MAISONNEUVE, HONORE + LAURA TANGUAY (196 ENGLISH)
Honoré and Laura Maisonneuve were married on November 24th 1930 and as all newly married couples they would do all they could to make sure that their life together would be memorable and fulfilling. A few months later Laura started sewing and embroidering a baptismal ensemble. Laura already had acquired many domestic skills by having been employed as domestic help and knew how to cook, sew & garden among many other crafty skills, one of which was her resourcefulness. Honoré countered by always providing well for his wife and children by making sure that they never lacked any of the necessities and more.
Over the years Honoré and Laura were always most generous on many occasions. When a family was in need Honoré would ask Laura to make a plentiful good stew or any other nutritious dish for which he would bring her the supplies from the store. Once he even gave them the pot since he realized they didn’t have one. I always think of the young handicapped deaf boy from a poor family who envied those with skates and made use of the skating rink Mr. Maisonneuve had developed on an empty lot in town, complete with boards and even a warm-up shack, which was enjoyed by the whole community. See this boy’s story on blog #..198.....
At the inauguration of Donnelly as a village, Honoré was chosen as its first mayor. There were no remunerations for this job but he did all he could by supplying the equipment, the man power & materials to help build up the community’s services. In the winter he operated several sawmills and during the summer he had a planer mill in town where he employed many members of local families not always for their skills but often creating menial jobs for those who needed to earn.
In the years when his 2 oldest sons attended Collège St. Jean in Edmonton, Honoré got to meet the sports’ trainer of the facility, Father Duhaime, who mentioned that he had a good baseball team but could hardly present them in competition because of the lack of finance to buy uniforms. Honoré didn’t hesitate to present him with a cheque to cover the complete cost of the purchase.
In the town of Donnelly, the baseball team had a trainer, manager and president all fulfilled by Mr. Maisonneuve. It goes without saying that all expenses of travel, registrations and equipment were at his own expense. His wife Laura made sure that the team members were always fed, even when playing out of town, by providing sandwiches and goodies by the tub full lined and covered with a sheet. By the time he accommodated travel for the team there was rarely room for his family.
When the need arose to build a community hall and a new church, a number of volunteers went to the Maisonneuve sawmill to produce the lumber for these projects. All were fed and the lumber was transported to the site at no cost to the community. In later years the community built a “Sportex” and there again Mr. Maisonneuve was very generous financially and kept up the support throughout his lifetime. The same can be said for many other town projects such as the Historical Society, the parish, the Chamber of Commerce and even an ongoing bursary at the Grande Prairie College.
Laura gave birth to 10 children, kept them well fed and especially well dressed by sewing the majority of their clothes often made out of recycled used clothing. She made good use of all that could be recycled. I personally remember my mother telling me that when my sister passed away in the hungry 30’s, Laura had lined and covered the coffin, made by her father overnight, in beautiful white material. My mother appreciated and recognized the ability of this talented woman. Above all the demands of her large family she was a member of “Les Dames de St. Anne” and helped in different capacities with the parish’s bazaars. When her husband needed a cook at the mills she would pack-up the young ones and hire a caretaker and housekeeper for those at home who attended school.
Sewing was her beloved hobby. She sewed to dress her children and even some for her grandchildren. Later she made quilts to use up remnants so that all her children had a quilt and often an added pair of mitts, slippers, sweater or a lovely piece of embroidery. During that time Honoré was interested in preserving the history of his community and continued to help financially those in need – one instance was the payment of the seminary cost for one of the local boys.
Even with simple intermediary schooling he continued to educate himself by reading a lot and writing in a very impressive penmanship. To the eve of his death he kept a daily journal. What a treasure for the family.
During their last few years I often visited them for a few lessons in History. I found Mr. Maisonneuve was always accurate in recalling events which corresponded exactly with my father’s recollections. Meanwhile Mrs. Maisonneuve always had some project on the go, never lacked of something to do. She brought me down to her workplace and when I saw all of her creations I told her that she could have a bazaar on her own. The daughters organized a display in her home, visited by her children, grandchildren and family and many went home with a useful souvenir piece. In 1982, to recognize the 60th anniversary of the community, her and her very talented son Guy, constructed a replica of the town in the year 1922. It has to be seen!
Upon one of my last visits with Mr. Maisonneuve he told me that “if I succeeded in life it’s due to my wife who is very insightful and when she believed that I was making a wrong decision she voiced her opinion. When we married we vowed to work together and she certainly held her end of the deal”.
The parish of Donnelly was privileged to have the Maisonneuve couple in their midst. Often Mr. Maisonneuve supplied new vestments and Mrs. Maisonneuve would repair and sometime fabricate some, very generously and with no fanfare.
Note: I’ve appreciated the Maisonneuve couple and after Mr. Maisionneuve passed away I continued to visit Mrs Laura often in her workroom, never idle. In this blog you’ll find a few articles written by Mr. Maisonneuve which are worthy of a good read. One article is about his mother, another about the first local school and especially one about Bishop Grouard for whom he had been altar boy during his few years spent at the Grouard mission. The article was published by the Heritage Link: see blog # 3.
translated by Georgette Maisonneuve Fournier
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