Saint Léon's first priest, Father Theobald Bitsche

Saint Leon

First parish priest of St. Leon, MB  Theobald Bitsche from 1879 -1892

From Odile Martel's book Pionniers de la Montagne Pembina - a rough translation

p. H-30

Father Theobald's observation of the area as recorded in Le Manitoba, August 10, 1882:

Of the twelve miles between Archibald and Calf Mountain, in 1879 there was only one tent; Archibald itself was then only a hut built of peat. From Archibald to Saint-Leon, eight miles ago; already 1879 there were numerous farms scattered between the two places.

Saint-Léon is on the second low line, where the corners of sections two and three of canton five, rank nine, and sections thirty-four and thirty-five, of canton four, rank nine, touch each other. A small, almost round lake, about 120 acres shaped the center. On three sides the ground slowly lowers towards the lakes, and on the fourth, the ground is high enough and firm enough to allow the largest buildings to be raised. Everyone who visits Saint-Leon is struck by the really charming site of this square. Saint-Leon is distinguished above all by the goodness of its waters, which are the best in the province.

When I arrived in Saint-Léon on September 11, 1879, I met only one cottage, lost so to speak in the middle of the forests. Now, after three years, everything is changed. Emerson has become a pretty big city. West-Lynne has hundreds of buildings and is incorporated as a city. From West-Lynne to the Mennonite colony, the entire land is covered with farms. The Mennonites themselves have raised many new villages and tripled their culture. Mountain City has become a pretty village with a beautiful courthouse: the whole Pembina Mountain is covered with farms, some of which have truly large and elegant buildings; Calf Mountain looks proudly at the pretty village of Darlingford, which rises to its feet and happily contemplates the farmhouses that rise even in squares that seem unsuitable for culture. In a nutshell from the Red River to Saint-Léon everything changed in the short space of three years. What will happen when the railway crisscrosses this beautiful and rich land?

But after Emerson and West-Lynne, the place that has made the most progress is undoubtedly Saint-Léon. This village now has a Catholic church with a resident priest, a flour mill with large sizes, a sawmill, a shingle mill, two general stores, three hotels, two blacksmiths' workshops, and two carts, 15 carpenters, several masons, shoemakers, etc., and more than twenty residential houses, and a population of 150 souls. Construction work continues in the summer and winter with a truly surprising activity. But it is not only the village of Saint-Léon that is making rapid progress, the surrounding countryside does not stay behind. Suffice it to say that 14 miles around Saint-Leon all the land is taken and that on almost every section there are buildings and resident inhabitants, to know the rapid development that this colony has taken. To secure the future of Saint-Léon, all that is missing is a railway to be able to export the products of the land.

A 50-Mile Radius

In the religious field, it was Father Theobald Bitsche, the first parish priest of Saint-Léon, who rightly became the colonizer of the Pembina Mountain. He could persevere despite many setbacks and conflicts.

He also became a settler, for upon his arrival in Saint-Léon on 11 September 1879, he had acquired a concession, the N.E. quarter. 36-4-9 with the intention of providing for its needs. And this "homestead" he was working on it himself. But soon after his arrival, a certain parishioner stole "all k wood that was on this concession" and on that of Monsignor, on 14-5-9. (Letter from Bitsche to Bishop Taché, September 30, 1879).

The "land of the archdiocese," as it was called, had been purchased by Bishop Taché for the mission of Saint-Leon, SO 14-5-9 in 1878. It had been sold for the first time by the Rev. Mr. Perquis, parish priest, with the approval of the archdiocese to help establish the convent.