Robert Comeau family history
The Comeau family of New Bedford Massachusetts is from four lines of Quebec heritage. Each immigrated separately from Canada during the 1861 to 1912 era due to economic pressures. The home country remained to them a strong cultural base and this was evident in their need to build ethnic schools, churches, and clubs. All came to work in the fiber mills of Massachusetts but all still retained their culture from Quebec.
Joseph Felix Comeau immigrated with his large family in 1875 from Pointe-du-Lac to Thompson, Connecticut. They worked in the North Grosvenor Dale mills but by 1897 had left for New Bedford Massachusetts. Thompson was an important location since the Comeau family met the Touchette family there and two members of each family married. The Jean Louis Touchette family had immigrated in 1861 from Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. Their large family had spread out across Windham County of Connecticut and many remain there still.
Trefle Comeau went to New Bedford with his growing family and they mostly set down roots there. Two of his brothers did from there move onto Leominster and one Ferdinand onto Holyoke in 1900. The fiber mills attracted them all to a better future than the agricultural life in Quebec. Strong Quebec ghettoes were developing in all three cities and these Comeau families made heavy use of the churches and schools.
Patrick Henley and Caroline Fournier immigrated from the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec in 1887 from the fishing community of Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. They came with the Deschenes family of the same town and other families from there. Their son Elzear would marry Marie Deschenes who he knew since youth. Both families would live in the booming mill town of Fall River and their families would grow quickly like the town itself.
By the early 1920s, the Henleys would expand out to Martha’s Vineyard. Many would stay there for many decades but some would move from there by the 1950s to Rhode Island, as they needed more jobs. Work in home construction was common in both locations. Most of Elzear and Marie Henley’s children followed this path and were successful. Their first child however choose to remain in the Fall River / New Bedford area. This was Leda Henley. She would marry Laurent Comeau in 1922 and that is why she selected to not go to Martha’s Vineyard like the rest of her siblings.
Marie Deschenes’ parents never came to the United States for long. Her mother came for a while but returned to the Gaspe. Some of her sisters lived in Bristol County and had large families there.
William Spoor and Rosalie Gauthier immigrated in 1891 from Farnham Quebec with their child. They would have more children in New Bedford and the family was quite settled in that region. William Spoor’s grandfather Orange Spoor was a natural born American. Orange due to economic pressure in the sawmill industry moved to Farnham in the 1850s. Reverse immigration was possible in the lumber field since Canada had many trees. Orange was of Dutch American ethnicity which was not common in Quebec in general but Farnham was a cosmopolitan town. Orange gives us the only portion of our family that is not Catholic since he was of the United Methodist Church.
Jean-Baptiste Gauthier dit Marcoux and his wife Rosalie Hebert were also from Farnham. Many of their children would immigrate to New England in the 1890s. They went to scattered locales but remained a strong family and visited each other often. Rosalie Hebert after her husband’s death immigrated to New Bedford and is buried at Sacred Heart Cemetery.
The Robert and Cecile Comeau children are of 10% Acadian ancestry and most of it comes from the Gauthier genealogical lines. Their children are by nationality 100% Quebec. By ethnicity, they are, however, 84% Quebec, 10% Nova Scotia, 3% British, 2% Irish, and 1% Dutch. The Irish comes from the Henley family since James Henley in 1780s started a family in the Gaspe. The British comes from both Abraham and Orange Spoor marrying British American women.
Damase Brault and Olympe Gendreau were from the greater Farnham area of Quebec. They married and had 17 children together. Six of their children would end up in northern Alberta Province as homesteaders. Their children and grandchildren remain there to this day. It was a nice family with two daughters of Damase and Olympe becoming nuns and one becoming a nurse. Every family tree will have at least one dark character however. Alphonse Brault was born in 1873 to Damase and Olympe. He married Eliza Hade in 1895 and had 12 children with her. Their life was far from settled and they lived a nomadic life due to his criminal behaviour. They lived in many small villages in the eastern townships of lower Quebec Province. He ended up leaving the family behind in 1917 in New Bedford and settled in Clyde Albert until his death in 1927.
Édouard Hade and Elise Lagace would marry in 1873 in St-Mathias-sur-Richelieu but he would die three short years later. They were basically migrant farm laborers. Their daughter Eliza Hade would have a poor and hard life. Her first husband died within a year due to malfeasance and her second husband was continually racing horses and selling alcohol. Her third husband would die within two years. Her last daughter would be Adrienne Brault. She would live in an orphanage with her young brother from about three to eight years old. People who endure hardship usually come out for the better.
Robert Comeau and Cecile Comeau married in New Bedford. Due to a job loss in 1960 they moved to South Hadley. There they raised 11 children and made a life of it. A lot of the ethnic pride is gone but the family still remembers its past.