TACHE, JOSEPH CHARLES
NOTE; Civil engineer and Swiss zouave
Son of Françoise Lepage and of Dr. Jean-Charles Taché, deputy minister of Public works in Ottawa, Joseph Charles Taché belonged to an illustrious Canadian family. He was born March 25, 1850 in Rimouski. After having studied civil engineering, he joined the Minister of Public Works at the age of 21. In February 1899, he was sent to the Yukon to supervise the improvements in the channels of navigation and the improvements in the construction of roads and bridges.
In August 1899, Joseph Charles Taché was in the heart of a serious misunderstanding which caused his wife much sorrow. Léda Drapeau and her two daughters, Marie-Louise and Yvonne had stayed in Ottawa. One day, the Dawson Daily News had announced, in error, the drowning of engineer Taché when, in fact, it was his assistant who drowned.
The faulty article may be summarized as this: While Taché was preparing to dynamite a rocky wall in the Five Fingers Rapids, the canoe in which he should have been traveling, over-turned . Two men had the good idea of hooking on to the canoe while Taché and one of his assistants swam trying to reach the shore. The latter was successful. During this time a steamboat got closer in order to help Taché who was caught among the rapids. Regardless of heroic life-saving rescue work, they were not able to save him. Taché was a man very well respected by everyone and a supervisor who was very well appreciated by his employees. He was the nephew of the Archbishop of Saint-Boniface.
The news of Taché’s death was soon put to rest in the Yukon; however it had reached his family in Ottawa. Marie-Louise wrote in her journal, “Poor Maman! It is only upon receiving a letter from Papa who wrote describing the accident that she was finally convinced …Papa was going down the Five Finger rapids by canoe with his men when one of them fell into the water and was carried away by the current.
In the same letter to his wife, Joseph Charles Taché told them that the following summer he was going to bring them to the Yukon to live with him. Therefore Joseph Charles Taché returned to the Yukon in July 1900 accompanied by his wife, his daughters and a new assistant, Paul-Emile Mercier. They took the train to Vancouver, where they spent a few days before embarking on the steam-boat, Princess May, which took them to Skagway in Alaska.
This narrow railroad which opened in June 1900 was one of the greatest feats in the history of engineering, and Joseph Charles Taché had played an important role in this development.
On June 29, 1901, the Taché family were present at their daughter, Marie-Louise’s wedding to Paul-Emile Mercier. Joseph Charles Taché and his wife remained in the Territories until November 1901.
From 1902 to 1911, Jean Charles Taché directed the public federal works in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area of Quebec. Then he was named land surveyor for the Gulf region in his native city where he was then elected mayor in 1951. He retired in 1930 and with his wife lived in a Hospice run by the Sisters of Charity.
Joseph Charles Taché died in Rimouski on March 7, 1939; six years after his wife’s death. According to his desires, he was buried in his Zouave costume in memory of the times he spent serving the Pope in the Canadian Zouaves Batallion.
Ref. Empreinte, vol 11, pages 100-101
Photos: Joseph Charles Taché (1)
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