marion, marie rosalie (b. 1811)

7/27/2019 Marion, Marie Rosalie (b. 1811)

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Marie Rosalie Grandbois dit Bouchard or Richard Marion. (1811-1874)

Marie Rosalie Bouchard dit Richard was one of the Metis “First Ladies” of theRed River Settlement as were several of her daughters who were married to powerful RedRiver merchants..

Marie Rosalie Bouchard dit Richard was born on May 11, 1811, at Lac Lapinenear York Factory, the Metis daughter of Francois Bouchard dit Richard and an unknownCree woman. She married Narcisse Maurice (Xavier) Marion in 1830. Narcisse was aHBC blacksmith (b. 1805). He was the son of Francois Marion (b.c. 1781) and LisetteMartel. A number of their children married into the turtle Mountain Band at Belcourt, North Dakota.

Children of Marie Rosalie Richard (Bouchard) and Narcisse Marion:

Elise Marion was born on December 18, 1831 at York Factory. Elise married

Norman Wolfred William Kittson (b: 1814) in 1847 in St Boniface Parish Church. Elisewas 14 and Kittson was 33. He was the son of William Kittson and Helene McDonald.Commodore Norman W. Kittson, was the millionaire head of the Red River

Navigation Company’s fleet of stern wheel steamers which served Winnipeg in the earlydays. Kittson, a fur trader, helped end the Hudson Bay Company’s fur trading monopoly.In1849; he became a member of the Minnesota Territorial Councils 7th District, from1852to 1855 he was mayor of St. Paul Minnesota. From 1858 to 1859; he operatedsteamboats on the Red River from Minnesota north into Winnipeg in the 1870. He thenworked with James J. Hill to build the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway in1879-81.

Commodore Kittson was 33 when he came seeking a bride at the house of

Narcisse Marion. Elise Marion was just fourteen. Bridegrooms of pioneer days wereoften older; but Kittson, who had made a fortune in the fur trade and another fortune inthe steamboat business, had since he was a young man carried a weight of responsibilitywhich, had brought early wrinkles and the aspect of age.

Edouard was born of February 24, 1834 in St. Boniface. Edouard married ElizaMcDougall (b. 1833) circa 1833 at Red River. She was the daughter of John “George”McDougall and Genevieve “Jennie Jasper (Gaspard). Theuir son, Jules Marion (b. 1867)appeared in the 1889 Exposition Universelle (Paris World’s Fair) with Buffalo Bill Cody.The other Metis from Manitoba in this show were, Maxiome Goulet, Maxime Lepine andMichel Dumas. These men were presented as French-Canadian trappers with teams of

Eskimo sled dogs.Josephte (Josette) was born on May 10 1836 in St. Boniface. She first married

Joseph Genthon (b. 1830) and then married Francois Gingras, the son of Metis trader Antoine Blanc Gingras and Scholastique Trottier.

Maxime was born on April 25, 1838 in St Boniface. He died on May

15, 1910 on the Turtle Mountain Reserve, near Belcourt, North Dakota.

Maxime married Elise Elizabeth St. Matte dit Jerome (b: June 15, 1843)

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on September 1, 1862 in the Assumption Mission, near Pembina, North

Dakota. She was the daughter of Martin St. Mathe dit S. Matte Sr. dit

Jerome and Elizabeth Isabelle “Bethsy” Wilkie.Maxime Marion was a guidefor the Boundary Commission in 1872-73, for portion of the survey from Lake of theWoods to the Red River.

Louis was born on March 17, 1840, at St. Boniface. He married AndroniqueRoss, the daughter of Roderick Ross and Marie Delorme. This was a plains buffalohunting family that ranged as far west as Blackfoot Crossing and Buffalo Lake (BossHill). On the family’s scrip applications of 1876, Louis is listed as a voyageur, trader andfarmer. The Marion family from St. Francois Xavier followed the buffalo and hadestablished hivernant camps in the Souris River basin. Louis brothers Amable, Narcisse,Roger, Norman and Adophe settled around Oak Lake in the late 1870s. Louis spokeFrench and Cree. He accompanied Gabriel Dumont on buffalo hunts in the 1870s. Louis joined the community around Petit Ville, Batoche and Duck Lake. Louis and his brothersMaxime (and wife Elise Jerome) and Joseph (wife Annie McDermott) joined the TurtleMountain Chippewa Band sometime after 1885.

At the time of the 1885 Resistance Louis and Marie were living at Duck Lake andhe was working as the farming instructor on One Arrow’s Reserve. Later, their daughter Elise would marry Francois Moreau the son of Resistance Captain Louis was amember of Captain Baptiste Vandal’s company, one of the 19 dizaines led by GabrielDumont during the 1885 Metis Resistance. Louis did not want to join the fighting andwas locked up by Louis Riel, who threatened to shoot him if he did not join. Under duress he agreed to participate, then under the pretence of going home for a gun managedto escape before the fighting began. He gives the following statement :

On the 17th March I was at Walter’s store at Batoche and a young man came andtold me there was going to be trouble. Next morning we were removed to the

church and they had a meeting and Riel told me that I had ten minutes to consider if I would join them or else he would have to do something. I promised to join butfirst chance I escaped… I saw a son of George Fisher and a son of SalomonVenne and young Gareault who had been brought this way. I saw a number of Indians there, some of One Arrow’s band, some of Beardy’s band and some SiouxIndians. I heard that many were forced to join.

Amable Marion was born on July 16, 1842. He never married his partner FrancoiseMcGillvray. He did marry Josephte Berard the daughter of Louis Berard and CatherineHughes in 1875. They had one adopted son and two children of their own.

Rosalie Marion was born on September 14, 1845 at St. Boniface, she marriedHorace Belanger, the son of Edouard Belanger and Sophie Casgrain. She died in St.Boniface in 1837 at age 41. Rosalie married Horace Belanger on August 27, 1861 andhad 11 children.

Horace Belanger was born at Rivière-Ouelle, Quebec on 11 June 1836, the son of Édouard Bélanger and Marie-Sophie Casgrain. After service at Michipicoten(Michipicoten River) from 1855 to 1857, Bélanger was promoted clerk in 1858 and

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stationed at Fort Albany. In 1860 he transferred to the Lac La Pluie district, an area of competition with free traders. There he displayed the necessary initiative and enduranceto counter any opponents, despite his massive bulk, for he was a “great burly man with jet black curly hair, full beard and must have weighed over 300 pounds.”

In 1867 Bélanger moved to Cumberland House (Sask.), where again the companyfaced the threat of free traders. As clerk in charge at Fort-à-la-Corne in 1868–69, hesupervised the summer boat brigades, the vital transportation link between CumberlandHouse and its northern posts. In 1870, still a clerk, he took charge of the entireCumberland district. Two years later he was promoted chief trader and in 1873 he wasmade factor. In 1885 he was appointed Chief Factor of the Cumberland andSaskatchewan Districts and, four years later, Chief Factor at Norway House. He was acorresponding member of the Manitoba Historical Society during this time, donatingseveral items to its collections.

In 1889 Bélanger, two years after Rosalie’s death, was transferred to Norway House

(Man.). While there, he was appointed justice of the peace for the Keewatin District andserved until 1892. A widower since 1887, he planned to resign from the HBC in 1893 tomake a home for his children. Before he could do so, however, he drowned at Sea River Falls during his 40th year of service.

Children• Auguste born February 5, 1863• Horace Luc, born January 20, 1869. Horace Luc married Marie Adele Morin and

had a child.• Alexander, born in Cumberland House on 1 Dec 1872.• Roger, born in Cumberland House on February 25, 1875. He passed away on

1894 in St Boniface, Manitoba.• William, born in Cumberland House on October 16, 1876 He passed away in the

winter 1893.• Rosalie Louise, born in Cumberland House on 20 Oct 1879.• Charles Eugene, born in Cumberland House on September 18, 1880

Children Deceased (at time of Rosalie’s scrip application):• Joseph Edouard, born on the Saskatchewan River August 25, 1864, died April 30,

1885.• Marie Eugenie born on December 31, 1866. She passed away on 1 Apr 1872.•

George, born March 10, 1871, died January 28, 1875.• Narcisse born September 10, 1873, died at 7 months in 1874.

Roger Marion, M.P. (b. 1846). Roger married Julienne Carriere, on July 31,1873. She was the daughter of Francois Carriere. They had six daughters, three of whom became nuns, and two sons. A politician, Marion was the Conservative M.P. for Carillonin 1886 and 1888, he was defeated in 1892 and re-elected in 1896. He was the mayor of St. Boniface from 1887 to 1889. In 1891, he was elected president of the Union Métisse

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Saint-Joseph. Roger was born at York Factory and educated at Collège de Saint-Boniface. He worked for several years at the trading post of Charles Bottineau in DakotaTerritory, after the 1862. He worked from 1872 to 1876 with the Customs Service thenserved as Manitoba License Commissioner from 1879 to1885.

Joseph was born on August 16, 1848 at St. Boniface. He married AnnieMcDermott the daughter of Thomas McDermott and Elisabeth Collin. They had fivechildren. He died in 1890.

Narcisse Jr. was born in October 1850 in St Boniface Parish.

Narcisse was able to speak fluent English, French and Cree. He also picked up someBlackfoot, Stoney and Ojibwa. Narcisse Jr. moved to Alberta in the late 1870s or early1880s. He married Marie Gaudin Munro, who had been born at St. Albert, Alberta in1860. They had two children, Louis and Emilie, both of whom passed away. It is notclear if these two children were buried in Calgary or whether they were interred in thelargely - forgotten First Nations and Métis cemetery that is located on the shoulder of the

North Hill, below the former site of St. Joseph Convent. In the mid-1880s, the Marionsmoved to the Poplar Ridge district, west of Red Deer. Narcisse was able to secure ahomestead. However, he did not do much farming. He preferred to support himself andhis family by hunting, trapping and acting as a land guide to new settlers coming into thedistrict.

Norman “Norbert” was born on October 9, 1854 at St. Boniface. He

married Rose Ouelette (or Ellette), the daughter of Metuis trader

Antoine “Ratte” Ouelette and Angelique Bottineau. They had seven

children born at WEood Mountain and Oak Lake.

In 1849, Narcisse Marion was designated to serve on the Council of Assiniboia, but Governor Simpson refused to accept his nomination. This Winnipeg Metis blacksmithwas an opponent of Louis Riel and, although he worked to support the LegislativeAssembly of Assiniboia the Compensation Commission awarded him $100 for hardshipduring the period of riel’s Provisional Government. In the early 1840s, Marion built awindmill south of the St. Boniface Mission Church. Up until the 1850s this was the onlywindmill on the east side of the Red River (except the one much further north at St.Peters.

Historian Lillian Thomas writes of Marie Rosalie Marion:

In this paper I would like to honor the women who made the first homes in the West.Their contribution was so important they should not be over-looked, but we find verylittle about them in the records we have. I am, however, going to mention one womanwho was typical of many in her generous hospitality, and her home was frequentlymentioned by early historians. I am referring to Madame Narcisse Marion.

The Marion home was in St. Boniface. It seemed that most newcomers arriving theresoon turned up at the home of Narcisse Marion. Among them was Reverend John Black,

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the first Presbyterian minister in the Red River settlement. [For] forty years the Selkirk Settlers had prayed for a minister of their own faith, and when he arrived he was notexpected. Madame Marion entertained him until he was rested and refreshed. Mr. Marionthen took him to his new home.

A very good description of the kind of home Madame Marion kept is given by J. W.Radiger, Head Clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company. He wrote: "In a beautiful setting of trees, water and wild flowers I reached a spot where a peaceful and cosy home wasstanding. I knocked at the front door and was welcomed by a brown-eyed maidenwearing a dainty merino dress and a spotless white pinafore. With a winning smile and aninviting courtesy she introduced me to a tall, strong and healthy gentleman, the real typeof a Canadian from old Quebec. After a few inquiries I was invited to have dinner withthe family. There was the father, M. Narcisse Marion, the mother, a tall, stately woman,and their three daughters, Josephine, Elise and Rosalie. A young maid by the name of Maggie waited on table.

"A strict etiquette was displayed in the preparation and the serving of the food-the latter done to perfection. I was amused by the fact that the head of the family was not quitefamiliar with the English language, and this made me realize how perfectly the youngladies spoke it.

"I did appreciate their respectful and delicate manners when necessary errors in speechhad to be corrected, to make the meaning clear.

"On leaving I expressed my surprise, my thanks and admiration to those I now number among my best friends in the West. Really I could not have found in my own countrymore refined or better educated people than those I have met here today."

One can imagine the influence of such a home, and honour the women who kept up sucha standard.1

Edited and Compiled by Lawrence BarkwellCoordinator of Metis Heritage and History ResearchLouis Riel Institute

1 Lillian Beynon Thomas. “Some Manitoba Women Who Did First Things.” Manitoba Historical Society

Transactions, Series 3, No. 4, 1947-48

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marion, marie rosalie (b. 1811)

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