Freighting from "les Fourches" (Winnipeg) to Edmonton
Jean-Baptiste Boucher - son of Jean-Marie + Marie-Louise Garneau (Jean-Marie Boucher )
- n. 1838-07-26 Man. came from Fort Chipwyan. NWT
- m. 1858- St-François-Xavier, MB + Caroline L'Espérance
-d. 1911-08-30 St-Louis, SK
- moved to St-Louis, SK - 1882-07-27
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" My great-grand-parents were Jean-Baptiste Boucher and Caroline Lespérance. One of their sons was my " beloved grandfather" Joseph A. Boucher
"My great grandfather used to freight from Winnipeg to Edmonton via Fort Qu'Appelle, Humboldt, Prince Akbert and North Battleford."
FREIGHTING: There were ten to twenty wagons in each caravan. Wagons and cart oxen were the only means of transportation. They hunted for their food and at night gathered around the camp fire and sang songs. (note: typical of French people, lots of fun...) They sometimes halted for a whole day to let the great herd of buffalo pass. The wagons carried ted, coffee, apples, flour, sugar to the lonely and isolated villaged and communities. They made four dollars for every one hundred pounds of merchandise sold. If a was train left in May, it would be back home before the snow fell in November.
On one of these journeys my great-grandfather and Mr. Bremner came to cross the river at Batoche, but the waster was too high; following the shore, they came to a spot which they found very beautiful, Saint-Louis is built there now.
In May they made preparations to leave the settlement of "Les Fourches". They waited until the water receded to cross the Red River and left....
My great-grandfather had four wagons and Caroline, my great-grandmother drove a team of oxen on a "buckboard". One of grandfather's sisters named Caroline (L'Oiseau) drove a Red River Cart and a big striped ox named Buck. My grandfather drove most of the way with Maggie Bremner who drove a yoke of oxen, Captain and Fermer. They had long horns which were ornamented at the tip with a ball of copperé They drove many miles a day and stopped when they reached water. They rested on Sundays. Feast Days, and rainy days. On Sundays, they gathered to say the Rosary together. They pitched the tents and slept under them or in the wagons. They hobbled the few horses they had brought, let loose the cattle to eat along the road at night. The chickens that they brought would be let out of their cages every evening and they would come back to their cages in the morning. (note: this made me laugh, and it's true chickens will do that.) The "voyageurs" hunted for their food and had brought three barrels of salted pork, They made biscuits, "bannock" on a open camp fire.
Then a great event occured: grandfather's sister Delima was born at a place called "Little Saskatchewan River". The next day they were ready to roll......
ref: from the diary of Louise Boucher Tournier of Hoey, SK - taken from the History of St.Louis, SK
NOTE: Is was Father Albert Lacombe who advised the frenchmen to freight. It lasted till the railroad was built from Winnipeg west.
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