The LaPortes of Manitoba
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The LaPortes of Manitoba
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The first of our line to come to Manitoba, or
which would much later become Manitoba, was certainly
my family's direct ancestor Pierre de le Porte who was a paddler
in La Verendrye's canoes from Montreal into 'the western regions' in
1738 where they established
Fort
La Reine near present day Portage la Prairie, the first permanent
fur trading post in the region. Pierre was the son of Jacques de
la Porte
one of the early settlers who came from France in 1650 to join Paul
de Chomedey, Sieur de (Lord of) Maisonneuve, the founder of Montreal.
Jacques built the 16th house in the new settlement at Mount Royal where
he raised a large family which prospered and over the years spread
across the country. Several of Jacques' children and grandchildren
were voyageurs right from the first establishment of the fur trade in
Central Canada. See
The LaPortes in Quebec. I won't recount Jacques and his family's story
in detail as it is well told on The World Association of Laportes &
St-Georges web site:
https://www.laporte-st-georges.org/en/jacques-de-laporte-dit-st-georges/
A bit later brothers
Joseph, Zepherin and George, three sons of Charles Victor LaPorte of
Ottawa, himself a direct descendant of
Jacques de la Porte of Montreal, arrived in Winnipeg in the 1870's
along with their brother-in-law Casimir Prud'homme, who had married
their sister Eulalie.
Joseph, the eldest, arrived by June 1873 when
he opened a
new dry goods store on Main Street. However by September he was
charged with assault and was likely committed to a jail as he appears
next in the
1877/78 edition of The Manitoba Directory which lists him as boarding in
Onesime Monchamp's Hotel de Canada and as working as a clerk in the
Bertrand and Prud'homme Hardware store. The Henderson’s Guide for 1880
lists C. Prud’homme now running the Hotel du Canada with Joseph employed
as his clerk. Joseph was still living there in late 1883 when he clerked
for George Laporte, another of his brothers, at the Inland Revenue
office at Main and York Sreet. Shortly after that he married and
moved to Neche, North Dakota and then on to Pembina, ND in 1889.
In 1894 the family moved on to Minot, ND where Joseph ran a general
store. In 1903 Joseph was struck by a train and killed. See
Joseph Laporte of Winnipeg, MB and
Minot, ND
Zepherin Laporte would join them in Winnipeg in
1879 where he would become a prominent hotel proprietor
operating both the Commercial Hotel and the Hotel du Canada, right where
the Richardson Building is today. He would also receive possibly
Winnipeg's first speeding ticket when he was fined $10 for “immoderate
driving within the city limits” when he raced his horse, London Boy,
down Portage Avenue in 1884. One of the clients at the Hotel du
Canada was Louis Riel where he is believed to have made his plans
leading up to the first Red River Rebellion in 1869. In 1885,
during Riel's trial in Regina, Zepherin would drive his buggy through a
crowd on Main Street in order to pull down a figure of Riel which the
crowd was hanging in effigy. Later that year, when Riel's funeral
procession proceeded from the present Louis Riel House in St Vital to
his burial at the St Boniface Cathedral, Zepherin was one of the
prominent local Francophone community who walked alongside his coffin.
In 1889 Zepherin hosted Riel's military commander Gabriel Dumont at his
Hotel du Canada where Zepherin acted as his interpreter when
Dumont gave interviews to the Press. For more on these
events see
my article on Zepherin LaPorte which was published in the Fall 2014
issue of Manitoba History magazine.
The first reference that I can find for the
third brother, George Laporte, in Winnipeg was when he was in the list
of attendees of the New Years Day festivities at Government House in
1883. In October the Winnipeg Daily Times reported that he had
written and passed his qualifying examination for the civil service.
The 1884 Henderson's Directory listed him as George Laporte, exciseman,
Inland Revenue Office, Main (West side) at York, home at 121 Edmonton.
In June 1885 the same newspaper reported that George had left the Inland
Revenue Department in Winnipeg for the same position in that office in
Montreal.
As a confirmation that Joseph, Zepherin and
George were indeed brothers from Ottawa, on Jan. 9, 1884 the Winnipeg
Daily Times printed an obituary for Amanda Laporte in Ottawa in which
she was stated to be 'the sister of Z. Laporte of the Commercial, George
Laporte of the Inland Revenue Department here and of Joseph Laporte now
of Neche, N.D.
And now for my line
While these were side branches of my ancestor
Jacques de la Porte descendants, my direct line came from Quebec to
settle in St Norbert, Manitoba around 1880.
At the time of the 1871 Census of Canada, Joseph LaPorte, his wife Esther
(Houle) and their 5 children were farming in the township of St. Norbert (Champlain), Quebec.
They owned 300 arpents (254 acres) of land on which they produced 59
bushels of spring wheat, 15 bushels of barley, 770 bushels of oats, 11
bushels of rye, 165 bushels of peas, 2 bushels of beans, 143 bushels
buckwheat, 13 bushels Indian wheat, 352 bushels potatoes, 11 bushels beets,
13 bushels carrots, 6380 bales of hay, 17 bushels of millet and clover, 9
bushels of flax, 60 pounds of flax and hemp, 50 pounds of tobacco, 22
bushels of pears, plums or other fruit and 150 pounds of maple sugar – that
year. For stock they had 2
horses, 5 milk cows, 8 other cattle, 31 sheep, 14 pigs, 3 bee hives and had
butchered 1 cow, 24 sheep and 4 pigs.
They also produced 600 pounds of butter, 50 pounds of honey, 75 wool
products, 60 yards of linen and 45 cords of firewood.
It's hard to see why they would leave such an extensive farming operation to
homestead an undeveloped strip of land in the West but in 1880 Joseph
decided to follow other settlers from his region that were moving
to the new French settlements along the banks of the
Red River. Their
daughter, Maria, was born in St. Norbert,
Quebec
in May 1879 but their last child, Marie Louise, was born in St. Norbert, Manitoba
in August 1881.
When
the family first arrived in
Manitoba, they spent their first year living in an
abandoned Metis cabin on the Verrier farm.
Several of these log cabins remained in the St. Norbert area after
Louis Riel’s Metis band withdrew to Saskatchewan after the
rebellion in the 1870’s. A
photograph of this cabin still exists.
In 1881 or 1882, Joseph homesteaded at River Lot 72 south of St.
Norbert about where the floodway gates are today.
He fulfilled his homestead requirements and obtained patent on his
land on Feb. 28, 1888.
The 1891 Census of Canada has Joseph and Esther on their farm with
their children Zachee, Zaida, Sylvio, Eliza, Maria and Marie Louise.
Several of their other children had passed away by this time.
Two of their children, Telesphore and Albina had married, had
children and were living on their own farms in the area.
Joseph
died on December 6, 1894
at age 57 while Esther lived on with a daughter, Marie Eliza Gagnon, in
Montreal
(St. Leonard
de Port Maurice) until she died there on May 10, 1920 at age 84.
The photo shows Esther in St Leonard with her daughter Eliza, a
Cure Houle (possibly her brother?) and two others who certainly look like
they could be sisters of hers as well. I have not looked into the
Houle family.
The 1901 Census has their children, Telesphor, Zachee, Albina and Sylvio all
married and living in St. Norbert with their families.
According to the same census, their daughter, Maria, was living in
one room in the Laramee School
in St. Adolphe, Manitoba.
She was probably the teacher but she is listed as speaking French
only and being unable to read or write.
Their standards for teachers must not have been very high.
Joseph and Esther’s Children
Telesphore LaPorte (1863-1920)
Telesphore was 17 when the family moved to
St. Norbert, MB in
1880 where he married Hermina
Bonin in 1884. Hermina was the
oldest of 15 children in the Francois Bonin family that had just arrived
from Lanoraie, Quebec
in 1883. The 1891 census has
them farming near St. Norbert with their 5 children, Ernest, Blanche, Anna,
Georges and Augustine. They
gave up farming there after losing several crops to frost and moved to
Kenora, Ontario around 1894 where Telesphore found work with a sawmill and
Hermina ran a market garden.
The ground there is solid rock so Hermina and the children scraped up soil
around the town to build up their garden and the children sold their
vegetables door to door.
Telesphore gained a reputation as a strongman after he won a bet by carrying
a railroad “frog” (a tool used to lever train cars back onto the track) for
a certain distance. Their
daughter Corinne was born there in 1898.
By 1900, unable to pay their taxes on their house, they left it for
the taxes and returned to St. Norbert.
Their situation must not have been very good as the May, 1901 Census
shows them living with their 7 children in a 2 room house on his brother
Sylvio’s farm (probably that farm lot’s homestead log cabin or the original
Metis cabin).
In 1901 her grandfather,
Telesphore LaPorte, worked on the construction of the Colonization Road
extending it from Teulon past Norris Lake and on to the northwest.
When the summer’s work was done instead of heading back to his family
as the rest of the workers did, Telesphore walked on another ½ mile from the
point where the construction had ended. He then dug a hole in the
ground, covered it with branches and sod and lived there from Oct. 30 until
Christmas when he returned to his family in St. Norbert. In February
he returned to his hole in the ground with his eldest sons Ernest and George
and together they built a combined cabin and barn over the hole. When
the other settlers arrived that spring, the LaPortes were already there with
their homestead already staked out and with a house built. The farming
community which would become centered on Inwood had been started.
Some of these other new settlers included Telesphor’s brother Leopold
and three of Hermina’s brothers. All of whom also homesteaded on
nearby lots. In 1904 when the
first school board of trustees was formed to build the first school for the
settlement, Telesphore was elected to the board.
In 1906 when the Municipality of Woodlands appointed the first Road
Overseers who were responsible for the upkeep of the roads in various
“zones” of the municipality, Telesphore was appointed overseer for Zone 43
that consisted of sections 1-5 and 8-17 of T18 1W.
In 1911 Telesphore and Hermina built a big stone house on their farm.
Telesphore died in 1920 but his wife, Hermina, lived on after him until 1956
(age 96). See more on Telesphore
LaPorte
Telesphore and Hermina’s Children
Ernest LaPorte (1885-1966)
Telesphore’s oldest son Ernest was 15 when they built the first log cabin at
what would become Inwood. He
started farming but soon found that he did better in business.
He started by renting workhorses to the settlers that came to his
parent’s Stopping Place and
opened his own livery stable in 1910.
He owned the first car in town and when others arrived, he opened a
garage across the street from his stable.
Soon he was the International Harvester farm implements dealer for
the area and had a Ford dealership selling Model T’s.
He was also the local Manitoba Provincial Police constable from 1909
to 1914. In 1907, with his
future brother-in-law, Bill Cossette, he founded the Cossette School
Division and was Chairman of the School Board when they built the first
school in Inwood in 1909.
“Ernie” was a chief force in establishing Inwood as a town.
In 1910 he lead a group into
Winnipeg
to convince the railroad to run their proposed new line through their
settlement. When it was built,
it ran right past his livery stable.
He became caretaker of the railway station and had a contract to
deliver the mail around the district.
In 1913, he married Leah Cossette whose family had come up from Wild
Rice, North Dakota to settle at Inwood.
They had four children Joseph (Ben), Hermina, Leah and Caroline.
After the Second World War he retired and passed his garage business
on to his son Ben. See also The
LaPortes of Inwood and Ernie LaPorte
Ernie and Leah’s Children
Ben LaPorte (1914-1991)
Joseph Ulphie (Ben) LaPorte was actually born at his maternal grandfather’s
home in Wild Rice, North Dakota but the
family soon returned home to Inwood.
He grew up there but went to
Winnipeg
to get his business degree at the St. Boniface College.
When the Second World War started, he was not accepted for service
due to his poor vision so he moved to
Fort
William (now Thunder Bay) where he
worked building Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft.
While there, he married Marion Bowles in 1942.
In 1946, they returned with their two children, John and Paul, to
Inwood to take over his father’s garage which he continued to operate until
his retirement in 1979. A third
son, Tom, was born in 1951. For more see
Ben LaPorte of Inwood
Ben and
Marion’s Children
John born 1943, his wife Gloria (Wityshyn) and their children Derek and
Nicole. John had worked as an
electronic technician until his retirement from Atomic Energy Canada Ltd.
Paul born 1944, his wife Mette (Olsen) and their children Nicholas and
Signe. Paul had been a teacher
in rural Manitoba,
then in Denmark
for several years and finally at a
Winnipeg
High School until his
retirement.
Tom born 1951, his wife Bev (Motoska) and their children Leah and Kristie.
Tom had a varied career alternating between working as a computer
analyst and being a political staffer until his retirement in 2016 and is
the family historian.
(Note: the family histories for current generations will not be
included here for privacy reasons)
Hermina (Toupie) LaPorte (1916-1984)
Leah LaPorte (1917-1934)
Caroline (Carrie) LaPorte (1920-2013)
Blanche LaPorte (1886-1967)
Anna LaPorte (1887- ?)
Georges LaPorte (1889- ?)
Augustine LaPorte (1890-1899)
Leopold LaPorte (1891-1985)
Yvonne LaPorte (1893-
Died young
Corinne LaPorte (1898-1995)
Rene LaPorte (1903-1999)
Hercule-Ignace (1863-before the 1871 census)
He probably died as an infant.
Eugene LaPorte (1865- ?)
Very little is known so far except that he did not marry.
I have found no record of him living in
Manitoba.
He is listed in the 1871 Census of Quebec at age 6.
Zachee LaPorte (1866-1953)
Zachee was 14 in 1880 when the family moved to Manitoba.
Later he liked to tell the story that on the trip from
Quebec
he was responsible for the chair with the hole in it (the potty chair).
On February 9, 1892 he married Marie Schwartz who had come to
St. Norbert around 1889 from
Montreal
to join two of her brothers and a sister who had moved there in 1888.
They farmed there until sometime in the mid-1890’s when he bought the
blacksmith shop in St. Norbert from his brother-in-law, Tancred Schwartz.
Their third child, Alida, was born in their living area over the shop
in 1899. About 1902 he also
built a two story house on their farm.
In about 1903, he opened the LaPorte Grocery store next door to his
blacksmith shop. He was the
first merchant in St. Norbert to install a gasoline pump.
In 1920 with his business thriving he bought a town lot (now 49 rue
Campeau) and had the house moved from the farm into the town.
That same year he had a very difficult tonsillitis operation from
which he had a hard time recovering so he sold his business and retired.
The store later burned down on the new owner in 1924.
Late in his life Zachee took up wood carving, producing many of the
French Canadian style figures of people and animals.
Zachee and Marie’s Children
Three children (Lucienne Beatrice,
Napoleon Sylvio and Celestine Beatrice) who died in infancy
Alice LaPorte (1892-1989)
Napoleon LaPorte (1894-1981)
Alida LaPorte (1899-2001)
Diana LaPorte (1867-?)
Albina LaPorte (1868-1897)
Ovilla LaPorte (1869-1871)
She is mentioned in the 1871 Census (May) but died on June 11 of that year.
Esther Feida LaPorte (1871-?)
Zaida LaPorte (1872-1955)
Sylvio LaPorte (1873-1943)
Sylvio was only 7 when his family moved from Quebec to Manitoba.
In 1896 he married Celestine Leclair and they farmed at lots 91 and
92 just north of St. Norbert.
(In 1898, Sylvio’s sister, Marie Louise married Celestine’s brother
Cyrille.) Pictures of Sylvio’s
brother Zachee’s blacksmith shop and grocery store taken about 1903 show
Sylvio sitting on his wagon in front of the buildings.
One day he was on the bank of the Red River
filling up a water barrel on a sledge pulled by horses.
When he was fastening a chain around the barrel it slipped and cut
off the end of one of his fingers.
After that he was nick-named “Ti Pouce” (Thumb) because it looked
like he had two of
them on one hand.
Eliza LaPorte (1876-1984)
Maria LaPorte (1879-1945)
Marie Louise LaPorte (1881-1966)
Marie Louise was the only child born after the family arrived in
Manitoba.
In 1898 she married Cyrille Leclair (her brother Sylvio’s
brother-in-law) and they operated a very fine restaurant in St. Norbert for
many years.
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