4. Historical Perspective (1600-1999)

Most of our earliest pioneers were born in France in the 1600s.  That century in Europe was marked by nearly continuous wars and famine.  One can hardly find a decade without major battles between countries – some as long as the “Thirty Years War” (1618-1648).  So life was more than likely very difficult for our ancestors in France without much likelihood of improvement in their lives for the foreseeable future.  Is it any wonder that many of them sought out better opportunities across the Atlantic in the territory known as New France?  All this at the same time that so many people from England were taking a similar journey a bit to the south in America seeking more opportunities and religious freedom. 

Our ancestors undertook a perilous journey by ship to a country that they knew little about.  Samuel de Champlain first set up camp in Québec in 1608.  By 1611 he had established the first European colony on the island of Montreal (Ville Marie).  In 1620 Champlain assumed the role of Governor of New France as he continued to work at getting funding from France for supplies for the new settlements as well as attempting to lure people interested in establishing a new life in the new world.  This was, by the way, the same year that the Pilgrims from England arrived on the shores of Massachusetts at a place we know as Plymouth Rock.  Both groups met with varying degrees of resistance from the native Indians. Throughout most of the 1600s New France was under regular attacks by the native Indian population – mostly the Iroquois.  Besides nearly constant skirmishes with the native Indians, the new colonists of New France had threats from other countries that wanted the riches believed to be in the area.  At this time those riches where mostly in the form of furs and beaver pelts.  For a few years (1629-1631), Québec was even in English hands.  

The 1600s saw the birth of European North America.  So our focus in this section will be on events and people from France, Canada and the United States so that we can more effectively appreciate the life and times of our ancestors.

 

17^th Century (1600 – 1699)

 

Louis XIV, King of France - 1661
 

One can not begin to define the environment that our ancestors came from without some focus on Louis XIV - the King of France.  Louis XIV (1638 - 1715), known as Louis the Great or the Sun King (French: le Roi-Soleil), was a monarch whose reign began in 1643 and ended with his death in 1715.  He holds the distinction as the longest reigning king in the history of Europe (over 72 years).

During Louis's reign, France was the leading European power and fought three major wars: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession, along with two minor conflicts.

Not all of the fighting was against other countries.  The battles were sometimes within the very borders of France and, in fact, against its own citizens.  In 1627 Cardinal Richelieu laid siege to “Protestant” La Rochelle in order to return the area to Catholicism after years of back and forth control by the Huguenots.

In the early the 1600s we see the establishment of perhaps the most important colonies in both America and Canada.  In 1607 Jamestown, Virginia was settled and would become the first permanent English colony in North America.



Depiction of French peasants c. 1642

 The following year, 1608, Québec was founded by Samuel de Champlain in New France (Canada).  Early settlers in this area not only had major battles with the native population but also with the British.  In fact, in 1629 the English led by David Kirke captured Québec City and took Champlain back to England as a prisoner.  It wasn’t until the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1632 that England returned Québec to France.    

So it is with this history as a backdrop that our ancestors left the country of their birth to relocate to North America.  One of them Guillaume David (a Huguenot) would not only emigrate to Canada in the mid 1650's but would then emigrate to the Hudson River Valley around 1678, in the area known today as Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, New York.   

The following names represent our ancestors who may have witnessed some of these events:

• Pierre Lorion (1543-1620) & Renee Gaudin (1563-1638)
• Mathurin Lorion (1601-1683) & Jeanne Bizet (1623-1698)
• Jean Lorion (1660-1739) & Marie Anne Tellier (1678-1754)
• Daniel Macardi (     -     ) & Jeanne Auger (     -     )
• Honere LeBrodeur & Josephte Girard
• Jean Baptiste LeBrodeur (1620-    ) & Francoise Frogent (1631-1653)
• Jean Brodeur dit Lavigne (1653-1718) & Marie Anne Messier (1665-1751)
• Jean Baptiste LeBrodeur dit Lavigne (1689-1769) & Marie Hebert (1692-1754)
• Rambert David (1580-    ) & Julienne Benoite 
• Blaise Didier David (1610-1662) & Flavie Morel (1595-1632)
• Guillaume David (1631-1711) & Marie Armand (1638-1677)
• Jacques David (1657-1708) & Catherine Lussier (1677-1719)
• Jacques David (1693-1727) & Marie Degenais (1698-1775)

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18^th Century (1700 – 1799)

The Eighteenth Century was to be incredibly significant for all of our ancestors and their descendants.  As many as five generations of our family were around to witness the events of this century.  This century would see the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the first battles between the U.S. and Canada, the rise to power of Napoleon Bonaparte, and many other historically significant events. 

The beginning of the 18^th Century began with much promise: in 1701 a peace treaty was signed by the French, English, and Iroquois giving everyone hope for a long stretch of peaceful relations. Unfortunately, that would not be the case.  The first half of the century was marked by skirmishes between France, England, Canada and the colonist in America.  By the middle of the century, full-scale conflict was raging with the Seven Years’ War, the North American theater being known as the French and Indian War (1754–1763. This war was fought primarily between the British colonies and New France, with both sides supported by military units from their parent countries. In 1756, the war escalated from a regional affair into a world-wide conflict.  While we have no specific records of our ancestors in the military, it is hard to imagine them not being significantly impacted by the war.

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham, also known as the Battle of Québec, (Bataille des Plaines d'Abraham or Première bataille de Québec in French) was a pivotal battle in the Seven Years' War. The battle, which began on 13 September 1759, was fought between the British and French military on a plateau just outside the walls of Québec City, on land that was originally owned by a farmer named Abraham Martin, hence the name of the battle.  The battle involved fewer than 10,000 troops between both sides, but proved to be a deciding moment in the conflict over the fate of New France, influencing the later creation of Canada.  With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France ceded most of its North American possessions to Britain.  The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided Québec into Lower Canada (mostly French) and Upper Canada (mostly English).  Canada would not become a sovereign nation until 1867. 

 

In the American colonies unrest was beginning to reach the boiling point.  The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was a key event in the growth of the American Revolution. Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston's commerce. Colonists up and down the Thirteen Colonies in turn responded to the Coercive Acts with additional acts of protest, and by convening the First Continental Congress, which petitioned the British monarch for repeal of the acts and coordinated colonial resistance to them. The crisis escalated, and the American Revolutionary War began near Boston in 1775.  In the winter of 1775, the revolutionaries invaded Canada.  General Richard Montgomery captured Montreal, but a joint attack on Québec failed.  In 1776, the Americans signed the Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the United States of America.  The war lasted until 1783 and the country would gain its independence with significant help from France. 

 

Seeds of turmoil were also beginning to sprout in France.  In 1789, King Louis XVI called a meeting of the Estates-General at Versailles to obtain support for new taxes sowing the seeds of the French Revolution since the nobles and church were not subject to these new taxes.  In June of that year the “commoners” declared themselves a National Assembly, giving themselves the power to write a new constitution.  The following month on the 14^th of July the French prison named the Bastille was stormed by the people of Paris, beginning the French Revolution.  In 1792 King Louis and Queen Marie-Antoinette were executed and a republic was established in France.  By the end of the 18^th Century, Napoleon had risen to power and seized control of France and begun building the French Empire.

 

The following names represent our ancestors who may have witnessed some of these events:

• Jean Lorion (1660-1739) & Marie Anne Tellier (1678-1754)
• Joseph Lorion (1708-1759) & Marie Catherine Loiseau (1719-1751)
• Francois Lorion (1743-1812) & Marie Judith Gour (1753-1827)
• Francois Lorion (1778-1832) & Marie Angelique Deguise (1767-1822)
• Francois Lorion (1795-1873) & Cecile Marie Rivest (1801-1887)
• Daniel Macardi (     -     ) & Jeanne Auger (     -     )
• Jean Baptiste Macarty (     -     ) & Ursele Vermet (     -     )
• Francois MacArti (1743-1825) & Theotiste Mongrain (1771-     )
• Jean Brodeur dit Lavigne (1653-1718) & Marie Anne Messier (1665-1751)
• Jean Baptiste LeBrodeur dit Lavigne (1689-1769) & Marie Hebert (1692-1754)
• Ignace LeBrodeur (1723-1813) & Marie Renee Malart dit Laverdure (1723-1798)
• Louis LeBrodeur (1763-1822) & Marguerite Piche (1768-1843)
• Joseph Lebrodeur (1792-1875) & Marie Angelique Larue (1796-1887)
• Jacques David (1657-1708) & Catherine Lussier (1677-1719)
• Jacques David (1693-1727) & Marie Degenais (1698-1775)
• Jacques David (1718-1793) & Marie Charlotte Pigeon (1722-1803)
• Jacques Amable David (1755-1834) & Marie Angelique Corbeille (1761-1787)
• Louis Noel David (1782-1837) & Marie Archange Colleret (1789-1865)

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19^th Century (1800 – 1899)

 

This century was particularly important to our family since these were the years that saw our ancestors emigrate from Canada to the United States.  It was also the time of the most costly (in human lives) conflict in the history of the U.S. – the Civil War.  Our first relative to make the transition permanent was Francois Xavier Lorion around 1862.  Emery David and his wife Marie DeMontmorency arrived in 1882.  William McCarthy and Alfred Brodeur would follow in 1889.

The 19^th Century began with the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson as the President of the United States in 1801.  Jefferson was instrumental in orchestrating the largest land acquisition in the history of this country.  In the Louisiana Purchase, in 1803, the United States of America gained 828,000 square miles of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana.  The Louisiana territory encompassed all or part of 15 present U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. The land purchased contained all of present-day Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska; parts of Minnesota that were west of the Mississippi River; most of North Dakota; most of South Dakota; northeastern New Mexico; northern Texas; the portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east of the Continental Divide; Louisiana west of the Mississippi River, including the city of New Orleans; and small portions of land that would eventually become part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

 

In 1812 the United States declared war on Great Britain.  This, commonly known as the War of 1812, was a 32-month military conflict between the United States and the British Empire and their allies. It resulted in no territorial change, but a resolution of many issues remaining from the American Revolution.  It was particularly significant since it involved armed conflict between the U.S. and Canada.  In 1818 the 49^th parallel was accepted as the official border between the United States and Canada.

 

 

In 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States.  The next year would witness the beginning of the Civil War.  Montréal was not an innocent bystander in the war between the states:  Montréal's status as a major inland port with direct connections to Britain and France made it a valuable asset for both sides of the American Civil War. While Confederate troops secured arms and supplies from the friendly British, Union soldiers and agents spied on their activity and similarly arranged for weapons shipments from France. John Wilkes Booth spent some time in Montréal prior to assassinating President Lincoln, and in one case was said to have drunkenly gallivanted throughout the city telling anyone who would listen of his plan to kill Lincoln. Almost all took him to be a fool. After the War, President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis stayed at a manor house located at the current site of The Bay on Sainte-Catherine's Street West; a plaque commemorating the site was installed on the west wall of the building in 1957 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.   

The war would last until 1865.  It was during this time that Francois Xavier Lorion would elect to leave his native Canada and establish a new life in the U.S..  He was about 20 years old when he moved from the Montreal area to Spencer Massachusetts.  As I have been immersed in this genealogy research I have often tried to put myself into the life and times of our relatives.  In this case, I am left wondering what dynamics were at play that would cause Francois Xavier to make this journey at a time when this country was in the midst of a horrifying civil war.

 

In 1867 Canada finally became a sovereign nation with the passage of the British North America Act.   

The following names represent our ancestors who may have lived through some of these events:

• Francois Lorion (1743-1812) & Marie Judith Gour (1753-1827)
• Francois Lorion (1778-1832) & Marie Angelique Deguise (1767-1822)
• Francois Lorion (1795-1873) & Cecile Marie Rivest (1801-1887)
• Francois Xavier Lorion (1842-1910) & Sophronie Goodney (1849-1941)
• Albert Lorion (1888-1944) & Eva McCarthy (1891-1918)
• Francois MacArti (1743-1825) & Theotiste Mongrain (1771-     )
• Joseph MacArte (1801-1887) & Julie Champoux (1803-1876)
• Louis Macardi (1830-1875) & Olive Souliere (1838-1882)
• William McCarthy (1869-1953) & Cora Yando (1869-1952)
• Ignace LeBrodeur (1723-1813) & Marie Renee Malart dit Laverdure (1723-1798)
• Louis LeBrodeur (1763-1822) & Marguerite Piche (1768-1843)
• Joseph Lebrodeur (1792-1875) & Marie Angelique Larue (1796-1887)
• Nazaire Brodeur dit Lavigne (1829-1921) & Adeline Bourque (1829-1878)
• Alfred Brodeur (1854-1943) & Agnes Maher (1861-1937)
• Wilfred Brodeur (1891-1948) & Alberta D “Bertha” David (1888-1989)
• Jacques Amable David (1755-1834) & Marie Angelique Corbeille (1761-1787)
• Louis Noel David (1782-1837) & Marie Archange Colleret (1789-1865)
• Joseph David (1815-1902) & Christine Guilbault (1821-1887)
• Emory David (1852-1937) & Marie DeMontmorency (1853-1911)

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20^th Century (1900 – 1999)

 

By the beginning of this century our ancestors had firmly established themselves in the United States.  Some had first settled in Spencer, some in Worcester, and the McCarthy’s in New Hampshire.  By early 1900 all four family groups were living in Worcester – primarily Holy Name and St Joseph’s parish neighborhoods. 

In 1900 Theodore Roosevelt was elected as the 26^th President of the United States.  In 1903 the Wright brothers made the first powered flight in history in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.  Three years later the San Francisco area was nearly completely destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and aftermath. 

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City, US. The sinking of Titanic caused the deaths of 1,502 people in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. The RMS Titanic was the largest ship afloat at the time of her maiden voyage.

 

In June 1913 Albert Lorion and Eva McCarthy travelled to Victoriaville, Québec, Canada to get married.  The following year witnessed the beginning of the First World War (World War I) in Europe.  By 1917 the United States joined the conflict, which lasted until the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.  It was at that time that tragedy would befall the young couple.  In 1918 to 1919 there was a worldwide influenza pandemic that resulted in the deaths of millions of people.  In fact, it is now believed that upwards of 30 to 50 million people worldwide died as a result of contracting the disease.  More Americans actually died from influenza than died in World War I.  Unfortunately, our own grandmother Eva and her newborn son would be victims in 1918.   

Another event that would have major impact on everyone is the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the “great depression.”  While I have not seen any specific evidence that it had a direct impact on any of our ancestors (at least as it relates to work ), one cannot imagine something of this magnitude not affecting everyone’s lives.  People who lived through the depression carried those memories with them for life.  I certainly remember many occasions when the family members referenced this period in our history.

In 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) was sworn in as President for the first of his three terms in that office.  The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco was opened in 1933.  In 1939 another war began in Europe with the invasion of Poland by Germany.  In 1941 the United States was thrust into the worldwide conflict by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  It was during this time that Edmond and Irene would get married and begin our generation.

After writing about all these past generations we are finally down to “our” generation.  Previously we were documenting mostly names without faces.  People who, while certainly part of our heritage, we did not know.  Now, however, I am writing mostly about people I knew while growing up--from Memiere born in 1888, to our parents born in the 1910s, to our generation born in the 1940s, to our children born in the 1970s, and finally to our grandchildren born shortly after the turn of another century. 

As I began to document “our” century I thought it would be interesting to look at the passing of time relative to the changes in cost of a main staple of the diet – namely the cost of bread.

 

The average cost of a loaf of bread:

• 1930                $ .09
• 1940                $ .10
• 1950                $ .12
• 1960                $ .22
• 1970                $ .25
• 1980                $ .50
• 1990                $ .70
• 2008                $2.79

 

The Lorion side of “our” generation began with the birth of Lucille Doucette to Aunt Lil and Uncle Henry in 1941.  This was followed several years later with the marriage of Mom and Dad and the birth of me and my siblings, beginning with Gerry in 1944 and ending with Anita in 1950.  Our generation witnessed the end of World War II and the wars in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan.  Cold War pressures were a constant companion until the 1980s.