Section
Work
Mills, mines, timber, shops and services: what people here made a living from.
12 articles
Shale Gas at Saint-Pierre-les-BecquetsLong before anyone talked of shale gas, a contract of 5 July 1907 between the Boston Gas and Oil Co. and Octave Dion opened lot 105 to exploration, but the drilling of the day did not give the hoped-for results.
The Mayrand Couple Settle in St-Pierre-les-BecquetsA photograph of the couple and a filmed interview on the arrival of Jean-Noël Mayrand and Julienne Neault in St-Pierre-les-Becquets, where they open a grocery store.
Rosaire Tousignant's Grocery StoreCécile Poisson and her husband Rosaire Tousignant buy the business that would become “l’épicerie Rosaire Tousignant”; a photo of the store and a video clip accompany the note.
Gaston Mailhot and his beginnings at the general storeGaston Mailhot tells how the owner of the general store hired him as a very young man, and how his earnestness there soon got him noticed.
The Caisse Populaire of Saint-Pierre-les-BecquetsFounded 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.
Rosaire Tousignant’s Grocery StoreCécile Poisson-Tousignant recalls the general store at the corner of rue Lapérade and rue Marie-Victorin, bought from Hervé Brisson and run with her husband Rosaire until they sold it in 1987.
Shale GasA contract dated 5 July 1907 between the Boston Gas and Oil Co and Octave Dion granted gas and oil rights over lot 105 at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets: exploration here was nothing new.
TimberNapoleon’s 1806 blockade turned England toward Canadian timber: in the seigneurie of Lévrard-Becquet, sawmills on the rivière aux Orignaux, local dealers, and a contract dated 1830.- The Mill on Lot 178The chain of owners of the flour mill on the Rivière-aux-Orignaux, from Landry Lafond’s sale in 1866 to the fire of 1957-58; the municipality bought the land back in 1970.
- The Mill on Lot 190Lot 190, landlocked among the farms, carried a sawmill by 1871 and later a shingle mill; the Society follows its owners, from the Barabé brothers to Jacques Delisle.
- The mill on lot 343The flour mill on lot 343, on the Rivière-aux-Orignaux, traced through notarial acts from Télesphore Jacques before 1871 to its closing in 1948 and the tax sale of 1970.
- Iron minesIn 1874 Georges Benson Hall bought the iron-mining rights over three lots at Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, at four cents a barrel; no blast furnace was ever built there and the rights lapsed from the 1890s.