Summit Street in Cohoes, NY

In the 1910 US census Paul Emile Rivet and his first wife Ida Mailloux are living in a house in the town of Guilderland. Ida Mailloux died in 1912 and it was probably soon afterwards, around the time of Emile's second marriage, that he bought the house at the top of Summit Street. This was the house Claire, Al and Raymond Rivet were born it and the house their mother, Marie Louise and their stepmother, Malvina Hamel died in.
The house was unremarkable except for its view from the backyard.  From the eastern edge of the yard, one could look over the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys. At the time he bought the house, one would have been able to look over the Erie Canal, the Harmony Mills and its power canals below.   By the 1950s when I spent time there, those days were long gone.  There was just a ditch below. I never saw the canals it the heyday.  By the time I went to high school all the canals were polluted slimy waters filled with old tires and appliances.


The Front of the house....

The Johnson Mansion, 2-3 lots south of Emile Rivet's house.

The Top of Summit Street, looking north. The small pale yellow house,

 left of the brown 2 story, was the house of Emile Rivet.

David Lamarche and yours truly on Summit Street.

The Back of the House....

A very young Al Rivet standing in the backyard of Summit Street.

The backyard was the best part of the property.  This is the yard Claire, Al and Ray Rivet played in as children. The second generation of Rivets and Yettos played there too.  At the far end of the yard, a fence prevented children from falling down the embankment to the canal ditch.  Rhubarb grew in the backyard and my Uncle Al was always sure to gather some for me to dip into a sugar bowl and snack on later! 

View of the Valley from the Backyard on Summit Street 

Another view from the backyard with remains of the Erie Canal in the foreground

Picnic circa 1950

Here's a home movie of a family picnic with many of the same people in "Home Movie circa 1951" posted February 8th, 2012.

In the order they appear in the movie are:
"Little Jackie",
Art Mylott, behind "Little Jackie" dancing on the picnic table and swinging her around,
Dorothy Wills Mylott holding Little Jackie and later playing tennis,
Unidentified older couple, formerly thought to be Yettos
Baby W and his mother Claire holding him with "Little Jackie" on the side
Emile Rivet hugging Malvina Hamel his wife,
Walker Yetto lighting a cigarette,

Then there's a toast to the cameraman and for a brief moment at the very end, Al Rivet appears  wearing blue pants.

Home Movie circa 1951

Below is a home movie from Christmas 1951 with a few folks some Yetto, Rivet, Mylott family readers may recognize.  If you still cannot identify the adults after you watch the clip, you can get a little help figuring out the names of a few of the folks by scrolling down to the stills.

Here's the help identifying adults in the clip.................

Below is Marie Claire Rivet and her husband, Walker Yetto (Guertin)...

Next is Paul Emile Rivet

Below is Emile's son, Al Rivet

and next is Art Mylott

then Malvina Hamel, stepmother of Claire, Al and Ray Rivet and third wife of Emile Rivet

Dorothy Wills, wife of Arthur Mylott

I believe this gentleman may be Walker Yetto Sr

and finally Bill Bossidy and Lucy Messier

A Younger Emile Rivet Found

A year ago, I acquired the Spindle City Historic Society's books entitled Cohoes and Cohoes Revisited. Recently while browsing the latter volume, I realized there was a picture of Paul Emilie Rivet on page 21! The only photos I know of Emile Rivet were taken when he was in his late 60's and early 70s, so this was truly a FIND.  Thank you to Spindle City Historic Society for putting this photo in Cohoes Revisited.
If you are thinking of a gift for a Cohoes history lover consider buying by emailing Books@SpindleCity.net.

Emilie is the barber wearing suspenders and putting shaving cream on the draped recumbent customer! Circa 1905 - probably before Emile opened his own barber shop on Vliet Street.

Below is the 1928 city directory listing "Emil Rivet" as a barber at 8 Vliet Street, Cohoes

.

TABAC À FUMER ...why Paul Emile Rivet was never without his Pipe

Paul Emile Rivet was the father of my godfather and I called him "pépère".  When I was little I thought it was his name. When I heard another young person call another older man "pépère", I still didn't get it! But eventually I figured out "pépère" meant grandfather.
Pépère was a barber by trade and he was born in St Jacques de L'Achigan, Quebec. When he came to Cohoes he was a young man and most likely already addicted to tabac.

A few things I can remember about pépère....

• He spoke English with a heavy accent.
• He had to have a glass of milk every night- with a shot of brandy in it!  
• He never, absolutely never was without his pipe- his tabac
• After he broke his hip falling on ice in the parking lot at St Marie's Church,  he always walked with crutches or a cane.

That was not an easy feat - it isn't easy to walk with crutches and still hold onto your pipe.  I do not have many pictures of pépère but in every photo that I do have there is a pipe in the picture or an ash tray stand close by.   Look at this picture below. You can see pépère has something in his hand and his crutches are in the background. This picture was taken at a picnic somewhere around Troy or Schenectady.  He is holding his pipe in the classic "this is how I hold my pipe" position.

Paul Emile Rivet with  pipe in left hand

When I started looking for pépère's origins in Quebec, it was almost fifty years after he died.  I never heard mention about where in Quebec he came from so it was quite interesting when once my godfather told me that pépère loved  "Parfum de Joliette".  That is not the name of a liquid scent one uses to dab behind your ears; it is tobacco!  "Parfum de Joliette" may have been a trade name or the name pépère called his favorite tabac from back home.

There's a pipe in my pipere's left hand

Here I am sitting in my dad's lap watching the 1950's television set with pépère on the other side. Pépère's ash tray stand is nearby and pépère has his pipe in his left hand.  Sometimes he would let me use the pipe cleaners and clean the old ashes out of his pipe.  That was a big deal!  His tobacco pouch was always in his pocket too.

Smoking a pipe was traditional for French Canadian men (and maybe some  women too).  The farmland around St Jacques de L'Achigan was prime tobacco fields and it was a big business because there was such a demand in Quebec.  Pépère was likely addicted to tabac from an early age.

that's tobacco and I can smell it!

Here is a brief description by an American visitor about the culture of pipe smoking in Quebec after the English took over....

«Le tabac semble être une des choses nécessaires à la vie des Canadiens, et la pipe une partie indispensable de la toilette. "The tobacco seems to be one of the necessaries of life for Canadians, and the pipe is an indispensable part of the toilet.
Les Canadiens sont d'éternels fumeurs. Canadians are eternal smokers.
On dirait que chaque homme, femme et enfant doit nécessairement avoir sa pipe et son sac à tabac et s'en servir constamment. It seems that every man, woman and child must necessarily have his pipe and tobacco pouch and use it constantly.
J'ai vu des marmots âgés au plus de quatre ans qui fumaient avec tout la gravité de leurs grands-pères…»
I saw brats aged up to four years of smoking with all the seriousness of their forefathers ... "

St Jacques Tobacco Packing Company Limited,
St Jacques, Quebec

DUYS CANADIAN TOBACCO COMPANY
St Jacques or Joliette, Quebec

Pipe smoking was a natural habit in Quebec and pépère just brought the habit along when he crossed the border...look at these images of everyday people in paintings and photographs.

From the McCord Museum, Montreal

Gatineau Madonna of André Biéler

Old trapper

Here is a poem that makes me think of Pépère because the dialect is so close to the way I remember his voice.......

TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO

by William Henry Drummond (1854-1907)

TWO honder year ago, de worl' is purty slow
   Even folk upon dis contree 's not so
   smart,
Den who is travel roun' an' look out de
   pleasan' groun' 
 For geev' de Yankee peop' a leetle start?
I 'll tole you who dey were!  de beeg rough
   voyageurs,
W'it deir cousin w'at you call coureurs de bois,
Dat 's fightin' all de tam, an' never care a dam,
An' ev'ry wan dem feller he 's come from
   Canadaw
                   Baptême!
He 's comin' all de way from Canadaw.

But He watch dem, le bon Dieu, for He's  got
   some work to do,
 An He won't trus' ev'ry body, no siree!
Only full blood Canadien, lak Marquette an' 
   Hennepin,
 An' w'at you t'ink of Louis Verandrye?

On church of Bonsecours!  makin' ready for 
   de tour,
See dem down upon de knee, all prayin' dere-
Wit' de paddle on de han' ev'ry  good Canad-
   ien man,
An' affer dey be finish, hooraw for anyw'ere
                       Yass, sir!
Dey 're ready now for goin' anyw'ere.

De nort' win' know dem well, an' de prairie
    grass can tell
 How offen it is trample by the ole tam botte
    sauvage-
An'grey wolf on hees den kip very quiet, w'en
 He hear dem boy a' singin' upon de long
   portage.
An' de night would fin' dem lie wit' deir faces
   on de sky,
An' de breeze would come  an' w' isper on deir
   ear
 'Bout de wife an' sweetheart dere on Sorel an' 
   Trois Rivieres
Dey may never leev' to see anoder year
                        Dat 's true,
Dey may never leev' to kiss anoder year.

An' you 'll know de place dey go, from de
   canyon down below,
 Or de mountain wit' hees nose aboeve de cloud,
De lake among de hill, w'ere de grizzly drink
   hees fill
 Or de rapid on de reever roarin' loud;
Ax de wil' deer if de flash of de ole Tree
   Reever sash
He don't  see it on de woods of Illinois
An' de musk ox as he go, w'ere de camp fire
   melt de snow,
De smell he still remember of tabac Canadien
                            Ha! Ha!
It 's hard forgettin' smell of tabac Canadien!

So, ma frien' , de Yankee man, he mus' try an' 
   understan'
 W'en he holler for dat flag de Star an' 
   Stripe,
If he 's leetle win' still lef', an' no danger hurt
   hese'f,
 Den he better geev' anoder cheer, ba cripe!
For de flag of la belle France, dat show de way
   across
From Louisbourg to Florida an' back;
So raise it ev'ryw'ere, lak' de ole tam voy-
   ageurs,
W'en you hear of de la Salle an' Cadillac-
                                Hooraw!
For de flag of de la Salle an' Cadillac.

This poem is in the public domain..

Here's the complete sequence of stories about illnesses and disease in our families...

Tuberculosis

Hypothyroidism

Polio

Smallpox

Québec Cholera Epidemic of 1832