looks narrow with a towpath. In other images the canal is wide or doubled spanned.

Waterford, NY

Waterford Lift Bridge

Waterford Covered Bridge to Lansingburg

to Mechanicville...

Sleepy Mechanicville

to Stillwater...

and Bemis Heights...

to Schuylerville...

through Ft. Edward, Sandy Hill (Hudson Falls) and Fort Ann...

along Wood Creek... notorious for its flooding and damage to the canal

to Whitehall, NY where the waters began to flow north to Québec

Postcards of Cohoes

2011-06-14T19:16:00.004-04:00

Juncta

Canals, rivers and other waterways of Cohoes...

I think it may have been along here where Uncle Bobby fell off his bike delivering newspapers and split his head on the stonework of the canal.

Streets, mills,and more

Cohoes Hospital

and the main street, Remsen Street circa 1930...

Robert Millot to Robert Mylott: Québec to New York

2011-06-12T20:57:00.000-04:00

When Robert Millot emigrated from Québec to Whitehall sometime in the 1840s he was a very young man. He was born on June 2, 1832 and baptized the same day in Saint Francois Xavier de Verchères, Québec.

The translation is close to this...

The second day of June one thousand eight hundred thirty two, we the undersigned baptized Robert Millot born the same day of the legitimate marriage of Jean Millot, shoemaker, of this parish and of Adéle Robert. The godfather was Bruno Robert and the godmother Pelágie Robert who was declared unable to sign.....

?.?. Bruneau (Priest) and Bruno Robert.

Robert Millot was the son of Jean Millot and Adélaid Robert who were married in the same church on September 25. 1830. Jean was a "cordonnier" - a shoemaker. Jean Millot was the son of Joseph Marie Millot and Catherine Wilcott. The story of Robert Mylott's grandparents is here.

Cordonnier

Vercheres Windmill

Jean Millot and Adelaid Robert did not emigrate to Whitehall with their son - at least not permanently, but they did leave Vercheres. Their death records can be found in the church records of St Jacques le Mineur, south of Montreal and a few miles north of the US - Canadian border in the high Richelieu River Valley in.

Sign at the entrance to St Jacques le Mineur, Québec

Death record of Jean Millot, father of Robert Mylott October 1881

Church of St Jacques le Mineur

Pretty houses in St Jacques

Garage doors in St Jacques le Mineur

Death record of Adélaid Robert, mother of Robert Mylott

A stone house in St Jacques

When did Jean Millot and Adélaid leave Vercheres? When did they arrive in St Jacques? Did Robert Millot, their son, spend his early years in Vercheres or St Jacques? These are questions still to find answers.

At this point in my research, it would appear Robert Millot came without parents to Whitehall. How did he travel in the 1840s to Whitehall? We will never know with certainly but there was a steamboat, the Redbird Line, that regularly made the trip from St John on the Richelieu (present day St Jean sur Richelieu) to Whitehall. Could he have arrived on the Red Line or was he a crew member on a canal boat that made its way down Lake Champlain?

Robert Millot-Mylott can be find in the 1850 United States census in Whitehall, New York.

Robert is listed as Robert "Maloy" on line 38. He could probably not read or write and the English pronunciation of Millot is close to how we would pronounce "Maloy". He was living and working on the Anthony Rathbune Farm which perhaps still exists as Rathbun's Maple Sugar House Restaurant on the Hatch Hill Road in North Granville.

However, the most interesting item to note in the 1850 census is the proximity of the twenty five year old Anne McNall living with her three children, Massilea, Charles and Edwin, next to the Rathbun Farm. She was widowed and within the year would marry Robert Millot/Maloy, later to be known as Robert Mylott. Robert would be stepfather to Massilea, Charles and Edwin and the couple would go on to have at least five more children: John, George Leslie, Malinda, Cora and Carrie.

It was Robert Milottt who made the transition to Robert Mylott, from Québec to Whitehall, from a French speaking world to an English one. Whitehall was a busy port on the Champlain canal and a center of manufacturing, agriculture and trade. It is not surprising the young man could find a job, a wife, instant family and a farm to call his own in Whitehall, New York

Canaling in Whitehall

Windmills of Québec III: Moulin á Pointe de la Chevelure, Fort Saint-Frederic

2011-06-11T12:53:00.005-04:00

This is the windmill we will never see because it no longer exists. To imagine this windmill, you must first remember Lake Champlain and the lands surrounding it were part of the French Québec colony before the Seven Years War and not British. This windmill was designed by Gaspard Joseph Chaussegros de Léry and constructed at Pointe de la Chevelure, the site of the French colony at Fort Saint-Frederic, present day Crown Point, New York.

(click on image to enlarge)

Theodore G. Corbett in A Clash of Cultures on the Warpath of Nations writes : "The king's engineer also designed an elaborate stone windmill to the south of St. Frederic along the lakeshore. Constructed in 1739 at the king's expense, it was aimed at encouraging the settlement by providing a means to grind grain. Operating with a mill stone imported from France, here was an indication that the Pointe was to be a permanent agricultural community. A decade later, this goal was modified as the mill also served as a defensive purpose with five or six swivels mounted on it. A wooden wharf completed the complex, serving schooners and bateaux that plied the lake". Pages 177-176.

When I last toured the site, I recall the guide told us the windmill was located close to the present day Champlain Memorial off the campground at Crown Point. See the Google location below for the approximate siting of the windmill!

Windmills in Québec II - Moulin de Grondines

2011-06-11T11:45:00.001-04:00

Preservationists have salvaged and restored the remaining 18 windmills in Québec. Preservation is a continual process. The windmill at Grondines is the oldest remaining windmill in Québec, built in 1674.

Before the restoration

Directly on the St Lawrence

A full scale model of the interior

Association des moulins du Québec was organized to preserve, protect and education the public about the windmills.

Windmills in Québec I, Moulin á Repentigny

2011-06-09T19:17:00.002-04:00

Once upon a time there were more windmills about. In Québec, I found a few still remaining....one in Repentigny where the Rivet family settled and grew....

History of Cohoes on a new YouTube Video

2011-06-01T19:26:00.001-04:00

There seems to be a hundred videos of the Cohoes Falls on YouTube but this one, added in May 2011 by a nonprofit Friends of Cohoes Falls, is a charmer.

With all the recent flooding in upstate New York (May 2011) including Lake Champlain, it is not surprising to see the Mohawk raging over the falls in this video:

FrancoAmerican Gravy: Stories from Québec to Cohoes, New York

Yetto, Rivet, Mylott Picnic at Saratoga Lake, circa 1950 and Under Age Drinking!

In 1912 Canoe Upset; Boy Drowned

A Cousin is Writing...are you a Reader?

Convergence and Confluence

Christine Wills

More about Eels

Art St Hilaire's Little Pleasures

Life's little pleasures

French Huguenots: First Thanksgiving and First Pilgrims to North America

A French Connection

Goodbye October

Addie K. Johnson, wife of John Mylott, and Death on the Docks of New York City: TyphoMalarial Fever - a Discarded Diagnosis

Osler on typhoid fever: differentiating typhoid from typhus and malaria.

Raymond A Rivet 1922 - 2007

Our Forefathers in the Carignan-Saliéres Regiment

Broad Street in old Waterford

The Cohoes Falls, Cohoes, NY

Harmony Mills

Uncle Johnny and his Chihuahua named "Dimples"

Johnny Wills and his Dogs

Earl and Dogs

Dorothy and her Dogs

The Marriage of Louis St Hilaire and Eliza Paré on 24 November 1884 in St Patrice de Sherrington, Québec

Day 7: Last Day on the French Canada Tandem Tour!

Malmaison in Notre-Dame de Stanbridge

MALMAISON OF OUR LADY OF STANBRIDGE

Day 6: Sightings on the Route to Cowansville

Day 5: those darn roosters!

Day 4: Chitty Chitty Bike Bike, Cycling , Cows, Covered Bridges, Chocolate

Day 4: Wayside Shrines (Croix de Chemin) in Québec

Day 3: Along Chambly Canal to Fort Chambly

Day 2 of Québec Bike Touring: Making Friends along the Route!

Day 2: L'Acadie in St Jean, the Church of St. Marguerite de Blairfindie

Day 2: Farms, Farms, Colorful Roofs, Stone Houses - and more Farms

Day 1: Odelltown Methodist Church, Lacolle, Québec

Day 1: Lacolle, Hemmingford

Tandem Cycling, Fort Chambly, the Chambly Canal and Spring Floods in Montérégie, Québec

Tandem Biking In Québec

French Canada

Saturday, June 25th through Sunday, July 3rd

FrancoAmerican Legends in California

Ancestral Millot-Mylott Home: Villiers-le-Sec, France

Québec, roosters, feathered hats, kitchens and the watercolors of Annelein Beukenkamp

Postcards of the Champlain Canal: Waterford to Whitehall

Postcards of Cohoes

JunctaCanals, rivers and other waterways of Cohoes...I think it may have been along here where Uncle Bobby fell off his bike delivering newspapers and split his head on the stonework of the canal.Streets, mills,and moreCohoes Hospitaland the main street, Remsen Street circa 1930...

Robert Millot to Robert Mylott: Québec to New York

Windmills of Québec III: Moulin á Pointe de la Chevelure, Fort Saint-Frederic

Windmills in Québec II - Moulin de Grondines

Windmills in Québec I, Moulin á Repentigny

History of Cohoes on a new YouTube Video

Juncta

Canals, rivers and other waterways of Cohoes...

I think it may have been along here where Uncle Bobby fell off his bike delivering newspapers and split his head on the stonework of the canal.

Streets, mills,and more

Cohoes Hospital

and the main street, Remsen Street circa 1930...