The Caisse Populaire of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets
Founded on 13 September 1911, the Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets caisse closed for want of a manager, was revived in 1934, and in 1979 moved into a building raised on the site of the former parish hall.
Written in French by Alain Manset, July 1, 2015. Quotations from period documents are left in the original. Lire l’original en français.
It was in December 1900 that Alphonse Desjardins and his wife Dorimène founded in Lévis a very modest financial institution, then named « caisse populaire de Lévis » (the Lévis people’s bank). After a laborious start, establishments of the same kind were set up and gradually met with great success.
On 13 September 1911, a caisse populaire (credit union) was founded in the village of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets; J.-Antonio Poisson was its first president and Josaphat Vézina served as secretary; the young notary Henri-R. Dufresne became its first manager, but he soon moved to Nicolet and the Caisse, unable to find a replacement for him, ceased all activity for more than twenty years.
In 1934 it was reorganised and grew steadily in importance, but it had to wait until the 1940s to become an institution central to life in the community. Adélard Lemelin was its manager from 1934 to 1966, working out of his own house; that house was demolished to make way for a more modern building that housed the Caisse’s premises and the home of the manager, Jules Poisson.
A branch of the Banque Provinciale existed alongside the caisse populaire; in the 1970s it was located in the house of Mr. Gaston Mailhot, who also provided the postal service in another part of his house at 274 Marie-Victorin. As a footnote to local history, Mr. Mailhot’s wife, Germaine Poisson, was the sister of Jules Poisson.
In 1979, a new building was designed by the architect André Morin of Arthabaska and built on the site of the former parish hall; these are the premises we know today, and they were recently given a facelift. In those modern new quarters the manager Jules Poisson carried on his career; Gilles Jacob was the accountant; the board was made up of president Émilien Paris, vice-president Louis-Gilles Mailhot and secretary Jules Poisson; the other directors were Hermann Poisson and Robert Germain.
Sources:
Le Peuple Hebdo, 20 November 1979 (Yves Tousignant)
Recollections of Nicole Poisson, daughter of Jules
Interview with Gaston Mailhot
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A group of volunteers researching, preserving and publishing the history and genealogy of the Lévrard-Becquet seigneury since 2002.
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