Rue Narcisse-Beaudet
The 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.
Written in French by Alain Manset, May 22, 2015. Quotations from period documents are left in the original. Lire l’original en français.
Rue Narcisse-Beaudet
Many people wonder where the name of this recently opened street in the municipality of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets comes from. It serves the new residence for independent seniors, Des-Jardins-les-Becquets.
Who was Narcisse Beaudet?
Quite simply the first mayor of Saint-Pierre, from 1855 to 1858. The document below shows that the council chose him to preside over the council of the new municipality; the meeting was held in the house of Ovide Brisson.
Before that, municipalities had no legal existence yet, and local administration depended on the councils of Nicolet County. Numidique Mailhot had represented the territory of the seigneury (seigneurie, the landholding unit of the seigneurial regime) there since 1845. Note that the municipality of Sainte-Sophie dates from 1876, and that of Sainte-Cécile from 1908. Narcisse Beaudet therefore also presided over the fortunes of these two future villages.
In going through the documents we hold, we found that four individuals of that name were living in the region at the time; by cross-checking, and by comparing signatures in the registers of the first municipal council and in the parish registers, we determined that the first mayor of Saint-Pierre was born in 1810, outside the seigneury; on 15 January 1850, in the church of Saint-Pierre-Apôtre, he married Phébé(e) Roberge, a young woman of 18, who would bear him thirteen children; in the census of 1851-1852 he was described as a farmer and landowner, and probably already prosperous; elected mayor in 1855, he was later re-elected as a councillor. In the 1886 electoral list he owned lots 19 and 24, which he sold shortly afterwards to his son Gédéon. He died at Saint-Pierre on 14 May 1893.
As can be seen, he had a fine signature, the sign of a good education. At the baptism of his son Théodore, the godfather Isaac Poisson and the godmother Philomène Demers, for their part, « n’ont su signer » [were unable to sign]. Despite a large family, there are very few living descendants; high infant mortality, along with several children who never married, may explain this. One of the few we have been able to trace is Mario Grondin, a caterer from Gentilly; his great-grandfather was Gédéon Beaudet, to whom Narcisse had sold his land around 1890.
Alain Manset,
Société d’histoire et de généalogie Lévrard-Becquet (Lévrard-Becquet Historical and Genealogical Society)
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About the Society
A group of volunteers researching, preserving and publishing the history and genealogy of the Lévrard-Becquet seigneury since 2002.
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