Le“AFIN D’ÊTRE FORUM EN PLEINE POSSESSION DE SES MOYENS” VOLUME 38, #2 PRINTEMPS/SPRING 2016

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Lettres/Letters...... 3 Joshua Barrière...... 45-47 Le Centre Franco-Américain Université du Maine L’État du NH Orono, Maine 04469-5719 ...... 3, 38-41 Coin des jeunes...... 42-44 [email protected] Téléphone: 207-581-FROG (3764) L’État du ME...... 4-13 Télécopieur: 207-581-1455 REMINDER!!! Volume 38 Numéro 2 L’État du CT...... 14-23 Printemps/Spring 2016 Publishing Board Please check your mail- Don Levesque Books/Livres...... 24-26 ing labels for expiration date Paul Laflamme Virginia Sand Roy to your subscription. The Lin LaRochelle James Myall...... 27-28 Louella Rolfe year/month, for example, Diane Tinkham 11/09 means your subscrip- David Vermette...... 29, 30 & 37-38 Rédactrice/Gérante/Managing Editor tion has expired in Sept. Lisa Desjardins Michaud Anne Lucey...... 30-36 2011. Le Forum is made Mise en page/Layout Lisa Desjardins Michaud possible by subscriptions and Poetry/Poésie...... 48 Composition/Typesetting your generosity! 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I would like to contribute an article to Le FORUM about: La reproduction des articles est autorisée sans préavis sauf indication contraire—Our original articles may be reproduced without notice unless otherwise Tarif d’abonnement par la poste pour 4 numéros indicated. L’équipe de rédaction souhaite que Le Forum soit Subscription rates by mail for 4 issues: un mode d’expression pour vous tous les Franco‑Amér- États-Unis/United States –– Individus: $20 icains et ceux qui s’intéressent à nous. The staff hopes Ailleurs/Elsewhere –– Individus: $25 that Le Forum can be a vehicle of expression for you Organisation/Organizations –– Bibliothèque/Library: $40 Franco‑Americans and those who are interested in us. Le Forum et son staff—Universitaires, gens de la Le FORUM communauté, les étudiants -- FAROG, Centre Franco-Américain, Orono, ME 04469-5719 2 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 late seminary staff had been written into the ensuing days. He was jailed at the prison a small notebook, which notebook was of Fontainebleau, which served as temporary Lettres/ discovered on the person of a Resistance housing for Gestapo prisoners awaiting exe- agent at the time of his arrest by the Gesta- cution or deportation to a Nazi death camp. Letters po. I indicated that this Resistance agent’s On 17 August 1944, Yves Masiée and 13 name was Yves Masiée. This was an error. other Resistance agents being held at Fon- While Yves Masiée, whose resistance tainebleau were trucked into the Arbonne agent code name was Corret, a decorated forest and shot. Their bodies were discov- Correction Lieutenant Colonel in the French Army ered after liberation, in December 1944. Dear Le Forum, and decorated hero of WWI & WWII, was I am deeply indebted to the Masiée involved in the procurement of arms for la family for kindly bringing this error to I write to correct an error in an ar- Résistance, he was not the resistance worker my attention. I regret any pain this error ticle I wrote entitled Mon Oncle Luc. Le on whose person the Oblate Priests’ names has caused the Masiée family these many Forum published the article in 2007, Vol. were discovered. The notebook containing decades later, and am very pleased, with 33, 2 & 3. In this article I made reference the names was likely found on the person their thoughtful help, as well as with to the inadvertent unmasking of several of another Resistance agent, whose code the kind guidance of Le Forum’s editor, Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI) priests name was Renard, and whose actual name Lisa Michaud, to bring my error to light. and brothers at the Oblate seminary at I do not know. It is further evident that Yves La Brosse Montceaux, France, who were Masiée was not actually arrested by the Laurent “Larry” Autotte involved in the procurement of arms into Gestapo until after the murderous events at [email protected] France to arm Resistance agents. In this the Seminary of La Brosse Montceaux on 24 17 March 2016 article I indicated that the names of 5 Ob- July 1944, perhaps later that evening or in (See revised article below)

New Hampshire played an important role. sister, Bernadette, my mother, was the 16th. Uncle Luc It is a story of treachery, heroism and mar- In 1927, when my grandmother by Laurent Autotte tyrdom which, having visited the grounds asked which of her sons would be the first Manchester, NH of the former seminary of La Brosse-Mont- priest in her family, Luc announced that it ceaux, having touched the crosses which would be him, and that he wished to be- The following story is about my uncle, mark where each of the five Oblate martyrs come a missionary priest with the Oblates Father Luc Miville, OMI, (Oblate of Mary fell, and of course having known mon of Mary Immaculate, in the footsteps of Immaculate) my mother’s brother. I based the oncle Luc, continues to move me deeply. his cousin, Father Léon Ouellette, OMI, story in small part on personal recollections Luc Miville (aka: Luke) was born in who was ordained an Oblate missionary of my conversations with mon oncle Luc and August 1908, the son of Joseph François in 1927 and who was serving missions my mom, Bernadette. These recollections Miville and Marie Louise Bernier. He in Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Yukon have been supplemented by the abundant Territory of western Canada, his likely detail available via the Internet in the form of role model. Sadly, my grandmother would published mémoires of French Oblate priests not live to see her son ordained a priest. who lived through the same painful events While Luc’s seminary studies would as did mon oncle Luc. These mémoires not normally have occurred within the New En- only provided me with heretofore unknown gland province of the Oblate fathers, at age details, but perhaps more importantly, the 18, Luc had not completed any high school served to corroborate my recollections course work. The Oblate community offered of conversations with mon oncle Luc. him an opportunity to complete his high In particular, I point to the details of school education at seminary. However, as the events which transpired at the French the New England province of Oblates did not Oblate house of studies at La Brosse-Mont- offer high school level training at that time, ceaux, France, where the Oblates had a he would need to complete his high school surprise and murderous encounter with the course work with the Oblates in their U.S. Gestapo near the end of WWII, 24 July southwestern province based in San Antonio, 1944. These details, gleaned from French Texas after which he would be free to return Oblate priests’ independent recollections, to the New England province to complete occurring over several decades, but which his studies for the priesthood. In September are wonderfully identical in detail, have 1927, family, friends and cello lessons left served me as a singularly rich source of behind, Luc Miville was off to San Antonio. detail enabling me to bring this story to light. Père Luc Miville After completing his high school It is, I believe, a story of a very little studies in San Antonio in 1930, Luc was known and important moment in the French was the 12th of 16 siblings born in the advised by his superiors that he was free to Résistance, with France in the final throes family home at 250 Thornton Street, in leave the Southwestern province to return of the German occupation during WWII, in the Whittemore Flats section of the west to the New England province to finish his which a Franco-American from Manchester, side of Manchester, New Hampshire. His (Continued on page 38) 3 Le Forum From Maine to Thailand The making of a Peace Corps Volunteer by Roger Parent ED. NOTE: This is the ninth in a series of excerpts from a memoir written by Lille, Maine, native Roger Parent in 2004, tracing the first 24 years of his life, from his childhood in Acadian French-speaking northern Maine to the end of his service as a member of the first group of Peace Corps volunteers in Thailand. This aritcle first appeared in “Echoes”, No. 95pages 30-32. Becoming the Peace Corps Volunteer I wanted to be

When Art, Jack and I arrived in Udorn while wrapped in a pawkama (a sarong type water would run off the road, down the (they were assigned to the Teacher Training cloth for men, tied at the waist) for privacy. lot, under and around our house, forming College, and I was assigned to the Udorn Principal Pricha had studied for a pond behind it, where the family would Trade School), we were provided a comfort- some months at the University of Ha- fish. I’m still not sure how fish happened able traditional Thai house on the Teacher waii. He knew the comfortable American in a pond formed by rain where no pond Training College campus. It was make of life style, and he understood our greater existed most of the year. According to teakwood, built on stilts about 10 feet off the need and desire for personal privacy. the people in my house, it just happened. ground, had three bed- Windows were sim- rooms, a western style ple openings with no glass toilet and shower; a or screens, but there were small kitchen, and a liv- wooden shutters, hung ing room with one wall from the inside, for privacy. of doors which opened Screens were installed in on a large veranda that my room to keep the mos- overlooked the campus. quitoes and bugs out. To It was a great place to them screens were a west- relax and speak En- ern thing and they didn’t glish after a full day want any for themselves. of teaching in a lan- They also provided me guage still foreign to us. with a regular western style I loved our house, bed and mosquito netting. our neighbors, our ca- The house on the Teacher Training College campus where I lived with two The mosquitoes made their maraderie and I was other Peace Corps volunteers. way to my room despite comfortable. Yet I was the screen in the window. uneasy and dissatisfied about my situation. I persisted. I explained to Pricha that The sitting areas, kitchen, and toilet I was not learning to speak Thai and the living with a Thai family would help me facilities, were common to all. Each fam- local dialect quickly enough, and I was learn the language, the culture, and family ily had a large room for sleeping and other not getting to know my Thai colleagues at life more than was possible living with private uses, and I had a small bedroom the Trade School, where I taught carpentry my two American buddies at the Teacher for the same purposed. In addition to my and English, except on a superficial level. Training College. This final argument won western style bed, my room had an armoire, The Trade School occupied a lower social him over and he relented. He arranged a desk with a lamp, and more private space status than the Teacher Training College, for me to live in a house next door to the than in my Lille home where I grew up. and so did its teachers. My residence at school with Charoon and Luk, teachers This large house was covered by a very the college widened the social gap between at the Trade School, and their two young old and very rusty tin roof which ampli- my colleagues and me, and made it more families. I think deep down he was very fied the noise of rain to a thunderous roar. difficult to bridge. I was happy and enjoyed pleased to have his Peace Corps Volunteer Adjusting to the squat type toilets was living in Thailand, but I was not living up living near the school, and becoming a easy, and bathing in the open by splashing to my idea of a Peace Crops volunteer. more intimate part of his school family. water from a huge jar, while struggling to I asked Pricha, my principal, if I My new home was a simple and large keep the pawkama from falling off, soon could have a room in a house owned by rambling structure, built with teakwood that became second nature. There was no west- the Trade School. He didn’t like the idea, had darkened with age inside and outside, ern style shower in the house because there saying the house was too old, and would giving the house a somber, almost haunting was no running water. The water needed to not be good enough for me. He thought look, particularly at night. It was built on drink, cook, clean house, and wash our bod- I would miss living with my Peace Corps stilts about five or six feet off of the ground ies came from captured rain, or was carried friends, have a hard time using the squat - necessity since the house lay nearly three in buckets from sources some distance away. toilets, and would dislike “showering” by feet below the grade of the road, a couple Adjusting to the two families and having a splashing water on myself from a large jar hundred feet away. When a big rain fell, (Continued on page 5) 4 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (From Maine to Thailand continued from page 4) thought it best to allow a two-year-olds little privacy was not a problem for someone might hurt himself by falling or hitting tantrum to come out when a child was two raised in a small house with nine siblings. his head against a wall, or he might grow years old. Thanom’s parents seemed to say Living with Charoon’s and Luk’s up unable to control his temper. Had he if Thanom has a fit, let him have his fit and families and their children was the best been mine, I would have forced him to get over it. They seemed to understand decision I made a as a volunteer. I quickly settle down - to sit in a corner or something that the natural behavior of a two-year-old became more proficient in Thai and the similar. I was 23, and didn’t know much. child shouldn’t be treated as if the child local dialect - spoken in our home almost I was raised a different way. were an adult and that a two-year-olds be- always. I got a first-hand havior doesn’t necessarily education in Thai family extrapolate to adult life. life: how they cared for It’s chancy to children, how they related speculated whether the to each other and their ex- child-rearing practices of tended family members. one couture would work And I developed clos- in another. I suppose I er and deeper relation- was raised to fit in my ships with my colleagues society, although I’ve at the Trade School. not always felt that I fit in it very well. I was not Thanom’s spanked much as a child, nor was I unduly restrict- Tantrum ed in my activities. I was lucky to live in a rural area Two- year-old Tha- and to be part of a family nom was having a terrible of 10 children. My par- tantrum and no one was ents didn’t have time to doing anything about it. The house next to Udorn Trade School where I lived with two families for be excessively concerned His father and mother most of my two-year stay in Thailand. with me or any one child. were acting as if nothing was happening, My two-year-old tantrums were I’d been living in as if Thanom was behaving normally. I not allowed to work themselves out, they my new home near the Trade School with thought, they’ve got to do something about were forced to stay under the surface of my the two Thai families only a few weeks this. He was out of control, screaming personality...maybe to come out later, in then I witnessed Thanom’s tantrum. I had and crying and jumping, I imagined he less socially acceptable ways. The Thai’s (Continued on page 6)

Thanom’s mother preparing a meal Father and daughter of one of two Two-year-old Thanom (not his real name). in “outside porch kitchen.” families with whom I lived. 5 Le Forum From MARTHA’S MEMOIRS (From Maine to Thailand continued from page 5) been told about the Tjhais “maj pen raj” Le Pont À Pit attitude to life, but I hadn’t seen it in rais- ing children. “Maj pen raj,” or in the Lao by Martha Cyr Genest of the Northeast, “bo pen yeang,” means: Van Buren, ME it’s ok, it doesn’t make any difference, When I was growing up we used farm to look even after the fences on which it’s all the same, it doesn’t matter. This to go to “Le Pont à Theophile à Francis we liked to perch. Not to destroy the bird’s laissez-faire attitude showed itself not only Croc”. Winter and summer, spring and next, not even the bee’s nest; not tear down in child-rearing, it permeated Thai life. fall, it had it s attractions. Some years ago, the fences; not to throw any garbage in the This easygoingness derived in part when Peter Powers and my sister Mary brook as it was a place where we loved from Buddhism which advocates a sofer and and their family took over the Cyr farm. to wade and canoe; if you need to build a more tolerant approach to life. Its religious The bridge was renamed “le Pont à Pit”. fire, make sure it is out before you leave. and family precepts and rules are mild. At When I came back to Maine with my I hope that someone will remember Buddhist ceremonies, I was invited to partic- family, they too went on a picnic or waded that years ago, there were also boys and girls. ipate fully. Conversely, my Chatolic religion under the bridge, in the Violette Brook. I do They did not destroy, they helped to build frowned on my participation in Buddhist hope that the friends who went there had as the log camps, and small bridges, what we ceremonies and prohibited full participa- much fun, rest, and enjoyment as we did and elderly now call Valuable Historical Mate- tion in Catholic ceremonies by Buddhists. still do. Le Pont à Pit like the old oak tree rial. I did not mean to preach, but to some Also, the rurla hcaracter of Thailand in the on Cyr Hill, are no more. There are just a of us, many things are a relic of days gone 1960’s provided ample geographical space, few bushes and a few logs from the bridge, by. We want to save those from destruction. which I think translated into psychological but the memory still lives. This is what we The old “Pont à Pit” crossed the space for differences and eccentricities. old timers should leave to this generation. Violette Brook and was used for trav- The “maj pen raj” attitude made it eas- I quote from a letter just received eling to the back of the farm, where ier for me tolive with Thais, and for them to from a VIP of the Bangor & Aroostook the little iron bridge crossed “la Petite accept me. If I did something different, like railroad: “Far more historical material is Fourche”. The latter enabled the B&A riding my bike at night near cemeteries, or if available in the willingness of people to to bring freight in and out of Van Buren. I was too harsh with my students, or if I killed write what they remember, than would Le Pont also furnished much of cockroaches in my room (they believed in be contained in any statistics for carloads the fun we had. In the shade of the reincarnation and didn’t believe in killing), and commodities; such stories as you bridge, we could build a fire to boil water they probably said “maj pen raj - that’s have are the muscle and blood of history”. for tea, or just a fire when it was cold. his way, it doesn’t make any difference.,” This is the reason why I want to We also jumped from the bridge into I enjoyed the “maj pen raj” of Thais, print this, to tell the young and young- the water and this special hole was called and the resulting respect of rdifferences er to be careful in their work and play, “La Cremeuse”. May be because years among themselves and those of other cul- not to destroy our camps and our trees. ago we would bring a jug of milk and put tures. I abvsorbed much of the easygoing We love to keep these as a living mem- it in the water to keep it cold if we planned Thais way of life, and when Ireturned to the ory of our parents and grandparents. to stay all day. At home they put milk in a United States, I was even more low key than So boys and girls, please remember certain jug and put it int he well to keep it thwn I had left tow years earlier. Later, I that we worked for our Living Heritage, cold, this container was called la cremeuse, lost some of the easygoing Thai attitude and and still have the most important part of because the milk contained more cream reabsorbed the more straight-laced and less these wonderful days when our grandpar- when in that jug than in any other contain- tolerant American way. Still, I believe that ents or our won parents would come on a er. At least that’s what we kids thought. the ‘maj pen raj” way I absorbed in Thailang picnic with us, and would tell us to thank “Le Pont à Pit” like the “Old Oak Tree” made me more sensitive to the different God for the beauty of our surroundings, to are gone now only the memories are with us. peoples I represented years later when I was respect the people working with us on the city councilman and mayor of South Bend. Roger Parent lives in South Bend, Indiana, where he served as city councilor and mayor in the 1970’s and ‘80’s. He is trustee of the South Bend Community “Le Pont à School Corporation and found of World Theophile”, 1920’s Dignity, a non-profit organization focused Marthe, on educational programs in Thailand, Marguerite & India and South Bend. In 2005 he as- others. sisted victims of the Dec. 26, 2004 tsu- nami as deputy director of the Tsunami Volunteer Center in Khao Lak, Thailand. He and his wife, Rolande (Ouellette), have four children and six grandchildren. 6 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (N.D.L.R.: Used with permission from Discover Maine & Brian Swartz , Aroostook & Northern Penobscot Counties, Vol. 25/Issue 1/2016, pages 40-44.)

(Continued on page 8)

We Thomas N. Egery, Mary Ann Hinckley, Daniel B. Hinckley & Frank Hinckley, all of Bangor Penobscot County Maine, owners of Township Numbered Eighteen in the Fourth Range, in Aroostook This Town of St. Agatha photo dates back to c. 1905. The Parish of Ste-Ag- County in the State of Maine, hereby give athe was established in 1889 and the town of St. Agatha was incorporated on you André Pelletier, notice of our intention to March 17, 1899. Some of the people living here in 1877 were served an eviction contest and prevent your acquiring any right notice. Just imagine the uncertainty that represented in light of the fact that 122 or easement in Said Township by virtue of years before the Acadians were deported from their homes in Nova Scotia. In 1877, your having occupied or improved any part all families settled in Township 18 Range 4, were served this forelosure notice. of the Same; and we hereby notify you to at once leave Said Township and no longer occupy any part of the Same-as from and after the date of the Service of this notice upon you, we shall regard you as trespassers and proceed against you accordingly unless you comply with the demand herein made--

Thomas N. Egery, Mary Ann Hinck- ley, Daniel B. Hinckley, Frank Hinckley.

18 Range 4 Maine January 30, 1877

(Continued on page 8) 7 Le Forum (Madawaska’s J. Normand Martin continued from page 7)

(Continued on page 9)

(STE-AGATHE Historical Society continued from page 7) there are blank spaces around Long Lake where they and their neighbors are heirs. When played “En Cachette” and No Names on the Map? “Marigoule” our parents did not show us the old deeds they had tucked in the bureau But We Were Here! in their bedroom. They didn’t tell us about On a cold January afternoon Phil Mo- ed telling us of their deepest worries. “Pepère” being called a “squatter” and told rin and I went to meet with Guy Dubay to get This is why we were never told to get off the land he had improved. We grew some answers about the 1877 eviction no- of the eviction notices our great grand- to maturity and we find in their paper trail tices our ancestors had received from Egery, fathers received of the kin reading: words and phrases they never told us. In not Hinckley, Hinckley & Hinckley . We asked We, “give you André Pelletier, notice too many words, my visitors showed me their Guy if he’d put that in perspective for us. of our intention to contest and prevent your document and asked, “Guy, what is this?” The following is what he provided for the acquiring and right or easement in said It’s our history. It’s our history annual newsletter. If you read his 1976 play, township by virtue of you having occupied which up to now has been hidden in our “With Justice for All,” you will understand or improved any part of the same and hereby literature. It’s our history, so controversial what those people went through. The par- notify you to at once leave said township and that we have it masked in fiction in the ents never shared with their kids (our grand- no longer occupy any part of the same...” chapter, “What the Bishop Knew” in Hol- parents) this fact of receiving an eviction In other word, “André Pel- man Day’s novel, “The Red Lane.” Your notice. They protected the kids from know- letier, squatter, get off my land!” paper--the eviction notice is that which I ing the trouble they experienced. “On parle Today my visitors from St. Agatha tried to explain in theatre-on stage-with pas à nos enfants de comment on a presque came to me with a baffled look, asking me my play, “With Justice For All” in 1976. perdu la terre.” The Ste-Agathe Historical to explain a history which they were never “Egery and Hinckley –––– who are Society has copies of “With Justice For All”. told. I’m asked to explain the history of St. they?” my visitors asked. They are bond Agatha between the fined of “Lac-à-Me- holders of bonds from a bankrupt railroad Our parents loved us. They did non” and the incorporation of the town in company. A railroad company, The Euro- not tell us of all their troubles. They 1899. My visitors want to understand why, pean and North American Railway, that had sheltered us from their anxieties and on the Madawaska/Frenchville map from angst as much as they could. The avoid- the Roe & Colby Aroostook Atlas of 1878 (Continued on page 9) 8 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Madawaska’s J. Normand Martin continued from page 8)

(STE-AGATHE Historical Society continued from page 8) and North American Railway Company. (State of Maine to European and Northern been given a million acres of unoccupied the land grants from Maine & Massachusetts American Railway Vol. 386 pp. 329-331 wild land so that capital resources might be to each land holder of record as may yet be Penobscot County Registry of Deeds). The gained from the sale of lumber to finance the found at the Registry of Deeds. These lots hope was that the sale of the lumber from railway’s construction “to the frontier.” The all show up on the Roe & Colby map with these wild lands would bring in revenue land in question was not all “unoccupied.” occupants names updated to 1873. Yet not to capitalize the building of the railroad. In 1859 the State of Maine passed all of the occupants listed in the 1873 Maine European and Northern American Railway the “Settlement Act” to encourage land Land Agent Report are set on the map. did build the line from Bangor to the Inter- settlement in Northern Maine (Resolves In Madawaska there is a curious blank national Border, but not to the St. John River of Maine Chapter 288, 1859). The act space between the third tier lots and the but to Vanceboro in Washington County. allowed young families with little prospect land fronting on Long Lake. In present day In 1873 there was a financial crisis of inheriting their parent’s land (because St. Agatha the blank area can be seen even in the United States. The European and of large families not being able to make fronting on the lake shore. Yet we know from North American Railroad likewise ran into everyone a successor) to take up new land the land abstract of the Ste-Agathe Histori- difficult times. It defaulted on payments on very liberal terms described as “road cal Society property that the land there was expected by those who had invested in the labor and settling duties.” By working on occupied as early as 1857 by André Pelletier. bonds. In order to recoup their investments new roads to be developed and building During the American Civil War bond holders began to place attachment a home on the lot “licensed to occupy,” a there was a plan to develop a rail line “in on the railway’s real estate, which in- young person could secure land of his/her defense of the frontier.” (Public Laws of cluded land described in the two million own by meeting the provisions of the law. Maine Chapter 401, 1864) Envisioned acre grant of wild lands presumed to be A land commission set up by the terms was a railway from Bangor to the St. John unoccupied. Yet it appears that some of the of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, “to quiet River as International Border, but the plans land described as “wild lands” had been the settlers’ claims” had in 1845 identified ran into a financial hitch. The rail line was licensed out to applicants purchasing lots the land settlers on the first three tiers of not immediately built. But in 1869 in order under the Maine Settlement Act of 1859. lots in Madawaska and up to the head of the to encourage rail construction the State of In 1912, Maine writer Holman Day lake in Frenchville (now St. Agatha). The Maine granted 2 million acres in Penobscot report of that land commission resulted in and Aroostook Counties to the European (Continued on page 10) 9 Le Forum (STE-AGATHE Historical Society continued from page 9) (1865-1935) in his book “The Red Lane: A Romance on the Border” gives a description of the conflict between homesteaders and lumber- persons here. Using his description in chapter XXVI entitled – “The Picture the Bishop Saw,” I delved further into the land records to identify Egery and Hinckley in the land eviction notice of the kind my visitors had in hand. This lead me to the railroad story which like Holman Day I dramatized in a literary format. Until our literary creations are pushed into the field of history, readers may have to rely on Holman Day and my play for insight into the conflict that left a good quarter of our town lands blank on the maps of towns along the St. John Valley.

Guy Dubay Madawaska, Maine

*See Copy of map with no names opposite Pelletier Island on the map. We know homes had been established in the region. (Madawaska’s J. Normand Martin

HOW KEEGAN, MAINE GOT ITS NAME continued from page 9) In 1878, the New Brunswick Railway Burpee saw the possibility of introducing company lay a rail line from Frederic- steam power to the mill site located at the ton through Woodstock to Edmundston. present U.S. Customs site in Van Buren. Isaac Burpee of Sheffield, N.B. had a This would entail an investment of $100,000 hand in engineering its construction. creating lumber products which could be In 1881 Burpee's brother, Egerton shipped by rail from St. Leonard, N.B. to Reyerson Burpee of Bangor founded the McAdam, N.B. where the rail line linked Van Buren Lumbering and Manufacturing with the European & North American rail- Company which brought the age of steam way, sold shortly there after to Maine Cen- to the St. John Valley Lumber industry. tral Railway. V.B. L & M Co products then Prior to could reach the this time saw Boston market. mills in the The St. John Val- V.B. & L. & ley were water M. Co was powered mills incorporated set on brooks by the state such as the mill legislature on on Violette the very day brook in Van before that in Buren at the which the leg- end of "Watermill Road", such mill sites en- islature Incorporated the Town of Van tailed a capital expenditure between $5000.00 Buren. The circumstances practically allows and $10,000 as record of mills' sales show. one to imagine a conversation between Van With access to the production of Egery Buren's state representative, Peter Charles & Hinckley Iron Foundry in Bangor, E,R, (Continued on page 11) 10 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (HOW KEEGAN, MAINE GOT ITS NAME the Van Buren Lumber continued from page 10) Company, awoke to see his company logs head- Keegan and E.R. Burpee: ed down towards Grand "Look, Mr. Keegan if we are going to Falls and destined for invest $100,000 in Van Buren Plantation the drift drive. He quick- through the company you've just helped us ly brought his case to get incorporated, don't you think we should the State Legislature, be able to work in a municipality that is at claiming that his firm least a town rather than just a plantation? was an American firm Reply, "Yes sir!, I'll tend to it right away!" harvesting its logs from In 1902 A Portland headquartered firm, American lands (i.e.the the St. John Lumber Company set up in Van Allagash waters) driv- Buren the largest saw mill works east of the en to an American saw Mississippi River following the arrival of the mill, manufacturing and Bangor and Aroostook railway line in 1898. shipping its products In 1903 the Van Buren Lumber by an American rail line Painting by Lulu Pelletier Company set up its saw mill at Chap- to an American mar- el Eddy, near the present International ket, hence what was happening here of Bangor served as attorney bring up railway bridge on the St. John River. was none of New Brunswicker's affair. witnesses to testify before the commission. In 1905, one Levi Pond, inventor of In Fredericton legislative assembly The mills cited above resulted in the the sheer boom, and manager of the St. John William Pugsley, solicitor general of the growth of a village in the westerly portion River Log Driving Company came up to Van province, called the impedance of the New of Van Buren where little other but farming Buren and set dynamite under the holding Bruswickers lumber drive a violation of homesteads had marked the county side. The boom of the Van Buren Lumber Company. the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. The Trea- Diocese of Portland, in honor of the French To Pond's thinking the holding and sorting ty of Washington of 1842 had a clause population of the area set up Saint Remi's boom at the Van Buren mills caused such a guaranteeing the free flow of the St. John Parish, named after an early French Bishop. delay as to deny the high waters of the Spring River to both nations party to the treaty. The Villagers and parishioners soon freshet to the down river lumber operators in The State and Provincial legislatures began to press for U.S. post office of their New Brunswick. The lower waters meant proving to be incompetent at resolving the own. When came time to give the post a greater amount of hung-up logs at the St. issues, The matter moved upwards to the office a name, who else but Peter Charles John Lumber Company's sorting gap above Federal level. As a result the Saint John Keegan did officials in Washington know? its mills facing what is now the Acadian Vil- River Commission was set up to investigate Therefore we get the name Keegan for the lage historic site in Van Buren. That larger and settle matters between the two nations. A west end Village to the town of Van Buren. firm rapidly called the Chicago Pinkertons three man commission conducted hearings and that detective and Security service firm over the ensuing ten years. For the Amer- Guy Dubay quickly got armed guards on the site pre- ican side, President Theodore Roosevelt Madawaska, Maine venting Pond from delivering on his threat. named Peter Charles Keegan as the U.S. Allen E. Hammond, manager of member of the commission. Oscar Fellows (N.D.L.R. A letter from Partick Vois- also the era when the lumber industry came ine responding to an online query, dated to the area. So it probably wasn't until the 22, January, 2005) mills came that a village developed and ac- quired the name Keegan. By the early 1900s, Born And Raised in Keegan was home to a series of large lumber and pulp mills. The largest was the St. John Keegan Lumber Co. started in 1903, and considered by Patrick Voisine to be the largest sawmill east of the Missis- Sycamore, IL sippi River (at least, that's what we were told). The mills reached their peak during I was born and raised in Keegan, the 1920s. The large mills closed during Peter Charles Keegan Maine. It is located about three miles north the depression, their demise compounded The name Violette Brook was also used, of downtown Van Buren on US Route 1. by the over harvesting of local forests. and may have referred more specifically to I don't think it was called Keegan back in Several very small pulp and shingle mills what is now downtown Van Buren where the 1830s. Keegan was named after Peter operated into the 1960s and 1970s. Keegan, the actual Violette Brook is located. The Charles Keegan of Van Buren, a prominent by the way, was always a part of the town town of Van Buren was incorporated in lawyer who served in the Maine legislature of Van Buren. It was never incorporated 1881, but had been known as Van Buren between about 1870 to 1896. He was later in- as a separate town. Plantation prior to that. The first church was strumental in bringing railroad service to the In the 1830s the Keegan/Van Buren built in the 1820s and was actually located Maine side of the St. John Valley. This was area was probably known as Grande Riviere. (Continued on page 12) 11 Le Forum it to the Madawaska Historical society. THE AMERICANIZATION OF What we have doubly illustrated here are cases of Acadian families evolving to American public servants as early as THE ACADIANS OF MAINE 1844 within two yars of the Webster-Ash- burton Treaty which had set the Interna- Presentation by Guy F. Dubay at the tional Boundary at the St. John River. Madawaska Public Library Aug. 11, 2014 Let me illustrate an appendage of the The Acadians of Maine became Amer- Buren Plantation, Madawaska Plantation, last lineage given above.. Rep. Alexis Cyr icans a generation -that is 25 years- before Hancock Plantation, and the Townships had another son, Louis A. Cyr, (1875-1945) the Acadians of New Brunswick became Ca- west of Range Seven. But as a result of who migrated to Limestone Maine where nadians. That is to say our nationalities dif- a challenged State Senatorial election he became a businessman. In his family we fere by 25 years - 1842 as opposed to 1867. in Aroostook County in 1858, the State find, Leo G. Cyr (1909-2003), U.S. Am- My maternal great-grandfather, Be- of Maine decided in 1859 to narrow the bassador to Rwanda during the presidency lonie Violette (1817-1879) was a member municipalities here into single township of Lyndon Baines Johnson.. I'd say you can of the Board of Assessors of Van Buren plantations. So Rep. Paul Cyr's house hardly be more American-Acadian than Plantation, Maine in 1844 as shown in the changed from Van Buren Plantation to Grant that. In retirement while living in Bethesda, municipal census record of that year.. In Isle Plantation without budging an inch. Maryland, ambassador Cyr composed and 1859 he was a Commissioner of Aroos- In 1838 Paul Cyr had sent one of his publisher his family history under the title" took County. In 1867 he served as State sons to study at the the Collège de Sainte- "Madawaskan Heritage". A memoir pertain- Representive in the Maine legislature - not Anne-de-LaPocatière in the province of ing to Ambassador Cyr appeared in Echoes a bad record for an Acadian of Maine. Quebec, but the young scholar was back Magazine, No. 72, at pp. 32-38 composed His son, Frederick Violette (1845- home in November 1838. Paul Cyr then by Jacqueline Chamberland Blesso entitled: 1911) after serving as a selectman of the chose to send his sons to the Houlton Acad- "From Acadie to Kigali ... via Limestone". town of Van Buren, served as State Repre- emy in the 1840s. One of them, Alexis Cyr The third member of the Board of sentative in 1893. My mother recalled her (1836-1887) went on to Worcester College Assessors of Van Buren Plantation in 1844, uncle Frederic as the owner and operator of in Massachusetts. When he came back Joseph D. Cyr served as the first Acadian the Grist and Carding Mill on Violette Brook home he got himself elected to the State elected to the Maine Legislture in 1846. A grandson of Rep. Belonie Vio- Legislature. Well respected he died sud- For reasons yet undetermined, he sold to lette, Neil L. Violette (1882-1935), one of denly in 1887 while still holding that office. to his brother his homestead farm in what my mother's cousins and nephew of Rep. Rep. Alexis Cyr's son, Pierre Cyr later became Keegan, Maine. The 1851 St. Frederick Violette became a State Repre- likewise gained a sound education. At the Leonard, N.B. census record show us his sentative in 1911 and he apparently made Madawaska Historical Society we have his removing there.. In 1847 he had married good connections down in Augusta, since Practical Math Book -with the signature" Euphemie Larochelle at Rivière-du-Loup, he became Deputy Forest Commissioner of Pierre A Cyr, St. Joseph College, Memran- (Continued on page 13) Maine in the 1920s at the time when Fire cook, N.B. 1882". His training there served observation towers were being place on him well through his years as a potato in what is now Keegan. It was a mission of highlands overlooking the Maine Wood- broker and shipper, shipping from Maine St. Basile until 1838 when the parish of St. lands. At the time of his decease in Augusta to Texas, at first using Canadian rail lines Bruno-de-Grande-Riviere was created. St. in 1935 he held the top post in the depart- to get his produce down to southern Maine Bruno's moved to its present location in Van ment as Maine State Forest Commissioner. until 1911 whenthe Bangor and Aroostook Buren when a new church was built in the That's one lineage of Maine Aca- Railroad finally reached Grand Isle, Maine. 1870s. In 1923 the parish of St. Remi-de- dians who rapidly Americanized At one point, Pierre A. Cyr sent four Keegan was created. The church's corner as evidenced by their civic service. of his sons simultaneously to Assumption stone has a date of 1919 and was probably Their situation may be found re- College in Worchester, paying their tuition preceded by a chapel of some sort. Baptisms, peated in the family of Paul Cyr (1795- during the depresssion years by sending a marriages and funerals performed in Keegan 1865) of Grand Isle, Maine. Paul Cyr son carload of potatoes supplying the college are recorded at St. Bruno prior to 1923. of a Madawaska pioneer was the second dining hall with all the potatoes it needed. I’m afraid there isn’t much left in member of the Board of Assessors of Van But I remember one of his sons, Keegan today -- just a cluster of five or Buren Plantation in the 1844 record cited Edward P. Cyr being elected State Sena- six streets and miles of potato farms. The above. In 1853 he served as State Repre- tor from Aroostok County. At the Tante parish church of St. Remi is now closed. sentative from Van Buren Plantation - his Blanche Museum in Madawaska we have The post office (Zip Code 04748) closed district covering the norther 1/3 of Aroos- the State Senate desk used by State Senator in the mid-1970s. During the early 1960s took County. In 1859 he went to Augusta Patrick Therriault, first Acadian in Maine I attended the local elementary school, again as representative from Van Buren to be elected to the State Senate in 1907. appropriately named Keegan School. It Plantation and came back from there as When the State Senate was being renovated had a large framed portrait of Peter Charles Representative from Grant Isle Plantation. during the term of service of Senator Ed- Keegan hanging in it’s main hallway. Up to that time the St. John Valley ward P. Cyr, he said, "I want that desk" and was carved into four electoral districts: Van he brought "home" whereupon he donated Anyone one else remember Keegan? 12 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE Francois Violette became an American of Portage Lake, Maine served as foreman ACADIANS OF MAINE continued from Citzen.. We find recorded at the Registry of the Shepard Cary lumber interests on page 12) of deeds in Houlton, Maine the life support the Fish River in Hancock Plantation). Quebec. reading the signatures in the mar- mortgage when in 1844 the former Captain Shepard Cary of Houlton subsequently riage record there at St. Patrice-du-Rivière- Francois Violette became a pensioner to his became a U.S. Congressman from Maine. du-Loup is like reading a list of "Who's son Belonie Violette who held the municipal, What we see then is that the Madawas- Who" of the St. John Valley at that time. county and state offices previously stated. ka farmer served as supplier of fodder for the Meanwhile over in Madawaska In 1826, Captain Francois Violette had oxen teams used in the forest and lumbering Plantation in 1846 we have a letter signed received a land grant on the Picquanositac operations of Aroostook County, Maine. by Firmin Cyr, Regis Daigle and Sylvain stream, now identified as Violette Brook The farm produced was moved on the frozen Daigle, Memebers of the Board of Assessors in Van Buren, Maine. By virtue of the life river to get to the lumber camps in the practi- addressed to the Bishop of Boston asking support mortgage cited above, the States of cally then roadless territory. Regis Daigle re- permission to erct a chapel in the middle of Maine and Massachusetts issue title to river peated this type of action on Feb. 16 bringin the Plantation and being accepted as being in lot 301 at that location to Belonie Violette. 101 bushels of oats "Chez thomas E. Perley the Diocese of Boston.. The petition proved This is to say that the clause in the Web- at a credit of12£ 12s 6 d for the produce and to be successful resulting in the construction ster-Ashburton Treaty "To quiet the settler's 3£ 3 s 1 /2 d for the transport charges. James of the Mount Carmel mission chapel at a claims" was intended on the Maine side of and Thomas E. Perley of Fredericton, N.B. site on what we now find the Town line the international border to issue American Left their name in Fort Kent geography with between Grand Isle and Madawaska, Maine land titles to the south shore residents of the name of Perley Brook which empties in What we have here then by 1846 no the St. John River Valley who held their the Fish River near what became the saw less than six persons of Acadian descent land sites on the basis of British titles is- mill site of the Fort Kent Mill Company. serving as municiapl officers in Maine. If sued by the Province of New Brunswick. Silvain (Sylvain) Daigle, like Regis your add Octave Hebert, Town Clerk of Indeed the Violette family holdings Daigle, then a member of the Board of Madawaska Plantation, and Francis Thi- may be abstracted to 1794 in a Crown Land Assessors of Madawaska planation is on bodeau, Justice of the Peace (State Rep in Grant to Francois Violette senior (1744- record on Feb.19, 1846 as having trans- 1849) and Louis Cormier, Registrar of Deeds 1824). But of particular notice here is that ported 2105 pounds of hay, "Chez James of Northern Aroostook County we have the holders of the British land grant-titles Perley à St. François" for a credit of 2£ identified a minimum of ten public servants -or their heirs never said to the American 2s 3 d implying that the Perley Brothers of American-Acadian heritage within four Land Commissioners: "We dont' need your also operated on the St. Francis river as years of their becoming citizens of Maine. title, we already have firm and longstand- well as on Perley Brook cited previously. The Wesbster-Ashburton Treaty of ing title and possession to our homesteads The following year Silvain Daigle 1842 stipulated that two land commission- here.. In sum the Acadian rapidly became is credit 14 shillings for two voyages to ers -one for each side of the international Americans with the community leaders "Dégelé", now Ste. Rose du Dégelis, QC. border "To Quiet the Settlers Claims". The readily accepting official civc services post at Lake Temiscouata at the head of the American Land Commission completed in the governmental structure of Maine. Madawaska River on Feb. 2, 1847. Then on its work and we have on record what are Feb. 19, 1847 he is given a credit of 1£ 2 s. called "Treaty Grants" issued on July 12, Earning a living 10 1/2d for the transport of 1465 pounds of 1845 for river frontage lots totally 356 hay "au Lac" presumably Lake Temiscouata claims from the St. Francis River, down The life style of of the newly Amer- again. The trip accorded him credit for his the St. John River to the east line of the icanized Acadians may be seen in the mer- ensuing purchase of "1 paire de bottes amér- State of Maine at what became the United chant trader accounts run by Regis "Bonho- icaines" (a pair of American boots) at a cost states boundary line between the present mme" Daigle and his civic associate, Sylvain of 1£. Ah! the irony here in the use of British towns of Hamlin, Maine and Grand Falls, Daigle in the same year as their successful currency used to purchase a pair of American New Brunswick.. Some of thes Claim- effort in secure the right to build a mission boots. Can we then read here of how the ants held British titles (Province of New chapel on the American side of the border. binational economy of the border region Brunswick) to their lands now in Maine. On January 31, 1846 Regise Daigle inclined the Americanized Acadian toward Now when I come back to my Violette brought 64 1/2 bushels of oats to Merchant the American market? -Oh well that may Genealogy to single out Maine State Repre- Traders operating under the firm name of be stretching the reading of the record a bit. sentative, Belonie Violette, we find that his A& S. Dufour (Abraham & Simon Dufour) The 1850 U.S. Census entry for the own father, Francois Violette (1770-1856) for which his account is credited 8£ 6s 4 1/2d. Regis Daigle familly lists the presence of had served as a captain in the York Coun- with and additional credit of 1£ 12s 3d for the an 18 year old farm hand named Antoine ty, N.B. Militia in 1825. Yes, get that! -an transport of said oats up the St. John river to Beaulieu in the household. The same Acadian who served in the British militia a lumber operation on the St. Francis River entry of Feb. 4, 1846 cited above also as an officer of the company in the Mad- A second transaction of the kind took shows on the debit side a 1# purchase for awaska Territory under Lieutenant Colonel place on Feb 4, 1846 for the sale of 77 bush- "1 paire bottes à son engagé" (a pair of Leoanrd R. Coombes of St. Leonard, N.B. els of oats giving a credit of 10£ 11s 9d and boots for his employee" Elsewhere in the Simonette Hebert of Madawaska a credit of 1£ 18s 6d for the transport of said account we find debit entries in favor of Parish, N.B. also servd as a captain of the produce "Chez Drake" From 1850 U.S. Cen- Antoine Beaulieu. From this allow us militia at that time. But in 1842 Captain sus record we discover that Melzar Drake (Continued on page 14) 13 Le Forum four days after Les quatre cents coups (The The 16th Annual April in Paris at 400 Blows) by François Truffaut, and a year before the official release ofÀ bout de soufflé (Breathless) by Jean-Luc Godard. The two Cinestudio, Hartford central characters do not have names other By Albert J. Marceau, Newington, CT than the pronouns of He and She. He, the Japanese man, is played by Eiji Okada, The sixteenth annual French film she remembers while telling a friend about and She, the French woman, is played by festival, April in Paris, was shown at Cine- being followed by a man she first met in Emmanuelle Riva. The storyline is told studio on the campus of Trinity College, in her dreams. A source of tension between in an unconventional manner, an aspect of Hartford, Conn., from Sunday, April 12 to Elle and Le Mari is that Elle loves Paris, Nouvelle Vague Cinema, as our two central Saturday, April 18, 2015. The theme of the and does not want to leave the city for his characters enjoy a few days of casual sex and festival was “Provocation in French Cine- homeland of Argentina where he became a romance, while they try to understand each ma,” and the nine films were: Le Brasier very successful businessman. Another love other emotionally, an understanding that is ardent (The Burning Crucible) directed by in the life of Elle are her lap-dogs, which filtered by their personal tragedies that oc- Ivan Mosjoukine and Alexandre Volkoff, share her very comfortable lifestyle, in part curred during World War Two, tragedies that France, 1923, 122 minutes; Hiroshima Mon provided by the wealth of Le Mari. As Zed we the audience see as flashbacks through Amour by Alain Resnais, France, 1959, follows the daily life of Elle, and reports to the eyes of the French woman, whether the 90 min.; Mauvais Sang (The Bad Blood) Le Mari, Elle falls more and more for Zed, flashbacks are of her own personal tragedy in by Leos Carax, France, 1986, 116 min.; and he for her. As Le Mari learns the truth, Occupied France, or the after-effects of the L’Image manquante (The Missing Image) about his wife, her love of Paris, and Zed, bombing of Hiroshima that she sees around by Rithy Panh, Cambodia, 2007, 92 min.; and that he truly misses Argentina, Le Mari her. Significantly for we the audience, La Vie d’Adele (Blue is the Warmest Color) and Elle amicably part, and while on the ship there are no flashbacks scenes through the by Abdellatif Hechiche, France, 2013, 179 back to Argentina, he meets a woman, whom eyes of the character of the Japanese man. min.; La Venus à la fourrure (Venus in Fur) we the audience may infer, will become the After the opening credits, we the audi- by Roman Polanski, France and Poland, love of his life. Patrick Miller of the Hartt (Continued on page 15) 2013, 96 min.; Camille Claudel 1915 by School of Music, University of Hartford, (THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE Bruno Dumont, France, 2013, 95 min.; gave another excellent performance on ACADIANS OF MAINE continued from L’Avocat de la terreur (Terror’s Advocate) the piano for the silent film, and I hope page 12) by Barbet Schroeder, France, 2007, 135 that he recorded it, since it perfectly fit the min.; and Le bonheur d’Elza by Mariette tempo and the emotional feel of the film. then the following imagined scenario: Monpierre, Guadeloupe, 2011, 110 min. Hiroshima Mon Amour by Alain Res- Feb. 4, 1846 Regis Daigle: "Antoine Le Brasier ardent (The Burning nais (1959) is a film that I knew about since go hitch the horses, we're going up river". Crucible) directed by Ivan Mosjoukine and I was about fifteen years old, for in 1980, Antoine Beaulieu: "Today?" Alexandre Volkoff, (1923), is a charming I purchased a copy of the book, Man and Regis Daigle: "What do you mean, and light-hearted film of a love triangle that his Symbols, Conceived and edited by Carl 'Today?" has a happy ending. The central character G. Jung, and on page 224 is the sole quote Antoine Beaulieu: "Well look is simply named Elle, and she is played by about the film: “The psychological balance at my boots, I'm going to freeze my Nathalie Lissenko, who is married to another and unity that man needs today have been feet if I attempt to go up river in these" character simply named Le Mari, played symbolized in many modern dreams by the Regis Daigle (exhibiting a bit of by Nicolas Koline. The third significant union of the French girl and the Japanese impatience) Listen, young man, When you character is a detective named Zed, played man in the widely popular French film Hi- get to the store, pick yourself up a pair by Ivan Mozzhukhin, one of the directors of roshima Mon Amour (1959)…. And in the of boots and charge it to my account, but the film itself. Hence, the three characters same dreams, the opposite extreme from you had better go hitch those horses right of the love triangle. But the love triangle wholeness (i.e. complete psychological dis- now, cause we're going up river before would not have existed if Le Mari were not sociation, or madness) has been symbolized you get to digest all those sausages and jealous without cause, rooted in his false by a related 20th century image – a nuclear ployes (pancakes) you just got through assumption that his wife, Elle, were secretly explosion….” Hence, I anticipated seeing eating from my table ten minutes ago". in love with another man. So, in order to the film on the night of Sunday, April 12, Being that the same merchant trader find the non-existent man, Le Mari hires 2015, and I even brought my copy of the record show a day laborers wage being set the best detective in Paris, Zed, and to have book with me, hoping to quote it during the at 2s 6d and that 2s 6d times 8 equals 1£ him fellow his wife. Zed follows the wife, discussion of the film after it was shown at there is a likelihood that the new pair of and he reports back to Le Mari that here is Cinestudio. Unfortunately, I could not figure boots cost him more than his week's wages. no-other man in Elle’s life. Le Mari does a means to work the quote into the group But if our reading of the record is right, not believe Zed, and has him to continue to discussion after the film, so, I only listened they appear to have been "American boots" follow his wife. Meanwhile, Elle cannot to what everyone else said about the film. and hence regarded as a good investment understand why Zed is following her, a man Hiroshima Mon Amour is among the by these newly Americanized Acadians. she dreamt about after she read his book as early Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave, films a detective. A photograph of Zed is on the of French Cinema, and it was released to Guy F. Dubay back of the dust-jacket of the book, a detail the Cannes Film Festival on May 8, 1959, Madawaska, Maine 14 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (The 16th Annual April in Paris at anti-war film. (Note the parallel structure plans shall one day receive their reward!”) Cinestudio, Hartford continued from here, Emmanuelle Riva, an actress in a She also told him of her public humiliation page 14) classic anti-war film, portrays an actress in with other women who consorted with the ence initially see the arms of the two lovers, an anti-war film.) We never learn where the enemy, notably with dirt thrown upon her, arm in arm, but with an ash falling upon Japanese man works, but he told her during and her long hair cut short. Furthermore, them, which recalls the immense amount of the bedroom conversation that he studied her affair with the soldier effected her fa- radioactive ash that fell from the sky after architecture and politics while in college, ther’s pharmacy after the war, since no-one the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. so he is likely an architect or an engineer. would patronize him, he was forced to close Then the ash on the lovers disappears, and as After they part from the New Hiroshima his business. The only place she felt safe they continues to embrace, the Japanese man Hotel, they meet again later the same day, was in the cellar of the pharmacy, where asks in a voice-over to the French woman: but he is dressed in a business suit, while she hid until she heard of the bombing of “What did you see in Hiroshima?” She she is still dressed as a nurse, relaxing Hiroshima, and she knew the war was truly responds that she saw the hospital, and the during a break between shoots for the film. over. She spent three months in the cellar, museum, which is the Hiroshima Peace Me- While they speak to one another, there is an because Germany officially surrendered to morial Museum, which she then describes in anti-nuke demonstration, which is filmed the Allies on May 8, 1945, and Hiroshima detail. Among the displays at the museum for the unnamed anti-war film. He presses was bombed on August 6, and Nagasaki on are photographs of people who initially sur- her for another night of romance, and she August 9, 1945. As she recalls to the Jap- vived the atomic blast, with badly burnt skin, runs away from him, and the two disappear anese man how she clawed at the walls of as well as artifacts, in particular, clumps into the crowd of demonstrators. We next the cellar until her fingers bled, he slaps her of hair from women who suffered from see the couple enter a house, presumably across the face, as if to awaken her out of a radiation poisoning. While he continues to his house, and she asks him two questions, trance. She then tells him that after her hair state, in a voice-over: « Tu n’as rien vu à if he is alone, and where is his wife. He grew to an acceptable length for a woman Hiroshima, » meaning: “You saw nothing responds that his wife is in Unzen for a few at the time, her mother gave her money to in Hiroshima,” she continues to describe days, so, he is therefore alone. The refer- leave Nevers, and to reside in Paris. In what she saw there, some of which was in ence to Unzen is an oblique reference to the order not to draw attention to herself, she her imagination, such as the survivors of other Japanese city that was destroyed by an left Nevers at night. The Japanese man the blast, who attempted to cool themselves atomic bomb, for Unzen is Mt. Unzen, an then asked her if her husband knows about from the immense heat of the blast by going active volcano in the Nagasaki Prefecture. her painful past in Nevers, and she told him into a small pond. She further describes During their second night of romance, no. He then heartily embraces her, rejoicing what she sees in her imagination, what we while in bed, he questions her about her in the secret that she told him, and telling the audience see as a movie-set reconstruc- earlier love-life, and she tells him about her her that it is good to be with someone. He tion, of numerous victims of the blast with love affair with a German soldier that oc- then speaks possibly the most famous line radiation burns in an over-crowded hospital. curred in her hometown of Nevers, France. of the film: « ...je me souviendrai de toi She also described what she saw during a She makes it clear is that he was 23 years comme de l’oubli de l’amour même..., » formal bus tour of the city, with the words old, while she was 18 years old, and we the which translates as: “... I shall remember in English “Atomic Tour” in the destination audience see his death, which occurred as you as the forgetfulness of love itself.” He sign, led by a smiling Japanese hostess. She the German army was evacuating France, continues his thought, with equally puzzling then described what she saw in newsreel and he was killed by a bullet from a French words: « Je penserai à cette histoire comme footage that was shot in a hospital, which partisan. The topic spills into their conver- à l’horreur de l’oubli; je le sais déjà.” which we the audience see, of small children being sation at a restaurant that has a marquee means: “I shall think of this history/story as treated for radiation burns on their backs with text in both Japanese and English that the horror of forgetting; I know it already.” and their hands, as well as an old woman simply says, in English: “Tea Room.” As Since their relationship has reached its whose eyes were vaporized by the blast. they converse at a table, about 38 minutes emotional apex, it can only dissolve. She After her description of the displays into the film, we the audience can see in the leaves him at the Tea Room, and she arrives in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, distance a tall neon-sign with an advertise- at her hotel room, where she remembers her and what she saw in the rest of the City of ment in Japanese, and the advertisement first love, the German soldier, and how they Hiroshima, we the audience see the lovers is an elongated triangle, suggestive of the planned to reside in Bavaria after the war. in bed, and they continue to talk. A hint to Eiffel Tower. The French woman then tells She torments herself with both wanting to her fear of her own past occurs when she her story of herself mourning the death of remember her first love, and wanting to is drinking a coffee, and sees the Japanese her beloved German soldier, while everyone forget it, and to stay in Hiroshima with the man lying face down on the bed, and his in Nevers was celebrating the end of the war Japanese man. She then takes a walk in right hand is palm-up, which reminds her in Europe, with “La Marseillaise” playing the night, and the Japanese man finds her, of the right hand of her German boyfriend in the streets. (The fourth verse must have whereupon he asks her to stay with him in that was palm-up, while he was dying, a truly bothered her: « Tremblez, tyrans et Hiroshima. They then engage in an emo- flash-forward that is shown later in the film. vous perfides l’opprobre de tous les partis, tionally tormented game of catch and flight As they get ready for their day, the tremblez! Vos projets parricides vont enfin through the City of Hiroshima, which culmi- Japanese man is dressed casually, while the recevoir leurs prix!” Meaning: “Tremble, nates in a staring match at separate tables in French woman is dressed as a nurse, which tyrants and you treacherous people, the dis- a restaurant with the name “Casablanca” on is her role as an actress in an unnamed grace of all parties, tremble! Your parricidal (Continued on page 16) 15 Le Forum (The 16th Annual April in Paris at er, Marguerite Duras, to reconcile the use of is Halley’s Comet, which passed by Earth Cinestudio, Hartford continued from a weapon of mass destruction during war, in 1986, the year that the film was released. page 15) with a personal romance of consorting with There are two groups of criminals in the marquee. (The name of the restaurant one enemy soldier. Also, the characters do Mauvais Sang. The first set consists of Marc, is in reference to the classic American film not have names, and as the film is revealed, who is the leader, played by Michel Piccoli, from 1942, Casablanca, also about love and we the audience get to know the characters his colleague Hans, played by Hans Meyer, war, that starred Humphrey Bogart as the more and more as individuals, but then in and Alex, who is the central character in the American ex-patriot Rick Blaine, and Ingrid the final scene, they become caricatures, for film, played by Denis Lavant. The girlfriend Bergman as Ilsa Lund, the woman whom she calls him, “Hiroshima,” and he calls her, of Marc is Anna, played by Juliette Binoche, he loved, and who walked out on him, but “Nevers en France.” Since their romance is and she is significantly younger than Marc, only after she learned her husband, Victor extra-marital, it has an air of illegitimacy, and only a few years older than Alex, hence Laszlo, played by Paul Henried, was not which calls into question as to why are there is a near romance between Alex and dead. In contrast to the angst of memory they indulging into such painful memories, Anna through much of the film. We the au- in Hiroshima Mon Amour, the words of memories that both want to forget. As for dience are introduced to Alex by the slight reconciliation that Rick says to Ilsa is his the simplistic Jungian analysis that the of his hands, for he is a card-shark who earns fond memory of their romance, which they French woman and the Japanese man are a his money by running Three-card Monte both realize is a thing of the past: “We’ll symbol of unity and wholeness, the film is games in alley-ways and subway stations. always have Paris.”) While another Japa- clear that the couple does not have unity or When he entertains Anna, he performs in- nese man tries to engage in a conversation wholeness, for the film ends in disagreement nocent sleight of hand tricks that one would with the French woman, speaking to her between the two, and if they were to unite, see performed by a magician. When he is in English, the Japanese man (Eiji Okada) what would happen to their spouses, who on the street, he often wears a leather jacket simply stares at her, and she at him, while are never seen in the film, and only men- that has a pattern of black diamonds on a dawn breaks outside. We the audience do tioned once by one another? Again, the two yellow background, suggestive of the Jack not see her leave the restaurant, rather there characters that we first see at the beginning of Diamonds. The base of operations for the is a jump cut to her standing in her hotel of the film, turn into caricatures in the end, first set of criminals is a small store-front room, leaning against the door to her room. vehicles that the director Alain Resnais butchery that sells horse meat. The second She finally lets the Japanese man into her used to question war, love, memory and group of criminals is led by l’Américaine room, and sits on the bed, where in sorrow forgetfulness, but his success is in the raising (The American Woman) played by Carroll she declares that she is already forgetting of the questions, and not answering them. Brooks, and her two henchmen, Boris, him. As he holds her hands, she says: « Hi- Mauvais Sang (The Bad Blood) by played by Hugo Pratt, and her driver Dana ro-shi-ma, » and he gently puts his finger on Léos Carax (1986) is also released in the En- played by an uncredited actor. The base of her lips. She then continues: « Hi-ro-shi- glish-speaking world with the title of “The operations for the second set of criminals is ma... c’est ton nom. » He then looks upon Night is Young,” a facet of the film that was the limousine of l’Américaine, where she is her sternly, with almost contempt: « C’est not mentioned in any of the flyers for the fes- always in the back seat, finely dressed. The mon nom, oui. Ton nom à toi est Nevers. tival, nor in the discussion after it was shown tension between the two criminal groups Nevers-en-France. » In English, he says on Monday, April 13, 2015. It is a caper film is that l’Américaine is putting pressure on to her: “Yes, it is my name. Your name is with a sci-fi premise which is a bit dated Marc to make a payment of an undisclosed Nevers. Nevers in France.” So, the Japanese today. The central plot, the caper, is about a sum of money within two weeks, which man has the last word, and the film ends. group of three criminal men, and a girlfriend, is his motivation to steal the vial of serum I remember little of the discussion of who plan to steal a vial of serum from the from the Darley-Wilkinson Corporation. the film, other than Prof. Jean-Marc Kehres Darley-Wilkinson Corporation, and then sell (Maybe Marc and Hans are not so altruistic attempted to get some of his college student the serum to a competing corporation for a in their theft of the life-saving serum after to discuss whether the love-affair that the huge profit. Their justification for the caper all.) Another factor in the tension between French woman had with the German soldier is not for the money alone, but to release a to the two groups is that Marc suspects that was the result of an innocent and naive first life-saving serum because of a mysterious l’Américaine ordered one of her henchmen love, or was it something condemnatory. blood-disease that effects and kills people to kill his colleague Jean. Although we the Prof. Kehres seemed to be on the side of the “who do not love,” as said several times in audience see the assassination of Jean in the innocent folly of youth. I also remember that the dialogue of the film. The motivating Pasteur Station of the Metro in Paris, which I was unable to work the quote of Jungian sci-fi element of the film is the mysterious occurs in the first full scene of the film, we do analysis of the film as a dichotomy of oppo- blood disease, which is likely AIDS, given not see who committed the murder, because sites into the discussion after the film, largely the film was released in 1986, and the ori- the camera is the eyes of the murderer who because it is very complicated film that is not gin and transmittance of AIDS was poorly pushes Jean off the station platform, and simply a pairing of opposites. Yes, the film understood in the early to mid-1980s. The in front of a train. (In my viewing of the is of a man and a woman, an Eastern Asian acronym AIDS, or SIDA in French, is never opening of the film several times that I found and a Western European, a former soldier mentioned in the film. There is a minor on Youtube, but dubbed in Italian, the back and a civilian, but the film is predicated sci-fi element in the film of a mysterious of the head of Boris can be seen near Jean, on a brief extra-marital romance, and the comet that is passing by Earth, and causing who also is seen only be the back of the romance is an incongruous attempt by the a heat-wave in Paris, followed by a freak head, moments before he is pushed by the director, Alain Resnais, and the screen-writ- snow-squall. The inspiration for the comet (Continued on page 17) 16 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (The 16th Annual April in Paris at that Lise is following them, and he asks Alex a parallel to the beginning of the film, where Cinestudio, Hartford continued from who is on the motorcycle, and Alex tells the opening credits are intercut with grainy page 16) him, and Marc and Anna as well, that Lise black and white moving images of swans. camera.) In contradiction to the suspicion is his girlfriend. When the group arrives at Prof. Humphreys mentioned that the title of Marc, and to underscore the intertwined the airport, and Alex is lying on top of the of the film has the same title as the second and complicated relations between the two car hood, and dying from an injury incurred section of the prose-poem by Arthur Rim- groups of criminals, l’Américaine consis- by Boris, Alex introduces Lise and Anna to baud (1854-1891) Une Saison en Enfer, or in tently insists to Marc and Hans that she never one another, trying to act as if nothing had English, A Season in Hell, although the film ordered the hit on Jean, and she almost has happened, with almost parlor-room formali- has no other connection to the prose-poem. a maternal fondness for Alex, and she tells ty. Yet, he is dying, and in order to conserve Beyond the discussion, Mauvais Sang him directly in one scene that she knew his his energy, he practices his ventriloquism, as by Léos Carax is a well-constructed film father, Jean, the colleague of Marc. Also, if his voice were coming from the middle of that draws the audience into the life-style l’Américaine is protective of Alex, and she his chest. After the death of Alex, Lise, who of criminals, with some admiration for the warns her two henchmen in two separate has just lost her only attachment to Marc’s sense of comradery among Marc’s gang, but scenes not to hurt Alex, an order that Boris gang, is able to leave, for she mounts the the message of the film is that such a way grudging obeys only during her watch- same motorcycle, and drives away from the of life is pointless, with no-one the better ful eyes. So, is Alex the son of Jean and scene, and away from the life of criminals. because of the thief of the serum from the l’Américaine? Or is l’Américaine playing Karen Humphreys led the discussion Darley-Wilkinson Corporation. After Alex on the emotions of Alex? We the audience after the film, and an early comment was escapes from the said corporation with the never discover the truth, and to further made by a man who remarked on the sudden help of Lise, and he is in his apartment, complicate the matter, the true identity of feeling of serenity in the first quarter of the he uses a hypodermic needle to extract the mother of Alex is never mentioned by film when the camera is looking down upon the serum from a vial, and he injects the any of the characters at any time in the film. Alex and Anna, in the center of a symmet- serum into a raw egg, which he puts into Almost outside of the two criminal rical pattern of webbing as they parachute his refrigerator. Later, he transfers the egg factions is the girlfriend of Alex, Lise played to the earth. The scene occurs when Marc, to a Russian nesting-doll, and puts it in a by Julie Delpy. We, the audience, are first Anna and Alex attempt a practice jump from locker at a train-station, and he hides the introduced to Alex and Lise when they the plane, because Marc plans for his gang to key to the locker by sticking it to a piece are together in the woods, and when they exit France in such a manner, after the vials of chewing-gum, underneath the bottom leave the woods, Alex is driving an off- of serum are stolen from the Darley-Wilkin- of a vending-machine. The film then has road motorcycle with Lise as his passenger. son Corporation. Unfortunately, Anna has a jump-cut to Alex walking to the store- Three-quarters into the film, Lise saves a fear of heights, and although she jumped front, when he is hit by the limousine of Alex when she rescues him as he is running from the plane, she passed-out while she l’Américaine, and Boris gets out of the from the head of the security-detail of the is still attached to the tether-line, and Alex front passenger’s seat of the limousine, and Darley-Wilkinson Corporation, after he stole saves her by hanging onto her tether-line, he takes the pouch that once had the vial the vial of serum, and he set-off an alarm. and attaches himself to her, and Marc cuts of serum from the pocket of Alex’s jacket. Although Hans is waiting in the get-away the tether-line, and then Alex opens the para- Boris returns to the limousine, which then car at some distance from Alex, Lise drives chute. Since the movie was made in 1986 drives away. Alex staggers through the door the same off-road motorcycle to Alex, and he with real film that made cameras heavy, and of the store-front, and he acts like nothing jumps onto it as it is moving. Although Alex not a digital image from a small electronic had happened to him, although Anna can is safe in the get-away, he shoots the head camera of today, it is puzzling as to how Léos tell that something is wrong. Later when of security nevertheless, with his Smith and Carax was able to achieve such an image, Alex begins to bleed in the backseat of the Wesson Stub-nose .38 hand gun. The head since the camera must have been attached to get-away car, and Anna notices the blood, of security then falls over, presumably dead, cords within the parachute, above the heads Marc then has a climatic shoot-out with an act which makes Lise an accessory to of Denis Lavant and Juliette Binoche. The Boris, who dies with a grotesquely comical manslaughter, if not murder. (The heartless significance of Alex’s act of heroism is that expression on his face, with his neck stuck act by Alex is in contrast to the concern for Marc is grateful that Alex saved the life of between the glass of the car-door, and the him by the head of security, who told his men Anna, and so, he is able to tolerate the puppy door-frame itself, while Dana, the driver, not to fire on Alex, possibly because of his love between Anna and Alex that occurs fruitlessly tries to close the window, in or- youth.) Since Hans does not know how Lise several times in the film. I remarked during der to protect himself from Marc’s bullets. is significant to Alex, he returns to the base the discussion that after the death of Alex, Nevertheless, the limousine of l’Américaine of operations, the store-front, and he tells and after Lise departs on the motorcycle, careens into a body of water, while Hans Marc and Anna, that Alex may have dou- Anna tries to escape the lifestyle of crim- is able to drive to the airport, where Alex ble-crossed the gang. A couple scenes later, inals, and as she is running from the dead dies of his injuries. With the death of Alex, when Hans is driving the get-away car with Alex, and Marc running after her, the film neither Marc nor Hans can benefit from the Marc, Anna and Alex as his passengers to is accelerated to the point that Anna’s arms sale of the stolen serum, since only Alex meet Charlie at the airport, in order to fulfill begin to resemble a bird in flight, an image knew where he hid it. In short, the mes- their plan to flee the country with the stolen reinforced by the location, a runway at an sage of the film is that crime does not pay. serum, Lise follows them at a distance, on airport. Karen Humphreys then responded One element of mystery that Léos the same off-road motorcycle. Hans notices that the bird imagery at the end of the film is (Continued on page 18) 17 Le Forum (The 16th Annual April in Paris at the camera and Frances move from right Tues. April 14, 2015, is another instance Cinestudio, Hartford continued from to left.) Alex’s answering machine has a of an odd selection for the festival, chosen page 17) famous piece of music on it, the opening to only because it is a French production, for Carax has in the film is of a young woman the march entitled “Dance of the Knights,” it is essentially a documentary about one dressed in white, who is first seen by Alex from the ballet Romeo and Juliet by Sergei man’s experience of the social engineering while on a bus, about the same time he sees Prokofiev. At the end of the film, when Anna and mass-murder committed by the Khmer Anna for the first time. He then sees the tries to run away in grief because of the death Rouge in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. It is woman in white again just before he enters of Alex, which is followed by the closing a good documentary about state oppression the store-front of Marc and Hans, where credits, we the audience hear the rather and terrorism of its population, driven by Anna resides. Near the end of the film, dramatic “Sentimental Sarabande,” which a Communist ideology, as told from Rithy Alex sees her again walking on the road, is the third movement of Simple Symphony Panh’s experience, an experience retold in while he is in the back seat of the get-away by Benjamin Britten. (The first movement his documentary with the use of clay figu- car driven by Hans, sometime before his of Simple Symphony, “Boisterous Bourrée,” rines, since private ownership of cameras death. Is she a figure of danger or death to is heard in the trailer, and somewhere in were outlawed by the Khmer Rouge, hence Alex? Carax does not make the symbol- the film itself.) A song that is intoned by the title of the documentary – L’Image ism clear to the viewer, but he placed the the characters, which means the song is manquante, or in English, The Missing Image. woman in white at two points of the film engrained into French culture, and so, not Rithy Panh began his documentary at are significant to life of Alex in the film. well-known in American culture, is “Parce with his life in the capitol of Cambodia, There was not much discussion on the Que” by Charles Aznavour, first released in Phnom Penh, where he had a comfortable role of music in the film, possibly because 1966. While Hans is driving the get-away family life of parents and siblings, living an American audience is unfamiliar with car near the end of the film, and when he together in an apartment. In 1975, when he the soundtrack, other than the song by Da- and Marc and Anna think that they are safe, was eleven years old, the Khmer Rouge took vid Bowie, “Modern Love,” from his 1983 while we the audience know that Alex is over the government by the force of arms, album, Let’s Dance, which was a hit when it badly hurt, Hans begins to sing “Parce Que.” and his life completely changed. Pol Pot, was released, and can still be heard on rock The use of the song is an excellent example the leader of the Khmer Rouge, envisioned stations today. Also, the song had a revival of dramatic irony by Carax, because as a completely communal and classless soci- in 2012 because it is in the soundtrack of the Hans intones one line, Anna intones another ety, without private property. The means film Frances Ha, directed by Noah Baum- line, followed by Marc, each savoring the by which the society would be engineered bach, and starring Greta Gerwig. (Frances moment of heading toward the safety of was through the relocation of the civilians Ha is filmed in black and white, and in the the airport, where they plan to leave France, in Phnom Penh to the countryside, where style of French New Wave Cinema, and and not to be prosecuted for a crime, but they would become communal farmers. The although the central character, Frances the levity is soon gone, with the climactic Khmer Rouge striped away their individuali- Halladay, spends most of the film in New shoot-out with Boris, and the death of Alex, ty by confiscating the clothes that the former York City, she does have a weekend in Paris. which changes all of their plans. The final city-dwellers carried with them in their “Modern Love” is a popular song, and it is example of parallel structures in the film is baggage, and burnt them, whereupon, the heard in the trailers for both Mauvais Sang the character Charlie, whose appearance Khmer Rouge issued everyone a uniform of and Frances Ha.) Nevertheless, the song effectively opens and closes the caper, black pants and shirts. Since the city-dwell- is often heard, but not understood, since for he is in charge of the airport, first seen ers were not farmers, famine was inevitable, the words express a contradictory sense of before the test-jump, and at the end of the and an estimated two million Cambodians hope and despair, buoyed by a driving beat. film. Charlie is an old friend of Marc, for died because of the forced relocation. The contradiction of hope and despair is we the audience first see the two of them A similar experience of one man’s concisely found in the third verse: “Modern fain a fight with one another, like old high- witness to such horrors of social engineer- Love walks beside me, Modern Love walks school friends. A French audience would ing based in Communist ideology is found on by… God and Man don’t believe in Mod- immediately know that Charlie is played in the book Execution by Hunger: The ern Love.” While the song is playing on the by Serge Reggiani, a popular French singer Hidden Holocaust (1987) by Miron Dolot. soundtrack, Alex leaves the store-front, and and actor whose big hit “J’ai pas d’regrets” He wrote about how the Communist Party he starts to walk down the street at night, first from 1964, is heard in the middle of the effected his life in a village in the Ukraine, in an almost stagger, then to a brisk walk, film, when Alex simply spins the dial on the from changing the icons of saints in the local then into leaps, and then into a free-style radio, and listens to whatever is broadcast Ukrainian Orthodox church with photo- dance, effectively moving from despair to on the radio. Reggiani’s song is followed graphs of Communist Party officials, to the hope. (Noah Baumbach parallels the free- by “Modern Love” by David Bowie. The confiscation of pistols and rifles since crime style dance with Greta Gerwig as Frances Internet Movie Database lists two other would not exist under the new Communist Halladay, running, sometimes leaping, and pieces in the film, the song “Limelight” com- government, to the forced collectivization somewhat dancing on Catherine Street in the posed by Charles Chaplin, and Peter and the of farms, as ordered by Stalin, and how Chinatown section of New York City during Wolf, a musical story by Sergei Prokofiev, the forced collectivization, which included the day, while “Modern Love” is heard on neither of which I found in the film, although exorbitant taxes on individual farmers paid the soundtrack. Another difference between the soundtrack of the film may have some by the confiscation of all of their grain that the parallel scenes in the two films is that in incidental music from Peter and the Wolf. ultimately caused the deaths of six million Mauvais Sang, the camera and Alex move L’Image manquante (The Missing Ukrainian farmers by means of starvation from left to right, while in Frances Ha, Image) by Rithy Panh (2007), shown on (Continued on page 19) 18 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (The 16th Annual April in Paris at exploitation or authenticity to the Camille’s is driving his car to the ward, and the car Cinestudio, Hartford continued from life in the ward. He prefaced his question stalls on a dirt road on a fairly steep hill. page 18) that there were no right or wrong answers. Apparently, the carburetor was flooded with in 1933. Although Dolat’s book is about There was not much discussion on his ques- gasoline, and while he was waiting for the a genocide in Europe that occurred more tion, as it could be argued either way. (I felt gasoline to drain from the carburetor, he that forty years before the genocide that guilty at the authenticity of the casting once composes some poetry while he watches the occurred in Cambodia as artistically por- Prof. Kehres used the word “exploitation” in moon rise above the horizon. The subject of trayed by Rithy Panh, both genocides are his rhetorical question.) Dr. Lee was more poem is not about nature, or the moonrise, similar in that they were committed by helpful in her comments about the film, but the mystery of the Holy Trinity. Another military dictatorships, driven by Communist details that a French audience would more instance is the already referenced section ideology, a political philosophy that is sup- likely know about the lives of Camille and of film in the contrasting methods of prayer posed to bolster the rights of workers, but in Paul Claudel. The sister and brother are between Paul and Camille Claudel. Appar- practice destroys the rights of individuals. known in the arts in France, for Camille was ently, Paul Claudel followed the teaching of I skipped the film La Vie d’Adele a sculptor, and Paul was a poet, and Dr. Lee Jesus Christ on prayer, as found in Matthew shown on Wed. April 15, 2015 because noted that at least one of his poems can be 6:6 – “when you pray, go to your room, close it is about a Lesbian love affair between found in nearly every anthology of French the door, and pray to your Father, who is two young women. It is released in the poetry that has been published after World unseen.” All of the poetry composed by Paul English-speaking world as Blue is the War Two. She also said that Camille was Claudel in the film has a religious nature, Warmest Color. A volunteer at Cine- effectively protected by the father of family, and personally, I was not impressed by any studio, Dennis Thornton of Willimantic, Louis Claudel, who died in 1913, while her of it. The poems, or drafts of poems, that who saw the film told me that the affair mother and her brother, Paul, were never the director, Bruno Dumont, selected for was certainly not one of a celibate nature. supportive of her choice of sculpting as a the film read like a jumble of phrases from I also skipped the film, La Venus career. Their disdain for Camille became established Catholic prayers, such as the à la fourrure, shown on Thurs. April 16, revulsion after they learned that Camille Our Father or the Hail Mary, or the Ordinary 2015 because it is based upon the German had an abortion, after becoming pregnant of the Mass, (which is the equivalent of novella of the same name, Venus in Fur by by Auguste Rodin, who had an extra-marital the Ordinary of the Missa Extraordinariae Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, whose sur- affair with her. Dr. Lee said that only Paul Formae of today), or catch-phrases from name is the basis of the word “masochist” in visited Camille at the ward, and only seven Catholic teaching, and all Paul Claudel did English, as well as “masochiste” in French. times over a period of thirty years, from was mix the phrases together. Anyone can Camille Claudel 1915 by Bruno Du- her committal in 1913 to the year of her write text in such a manner, and the poetry of mont (2013) is about the famous sculptor, death in 1943. (The average frequency of Paul Claudel reminded me of the magnetic Camille Claudel, played by Juliette Binoche, the visits is about once every four years and poetry kits that one can buy at a bookstore, while she was in a mental hospital, awaiting three months.) She also said that there are that have about 200 words printed on mag- to talk to her brother, Paul Claudel, played letters that are in an archive in France that netic strips, so the words can be arranged by Jean-Luc Vincent, who has the authority were written by cousins of Paul and Camille, in any order and stuck on one’s refrigera- to get her out of the ward. She desperately who appealed to Paul, stating that they were tor. Thus, the reader and the viewer of the hopes that he would sign the paperwork willing to shelter Camille, only if Paul would film can decide which sibling followed the for her to leave the ward, and so she could sign the paperwork for Camille’s release next teaching of Jesus Christ on prayer, as return to work on her sculptures. The head from the ward, but he refused to do so. found in Matthew 6:7 – “When you pray, doctor of the ward, played by Robert Leroy, One of the better comments during the do not use a lot of meaningless words….” tells members of his staff in various scenes, discussion came from John Murphy of West The information that Dr. Lee gave as well as Paul Claudel himself directly, Hartford, who commented about a section of to the discussion group definitely helped and more than once, that Camille could the film when we the audience see Paul and everyone to understand the scope of the leave the ward, and live in safety to herself Camille Claudel praying, in different areas tragic life of Camille Claudel, but the film and others. As the film is revealed, we the of the ward, Paul alone in his room, and festival could have been improved if the audience see the suffering of Camille, the audibly praying one of his poems, while Ca- film Camille Claudel that was directed boredom of life in the ward, the pompous mille prays in the chapel, in near silence, as by Bruno Nuytten, and released in 1988, insensitivity of her brother Paul, and how she reads either a missal or a breviary. John had been shown on Thurs. April 16, 2015, the head doctor is trapped by the laws of Murphy asked the group if the director of the instead of La Venus à la fourrure. (After France that dictated that Camille could film was trying to inform the audience that the discussion, I spoke with a volunteer of only be released from the ward to mem- God hears the prayers of Paul, but not those Cinestudio, Steve Regis of Willimantic, bers of her immediate family, who were of Camille. His question caused some mild who told me that Nuytten’s film should have at the time, her mother and her brother. laughs from others in the audience, and even been shown during the festival.) Nuytten’s Prof. Jean-Marc Kehres and Dr. Sonia from Lee and Kehres, but Dr. Lee respond- Camille Claudel is about her life before Lee led the discussion after the showing of ed with a vague answer of probably not. she was committed to the ward in 1913, so the film on Fri., April 17, 2015. Prof. Kehres No one commented on the poetry of it covers the period of her relationship with asked a rhetorical question about the use of Paul Claudel as it is dramatically composed Auguste Rodin, first as an apprentice, to a actual women from a mental ward as extras during various scenes in the film. The most lover, and then a rejected lover, because his in the film, and he asked whether or not if notable is in the beginning of the film when wife discovered the illicit relationship. Of their presence in the cast were a form of the audience first sees Paul Claudel as he (Continued on page 20) 19 Le Forum (The 16th Annual April in Paris at filmed in Guadeloupe. The central character film after it was shown on the night of Cinestudio, Hartford continued from is Elza, played by Stana Roumillac, and she Saturday, April 18, 2015, and the one point page 19) is the oldest of three daughters of Bernadette, that I remember among the many that she course, Nuytten’s Camille Claudel has a played by the director of the film Mariette made, is that she learned in film-school different cast of actors, Isabelle Adjani as Monpierre. Bernadette is proud that Elza that it is necessary to create drama among Camille Claudel, and Gerard Depardieu has earned a master’s degree in journalism, the characters. She gave the example of as Auguste Rodin, but it would have been but she is not happy that Elza is about to an argument between the father and the a good pairing for the festival, especially leave Paris for Guadeloupe to investigate daughter, and as soon we the audience since it would have still been in the theme one Mr. Désiré, played by Vincent Byrd Le think that they were reconciled, the father of the festival, Provocation in French Sage, who owns a company that underpays re-iterates his misgivings, and re-starts the Cinema, for in the middle of the film is an its workers, and who happens to be the true bickering. She was popular with the stu- exhibition of Rodin’s sculptures, several of father of Elza. Elza is fully aware of her dents from Trinity College, and I learned which are of women in erotic poses, and dual motives, as a journalist wanting to in- from one of the volunteers at Cinestudio, Nuytten suggests that one of the models vestigate a capitalist who likes to cheat his Alicia, who is an undergraduate at Trinity, of the sculptures was Camille Claudel. workers, and as a daughter wanting to meet who told me that Monpierre stayed for about I missed L’Avocat de la terreur on the her true father, a father she barely knew as three hours, or until about one in the morn- afternoon of Sat. April 18, 2015 because a young child when he left her mother. Elza ing, having a dialogue with the students. I had library duty at the French-Canadian truly gets her foot in the door of the home of The seventeenth annual April in Paris Genealogical Society of Connecticut on Mr. Désiré when she uses a false name, and French Film Festival will be shown at Cin- Sat. April 18, 2015, and it would have been takes a job in the home as a maid, and she is estudio on the campus of Trinity College, a problem to find a replacement librarian for able to pry into his private life as journalist Hartford, Conn., one week after Easter Sun- the day. Also, I was not really interested in and forgotten daughter. As time passes, day, from Sunday, April 3 to Saturday, April seeing a documentary about the French de- however, Elza is no longer able to maintain 9, 2016. The theme of the festival will be: fense lawyer, Jacques Vergès, who defended the ruse, and Mr. Désiré is able to accept her “A Portrait of the Artist in French and Fran- internationally known war criminals, such as his daughter, but is not comfortable with cophone Cinema.” The website for the festi- as Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo officer her when he learns that she is a journalist val is www.aprilinparis.org. The website for in Occupied France who is known as “The investigating him, especially since some his Cinestudio is www.cinestudio.org, and the Butcher of Lyon,” and Slobodan Milosevic, striking workers have thrown rocks into his movie theatre has two telephone numbers, the former Communist politician and later house. As the story unfolds, we the audience one for show times at (860)-297-2463, and President of Serbia, who was indicted by the see that not only is he a greedy capitalist, he the other is the box office at (860)-297-2544. International Criminal Tribunal of the Unit- is a womanizer, for he has a wife, played by Although Cinestudio shows ten French and ed Nations in May 1999 for crimes against Sophie Berger, and a girlfriend, played by Francophone films during the April in Paris humanity during the Kosovo War, and who Nancy Fleurival. Of course the relationship Film Festival every year, the movie theatre is known as “The Butcher of the Balkans.” between father and daughter does not end shows about another six French language Le bonheur d’Elza by Mariette Mon- happily reconciled, but ambiguously at best. films during the rest of the year, so watching pierre (2011), is the first film in many years The duplicity of the characters is told against the Cinestudio schedule on-line is easy and that was not from the Province of Quebec the Caribbean paradise of Guadeloupe. recommended to the readers of Le Forum. which concluded the festival, as it was Mariette Monpierre spoke about her years, and $5.00 for children five years and younger. The Sugar House Party in Bristol, Conn., Sat. prices of the tickets include the Ten-Percent Connecticut Event Admissions Tax. Tickets are non-refundable, and April 2, 2016 no tickets will be sold at the door. The Swedish Club has By Albert J. Marceau, Newington, CT a cash bar, and it is handicapped accessible. Daniel and Michelle Boucher will host their eighth annual Sugar House Party on Sat. April 2, 2016 from 12 Noon to 5PM at the Swedish Club, 38 Barlow St., Bristol, Conn. It will feature traditional French-Canadian food and folk music. The food on the menu is: eggs, creton (pork-meat spread), patates roti (oven-roasted potatoes), saucisse à l’érable (maple sausage), tourtière (meat pie), jambon dans le sirop (maple-glazed ham), soupe au pois (pea soup), fèves au lard (baked beans), crêpes, and tarte au sucre avec glace à la vanille (sugar pie with vanilla ice-cream). The music will be performed by Franco-American folk musicians Patrick Ross of New Hampshire, Josée Vachon of Massa- chusetts, and Daniel Boucher of Connecticut, who is also the host. There will be other local folk musicians, plus some story-telling, and maybe a surprise or two, for a full “après-midi français.” For tickets, contact Jam Français LLC, either by phone (860)- 614-9970, or the internet, [email protected], or on Facebook. The prices for the tickets are $27.50 for adults, $9.00 for children 6-12 20 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 ples to pray in His Name to God the Father. Reunion of All Former Students of There will be a few surprises for the up-coming reunion, because the Reunion STS to be held on Friday, May 6th Committee has not determined who will By Albert J. Marceau, be the concelebrants, nor the homilist for the Mass, nor has it decided who will be Class of 1983, STSHS the guest-speaker during the program after The third annual reunion of grad- reunion, overnight accommodations will the dinner. Also, it has not decided if there uates, and non-graduates, of all classes be available in the dorms of the seminary, will be a silent auction, as was held last of both the high-school and the college but on a limited basis. In order to reserve a year. Thirdly, it has not decided whether to programs of St. Thomas Seminary in room, please call (860)-242-5573, ext. 2602. make the tours of the building self-guided, Bloomfield, Conn., will be held on Fri- Information about the 2016 Re- or guided. (For the first two reunions, there day, May 6, 2016 in the alma mater. union is also available on Facebook, were no formal tours of the building, but The cost to attend the reunion is and the website, http://www.stseminary. for the second reunion, committee mem- $50.00 per guest, which includes a dinner, org. Mary Ellen Kunz of the Alumni bers Albert Marceau and Mary Ellen Kunz endless hors d’ouevres, and drinks, both al- Reunion Committee can be contacted for prepared a text for a self-guided tour of the coholic and non-alcoholic. The schedule of questions either by e-mail: stsreunion@ building, with an emphasis on the stained- the reunion itself is: Registration and Tours aohct.org, or by phone: (860)-547-0513. glass windows in the Chapel.) Lastly, the from 2 to 4PM; Mass in the Chapel from 4 to The principal celebrant of the Mass Reunion Committee must decide on a gift 5PM; Reception from 5-6:30PM, followed will be the Most Rev. Leonard P. Blair, for those who attend the event. Last year, by the Dinner and Program. Like last year, S.T.D., the Fifth Archbishop of Hartford. the premium was a dark-blue baseball cap there will be a Memory Lane Display from The liturgy for Friday, May 6, 2016, which is with the first emblem of St. Thomas Semi- 2-8PM in the Alumni Lounge. Tickets for day after Ascension Thursday, is for the Fri- nary. The idea was proposed by committee the reunion can be purchased through the day of the Sixth Week of Easter, Year C, and member Fr. Kevin Donovan, (STSHS 1979), website, http://www.stseminary.org, or by the readings will be: Acts 18:9-18, Psalm who also proposed to have a premium for check, written to: “St. Thomas Seminary,” 47:2-7, and John 16:20-23. The Gospel the following year to be a similar baseball with the note: “Alumni Reunion 2016” writ- passage is taken from the extensive teach- cap with the second emblem of St. Thomas ten in the memo line. The check should be ing of Jesus Christ that occurred during the Seminary that has been in use since 1928. mailed to: St. Thomas Seminary Archdioc- Passover Seder, which is commonly known All alumni of St. Thomas Semi- esan Center, 467 Bloomfield Ave., Bloom- as the Last Supper, but should be known as nary are invited to the reunion, and it is field, CT 06002, and the envelope should the First Mass. The discourse is found only not necessary to have graduated from be noted to the attention of Sandra Moore. in the Gospel according to St. John, chapters either the high-school or the college pro- For the convenience of guests who 14 through 17, and the Gospel reading for grams in order to attend the reunion. may travel long distances to attend the the day is about Christ teaching the Disci-

Archbishop Leonard P. Blair, S.T.D., was the main celebrant at the Mass for the First STS Alumni Reunion that was held on Friday, May 2, 2014. The other concelebrants, from left to right, are: Msgr. Daniel J. Plocharczyk, Pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus in New Britain; Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Peter A. Rosazza, D.D.; Fr. Francis V. Karvelis (who died in St. Mary’s Home in West Hartford on May 4, 2015); Fr. James M. Moran, Pastor of the Church of the Incarnation in Wethersfield; Archbishop Emeritus Henry J. Mansell, D.D.; Fr. Robert O. Grady, Pastor of two parishes in Windsor Locks, St. Mary and St. Robert Bellarmine; Fr. Joseph Donnelly, Pastor of Sacred Heart in Southbury; Archbishop Blair, Archbishop Emeritus Daniel A. Cronin, S.T.D.; Altar Server Patrick Kane, (who was in his second year of theology as a seminarian at the time of the photo); Auxiliary Bishop and Vicar General Christie Macaluso, D.D.; and Msgr. Gerard G. Schmitz, Pastor of St. Michael Parish in New Haven. Photo by Albert J. Marceau taken with his Pentax P3 35-mm SLR camera.

(Continued on page 22) 21 Le Forum (Reunion of All Former Students of STS to be held on Friday, May 6th continued from page 21)

Steve Banasiewicz, STSHS Class of 1985, on the left, and Walden Moore, on the right, the last choir director at STSHS, and whose photo does not appear with the other teachers in the yearbook for the Class of 1983, the last graduating class of STSHS. (The yearbook committee was composed of jocks who did not care about the choir, and there was no faculty adviser to the yearbook committee.) Walden Moore, who was signing my yearbook when I took the photo, had two students for his music class in the Spring of 1983, Steve and me, and the class was held in the college library, where there was a baby-grand piano. (The former college library is the current Arch- I happened to be on campus anyway, in order played two simple classical-guitar pieces bishop O’Brien Library, and the baby-grand to turn in some extra-credit assignments for in the sanctuary during Communion. One piano is now near the side-altar on the my typing-class with Mrs. Diane Boilard. piece that I played was “Saltarello” by Vin- Epistle-side of the sanctuary of the Chapel.) I remember George Finley, the Principal, cenzo Galilei, the father of the astronomer, It was a very basic class on intervals and stood on the study-hall monitor’s platform, Galileo Galilei. After my performance, there basic forms of music. Steve studied piano and Fr. Charles Johnson, the President of was supposed to have been a playing of the and organ, and he sometimes played the the Seminary, stood on the floor next to the recorded-song “Changes” by David Bowie, organ for some of the Masses during the platform, slightly behind Finley, while Fin- as arranged by the valedictorian, Mike Per- school year. I studied classical-guitar under ley made the announcement that Archbishop alta, who left a turn-table and an LP near Steve Benson at the Community Division Whealon decided to close the high-school. the side-altar on the Gospel-side of the main of the Hartt School of Music, University of Finley assured the students before him that altar, but the song was never played. Peralta Hartford. A couple times while we waited the teachers would consider the effect that told me after the ceremonies that he could for Walden, Steve would play a piece on the bad news had on them while grading the not find an extension-cord in order to play the baby-grand, “Variations on ‘America’ final exams. Later the same day, there was a the turn-table. One of the hymns that was (1891) for Organ” by Charles Ives. I re- television crew from WFSB Channel 3, and performed by the choir was “The Church’s member the piece because he showed the another from WVIT Channel 30, and the TV One Foundation” with words by Samuel score to me, and he said that parts of it were crews interviewed some of the high-school John Stone and music by Samuel Sebastien difficult to play, because in some sections of students and Fr. Johnson since he was the Wesley. The last piece that Walden played the piece, the tremble-clef was in one key, President of the Seminary. Also on the same was the recessional, the popular “Tocca- while the two bass-clefs were in a different day, there was a retreat on the campus of the ta” from the Fifth Organ Symphony in F, key. Also, he told me that he could not play Seminary for the juniors and seniors from Opus 42, No. 1 by Charles-Marie Widor. the entire piece, because the piano could St. Thomas Aquinas High School in New Walden later became the Choirmaster not accommodate the second bass-clef. Britain. I knew some of the seniors of STAHS and Music Director for Trinity Episcopal In my original caption, I noted that from our days at St. Mary’s Middle School Church on the Green in New Haven, Conn. the closing of the high-school was an- in Newington, and I spoke extensively to one Steve transferred to Northwest Catholic nounced in the second-floor study-hall on in particular, Donald Roberts, as we walked High School in West Hartford, where he Tues. May 24, 1983, but I did not note that around inside the Seminary. Moments after graduated in 1985, and then went to Ripon the announcement was made around noon, the two of us reached the top of the flight of College in Wisconsin. Fr. Joseph Donnelly, between the first and second sessions on stairs from the first to the second floor, and as the religion teacher that the Class of 1983 the first day of final exams. (In my copy of we stood and spoke outside of the study-hall, had for three years, and who was the Spiri- school calendar for 1982-1983, the finals Fr. Johnson saw me, and he waved for me tual Director of STSHS in its final years, is were originally scheduled to begin on Wed. to enter the study-hall, in order to hear the currently the Pastor of Sacred Heart Church May 25, 1983, but I remember that the finals important announcement from Mr. Finley. in Southbury, Conn. Fr. Charles Johnson were advanced by one day by the faculty, in Walden pulled together a choir for was later elevated as a Prelate of Honor by order to accommodate for the oversight of the final high-school graduation ceremony, the Third Archbishop of Hartford, Daniel the mandatory retreat for the senior class which was also a Mass, which began at A. Cronin, and he died on Sept. 22, 2011 that was held on Thurs. May 26 and Fri. 7:30PM on Tues. May 31, 1983. Among the at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Conn. May 27 on Enders Island in Mystic, Conn., choristers were Steve and his mother Paula, The Second Archbishop of Hartford, John which was led by the Spiritual Director of and a few other voices, and two or three F. Whealon, who closed STSHS, died on STSHS, Fr. Joseph Donnelly.) Since I had trumpeters, one of whom was Ted Bisley. Aug. 2, 1991 also at St. Francis Hospital in good grades, and I was a senior, it was not Since I was in the graduation ceremony Hartford. The organ and its pipes are still necessary for me to take any final exams, but itself, I could not be in the choir-loft, so I (Continued on page 23) 22 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Reunion of All Former Students of STS to be held on Friday, May 6th continued from page 22) in the choir-loft of the Chapel, but the pipes were moved to accommodate an elevator that was installed next to the entrance of the Chapel, a renovation that hardly effected the choir-loft, but the placement of the elevator removed the confessional on the Gospel-side of the Chapel, and these renovations were made several years after the closing of the high-school. Also since the closing of the high-school, the former second-floor study-hall has been entirely renovated and it is now a series of small offices for the Office of the Superintendent of Cath- olic Schools. Photo by Albert Marceau, taken with his Kodak Instamatic camera.

Mrs. Diane Boilard, the French teacher, the typing teacher, and the advisor for the high- school newspaper, The STS Triumph. Room 12 is on the third floor of the building, and it was among the least used classrooms at STS, so, it was conveniently used by the newspaper com- mittee. After the closing of STSHS, Mrs. Boilard taught French at Bristol Eastern High School in Bristol, Conn. (A graduate of BEHS is the fiddler Daniel Boucher.) Today most of the for- mer classrooms are now offices for the Archdiocese of Hartford, and Room 12 is the Office for Charismatic Renewal. Photo by Albert Marceau, taken with his Kodak Instamatic camera.

More from Maine.... former enemies who detested and hat- was that four transports never made it to Reflections on the ed them because of who they were. port, and the deportees went down to a wa- The difference in climate contrib- tery grave. The loss of life far exceeded a Acadian Deportation uted to the elevated mortality rate. Ships thousand souls if we include infants to the were overloaded twice their tonnage, and age of two who were not included in the On August 14, 2014, on the oc- were entirely without ventilation. Once count, and children to the age of ten who casion of the Congrès Mondial Acadi- the hatch was battled down, the stench counted only as half an adult. The loss of en, I was invited to speak briefly to a became overwhelming, and the longer the Acadian lives did not matter. They were group of Louisiana Acadians at the Cen- voyage, the likelier that the transports be- expendable. The plan was to resettle the tre Culturele Mikesell in Madawaska. came plaque ridden. No one was allowed region with anglo-Protestant settlers from In fact the meeting lasted 135 minutes. to disembark until a doctor declared that New England. Winslow at Grand Pré and The group wanted to know my reasons the transport was free of contagions, and Murray at Fort Edward, heaved a sigh of re- for calling the deportation a genocide. I gave an that could take weeks. In the interim, those lief when done, and bid them good riddance. earful and exceeded my time by 120 minutes. who died were simply tossed overboard. In 1920 abbé-Thomas Albert, in his I noted first that Acadian boats were No names were recorded on embark- superb Histoire du Madawaska called the all confiscated prior to their condemnation ing, only the total number of deportees on Acadian deportation a “crime de lèse hu- on July 28, 1755, so that there could be each transport for reimbursement. No names manité.” In 1922, Monseigneur Stanislas no escape. The deportation plan was to were taken when they came ashore. The Doucette wrote that the plan was to cause erase all trace of an Acadian presence in deportees were not even assigned an identifi- “the extinction of the Acadian race.” Article l’Acadie. The drag net had to be secure. cation number. The expectation was that all 6 of the statu de Rome wrote that to cause the It was also for this reason that trace of the nameless people would be lost, disappearance of a people, in part or whole, church registers were confiscated and forever expunged from the annals of history. was a genocide. By every definition, the burned, as were the records of the notaries. There were two major Acadian de- deportation of the Acadians was a genocide. Families were broken up on embar- portations. The first was in 1755 from My Louisiana listeners want- kation to hasten their assimilation into the Nova Scotia, 7000 deportees; the other in ed to know why I called the deporta- American colonial melting pot. Likewise 1758-1759 from the Saint-Jean (Prince tion a holocaust. I will speak to that the reason that the people were dispersed in Edward Island), 3400 deportees, and Ile in a later issue of the Le FORUM. small groups in the thirteen colonies that were Royal (Cape Breton Island), and from the different in language, culture, and religion. fleuve Saint-Jean. Both occurred during Roger Paradis The victims blindsided on their the hurricane season, in transports that Fort Kent, Maine destination, which added to their stress. usually exceeded their tonnage, and some As it was, they were deported among of which were unseaworthy. The upshot 23 Le Forum BOOKS/ LIVRES... Not a Catholic Nation

The Ku Klux Klan Confronts New England in the 1920s The forgotten story of Catholic resistance to the rise of the KKK in New England MARK PAUL RICHARD - See more at: http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/not-catholic-nation#sthash.JGbvfvSe.dpuf

During the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan experienced a remarkable resurgence, drawing millions of American men and women into its ranks. In Not a Catholic Nation, Mark Paul Richard examines the KKK’s largely ignored growth in the six states of New England— Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont—and details the reactions of the region’s Catholic population, the Klan’s primary targets. Drawing on a wide range of previously untapped sources—French-language news- papers in the New England–Canadian borderlands; KKK documents scattered in local, university, and Catholic repositories; and previously undiscovered copies of the Maine Klansmen—Richard demonstrates that the Klan was far more active in the Northeast than previously thought. He also challenges the increasingly prevalent view that the Ku Klux Klan became a mass movement during this period largely because it functioned as a social, fraternal, or civic organization for many Protestants. While Richard concedes that some Protestants in New England may have joined the KKK for those reasons, he shows that the politics of ethnicity and labor played a more significant role in the Klan’s growth in the region. The most comprehensive analysis of the Ku Klux Klan’s antagonism toward Catholics in the 1920s, this book is also distinctive in its consideration of the histo- ry of the Canada–U.S. borderlands, particularly the role of Canadian immigrants as both proponents and victims of the Klan movement in the United States. - See more at: http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/not-catholic-nation#sthash.JGbvfvSe.dpuf

"Not a Catholic Nation is both original and illuminated by some of the most creative approaches found in recent scholarship in U.S. Cath- olic history. By opening with an account of the Klan’s activities in the state featuring the most extensive boundary with Canada, Richard engages early the trans-national dimension of his story, a major feature of religious and ethnic conflict in the United States but one which has rarely been examined so intimately." —James T. Fisher, author of Communion of Immigrants: A History of Catholics in America

Mark Paul Richard is professor of history and Canadian studies, State University of New York at Plattsburgh. He is author of Loyal but French: The Negotiation of Identity by French-Canadian Descendants in the United States. - See more at: http://www.umass.edu/um- press/title/not-catholic-nation#sthash.JGbvfvSe.dpuf

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS Amherst & Boston www.umass.edu/umpress $28.95 paper, 296 pp., 8 b&w illus., ISBN 978-1-62534-189-1 To order, visit our website or call 800-537-5487

For more information about this book, please contact Karen Fisk, Promotion & Publicity Manager, Univeristy of Massachusetts Press, 671 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA 01003, [email protected] or 413-545-2217. 24

SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016

25 Le Forum BOOKS/ Maine Nursing: Interviews and History LIVRES... on Caring and Competence By Valerie Hart, Susan Henderson, Juliana L'Heureux & Ann Sossong

The Republican is proud to present “Building a Better Life: The French Cana- Maine nurses have served tirelessly as dian Experience in Western Massachusetts.” This hardcover book from our Heritage caregivers and partners in healing at home series chronicles the history of French Canadians from their life in Canada and the and abroad, from hospitals to battlefields. mass migration of more than a million, many of whom ended up in Massachusetts. The Division of Public Health Nursing and Many of these migrants did build a better life not just for themselves but for others Child Hygiene was established in 1920 who benefited from their skills as carpenters and builders responsible for thousands of to combat high rates of infant mortality homes in Western Massachusetts. Follow us as the French Canadian population morphs into in Washington and Aroostook Counties. Franco Americans and becomes a major force in all walks of life in their adopted country. During the Vietnam War, Maine nurses • Historic photos of French Canadian heritage helped build the Twelfth Evacuation Hospi- • Part of The Republican's Heritage series tal at Cu Chi and bravely assisted surgeries • Hardcover, collector’s item in the midst of fighting. In the early 1980s, nurse disease prevention educators in Presented by Portland rose to the challenge of combat- ing the growing AIDS epidemic. Through historical anecdotes and fascinating oral histories, discover the remarkable sacri- $44.95 fices and achievements of Maine’s nurses. 11 x 8.5 (in.) 144 pages Hardcover ISBN: 9781597256094 $21.99 The History Press ISBN: 9781467135399 A French Canadian mill worker Publisher: The History Press in the Indian Orchard Textile Date: 03/07/2016 Mill tending a massive “Saco- State: Maine Lowell Spooler.” Photo by Images: 64 Black And White Lewis W. Hine Pages: 192 Dimensions: 6 (w) x 9 (h) Call (888)-313-2665 or email: [email protected]

http://www.pediment.com/products/building-a-better-life-french-canadian-history-book 26 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 from a poor background, but I didn’t really More from Maine.... know what that meant. But when I came across that article, by the [Brunswick Tele- Before Flint, Brunswick was at the graph’s] editor, A. G. Tenney, which really hammered the Cabot Manufacturing Com- Center of a Public Health Crisis pany for treating its employees so badly, this really became a special cause for me.” By James Myall I asked David why he thought he hadn’t gleaned any of that social history “The privies were all in horrible con- The Annual Report of the State of from his family – dition, some being so full that their contents Maine Board of Health for 1886 is littered “Where I grew up in Massachusetts, overflowed on the surface of the ground… with references to outbreaks of infectious to the South of Boston, there were many In some places the narrow space between diseases among the Franco-American im- people with Franco-American names; two closely-set dwellings was used as the migrant communities, which by this point now I recognize that…but there wasn’t receptacle for the most offensive waste ma- were found state-wide and growing rapidly any sense of ethnic consciousness there. terials. Pig sties were next to tenements and – Whooping Cough in Biddeford, scarlet Like my family many had moved from cow stables reeking with filth were not far fever in Saccarappa (Westbrook), diarrhea mill towns like Brunswick and Biddeford away…Some of the wells and cisterns were in Waterville, typhoid in Winthrop. A year to larger cities – Portland, then Boston, too near the privies and pools of decompos- earlier, in 1885, the board of health had so the sense of ethnic consciousness was ing liquid to escape serious contamination. been concerned about the possibility of an lost. Everyone spoke English, whether In short we found a condition of affairs outbreak of small pox among Franco-Amer- their ancestors were Irish, Italian or French utterly inimical to the hygienic welfare of icans. An epidemic in Montréal that year Canadian. Everyone was middle class. the people inhabiting the neighborhood.” had resulted in the death of thousands of “I did get this sense that there was This description, of a slum filled with unvaccinated French Canadians. But it’s some “wrong side of the tracks” aspect to the noise and smell of an- our family, but I couldn’t have imals, their waste mixing put my finger on what that with people’s drinking was, until I started doing this water, is not of Nairobi, research. There was a tenden- or Sao Paolo in 2016. It’s cy of people in my family and a description of the condi- community to deflect the trau- tions in Brunswick, Maine ma and horror of what went – specifically the “French on then. They’d say things quarter” of the village, in like “well, you know, it was 1886. One hundred and bad for other people as well,” thirty years ago, Bruns- “conditions of life weren’t as wick provided the most good then, standards of living egregious example of the were lower.” Statements to health risks that French deflect it. But I would point Canadian immigrants suf- out that people at the time fered when they found thought they were appalling. Workers’ housing owned by the Cabot Company on the Brunwick shore of the themselves living in over- Androscoggin, c.1895. Maine Historical Society/Maine Memory Network Mr. A G Tenney is hammering crowded, poorly-con- at the Cabot Company, saying structed, and neglected neighborhoods. the prevalence of diphtheria in Brunswick that the conditions in the tenements shouldn’t Many, like the Brunswick tenements, were in the summer of 1886 that stands out. I be tolerated in a civilized society. People at owned and operated by the textile manufac- spoke with David Vermette, a writer and the time thought this was appallingly bad. turers for whom the immigrants came to work. researcher, about the incident, which he “Generally, French Canadian immi- Increasingly, we’ve been hearing describes vividly in his blog, French North grants were housed, as well as employed, by stories of tragedy, frustration and anger America. (Read excerpts from the inter- the Cabot Mill. There was also a company from Flint, Michigan, where a modern-day view below, or listen to it in full online). store. The company repeatedly denied health crisis has erupted over the pol- “When I started researching genealo- the existence of the store, but newspaper luted city water supply, which contains gy, I consulted the newspaper index at the reports show that workers were sometimes dangerously-high levels of lead. Among Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick, ex- paid not in cash, but in credit for the store, the accusations leveled at Governor Rick pecting to find some sentimental family piec- which reveals their denial to be a lie. The Snyder (whose administration knew of es, and I did…and then I came across an ar- immigrants were really tied to the mill – and the hazards months before they intervened ticle that described absolutely appalling con- until around 1900, the Francos were all liv- to help), is that Flint’s inhabitants were ditions in the tenements, and this diphtheria ing together in the tenements. I believe my simply too poor, and too Black, to merit outbreak, and repeated outbreaks of typhoid. father was born in one of those, literally in attention from the state. More than a cen- “Frankly, I was shocked and angered. the shadow of the mill, in an apartment my tury ago, the conditions of Franco-Amer- I could not believe what I was reading. I grandfather had taken over from his aunt. icans in Maine raise similar questions. knew my father’s family, in particular, came (Continued on page 28) 27 Le Forum (Before Flint, Brunswick was at the Center of a Public Health Crisis continued from page 27) “Today, the number one correlation with outbreaks of diphtheria is poverty, and it’s strongly associated with overcrowding. Mill Street, Brunswick, What you see in Brunswick, at the height 1936. Pejepscot Historical of immigration, in the 1880s, is that there Sociey/Maine Memory were, on average, eighteen people living Network in a small tenement. That’s the average – I’ve seen more than thirty people living in an apartment that nowadays we’d call a small two-bedroom apartment. How you can even do that is beyond imagining to me. This was an era in which people had large families, but being on a farm [in Canada], is very different from living in a small city, with an average of eighteen build a new sewage infrastructure to address long history of this pattern reminds us that people living in apartments close together. the situation were resisted. Then, as now, our ancestors, were probably part of that “They’re bringing farm animals from people didn’t want to spend money. An- overlooked group, at one point in time. Quebec to Brunswick, and these are also other Franco-American researcher, Michael housed, somehow, in pens between the apart- Guignard, looked into Bowdoin’s response ments, and this is just creating more odor, [then home to the Maine Medical School] more filth, more problems. Also, there was and found nothing. It was only when visi- no garbage collection as we know it. So peo- tors to the town started noticing the smell, ple are just throwing garbage into the river, that they did something about it. The Town into the yards. There’s a photo – probably ordered the Cabot Company to clean up the from the early 20th century – where you mess, but they ignored it, and the company can see a big dump just down from the ten- was fined $100, which even in that time was ements, close to the river. It’s very, very bad a pittance compared to what the company sanitary conditions. This didn’t happen be- made. There were no consequences for the cause our ancestors were slobs but because Cabot Company. I don’t think they cared the company did not provide a sanitary infra- at all, because they would get another fresh About James Myall structure for housing their large workforce.” supply of French Canadians in the spring.” As Vermette noted, and the Maine Do you see any parallels to the present While I currently work for an Augus- Board of Health recorded, the diphtheria crisis in Flint? ta-based non-profit, I spent four years as outbreak not only began among the Fran- “I think the parallel exists, and I the Coordinator of the Franco-American co-American community, but claimed all became angry about the situation in Flint Collection at the University of Southern its victims there. Dr. Onésime Paré, a Fran- because it mirrors the situation in Brunswick Maine. In 2015, I co-authored "The Fran- co-American doctor supplied the Board with in the 1880s. You have a population of Afri- co-Americans of Lewiston-Auburn," a gen- a list of mortalities that makes for difficult can-Americans that was attracted to Flint by eral history of that population from 1850 reading – dozens of children. David believes the industries – but I think these populations to the present. I was also a consultant for his own great-grandmother probably saw her just become invisible. You have a tendency the State Legislative Task Force on Fran- neighbors’ children “dying all around her.” among the dominant English-speaking pop- co-Americans in 2012. I live in Topsham So what about the response to this ulation to see the African- or Franco-Amer- with my wife and two young daughters. tragedy? Apart from Tenney, the editor icans as others, and when they don’t have of the Telegraph, and the reports to the political clout, they don’t have a voice. Maine Board of Health, it was fairly muted. And that leads to the situations we see in “It’s hard to judge the Franco re- Flint today, or in Brunswick in the 1880s.” Visit James’ Blog at: sponse, because Brunswick didn’t have a The epidemic among Brunswick’s https://myall.bangordailynews.com French-language newspaper. The one voice Franco-American community in 1886 is a we have is that of Father Gorman, of St. stark case of corporate neglect. While the John’s parish, who is reported to have said crisis in Flint is not identical – the blame that he was burying more babies than he in that community lies with local, state Visit David Vermette’s Blog at: was baptizing. On the side of the dominant and federal government – the parallels http://frenchnorthamerica.blogspot.com English-speaking part of the town, we have that do exist remind us that there always Tenney’s response, but I don’t see much on have been, and always will be, groups and the part of the town [authorities]. In fact, communities on the margins who can be I’ve read one source that said that efforts to overlooked with tragic consequences. The 28 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 French North America Québécois(e), Franco-American, Acadian, and more by David Vermette

The Children's Strike wages paid, although he attributes these figures to “outside talk.” In A Gilded Age Mill Tenney also reports that the workers demanded a ten percent “A little child shall lead them,” raise, which they seem to have the Bible says. And so it was in Bruns- believed would put their pay in line wick, Maine in 1881 when young boys with the wages at comparable mills not only participated in a strike at the in nearby Lewiston and Lisbon. Cabot textile mill – they caused the strike. Don’t Call It a Company Store! This curious tale is reported in the Telegraph August 12, 1881 edition of the local news- The mentions “commonly paper, The Brunswick Telegraph (begin- that the grocery store known as the factory store” ning on page 2). According to this report, closed drawn together from local sleuthing as for at least one day in response well as from other newspaper accounts, to the strike. The proprietors of "denied all a strike broke out among “the operatives the mill, says Tenney, in the spinning and mule rooms of the connection” to the store operated Cabot Company’s cotton mill…These by “Messrs. Adams Bros.” The strikes left the weavers short of working closure of the store in concert with material and the mill was shut down.” the mill lock-out raised suspicions In response to the strikes that occurred regarding this denial, notes Tenney. on a Thursday in early August and again the The workers apparently had following Monday, the Telegraph reports that no doubt about the connection the mill was closed apparently for the better between the store and the Com- Telegraph, part of a week, although the Telegraph’s pany since, reports the “some wicked wag…suspended account leaves the chronology uncertain. [on the store] a red flag inscribed The observation that young boys started the strike at the mill, extraordinary ‘Store closed,’ ‘Small pox.’” by modern lights, is tossed off at the end of The Telegraph also mentions the article in a single sentence. The strike “the payment of help through the began when “boys 8 to 14 years of age system of orders” to the Adams’s 1894 Death Certificate of Adelard Duford struck for higher pay, got it, and thus led to grocery store, a system which, "Age: 11" "Occupation: Mill Operative" strikes in [the] spinning and mule rooms.” Tenney reports, many observers op- Thanks Janine LaFleur Penfield It was the success of the children’s strike posed. He attributes to the system's that led the adults to hope for similar results. opponents “the general belief...that The fact that it was the boys’ example cash should be paid and the purchases made pany-owned tenements. They were, to that led the adult workers to strike is attribut- by the workman wherever he chooses to quote an 1885 New York Times piece ed to a report in the Bath Times “prepared by trade.” This “system of orders,” well-known about New England’s French-Canadians a reporter after careful enquiry.” However, enough to invite comment in the town, re- elsewhere in the region, “the despair of “the operatives do not appear to have had futes the Cabot Company's denial of “all sanitarians.” This was due not to our any concerted action and moved apparently connection” between the store and the mill. ancestors’ slovenliness but rather to the without leadership,” the Telegraph reports. Another effect of the strike was that failure of the likes of the Cabot Company A.G. Tenney, the editor of the Tele- Benjamin Greene, the local agent of the to build an adequate infrastructure to house graph and most likely the writer of the mill, the face of the Cabot Manufacturing a population measured in four figures. article in question, suggests a motive for Company in the town, and the richest In fact, just a month before this strike, the boys’ strike: “It is stated that the wages man in Brunswick, gave 30 day's notice the Telegraph, generally a friend to neither in the mill have been rather under than to vacate to the residents in the compa- Mr. Greene nor the Cabot Company, had above the average of the cotton mills of this ny-owned tenements. Tenney justifies featured a lengthy piece about a Typhoid State, – that some of the young children Greene’s action, stating that the notice to outbreak in these self-same tenements which work at $1.00 per week, and some as low the tenants may have been “done as a mea- was blamed on the Cabots' malfeasance. as 8 cents per day, but this latter statement sure of precaution if the strike holds on.” we are unwilling to accept.” Tenney gives As a rule, the mill workers in Bruns- no reason for his incredulity regarding the wick in this period were housed in com- (Continued on page 30) 29 Le Forum (The Children's Strike In A Gilded Age about the village, and lots going blue-ber- of the town's headcount. But the Fran- Mill continued from page 29) rying.” That was not an unwise move given co-American workers were in a closed cir- the situation with the company grocery store. cuit where the Cabot Company was their all. “French” = “Mill Worker” The circumstances of the Fran- It is not surprising that the co-American workers in Brunswick in French-speaking workers had recourse to the The piece also makes clear that this period are by no means uncommon in only tool at their disposal – the strike – but to be “French,” that is to say to be one the history of 19th c. Labor. Here we find that they did not use it more often. Of course, of the French-Canadian immigrants in an imported, foreign labor force housed strikes in that era came at great personal the town, is to be a mill worker in 1880s by the same company that employs them, risk. Especially when the thirty-day eviction Brunswick. The paper reports that as early that then pays them, at least in part, not in notice arrives at the worker's apartment as as the Wednesday following the Monday cash but in orders from the company store. soon as the strike begins. lock-out “several French families had The system of keeping the workers in And in August of 1881, this risk left” implying that they did so in response a state of dependency appears to have faced was run because some eight-year-olds to the strike. Tenney then states that on some opposition within the town since it found out that the eight-year-olds over further investigation this report was shown inhibited a potential market for local housing in Lewiston were pulling in perhaps a to be untrue, but he notes that “some and retail trade. This was no small loss to penny more than their measly dime a day. [French families] contemplate leaving.” the local economy since per the 1880 U.S. He also reports that, “no disturbance Census the Franco-American population of Visit David Vermette’s Blog at: has occurred, the French people walking Brunswick comprised more than one-fifth http://frenchnorthamerica.blogspot.com

(N.D.L.R. The following two articles are from past issues of Le Forum, Page 8, février 1987 The farm was a spacious one, but & page 10 mars 1987, in hopes that others may have had or heard about a similar experi- Claudia's father Eugene Nazare Breton used ence. If you have, please contact Le Forum and share your story. We are collecting stories the land for subsistence farming. There were about deportation.) chickens, cows, pigs and horses, enough to keep the dozen well-fed and happy. "J'ai une belle enfance; jamais les Mémère: The who lived five miles out of Biddeford on troubles," Hills Beach, one of those little-liked spots Claudia recalls today. Life of a by the summer tourists who prefer the daz- She was a child without a care. She zle and gaudiness of Old Orchard Beach or grew up on the farm with her parents, three Franco~Ameri- the "haute" displays of wealthy cottages of sisters and one brother. The seven others Kennebunkport. Hills Beach was lined with were married and gone. Some had children the modest cottages of Biddeford residents. before Claudia was born. can Woman "If you win, you bring me; if I win, Any wandering person who knocked By Anne Lucey I'll bring you." Claudia and Marianne had at the Breton door was offered food and made a compact. drink, and even a bed. The phone rang at 22 Westland Amedée forced Claudia to renege on One frigid winter evening as the Bret- Avenue. It was the winter of 1958. her promise. He was her husband and he ons were uttering grace for the meal they Amedée, fatigued from the long would accompany her to the sunny shores were about to consume, a curly long-haired day with the Biddeford Water Works of Bermuda. vagabond knocked at the door, asking for a pick and shovel crew, was plunked down The Biddeford Journal staff photogra- hot meal. Bellesemere set an extra place and in the big battered arm chair in their pher snapped his camera. The following day all indulged in the hearty fare. livingroom. Claudia his wife had just the photo ran with the caption proclaiming "May I stay the night?" asked the hobo delivered him his nightly beer. She was the winner of the vacation prize. Claudia who sought harbor from the frigid night's air. sipping a glass of inexpensive wine. Emond had filled out only two entry blanks. Breton answered: "Yes, if you give me Claudia rushed to the phone. permission to cut your hair." He feared "Allô?'' Amedée forced Claudia to renege on the spread of lice in his home. "Madame Emond, you are the lucky her promise. He was her husband and he With that answer the.long-haired hobo winner of the Biddeford Chamber of Com- would accompany her to the sunny shores dropped his fork, picked up his hat and sped merce-sponsored trip for two to Bermuda. of Bermuda. out the door, fearing the possible spread of Can you be down here at the office in half cold on a newly cut head of hair. an hour so we may take your picture?" Her life had rarely collided with luck If Breton was an ingratiating host, be Upon hearing this request, Amedée so easily as it had this time. was also a stern father. Claudia loved her sprinted from his chair to ready himself for However, her childhood is now an father, but was always afraid of his eyes. the photo-taking session. era of wonderful memories. Claudia's entry He never raised his voice to discipline his Less than half an hour later Amedée and into life was directed by a sache{emme, a children. And by Numbers 11 and 12, he had Claudia were posed in front of a refrigerator midwife by profession, at her parents' farm- mastered the art of disciplining with his eyes carton stuffed full of small white entry forms. house on a 100-acre tract in Thetford Mines, and his subdued, but deep voice. Claudia had filled out the blanks three Québec. She was the last of 12 children her '"Tit Toot!" Breton called to Claudia weeks before with her older sister, Marianne, mother Bellesemere had borne. (Continued on page 31) 30 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Mémère: The Life of a Franco~American that crushed the rocks into smaller pieces so THE WORLD OF MAINE Woman continued from page 30) the loose asbestos fibers could be removed. Another worked on "the line" stuffing the ACADIANS (L’Acadie des his youngest. "Open the cellar door for me." soft fibers into shipping packages destined Claudia, not to be disrupted from play, Terres et Forêts) for manufactqrers' plants. passed the chore on to her older sister Pau- Those who worked in the mill would line. Breton turned his attention to Claudia, John Quincy Adams thought Shepard arrive home after a day's work looking as if gazing at her with his dark brown eyes: "Not Cary of Aroostook was a hick., but Shepard they had been swimming in a flour barrel. No Pauline, you!" Cary got William H. Cunliffe of Woodstock one actually knows how their lungs looked Little Claudia hastily fulfilled the task. to move up to Fort Kent and Cunliffe hired from breathing in the hazardous fibers. Breton continued his work. Everything was the earlier settlers of the St. John valley to Innocent cars, trucks and buildings were straightened out. work in the lumber camps. This was at the showered every day with the white powder. Because the land and livestock were time when Regis Daigle of Madawaska Asbestos brought economic prosperity not so obedient, Breton had to leave the farm took up oats and hay as far up the Fish to the townspeople. It also brought asbesto- and find work in order to save a small bundle River as “Chez Drake” in Portage Lake. sis, a lung disease caused by the inhalation to take back to Thetford Mines. Between The 1850 U.S. census lists Melzar Drake of fine particles of the mineral. The last productive seasons, Breton took his family up there in 1850 where he head the Cary Breton son w die was Nazare, in 1973 at to Biddeford where he and Bellesemere operations in the woods. That same year Thetford Mines-where he underwent heart would work in the textile mill. In 1899, Regis “Bonhomme” Daigle, a member smgery believed to have been warranted by Edmund, the eighth child, was born in of the Board of Assessors of Madawaska working so closely with asbestos. Biddeford. He was the only one of 12 to be Plantation (1846), brought a load of farm But back on the Breton farm, the fam- born outside of the Ia province de Québec. produce “Chez Perley”. The Perley brothers ily lived wholesomely. Bellesemere made Bellesemere had always toiled on a of Fredericton, were then lumbering on Per- butter and sold the surplus as an extra avenue farm. So prior to Edmund's birth she tried ley Brook above Market Street in Fort Kent. of income. The children combed the fields in her hand as a weaver at York Mills. Breton, But Cary had gone to Washington search of blueberries, picking the blue and too, worked in the moulin, thanks to the as U.S. congressman where the Jackso- mauve beads for rna's pies and more income help of his cousin Theod Sevigny who was nian Democrat from Houlton ran into the for the family. a boss there. Boston Brahmin of the old Whig era who When they were not romping the fields But the work in the mill was part-time. had survived President Jackson’s pulling and fishing in the stream on the land, the When Bellesemere and Breton had earned out of the U.S. Treasury Funds from the three youngest daughters, Claudia, Pauline enough money to get them through a few Bank of the United States. But as noted, and Marianne, were attending the one-room seasons, they would return to the farm in Cary hired Cunliffe and Cunliffe hired the schoolhouse. These girls never got past the Thetford Mines with their family. earlier French settlers to Winter into the eighth grade, yet they were the only three of Thetford Mines had asbestos mills woods allowing the crews to be back in 12 to receive any fonnal education. rather than textile mills. The town was time to perform their Catholic Easter duties. Breton and Bellesemere were unable named for its cavities that had been mined Ha! They jibbered and jabbered in to write even their own names, forcing them of the rich deposits of asbestos, the mineral French in the lumber camps of Cary & to sign documents with an "X." found deep within the town's bosom. Asbes- Cunliffe, and the Acadians brought home Placing no emphasis on education, tos can be readily made into long, flexible lice from those lumber camps. Yeah, the Breton and Bellesemere allowed Claudia to fibers and used as fireproofing material, Acadians had their priests and their lice, stay home for two years when they moved cement and insulation. and they used all their sacramentals in their to Biddeford once again. Claudia, ten at However, before the mineral was swear words. You never heard a Hafford, the time, claims she had a great desire to ready for consumer use, it had to be extract- or a Jackson of a Gardner used the word continue school. But Bellesemere would ed from beneath the slightly rolling hills of “Chalice” in a godforsaken oath! But “Ca- keep Claudia close to her side during Thetford Mines and environs. lice de tabernacle à deux étage!” worked school hours. When the schoolchildren in well as the Acadian women worked to de- town were released by the afternoon bell, Thetford Mines had asbestos mills lice their husbands fresh out of the woods. Claudia also was unleashed to play with rather than textile mills. The town was “Canuck” and “têtes carrés” met in the the children. · · named for its cavities that had been mined Maine woods. Yea¡ they met for six gen- Bellesemere kept Claudia at her side of the rich deposits of asbestos, the mineral erations from the first Cunliffe drive to the not because she needed her daughter's help found deep within the town's bosom. Asbes- incorporation of the Van Buren Madawaska with the household chores, but because of tos can be readily made into long, flexible Corporation organized under U.S. Federal a violent crime that had occurred in 1923 at fibers and used as fireproofing material, authority during the second world war. Five Points, Biddeford's busiest intersection cement and insulation. And, “Calice de Kriss des pooh encore!” of roads. The victims were two eight-year- Antoinine Maillet wrote it all out in her nov- old girls who were walking to school. The The boys of the Breton family learned el, “Les Crasseux” Oh History! Such incred- assailant was a man who attempted to rape the process first-hand. One worked in the ible history! You can only tell it as fiction!. them. Because their bodies were too small mines, chipping away for the mineral which for sexual intercourse, the girls were ripped was later hauled to the mill in town. One Guy Dubay worked in the mill, operating the machine (Continued on page 32) Madawaska, Maine 31 Le Forum (Mémère: The Life of a Franco~American driving. Unhappy with this, Emond found had been her first cousin whose adult-chap- Woman continued from page 31) decent wages and acceptable employment in eroned relationship had lasted seven months. open with a knife. the Brown Company of Berlin. It was closer An economic slump forced the Suc- Bellesemere feared for her young to home than was Minnesota. cess woods operation to close, and forced Claudia and would not risk having her walk By the time Breton had introduced Breton and Emond out of jobs. Undaunted, the route to school. Without objection, Clau- himself to this young man, Emond was 25 the entire Breton family and Emond packed dia remained at home for two years. and single. into two cars (one belonging to Emond and The Bretons returned to Thetford "You are going to be my son-in-law;'' the other to Marianne's husband) and headed Mines only to leave again for the United Breton told Emond upon first meeting with for Biddeford where the textile industry was States one year later, in 1926. This time the tall, young eligible Quebecois. open for employment opportunities. Breton's destination was Berlin, New "Who told you that?" Emond undoubt- Hampshire, where the trees grew in patch- Emond was Claudia's ·second boy- es as thick as clover. This small northern friend. She was only 16 and her ·last New Hampshire town was inundated with beau had been her first cousin whose French-Canadian emigres who flocked there adult-chaperoned relationship had lasted to reap the employment opportunities of the seven months. lumbering trade. Breton brought Bellesemere and his "There's work down here for you. four last daughters with him to the area. By Come with your daughters," Theod Sevigny, this time two of the daughters, Marianne the cousin-boss had written to Breton. and Elysee, had married, and their husbands By this time, many of the Breton joined the Bretons in their cabin deep in the children lived in Biddeford. None of them piney woods of New Hampshire. There the ever transformed their French first names eight of them lived with only a woodsLove or surnames to American nicknames-except tO insulate them from the frigid air and Edmund LaBarre, the son of Claudia's oldest snowy cold. Their water source was a hand sister. Edmund bad eyes as black as ebony, pump outside the cabin. which led to his French nickname "'Ti Noir." The women remained at the cabin Because the English could neither fathom while Breton and the husbands worked in nor pronounce such an appellation, Edmund the woods of Success, the township to the becaine "Blackie.” east of Berlin and bordering Maine. The Claudia remained Claudia. She was area's largest employer, Brown Company, named for one of her deceased brother's was located in Berlin. wives. And as was the tradition in naming Breton and the other men worked Quebecoise females, Claudia received Marie with others in the thick woods felling trees as her middle name. to be hauled by horse. and wagon to the. And because many Quebecois males Berlin mill. When the 10-hour day was over, received "Joseph" as their middle names, Breton and his sons-in-law went to the mill so, too, did Emond. to sign out. It was at the mill, preparing Other French-Canadiens who moved the newly felled trees for paper pulp that to Biddeford Americanized their frrst names. Pierre Contoir, "small boss" at York Mills, young Amedée Emond worked. He, too, Claudia Breton Emond was was now "Pete." He was in charge of the was a Québecois and a farmer, but his roots married to Amedée were in St-Henri Lévis, an area opposite the night shift. Despite his Americanized name, Fleuve St-Laurent from Québec City. Emond edly was caught off his guard. he continued speaking in his native tongue. was born on his father's farm in 1901. And "I have two girls at home." And Bret- After all, most of his workers spoke the he lived there on the prosperous farm until on had the last word Emond arrived at the same language. his late teens, when he became anxious to Breton cabin that same night with his friend Claudia knew that as well as every see the continent and make some money of from the moulin, Joe Dusty (who now runs other Québecois who had migrated to Bid- his own. He was the youngest of the boys a jewelry shop in Lewiston). Emond played deford in search of employment. She and and could have inherited the farm from his cards with Pauline, the second youngest of her family, like every other FrancoAmerican father as his other brothers lived in towns the family, and Claudia with Joe. family, spoke French at home, at play and and were apathetic to farming. Emond's The next evening Emond arrived at at work. Some never learned formally how mother died bearing her twelfth child, when the Breton’s camp alone. He had had his to speak English. Claudia, learned word by Emond was only 14. eye on Claudia despite his card game with word. Later in her life, it was the age of tele- So it was natural for him to leave his Pauline the night before. So, Claudia it was vision that introduced her to and taught her known surroundings and find work in the for tonight's card game. And so it was to be the English language. Emond, less enamored United States. Emond worked a short stint for many card games to come. of TV–-viewing than Claudia, could speak in the northern tree-lined rivers of Duluth, Emond was Claudia's second boy- and comprehend little English. Minnesota, where he mastered the art of log- friend. She was only 16 and her last beau (Continued on page 33) 32 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Mémère: The Life of a Franco~American she was 16 years old. Emon, 26, asked her nearly reach into the window of the adjacent Woman continued from page 32) to be his wife. One day after Christmas, building. Children roamed the streets and 1927, at six-thirty in the morning, the two played kick-the-can with an energy that Emond did not work in the moulins. were wed at St-André’s Church on the nort made the tin can's journey echo between the He acquired a job with the foundry in town, side of town where only Claudia’s family at- buildings on either side of the narrow, yet while Breton worked odd jobs. But Breton's tended. Even though Emond had sent money heavily travelled street. daughters worked in the textile industry. to his father for the trip to Biddeford from It was at the age of 16 Claudia bad a Claudia hitched up with York Mills in 1927, St-Henri, Papa Emond never showed up. miscarriage. She had been jumping rope, working 64 hours each week as a weaver. as a girl her age was apt to do. The jarring Her weekly income was nine dollars. motion of the exercise forced her to naturally As a weaver, Claudia was required to stand It was at the age of 16 Claudia had abort Claudia and Amedée moved often, before the giant looms from six in the a miscarriage. She had been jumping once in the middle of the cool, dark night morning until five-thirty in the afternoon-a rope, as a girl her age was apt to do. The because their apartment building had burned skill she was forced to learn on her own. jarring motion of the exercise forced her beyond repair. Lunch-time was 30 minutes long; the two to naturally abort. other breaks were 10 minutes each. To be continued in mars, 1987 Claudia quit her weaving job after one Both Claudia and Emond now lived in year for a four-month respite in Thetford his room at Elysée’s apartment. This was to Anne C. Lucey is a 1980 graduate of Mines with her parents. This left Emond be the first time Claudia had ever left home the University of Maine, where she majored as a boarder with Claudia’s sister, Elysée’s and had ever been alone with Amedée. in Journalism. Currently, she is a Junior tenement that he carried on a correspondence A short time thereafter, Claudia and High School teacher at the John Graham relationship with Claudia. Emond continued her husband moved to a place of their School, Veazie, Maine. A Social Studies his sweat and muscle labor with the found- own––a three-story walk up on Hill Street teacher, she also teaches French, which she ry. claudia merely enjoyed the farm and its where they lived for a year and a half. This introduced into the curriculum last year. bountiful rewards. wood, chipped-paint apartment building Anne Lucey lives in Orono, Maine. When Claudia returned to biddeford, was so close to another that Claudia could Page 10 Le FAROG Forum, mars 1987 Mémère: The Life of A Franco-American Woman By Anne Lucey

Continued from fevrier. 1987 During the Great Depression they death of her beloved mother deeply affected Twice the workers struck, without pay for lived with sister Marianne in her and hus- the 22-year-old mother of four. two or three weeks at a time. Claudia walked band René's apartment at Five Points. They But that is all Claudia recalls from out, but she never walked the picket line. had one child and by now Claudia and the Depression era. "It was so dark during "We always got a few more pennies when Amedée had one child, Leopold, born in this time; it was blank for me. It was hard we struck." 1929. All six lived together under one roof to live; I can't remember a thing." The "big boss," Joe Hill, was in charge in three small rooms. However, things improved. In 1935, of the whole room-slashers, warpers, spool- By this time, Claudia's parents, Claudia began working again, this time as ers and winders. He spoke only English. Bellesemere and Breton, were living perma- a winder in the Bates Mill, which was for- The "small boss" was in charge of the sec- nently in Thetford Mines. They had made no merly the York Mill. The duty performed ond shift. He spoke French. Thus, Claudia commitment to reside forever in the United by the winder involved taking the thread worked in a Francophone atmosphere. States, whereas Claudia and Amedée were and attaching it to the machine~ the first At home, too, she spoke only French intent upon remaining in New England. step in the textile making process. This with her husband, three daughters and one The law required aliens to leave the United task was learned by Claudia during unpaid son. Their names reflected the Franco influ- States for no longer than six months at one training sessions. The job "was easy," but it ence: Léopold: Thérèse, a name chosen by time. Amedée had no cause to violate this still meant Claudia worked 40 hours each Bellesemere; Jeannine Andréanne, the mid- rule; Claudia did. Her mother contracted week on her feet, except for the half-hour dle name so given because of Claudia's love cancer in 1933. Claudia went to Thetford supper and 20-minute breaks. She worked for la paroisse St-André; and Anita, given Mines to care for her mother. By this time the second shift, from 3 to 11, forcing her to her by her godfather and Claudia's brother. Claudia had borne all four of her children. be away from home and her four children. Caring for a family while working They remained home with Amedée. For Claudia joined the organizing union second shift was an arduous task. It was a more than six months,. until her mother's at Bates, CIO, with the coming of Franklin heart-rending and often guilt-laden chore: death, Claudia gave Bellesmere loving care. Roosevelt. She joined, because "they pro- "When you work eight hours in the mill and Her mother was 67 years old. tected us in seniority," yet she never went you come home and have to make supper Claudia returned to Biddeford. The to meetings unless "trouble was brewing." (Continued on page 34) 33 Le Forum (Mémère: The Life of A Franco-American uring she could escape the red tape, based born in Thetford Mines, during February Woman continued from page 33) on her nephew's avoidance of the same nine years ago when Claudia and Amadée requirement. He had been naturalized as a had taken their two-week vacation there. and clean house-that was my life. I wasn't U.S. citizen shortly thereafter. bad for my children; I loved my children." Thérèse was brought over the border into "I thought they were going to accept the U.S. a't the age of three by relatives who me as they had accepted my nephew." Such were carrying fraudulent papers for her so was not the case. Her nephew, in fact, had Despite such plaguing problems of she could be uni!ed with her true family. never lost his permit by violating the six- This deception caught up with Therese poverty, Claudia maintained cleanliness. month dcpanure law as Claudia had. To her, poverty was no excuse for filth. on her ninth birthday when Amedée attempt- In 1938 she was hauled into the Port- ed to cross into Canada with his children so But the battle was difficult for a mother land city jail by immigraMn officers who who had to work second shift, eight hours he could be permanently united with his de- were to have her deported to Thetford Mines ported Claudia. With an automobile packed each day, 40 hours each week to bring the following day. home roughly $19. to the roof with all their wordly belongings, the Emonds spent the night in the auto at the Derby Line, Verm'ont. Life in the city was quite unlike life in the rolling open land of Thetford Mines. Thérèse, the oldest daughter, had "It's hard to raise four kids in a four-room been born in Thetford Mines, during apartment There was no formal bathroom, February nine years ago when Claudia just a toilet We had to wash up in a sink." and Amadée had taken their two-week Claudia's role as a parent was more vacation there. strenuous to act out than her role as a care- free Québecoise. The farm was the idyllic The next day, they were denied entry place to raise a family; the city could be a into Canada. Thérèse was deported on the hellhole. spot. The tenements in which the Emond She was brought to Sherbrooke to family resided were often infested with bed meet Claudia who had found employment bugs, those slithering insects that burrowed there in a wealthy household as a maid. It themselves into the three mattresses of the was here she was a boarder and employee Emond household: one on which Claudia Thérèse Emond à Sherbrooke for wages of two dollars per week. and Amedée slept; one on which the three Because Claudia's job was such, daughters slept; and one on which Léopold Thérèse was unable to stay with her mother. slept. She stayed at the Sacre-Coeur convent in No matter how often Claudia cleaned town where she lived and was schooled. or how furiously she attempted to fumigate The immigration officer who had the four-room apartment of the blood-suck- escorted Therese to her mother happened to ing insects, the children usually awakened be the same officer who had warned her to with red bites and scratchiness. obtain her papers in Montreal lest she face Lice were another problem. Claudia's deportation. children were infected with the hair-attach- He recognized her immediately at this ing insects, probably caught from other: second meeting and informed her she was Bellesemere Breton children at schooL A special strong soap eligible to return to the United States if she was used to extract the adult lice; whereas, obtained her papers. The cinderblock cell in downtown Not to risk losing again the chance for a thin-toothed comb was used to pull the Portland was hardly a bon voyage party. slicky eggs from the scalp. a U.S. permit, Claudia travelled to the heav- Amedée remained in.Biddeford with the ily populated city of Montréal. She gained Despite such plaguing problems of four children, too ignorant to fight for the poverty, Claudia maintained cleanliness. To her papers and was on a t:rain and back in release of his wife. He was to be the sole Biddeford in time to spend Christmas of her, poverty was no excuse for filth. But the guardian for the next couple of years. battle was difficult for a mother who had to 1940 with her family. Claudia was sent via train to Thetford By this time, Anita, the youngest, work second shift, eight hours each day, 40 Mines. She lived there with her sister for hours each week to bring home roughly $19. barely recognized her long-gone mother. eleven months. During this time, as she had Jeannine, the second youngest, had been her The greatest battle of perserverance always done in Québec, Claudia did not loomed ahead. Because Claudia had left surrogate mother. work. Her full-time job now was worrying Thérèse, the other daughter, was un- the United States for more that six months to about the family she had left motherless. care for her dying mother, the U.S. Immigra- able to join the family for the holidays. She Meanwhile, Amedée continued work- was required. to remain in Sherbrooke, at the tion officials caught up with her in 1938. She ing at SacoLowell foundry, an annaments was ordered to obtain her papers in Montréal convent, until the following June. manufacturer, and as a father of four. Soon Once the family was together, life and pay an eight-dollar fee. there were to be only three. Claudia ignored the requirement, fig- Thérèse, the oldest daughter, had been (Continued on page 35) 34 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Mémère: The Life of A Franco-American rapidly, so too did Claudia. The pressure in His body and souJ were prayed for, Woman continued from page 34) competing with the machine sent her home buried and marked with lavishness. Clanilia resumed as it had before the unwelcom~ every night at 11 with leg cramps; "I was so spared no expense: death announcement interruption. Amedée was finally naturalized sick." Often, she was unable to sleep until cards with a photograph of Amedée (taken in 1943, and Claudia in 1944. long afrer midnight. at Jeannine's wedding) were ord~red in buDc 1t was second shift, again, but this His casket was top of the line, not only on Thérèse, the other daughter, was time three to eleven was "eight hours the outside, but on the inside, which was unable to join the family for the holidays. straight." Unnlike at Bates, the workers at the backdrop for the Instamatic snapshots She was required to remain in Sherbrooke, Pepperell were given 10 mintes for supper, of Amedée .in an open caskeL at the convent, until the following June. and two ten-minute breaks. He was buried at St-Joseph's cemetery, But the wage was more than she had property of Claudia's parish on the south end She returned to Bates Mill as a wind- ever amassed in one week-–one hundred of Biddeford. The cemetery lies one mile er. She would have remained there until and forty dollars (by 1970). Seven years from Claudia's home, permitting her to visit retirement age, but the mill was gradually after she joined Pepperell, Claudia left. The his gravesite every warm night. Engraved phasing out workers, 1eading to the closing second shift was no way to live now that on one half of the polished black marble of its doors in 1957. Hundreds of workers she was alone. headstone are: were left jobless. Claudia, who had worked with the company for 20 years, received Amedée Joseph Emond no material display of gratitude. In lieu. of 1901-1969 40 hours of work and forty-five dollars per week, she received unemployment checks. On the other half: The benefits ended after one year. Two weeks after this deadline, Claudia Claudia Breton Emond had a new job. But the commute to this job 1911- made things difficult Claudia did not drive. Her. new employer, Claristas, was located She is prepared for the end. in Dover, New Hampshire. A former Bates But Claudia had been through a life Mill car-pool friend had found them a job at where she was forced to prepare for ev- this electronics company run by anglophone erything. Her four children had survived bosses. Amedée et Claudia Emond 1967 childhood; only one had made i t past the Again, Claudia worked the three-to- eighth grade and had graduated from Bidd- eleven shift and was able to share a ride eford High School. with a fellow employee. But, Claudia was All were married and had three or not gjven the job, she earned it after taking four children each by 19'70. To these grand- a written test of her skills. She was placed in children. Claudia was “Memay," because the packing room in the beginning, preparing they were unable to pronounce with French the electronic gadgets for shipment. accents, "Mémère." After a few months in the packing Of course, the grandchildren's parents room, Claudia was moved here and there had never had trouble pronouncing words to do any and every job. This lasted for five in French; that was their first and only .lan- years, until 1963 when the employees struck guage. It was English they were forced to against Claristas. Workers here were not as learn from little schooling and much street lucky as those who had gained '"a few pen- practice. By adulthood, English was their nies more" after a strike at Bates Mill. Many Claudia Emond first language with their families. When were laid off from Claristas. One worker to Claudia and her children got together, talk lose a job was Claudia's friend who drove By this time Claudia was 59 and buzzed in French. Claudia was capable of them back and forth to New Hampshire each husbandless Amedée had died in 1969 of understanding and speaking English, but day, a total of two hours of driving. leukemia which had ridden him to bed and was embarrassed and selfconscious about Good luck stepped in and joined with made him grotesquely skinny. A man who using it. Claudia's 20--year experience as a wind- had always been tall and thin,. Amedée In the meantime, Amedée's medi- er-sb(! immeiliately acquired employment shrank to 80 pounds. cal bills had to be paid. His hospital was with the Pepperell Mill. a textile factory His last few weeks were spent at Web- covered by insurance; the doctor was not. located within the five-story-high, fort-like ber Hospital in Biddeford. Claudia sqeezed Claudia religiously met her monthly bills bricked walls that bordered Main Street of in visits to her dying husband around her with the money earned from her job at the Biddeford. The work was the same but by shift at the mill. She had to work; the med- Maine Line Shoe Shop in North Berwick. 1963 textile mills had refined the process of ical bills were soaring every day Amedée's A half-bour commute was involved, but by cloth-making into a fast-paced job. “1f the last gasp for air was witnessed by Claudia this time Claudia was .able to drive and work machine stopped for five seconds that was who took him in her arms where be died the day shift. For 40 hours each week and good." And because the machine moved in peace. (Continued on page 36) 35 Le Forum (Mémère: The Life of A Franco-American This was Claudia's sole inheritance. steeped in deep faith. The pope, the bishop Woman continued from page 35) And life was now good to her. She and the priest are all to be revered. When the one hundred doflars. Claudia glued the rigid was a heavy woman who ate good food parish priest paid his annual parishoner visit back piece to the inside of leather shoes. often and performed strenuous work and to Claudia last year, he asked her to donate After. one year wiih this company, exercise seldom. a spare overstuffed chair fur an ailing bon- Claudia was 60 years old. More tban half of Life was routine: leisure was the homme. Without question, she obliged. Hers her life had been spent in front of a company theme; bluecollar labor a thing of the past is a religion where no questions are asked. machine. These machines expected total Her youngest daughter Anita, closest to She is healthier now and better rested dedication. ln return sbe received a weekly Claudia in proximity, visited daily. Tele- than she has been since her marriage. Life is check. No company ever presented Claudia phone commmricatiQns were frequent. to be enjoyed. Beano is a favorite pasttime with a gold watch or a bouquet of flowers or and television is her best friend: always a “thank you" for her service. there to speak to her in French or English. The time had come to enter another Her family visits her often and always on line of work. So Claudia signed on with an holidays., especially for Noël. Christmas is elderly, well-to-do couple who resided in a a time of- traditional French-Canadien cele- comparably modest home in Biddeford Pool. bration. The family as a whole sings, talks Biddeford's better half. and eats tourtière and sweets until the wee The man was legally blind and ailing, hours of the nigbt, and until the presents are and the wife was equally healthy. Presence unwrapped. Le réveillon is the centerpiece of any wealth they had was never exhibited; of the holiday season. they were utterly avaricious. Claudia, for Other nights Claudia retires at mid- her four-hour per day services of meal prepa- night wilh her large black rosary beads rations and house cleaning, earned $1.50 rotating between her fmgers. Her bedroom per hour. For two years Claudia tended to is a storehouse of religious trinkets. Above the old man and woman. When Claudia the bed's headboard hangs a foot-and-a- attempted cooking a wonderful and hearty half-long crucifix, inside which is housed a meal for the two, they would instruct her to swatch of clothing allegedly taken from the serve them mo1d-covered bread and soup. cloak of an unknown saint. The bureau beyond the bed serves as Food was not to be wasted. La Famille Breton 1936 a display counter for a red velvet-cloaked Claudia, for her four-hour per day The call to Anita in lhe evening of cold replica of the Baby Jesus, known in Catholic services of meal preparations and house January 1973 came as no surprise. The mes- circles as the Little Priest Jesus. cleaning, earned $1.50 per hour. For two sage did: Claudia was stricken with a blood Claudia is alone in bed tonight, as she years Claudia tended to the old man and clot in her thigh which had paralyzed her. has been since 1969. On one of her bedroom woman. When Claudia attempted cooking She was rushed to the hospital in town and walls hangs the only picture of Amedée and a wonderful and hearty meal for the two, later transferred to Maine Medical Center her together. Yet, the photograph was made they would instruct her to serve them in Portland where open heart surgery was of two separate photos of the two and pieced moldcovered bread and soup. Food was perfonnoo the.next day. together. not to be wasted. During the operation, Claudia was For Claudia, her life was complete. pronounced medically dead. She recalls It was beautiful and it sometimes was ugly. Yet money was abundant in their in- hearing the doctors’ voices, but all from a Yet, for all her woes, she knows in her heart vested stocks, bonds and funds. Claudia left vantage point high above the sterile table. she did all that was possible to survive a their employment two years later in 1973 She did not resist death. But the electric difficult and trying life. making $1.51 per hour. The man and woman shocks to her heart changed her desire for died a few years thereafter, childless, unable life. She· came back ro life and the surgery Anne C. Lucey is a 1980 graduate of to take their wealth with them and incapable was successfully completed. the University of Maine, where she majored of giving it to anyone. The enormous medical bills-were in Journalism. Currently, she is a Junior To Claudia, her own home was her covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield. To bet- High School teacher at the John Graham greatest asset. Amedée, with his two hands, ter alleviate her financial situation, Claudia School, Veazie, Maine. A Social Studies had transformed their $2,000 shack into a was deemed disabled and made eligible for teacher, she also teaches French, which she comfortable, modern three-bedroom home. benefits. introduced into the curriculum last year. The literal shack they had purchased in 1957 It was here that Claudia's life of toil Anne Lucey lives in Orono, Maine. was an afterwork project for Amedée each and labor ends. Her greatest worry now is night. He did the construction, the plumbing confirming receipt of her benefits and food and the electrical wiring. Before the acqui- stamps, and determining how each new U.S. sition of the ramshackle building, they had president will affect those benefits. Claudia never dared dream of purchasing a home is a devout Democrat of their own. However, by the end of the However, loyalty to Catholicism shack's metamorphosis, Amedée had died. comes first. She bas lived her 76 years 36 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 French North America Québécois(e), Franco-American, Acadian, and more by David Vermette Illegal Immigration in the 1920s: French North Americans and the Myth of the Master Race Plus ça change plus c'est la même chose.

This familiar saying leaps to mind article in The Gazette mentions, but were while reading a page one story from The required to file papers. Gazette of Montréal, April 2, 1929. The The debates surrounding the 1924 article reports that, pursuant to the Immigra- act strike the modern reader as both shock- tion Act of 1924, significant numbers of the ingly frank and uneasily familiar. In a time French-Canadian element in the USA could when reticence or self-deception regarding face deportation. one’s racism was less prevalent than today, Canadians Face Deportation as The Canadian-born resident who Senator Ellison DuRant Smith of South Illegal Aliens: The Gazette of came to the States prior to July 1924 had no Carolina, for example, permitted himself Montréal, April 2, 1929 worries. Those who arrived after that date this utterance: notions that the blond-haired, blue-eyed sans proper documentation must leave the Who is an American? Is he an immi- Nordics were the ‘master race’ and that the country and go through proper immigration grant from Italy? Is he an immigrant from state should eliminate members of inferior channels or face deportation with no possi- Germany? If you were to go abroad and races who were of no value to the com- bility of readmission to the USA. some one were to meet you and say, ‘I met munity.” Translated into German in 1925, The article reports that among those a typical American,’ what would flash into Grant’s book was welcomed by the Nazis. who were sent back to Canada to obtain your mind as a typical American… Would According to Spiro, Adolph Hitler referred proper documentation was an 18-month-old it be the son of an Italian immigrant, the son to it as his “bible.” baby girl born in Montréal and adopted by a of a German immigrant, the son of any of In light of his pseudo-scientific theory family in New Hampshire. the breeds from the Orient, the son of the of blond, “Nordic” dominance, the following Since no dangerous 18-month-old denizens of Africa?… I would like for the excerpt from Grant’s meisterwerke comes must slip through the net, the article reports Members of the Senate to read that book just as no surprise. that, “Federal officers throughout New En- recently published by Madison Grant, The The Dominion [of Canada] is as a gland are now receiving their preliminary Passing of a Great Race. Thank God we have whole handicapped by the presence of an in- instructions, and within another two months in America perhaps the largest percentage digestible mass of French Canadians largely the machinery for the investigation of every of any country in the world of the pure, un- from Brittany and of Alpine origin although Canadian in the country will be perfected.” adulterated Anglo-Saxon stock; certainly the the habitant patois is an archaic Norman of The article also states that, “The greatest of any nation in the Nordic breed. It the time of Louis XIV. These Frenchmen Washington authorities make it plain that is for the preservation of that splendid stock were granted freedom of language and reli- French-Canadians are not alone involved. that has characterized us that I would make gion by their conquerors and are now using Canadians from Nova Scotia, New Bruns- this not an asylum for the oppressed of all those privileges to form separatist groups in wick and Ontario will be subjected to as countries, but a country to assimilate and antagonism to the English population. The rigid an examination as those from Quebec.” perfect that splendid type of manhood that Quebec Frenchmen will succeed in seriously Evidently there were suspicions that has made America the foremost Nation in impeding the progress of Canada and will French Canadians were being singled-out her progress and in her power…1 succeed even better in keeping themselves a for possible deportation. The considerations The Senator recommends Madison poor and ignorant community of little more that led to the 1924 Immigration Act justify Grant’s The Passing of the Great Race or The importance to the world at large than are the these suspicions. Racial Basis of European History, published Negroes in the South. 2 The purpose and effect of this legis- in 1916. The alarm regarding the immigra- Thus spake Hitler's Bible. However, lation was to exclude “undesirable” aliens tion of supposedly inferior “stock” into the the “mass of French Canadians” were not from immigrating to the USA. Alarmed by USA was the wellspring of Grant’s book. “largely from Brittany,” although some of the growth of Jewish immigrants as well as The author provided statistics to Congress their ancestors were Breton. Even by Grant’s those from Southern and Eastern Europe, which contributed to setting the 1924 law's specious definitions the Canadiens were not Congress moved to forbid certain groups immigration quotas. generally of “Alpine” origin. He was neither from entering the country legally and to Jonathan Spiro, a professor of histo- the first nor the last to draw a comparison impose quotas on others. Canadians were ry at Castleton State College in Vermont, between the Canadiens and African-Amer- not subject to the quota system, as the 1929 finds that Grant “popularized the infamous (Continued on page 38) 37 Le Forum (Uncle Luc continued from page 3) of the war and how long it might last. Père (Illegal Immigration in the 1920s: French Labouré’s response was optimistic, i.e., per- North Americans and the Myth of the Master studies for the priesthood. After 3 years in haps not more than a few months. History Race continued from page 37) San Antonio Luc had acquired many new of course would prove otherwise. Based icans, a move that, in his racist scheme, was friends there and chose to finish his stud- on Père Labouré’s assessment, however, a means of killing two birds with one stone. ies for the priesthood in San Antonio. He Father Luc opted to stay on as part of Père Nor did the large-scale immigration visited home only once during those years, Labouré’s staff. They would return to the of this “indigestible” French Canadian com- at the death of his mother on 23 December French Oblate community in France for munity into New England escape Grant’s 1930. He was ordained an Oblate of Mary the duration of the war, headquartered in notice. On the contrary, in his first chapter, Immaculate priest at Saint Mary’s parish Marseilles where the Oblate community was where he sets out the alleged danger facing in San Antonio on June 4, 1938. He cele- founded by Bishop Eugène de Mazenod in his imaginary master race from the immi- brated his first mass at Sainte-Marie parish 1816, the future Saint Eugène de Mazenod. gration of their “inferiors,” Grant writes: in Manchester several days later. One final As an American staying in German During the last century the New En- year of studies in Texas would follow. occupied France, Father Luc would need gland manufacturer imported the Irish and As was the tradition at the time, after to change his identity. With forged iden- French Canadians and the resultant fall in ordination within a Catholic Church priestly tify papers in hand, Father Luc Miville the New England birthrate at once became order such as the Oblates, and following became Père Louis Bernard, a French ominous. The refusal of the native Ameri- completion of his post-ordination studies, citizen. His forged papers would afford can (sic) to work with his hands when he Father Luc was required to write to the him relatively safe passage within France, can hire or import serfs to do manual labor Superior General of the Oblates in Rome from one Oblate house to another, ful- for him is the prelude to his extinction and to receive his first assignment as a new filling his duties to Père Labouré who the immigrant laborers are now breeding ordained OMI priest. At the time of Luc’s continued to travel to and from various out their masters and killing by filth and by ordination the Superior General of the Ob- Oblate houses in France throughout the war. crowding as effectively as by the sword. lates was a French Oblate, Père Théodore The Gestapo however were aware Thus the American sold his birthright in a Labouré. As a bilingual Franco-American of the presence of an American among the continent to solve a labor problem. Instead from Manchester, Father Luc thought it French Oblates and would frequently arrive of retaining political control and making was would be a courtesy to write to Père unannounced at Oblate houses throughout citizenship an honorable and valued privi- Labouré in French to request his first France inquiring as to the presence of their lege he intrusted (sic) the government of his assignment as a newly ordained Oblate. American confrère, Father Luc Miville. The country and the maintenance of his ideals to While awaiting Père Labouré’s response superior of the house would of course deny races who have never yet succeeded in gov- with an assignment, Father Luc accepted that Father Miville was present, offering erning themselves much less any one else. 3 a temporary assignment from his superiors one reason or another to explain his where- Grant’s master race theory assumes, in Texas, that of curate in an Oblate parish abouts, even though at the time of at least one of course, that the measure of mastery is of the Southwestern Province, i.e., Saint such visit by the Gestapo, Father Luc was not only governing oneself but also lord- Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, a mere present. The ruse was successful and Father ing over others. This revealing remark is six-week assignment from June to July 1939. Luc, or “Père Bernard” was not unmasked. but one draught from his witch’s brew of Father Luc received word from Rome Père Labouré, Father Luc’s supe- half-baked science, Social Darwinism, and in July 1939. Impressed with Father Luc’s rior, who had been ailing for some time, old-fashioned Anglo-American jingoism. bilingual “credential”, Père Labouré asked died in Paris on February 28, 1944. In Through such rancid reasoning is the newly ordained Father Luc to join his the meantime, the Oblate Vicar General, legislation passed that would require administrative staff as his personal secre- Père Balmès, was appointed acting Su- federal agents to hunt out every undoc- tary, for a typical seven-year stint. Father perior General of the Oblate community. umented 18-month-old Canadien baby. Luc was soon packed and sailing to Europe. As Father Luc put it, “I was out of a job”, After WWII when the consequences of As secretary to the Superior General of until a new Superior General was elected. Grant’s theories are well known, some Amer- the Oblates, while headquartered in Rome, That would not occur until after the war. icans have learned to be embarrassed about Father Luc traveled to several areas of the In March 1944, Father Luc was cer- their sensitivities regarding Anglo-Saxon world with Père Labouré, whose responsibil- tainly still not free to leave France, so in racial and cultural “purity.” Modified, mod- ities as Superior included visiting the many order to get him out of circulation, Father ernized versions of Grant’s naked racism Oblate missions and seminaries in Europe, Luc was given a temporary assignment at an are clothed with fig leaves about national North America, Central America, South Oblate seminary at La Brosse-Montceaux, unity as well as by economic arguments. America, Africa, Haiti and the Philippines. a hamlet near Montereau (Seine et Marne I’m not sure that I prefer these lat- The outbreak of WWII found Père Department), approximately 80 kilometers ter-day versions to the overt stance of Labouré and his staff in Rome. As a French southeast of Paris, near the famed Fontain- Anglo-Saxon supremacy held by Grant citizen, Père Labouré was obliged to return bleau. There the Oblate community ran a and his acolytes. At least they were honest. to France. As the only priest on Père La- seminary in an 18th century chateau which bouré’s staff who was not French, Father had been willed to them by the family who Notes 1. Speech by Ellison DuRant Smith, April 9, 1924, Congres- Luc was offered immediate passage to the owned the chateau until 1934. The semi- sional Record, 68th Congress, 1st Session (Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1924), vol. 65, 5961–5962. U.S., a last opportunity to escape soon to nary at La Brosse-Montceaux continued to 2. Grant, Madison. The Passing of the Great Race or The Racial be war-torn Europe. Father Luc consulted function openly as such despite the war and Basis of European History. 4th Ed. New York: Scribner’s, 1921, 81. Père Labouré further as to his assessment (Continued on page 39) 3. Grant, 11-12 38 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Uncle Luc continued from page 38) wealthy and powerful merchant thought to inary, Père Henri Tassel. Korf ordered Père attendant hardships, as well as the presence have been a double agent between the Gesta- Tassel to request that everyone in the chateau of a Gestapo regional headquarters based at po and the network of Résistance workers. assemble on a small grassy courtyard near Mélun, headed by Corporal Wilhelm Korf (a In the process of questioning, under torture, the front of the chateau. There the Oblates former profession of Geology at Magdeburg a notebook was found on “Renard”’s person were confronted by Korf, who brought along University in Germany) a few kilometers with information implicating the Oblates in his informer, Résistance agent “Renard”, from the Oblate seminary. Corporal Korf had the secret procurement of arms. That note- handcuffed and showing signs of brutal a well established reputation of using torture book also contained the names père Albert torture. The previous evening “Renard” to extract information from his prisoners. He Piat, frère Jean Cuny, père Christian Gilbert, had revealed the clandestine activities at the had blonde hair, cut very short, light blue frère Joachim Nio and frère Lucien Perrier, seminary, as an outcome of torture, and the eyes and wore an obviously tailor made Ge- all Oblate staff of La Brosse-Montceaux. inadvertent written notes in a booklet found stapo uniform, and presented a stereotypical The Gestapo and Coporal Korf of on his person. However, “Renard” was actu- picture of a brutal and merciless roughneck. Mélun were only too well known for the ally unable to visually identify the seminary At Father Luc’s arrival at La merciless torture. Elderly villagers of La staff whose names were in the booklet. He Brosse-Montceaux, the residents of the Brosse Montceaux there today still recall was subsequently returned to the Gestapo seminary consisted of approximately 20 Korf’s name and readily associate it with tor- prison at Fontainbleau and along with 32 professional staff (priests and brothers) ture, recalling him only a “le tortionnaire”. other Résistance workers was taken into and 80 seminarian-students. Father Luc Under torture, then, “Renard” re- a nearby woods a few days later and shot. took on a variety of assignments there, vealed further damning evidence clearly At this point, Korf addressed the including private tutoring of Latin to unmasking the Oblates and their activities group in French, at first calmly, asking that seminarians as well as other students at the seminary on behalf on the Résis- someone from the group please step forward from the village of La Brosse-Montceaux. tance. As a consequence, Corporal Korf and tell him where the arms were hidden. As But there were other, move covert orchestrated a surprise raid on the seminary. superior, Père Tassel protested to Korf that activities going on at the seminary. A few of The morning of Monday, 24 July 1944 no one in the group knew anything of arms. the staff and students were secretly working was dawning as another hot and humid sum- Korf, now enraged, persisted. He announced with the French underground, i.e., the “Ré- mer day at La Brosse-Montceaux. At approx- that he would torture and kill every last priest sistance”, to help defeat the Germans. Father imately 5:00 AM, as priests and seminarians and seminarian one at a time, unless someone Luc was quick to become involved and his were beginning to assemble in the seminary in the group came forward with information bilingual sills enabled the Oblates to set up chapel for morning prayers and mass, sev- regarding where the arms had been hidden. a clandestine short-wave radio communi- eral trucks carrying German soldiers armed Under the blazing July sun, Korf cation in a sub-basement of the seminary, with sub-machineguns, lead by Corporal was evidently getting uncomfortable and with the French government in exile in Korf in his chauffeured staff car, descended removed his military jacket and rolled England to facilitate the planning of night- across the seminary grounds and quickly up the sleeves of his crisp white shirt. He time parachuting of arms onto farm fields had the seminary/chateau surrounded. continued to press for one of the Oblates in and around La Brosse-Montceaux. After Father Luc, ever vigilant for potential to come forward with information in order retrieving the parachuted canisters contain- trouble, had not yet left his room for chapel to spare everyone from being tortured and ing the guns and munitions, the canisters but was suddenly aware of the commotion murdered. He finally ordered fathers Albert and parachutes were taken to the seminary taking place outside. When he realized Piat and Christian Gilbert, as well as broth- where the canisters were emptied of their what was happening he attempted to escape ers Jean Cuny, Joachim Nio and Lucien contents. The empty canisters and attached through the window of his second floor Perrier (the names he got from the notebook parachutes were then dropped into a dry bedroom on the rear side of the chateau, found on the person of “Renard”) to step well on the seminary property. The guns and and once on the ground, try to make a quick forward. They were all taken via a back munitions were taken to the local cemetery run into a nearby woods. However, he was entrance into the basement of the seminary. and hidden in a host of mausoleums there, spotted by a German soldier who fired a blast In a continuing rage, Korf con- again, under cover of night. In this fashion of his sub-machinegun at the building in the tinued to press the group remaining in the Oblate community of La Brosse-Mont- direction of Father Luc, who quickly fell the courtyard for information about the ceaux was responsible for receiving and back into his room unharmed. As the soldiers hidden arms. The Oblates responded with hiding, over the course of a few weeks in had not yet made it to the second floor of the silence. They prayed the rosary and were the spring and summer of 1944, approxi- chateau, Father Luc left his room and ran to urged by Père Tassel speaking in whispers mately six tons of parachuted arms. These a room down the hall, that of Brother Duval, to “Say nothing, do not say anything”. would eventually be secretly transported to who had already left for chapel. Father Luc In the meantime, a methodical search of Résistance workers in Paris and were des- managed to remain in hiding in that room the seminary and grounds was being carried out. tined to play a role in the liberation of Paris. until approximately 9 AM when he was In the basement, meanwhile, the five All went well until July 1944 when a discovered by a soldier who was part of a victims singled out by Korf were being local agent of the Résistance, with the code larger group doing a methodical search of the interrogated under torture. Brother Joachim name of “Renard”, was arrested by the Ge- chateau for other seminary staff or students. Nio was the first to emerge from the base- stapo of Mélun, after having been betrayed Meanwhile, Corporal Korf had made ment and appear before the Oblates on the as a Résistance worker, possibly by Joseph his way to the front entrance of the chateau outside. There was a collective gasp when Joanavicci, aka “Monsieur Joe”, who was a and was met there by the superior of the sem- (Continued on page 40) 39 Le Forum (Uncle Luc continued from page 39) where he had observing the developments village of Villeneuve-la-Guard. He did not they spotted him bent over, hobbling slowly, outdoors. With the barrel of a sub-machine- return. The innkeeper at the inn where Korf with the aid of a walking stick, in obvious gun in his back he was ordered to join the stopped later recalled that Korf ordered the terrible pain. He made his way towards rest of the community in the courtyard. On best food and wine that could be had, boast- Korf and stood before him. Korf mockingly his way out, Father Luc later noted, the sol- ing, “because I have just killed 5 priests”. ordered him back to the basement to get dier accompanying him out of the chateau It was late afternoon and at this point him some wine, which Brother Nio did. ordered him to stop momentarily in the the surviving Oblates, who had been stand- The interrogation of the other four foyer of the chateau where there was a piano ing in the blazing July sun for nearly 12 priests and brothers continued and each which the soldier paused to play what was hours, were in various stages of collapse, would appear in turn to return the court- apparently a tune he’d heard and learned as having gone without water or food since yard to the horror of their confrères. a child. Father Luc then joined his confrères 5 AM, in addition to having witnessed The next victim to emerge from in the courtyard. There Father Luc saw the unspeakable horrors. The soldiers left be- the basement was Père Christian Gilbert. bodies of Père Gilbert and Frère Cuny, and hind to guard the Oblates as their prisoners He made his way out to stand before he learned that another three confrères were until they could be removed to the prison Korf. Turning to the group and shouting still being interrogated in the basement. at Fontainbleau, then ordered some of the at them in a voice choking with rage, Over the ensuing several hours, Frère Oblates into the refectory area where they Korf asked again, “Where are the hid- Perrier, Frère Nio and Père Piat were to suffer were ordered to prepare quantities of food den arms?!” Shoulder to shoulder, the the same fate as Père Gilbert and Frère Cuny. and drink for the soldiers. By early evening, Oblates again responded with silence. After these first five killings, Korf two trucks had arrived at the seminary to “Very well then” shouted Korf, “I coolly announced that he was prepared to transport the Oblates to the Fontainbleau will start by killing Father Gilbert. I will go on to as many more killings as need- prison. Père Delarue prevailed upon one then kill a second, a third, a fourth and the ed until someone came forward with the of their drunken captors to allow him to fifth, and more, until you tell me where the information he wanted about the hidden retrieve consecrated hosts from the chapel arms are hidden.” He signaled to a soldier arms. He then ordered the group to line tabernacle which had been left untouched standing nearby to bring Père Gilbert for- up in rows of 10 each. Father Luc took during the extensive pillaging of the chateau ward. Stepping back several feet from Père his place at the head of the first row, ex- throughout the day. Père Delarue distributed Gilbert, Korf ordered a soldier to bring pecting shortly to become the sixth victim. communion to the Oblates as they boarded him a sub-machinegun which he method- However, before Korf could continue, the trucks. The Oblates were then transport- ically inspected to be sure it was loaded. a Wehrmacht staff car appeared on the prop- ed to the Fontainbleau prison. They would Their hearts filled with horror and pity, erty. An obviously high-ranking German be held there until transfer could be arranged the Oblates were helpless to intervene. In the military officer, heavily decorated, wearing to the Royal-Lieu barracks, a WWI military terrible silence which engulfed them, the only a gold monocle, and smoking a cigar, got out barracks in Compiègne. They were held noise which could be heard was the whirring of the car. Along with his staff, he looked there for several days under near starvation of a camera being operated by a German with cold indifference at the five bodies on conditions. Father Luc administered final solder from the Wehrmacht’s division of war the ground before him and at the assembled rites to a number of his Oblate confrères cinematography filming the entire event!! priests at the far end of the courtyard. Korf, who subsequently died in Compiègne. Addressing Père Gilbert one last in his rolled up shirt sleeves, drenched in The Oblates’ departure from the time, Korf persisted, “So, so you still do sweat and still carrying a sub-machinegun, Compiègne holding prison, with intended not want to tell me where the arms are hid- greeted them and had a brief conversation destination of the Buchenwald concentration den?” Père Gilbert, in a calm, steady and with them, the substance of which seems to camp in Germany, and certain death, was clear voice responded, “Sir, I wish only to have been that he was ordered to stop the scheduled for August 25. However their de- see a priest.” From within the group, Père killings, after which the German high officer parture was delayed several days due to the Delarue shouted, “Père Gilbert, we give and staff returned to the car and left the scene. train having been sabotaged by Résistance you final absolution!” With that, the priests Korf ordered the 10 Oblates in the agents who were discretely following de- in the group raised their arms in unison and first row to remove the 5 bodies and dump velopments at a distance. August 25 is also bestowed a final blessing upon Père Gilbert, them in a well at the far end of the property. the day on which Paris was liberated, made only moments before Korf fired a blast of Father Luc was one of the five. As this was possible in part by the arms received by his sub-machinegun into Père Gilbert’s taking place Korf added in disdain, “Throw Résistance workers from the Oblates at La chest. Père Gilbert fell to his knees and then their bodies in the well and be quick about Brosse-Montceaux. The train taking the Ob- onto his back, without uttering a sound. it. It is not my fault, after all, it is yours!” lates, in cattle cars, bound for Buchenwald, Korf then circled the body before him on The bloodbath appeared over. However, left Compiègne on Thursday, August 31. the ground and coming full circle fired an Korf then added that for good measure he However, on nearing the town of additional round from his pistol into Père was going to kill 5 more Oblates of the 10 Péronne, approximately 132 kilometers Gilbert’s head. Then turning to the stupefied who had helped to remove the bodies. Père northeast of Paris and 70 kilometers from onlookers he announced with arrogance Tassel immediately intervened and begged the Belgian border, as the railroad station and contempt, “It is your fault he is dead.” Korf to desist. It worked, though Korf had and tracks had been destroyed by Allied As the internal search of the chateau Père Tassel taken as a hostage. Korf then bombing a few days earlier, the transport continued, Father Luc was discovered in the left the scene in his car with his personal to Germany was halted. The following room where he had taken refuge, and from entourage to have dinner in the nearby (Continued on page 41) 40 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Uncle Luc continued from page 40) prisoners of war who had been conscripted stay on as part of his new administrative day, Friday, September 1, their German under duress to work in the munitions fac- staff which Father Luc agreed to do. captors, suddenly taken by confusion and tories in Germany, essentially as slave la- In 1952 Father Luc asked Father De- panic as the Allies quickly made their way borers. This required extensive travel to and schatelets to be reassigned stateside, back across northern France towards Péronne, from France and Germany. This post-war to the southwestern province of the Oblates abandoned their captives and left in hasty assignment in Paris also required Father Luc in Texas, where his Oblate adventures had retreat. By 3 PM, the Red Cross arrived to report regularly to the Vatican’s Nuncio started in 1927. Before returning to the in Péronne. At 6 PM the next day, church to France, Archbishop Angelo Roncalli. The U.S. Father Luc vacationed briefly in Spain bells announced the liberation of Péronne. two became close friends and maintained a and England. Like in most of his travels, The American Army was on the scene the correspondence even following Father Luc’s Father Luc traveled by ship. He arrived same day, and ironically one of the first permanent reassignment to the U.S. in 1952. in the port of Québec City on Christmas American soldiers who greeted Father Luc In 1953 Archbishop Roncalli was elevated morning 1952. From there he returned to was Ferdinand Gosselin, of Manchester, to Cardinal of Venice, and he was subse- Manchester to reunite with his family, arriv- NH! He was chief petty officer in the Navy, quently elected Pope John XXIII in 1958. ing in his family home in time to visit with having been reassigned to the European War Father Luc returned to the U.S. for his father, Joseph François Miville a few theater in France to serve as an interpreter. the first time since liberation in the ear- days before the latter’s death in May 1945. Ferdinand Gosselin helped orchestrate ly spring of 1945. He was subsequently Over the next 40 years Father Luc getting word back to Father Luc’s family in joined there by other French Résistance served as curate in Oblate parishes through- Manchester, that after four years of silence, workers who with Father Luc toured ex- out Texas and Colorado. He also taught and though far from well, he was alive. tensively in the U.S. and Canada recall- Spanish at the Oblate seminary in San Anto- The five victims of La Brosse-Mont- ing for their audiences their harrowing nio, his alma mater. He semi-retired in 1990 ceaux are still remembered every July 24 adventures in France throughout the war. at St. Mary’s parish in San Antonio where in ceremonies held on the former seminary After the war, Corporal Wilhelm Korf he had been ordained in 1938. Stricken with grounds, commemorating their supreme was found and arrested and tried in a mili- cancer in 1992, Father Luc died on October sacrifice. In addition to a large granite tary tribunal in Paris on 9 December 1953. 19, 1992 in San Antonio after imparting a memorial which stands in the courtyard The tribunal condemned him to death, a final blessing on his last surviving siblings, where the murders took place, 5 small, sentence which was later commuted to life Bernadette and Emile, who were accom- white stone crosses, bearing each victim’s imprisonment at hard labor. For reasons panied to visit Father Luc in Texas by a photo, mark the very spots on the grass unknown to me, he was released from prison niece, Yvette (Miville) Smith and myself. where they were murdered by Wilhelm Korf. in 1960. Korf’s name also appears in the Father Luc’s missionary cross was After the liberation of France, and records of the proceedings of the Nurem- temporarily “retired” for a few years but following a period of recuperation, at the burg trials in which the atrocities he was eventually presented in Father Valentine Oblate’s Vicar General’s request, Father Luc responsible for in France, including those Kalumba on February 20, 2005 at the time was assigned to the Oblate Paris headquarters of La Brosse-Montceaux, are documented. of his profession into the Oblate commu- at 18 rue de l’Assomption. There he worked Father Léo Deschatelets, a Qué- nity of Zambia, Africa. I have not a doubt (with the equivalent rank of Captain in the becois, was elected as the new Superi- that mon oncle Luc would be very pleased. American Army, “with pay”) in a special or General of the Oblates in 1947. Fa- project to assist in the repatriation of French ther Deschatelets asked Father Luc to

Palm Weaving

My Mom, Albertine Albert-Pimperal weaving a palm at 89 yrs. old in her Waterville kitchen, despite arthritic hands.

––– Submitted by Virginia Sand

Photo by Virginia Sand taken March 23, 2016. 41 Le Forum Coin desjeunes... Compère Bouki pi Compère Lapin A Franco-African Folktale of the Missouri Ozarks.

Par Kent Beaulne dit Bone, at the Old Mine-La Vieille Mine au Missouri

Ah ben, c’est bon de vous dzire. Une says Bouki. that old outlaw, me.” fouès c’étaient un bouki pi un lapin. Ah The next day those two are harvesting Some days later Bouki asks Lapin well, it’s good to tell you. That’s how the old wheat again. Ben, it wasn’t long before that to come help him shore-up his puits cause Créole folktales started. There are French lazy Lapin got hot again and decided he the walls of the well were caving in. Lapin words sprinkled throughout this story, but was gonna play the same trick on Bouki and tells him “I don’t need your well water, me. the reader should be able to figure out their slip away and eat on his butter some more. I lick the dew off the grass every morning meaning. So he raises his head and hollered out, “Hè and night”. Now Bouki says “If you don’t There was a bouki (hyena) and a lapin Bouki, viens donc icitte, vite! What you want help me shore up my puits, we’re gonna (rabbit). Well, Compère Bouki and Compère this time, you”? Bouki asks. “Well there’s half to separate as partners then. You go Lapin were always going in together as another family that needs me to go and be your way and I’ll be better off”. So Bouki partners. This time they planted some wheat. parrain today. Oh well, go on and go, you. cribbed the mud walls of his well with logs, Their partnership went well in the spring and You can’t refuse to help out at a baptism.” without Lapin’s help and decides he’s better early summer while it was still cool. When it Says Bouki. off without that rabbit anyway. came time to harvest the wheat, it was hot. So Lapin heads down the lane, slips Now Lapin was lying about not Lapin was hot. About nine needing well water. He goes and cuts some o’clock he got real hungry gourds and hollows them out and dries them. too, and started scheming on Every night he sneaks over to Bouki’s well how to get out helping har- with the gourds tied around his neck. He vest. He was always schem- fills them up, carries them home and emp- ing, him. Ben, all of a sudden ties them into barrels in the cellar. Il est si he raised his head and cried canaille, Lapin, lui. out, “Hè Bouki, viens donc Time goes by and one icitte, vite! So Bouki goes Sunday afternoon the psites over to him and says, Oh boukies were playing in the what’s the matter with you, field with thepsites lapins. Il hollering like that? Someone faisait bien chaud. The little just came by and wants me boukies got real thirsty and to go and be parrain (god- asked Lapin for some water father) for a baby that needs to drink. “I don’t have any baptized right away”. Lapin tells him. “Ah through the woods and goes down into poor water you bunch of dummies,” Lapin tells Bon Gieu, you can’t refuse helping out at a Bouki’s spring house again. This time he ate them. Now one of the psite lapins tells the baptism, that would be a mortal sin”. Bouki till half the pound of butter was gone. After little boukies about les gros barils d’eau says. “Go do your good deed and I’ll see you a while Lapin went back to the wheat field, caché dans caveau. Now the psites boukis when you get back, me”. where Bouki was still working. Well Bouki are gonna make sure their pop hears about Well Lapin headed off down the lane. asks him what he named his fillot this time. barrels of water hidden in the Lapin’s cellar. As soon as he was out of sight, he back- “I named him Moquié Mangé, (Half Eaten). When Bouki hears about this, he says, tracked through the woods and snuck into Hmm, c’est un nom drôle pour un fillot,” “I’m gonna trap that outlaw Lapin tonight. Bouki’s’ spring house where they kept milk, Bouki says. Well I ain’t never heard a fillot He ain’t gonna play me for a fool no more. cream, and butter. It always stayed nice and called that before, me”. I’m gonna guard my puits with my fusil”. So cool down there. Lapin starts eating on a A while later Bouki says “Ben, let’s he sits himself down near his puits with his pound of butter, but he didn’t eat too much go eat some supper now”. When Bouki gets shot-gun and waits for dark and Lapin. Pretty cause he didn’t want Bouki to notice that back to his house he tells his Old Lady to go soon he falls asleep and starts to ronfler real some of it was missing. and get some butter out of the spring house. loud. Now that wascally wabbit Lapin has When he returned to the field Bouki When she comes back she tells him there is been waiting and watching in the woods. asks him what they named the fillot (god only half a pound of butter left. “Don’t say When he hears Bouki snoring he says to child). “They named him Entamé, (just anything about it, it’s that Lapin that snuck himself, “I don’t have to be scared of Bouki started)”. Lapin tells him. Ben, quiens donc! down there and ate half the butter. He’s up tonight”. So Lapin fills up his gourds and Well there, c’est un nom drôle pour un fillot. to his old tricks again, him. I’ll get even with (Continued on page 43) 42 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 (Compère Bouki pi Compère Lapin don’t say nothing, her. She just stands there covered in cold rosée”, says Old Bouki. continued from page 42) ginning at him. Lapin isn’t used to this. He “O Bouki, jette-mouè pas dans la rosée, takes all the water he wants. Before he takes is used to dealing with dumb old Bouki and comme c’est frétte à matin, et je vas geler off, he goes and slaps Bouki in the mouth always getting his way. So he hits her with là dedans. Now Bouki figures if Lapin don’t real hard, then tout suit, he’s parti gone. Poor his other front patte and that one gets stuck want to be thrown in the cold, wet, weeds, dumb Bouki. He didn’t even wake up, he real good too. “If you don’t let go of mes that is exactly where he will throw him. He was sleeping so sound. [Sounds like Buggs deux pattes, I’m gonna thump you with my pulls Lapin off the gum-doll, puts him in a Bunny, don’t it!] back ones” he says. Catin à la gomme just sack and tosses it as far as he can, thinking Quiens donc! In the morning Bouki stands there and this makes Lapin ben faché, he is punishing that wabbit real good. [In wakes up and sees Lapin’s tracks right there but she won’t let go so he kicks her with his the English versions of this story, Wabbit is in the dust beside him. “Well I’ll set a trap back paw. Well you know how hard a wabbit thrown in the briar patch.] That Old Bouki and catch that Lapin tonight”, Bouki says. can kick with those big back feet. Now he’s is such so dumb. It doesn’t take long for “He ain’t gonna make a fool of me again.” stuck for sure, two front pattes and one back Lapin to wiggle out of that sack. Then he So Bouki made une grosse catin à la gomme. patte. Ben il dzit, “lâche mes trois pattes or jumps once, twice, three times, real high. A doll made of gum-tree sap. Also known I’m gonna kick you again. Quines donc, Il était si content, lui. “Oh Bouki”, he says. as the tar baby in the Uncle Remus stories. she didn’t let go, so he kicks her with his “tu est si bête toé. You are so dumb, you. He makes her real sticky and dresser her up only free patte. Now all four feet are stuck If you had thrown me in the puits, I would to look like a girl, with une robe, and une to Catin, the gum-doll. Well Lapin says to have drowned. If you had put me in the guarde d’soleil. That’s a bonnet. Lapin is her “si tsu lâches pas mes quatres pattes, je chuminée, I would have burned up, me. never gonna get loose from that catin once vas te donner une coup de tête”. Catin just Don’t you recall when you asked me to help he touches it, Bouki thinks. He knows Lapin smiles, so he butts her real hard with his shore up the walls of your well and I told you won’t be able to resist a pretty girl. Then he head. Well that was the wrong thing to do, that I could drink the rosée in the morning sticks a gros patate in her hand, sets catin à I tell you. Il est bien collè, lui. Lapin just and at night. J’cheus jusse dans mon pays la gomme in the path to his putis and goes off keeps getting dumber and dumber, he hits à c’t’heure”. Well I’m in my country now, to bed, him. He was so confident knowing her with his queue blanc. Well now he’s a Embrasse mes taches! Kiss my spots! Now Bouki loves potatoes. mess. There’s no way for him to get out of I’m parti gone, me. After dark Old Lapin comes down the this, so he spends the night like that stuck lane to steal some more of Bouki’s water. He to her. [Picture ole Buggs Bunny.] He was gets real startled to see a pretty young catin real embarrassed and had lots of time to This is written as told to me en americ- standing there in the piste, (path). “Bonjour think about the hopelessness of his situation. ain, in the way the old Creoles talked, by Ida psite fille”, he says to her. “Donne-moi une So in the morning Bouki comes along Polite-Portell of the Old Mines, Washington bouchée de ta patate.” Well she doesn’t say and says, “hey Lapin, I have you now and County, MO. She heard the stories first en anything, she just stands there and smiles I’m gonna throw you down my puits.” “Oui, français as a child in the first decade of the at Lapin. Well Lapin isn’t too happy that says Lapin. Bouki, is that why you trapped 1900s. she won’t share her patate, he just wanted me? Oh boy! If you throw me down you The old Créoles called the English a bite. He tells her how rude she is for not puits, I can drink whenever I want”. So language, americain, the language spoken answering him. He just can’t stand it, him, Bouki says, “well then I’ll put you behind by their neighbors, immigrants to Fran- so he says, “If you don’t give me a bite of some logs in the chuminée, me”. “Oh I co-Spanish, Louisiana. your patate, I’m gonna slap your mouth”. wouldn’t want to be in a better place than This is a follow up to a previous arti- Catin didn’t say nothing so Lapin slaps her the fireplace” Lapin says. “Winter’s coming cle in Le FORUM about African Folktales real hard with his front patte, and it sticks you know and everyone will be out cutting re-told in English and in French in former to her face. He tries and tries to get his paw wood with their passe-partout, working real slave states. unstuck but it’s stuck real good. “If you hard and I can just stay there and keep real The word catin is an old word for a don’t let go of my patte, you, I’m gonna slap warm, me”. “Ah ben then, I’m gonna throw doll, or a little girl. It has a different meaning you with my other one psite fille”. Well she you in those tall wet weeds over there, all in modern French. La Ferme Pepinoise

Par Virginie L. Sand-Roi L’été arrive encore à la Ferme Pe- Pepinoise, elles ont parqué leurs bicyclettes pinoise à Warwick, Québec (Canada). Ca à la grange. Ensuite, les filles sont allées en c’est le temps quand les touristes et les quatre directions différentes, pour explorer villageois visitent la Ferme Pepinoise. En les parts certaines de la Ferme Pepinoise : effet, un jour ensoleillé en juillet, quatre Lisa, elle, est allée dans la direction amies ont décidé de faire une promenade de la mare de grenouille. Là, par la mare, remarquait la jolie couleur verte des gre- à bicyclette à la Ferme Pepinoise. Leurs elle regardait une grenouille perchée sur nouilles et les taches sur leur peau. Puis prénoms étaient Lisa, Lin, Virginie, et Diane. une grande roche pendant que une autre elle voyait les nénuphars verts flottant sur Aussitôt qu’elles sont arrivées à la Ferme grenouille sautait vers des roseaux. Lisa (Continued on page 44) 43 Le Forum (La Ferme Pepinoise continued from page lapins mangeaient les carottes et la laitue 43) dans le jardin du cultivateur Pepinoise. la surface de la mare. Tout à coup, Lisa a Donc, Virginie ramassait une carotte pour décidé de ramasser un roseau pour montrer montrer à ses amies plus tard à la grange. à ses amies. Diane, elle, faisait une promenade à Lin, elle, a trouvé une mare de canard la pâture de vache. Là, elle regardait deux sur la ferme. Là-bas, elle regardait une cane vaches mangeant l’herbe et les fleurs des avec ses cinq canetons. Deux des canetons champs pendant que leurs mamelles parais- nageaient dans la mare pendant que les au- saient prêtes à exprimer le lait. Tout à coup, tres trois canetons marchaient autour de la Diane a entendu les cloches à sonner et puis mare. La cane, elle, se fixait sur le nid par elle a remarqué une clochette autour du cou la mare avec un autre œuf couvant. En plus, de chaque vache. Ensuite, Diane ramassait carotte, ou des fleurs des champs. Ensuite, Lin voyait les roseaux partout. Tout à coup, des fleurs des champs pour partager avec les quatre amies se montaient leurs vélos elle a ramassé un roseau pour montrer à ses ses amies. pour suivre leur prochaine aventure de l’été. amies plus tard. Plus tard, aussitôt que les quatre amies Voilà, un jour de l’été à chez la Ferme Virginie, elle, a découvert un jardin se sont retrouvées à la grange de Pepinoise, Pepinoise. potager. Là, elle regardait une grande lapine chacune racontait sa petite aventure et brune avec trois lapereaux bruns. Tous les montrait sa petite moisson : un roseau, une Pepinoise Farm By Virginia L. Sand-Roy

Summer arrives again at Pepinoise Lin found a duck pond on the farm. Farm in Warwick, Québec (Canada). This There, she watched a mother duck with her is the time when tourists and locals visit Pe- five ducklings. Two of the ducklings were pinoise Farm. In fact, one sunny day in July, swimming in the pond while the other three four girlfriends decided to ride their bikes were walking around the pond. The mother to Pepinoise Farm. Their names were Lisa, duck was sitting on a nest by the pond, with Lin, Virginia, and Diane. As soon as they one more egg hatching. Moreover, Lin saw arrived at Pepinoise Farm, they parked their cattails everywhere. Suddenly, she cut a Diane heard bells ringing, and then she no- bicycles at the barn. Then the girls went in cattail to show her friends later on. ticed a small bell around each cow’s neck. four different directions to explore certain Virginia discovered a vegetable gar- Following, Diane picked some field flowers parts of Pepinoise Farm: den. There, she watched a large, brown to share with her girlfriends. Lisa headed over to the frog pond. mother rabbit with three brown baby rabbits. Later, when the four girls met back There, by the pond, she watched a frog All of the bunnies were feasting on carrots at the Pepinoise barn, each one recounted perched on a large rock while another frog and lettuce in farmer Pepinoise’s garden. her little adventure and showed her little leaped towards some cattails. Lisa noticed Therefore, Virginia collected a carrot to harvest: a cattail, a carrot, or a few field the pretty green color on the frogs and spots show her girlfriends later on at the barn. flowers. Afterwards, the four girls mounted on their skin. Then she saw green lily pads Diane walked to the cow pasture. their bicycles to follow their next summer floating on the surface of the pond. All of There, she was watching two cows eating adventure. a sudden, Lisa decided to collect a cattail to grass and field flowers while their udders There it is, a summer day at Pepinoise show her friends. appeared ready to express milk. Suddenly, Farm.

44 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 furtivement dans l'étable où était attaché, Regard en arrière à sa crèche, Le Blond, cheval de leur père. En étouffant de rire elles versent la liqueur forte dans un plat à avoine et en font boire Par Camille Lessard le contenu au Blond. Leur coup fait, elle détachent le licou de l'animal en grimpant Publié dans La Survivance de sur la crèche et le pousse dehors. Cet exploit accompli, les espiègles 1946 à 1947 font un détour pour arriver innocemment à Moulin à scie la maison. Nonchalamment elles se dirigent an plus tard. vers la porte donnant sur la cour et se mettant Entre les deux ponts où était sise notre Et les belles rangées de billots bordant à crier : "Viens donc voir, maman, on dirait demeure, se trouvait aussi la scierie de Jos. la route! Je grimpais sur la plus haute que que le Blond est fou!" Butin. Je connaissais par coeur toutes les je parcourais à la course pour sauter sur la L'animal, si tranquille d'ordinaire, machineries de ce moulin car il n'y avait rangée suivante et recommencer le même agissait réellement d'une manière extraor- pas un coin où je n'avais pas trouvé moyen jeu tant que je n'étais pas trop essouflée. dinaire. Il hennissait sur tous les tons, il de me faufiler. D'autres fois j'y prenais place pour regarder essayait de grimper ses pattes de devant Gamins et gamines du village venaient sans me lasser le va-et-vient des voitures. dans les arbres, il ruait, il se roulait, puis il s'enterrer dans les tas de bran de scie du J'aurais désiré les suivre et m'en aller au se mettait à galoper, la queue droite sur le moulin tout comme et il y avait autant de bout des routes. . . dos, la crinière au vent, le poitrail bombé puces dans notre bran qu'il y en a sur les Et la fournaise alimentant les engins par en avant, tout comme le jeune poulain plages. de la scierie! Me suis-je arrêtée souvent qu'il n'était plus, prise de peur, envoya ses Nous jouions à la cachette dans les et longtemps devant es portes! Je tissais fillettes chercher leur père. nombreuses cages de planches et le sorcier toute un trame dans cette contemplation. M. Boutin arriva à la course avec ses ne nous aurait pas trouvé excepté quand La venture énorme du monstre devait avoir employés. On essaye d'approcher le Blond une planche mal équilibrée dégringolait emprunté son feu à l'enfer. Mais je faisais et comme une forte odeur de gin parfume avec nous. ressembler les langues de flamme à de mag- l'air, un des hommes de dire au patron : "Ton En ai-je décolté de la bonne gomme nifiques draperies d'or. Les étincelles c'était mau . . . Blond il n'est ni malade, ni fou, il d'épinette sur les billots qui, le printemps, les bébés des étoiles; la fumée un nuage est saoul!" arrivaient à la scierie par voie de la rivière sombre; et le chauffeur avec sa grande pelle Je ne sais comment la vérité se fit jour et, l'hiver, sur des bob-sleighs trainés par ses mains noires et sa figure rouge, ah lui sur cette espièglerie mais cet incident me de vigoureux chevaux de travail au harnais c'était l'image du diable tout pur! revient si fortement à la mémoire, ce soir, desquels étaient attachées des rangées de Si chacune de nos pensées, même que j'en ai encore le fou rire. grelots! celles de l'enfant, est une cellule vivante, Et l'écluse près de la quelle tant de bil- combien de trillons de quadrillons une cer- Je l’échappe belle lots étaient "jammés" ! Nous nous risquions velle humaine peut-elle contenir? . . . Un après-midi, vers cinq heures, parfois à nous promener sur ceux qui étaient Le blond était saoul! alors que la brunante arrive, en hiver, je le plus rapprochés de la rive mais l'instinct grimpai au deuxième de la scierie pour y de la préservation nous empêchait d'essayer Quelque fois les amants de la bouteille attendre mon père qui y “clairait” la petite d'imiter les prouesses de "divers". cachaient leur provision de liqueur dans les scie. Comme il faisait trop sombre pour que Et la "ganway" où nous glissons si rangées de billots ou les cages de planches. je m’aperçusse que la scie tournait à pleine imprudemment quand aucun anduite n'était Ils devaient en faire leur deuil quand, dans vitesse, je m’élançai pour aller me placer aux aux alentours pour nous arrêter! leur jeu, les gamins découvraient ces trésors côtés de mon père. plus vite que la pensée Et le cri strident de la scie ronde mor- enfouis, car le plus souvent on prenait plai- ce dernier me saisit par les épaules ou la dant à pleines dents dans le coeur de nos sir à baptiser les pauvres billots à coups de tête, me saisit par les épaules ou la tête, je grands arbres, je l'ai encore dans les oreilles, bouteille. ne sais trop, me faisant sauter par-dessus la aujourd'hui. Mais est-ce le grincement de Une après-midi, mon frère Pitou, alors petite scie. Dire que sans sa présence d’es- la scie que j'entends ou bien la plainte de âgé de 10 ans, arriva à la maison pouvant prit, j’aurais aujourd’hui les jambes coupées l'arbre? à peine marcher. Comme il n'était pas en et peut-être autre chose ! Mon père tomba Et les croûtes (écorces) de billots! état de parler, ma mère l'envoya coucher . assis, le visage blanc comme un drap. . . net, Ai-je pris plaisir à les regarder sortir à Le lendemain il avoua en pleurant (il avait bien entendu. . . “Ma petite vlimeuse, si je te l'épouvante, l'une n'attendant pas l'autre, par une pour bleue de manger une raclée) que le reprends encore à remonter ici, c’est à moi les ouvertures du haut de la scierie! Presque wiskey qu'il avait bu avait été pris à même que tu auras affaire !” Je me le tins pour dit. toutes les familles achetaient un ou plusieurs une bouteille qu'il avait trouvée cachée sous Une nuit, des voleurs pénétrèrent voyages de ces croûtes afin d'alimenter le des billots. dans le magasin de M. Georges Turcotte, feu de leur fourneau amorti de la sève de Une autre fois un incident beaucoup député au fédéral, et y dérobèrent argent et bois vert. Une de ces croûtes, au vol plus plus drôlatique se produisit. Les gamines de marchandises. Un tel exploit, dans un village rapide que les autres , atteignit un jour, à Madame Boutin trouvèrent un gros flacon de perdu comme le nôtre, eut l’effet d’une la jambe, mon grand'père maternel et, de la gin dans une cage de planches. Qu'en faire? blessure qui ne guérit pas , il succombait un Elles ont une inspiration. Elles se glissent (Suite page 46) 45 Le Forum (Regard en arrière nichée ! . . . dans d’immenses chaudrons qu’elle instal- Par Camille Lessard suite de page 45) lait dans son jardin. Je lui aidais souvent à Dans le fond du banneau bombe sur la population. Immédiatement on charroyer le bois qu’il fallait pour tenir les retint les services de deux gardiens de nuit Le jardin que nous avions, à l’arrière marmites bouillantes puis, toutes deux, la dont mon père fut un. Comme les gardiens de notre maison, n’était pas assez grand grande maman et la petite gamine, on s’as- étaient forcé de dormir de jour seulement, pour nous permettre d’y avoir une récolte seyait sur un bout de planche, les genoux mon père alla se coucher un matin mais ou- de patates suffisante pour durer jusqu’à repliés à la hauteur de la poitrine, et elle me blia d’enlever les cartouches de la carabine l’automne de l’année suivante. Alors, mon jasait. . . ce qui me mettait fort orgueilleuse qu’il utilisait. Mon petit frère Pitou, voulant père obtenait l’autorisation d’un cultivateur d’être considérée comme une grande fille. . faire son homme, s’empara de l’arme et me — il fallait que ce fut toujours de l’autre côté . Ces braves gens avaient un grand jar- visant, m’ordonna de me lever les bras ou du village, — de semer un lopin de terre en din qui leur fournissait amplement tous leur qu’il alla tirer. . . Sans attendre une protes- pommes de terre pour notre famille. Quand légumes pour l’année, légumes conservés tation de ma part, il leva la gachette et le le temps arrivait de faire la récolte de ce dans leur cave en hiver. Ils possédaient coup partit. . . une balle siffla assez proche légume, il fallait bien, n’est-ce pas, que les également une vache, un cheval, des poules, de ma tête pour que je sentisse le déplace- enfants aillent donner un coup de main au une couple de cochons, de sorte que, leur ment d’air qu’elle provoqua en passant, père. Mais pensez-vous que j’étais assez maison étant tout payée, leur vie était suff- comme un souffle. . . Le bruit du coup de brave pour traverser la ville, juchée sur le isamment assurée. fusil réveilla mon père, comme vous pouvez devant de notre banneau ? (Un banneau Dans un coin de leur immense vous imaginer, et si vous pensez que mon est un wagon à deux roues seulement). cuisine se trouvait ce qu’on appelait, dans petit frère eut envie de remettre la main sur Vous vous trompez ! Ayant une peur bleue notre bout du village, un “bed”. C’était un une autre arme à feu, après ce jour là, vous des moqueries, je m’étendais dans le fond grand coffre qui, dans le jour, servait de vous trompez énormément. . . du banneau, le matin, en m’en allant aux banc et, la nuit, une fois ouvert, formait lit. champs, de sorte que personne ne pouvait Crachat de couleuvre, etc. Ce “bed” était le lit des quêteux. . . et dans y soupçonner ma présence. Le soir, si le la belle saison il était souvent occupé. Le Je me suis reposée sur des meules banneau était rempli de patates, je faisais un soir des quêteux je m’empressais à aider de mil fraîchement coupé, j’ai aidé à tous détour d’un demi-mille, éreintée que j’étais ma mère plus que coutume : bien qu’allant les travaux de la fenaison, par des jours de par de longues et dures heures de travail, à l’école et apprenant rapidement, je n’avais pluie, j’ai dormi sur des tasseries de foin, afin de trouver un pont pour regagner ma pas encore appris à lire des romans ! Je ne mais je suis encore à chercher la source de demeure sans être obligée de passer dans le me faisais pas prier pour bercer de toute me ces “crachats de couleuvre” qu’on trouve village. . . La peur du ridicule nous fait faire force, dans son ber, le petit baillard qu’était accolés aux tiges de foin, dans les champs. bien des bêtises. . . quand on est jeune. . . alors frère Albert, aujourd’hui d’Edmonton. Pourrait-on m’en donner une explication ? Je ne perdais pas mon père de vue et, quand Refuge de Quêteux Cette substance imite parfaitement le crachat je le voyais prendre son chapeau, dans un d’une personne en bonne santé, mais si cela Deux de nos voisins étaient M. bond j’étais à ses côtés. La seule objection était il faudrait, pour chaque champ, une Georges Breton et sa digne épouse qu’on ap- de ma mère était : “Ne veille pas tard, Pierre, armée de cracheurs et des artistes habiles pelait familièrement la Mère Pauline tandis car il faut que cette enfant se couche pas plus pour ensuite disposer ces crachats autour des que son mari c’était le Père Georges. Braves tard que 10 heures.” Je n’entendais pas la tiges de foin. Je n’ai encore jamais su que gens s’il en fut! Ils occupait une assez grande réponse de mon père, car déjà j’étais dehors. les couleuvres, crachaient. . . alors quoi ? . . . maison comprenant immense cuisine, vaste Dans deux minutes nous étions assis sur chambre à coucher et hangar attenant. Lui Sirop de sauterelle un des coffre du Père Georges et ce n’était était gros et gras avec une figure épanouie pas long que le drame ou la comédie com- Avez-vous remarqué, à la campagne par un perpétuel sourire. Comme contraste, mençait. Le quêteux du jour était le roi de ou n’importe où, le jeu des sauterelles ? sa femme était très haute de taille, maigre la veillée, par ses récitations : aventures de Quand elles sont immobiles, elle dégagent comme une branche sèche, avec un esprit chasse, de pêche, de fantômes, de feux-fol- une sorte de liquide ressemblant à la mélasse très éveillée et, pas la langue dans sa poche, lets, de loups-garoux, de chasse-galerie, de par la couleur, mais quant au goût. . . je ne comme elle disait. . . Comme revenus (leur batailles de chantiers, de tempêtes sur grands sais. . . C’était un bon passe temps pour nous, enfants mariés étaient partis pour les États) lacs, de guerre, de carnage, et que sais-je ? enfants, que d’attraper des sauterelles, de la le Père Georges confectionnait des raquettes, Quelque fois, c’était des contes de fées que tenir entre nos doigts et de leur commander durant la mauvaise saison, et j’allais souvent ces quêteux allongeaient à l’infini, suivant : “Donne-nous ton sirop ou on va te tuer !” m’accroupir sur mes petits talons tout près leur fantaisie. . . J’étais fascinée par ces . . Naturellement, la sauterelle, étant tenue de lui, pour le regarder faire son travail et récits comme le papillon de nuit l’est pour immobile, ne se faisant pas prier pour donner lui tendre, quand il en avait besoin, les bouts la flamme mais, pour mon cerveau en forma- du sirop et cela en si grande abondance sirop de babiche qui trempait dans un seau à ses tion, cela aurait pu avoir un désastreux effet que nos tabliers et robes en étaient tachées. côtés. car mes nuits d’après contes étaient remplies . . Mais je vous assure que le passe-temps Pour ne pas rester en arrière des de cauchemars : mes parents devaient venir n’était pas agréable pour personne quand on activités de son vieux, la Mère Pauline faisait me secouer pour chasser la vision qui trou- retournait à la maison barbouillés de sirop l’élevage des serins qu’elle devait vendre blait mon sommeil. de sauterelle des pieds à la tête. . . Pauvres pour une chanson, à cette époque lointaine. Un des quêteux que je me rappelle, mères, ce qu’elles en arrachent avec leur En plus, elle fabriquait du savon de pays (Suite page 47) 46 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 Postcards from the Past... Tucked away at the bottom of a closet was an old cardboard box. Crammed into the large brown box was the postcard collection of Tante Marie-Dora. Among the usual scenic cards and souvenirs from motels were a few gems of history and family travels. I am extracting these special postcards and, with the help of Le Forum readers, would like to add a page of background information and reminiscences about the people, place, and times shown in the cards. If you or someone you know has ever seen or heard the Orchestre Famille Brault at Val-Morin Lodge 38, I would appreciate hearing the story. Please send it to Le Forum for all of us to enjoy. Thanks.

Denise (Rajotte) Larson

“Orchestre-Famille Brault” at "Val-Morin Lodge 38” The music stands are labeled “Denise,” “Carmen,” “Rita,” and “Paulette.” There is a man at the piano, a young lady at the drums, and an older lady to her right. On reverse: “Made in Canada” (no date, no photo credit)

I believe this card was printed ca. 1949. The bibliotheque et Archives nationales Quebec has a duplicate of this postcard in its collection but little information about it.

Val-Morin is a vacation destination in the Laurentides (Laurentian mountains) of Quebec. First settled in 1851, railroad service started in 1892. The area became a popular ski and winter sports area for people from Montreal, New England, and New York.

(Regard en arrière Par Camille Lessard suite de page 46) coutumé au sourire inoffensif des petits. Ce nous tournait le dos mais elle était sûre de ne avait été baptisé par nous : “Le Braillard”. quêteux-là ne savait pas de contes ni d’his- pas être dérangé par la marmaille tapageuse À chaque fois qu’il entrait dans une mai- toires. Ainsi quand il passait pour sa quête du voisinage lorsque La Cateau passait, car son, il avait une salutation larmoyante pour annuelle je n’allais pas passer la veillée on avait trop peur d’attraper des poux ! êtres et choses à portée de sa vue. Ainsi on chez le Père Georges où, quotidiennement, Poux de La Cateau, Salutations du entendait : “Bonjour M. le Maître, — Bon- les hommes du voisinage s’assemblait pour Braillard, contes à faire dresser les cheveux jour Madame la Maîtresse, — Mamzelle jouer aux cartes, quelques fois aux pommes, sur la tête récités par tous ces chevaliers de la petite Maîtresse, — M. le petit Maître, en saison propice. Je me gardais également la route qui ont mystifié et enchanté mon — M. le Chien, — Madame la Chatte, M. d’y aller quand c’était le tour de La Cateau enfance, j’éprouve, à vous évoquer aujo- le Poêle, Madame la Table. . . et ainsi de car cette dernière donner des poux ! “Oui, urd’hui, le même émoi qui a fait frissonner suite jusqu’à ce que tous les êtres et objets nous assurait la Mère Pauline avec un grand mon coeur d’enfant, émoi qui a sans doute aient été salués. Après une telle salutation, sérieux, La Cateau jette des sorts sur les contribué à rendre mon imagination d’adulte Le Braillard commençait sa supplication : enfants trop curieux.” Mais quelles sortes de si élastique. . . “Voulez-vous me donner la charité, s’il vous sorts ?” demandions-nous tout épeurés. “Des plaît, pour l’amour du bon Dieu de la bonne poux! des poux gros comme des punaises et [À SUIVRE] Ste Vierge, du bon Saint Enfant Jésus,” . . . et piquants comme des chardons. Si une fois tous les saints connus et inconnus du ciel et vous en attrapez vous ne pourrez plus vous Joshua Barrière de la terre y passaient. Comment pouvait-il en débarrasser !” “Mais vous et Père Georges Québec, Québec se rappeler tout cela ? Si nous, les enfants, devez être pleins de poux, car vous la gardez baissions la tête en pouffant de rire, devant à coucher !” “Non, on est ses amis, nous, une si longue litanie, Le Braillard ne sem- elle ne nous jette pas de sort.” Et, à bout de blait pas s’en offenser. Il était sans doute ac- patience ou de raisons. . . la Mère Pauline 47 Le Forum En chérissant la famille, les amis, et les animaux de compagnie, Poésie/Poetry Mon amie, Lisa, cultive la culture franco-américaine avec la lumière du soleil, En protégeant les racines de la culture de l’extinction.

Les cœurs, les fleurs, En voyageant par un univers des arcs-en-ciel, et les étoiles En dansant de l’étoile à l’étoile, En s’asseyant sur les plages du verre de mer, Par Virginie L. Sand-Roi En regardant au soleil, En voyant une palette brillante des couleurs Les roses rouges de l’amour, Sur son jardin des fleurs et des amis, Les cœurs roses de l’espoir, Mon amie, Louelle, rayonne du cœur d’or Les étoiles d’or de la paix, A une vision de toute humanité tenant les mains sous les étoiles. Mon amie, Lin, illumine les étoiles de la généalogie, Et cultive un kaléidoscope des amitiés. Les violettes, les pétunias, et les pensées, Les fleurs des champs des amis et de la famille, Tournesols de la compassion, Les cœurs violets de la créativité, Les larmes de la joie, Les étoiles de la destinée, Les chansons du rieur, Les lapins de la joie, Mon amie, Martha, fertilise les jardins de l’amitié, Les vents de la passion En cultivant la communication au cœur de la paix. En pirouettant et en rond Par toute de la création, Les grand-mères sont les gardiennes En préservant la culture pour les générations futures, Du cœur de chaque culture, Moi, je cultive les sols de la diversité culturelle, l’amour de la langue, En illuminant les étoiles En arrosant les racines de l’indigène s’ils ne se dessèchent pas. Des prochaines sept générations, Mon amie, Diane, arrose les plantes des cinq générations, En semant les graines de la tradition, de la langue française, et de la culture.

En volant par les ciels étoilés Et les tunnels des rayons du soleil, En nourrissant et en préservant la culture Sur les couvertures piquées de mosaïque du temps, Hearts, Flowers, & Stars

By Virginia L. Sand-Roy Cherishing family, friends, and pets, Red roses of love, My friend, Lisa, cultivates the Franco American culture with sunshine, Pink hearts of hope, Protecting the roots of culture from extinction. Gold stars of peace, My friend, Lin, illuminates the stars of genealogy, Traveling through a Universe of Rainbow Skies, And cultivates a kaleidoscope of friendships. Dancing from star to star, Sitting on sea-glass beaches, Sunflowers of compassion, Looking up at the sun, Tears of joy, Seeing a bright palette of colors Songs of laughter, On her garden of flowers and friends, My friend, Martha, fertilizes gardens of friendship, My friend, Louella, radiates a heart of gold Cultivating communication at the heart of peace. To a vision of all humanity holding hands under the stars.

Grandmothers are the Keepers Violets, petunias, and pansies, Of the heart of each culture, Field flowers of friends and family, Illuminating the stars Purple hearts of creativity, Of the next seven generations, Stars of destiny, My friend, Diane, waters the plants of five generations, Rabbits of joy, Sewing seeds of tradition, French language, and culture. Winds of passion Twirling round and round Flying through starlit skies Through all of creation, And sunshine tunnels, Preserving culture for the future generations, Nurturing and preserving culture Me, I cultivate the soils of cultural diversity, the love of language, Over patchwork quilts of time, Watering the roots of the indigenous so they don’t wither away. 48 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016 En chérissant la famille, les amis, et les animaux de compagnie, Franco-American Families Pierre Filteau (Feuiltaut & Fecteau), born 1641 in France, died in 1699 in PQ, son of Mon amie, Lisa, cultive la culture franco-américaine avec la lumière du soleil, of Maine Robert Feuiltaut and Marguerite Brochet of the town of St. Georges-de-Montaigu, depart- En protégeant les racines de la culture de l’extinction. ment of Vendée, ancient province of Poitou, France, married at Québec city on 22 February par Bob Chenard, 1666 to "Fille-du-Roi" Gilette Savard, born in 1651 in France, died 1703 in PQ, daughter En voyageant par un univers des arcs-en-ciel, Waterville, Maine of François Savard and Jeanne Maron of the parish of St. Aspais, in the city of Melun, En dansant de l’étoile à l’étoile, department of Seine-et-Marne,ancient province of Brie, France. St.Georges-de-Montaigu En s’asseyant sur les plages du verre de mer, is located 17 miles south-southeast of the city of Nantes. (Continued from page 32, Vol. En regardant au soleil, Les Familles Fecteau 38 #1, Fall/Winter Issue, Le Forum). Welcome to my column. Over the En voyant une palette brillante des couleurs years Le Forum has published numerous (wid. of Rose-Alma Filteau) Sur son jardin des fleurs et des amis, families. Copies of these may still be avail- Henri 30 Jan 1939 Viviane Roy Jay(St.Rose-Lima) 39E Mon amie, Louelle, rayonne du cœur d’or Ronaldo 09 Apr 1945 M.-Rose Gosselin Lewiston(SPP) able by writing to the Franco-American A une vision de toute humanité tenant les mains sous les étoiles. 39D Thérèse 28 Dec 1946 Paul-Émile Ouellette Jay(St.Rose-Lima) Center. Listings such as this one are never 39E Louise-A. 18 Oct 1958 Louis-P. Chabot Jay(St.Rose-Lima) complete. However, it does provide you with Robert 21 Mar 1959 Patricia Lancaster Jay(St.Rose-Lima) Les violettes, les pétunias, et les pensées, my most recent and complete file of mar- 40A Philomène 23 Aug 1902 Paul Paquet Biddeford(St.And.) Les fleurs des champs des amis et de la famille, 41A Louis 22 Nov 1886 Adéline Paquet St.Étienne, Lévis 41C riages tied to the original French ancestor. Les cœurs violets de la créativité, Emma 26 Nov 1901 Amédée Marois Berlin, NH(St.An.) How to use the family listings: The left-hand Les étoiles de la destinée, Odile 06 May 1902 Jean Gagné Berlin, NH(St.An.) column lists the first name (and middle name Louis 26 Jul 1909 Eméline Viens Berlin, NH(St.An.) Les lapins de la joie, or initial, if any) of the direct descendants of 41B Zénaïde 26 Dec 1894 Joseph-Edmond Turgeon Biddeford(St.Jos.) Les vents de la passion Aurélie 03 Jun 1901 Joseph Sylvain Biddeford(St.And.) the ancestor identified as number 1 (or A, in En pirouettant et en rond Louis-M. 23 Jun 1902 M.-Louise Fortier Biddeford(St.And.) some cases). The next column gives the date Par toute de la création, Délia 28 Jul 1902 George Lambert Biddeford(St.And.) of marriage, then the spouce (maiden name Alexina 27 Mar 1913 Jean-Baptiste Perron Biddeford(St.And.) En préservant la culture pour les générations futures, if female) followed by the town in which the 41C Rosanna 22 Jan 1912 Désiré Bélanger Berlin, NH(St.An.) Moi, je cultive les sols de la diversité culturelle, l’amour de la langue, Délia 29 Jun 1914 James-J. Gagné Berlin, NH(St.An.) marriage took place. There are two columns En arrosant les racines de l’indigène s’ils ne se dessèchent pas. 46A Marie ! 20 Jun 1887 George Lachance Waterville(JOP) of numbers. The one on the left side of the (b.5-11-1865 St.Victor) (Vital & Sophie Poulin) page, e.g., #2, is the child of #2 in the right 46A M.-Emma 11 Feb 1888 François-H. Lessard Waterville(JOP)

column of numbers. His parents are thus (b.2-12-1866 St.Victor – d.17-9-1945 Wtvl.) 46B Anastasie 25 Sep 1904 Joseph Bisson Skowhegan(NDL) #1 in the left column of numbers. Also, it (b.20-11-1873 St.François) should be noted that all the persons in the 47A Odias 23 Jul 1923 Belzémire-M. Dubois Biddeford(St.Jos.) first column of names under the same num- 47B Alphonse 17 May 1920 Aurôre Pruneau Biddeford(St.And.) 47C ber are siblings (brothers & sisters). There 47C Gérard-P. 14 Nov 1942 Rita-M. Couture Lewiston(SPP) 47D Paul 26 Jun 1954 Carmen Lachance Lewiston(SPP) may be other siblings, but only those who 47D Richard-P. 01 May 1965 Irène-R. Poulin Lewiston(SPP) had descendants that married in Maine are Robert-G. 17 May 1969 Anita-L. St-Hilaire Lewiston(St.Mary) listed in order to keep this listing limited in Daniel-Roger 24 Sep 1976 Susan-Dorothy Bisson Auburn(St.Louis) size. The listing can be used up or down - to 48A Albertine 06 Sep 1909 Joseph Simard Somersworth, NH 52A Alma 27 Sep 1909 William Montanbeau Berlin, NH(St.An.) find parents or descendants. The best way 56A Émile-Phy. 08 May 1916 Éva-M. Bean (Lefebvre) Bingham 56B Cherishing family, friends, and pets, to see if your ancestors are listed here is to 56B Althéa 07 Sep 1942 Adélard Roy Bingham(St.Peter) My friend, Lisa, cultivates the Franco American culture with sunshine, look for your mother’s or grandmother’s 59A William 16 Jun 1913 M.-Valéda Doyon Waterville(SFS) Protecting the roots of culture from extinction. maiden name. Once you are sure you have 59B Alice 20 May 1906 Georges-J. Croteau Lewiston(SPP) Mathilda 12 Mar 1909 Alfred Ouellette Lewiston(SPP) the right couple, take note of the number 61A Barthélémi-Chls. 05 Apr 1900 Adianna Roy Somersworth, NH 61C Traveling through a Universe of Rainbow Skies, in the left column under which their names " 2m. 25 Jun 1923 Nellie McCarron Somersworth, NH Dancing from star to star, appear. Then, find the same number in the Marie 21 Jan 1907 Georges Demers Somersworth, NH Sitting on sea-glass beaches, right-most column above. For example, if 61B Eugénie-M. 16 Jul 1917 Edouard Godbout Augusta(St.Aug.) Eméline-M. 04 Apr 1921 J.-Louis-L. Gilbert Augusta(St.Aug.) Looking up at the sun, it’s #57C, simply look for #57C on the right Herménégilde 19 Jun 1922 M.-Anne-Rose Couture Augusta(St.Aug.) 61D Seeing a bright palette of colors above. Repeat the process for each genera- 61C Albina 23 Nov 1925 George-Arthur Morin Somersworth, NH On her garden of flowers and friends, tion until you get back to the first family in Emma 06 Oct 1941 William Morin Somersworth, NH My friend, Louella, radiates a heart of gold the list. The numbers with alpha suffixes Laurette 07 Jun 1947 Léopold Roy Saco(NDL) Anna 23 Dec 1959 Armand-Marcel Talbot Saco(NDL) To a vision of all humanity holding hands under the stars. (e.g. 57C) are used mainly for couple who 61D Normand-J. 30 May 1931 M.-Claire-Lse. Cormier Augusta(St.Aug.) married in Maine. Marriages that took place Thérèse-M. 28 Nov 1946 Richard-J. St-Pierre Augusta(St.Aug.) Violets, petunias, and pansies, in Canada normally have no suffixes with the Bernard-L. 26 May 1947 Fernande-P. Doucette Augusta(St.Aug.) Field flowers of friends and family, rare exception of small letters, e.g., “13a.” 63A Imelda 19 Apr 1915 Samuel-H. Lewis Lewiston(SPP) Georges 01 Aug 1927 Yvonne Beaudet Woonsocket, RI Purple hearts of creativity, If there are gross errors or missing families, Maurice 31 Oct 1927 Carmen Nault Lewiston(HC) Stars of destiny, my sincere appologies. I have taken utmost Edilbert 27 May 1932 Alice-A. Gauthier Lewiston(HF) Rabbits of joy, care to be as accurate as possible. Please Raoul-Paul-L. 10 Nov 1934 M.-Rose-Délima Poirier Lewiston(HC) 63B Winds of passion write to the FORUM staff with your correc- Léona 04 Jul 1938 Charles-E. Levesque Lewiston(SPP) Edmond-J. 25 Nov 1948 M.-Ange Levesque Lewiston(SPP) Twirling round and round tions and/or additions with your supporting 63B Shirley-Jeanne 10 Sep 1955 Gérard-Robert Violette Lewiston(HF) Through all of creation, data. I provide this column freely with the Doris-C. 19 Aug 1961 Raymond-J. Bussière Lewiston(SPP) Preserving culture for the future generations, purpose of encouraging Franco-Americans 64A Beatrice 01 May 1937 Oliva Cusson Berlin, NH(AG) Me, I cultivate the soils of cultural diversity, the love of language, to research their personal genealogy and to Gérard-J. 31 Dec 1938 Thérèse-Yvette Garon Berlin, NH(AG) 64B Rita-Éva 06 May 1939 Henri-Philippe Bergeron Berlin, NH(AG) Watering the roots of the indigenous so they don’t wither away. take pride in their rich heritage. 49 Finding Your Quebec & Acadian Ancestors Saturday May 7, 10 - Noon Franco-American Centre - University of Maine Crossland Hall (Across from the Alfond)

Learn how to research your Quebec & Acadian roots and tell your family’s unique story from professional gene- alogist Bob Chenard.

Bob is a retired federal employee who has over 45 years experience with Franco genealogy. He has written many articles and several books on the subject. He has written genealogy articles for Le FORUM since 1989 and has taught classes and made presentations to many groups and societies. He also was a director and an officer in two Maine genealogy societies and received the coveted MGS award for Excellence in Genealogical Service in 2008. Bob did both undergraduate and gradu- ate studies at UMO during the 1950's and early 1960's.

The upcoming program is free and everyone is welcome. Please contact Lisa Michaud atLisa.Michaud@umit. maine.edu or 581-3789 to register. Seats are limited to 25, so reserve today!

50 SPRING/PRINTEMPS 2016

Franco American Studies

FAS 101: Introduction to Franco American Studies This course examines the French cultures of North America, emphasizing the peoples of Maine and the Northeast region. No knowledge of French required. Pinette: T/Th 9:30-­‐10:45am

This course fulfills the General Education Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives Requirement. e introduces the FAS 250: Exile, Migrations and Communities This course explores the impact and implications of exile and migration with a Frenchfocus on Acadian peoples. cultures Okin: Online of

NorthThis course fulfills the General America, Education Cultural Diversity and International Perspectives Requirement. emphasizing the

: Colonial Canada peoplesThis FAS course 459 studies Canada’s of history from Maine New France to 1850, emphasizing political, social and economic developments and relations MWF 10-­‐10:50am andwith the Amerindian the peoples. Northeast Ferland: 51 region. It examines European origins and later migrations, the impact of gender and class, the social significance of language, individual and collective expression, the effects of assimilation, and the challenges faced today. This course introduces the French cultures of North America, emphasizing the peoples of Maine and the Northeast region. It examines European origins and later migrations, the impact of gender and class, the social significance of language, individual and collective expression, the effects of assimilation, and the challenges faced todayThis course introduces the French cultures of North America, emphasizing the peoples of Maine and the Northeast region. It examines European origins and later migrations, the impact of gender and class, the social significance of language, individual and collective expression, the effects of assimilation, and the challenges faced todayThis course introduces the French cultures of North America, emphasizing the peoples of Maine and the Northeast region. It examines European origins and later migrations, the impact of gender and class, the social significance of language, individual and collective expression, the effects of assimilation, and the challenges faced today Université du Maine Non-Profit Org. Le FORUM U.S. Postage Centre Franco-Américain PAID Orono, ME 04469-5719 Orono, Maine Permit No. 8 États-Unis Change Service Requested

THE FRANCO AMERICAN CENTRE LE CENTRE FRANCO AMÉRICAlN DE OF THE l’UNIVERSITÉ DU MAINE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE Le Bureau des Affaires franco-américains de l’Université du The University of Maine Office of Franco American Affairs was Maine fut fondé en 1972 par des étudiants et des bénévoles de la founded in 1972 by Franco American students and community volun- communauté franco-américaine. Cela devint par conséquent le Centre teers. It subsequently became the Franco American Centre. Franco-Américain. From the onset, its purpose has been to introduce and integrate the Dès le départ, son but fut d’introduire et d’intégrer le Fait Fran- Maine and Regional Franco American Fact in post-secondary academe co-Américain du Maine et de la Région dans la formation académique and in particular the University of Maine. post-secondaire et en particulier à l’Université du Maine. Given the quasi total absence of a base of knowledge within the Étant donné l’absence presque totale d’une base de connaissance University about this nearly one-half of the population of the State of à l’intérieur même de l’Université, le Centre Franco-Américain s’efforce Maine, this effort has sought to develop ways and means of making d’essayer de développer des moyens pour rendre cette population, son this population, its identity, its contributions and its history visible on identité, ses contributions et son histoire visible sur et en-dehors du and off campus through seminars, workshops, conferences and media campus à travers des séminaires, des ateliers, des conférences et des efforts — print and electronic. efforts médiatiques — imprimé et électronique. The results sought have been the redressing of historical neglect Le résultat espéré est le redressement de la négligence et de l’ig- and ignorance by returning to Franco Americans their history, their lan- norance historique en retournant aux Franco-Américains leur histoire, guage and access to full and healthy self realizations. Further, changes leur langue et l’accès à un accomplissement personnel sain et complet. within the University’s working, in its structure and curriculum are De plus, des changements à l’intérieur de l’académie, dans sa structure sought in order that those who follow may experience cultural equity, et son curriculum sont nécessaires afin que ceux qui nous suivent puisse have access to a culturally authentic base of knowledge dealing with vivre l’expérience d’une justice culturelle, avoir accès à une base de French American identity and the contribution of this ethnic group to connaissances culturellement authentique qui miroite l’identité et la this society. contribution de ce groupe ethnique à la société. MISSION OBJECTIFS: • To be an advocate of the Franco-American Fact at the Uni- 1 – D’être l’avocat du Fait Franco-Américain à l’Université du versity of Maine, in the State of Maine and in the region, and Maine, dans l’État du Maine et dans la région. • To provide vehicles for the effective and cognitive ex- 2 – D’offrir des véhicules d’expression affective et cognitive d’une pression of a collective, authentic, diversified and effective voice for voix franco-américaine effective, collective, authentique et diversifiée. Franco-Americans, and 3 – De stimuler le développement des offres de programmes • To stimulate the development of academic and non-academic académiques et non-académiques à l’Université du Maine et dans program offerings at the University of Maine and in the state relevant l’État du Maine, relatant l’histoire et l’expérience de la vie de ce groupe to the history and life experience of this ethnic group and ethnique. • To assist and support Franco-Americans in the actualization 4 – D’assister et de supporter les Franco-Américains dans l’ac- of their language and culture in the advancement of careers, personal tualisation de leur langue et de leur culture dans l’avancement de leurs growth and their creative contribution to society, and carrières, de l’accomplissement de leur personne et de leur contribution • To assist and provide support in the creation and implemen- créative à la société. tation of a concept of pluralism which values, validates and reflects 5 – D’assister et d’offrir du support dans la création et l’implémen- affectively and cognitively the Multicultural Fact in Maine and else- tation d’un concept de pluralisme qui value, valide et reflète effectivement where in North America, and et cognitivement le fait dans le Maine et ailleurs en Amérique du Nord. • To assist in the generation and dissemination of knowledge 6 – D’assister dans la création et la publication de la connaissance about a major Maine resource — the rich cultural and language diversity à propos d’une ressource importante du Maine — la riche diversité of its people.