The First Parish Priest of St. Leon and the first postmaster, a Lafreniere!

 A rough translation continues of the Le Montagne Pembina au Temps des Colons (The Pembina Mountain in the Time of the Settlers) By Marie-Anna  A. Roy published in 1969.

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First Settlers

Before 1872, the Pembina Mountains had only been explored by Indian or Metis hunters, trappers and missionaries. The wooded peaks of the Mountain remained deserted and uninhabited. 

The first settlers arrived in 1877:

        Daniel Fraser of Ile Verte, Quebec (immigrated to Manitoba in 1875 when he was 25 yrs. old)

        Joseph Charbonneau of Methuen, Massachusetts

        Olivier Lafreniere from Ste. Croix (Lafontaine), Ontario

        Frederic Lafreniere son of Olivier

How was the trip from Lower Canada to Fort Garry and Saint-Boniface then? Travelers came by train from Montreal to Fisher's Landing then boarded a steamer which sailed on the Red River and descended to Fort Garry, opposite Saint-Boniface.

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Daniel Fraser spent two years at Saint Charles, where he worked as a farmhand for Father Dandurand, O.M.I. It was there that he heard about Pembina Mountain. He left Saint-Boniface in May and ventured on a rudimentary track which meandered in the direction of Saint Norbert and went away towards the southwest. With the slow and monotonous pace of his oxen and the creaking noise of his cart, he made almost 90 miles.

He stopped at the bard of a small lake which had charmed him and settled briefly on the northeast quarter, section 16, canton 5, line 9. He built a sod-house, having only one window which let in dim light through a 'scratched' skin stretched over a frame.

Two months later, three other pioneers arrived. After exploring the region north of Emerson and Saint Jean-Baptiste, they embarked on the track which curved towards the west and finally stopped on the bards of a pond - Lake Rand near the place where the Church of Saint-Leon stands today. They chose their homesteads on section 35, line 9, range 4; Frederic Lafreniere chooses his own section 3, canton 5.

These brave pioneers went to the land office at Emerson to register. When they returned home, they were in no more hurry than to build log cabins and collect hay for the animals. They were 70 miles from Saint-Jean-Baptiste and 80 miles from the stores in Emerson.

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In the spring of 1878, many settlers disembarked at Emerson:
Joseph-Edouard Labossiere and his married son, Joseph-Edouard;
Gedeon Labossiere and his two sons, Edouard and Adolphe;

          Ovide-Benjamin Lafreniere;

          Louis Moreau and his family from Worcester, Massachusetts,
Cleophas Major, Eugene and Jeremie Rondeau from Saint Gabriel de Brandon;

Bruneau Charbonneau, Louis Poulin, Hermenegilde Bessette;
Jacques Sanderson, Francois Langlois, Fabien Poirier;

Joseph and Pierre Cadoreth; Joseph and Jean-Baptiste Martin; 

and others ...

In 1879 arrived:
Raymond Girouard, Eusebe Hebert, Joseph Landreville; Joseph Labossiere, Louis Beauchamp. . .

Father Jean-Theobald Bitsche, Antonio and Frank Messner; and many Germans.

In 1880 came from Ontario and Quebec;

Philippe and Napoleon Moreau from Ste. Croix, Ontario;

Elie Landry and his family from Saint-Alphonse Rodriguez arrived in 1881;

Charles Lafreneire, Alexis Labossiere, in 1882;

Alme Fortier of Saint-Henri near Levis in 1883;

Edmond Lamoureux de Saint-Ours in 1884;

And others came in large numbers….

Les Cloches de Saint-Boniface June - July 1940 (page 153) reproduced a very important letter on the future parish of Saint-Leon: 

        Pembina Mountains, July 4, 1878
         

        Letter from the pioneers written by Olivier Lafreniere on behalf of the 21 signatures below and addressed to Monseigneur Tache...

        The settlers complain of being left without a priest to make their Easter. They will hasten to build a chapel. One of their children was buried in a field. The Paths are beautiful by "Calf Mountain," don't have the old French name, used by the English bourgeois Alexander Henry in 1801-1806 was Tete-de Veau,

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a remarkable mound located about a mile south of the village of Darlingford.

Here are the names of the Catholics who commissioned Olivier Lafreniere to write to Monseigneur Tache:

Daniel Fraser, Xavier Tessier, Frederic Lafreniere, Jean-Baptiste Martin,

Joseph Charbonneau, Eugene Rondeau, Hermenegilde Bessette, Jeremie Rondeau, Ovide-Benjamin Lafreniere, Edouard Labossiere, Joseph Martin, Louis Poulin, Francois Langlois, Bruneau Charbonneau, Abraham Maurice*, Jacques Sanderson, Ovide Maurice, Flavien Gendron, Alfred Levrault, Eugene Guertin, Joseph Gaulin

(*Deb’s note: Abraham Maurice is the father of Ovide-Benjamin’s wife; Ovide-Benjamin’s brothers Henri and Olivier, and sister Zoe both married into the Moreau family)

{Interesting note from page H-31 of Odile Martel's book Pionniers de la Montagne Pembina: Saint-Leon 1877-2000 below:

"In the spring of 1880, Father Bitsche built a Presbyterian church, a log building 40 feet by 20 feet [this author believes this must be an error as the building appears much larger than 800 square feet]. The top was used as a place of worship and the ground floor served as a residence for the parish priest. The cost was $365.00. The oak trees used in its construction were felled by Eusebe Hebert and Eugene Rondeau. 

This construction was the subject of a painful conflict. As a young man, the parish was torn apart by two factions, one led by Olivier Lafreniere and Joseph Charbonneau, who represented the village and the population south of the lakes, and the other led by Father Bitsche. The latter and most of the settlers wanted to build the church a quarter thousand northeast of the village, between Lac Rond and the other lake, but the others wanted it southwest of Lac Rond on the site of the nascent village.

The party of Father Bitsche was adopted, but this decision would later provoke the systematic antagonism of many parishioners.

St. Leon church 1880 - photo from Odile Martel's book p. H-31

How much did it cost to build this church?

According to page H-33 of Martel's book:

To Mr. Frederic Lafreniere for purchase of the church land     $ 40.00

olivier lafrenier purchase of church land                                      4.50

February

Oak planks, 2100 feet                                                                 52.30

poplar boards 1,500 feet                                                             27.50

other construction timber                                                             2.75

2 doors and 7 windows                                                               30.00

nails, locks, etc.                                                                          12.15

roofing paper                                                                                9.00

shingles with transport                                                                72.75

stoves and pipes                                                                          31.25

March, April and May

For squaring, carpentry, etc.                                                        83.60

Total expenses                                                                       $ 365.80

Receipts

Contribution for the stove                                                            16.00

From three benefactors                                                                12.50

From Mgr l'Archeveque de Saint-Boniface                               200.00

From MM. Messner de Formosa                                               100.00

                                                                                                 $328.50

Expenses exceed revenues by $ 37.30

The First Baptisms

Father A. Gladu, O.M.I. visited the colony in August 1878. He baptized several children:

Baptism number 62. On the 23rd day of August 1878, we, the undersigned, baptized Edward Poirier (T.4 R. 8) born on July 7, 1878, son of Fabien Poirier and Elise Dumontier. Godfather and godmother: Edward Pinet and Caroline Caroline Boutin. A. Gladu,
O.M.I.

Baptism number 63. On the 25th day of August 1878, we, the undersigned,
baptized under condition, at T.4 R. 9, Manitoba, west of Joseph-Leon-Olivier
Charbonneau, born on the 28th day of November 1877, the legitimate marriage of Joseph Charbonneau and Henriette Cote. Godfather and godmother: Olivier Lafreniere and Olive Maurice. A. Gladu, O.M.I.

…

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Baptism number 10: on the 4 February 1879, Father Gladu baptized Joseph-Napoleon-Ovila Rondeau, born on the 16^th January, son of Jeremie Rondeau and Melina Tessier. Godfather and godmother: Samuel Tessier and Josephte Lafreniere* (*daughter of Antoine and Magdeleine).

The First Parish Priest

On April 22, 1879, Monsignor Tache canonically erected the parish and placed it under the name of Saint Leon the Great. It included all of Pembina Mountain in Manitoba.

On September 8, 1879, Monseigneur Tache appointed Father Theobald Bitsche, a former missionary of the Precious Blood, parish priest of Saint-Leon. Father Theobald Bitsche was born in Neider-Burnhaupt, diocese of Strasbourg, Alsace.

         Father Bitsche tells us, in his column of August 10, 1882, published in the newspaper "Manitoba", about his first trip from Emerson to Saint-Leon in September 1879.

"Emerson was then in 1879 a small nascent town where there were
already some good shops and many residential houses, but everything was built-in simple planks. There was no brick building and there was even no construction at the railway station.

   
                "At West Lynne, which is opposite Emerson, on the left bank of the Red 
                River, I found only the old Hudson's Bay Company fort, built from tree 
                trunks. From there a primitive path (trail) led through the still virgin and uninhabited meadow to the first village of the Mennonites, 16 miles

from West Lynne. The first village "New Establishment" was only a few months old and barely consisted of five half-finished houses. From there the track led us through the old establishments of
Mennonites. These colonists already had fairly large crops, but of little importance.

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"The Mennonite colony stops at the foot of Pembina Mountain. After
climbing the first ramps of this first ramps of this chain of hills, you arrive at section 24, canton 2, range 6. From this high place, which forms a beautiful meadow. The eye enjoys one of the most beautiful views of the province. This is why the owner of this corner of land had resolved to found a city there to which he gave the name of Mountain City, but this nascent city does not consist then of a single house made of tree trunks which served as a store. Mr. Nelson of Nelsonville had also started the construction of his small mill. In the vicinity, one could see a few farms of very recent dates. From Mountain City, the road continues in a westerly direction, through very uneven terrain to Alexandria. I live in this place, reputed to be very important, only a small house which served as a store and accommodation for the sole inhabitant of the place. From Alexandria, the path still continues west to "Calf Mountain" across a beautiful tall meadow, where many houses began to be built. "Calf Mountain", which the French Metis call the "Petite Montagne", (section 6, township 3, range 7)

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township 3, range 7) is a small, almost round hillock, 50 feet high, and very similar to the ancient tumuli, or tombs of earth, raised by ancient peoples to their famous men. From the top of "Calf Mountain" you have a magnificent view of the immense meadow which stretches as far as the eye can see to the west and south. One mile west of Calf Mountain, the trail divides into several branches. At this place now rises (1879) the emerging city of Darlingford; but in 1877 there was still no vestige of construction. From "Calf Mountain" we take the track that goes to the northwest. This track crosses marshy ground and then climbs over very wide and fairly fertile hills until we arrive at the place where the future and important town of Archibald is to rise. On the twelve miles which separate Archibald from "Calf Mountain", in 1879 there was only a simple tent and Archibald even consisted only of a peat hut. From Archibald to Saint-Leon eight miles ago; already in 1879, we showed numerous farms scattered between two localities.

Saint-Leon sits on the edge of a small 120-acre round lake. The site is really charming.

"When I arrived in Saint-Leon on September 11, 1879, I only encountered one cottage on my way there, Lost so to speak in the middle of the forests ...

Theobald Bitsche, priest. "

On September 28, 1879, the priest Theobald Bitsche administered the baptism to Hermenegilde Bessette; on May 28, 1880, he baptized, in his new chapel, Leon-Theobald Labossiere, son of Edouard Labossiere and Elmire Gendron.

Constructions

Saint-Leon had a post office in 1879, thanks to the influence of Father A. Gladu from Sir Hector Langevin, a minister in Ottawa. The first postmaster was Frederic Lafreniere (son of Olivier Lafreniere).

The construction of the presbyterian church in the spring of 1880 was the cause of painful discord. The settlers wanted it on the location of the nascent village, southwest of Lake Rand. The priest Bitsche chooses a small solitary eminence a little over a quarter of a mile, northeast of the village, between Rand Lake and another lake west of the first. The majority of the settlers joined his side.