CANTIN, FRANÇOIS-XAVIER - (356 - ENGLISH)
CANTIN, FRANCOIS-XAVIER, A man of “golden” opportunities
François-Xavier Cantin was born in Trois-Rivières, PQ. This French-Canadian came from a family of 17 children. At the beginning of the 1900’s, he was in the Mayo region with his cousins, Joseph, Louis and Philias. From 1909 to 1920, they did mining exploration in the Haggart and HIghet creeks and the Dublin Gully. They became known for their courage, their perseverance and their unceasingly hard work habits. For example, they dug a trough two miles (3 km) in length to bring water to their mining concessions near the Dublin Gully.
The mine they were exploiting near the junction of the Dublin Gully and the Haggart Creek, is among the most important and the most prosperous of the whole area. Using hydraulic methods, they extracted more than 50,000 $ in gold at a time when this metal was worth $20.67 an ounce. In 1916, while the Cantins were working on the Highet Creek, they were the first to extract minerals of such high quality as tungsten: the Canadian Government bought some for $1.00 a pound. In 1923, François owned the mining concession which contained veins of silver.
It was said that after a day’s work, François-Xavier was walking near a trough or channel where gold-bearing grit (small gravel) was being cleaned, when he noticed something on the ground. In a heavily-accented French-Canadian English voice he exclaimed “I taught it was my watch, but it was dis big nugget.” The big nugget found at this moment is now hanging on a watch-chain preserved by the family.
François-Xavier was also a wood salesman. He operated forestry concessions situated along the Stewart River between Fraser Falls and the Mayo River. He supplied the Lefebvre sawmill and the miners who bought firewood from him. He also built and rented many log cabins. In the 1940’s he was an undertaker for a funeral home. On July 20, 1917, he got the land situated at the corner of Centre Street and 4th Avenue in Mayo. He obtained the property title in October 1919, François-Xavier Cantin was the proprietor of a log building which he rented to the Territorial Government for a school until 1941. That year, the village of Mayo sent a petition to the Government for a new school. F-X Cantin was the sub-contractor who chose the public works to be done for the construction. In 1947, he sold his property for $5000.00 to the Government. Le new building served as a school until 1959. It can still be seen today on lot no. 6 of bloc 30, and is now known as the Masonic Lodge.
François-Xavier Cantin married Alice Stevenson, widow of William Portlock on June 27, 1937 in the Saint Georges Church in Mayo. He was 61 years old.
Mrs. Cantin died en 1955, aged 75, and François-Xavier died two years later on June 19, 1957, aged 81. The couple rest in the Mayo cemetery.
Ref. Empreinte, vol. 11, pages 97-98
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