OUR ANCESTORS WOULD BE PROUD TO SEE THAT THEIR RICH HISTORY LIVES ON IN THIS DYNAMIC BILINGUAL COMMUNITY.
The region comprising the communities of Bellevue, Domremy and St. Louis offers a unique perspective on Francophone immigration to Saskatchewan and the historical links between cultures; all on a territory measuring approximately 60 square kilometers. When we study the rich history of the first French Canadians, French, Métis and Acadians who settled on this territory, it becomes apparent that the destinies of the inhabitants are closely linked.
The Francophone presence in this corner of the country goes back more than a hundred years, but its history, as Laurier Gareau, a native of Bellevue, testifies, began long before “when First Nations hunters came to the region in search of game, that the Métis “fretteurs” traced the first great roads in the region and that young French-Canadian adventurers came to verify the quality of the soil”.
Initially, it was the parish of Saint-Antoine de Padoue in Batoche that brought together Franco-Catholics from across the region who got around on foot, on horseback or by boat on the South Saskatchewan River. As is the practice in Quebec, the first Métis settlers who cleared their homesteads in Batoche and St. Louis divided their land into river lots. Domremy, for its part, owes its birth to a period marked by the massive immigration of French people of Breton origin. But given the proximity between these neighbouring Franco-Catholic centers, exchanges and alliances weaved the course of this handful of communities like the interwoven strands of a Metis sash.
Bellevue was first established around 1875 by Métis families from intermarriages between French Canadians and First Nations people who settled in log homes with turf roofs on free land without government permits. Among them, the nephew of the infamous Gabriel Dumont, Alexis Dumont.
The first French-Canadian settler to settle in the region is Azarie Gareau, in 1882. A native of Saint-Jacques de l’Achigan, County of Montcalm, a village located northeast of Montreal, Azarie lived in Massachusetts for 12 years before travelling to find his brother Ludger, a carpenter in Batoche. He took a homestead north of Batoche and bought in his wife and two children. It was thanks to Azarie’s recruitment efforts that the first Gaudet families left Quebec in 1894 to settle in Bellevue. The following year, the region welcomed a group of descendants of Acadian exiles from Quebec.
Next came Quebec families from the Eastern Townships and other regions of Quebec as well as several Quebec families recently established in the American state of Minnesota and some families who immigrated from France.
The parish of Saint-Isidore de Bellevue was founded in 1902 by Father Pierre-Elzéar Myre with Saint Isidore, the saint of farmers, as patron saint.
“We weren’t difficult: the school in the Bellevue school district, after being rebuilt and whitewashed, would become the church, and the house would be the presbytery.” (Source: Bellevue History Book)
The Bellevue school was built in 1954 and its administration handed over to the Sisters of the Presentation of Mary. The current school, École St Isidore School, was built in 1995. In 2002, St-Isidore-de-Bellevue celebrated the centenary of its creation.
Unlike many rural villages in Saskatchewan, Bellevue was never relocated to be closer to a rail line. Through its isolation, Bellevue has managed to retain features and a culture distinct from those of its neighboring communities.
Located twelve kilometers east of Bellevue, the village of Domremy takes its name from the French village of Domrémy, France, the birthplace of the infamous Joan of Arc. Domrémy was established in 1892 by settlers from Ste-Anne-de-la-Pérade and Ste-Geneviève-de-Batiscan, Quebec.
In 1894-1895, they were joined by a group of immigrants from France, mainly from Brittany but also from Poitou. In 1896, Father Barbier came from St-Louis to set up a new parish, Ste-Jeanne-d’Arc parish.
In 1937, a statue of Joan of Arc was erected in front of the Catholic Church of the Parish of Sainte Jeanne d’Arc. Father Houle was parish priest from 1939 to 1965.
The first Métis settlers settled in Saint-Louis around 1880-1882. These are the Boucher, Bremner, Boyer, Delorme, Vermette and Fiddler families.
At first, the new Métis settlers attach themselves to the mission of Saint-Laurent de Grandin, about 25 kilometers to the west, on the west bank of the South Saskatchewan River.
“St. Louis pioneers would cross the Saskatchewan River on skiffs, march to St. Laurent, attend mass, visit no doubt with their many relatives, and then return to St. Louis, a distance of about 30 miles. » (Source: Lavigne, Solange, Kaleidoscope, Many Cultures – One Faith)
The Northwest Resistance at Batoche in 1885 will have a great influence on the lives of the first settlers in the Saint-Louis region. Since the Métis pioneers of St. Louis have many family ties with those of Batoche, it goes without saying that when the war breaks out in 1885 several men from St. Louis align themselves with Gabriel Dumont, including Maxime Lépine.
From 1886, the St. Louis region experiences an influx of French immigrants from Poitou, Brittany, Maine, Savoie and Picardy. In 1887, Father Pierre Lecoq, o.m.i., has a small chapel built west of the current village of St. Louis. “Father E. Lecoq sells his house, his buggy and his watch to build the church. The Sisters of Providence arrive in 1897 and have a convent built on a river lot that they obtain as a concession.
The arrival of the train in 1913 leads to the displacement of St. Louis near the new St. Louis bridge built to ensure the connection between Watrous and Prince Albert. The new priest dreams of getting closer to the village. In 1919, when the convent of the Daughters of Providence becomes too small, parish priest Father Adam succeeds in convincing the sisters to build their new convent near the station. Following the relocation of the village, the transport of the church and the presbytery to the new convent of St-Louis is authorized.
Until then, the only way to cross the river was by ferry which operated about 1 mile west of the village. When traffic wings are added to the bridge in 1928 to accommodate passing cars, it signals the end of ferry service.
St. Louis constitutes with the cities of Batoche, Saint-Laurent de Grandin, Domremy, Hoey and Saint Isidore de Bellevue the rural municipality of Saint-Louis N°431 populated mainly by French-speaking Fransaskois.
