- From Jessica Sheff's family tree on Ancestry.ca
Désiré was born in St. Casimir, Quebec on September 6 in the year 1861, and received his education in St. Casimir. On Aufust 5, 1889, he wed nineteen-year-old Clorenthe Belanger in the church of St. Casimir.
His wife, Clorenthe, was born June 20, 1870. She gave birth to two daughters, Marie and Annie, but died soon after on March 30, 1893. On August 6, 1895, he married a second time. Maria Chalifour, his new wife, was born February 23, 1875 in St. Alban, Quebec. They lived in St. Thuribe, where Désiré had two pieces of land, forty acres each.
In 1909 Désiré came to Estevan, Saskatchewan to help with the harvesting, and was delighted with the country. He returned to Quebec and that winter he met Father Berube, a priest from Victoire, Saskatchewan. Father Berube had done to St. Casimir to hold a conference to try to convince French Canadian farmers to come and settle in Northern Saskatchewan. He said they could purchase homesteads for $10.00. Since Désiré had already seen Saskatchewan and liked it he started making plans to sell his farm in Quebec.
In March 1910 he came back to Saskatchewan with several farmers and decided to stay in Vonda rather than go north to Victoire. He bought a $10.00 homestead just east of Laurent Bussieres farm. There he met his neighbour, a farmer named Lewis. Since Désirés homestead was hardly enough to support his family, he talked of buying more land. Mr. Lewis wanted to sell out, he said. So Désiré bought from Mr. Lewis the farm that now belongs to Laurent and Margot Bussieres (3rd generation). And what a deal: a new house and barn, all the machines and four horses for $10,000.
Then Désiré sent word home that his brother-in-law Henri Belanger could buy his Quebec farm, and that his family should come to Saskatchewan. At that time Désirés eldest daughter Marie was already married to Arsene Dusablon, and Grandmother Bussieres (Philomene Trottier) did not wish to move so she and seventeen-year-old Annie moved in with the Dusablons and stayed in Quebec.
In May 1910 Maria Bussieres sent their household possessions on a freight train, packed her clothes, and boarded a passenger train with her eight young children. Leon was almost fourteen, Maurice was twelve, Jean-Baptiste eleven, Pierre eight, Rose-Alma seven, Andre five, Lacasse three, and baby Bertha was one and a half years old.
And the journey was not without adventure. In Winnipeg, they had to change from Windsor station to Bonaventure station, a few blocks away, to board the train which was to take them to Vonda. They found a young English woman to show them the way. Maria carried her baby and a few bundles, the older boys also carried bundles and held onto the little ones but Andres legs were just too short to run as fast as their guide. They soon found themselves far behind her but they couldnt speak English to make her wait. Finally Maria yelled, Back, back! Leon hollered, Stop, and the guide turned to see her companions almost a block behind her and waited.
Once in Vonda, Maria and Désiré settled down on the farm and the family grew to include fourteen children. In 1914, Désiré bought his first car a yellow Ford brand new, from a salesman for $400.
In 1918, Désiré was very sick with the Spanish flu and passed away on November 18th at the age of 57.
On March 31, 1924, Maria married Louis Boutin from St. Denis. He was born November 5, 1873, in St. Georges de Beauce in Quebec. Maria and Louis continued farming until March 1940 and left the farm to their youngest sons Rosaire and Philippe. They left with their blue Chevrolet with Blanche and Philippe, the drivers, to make their new home in Chatham, Ontario. Frank and Bertha were already living there. A home was purchased, a two-storey grey frame house on Brant street with a large lot.
Even at the age of sixty-seven, Louis needed some type of work to keep active. They built a chicken coop large enough for over one hundred chickens and sold eggs to neighbours for twenty-five cents a dozen.
Wedding bells rang for Blanche in 1941. Their adventurous spirit moved them onto Windsor, Ontario. Blanche and Lionel bought a home on Benjamin Avenue. Maria had a hard time getting around as she had previously broken a hip. When Blanche left for Detroit, Michigan, Louis and Maria bought their own house on Marion Avenue across the street from Bertha and Frank.
Always hard-working, they found employment at Walker farm and then at Hotel Dieu Hospital as kitchen staff, but found more interesting work at St. Marys Academy, a girls boarding school.
They lived in the east but their hearts were in the west, so several trips were made to Saskatchewan to see their large family and friends. In 1958 Maria and Louis travelled again to Saskatchewan, although eighty-five-year-old Louis wasnt feeling well. All he said to his wife was, Maria, I want to go home now. He passed away in Saskatchewan August 8.
Maria returned to her Windsor home and lived in it only a short time. She was lonesome and her eyesight and health were failing, so Bertha and Frank invited her to move in with them. In 1970 she sold her home to her granddaughter and husband, Yvette and Francois Parent. There she stayed for ten years. Her last trip with Bertha to Saskatchewan was at Leon and Marie-Anges 50th wedding anniversary in 1968.
On returning to Windsor she had the misfortune of breaking her hip for the third time. She was bedridden after that and was a patient in Riverview, a hospital for the chronically ill for two years.
On February 11, 1971, when she passed away in Windsor she was almost 96 years old and totally blind. Her body was returned to Vonda where she was buried on February 15th. She had lived thirty-four years in Quebec, thirty in Vonda, and thirty-one in Windsor.
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1905 - 1997 (92 ans)
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