HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Bayfield Bulletin, 1964-12-17, Page 6I
C\DC\9
SEASON'S
GREETINGS
Page 6—Bayfield Bulletin—Thurs., December
True Story of St. Joseph Told
By Descendant of the Founder
17, 1964 on, their promised land of milk
and honey sanctified by the
By Napoleon Cantin
(First of a Series)
A little over a hundred years
ago, a group of some dozen or
so French families left their
native villages in the Province
of Quebec to trek their weary
way to the shores of Lake Hur-
missionary work of a Leboeuf,
a Lollemand, whose sod had
been trodden and gazed upon
by a Champlain, a Marquette,
a DeLaSalle and others famous
in Canadian history.
Western Ontario was then a
vast forest without any means
of transportation except via In-
dian trail and Canoe. However,
little did this group of pion-
eers, the Ducharmes, Denom-
mes, Masse, Coriveau, Laporte,
Galipeault, Durand, Gelinas,
Bedard, Geoff rod, mind the
hardship of such a long journey.
They were a splendid type of
settlers, of fine physique, hard
working, law abiding, honest
and frugal.
They had been giving glow-
ing pictures of the wealth of
fish in Lake Huron, of the pos-
sible American Market, and so
they came in answer to the call
of the Canada Land Company,
to ;fish, and when fishing did.
not prove adequate to thee need
of their growing families they
turned to the gigantic task of
clearing the land and wrestling
a livelihood from it.
Isolated as they were at first
from their own in the Province
of Quebec, they nevertheless
have rtained their identity, and,
to this day, the place of their
settlement since known as
French Settlement, is just a
bit of Old Quebec transplanted with its customs to the western
shores of Lake Huron, some 15
miles south of Goderich. The
12 original families have multi-
plied to over a thotisand fam-
ilies, but only a hundred or so
remain in 'the settlement, the
others having followed the
trend of youth to migrate to
the land of glamour, south of
the Canadian border, a pitiful
loss to Canada, and they have
become artisans of marked
ability in their respective fields
of activity.
When these pioneers banked
their canoes in Goderich—then
just a trading post — having
travelled down the Maitland'
River from Guelph, they found
there one of their own, a man
by the name of Antoine Cardin,
a ship-builder by trade, whose
ancestors, some two centuries
before had been sent out by the
King of France to engage in
ship building and navigation in
the New Worl eland' who thus
had been pushing further and
further into the interior of this
vast empire of lakes, plains and
rivers, the centre of civiLation,
at the same time wrestling of
its hidden treasures and carry-
ing the word of God to its un-
civilized inhabitants.
This man Antoine Cantin
welcomed the little band of
pioneers and sent them on their
way to settle on the shores of a
deep circular bay where fish-
ing gave best promise of being
good. Ultimately, a son of this
ship-builder threw in his lot
with the settlers, raised a fam-
ily of 16 children, and lived to
leave the parental home and
engage in 'the occupation of his
ancestors—navigation. •
From small acorns, mighty
'oaks grow.
As a young lad, we find Nar-
cisse trudging behind his fath,
er, as the latter cleared the
land, suddenly to be missed and
then found sitting on the bank
of the lake gazing out over the
vast expanse of water, idly wat-
ching 'the smoke of the passing
steamers, each whiff of smoke
to set him dreaming, as he
visualized the possibility of
these same steamers going
down with their cargoes to the
sea. The very heart of Canada,
in the centre of the North Am-
erican Continent in direct touch
with every port of the world. Is
it any wonder that the thought
became the very absorbing pas-
sion of his life and that towards
the realization of this dream
and vision of better trensporta-
tion facilities, he should have
devoted his lifelong efforts, un-
deterred by apparently unsur-
mountable obstacles.
And so we find Narcisse, at
the age of 17, engaged in the
cattle business on his own hook,
buying cattle, sheep and lambs
within the County of Huron, by
the thousands, and shipping
them direct from Hensell to the
Buffalo, N.Y. stockyard, and,
et the age of 19, married, and
immediately making his way to
the said city of Buffalo, where
he became a Life Member of
the Buffalo Athletic Club, and
made contact with the Port of
Buffalo, N.Y., Port Colborne,
Onit., and getting acquainted
with the Principal Master of all
the ships navigating from the
Head of the Great Lakes to the
St. Lawrence via the Welland
Canal, and to the Hudson and
Lake 'Champlain via the New
York State Barge Canal, gave
Narcisse his first opportunity
to begin to study a deep,
speedy waterway, a navigable
waterway to the sea.
He dreamed of capturing tht
American business for his coun-
try. In his colossal navigation
scheme, he saw a great future
for Canada.
Having grown up in French
Settlement, on the shores of
beautiful Lake Huron, natural-
ly his first link in the chain
of waterways was planned
there. He sought to effect a
short cut from Lake Huron to
Lake Erie and thus avoid going
around through River St. Clair,
treacherous Lake St. Clair and
Limekiln crossing in the De-
troit River, and shallow Boul-
dors in the western half of
Lake Erie. It would further-
more mean a saving of 350
nautical miles from every re-
turn trip. The focal points were
to be Port Talbot on Lake Erie,
to the nearest point on Lake
Huron.
'Cantin decided on French
Settlement and St.. Joseph was
(Continued on Page Seven)
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