Why Sudbury and Chelmsford ?

continued from Sophie Laurin Brosseau


When Sophie Laurin Brosseau and Toussaint were in their sixties they were parents and grandparents many times over. They were farmers and understood how to work the land. So why would many of their children soon pack up and relocate to Sudbury and Chelmsford ?

John A. McDonald was pushing for a railway that would cross the continent. His reason for this was that British Columbia was being asked to join the Canadian Confederation of Provinces and one of their demands was that they have a railroad built, and built fast, to link them to the eastern provinces.

Such a railroad would be a hard build as it would have to push through the muskegs of the nearly uninhabited northern Ontario and through the even tougher mountains of the west. But the project went ahead as Canadian Pacific Railway. The chartered contractor for this was the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. ( Now because this blog is about Chelmsford we must mention Elizabeth Kennedy who married Charles Augustus Sanders in 1900 in Petawawa - they were land owners in Chelmsford and worked for their relatives, the Chew brothers who got a major sawmill contract with the government - more on that sometime...) Why mention that ? A person named John Stewart Kennedy, along with James J. Hill and others were the executives behind the CPRco. Hill, Kennedy, J.P Morgan, Rockefeller, Stickney, and other elite capitalists were all members of the same Jekyll Island Club. Likely John Stewart Kennedy was related to Elizabeth Kennedy but then again maybe not. Other research has pointed her ancestors to a Joseph Kennedy who landed in Dalhousie, but that also is very iffy.


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Vermillion Lake was Brosseauville in 1900..
Who sold the farm ??????

In 1885 the CPR was complete and Sainte Anne in the Pines was put on the map as Sudbury by Worthington who followed his railroad engineering career and started his mine engineering career. Flanagan had hit on mineral and soon enough so did Ollier, Stobie, Crean and many others.

I can imagine a few scenarios about how Sophia, Toussaint and the other Brosseau's in St Marthe would have reacted as they sat by the fire with a newspaper and read about such stories.

In one scenario a headline in a paper might have read something like " Opportunity to own land for hardworking sawmill workers and loggers in northern Ontario. All expenses paid on CP Rail ".

In another scenario the influence behind relocating to Sudbury and Chelmsford might have come from the Roman Catholic Parish priest in Quebec who was looking for willing families to relocate north in order to populate an area that the protestant English seemed to be intent on mining and populating. Allowing that to happen might have given them another opportunity to kill the French Canadian and Roman Catholic spirit in Canada.............but then again maybe not ?????

The reason for the Brosseau's to move to northern Ontario is a mystery. One thing isn't a mystery is that the children of Sophie Laurin and Toussaint Brosseau did move away from Quebec and they settled many miles of land along the shores of the lower Vermillion River almost to Stobie Falls and along the shores of Vermillion Lake on the east bank and inland all the way up to the CP Rail line at Larchwood.

I am almost certain that Sophie and Toussaint never set foot on any of that land.

They died in St Marthe in 1897 while a mini gold rush was going on near Stobie Falls.

Sophie Laurin Brosseau

Maybe you were reading " The Battle of St Eustache " before you clicked on Sophie Laurin Brosseau. If not you might want to read that page as it is the previous section of the bigger story.


Sophie Laurin Brosseau and Toussaint Brosseau had many children.

They must have been quite the couple. He died in May of 1897 and she followed soon after in November of 1897. He had been born in 1813 about, and she had been born in 1818. They were in the center of, and survived the 1837 and 1838 rebellions with their parents, cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbours, cats, dogs, chickens and what else.
They moved to St Marthe and likely read papers telling stories about a struggle between John A. McDonald, George Brown ( or was that Fleming ??? ) and others as Canada was looking for a sovereign identity. That identity came, when on July 1, 1867, Queen Victoria signed the British North American Act which saw the formation of a Dominion of Canada ( Confederate Canada ) by uniting the Province of Canada ( formerly until 1837 rebellion known has Upper and Lower Canada ) to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

All the while they are busy making babies.

Sophia Laurin Brosseau by Toussaint was mother of:

1. Toussaint - born 1841 and married Marcelline Couturier Lajoie 1869
2. Joseph - born 1843 and married Oxilda ( Dozilla ) Couturier Lajoie 1868
3. Jean Baptiste - born 1848 and married Marie Joannette 1872
4. Leandre - born 1850 and married Exilda (Azilda) Couturier Lajoie 1878
5. Charles - born 1852 and married Regina Mossey (Rosina Masse ) 1881
6. Olivier - born 1854 and married Philomene Cheff 1881
7. Marcelline - born 1856 and died single in 1888
8. Adolphe Emery - born 1858 and married Adelaide ( Aldea ) Roy 1888
9. Noel Gedeon - born 1861 and married Marie Louise Ladouceur 1890  

All of the children of Sophie Laurin Brosseau were born in St Marthe sur le Lac except for perhaps Joseph who may have been born in St Eustache. All of their marriages also took place in St Marthe.

Where is Prairies Spenard ? aka Ste Marthe


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St Marthe was not how they called their community in the 1800's according to this St Marthe sur le Lac website. They say that in 1811 the territory that would become the town of St Marthe sur le Lac was known by " Prairies Spenard " and was ruled as a typical manor estate with a lord - seigneur. At that time the Parish of St Eustache was the main city and had been established in 1770, incorporated in 1835, and burnt down in the 1837 rebellion. It wasn't until 1958, yes 19..., that St Eustache was partitioned and St Marthe became an autonomous parish. In 1960 St Marthe was officially named St Marthe sur le Lac and that town was incorporated as a city and suburb of Montreal in 1973.


When Sophie Laurin Brosseau and Toussaint were in their sixties, John A. McDonald was pushing for a railway that......more Why Sudbury and Chelmsford ?

Battle of St Eustache

December 17, 1837 - The Battle of St Eustache

Battle of St Eustache is a continuation story which began at " Blame it on Sophie and Marg ".


We had left off where Marg, aka Marguerite Rapidieux-Lamer had married Toussaint Brosseau.

Sophie was the daughter in law of Marguerite and Toussaint. Sophie Laurin grew up to marry Toussaint Brosseau, the son of Marg and Toussaint, in St Eustache sometime between 1837 and 1839.

Information on Sophie Laurin is difficult to locate. Her name is sometimes recorded as Lorrain. She is the godmother of Joseph Brosseau who was born in 1858 in St Marthe. His parents were Joseph Brosseau and Zoe Sarrazin. Sophie is the mother of Leandre Brosseau, born 1850, who has for godparents Joseph Brosseau and Zoe Sarrazin.

Joseph was the brother of Sophie's husband Toussaint. They were sons of the elder Joseph Brosseau and his wife Marguerite Rapidieu (x).

Here, on the Tiernan and Poudrier genealogy site Sophie Laurin is recorded as being the daughter of Joseph Laurin and of Marie Josette LaMadeleine-LaDouceur. If so, then she was born at St Benoit ( Mirabel ) on November 7, 1818 and died September 4, 1897 in St Marthe, Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada. That source states that Toussaint Brosseau and Sophie Laurin married at St Eustache on January 28, 1839. The Laurin spelling changed from Lorrain sometime between her father and grandfather. The Lorrain line goes all the way back to France and was Lorrain dit Lachapelle in the first Canadian generation.

more on Sophie later....somewhere else

Meanwhile.......

St Eustache and the surrounding towns including St Benoit and St Charles were a war zone in 1837 and 1838. The British under John Colborne were looking to take complete control of Canadian culture and they were backed up by the Loyalists to the English crown. The Lower and Upper Canada as Canada was called back then was made up of a majority of French and English Canadians. Colborne was working hard to raise the number of English citizens and had been extremely successful when he looked to Ireland for immigrants. The English King meanwhile had named the county of Newton as a new land to be colonized and developed. St Justine was one town in that county. Sophie and Toussaint amongst others ended up in St Marthe not far from St Justine de Newton where most if not all of their children were born.

The Battle of St Eustache was a major power struggle between the British and the Patriote Party which opposed the Brits attempt at controlling religion and ethnicity in Lower and Upper Canada. The Patriotes were rebels and the Battle of St Eustache and many similar battles came to be known as the 1837-38 Rebellions.

 

The outcome of the Battle of St Eustache was not good for the rebels.

Colborne and his Loyalists were in Lower Canada and had defeated the Patriote at Saint Charles in Lower Canada ( Quebec ) and were looking to eliminate the rest of the French Canadian Patriote party members and supporters of this political movement who's goal was to stop the domination of English colonial forces trying to control all of Canada for the British monarchs. Basically the Patriotes were trying to do for the Canadians what the American revolution had done for the Americans.

Eglise St Eustache
The front of the
St Eustache Church
survived the fire and the
church was rebuilt in 1841
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Image source
Wikimedia common  

When John Colborne arrived at St Eustache in late 1837 he was accompanied by nearly 1500 fighters. The Patriote, led by Chenier and Girod in St Eustache were outnumbered 7 to 1 and were not well armed. By the end of the day the Patriote were barricaded in the local church when Colborne or one of his allies ordered it burned. The story goes that as the church burned some of the Patriote rebels attempted to jump out of windows. Jean Olivier Chenier was shot down as he ran from the church grounds. The same story goes that Armury Girod was shot by his own side when, during a battle before they entered the church, he was seen fleeing the field. Some say he was running towards neighbouring St Benoit for backup when he was shot by a Patriote supporter who thought he was surrendering.

John Colborne won the Battle of St Eustache for the British. After the battle many rebels from this town and the surrounding Lower Canada area were on the run. Some got arrested and were sent to Australia ( Canada Bay ) which was basically a British prison colony. Other rebels managed to get away and crossed into the US or somewhere else in the wild wilderness to the north.

I can't figure out exactly how Sophia and Toussaint survived this but they did and this war was what their descendants talked about when they questioned the meaning of life.

The Battle of St Eustache and the rebellion of 37-38 shaped them.

The story continues....
click below...
Sophie Laurin Brosseau and Toussaint had many children.