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The Carignan-Salières regiment and the companies of TracyIn 1665, 1300 soldiers landed in New France. Among them were the ancestors of François Baby, who would have the manoir les Becquets built, and the future seigneur of Deschaillons; some 285 stayed on after the peace of 1667.
The municipal water system, from then to nowFrom the wooden pipe of 1850 to today’s plastic: the municipality buying the system back in 1965, the spring in the 5th rang, the filtration of the 2000s and the works of 2021 to 2024.
seriesChapter 4: Louise Mousseau (Monceau), the guardian (1635-1707)A widow and grandmother, Louise Mousseau obtained on 17 April 1683 the retrocession of l’île Madame and the seigneury of St-Pierre for her two under-age granddaughters, whose guardian she was.
seriesChapter 3: Romain Becquet, seigneur in spite of himself (1640-1682)A royal notary at Quebec, Romain Becquet received l’île Madame and the seigneury of St-Pierre without ever setting foot there; the two fiefs were taken back in 1683, the year after his death.
seriesChapter 2: Our region — the arrival of the first Europeans (1534–c.1600)From the Vikings of Anse aux Meadows to the Great Peace of Montréal in 1701, by way of Cartier and Champlain: the arrival of the Europeans, and why the settlement of New France was so slow.
seriesChapter 1: Our region, from prehistory to the arrival of the Europeans.From the glaciers to the Champlain Sea and the sea’s withdrawal 9,600 years ago: the Cap St-Claude site before the Europeans came, and the traces left by its first occupants.- seriesFrom Yesterday to TodayContents of the series on the region’s history, in four chapters up to 1707: prehistory; the explorations of Cartier and Champlain; the notary Romain Becquet, seigneur in spite of himself; Louise Mousseau, guardian of her granddaughters.
1672 or 1679?No 1672 deed has ever been found: it was l’île Madame that was granted that year. The seigneury between Gentilly and Deschaillons was granted from 1678 to 1679, by Frontenac and then Duchesneau.
seriesKetchupMr. Poisson explains how tomato leftovers, skins and peelings, became a boiled pulp shipped to the Old City plant in Quebec City, where a blend of spices turned it into ketchup.
A Trois-Rivières Bridge Runs Aground at St-Pierre-les-BecquetsCarried off by the ice in 1836, the Saint-Maurice bridge broke up and its debris ran aground at Saint-Pierre; the notary Méthot sold it at auction in 1837 for 7 pounds, 7 shillings and 7 pence.
Family names: Lauzon, Habermaker, MansetThree names and the trades behind them: the lauzon laid flat roofing stones, the Habermacher grew oats, the manset worked a farm holding he did not own. Alain Manset traces his own.
Family Names: Fournier and CloutierTwo trades behind two surnames common in the region: the fournier fired the village bread oven, the cloutier forged nails one by one. Guillaume Fournier and Zacharie Cloutier open each line.
Diversion of the main road at St-PierreIn 1898 the municipal council of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets moved the main road south of the houses threatened by landslides on the cliff; Adeline Monpas obtained a change to the route.
Shale Gas at Saint-Pierre-les-BecquetsLong before anyone talked of shale gas, a contract of 5 July 1907 between the Boston Gas and Oil Co. and Octave Dion opened lot 105 to exploration, but the drilling of the day did not give the hoped-for results.
Carried off by Abenakis!On 22 May 1707 at Oyster River, New Hampshire, two little girls were carried off by Abenakis to New France. Marie Anne Drew, 11, was baptised there, married Étienne Lafond and founded a lineage.
A Tornado at Sainte-Cécile-de-Lévrard.On 19 August 1923 a tornado destroyed 32 buildings at Sainte-Cécile-de-Lévrard: $100,000 in damage, not one injury, and work bees organized by the parish priest Henri Denoncourt.
The Mill That Became a WaterworksFrom lot 419 in the fifth rang, the Moulin des Sources passed from Frédéric Boulanger to the Barabés, who built a waterworks in 1903; the sawmill ran until 1961 and the spring still supplies users.
The Oldest House in the SeigneuryA stone house on lot 120, built between the 1772 grant to Jean-Baptiste Lafond and the 1793 inventory that describes it; sold, abandoned, then restored after 1971.
seriesSterilizing the cans and making the ketchupCécile Spénard-Poisson goes back over the technique used to sterilize the tin cans with Gaétan Lemay, then describes, visibly amused, how the ketchup was made.
The militiamen of 1812 at St-Pierre-les-BecquetsThe seigneurie Lévrard supplied at least five militiamen to the War of 1812: pay of $20.00, the free land Hyacinthe Cossette took up in 1839 and resold, and a claim rejected in 1874.
seriesRepairs to the buildings; heating the autoclavesSawmill waste wood, readily available in the region, fed the autoclaves, the steam for scalding the tomatoes and the backup steam engine; the old buildings needed major structural repairs.
seriesPeeling with a SpoonCécile Spénard-Poisson shows Jocelyne Lafond and Gaétan Lemay how scalded tomatoes were trimmed — hard core, skin, bruised flesh — before being canned and sent to the autoclave.- seriesCooling the Cans, Then Labelling ThemThe last steps of canning: cooling the cans to protect quality, then end-of-season labelling by a small crew. One buyer is named: Cyrille Labelle, the merchant from Sorel.
seriesCanning and SeamingA filmed step in the tomato line: once peeled and prepared, the fruit is placed in tin cans and sealed airtight, immediately before sterilization.
seriesFirst the Tomatoes Had to Be ScaldedHerman Poisson continues his account: the washing and scalding of the tomatoes, the step that came before the peelers went to work. Filmed interview, with a photograph of him.
seriesTaking in the tomatoes at the canneryHerman Poisson recalls, in a filmed interview, the tomatoes arriving at the cannery, the weighing that followed, then their handover to the women workers: the first step in the line.
seriesThe Work of the Tomato PeelersA filmed interview with Cécile Spénard-Poisson, who describes her days at the tomato cannery in the 1940s: peeling, the first step before the tomatoes were canned.
Call for InformationA tintype from the early 1900s, given by Hélène Demers: a prosperous owner, his wife and five children outside a house with a veranda that no one has yet identified.
The Mayrand Couple Settle in St-Pierre-les-BecquetsA photograph of the couple and a filmed interview on the arrival of Jean-Noël Mayrand and Julienne Neault in St-Pierre-les-Becquets, where they open a grocery store.
Rosaire Tousignant's Grocery StoreCécile Poisson and her husband Rosaire Tousignant buy the business that would become “l’épicerie Rosaire Tousignant”; a photo of the store and a video clip accompany the note.
seriesSecretary of the Tomato CanneryFilmed interview with Cécile Poisson, later Mrs. Tousignant, describing her work as secretary at the tomato cannery in Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, the “tomaterie”.
Gaston Mailhot and his beginnings at the general storeGaston Mailhot tells how the owner of the general store hired him as a very young man, and how his earnestness there soon got him noticed.- seriesBaskets for the TomatoesTons of tomatoes brought to market in the region each year meant containers were needed: a filmed segment on the factory making the baskets used to carry and sell them.
Memories of a Young Immigrant in 1951Alain Manset, who came from France with his parents in 1951, looks back on his first impressions of Canada; now settled in Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, he studies local and regional history.
The Caisse Populaire of Saint-Pierre-les-BecquetsFounded on 13 September 1911, the Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets caisse closed for want of a manager, was revived in 1934, and in 1979 moved into a building raised on the site of the former parish hall.
Rosaire Tousignant’s Grocery StoreCécile Poisson-Tousignant recalls the general store at the corner of rue Lapérade and rue Marie-Victorin, bought from Hervé Brisson and run with her husband Rosaire until they sold it in 1987.
seriesThe Tomaterie (Tomato Cannery)A cannery founded in 1899 by eight parish notables on a leased lot on the route Lelaidier; the plant changed hands again and again until 1956, when Gérard Demers Inc. turned it into a warehouse.
seriesJean-Baptiste LelaidierBorn at Créances in Normandy in 1818, he came to Canada in 1848 and settled at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, married Liliose Baril in 1852, grew melons and then tomatoes, and died in 1903 after seeing the tomato cannery built.
seriesThe Tomato: Its HistoryFrom Peru to Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets: four centuries of mistrust of the tomato, held poisonous by John Gerard and merely ornamental by Olivier de Serres, before it reached Canada in the 1850s.
The Origin of the Names of Our SeigneurySaint-Pierre, Sainte-Cécile, Sainte-Sophie and the seigneury’s nine rangs: where their names come from, from Gilles Masson to Adélaïde Moras, and why the seigneurs’ given names were “sanctified”.
seriesA Tomato Worker, Cécile Spénard-PoissonCécile Spénard-Poisson, aged 92, recalls in January 2013 her work as a peeler at the Saint-Pierre tomato cannery: pay by the pail, the autoclaves, and days from seven in the morning to six at night.- What they drank, under the French regime.Beer, cider, wine, bouillon, spruce beer and guildive: what the settlers of New France drank, as set out in Benjamin Sulte’s Mélanges historiques.
- Cercle des fermières (rural women’s association)Founded in 1920 with 29 members at the request of Father Gladu, the Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets circle numbered 96 in 1949: its executive, its Saturday meetings and its annual exhibition.
Désiré-Olivier Bourbeau, a man of Saint-Pierre-les-BecquetsBorn at St-Pierre-les-Becquets in 1834, a schoolteacher turned Victoriaville merchant, mayor and then Conservative MP; his 1897 election was annulled, the votes in his favour exceeding the number of electors.
Domaine de LapéradeIn 1844, deep in financial trouble, François Baby had Pierre-Louis Morin lay out seventeen arpents as 99 building lots; in nine years only a dozen were granted.- Historical Sketch of the Lévrard-Becquet SeigneuryFrom the 1672 grant to Romain Becquet to the abolition of 1854: the Lévrards, the Massons ordered out in 1708, the Babys and their manor, and where the names Sainte-Sophie and Sainte-Cécile came from.
Shale GasA contract dated 5 July 1907 between the Boston Gas and Oil Co and Octave Dion granted gas and oil rights over lot 105 at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets: exploration here was nothing new.
Gérard DemersFrom his father’s slaughterhouse at Gentilly to Gérard Demers inc. and Demers Express inc.: a year-by-year account of a butcher who became mayor of St-Pierre-les-Becquets at 30, written by his daughter Madeleine.
TimberNapoleon’s 1806 blockade turned England toward Canadian timber: in the seigneurie of Lévrard-Becquet, sawmills on the rivière aux Orignaux, local dealers, and a contract dated 1830.
Father Joseph BaileyBorn at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade in 1819, Joseph Bailey tended the Irish immigrants struck by typhus at Grosse-Île in 1846, then became parish priest of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets in 1855.- The Mill on Lot 178The chain of owners of the flour mill on the Rivière-aux-Orignaux, from Landry Lafond’s sale in 1866 to the fire of 1957-58; the municipality bought the land back in 1970.
- The Mill on Lot 190Lot 190, landlocked among the farms, carried a sawmill by 1871 and later a shingle mill; the Society follows its owners, from the Barabé brothers to Jacques Delisle.
- The mill on lot 343The flour mill on lot 343, on the Rivière-aux-Orignaux, traced through notarial acts from Télesphore Jacques before 1871 to its closing in 1948 and the tax sale of 1970.
- Father LouisA Récollet, parish priest of St-Pierre-les-Becquets from 1767 to 1789, Jean Demers built a vast presbytery and a sawmill on the rivière des Orignaux, and finished the church of St-Édouard-de-Gentilly in 1787.
The Manoir SiteThe land granted in 1722 to Joseph Charais, and the chain of owners that followed: the notarial record places the building of the Manoir Baby-Méthot between 1817 and 1822, by François Baby the younger.- Water MainsFrom wooden pipe to metal pipe: the St-Pierre water main passed from Ernest Dion’s private network in 1894 to the municipality in 1956, with the 1919 rates and obligations for users.
- The CemeteriesFor Yolande Allaire-Roux, cemeteries are genealogies carved in stone: from Pointe Callières to Père Lachaise and Grosse-Ile, then here at home in Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, with its 1900 charnel house and Father Gouin’s way of the cross.
The Gouin Parish PriestsTwo parish priests from Baie-du-Febvre: Philippe-Antonio Gouin, who arrived in 1898 and led an era of great progress, and Gratien Gouin, who died suddenly at the foot of the altar at 53. Both descend from Mathurin Gouin.- The Written Word RemainsFrom Charles Z. Garceau's black notebook to the Archambault index of the parish registers, the writings that have kept the memory of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, and a call to sort your own archives.
The SchoolmistressesTwo deeds of the notary Gamelin Gaucher: in 1830 Jacques Raimon Baby had trustees appointed to establish parish schools; in 1832 Marguerite Trottier agreed to teach 36 to 40 pupils in Laurent Pepin’s house.
The physiciansHenry Arnaud, who died at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets in 1743 leaving no trace of a medical practice, and Pierre de Sales Laterrière, travelling physician-apothecary from 1783 to 1788, at odds with Father Demers.
The Post OfficesPostmasters of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, Sainte-Cécile-de-Lévrard and Sainte-Sophie-de-Lévrard from 1832 onward: terms of office, the address of each office and its lot number.- Iron minesIn 1874 Georges Benson Hall bought the iron-mining rights over three lots at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, at four cents a barrel; no blast furnace was ever built there and the rights lapsed from the 1890s.
- Not an Easy Thing, Being a Seigneur…The mill Louis Lévrard had built in 1717 on lot 1 of the seigneury brought him a complaint from Massicot and Carignan, intendant Bégon’s ruling and, with no inhabitants keeping hearth and home, over 15,000 livres lost.
- Romain BecquetA notary from a small village near Rouen, Romain Becquet looked after the settlers of the côte de Beaupré and the île d’Orléans; his greffe, kept at the Archives de Québec, is one of the largest of the seventeenth century.
Thomas-Aimé ChandonnetYoungest of fifteen children, born at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets in 1834, Abbé Chandonnet was an orator, a doctor of theology and third principal of the école normale Laval; from Rome he chose the painters of our church chancel.
Three Houses, One Family: the MéthotsThree neighbouring houses at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets and their related occupants: the notary Antoine-Prosper Méthot, the brick house built in 1860 for Dr. Archambault, and the Manoir Baby, which became the Manoir Méthot in 1864.
Rue Narcisse-BeaudetThe first mayor of Saint-Pierre, in office from 1855 to 1858, gave his name to the street serving the Des-Jardins-les-Becquets residence; the Society traces his life from his birth in 1810 to his death in 1893.
René-Pinot Street (Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets)René Pinot, known as Laperle, of the second family to settle at Saint-Pierre: his land appears on the 1709 Catalogne map, and the 1710 birth of his son Claude seems to be the first there.
The Railways in the Seigneury of Lévrard-BecquetIn 1906, Liguori Béique merged three companies into the Quebec, Montreal and Southern Railway, whose terminus stopped at Fortierville; the line never paid its way and the C.N. abandoned it in 1940.- Méthot and Siméon-Charland StreetsRue Méthot recalls two unrelated men, the notary Antoine-Prosper and the member for Nicolet François-Xavier-Alfred-Ovide; rue Siméon-Charland, the tinsmith appointed fire officer in 1873.