20 Jan 1886 - 20 Mar 1974
My interest in Victor Mercredi was inspired by this photo in my father's slides. I wasn't sure who it was until Jumbo Fraser confirmed it was Victor. Over time my interest diverged into many aspects of Victor's life, which deepened my understanding of the communities and family links that span two and a half centuries of French Métis history in the North. This post touches on many happy weeks of exploration.
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| Victor Mercredi by his house on the east side of Bannock & Lard (now Mercredi Street), 1963. |
Victor started building this 18x20 foot log house on August 5, 1911 with the help of his brother Isidore, Albert Robillard and Baptiste Forcier. They finished it by the first week of October. Victor and his wife Elizabeth made it their home for the rest of their lives. The house had a wood stove in the parlour room, with a metal grate in the ceiling for circulating warmth. The kitchen, including a well, was in an attached structure at the back. The drop siding and trim were added later, after 1931. Note the unique gutter system for collecting rainwater. The house had electricity, which arrived in Fort Chipewyan in 1959, and telephone service, which arrived a year or so later. The house was on a large lot with garden, buildings for a workshop, storage, and, at times, shelter for animals.
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My mother visited Victor in 1963 and made these notes in her 1929 diary, which she used for addresses, phone numbers, recipes, and other important
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Victor is remembered fondly by his grandchildren, who he loved dearly. He would recall for them his excitement when the season’s first boats arrived, stories of their ancestors, boating on the rivers, long trips by dog sled, accomplishments, trials, and the importance of life-long honesty, trustworthiness and faith. Victor’s faith in his religion was particularly strong, and shaped his life from his earliest childhood. He had great respect for the priests, sisters and brothers of the Catholic missions in the North, a respect he inherited from his parents Pierre and Marie. He could be strict though, expecting his children to obey the rules, respect elders and never shirk from work. Above all he taught them to be proud of their family, their Métis heritage, and themselves.
In 1938 Angeline married Philip Bourque [2] who for a time was warden for Wood Buffalo National Park. When Philip left the Park they built a house on Victor’s property, which they sold to Jim and Agatha (née Trippe de Roche) Stewart, who in turn sold it to Agatha’s father Boniface. Angeline and Philip had five children, and eventually settled in Edmonton.
In 1940 Victor arranged for Adolph to marry Martha Louise Swain [3], a resident in the Holy Angels Convent. They had five children in Fort Chipewyan, Fort Smith and Yellowknife. Adolph worked in various places as general labourer, underground miner, freight hauler, deck-hand, carpenter, bison herder, and trapper, while Martha kept the home. They had a house on Victor’s property, but settled in Fort Smith.
In 1946 Xavier married Margaret (Peggy) Loutitt. He joined the HBCo and was posted to Chip Lake where they started their family of eight children, and then transferred to Snowdrift (Łutsël K'é) on the East Arm of Great Slave Lake. Xavier quit the HBCo when the company refused to move them to a community with a school for the children. They moved to Yellowknife, and while getting settled their two older boys, Bryce and Matthew, stayed with Victor and Elizabeth in Fort Chipewyan and attended Holy Angels School. For a short time Xavier worked for Giant Mine, then joined the NWT Government. He had a long a career with the Supreme Court of the NWT as Clerk of the Court, travelling with judge and lawyers to settlements throughout the NWT. He became known as X. Xavier was the only child who didn’t inherit a piece of Victor and Elizabeth’s property. Victor had generously allowed Xavier’s parcel to be used for a house for retired Catholic sisters, and after he died it was retained by the church.
Sisters Mochamp and Brady [4] on the steps of their double-wide manufactured home, which appears to be in remarkably new condition. Located at 105 Mercredi Street, about 25 meters northwest of Victor and Elizabeth’s house, it was demolished in 2023 after being vacant for some time. The sisters hosted social and craft activities for children here, maintained a big garden, and had their daily needs supported by the community. In 1976 Sister Brady was named Chief Anah Ka Sakihat Awasissa (The One Who Loves Children) by the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations. She died on 3 April 1984. James Jenka posted this undated image of the sister house on his group Facebook page Fort Chipewyan-From the Archives on 18 April 2024.
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| Adolph (age 3), Elizabeth and Norbert (1) in front of the log house in 1917. |
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| Victor and Elizabeth’s family in front of their log house in about 1931, with Xavier (age 9), Patrick (1), Angeline (13), Norbert (15) and Adolph (17). Notice Xavier is the only one who is not being serious for the photo. He was a bit of an imp; the only one who could get away with teasing his father! |
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| Victor and Elizabeth in their garden in 1953. Photo by Harold Routledge, RCMP. |
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| Xavier, Victor, Elizabeth and Angeline, undated. |
The business practices that helped Victor succeed in the freewheeling fur trade of his time included keeping good records. A friend related overhearing a conversation between Victor and a local trapper who approached him while he was planting potatoes with a hoe.
“Hello Victor.”
“Jerome! [5] It’s been a long time. How are you keeping?”
“Fine,” he replied. “But my son let my skiff freeze in the lake last fall, it’s badly damaged. Can you make me a new one?”
Victor returned to his hoeing, quietly thinking this over. Then he stood up, reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small notebook. He flipped through a few pages, stopped to read, then said, “I’ll build you a new skiff, but only after you pay me the $54 you still owe me for the last one. Also, the cost of materials for building you another. Until then, no.”
There was no argument.
Jerome left.
Victor had no tolerance for drunkenness. Although he would share a drink socially, if his visitor asked for a second one he would suggest it was time they leave, and show them the door. He was particularly strict with his own children, or their spouses, drinking alcohol at all.
On April 5th, 1962 Victor completed a 17,000-word document of his memories entitled Years of my life in Fort Chipewyan, also known as Victor Mercredi’s Diary [6]. This important historical document contains dates, names and details of Northern life written from a unique perspective – that of a hard-working independent French Métis man during this period of rapid social and economic change.
My uses of Victor’s diary in this blog are with the kind permission of his granddaughter Mrs. Louise Fraser, daughter of Adolph and Martha Mercredi, for which I am grateful.
The following outlines Victor’s working life.
1891-1902 Attended school at the Holy Angels Convent from ages 5-14
1902-1907 Chores, cook and steward on S.S. Grahame for HBCo
1907-1908 Cook on S.S. St. Joseph and S.S. Ste. Marie, log cutting, building, dog team driver, cook at sawmill, fishing, harvesting crops for R.C. Mission
1908 Mail dog team driver for Alex Loutit
1909-1910 Fur trading at Indian camps, fur bailing, hunting for HBCo, odd jobs
1910-1911 Interpreter and odd jobs for free traders in Fort Resolution
1911 Built his house, moved reindeer to Fitzgerald for Dominion government
1912-1917 Odd jobs, trapping, fishing, carpentry, mostly for the R.C. Mission
1917-1918 Fur buying for free trader Charles Largent
1918-1921 Post manager at Jack Fish Lake for Lawson & Hubbard
1921-1924 Post manager at Fond du Lac for Lawson & Hubbard
1925 Responsible for Treaty sales at Fond du Lac for Hamdon & Alley
1925-1926 Post manager at Fond du Lac for Orvin Bright
1928-1929 Special constable for R.C.M.P.
1929-1936 Trap, build skiffs, carpenter & storekeeper for Frederick Fraser, odd jobs
1936 Staked gold claims at Beaver Lodge
1937 Helper in store for Frederick Fraser, odd jobs
1938-1943 Trap muskrats, deliver wood with team of horses, build skiffs, carpenter for Wood Buffalo Park, fishing, odd jobs
1943-1950 Postmaster for Fort Chipewyan
1946-1952 Agent for Canadian Pacific Airlines
1952-1971 Old Age Assistance
What follows are edited excerpts from Victor’s Diary…
In the year 1903, I was working on the S.S. Grahame as assistant Steward helping Mr. Flett...
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| The HBCo Steamer Grahame on the Athabasca River |
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Between September and October, Brother Marc and I, along with the other boys we left for Big Island about forty miles from the mission to fish and caught 15,000 (fifteen thousand) fish and we came home just about freeze up. We hung up all the fish and then we rested for the rest of the day. (This was in Fort Providence in 1907, ed.)
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From 1936 to 1940, I had no steady job and them were the unlucky years of my life. Everything I tried failed and on March 26, 1940 I lost my dear son Norbert, aged 23, a very devoted son who helped me very much with his earnings.
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In the month of April 1939, I got a contract from the manager of the HBCo, Mr. Middleton, to demolish all the old HBCo buildings and have them all down before the boats arrived. Those buildings were built before my time. Building No. 1 was the HBCo Depot. Building No. 2 was partitioned in half. One part was the general store for Indian trade only. The other half was for storing flour, bacon and fresh meat and dry fish. Building No. 3 was the old frame building down the hill for the boat equipment such as ropes, block and tackle, jack screws, etc. With the help of my two sons, Adolph and Norbert, we had everything finished before the boats arrived.
Only one old building is still standing which was the residence of Chief Factor Mr. Roderick MacFarlane. When Mr. MacFarlane was transferred to Fort St. James Chief Trader Dr. William Morrison MacKay made it his residence. When he resigned in 1898 Mr. George Drever was appointed in charge of Fort Chipewyan and lived in that same house until he left in 1903. That year my father Mr. Pierre Mercredi was appointed in charge of the post by Chief Factor William T. Livock and remained in charge until 1913 when he transferred to the Mackenzie District. Mr. John James Loutit was then put in charge by Mr. Alfred Fugl, who was General Manager of the Athabasca District. The old house still stands on the same spot and is the only evidence of this historic post, and it may not be long before time will come and demolish these meager remains. [7] (Changes to names and dates, ed.)
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| Chief Factor's House 1964, photo by Lloyd Chorney |
You may imagine the emotion I felt after I took down all them buildings and from the old house there opened up the wide view of the lake. Happy and carefree were the times I spent playing around those buildings. Now nothing remains of the large white buildings set on the bold rocky shore.
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Today in my old days, very well I recall the happy moments I spent in my beloved Delta when I and my dear old dad went shooting geese and ducks at the delta and them inland marshes. I remember the cool fall evenings, the sun setting over the Lake Athabasca silhouetting the islands. The whistling sound of ducks in flight and in the distance the honking sound of the Canada goose that heralds their lazy flight, the trumpet sound of the majestic swan, the snow geese and the lyric sound of the gray wavy. The smell of willow, of a campfire and smoke, of ducks being roasted over a fire.
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I can well recall the settings of old Fort Chipewyan with that long string of white buildings. In the distance Potato Island, the Embarras River, with that long line of golden meadow stretching on to Goose Island, and beyond Big Point. Also, the hours I spent just sitting on the rock at Hudson Bay Point looking at the wide expanse of lake. To a lot of people I might have appeared queer, too, just sitting there and gazing out, but to me it is communicating with nature and I enjoy it very much.
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I am very glad to say the years I stayed in the Holy Angels Convent were the happiest days of my life. I stayed 12 years in the convent and I will say also my brothers, my sister, my children and some of my grandchildren and myself all went to the Holy Angels School. The old Holy Angels School was not up-to-date like the new school they now have, but I did like my old Alma Mater very much and I will always remember the happy days and years I have passed under her roof. And I pray for and may our Dear Lord bless all the very kind sisters who are now replacing the good work of those departed good sisters.
Travis Mercredi posted a 46-minute audio recording of his “Great Grandfather Alexis Victor Mercredi talking about the old days around the Fort Chipewyan area” here. He speaks in his primary language, French. I don't understand much of this, but hearing his voice deepened my sense of him.
Victor gave this model of a traditional freight dogsled to Reverend and Mrs. Herman when they left Fort Chipewyan in 1966 after serving the St Paul the Apostle Anglican congregation for six years. The dogsled illustrates his workmanship and attention to detail – the classic slow-curve design that keeps the toboggan from plowing into the snow, canvas cariole with room for extra freight behind the backboard, evenly spaced tie-down ropes with slip-knots to secure the load, etc. The wood looks to me like birch, the traditional toboggan favourite for its uniform fine grain, crushing strength and shock resistance [8].
There are no metal fasteners in the model. Everything is secured with traditional babiche (rawhide cord).
I was so pleased when Mrs. Herman offered this model to me during a visit last year. She didn't know of my interest in Victor’s life. I have since returned the dogsled to Victor’s family and it is now with Victor’s granddaughter Mrs. Louise Fraser in Fort Smith.
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| Plan of Chipewyan Settlement on Lake Athabasca”, approved by the Surveyor General of the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, on July 18, 1913. |
Fort Chipewyan was surveyed for the first time in 1911, creating lots for houses that were occupied by non-treaty residents. Accordingly, Victor received title for Lot 23, measuring 3.5 by 15.49 chains for an area of 5.42 acres, a very large piece of property! His older brother Isidore owned Lot 21 [9], and his father’s cousin Vital Mercredi and wife Sara (née MacDonald) was to the west on Lot 25 [10]. Victor’s neighbour on Lot 22 to the south was Bathurst Cooper, clerk for the HBCo. Lot 22 belonged to Parks Canada when we lived there.
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| Victor and Elizabeth's house in 1963. Angeline's house is at the back on the right, and Adolph's is the yellow one in front of it. Pierre's house is the white two-story on the right. |
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| Don Voyageur’s drone photo of the same view in 2024 |
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| McCarthy Family Crest "strong fierce and fast" The lizard for wisdom, the deer for peacefulness, silver for sincerity, red for military strength |
Mercredi is a Gallicized version of McCarthy, an Irish clan that traces its ancestry far back into ancient Celtic history and myth. McCarthys are descendants from the Eoghanachta, rulers of Munster, who were descended from Hever, son of the mythical King Melesius of Spain, 192 CE. The family takes their name from Cárthaigh, who reigned over the Golden Vale of Tipperary in the mid 1000’s. Cárthaigh means ‘loving’, so MacCárthaigh translates as the ‘son of the loving one’, or ‘a loving person’. Spellings have included MacCarthy, MacCarty, MacArty, MacArte, MacArthy, MacCurdy, Macordi, Carthy, MacCardy, Macardi, M’Carty and Macardy. The McCarthys were among the wealthiest in Ireland, ruling the kingdoms of Desmond and South Munster (now Counties Cork and Kerry) for hundreds of years. Grand titles were bestowed on family septs by Elizabeth I in the late sixteenth century, but most of these were forfeited later during the Jacobite wars when Irish Catholics fought to return the crown to the Catholic House of Stuart (James II). The Protestant King William of Orange forced Jacobite supporters to flee from Ireland, with thousands crossing to Western France. Many joined the Irish Brigade of French King Louise IV’s army, where they were equipped with red coats symbolizing their allegiance to the Stuart king. This may have been when the Mercredi family’s ancestors left Ireland….
The earliest McCarthy ancestor I’ve found for the Mercredi family is Daniel Macarty who was born in the seaport city of Saint-Malo, Brittany France on 22 July 1681. There is no record of his parents, but it’s likely they were Irish refugees. An online family tree suggests Daniel was the son of John McCarthy (born c. 1650), a Jacobite officer, and his wife Elizabeth Hacket who fled to France. This resonates with Mrs. Louise Fraser’s memories of her great-grandfather Pierre Mercredi’s stories of Jacobites. If true, then the Fort Chipewyan Mercredis are scions of the MacCarthy Reagh of Carbery, and have familial connections to the Château MacCarthy, a wine estate in Bordeaux!
On 2 November 1706 25-year-old Daniel Macarty married 21-year-old Jeanne Auger of Rennes, Illé-et-Vilaine in the beautiful Basilica of Saint-Sauveur in Dinan, Côtes-d'Armor, Brittany, France. Dinan is a medieval town which thrived as a trading centre with navigable access to Saint-Malo by the Rivière La Rance. Daniel and Jeanne lived in Dinan their whole lives, with Daniel becoming Commissioner of Disabled Persons in the Department of Dinan by the 1730s. The third of their five children, Jean-Baptiste, was born in 1711.
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| The civil proclamation of the marriage of Daniel Macarty and Jeanne Auger. |
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| Dinan today, on the banks of the Rivière La Rance, is a tourist destination with its medieval half-timbered houses, castle, military architecture and history of its commercial trading connection with England, Flanders, Spain and America. |
Jean-Baptiste Macarty left France for the New World at the age of 25, and by 1738 was a ship-owner in Québec. On 13 November 1736 he married Marie Ursule Vermet Laforme in St-Augustin-de-Desmaures, a village on the north shore of the St Lawrence River about 20 kilometers upstream of the fortified city of Québec. Marie came from a family of 13 children, of whom all eight girls and their mother were named Marie, hence her many names. Jean-Baptiste and Marie eventually settled in Maskinongé, 100 kilometers north of Montréal, where they raised eight children. Their third child was François-Eustache who was born in Neuville on 5 October 1743.
François-Eustache McCarthy was married twice. His first wife, Marie Therese Jeneau from Neuville, who he married in 1772, died at the age of 53. They had two children. He married again in 1793, to 22-year-old Theotiste Lafond Mongrain from Champlain. Together they raised nine children in Maskinongé, with their last born when François-Eustache was 68! The second of these children, François McCarthy dit Macredi, was born on 29 September 1795.
At the age of 21 François McCarthy dit Macredi left Québec to join the North West Company as a voyageur. He was assigned to the Athabasca District, and spent the next 35 years working out of Fort Resolution, Fort Chipewyan and Red River Settlement. In 1824 he married Françoise Daoust of L'Ile-Perrot Québec in Fort Resolution. François and Françoise had four children, all born in the Northwest Territory, before retiring to Red River Settlement in 1851. Their last child, Joseph Mercredi, was born in La Loche in about 1833.
In 1851, at the age of 18, Joseph Mercredi started work with the HBCo in Fond du Lac, Athabasca as an interpreter. Having been raised in Fort Chipewyan, he was probably fluent in French, Cree, Chipewyan (Dëne sųłinë́), and possibly English. The local language in Fond du Lac was, and still is, Chipewyan. Joseph married 15-year-old Marie Alphonse Laliberte (Lafferty) in Fort Chipewyan in 1859. They immediately started raising a family of 10 children in Fond du Lac: these are the ancestors of many of the Mercredis in the North today. As Clerk in charge, Joseph ran the fur-trade business for the HBCo in Fond du Lac for 42 years, until his death in February 1893 at Cypress Point. As this is over 180 kilometers from his home, I can only surmise this must have been misadventure, possibly an accident or extreme weather. In his interview Adolph recalled Victor saying he remembered, as a five-year-old, his grandfather Joseph’s visit just before his fatal return journey to Fond du Lac. Joseph didn’t have a will, leaving his estate without probate for five years. Marie continued to live in Fond du Lac until she died in 1922.
Born in Fond du Lac on 13 December 1862, Pierre (Pierrisse) Mercredi was the second of Joseph and Marie’s children. [11] For some years he attended the new residential school at the Sacred Heart Mission in Fort Providence, a distance by boat or dogsled of over 900 kilometres from his family home. Then in July 20, 1874 he registered as the very first student in the Holy Angels Convent in Fort Chipewyan, where he attended for three years. During this time Roderick MacFarlane, Chief Factor of the HBCo Athabasca District, took notice of Pierre’s potential as a fur trader and supported furthering his education at Red River Academy in the newly named city of Winnipeg. In July 1879 at the age of 17 Pierre started his 50-year service with the HBCo with his first position as apprentice clerk in Fond du Lac. As much of his youth was spent in the company of the Cree and Chipewyan people it is not surprizing that he went on to become one of the HBCo’s most competent fur buyers. The trappers were his friends, and he enjoyed visiting their camps to trade for fur, mixing business and pleasure. He was fluent in Cree, French, Chipewyan (Dëne sųłinë́), and English, some South Slavey (Dene zhatıé) and Dogrib (Tłı̨chǫ), and possibly Yellowknife and Beaver (Dane-zaa). In 1883 he married 15-year-old Marie Rose Beaulieu, granddaughter of “Old Man Beaulieu” [12], in Fort Chipewyan. Between 1903 and 1913, Pierre was HBCo post manager at Fort Chipewyan. In 1913, after briefly considering retirement, he went on to serve as manager at Fort Smith, then Fort Rae (Behchokǫ̀), and finally Fort Resolution, where he was also responsible for Hay River, Rocher River, Snowdrift, Reliance and Fort Rae. In 1920, on the HBC’s 250th anniversary, Pierre received a gold medal and three gold bars for his over 40 years of service [13]. A huge community banquet was put on to celebrate the occasion. Pierre and Marie returned to Fort Chipewyan in 1929. Throughout their lives Pierre and Marie maintained a very close relationship with the Catholic missions - in poor hunting seasons Pierre always provided not only for his own family but also donated to the missions so the children would not go hungry. Their grandson Rene emphasized his generosity and community spirit this in his 1977 interview with the Métis Heritage Association. [14]
This photo of Victor Mercredi’s parents and siblings was taken in Fort Chipewyan in 1893. From the left, Philippe George (age 6), mother Marie Rose (25), Marie Celestine (1), Alexis Victor (7), Pierre Isidore (9), Leon Joseph (3), and father Pierre (30). Ages are based on Pierre and Marie’s 1899 Métis scrip declarations, where it is recorded that Celeste, born on November 1, 1891, died on October 20, 1893. Pierre and Marie had two more children, Antonio Stanislas in 1898 and Marie Colombe in 1905.
The photo was likely taken by the second house west of the HBCo compound in the image below, possibly by Joseph Burr Tyrrell who passed through Fort Chipewyan on his way to Hudson Bay during his first northern geological survey [15]. As HBCo Clerk Pierre was provided with company housing, particularly as his language proficiency and fur-buying competence was so valued by the company.
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| Fort Chipewyan Staff Buildings 1893, Joseph Burr Tyrrell |
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| Pierre and Marie Mercredi, June 1922, when he was 59 and she was 54 years old. Note his watch chain, and her ribbon skirt... |
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| Mercredi lineage from Daniel Macarty to Victor's children |
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| Mercredi lineage from Daniel Macarty to Victor's children |
Sources
This post on Alexis Victor Mercredi depended on information from the following:
- Conversations with:
Jumbo FraserLouise Fraser (née Mercredi)Charlotte Herman
Bryce MercrediEdouard Trippe de RocheBunny Yanik
- Métis Heritage Association fonds in the NWT Archives here, particularly interviews with Adolph, Elizabeth, Eugene and Rene Mercredi
- NWT Archives
- Victor's Diary and Family Record notebook
- Canada census records for 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911, 1921 and 1931
- Métis scrip records
- Baptism certificates from Chancery of the Catholic Diocese of Mackenzie-Fort Smith
- Find-a-Grave website
- Newspaper obituaries
- Travis Mercredi’s SoundCloud digitization of Victor’s tape recording
- FamilySearch family history website
- Alberta Archives
- Biographical Sheets and Servants' Contracts, HBCo Archives
- Beaver Magazine, June 1923
- Interview with Martha Mercredi (née Swain)
- Social media
I hope many in the huge Mercredi family see this post. If you notice anything that is wrong or inappropriate, please tell me and I’ll deal with it. My email is “brault at netidea.com”.
Notes
1. The Family Record of Alexis Victor Mercredi notebook is in N-1992-084-24-23, Accession 580, Mercredi File of the Archives of the NWT Métis Heritage Association, which can be viewed here on pages 45-53.
2. In the course of research I accidentally discovered that Philip Bourque and I share a common ancestry: the Bourg family who settled in Port Royale, Acadia in the early 1600’s. My grandfather Paul Brault Kelpin and Philip Bourque are eighth cousins……..my father would have been so pleased to know he had customers who were relatives!
3. At the age of four Martha Swain and her sisters Eva and Marie Rose were left with the church in Edmonton by their grandmother after both their parents died. They were moved to Holy Angels Convent in Fort Chipewyan. When she was 18 years old Victor arranged with the priest for Martha to marry Adolph, and she agreed. Martha tells her story, in Cree with English captions, in a video interview here.
4. Sister Archange Jeanne Brady, s.g.m. is the author of A History of Fort Chipewyan, Alberta’s Oldest Continuously Inhabited Settlement, published in 1983 by Gregorach Printing Ltd, Athabasca, Alberta. She gave me a signed copy on November 19, 1983, which I value.
5. “Jerome” is a fictitious name, not to be mistaken for any Jerome that may have lived in Fort Chipewyan.
6. This document has detail likely taken from Victor’s original records, which no longer exist. Its provenance is somewhat vague. The original Years of my life in Fort Chipewyan may be in the Provincial Archives of Alberta, in the Lacombe Canada fonds of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI), here. Another copy, entitled “Diary of Victor Mercredi: Fort Chip, 1962”, retyped, is catalogued in the Victor Mercredi fonds of the Alberta Archives HeRMIS here and in the NWT Archives here. The document that I’ve accessed was published on-line by the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith, here. Its origin was a fading spirit-duplicated copy owned by Mrs. Elsie Yanik of Fort Chipewyan that was re-typed by students at the Lac La Biche Alberta Newstart Centre. The document is unedited and contains a few errors, possibly due to transcribing from faded copy. One error regards Victor’s parents’ lives - the sentence:
My father passed away the 20th January 1952 at the age of 84 years and six months and both lived together for 63 years and had a very happy life.
should probably read:
My father passed away the 19th April 1947 at the age of 84 years and four months, and my mother the 20th January 1952 at the age of 84 years and four months. They lived together for 63 years and had a very happy life.
7. The chief factor’s house was dismantled in August 1964 while my father was HBCo manager. See Fort Chipewyan HBCo Fort Buildings.
8. Frank Ladouceur, in the NFB short film Man Who Chooses the Bush, viewable here, at about minute 15 describes the advantages of trapping with a dog team instead of a skidoo, then uses a chainsaw to rip planks from a birch tree to build a new sleigh.
9. Lot 21 is noted on the survey as belonging to I. Mercredi. Shortly after their marriage on 27 April 1908 Isadore and his wife Laiza Beaudry-Tourangeau moved to Fort Resolution where he worked on building a new convent for the Catholic mission. Their daughter Leonie was born there. In his diary, Victor mentions he and his new wife Elizabeth moved into his brother Isadore’s house in August 1909 as it was vacant. Their twins were born there in June 1910, but they soon left for Fort Resolution to be with Elizabeth’s father who was dying. Isadore, Laiza and Leonie returned to their house in Fort Chipewyan that fall, the second of their seven children, Emile “Eugene”, was born in February, and the next year the family moved to Fort Smith. Pierre and Marie, who according to Victor’s Diary had lived in the HBCo chief factor’s house since 1903, left Fort Chipewyan in 1913 then returned after Pierre retired from the company in July 1929. In their interviews Rene and Adolph say that Pierre built their house on Lot 21, but it isn’t clear when. Victor’s Diary is silent on this. Marie had become accustomed to comfort - Louise Fraser says she lived like a lady - so they would not have moved without good shelter. Pierre was probably financially secure – business was good in the 1920’s, he had his gold bars, and the HBCo provided superannuation. I expect he had the house built before 1929. The two-story building was complete and valued at $2,500 in the 1931 census, making it one of the larger houses in town. When Pierre died in 1947 Marie and her maid/housekeeper Rosa Gibot continued to live there with support from Victor’s family next door. Marie was not well during this time, suffering from abdominal difficulties. At her death in 1952 the property was inherited by Pierre and Marie’s youngest son Stanislas. He sold it to Justice of the Peace William Moore, who subdivided it into four lots, keeping the southern parcel with its large house and well-kept garden for his family. In the late 1950’s I attended public school with Mr. Moore’s daughters Ann and Patsy, and knew that house from hanging out with Patsy. Now Lot 21 is Mikisew housing.
10. A friend reminded me there were two Victor Mercredi’s in Fort Chipewyan when we lived there; Joseph Victor Mercredi, Vital and Sara’s son, was Alexis Victor’s second cousin, as was his brother Father Patrick Mercredi. Joseph Victor and his wife Clementine (née McKay) built this lovely log home overlooking Sandy Bay.
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| Joseph and Clementine Mercredi’s house on Sandy Bay in July 1980. |
11. Patricia A. McCormack, in her book Fort Chipewyan and the Shaping of Canadian History 1788-1920s, claims that Pierre’s mother was Marguerite Tourangeau from Joseph’s first marriage, but I haven’t seen evidence to support this. Pat is now deceased, and I haven’t accessed her research files which are in fonds at UofA Edmonton. In his baptism confirmation and his 13 July 1899 application for Métis scrip, Pierre's mother is Marie Laliberte.
12. Although reputed to be a bully, François Beaulieu II is revered as one of the founding fathers of the Métis in the North. Oblate missionaries identified him as Le patriarche of the Beaulieu clan, one of the great and enduring Métis and Dene families of the North. He championed the cause of the Northern Métis as Louis Riel did for the Red River Métis. An analysis of his influence is detailed in the paper supporting his 1999 designation as “a person of national historic significance” by Honourable Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, available here. Also, Father Louis Menez OMI compiled his story here.
Incidentally, Pierre’s great aunt Julie McKartie, aged 21, was godmother to Marie’s grandmother Catherine St. Germain, aged 50, at her baptism on 29 December 1848, the day before she married François Beaulieu II in Fort Chipewyan! François, who was 55 at the time (according to Father Alex Taché OMI, other sources differ) gave up his many wives in order to become Catholic, although he continued to provide for them and their children.
13. Like his father before him, Pierre was never granted a position above Clerk, despite having the responsibilities of a Factor or Trader. It had been HBCo policy ever since George Simpson became governor that mixed blood employees could not be promoted to management or participate in profit-sharing. This may explain why my father didn’t share his indigenous ancestry with us until after he left the HBCo. He told me the company discouraged employees “fraternizing with the locals”.
14. Pierre Isadore Mercredi’s son Rene, born 4 August 1915, lived with his grandparents Pierre and Marie from age 10 months to 14 years. In his 1977 interview he describes his memories of living with them in Fort Resolution, his experiences in the Convent school, a bit of who Marie was, and his experience rejoining his parents at age 15. A transcript of his interview is here.
15. In his book Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada Tyrrell writes, on arriving at Fort Chipewyan on June 17, 1893, “… Dr. McKay, the Hudson’s Bay Company’s agent, was not at the Fort, but we were received by the assistant trader, Pierre Mercredie, a half-breed, and shown to a camping-ground in front of the Fort …”. Seven-year-old Victor may have watched the Tyrrells pitch their tent......
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