(Translated from Odile Martel's Pionniers de la Montagne Pembina)
If you recall, Olivier and his son Frederic Lafrenière arrived in St. Léon in the 1870's where there wasn't a priest, church, or school. In fact, Olivier had sent a letter dated July 4, 1878, addressed to Bishop Taché begging him to send them a priest to Saint-Léon, he stated:
« (...) Tomorrow I will bury one of my children and it is very painful for me to bury in my field this child who is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. (...). This child of Olivier Lafrenière was probably the first child to be buried in Saint-Léon (p. H-24).
Father Theobald Bitsche would arrive and settle in the community the following year.
By 1882, the village was bustling with activity and settlers.
(p. H-39)
There were two stores at the time, Anthony Messner's and Joseph
Laçasse's, who came from Sainte-Elizabeth, Quebec. Twelve houses were under
construction in the village in 1882.
In the fall of 1882, Anthony Messner built a two-storey warehouse, 118
feet by 20 feet in size, as well as a new store; measured 60 feet by 48 feet,
three storeys, with a tin roof. Unable to meet the needs of these pioneers even
though his workers worked day and night, Anthony Messner built a second mill.
Several buildings, including two
hotels, a pension building and a creamery were erected at the village in 1882.
Evariste Rainault established an agency for this agricultural machinery. The
clientele of all these merchants was constantly increasing because of the
settlers who settled on the surrounding lands at Saint-Amhonse, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes,
Somerset, Crystal City and Altamont.
The village of "Old
Saint-Leon" also included carpenters, masons, shoemakers, loggers and even
two doctors, Dr. J. F. Landry who had settled there in 1883 and Dr. Goulet.
According to various documents,
the following companies were located at Old Saint-Leon between 1883 and 1885:
1. Hotel Saint-Leon: southeast
corner of 3-5-9
a) Olivier Lafrenière
b) and later by Amédée Labossière
2. Hotel des Trois-Rois (Inn of the Three Kings): John Templeton - John Mr. Saunders — John Hill
3. Boarding house: Isaac Minot
4. Pension House: James Templeton
(constable)
5. Store: Arsène Garneau located at
3-5-9 in front of the Messner Flour Mill
6. Store: J.N. Lesage
7. Second-hand store: Gendron
8. 3-storey store: A. Messner
located at 2-5-9, facing west
9. Sawmill and Shingle Mill: A. Messner located at
2-5-9, near the lake
10. Flour Mill: A. Messner located
at 2-5-9 near the lake
11. Cremant: A. Messner located at
2-5-9, west of the lake
12. Agricultural Machinery Agency
and Warehouse: Evariste Rainault, located at 33-4-9
13. Four blacksmith's workshops:
Clément Labossière (NO 35-4-9) and Anthony Messner (SO 2-5-9) were the first carpenters and
blacksmiths.
14. A cart workshop
15. A carpenter.
16. Church, convent, cemetery, and two public stables
17. School (1887) - Sebastien Hosenbohler
18. Second Hand Store — Olivier Gendron
19. Wholesale Liquor Store — Allen (owned by Auguste Ruiskoff, Emerson (SE 3-5-9)
20. Pension House — Isaac Minault (SE 3-5-9)
21. Aratory Machinery Warehouse — Evarist Raynault
22. Furniture Store — John Hell (located in Messner's old store at SO 2-5-9)
23. General Store (40 X 28) — J. N. Lacasse and Andrias Warneki (SO 2-5-9)
p. H-36
Anthony Messner opened a general store in the spring of 1880. Perhaps to make up for the great expenses incurred in his businesses, he embarked on the sale of alcoholic beverages. Thus, Messner had come into conflict with Father Bitsche who hated the drink. The latter wasted no time in notifying Messner and Bishop Taché. However, the trade in alcoholic beverages continued. It was a lucrative business since the population of the nascent village was made up of several young singles for whom the drink had considerable appeal.
Despite the discordance of opinion of Father Bitsche and Anthony Messner, the latter, always generous to his parish, donated a 500-pound bell to the church in late August 1880. This bell, carried by Eugene Rondeau with oxen from Emerson to Saint-Leon, had been melted in New York and bore the following inscription:
"Donated by A. Messner to give loud and everlasting praise to the most merciful Lady of the Perpetual Help St. Leon, Manitoba, June 9th AD 1880 Everlasting Glory to the Precious Blood of Christ our Redeemer."
This generous gesture towards the parish was not going to improve relations between the two men. In September 1880, Francis Joseph, Anthony Messner's son, became manager of the store, but since his father controlled the trade, the sale of alcoholic beverages, despite father Bitsche's orders, began again.
Things were getting worse. The French Canadians of the parish, seeing the ever-increasing number of Alsatian and German settlers settle in Saint-Léon, feared losing the best land. They blamed their parish priest for alienating many of them with his controversial decisions. Even the clergy got involved. The group of French Canadians recruited a priest from their party. In the winter of 1880-81, meetings were held at the Messner store to replace Father Bitsche. The attempt did not succeed; it was only the first of many.
Things became relatively quiet again in the spring and summer of 1881. The settlers continued to arrive in large numbers at Saint-Leon. The village grew and Anthony Messner continued the rapid pace of his constructions.
p.H-37
Messner's Construction in 1881
From its beginnings, the colony was very prosperous. A village quickly formed southwest of Rond Lake, where the first settlers had stopped.Anthony Messner, who had already built a store in 1879, built three other more modern buildings there: a shingle factory, a sawmill and a flour mill. On November 3, 1881, the "1.2 Manitoba" newspaper proudly announced:
"Mr. Messner's mill is finished. (..) it is the most beautiful in southern Manitoba. The sawmill and the armour: shingles (..) are a great benefit ( ..) to build more comfortable homes at fairly cheap (..) we see rising next to the cottages of elegant houses covered with shingles."
Again, on November 17, 1881, "Manitoba" praised Messner's flour mill:
The flour mill (..) in full activity (...) the superior quality of flour that this mill provides (..) The raging machine has a strength of thirty horses (..) one can separate to rolonté the different qualities of flour (..) can grind eight minots per hour (...) three pairs of millstones (..) The building is 48 x 30 feet and 45 feet high is three and a half storeys (..) a very skillful miller (...) a mill that produces flour worthy of renowned Manitoba wheat ( ..) ». The price of grain moulding was 20 cents per minot."
According to an elder, Joseph-Adelard Labossière, the steam engine used to operate the sawmill was so gigantic that it took four pairs of oxen to drag it from Emerson. Men hired with pairs of oxen to bring the logs from Mr. Routhier's farm to the shipyard - about a thousand and a half from Saint-Léon - would receive seven to eight dollars a day, an exorbitant sum since the wages at that time were on average one dollar a day.
It was around the same time that François-Xavier Messner, Anthony's brother, gave Father Bitsche a buggy (a two-wheeled horse car) as well as a beautiful ostensible and a censor with a shuttle to the church.
p. H-38
The campaigns around Saint-Leon were also making rapid progress. Fourteen miles around Saint-Leon, all the land is taken and on almost every section there are buildings and resident inhabitants; there are nearly sixty families living in the region.
People were confident because both farmers and merchants were prosperous. Farmers had yields of 25 minots of wheat per acre and between 40 and 45 minots of barley or oats per acre. Wheat sold for 80 cents per minot, while barley fluctuated between 40 and 47 cents per minot depending on the quality of the crop. Oats sold for 30 to 40 cents a minot*. The firewood was worth $1.50 a rope. When we look at the value of the dollar at the time, it must be said that the price of grain was very decent.
[*The minot is an old unit of dry volume, used in France prior to metrication. The unit was equivalent to three French bushels. The size of the minot is comparable to the US and Imperial bushels. - courtesy of Wikipedia]
A pioneer from the River area, Kenneth Henderson, recounted that Anthony Messner had a league that tied the grain sheaves with wire. For example, a farmer who had ten or fifteen acres under cultivation could have his crop cut for about a dollar an acre.
Speculation arose even a small group led by Anthony Messner and Olivier Lafrenière, who went so far as to sell a hundred acres to a gentleman in Winnipeg who was to divide the land and sell it for "city lots." (Le Manitoba, February 2, 1882)
In the fall of 1881 Anthony Messner brought another contingent of settlers from Ontario to land in the vicinity of Saint-Leon. The activities of 1881 focused on trade; the wave of prosperity had reached St. Leon's, as had the largest centres such as Winnipeg. The parish had 65 families and there were 17 births and 4 deaths in 1881. More than fifty houses were built in 1881 in the area and in the village of Saint-Leon.
Saint-Leon became the capital of the Pembina Mountain
By 1881, because of the Messners' various businesses, Saint-Leon had become the capital of the entire Pembina Mountain. Upon their arrival at the mountain, the settlers first stopped at Saint-Léon before continuing their journey to their concessions in Saint-Alphonse, Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, Somerset or elsewhere. After settling on their properties, they went to Saint-Leon to shop at the Messners' general store or to saw wood, grind their grain, buy shingles, go to church, meet a priest or simply "see the world."
Enthusiasm grew in 1882
By 1881, the village was already firmly formed and continued to develop. The year 1882 was to be the most important year in the development of Saint-Leon. New settlers continued to arrive. To give an idea of the progress made at Saint-Leon, after only four years of existence, it is enough to quote a chronicle published in Le Manitoba dated August 10, 1882:
"The village has a church with resident priest, two schools, a flour mill, a shingle factory, two shops, three hotels, a sawmill, two blacksmith's workshops and two ccarpenter workshops, 15 carpenters, several masons and shoemakers, more than twenty residential houses and a population of 151 souls."
p. H-51
The Firsts at Saint-Leon
First missionary to visit the pioneers of Saint-Leon - 1876, Father Aloysius Gladu, O.M.I.
First settlers - 1877, Daniel Fraser, Joseph.
First parish priest - 1879, Father Theobald Bitsche.
First teacher - 1879, Marie Lafrenière at L'Ecole du village of Saint-Léon.
First general store - 1880, opened by Messner.
First animal pound keepers - 1880, Ishmael Desrochers and Eugene Rondeau.
First councillor elected to the city council of Lorne City Council- 1880, Frédéric Lafrenière.
First sawmill - 1881, opened by Anthony Messner.
First shingle factory - 1881, opened by Anthony Messner.
First wheat flour mill - 1881, opened by Messner.
Full creamery/cheese factory - 1881, opened by Anthony Messner.
First hotel - 1881 or 1882, opened by Olivier Lafreniere.
Second hotel - 1881 or 1882, opened by three owners. (Hotel of the Three Kings).
First carts and blacksmiths - 1881 or 1882, Clement Labossière and Anthony A. Messner.
First boarding houses - 1881 or 1882, opened by Isaac Minot and James Templeton.
Second general store - 1882, opened by Joseph Lacasse.
First agricultural machinery agency - 1882, opened by Evariste Rainault.
First barley and oatmeal mills -1884, opened by Anthony Messner.
First school commissioners - 1883, Edouard Labossière and Frédéric Lafrenière, elected.
The first schoolteacher's salary in 1879-1880 was $10 per month.
First gramophone or phonograph in Saint-Léon around 1897 belonged to Mr. Anthony Messner.
The first assessor of the municipality of Lorne was Frédéric Lafrenière, who was responsible for the assessment of the land from 1880 until 1913. He was paid $3 per acre for his work.
The first notary to settle in Saint-Leon in 1899 was Joseph Arthur Lacerte.
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