Telesphore LaPorte (1863 to 1920)
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Telesphore,
born in St. Norbert, Quebec to parents Joseph LaPorte and Esther Houle,
was 17 when his family moved to St. Norbert, MB in 1880 where he married
Hermina Bonin in 1884. He was actually their
second born child; the first, also named Telesphore, was born in 1861
but only lived for one year.
Hermina was the oldest of 15 children in
the Francois Bonin family that had just arrived at St Norbert 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 mostly 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, though, unable to pay their taxes on their
house they left it for the taxes and returned to St. Norbert.
Telesphore found a job that summer as a labourer on the construction of
a new colonization road into Manitoba's Interlake region. 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.
I believe that would have been one of the
original log cabins built by the Metis hunters who had worked for the
Hudson Bay Company supplying food for the company's fort at The Forks in
Winnipeg until the government pushed them off their land to make room
for new settlement from Ontario and Quebec after 1870. Joseph
LaPorte's family had lived in a former Metis cabin when they first
arrived there in 1880 and Sylvio had taken over the LaPorte family farm
after Joseph's death in 1894.
That September Telesphore moved his family from
St Norbert to his homestead at Inwood in Manitoba's Interlake. See
The LaPortes of Inwood for the next
part of his story.
Family Group Photos
%20Hermina%20in%20front%20unknown%20boy%20at%20side%20about%201918_small.jpg)
A family gathering in about 1919: back row
daughter Blanche Beaudoin, son Ernie, not sure, Telesphore, daughter
Corinne, unknown boy; front row unknown woman, grandson Leo Beaudoin,
his mother Esther Houle, the last woman is marked Hermina on the photo
but it doesn't look like her, looks more like a Bonin.
A family gathering in about 1920: back row
Hermina and her mother Celina Bonin, middle row Corinne LaPorte (wearing
man's hat) and Stephanie Bonin, front row Leo LaPorte and Anna LaPorte
Bonin.
My dad's (Ben LaPorte's) baptism in spring 1915
on Telesphore's farm; back row Anna LaPorte Bonin, Leah Cossette LaPorte
holding Ben in his christening gown; Stephanie Bonin McNeil, Telesphore
holding grandson Leo Beaudoin; front row Jeanne (unknown relation),
Corinne LaPorte
Telesphore's Wife Hermina Bonin
The first photo is assumed to be Hermina from
the house photo above but she would have been 58 in 1918; photos of
Hermina in about 1920, in their 30th Anniversary photo in 1914 and
at the Tache Hospice in St Boniface shortly before her death in 1956 at
age 96.
Telesphore's Memorial Cards (handmade
by family members)
This site was last updated
04/13/23
Telesphore,
born in St. Norbert, Quebec to parents Joseph LaPorte and Esther Houle,
was 17 when his family moved to St. Norbert, MB in 1880 where he married
Hermina Bonin in 1884. He was actually their
second born child; the first, also named Telesphore, was born in 1861
but only lived for one year.
Hermina was the oldest of 15 children in
the Francois Bonin family that had just arrived at St Norbert 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 mostly 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, though, unable to pay their taxes on their
house they left it for the taxes and returned to St. Norbert.
Telesphore found a job that summer as a labourer on the construction of
a new colonization road into Manitoba's Interlake region. 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.
I believe that would have been one of the
original log cabins built by the Metis hunters who had worked for the
Hudson Bay Company supplying food for the company's fort at The Forks in
Winnipeg until the government pushed them off their land to make room
for new settlement from Ontario and Quebec after 1870. Joseph
LaPorte's family had lived in a former Metis cabin when they first
arrived there in 1880 and Sylvio had taken over the LaPorte family farm
after Joseph's death in 1894.
That September Telesphore moved his family from
St Norbert to his homestead at Inwood in Manitoba's Interlake. See
The LaPortes of Inwood for the next
part of his story.
Family Group Photos
%20Hermina%20in%20front%20unknown%20boy%20at%20side%20about%201918.jpg)
A family gathering in about 1919: back row
daughter Blanche Beaudoin, son Ernie, not sure, Telesphore, daughter
Corinne, unknown boy; front row unknown woman, grandson Leo Beaudoin,
his mother Esther Houle, the last woman is marked Hermina on the photo
but it doesn't look like her, looks more like a Bonin.
A family gathering in about 1920: back row
Hermina and her mother Celina Bonin, middle row Corinne LaPorte (wearing
man's hat) and Stephanie Bonin, front row Leo LaPorte and Anna LaPorte
Bonin.
My dad's (Ben LaPorte's) baptism in spring 1915
on Telesphore's farm; back row Anna LaPorte Bonin, Leah Cossette LaPorte
holding Ben in his christening gown; Stephanie Bonin McNeil, Telesphore
holding grandson Leo Beaudoin; front row Jeanne (unknown relation),
Corinne LaPorte
Telesphore's Wife Hermina Bonin
The first photo is assumed to be Hermina from
the house photo above but she would have been 58 in 1918; photos of
Hermina in about 1920, in their 30th Anniversary photo in 1914 and
at the Tache Hospice in St Boniface shortly before her death in 1956 at
age 96.
Telesphore's Memorial Cards (handmade
by family members)
