Fall River before Magloire and Delia arrived

...in 1884, a Fall River newspaper reported that French Canadian Roman Catholic parishioners had locked their newly-appointed priest out of their church. When the priest finally gained entry to the building, he was confined to the vestry and then threatened with further violence. The priest's "offense"? He was Irish, and the French Canadians would, as one of them proclaimed, "stand on the brink of hell" before they would submit to an Irishman. In this textile-manufacturing city, hard feelings between the more established Irish immigrants and the French Canadian newcomers ran deep, in spite of their shared religion. The quarrel was about ethnicity, class, and politics. In response to their parishioners' rejection of the Irish priest, the bishop closed the French Canadian parish.





Most of the French Canadians who arrived in Massachusetts in the decades after the Civil War came, as the Irish had before them, to escape crushing poverty at home. Quebec had suffered a deep and prolonged agrarian depression in the mid-1800s. By 1880, one-third to one-quarter of all the arable land in Quebec had been abandoned as families found they could not survive on their farms. 25,000 French Canadians sought a new life across the border in New England's booming mill towns.




French Canadians poured into Lowell, Lawrence, Leominster, Gardner, Springfield, North Adams, New Bedford, and Fall River. Those who came to Fall River, which became a center of textile manufacturing with the development of steam power after the Civil War, joined a workforce that was made up predominantly of immigrants from England and Ireland. Many of the English were skilled workers who laid claim to the higher-paying jobs. They were also accustomed to urban life, had a tradition of participating in an organized labor movement, and backed pro-labor Democrats in politics. The Irish, some of whom had acquired textile machinery skills in Lancashire, England, before emigrating, quickly learned to adopt the practices of English militant laborers; they also began to use the city's frequent labor upheavals to build their base in the city's Democratic party. It was all utterly alien to the French Canadians.




The Quebequois who came to Fall River were rural people. They had no experience with factory work, and their poverty gave them little choice but to accept lower wages than those paid to other groups. This earned them the enmity of both the English Protestants and the Irish Catholics. The Canadians were also hostile to labor unions and tended to support the Republican Party. Isolated by language, the Canadians clustered in their own squalid neighborhoods, segregated from the English and Irish. Religion was a refuge; French-speaking priests provided ministry as well as community leadership and social services.


Tensions mounted as the Irish began to play a greater role in Fall River's labor movement and political establishment. Yankees, especially the Republican men who owned and ran the mills and city businesses, had traditionally dominated politics in the city. By 1879, however, one of the candidates for mayor was not only a Democrat but an Irishman. Within five years, Fall River had its first Irish mayor. Despite sharing a religion with the Irish, the French Canadians regarded the Irish as antagonists and did not support the Irish candidate.




Labor protests added to the tension between the French Canadians and Irish Catholics. Organized labor had a long history among British factory workers. When Fall River mill owners recruited skilled English textile workers after the Civil War, they unintentionally imported labor radicalism as well. Throughout the 1870s, immigrant English and Irish textile workers organized a series of labor actions and strikes. The French Canadians did not support the strikes, and in their desperate poverty they frequently took jobs as scabs or "knobsticks," as they were called. The Irish hated the French Canadians for what they saw as betrayal, and violence against "knobsticks" turned deadly.



In August 1884, the French Canadian priest assigned to Notre Dame, the church that served the French Canadians in the Flint Village area of Fall River, died suddenly. Three months later, the Bishop named a new pastor: Father Samuel P. McGee, an Irishman. The French Canadians were outraged. When the new priest arrived to say Mass in mid-December, he found the doors and windows nailed shut; when he managed to get into the building, several of the parishioners held him captive and threatened to kidnap him should he attempt to return to the church. Father McGee fled the pastoral residence and went into hiding. The Canadians collected money to send a delegation to Rome to plead for the appointment of a French-speaking priest.



Tensions grew worse in the following weeks. Fights broke out between those who were willing to accept the new priest and those who insisted on a French pastor. Angry crowds gathered outside the church and disrupted services. Police were dispatched to the church to prevent "sacrilege." By January, the newspapers were reporting near-riots. In one instance, a new choir arrived at the church to find the old choir, which had refused to sing for an Irish priest, threatening violence if the singers took their seats. Angry parishioners followed Father McGee out of the church, abusing and threatening him, and "calling him a d—d Irishman."


On February 13, 1885, the Bishop closed the church and withdrew the priest, explaining that he had "been compelled to this action by the insubordination of some of the flock." The church reopened the next year, under another Irish pastor, and conflict began again. Ethnic tensions between Irish and French Canadians in Fall River did not ease until the end of the century when the arrival of Portuguese, Greeks, Poles, Lithuanians, and Italian immigrants changed the ethnic, political, and social mix of Fall River and other Massachusetts cities.

Dedham Cemetery

Why some relatives are listed in both the 1900 US Census and the 1901 Canadian Census

Most of our Canadian ancestors were farmers.   They lived primarily in Canada but would come down to the United States in the winter months to earn money, usually working in the mills.  Fall River was one place many Canadians came to.   Our direct ancestors, however, immigrated to the US to work on the railroad while their siblings and cousins continued to reside primarily in Canada farming but also working in the Mills of Fall River and Rhode Island during the winters.

"Most of the French Canadians who arrived in Massachusetts in the decades after the Civil War came, as the Irish had before them, to escape crushing poverty at home. Quebec had suffered a deep and prolonged agrarian depression in the mid-1800s. By 1880, one-third to one-quarter of all the arable land in Quebec had been abandoned as families found they could not survive on their farms. 25,000 French Canadians sought a new life across the border in New England's booming mill towns.


French Canadians poured into Lowell, Lawrence, Leominster, Gardner, Springfield, North Adams, New Bedford, and Fall River. Those who came to Fall River, which became a center of textile manufacturing with the development of steam power after the Civil War, joined a workforce that was made up predominantly of immigrants from England and Ireland. Many of the English were skilled workers who laid claim to the higher-paying jobs. They were also accustomed to urban life, had a tradition of participating in an organized labor movement, and backed pro-labor Democrats in politics. The Irish, some of whom had acquired textile machinery skills in Lancashire, England, before emigrating, quickly learned to adopt the practices of English militant laborers; they also began to use the city's frequent labor upheavals to build their base in the city's Democratic party. It was all utterly alien to the French Canadians.


The Quebequois who came to Fall River were rural people. They had no experience with factory work, and their poverty gave them little choice but to accept lower wages than those paid to other groups. This earned them the enmity of both the English Protestants and the Irish Catholics. The Canadians were also hostile to labor unions and tended to support the Republican Party. Isolated by language, the Canadians clustered in their own squalid neighborhoods, segregated from the English and Irish. Religion was a refuge; French-speaking priests provided ministry as well as community leadership and social services.


Tensions mounted as the Irish began to play a greater role in Fall River's labor movement and political establishment. Yankees, especially the Republican men who owned and ran the mills and city businesses, had traditionally dominated politics in the city. By 1879, however, one of the candidates for mayor was not only a Democrat but an Irishman. Within five years, Fall River had its first Irish mayor. Despite sharing a religion with the Irish, the French Canadians regarded the Irish as antagonists and did not support the Irish candidate.


Labor protests added to the tension between the French Canadians and Irish Catholics. Organized labor had a long history among British factory workers. When Fall River mill owners recruited skilled English textile workers after the Civil War, they unintentionally imported labor radicalism as well. Throughout the 1870s, immigrant English and Irish textile workers organized a series of labor actions and strikes. The French Canadians did not support the strikes, and in their desperate poverty they frequently took jobs as scabs or "knobsticks," as they were called. The Irish hated the French Canadians for what they saw as betrayal, and violence against "knobsticks" turned deadly." http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=360

Interesting, in light of the fact that our Grandfather married an Irish woman.

Our Great Grandfather Magloire Thibault

I watched the recent episode of "Who Do You Think You Are" with Gwyneth Paltrow.  In it she discovers the hard life of her great grandmother that led to her not being a very good mother to her grandfather and his siblings.  Her grandmother experienced the death of both her mother and grandfather when she was in college and had to drop out.  Later her oldest daughter was killed by a horse carriage at 3 years old.  It got me to thinking about all the deaths that Magloire experienced.

At eight years old his mother Emilie died.  When he was 16 his stepmother Celine (Miville-Deschenes) died and his father married for the third time.  His father died when Magloire was 32, married, and father of five children including a son, Magloire, who died in infancy.  In 1903 he lost another son, John, in infancy.  In 1919 Magloire lost both his wife Delia and his daughter Laura.  In 1947 and in 1948 he lost his daughter Delia Grace and our grandfather his son Joseph John both to heart disease.  In 1955 his first grand child, Joseph (BooBoo) Darling died.   In 1957 his daughters Lyda and Arlene died.  His son-in-law, Arlene's husband, died of a heart attack shortly before Arlene's death.

Magloire died in 1958 a few months after Arlene passed.  Magloire had a hard life, yet the one picture we know of him from around 1957 show him to be a happy man.  I would have loved to have known him. 

What little we do know of him involves great tragedy and heart ache but he was also a family man.  Both his brother and brother in law lived with him and his family in Dedham.  His first grandchild came to live with him after his daughter Delia Grace remarried.    Later, probably after retirement from the railroad, he went to live with Arlene and her husband John Coolidge. 

Funny things discovered on the way to your relatives

Our Great Aunt Arlene married a man in Masschusetts named John Coolidge.  No, he was not that Coolidge, but some thought he was.  Apparently Arlene and John decided to elope.   They went to Porchester, NY and when they gave John's name eyebrows raised and telegraphs were a flutter.   So there went their 15 minutes of fame.

September 26,1927

The Photographer

Joseph Thibault son of Charles and Virginie (Boucher) Thibault was born April 23, 1871.  He was the brother of Charles Onesime Thibault founder owner editor and publisher of "L'Independent," a weekly news-paper printed in the French language.  Joseph married Adele Berube on October 28, 1889.  They had 2 children Adele and Albert.  Albert died in 1900 at the age of 4.  Adele we can find no record and she wasn't listed in the 1900 census with Albert so it is assumed she died prior to 1900.

Joseph and Adele lived in Fall River until at least 1920 when they were listed on the Census as living at 1510 Highland Street.  They owned the house at this time.  Joseph ran his photography business originally from Pleasant Street, Fall River and later from 154 South Main Street until his death in 1926.  In between he had what appeared to be temporary South Main Street addresses.


Joseph and Charles Onesime were 4th Cousins once removed from Magloire.   We don't have a photo of our Photographer but we do find one of his brother Onesime.  It was probably taken by Joseph.

Old Photographs

Often one comes upon old photographs in boxes or from relatives where the identity of the party in the picture is not known.  Guesses can be made about who is in the picture but verification is difficult.  I came across one such picture from a cousin who's family always thought that this was a wedding  photograph of Maglore Thibault and Delia Beaulieu. 

A relative has the wedding ring and when the photo is enlarged it matches the ring on Delia's finger.  This is our Great Grandparents, Magloire and Delia.