I have recently finished reading The Audacity of His Enterprise: Louis Riel and the Metis Nation That Canada Never Was, 1840-1875 by M. Max Hamon. As usually happens, this book, via content and footnotes, led me to more research. One of the things I learned from it, that I hadn’t know before, was that Louis Riel spent time in the 1870s visiting Franco-American communities in New England. This was while he was awaiting the amnesty promised by Sir John A. MacDonald at the time of the Red River Resistance.
Louis Riel was the dynamic Metis leader who was instrumental in the creation of the Province of Manitoba. If you don’t know about Riel you can read about him here.
One of the places Louis Riel spoke was Worcester, Massachusetts! Why does this matter? Because in the 1870s my great-great-grandparents Paul Girardin and Louise Bernardin, as well as my great-grandparents Napoleon Girardin and Onesime Allard lived there. (I wrote about them here and here.)
I immediately knew I would have to research and discover if my ancestors could have been among the people listening to Riel speak! My task would be to see if I could find out why Riel went to Worcester, who would have been his contacts, what did he talk about, and where did he give his speeches.
In the Journal of Canadian Studies Volume 51 • Number 3 • Fall 2017, there is an article by Mark Paul Richard titled “Riel … vivra dans notre histoire”: The Response of French Canadians in the United States to Louis Riel’s Execution. From that article I learned that:
When the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of Montreal celebrated
its fortieth anniversary in June 1874, more than 10,000 French Canadians from the United States joined in the festivities.
There was discussion about whether to issue a document supporting amnesty for Riel, but it was not adopted by the delegates. One of the participants who most strongly defended Riel was Frédéric Houde, co-owner of the Worcester newspaper Foyer Canadien. In July of 1874 Riel went to visit Houde in Worcester to thank him for his support. Okay…that’s the why.
According to Thomas Flanagan, author of Louis ‘David’ Riel: Prophet of the New World, Riel stayed with Abbé Jean-Baptiste Primeau, pastor of Notre Dame des Canadiens, a parish that served as the centre of spiritual and cultural identify for Franco-American Catholics. Okay…Houde and Primeau were his contacts.
Hmm…although I have never seen the church record for Napoleon and Onesime’s marriage on 29 September 1873, the civil registration states the ceremony was performed by none other than J.B. Primeau! Notre Dame des Canadiens was very likely their parish!
In 1874 this church was located on Park Street across from the Common (a public park space). I knew from city directories that the Girardin family was living on Bloomingdale Street. Using Google Maps I discovered there is no Bloomingdale Street anymore. Comparing the Google map to the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps for Worcester in 1892 (see here), I determined that Bloomingdale Street was now called Franklin. Park Street where the church was is also called Franklin. It’s a long street, but it looks as if my ancestors would have been about a 20 minute walk to Notre Dame. There’s a wonderful article about the church’s history in The Catholic Free Press here.
But I don’t know if Riel gave his talk at the church. Hamon states that Riel usually spoke at meetings of the St. Jean Baptiste Association. I found another blog post, by David Vermette, titled Louis Riel: A Franco-American? here. It also mentions the St. Jean Baptiste Society.
I have not yet discovered where the Society held its meetings. Were they in the basement of the church? A nearby hall? At the moment the question of where remains unsolved.
Next question…what exactly did Riel talk about? Richard states:
Several days later, [18 July] about 400 French Canadians from Worcester and surrounding towns gathered to hear the Métis leader, greeting him with thunderous applause. “Quand on est Canadien-Français catholique, on aime toujours à serrer la main des patriotes qui se font les zélés défenseurs de nos droits nationaux et religieux, ainsi que l’a été M. Riel,” wrote Houde.
“When you’re French-Canadian Catholic, you always love to shake hands with patriots who are zealous defenders of our rights national and religious, as was Mr. Riel, “
Riel…spoke to the French-Canadian immigrants in his audience about the climate, soils, and francophone establishments of Manitoba, and he expressed his hope that the Canadiens might remigrate there,a province where he felt they might prosper more than in the United States.
Wow! By 1878 Paul and Louise had moved to Manitoba, and by 1880 Napoleon and Onesime had followed. I wrote about the move here. I understood the background surrounding the move…the availability of land, the efforts of La Société de Colonisation du Manitoba, and perhaps the desire for a rural lifestyle again. But now I wonder if hearing Louis Riel speak in person, or at least hearing about this charismatic leader, would have had any bearing on the Girardins subsequent emigration to Manitoba?
Just another one of those social history moments that is so entwined with genealogical research!