User:Jessie Anton/sandbox

The colony of Montmartre
In March 1893, wealthy French Catholic settlers by the names of Pierre Foursin (a private secretary to the Honourable Hector Fabre, the first Canadian High Commissioner to Paris), Armand Goupil (notary), Auguste and Albert Hayman (proprietors of a large jewellery store), Jean and André Chartier (university students) and Louis Gigot (brother-in-law of the Chartiers and an Engineer of Arts and Manufactors) decided to establish the colony of Montmartre. Together, they founded the Foncier Society of Canada “the Society,” which was created to aid in colonization. After getting off the train at Wolseley, they travelled by horse and buggy southwest to SE 16-15-11 W2, which was a hilly area that eventually became the Montmartre colony. They named their new settlement “Montmartre” after their home in Montmartre, France. In March 1893, after they established land, Foursin, Goupil, Hayman and the Chartiers set out for new settlements in the area while Gigot and Hayman remained in Paris to promote colonization.

The Foncier Society of Canada’s promises
Gigot and Hayman’s promoting Montmartre was successful as they described it as a place with excellent farmland, woods, lakes, rivers and abundant game. Because most colonists coming to Montmartre were office workers and bureaucrats with no farming experience, to help colonists integrate, the Society made promises that would help colonists become farmers with the help of a hired mentor, Onesime Tourigny. Throughout this process, the Society made more agreements which promised to: provide colonists with railroad/steamship fares; cover the cost of registering 160 acres of land (which would be chosen by the Society), a furnished log cabin, food, animals, farm equipment, insurance expenses and mortgages until the colonist became self-sufficient.

First families
The first family living in Montmartre was that of Auguste M.D. de Trémaudan (the only family who was brought by the Foncier Society) who brought his wife Jeanne Marie and children (Noémie, Auguste H., Aline, Desiré and Jeanne) from France. The second family was that of Mr. Berneau, who brought his wife, 18-year-old son and baby boy (who later died after their arrival in Canada). On June 1, 1893, both families arrived in their new home of Montmartre where they temporarily lived in sod-covered tepee structures. Eventually, as the Society promised, houses were built for colonists in the form of a village. In August 1893, as another fulfillment of the Society’s promises, each colonist was assigned a quarter section of land. Later that year, on November 10, 1893, Jeanne Simonin was born, marking the first birth in Montmartre.

Hardships of colonists
Their first year on Canadian soil, European settlers suffered many hardships. An early frost in August 1893 froze their first potato crop and the well that men from Wolseley had been hired to dig was abandoned because there was no sign of water. Furthermore, on October 31, 1893, a prairie fire swept across Montmartre. Although no lives, buildings or animals were lost, the fire took most of their belongings and the feed for their animals. Later that year, the first European settler died on Montmartre soil was Louis Fombeur who died from pneumonia during his quest for straw for his cattle. The struggles continued throughout that winter as settlers and their livestock were obligated to drink slough water or melted snow.

Early 20th-century settlers
In 1898, people started emigrating from eastern Canada. Although the French settlers remained the majority in Montmartre, by 1905, English, Irish, Polish and German families joined the mix. A 1901 census read that there were 20 houses with 22 families, made up of 95 people. The origins of these people were: 1 English, 80 French, 10 Belgian, 1 Swiss and 3 Métis.