Pères Charles Paradis
de Richard Lamoureux
Père Charles Paradis. Collection Richard Lamoureux.
LE PÈRE CHARLES PARADIS, UNE SORTE DE CURÉ LABELLE DU NORD ONTARIEN ! ET, SELON CERTAINS DIRES, IL ÉTAIT ''TOUT UN NUMÉRO !''
Natif de Saint-André-de-Kamouraska (Québec), Charles-Alfred Paradis est né le 23 mars 1848. Après ses études primaires, il est pensionnaire au collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière puis se dirige vers le noviciat des Oblats-de-Marie-Immaculée à Lachine.
Entre 1878 et 1881, il est professeur d’art au Collège d’Ottawa.
Il est ordonné prêtre oblat en 1881 et se rend en mission sur les bords du lac Témiscamingue à la mission St-Claude, puis à la baie d’Hudson. Il travaille à l’établissement d’une ferme modèle dans la Baie Kelly (actuellement Ville-Marie). En 1884, il est muté à Montcerf près de Maniwaki
À la fin des années 1880, il consacre ses énergies à coloniser la région entre North Bay et Temagami. Il fonde de nouvelles paroisses et touche même à l’exploitation agricole et à l’exploration minière, notamment la prospection de l’or. Paradis s’occupe activement de rapatrier des Canadiens français de l’État du Michigan dans la région de Verner.
Auteur d’un essai sur une société de missionnaires colonisateurs, il publie un récit de voyages intitulé De Témiscamingue à la baie d’Hudson (1900). Il a aussi écrit un ouvrage sur la méditation.
En 1926, il prend sa retraite et déménage chez les Clercs de Sainte-Croix à Montréal. Il meurt à Montréal le 10 mai 1928.
(Un lieu nommé Paradis Bay a été colonisé par le père Charles Alfred Paradis en 1882, comme ferme modèle pour de futures possibilités de colonisation au lac Timiskaming. Situé sur les berges du lac dans le canton de Lorrain, il y eut une dizaine de fermes et un bureau de poste de 1915 à 1919.)
Artiste de talent, c’est au cours de ses nombreux voyages en canot qu’il apporte dans ses bagages ses cahiers à dessin. Plusieurs de ses dessins seront transformés en aquarelles. On retrouve beaucoup de ses œuvres dans les archives nationales de Québec et d’Ottawa.
Une plaque commémorative provinciale est érigée par la Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien commémorant le père Charles Alfred Paradis, située à l’emplacement de l’église St-Jean-Baptiste, rue Principale à VERNER.
Natif de Saint-André-de-Kamouraska (Québec), Charles-Alfred Paradis est né le 23 mars 1848. Après ses études primaires, il est pensionnaire au collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière puis se dirige vers le noviciat des Oblats-de-Marie-Immaculée à Lachine.
Entre 1878 et 1881, il est professeur d’art au Collège d’Ottawa.
Il est ordonné prêtre oblat en 1881 et se rend en mission sur les bords du lac Témiscamingue à la mission St-Claude, puis à la baie d’Hudson. Il travaille à l’établissement d’une ferme modèle dans la Baie Kelly (actuellement Ville-Marie). En 1884, il est muté à Montcerf près de Maniwaki
À la fin des années 1880, il consacre ses énergies à coloniser la région entre North Bay et Temagami. Il fonde de nouvelles paroisses et touche même à l’exploitation agricole et à l’exploration minière, notamment la prospection de l’or. Paradis s’occupe activement de rapatrier des Canadiens français de l’État du Michigan dans la région de Verner.
Auteur d’un essai sur une société de missionnaires colonisateurs, il publie un récit de voyages intitulé De Témiscamingue à la baie d’Hudson (1900). Il a aussi écrit un ouvrage sur la méditation.
En 1926, il prend sa retraite et déménage chez les Clercs de Sainte-Croix à Montréal. Il meurt à Montréal le 10 mai 1928.
(Un lieu nommé Paradis Bay a été colonisé par le père Charles Alfred Paradis en 1882, comme ferme modèle pour de futures possibilités de colonisation au lac Timiskaming. Situé sur les berges du lac dans le canton de Lorrain, il y eut une dizaine de fermes et un bureau de poste de 1915 à 1919.)
Artiste de talent, c’est au cours de ses nombreux voyages en canot qu’il apporte dans ses bagages ses cahiers à dessin. Plusieurs de ses dessins seront transformés en aquarelles. On retrouve beaucoup de ses œuvres dans les archives nationales de Québec et d’Ottawa.
Une plaque commémorative provinciale est érigée par la Fiducie du patrimoine ontarien commémorant le père Charles Alfred Paradis, située à l’emplacement de l’église St-Jean-Baptiste, rue Principale à VERNER.
Collection Richard Lamoureux
Reference :https://www.timminspress.com/2013/01/27/history-mine-mishap-caused-a-stir?fbclid=IwAR0ic5tUltfzSXonVKr-xX1-1SIZsAb8Ln-7eXPDOI1cmJlMLq9Blw42iO4
Reference : https://www.timminspress.com/2013/01/27/history-mine-mishap-caused-a-stir?fbclid=IwAR0ic5tUltfzSXonVKr-xX1-1SIZsAb8Ln-7eXPDOI1cmJlMLq9Blw42iO4
HISTORY: Mine mishap caused a stir
Author of the article:
Karen Bachmann
Published Jan 27, 2013 • Last updated Jan 27, 2013 •
Article content
Every community, from Paris to Timbuktu, from Toronto to Earlton, has its fair share of, for lack of a better word, “colourful characters” and eccentrics.
Kirkland Lake had Roza Brown (a woman way before her time who sure knew how to live).
Elk Lake claims John Munroe (war hero, mining man, mayor and surely someone who could have been the first candidate for his own reality programme).
We here in the Porcupine seem to have an unending supply: Tommy Jack, Maggie Leclair, Sandy McIntyre, and, although not purely from the Porcupine, a celebrated priest known as Father Charles Paradis.
Notorious, revolutionary and with a blazing zeal to see the Northland colonized, Paradis has left his mark from Temiskaming up to the Porcupine. Recognized or not, we still live with his influence and his controversial views on land and river management.
Charles Paradis was born in Kamouraska, Que., in 1848. He completed his studies at the seminary in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and headed to Ottawa where he taught art.
He was ordained in 1881 and was soon sent to the Temiskaming area as a member of the Oblate Congregation, at the express request of Monseigneur Duhamel, archbishop of Ottawa. The Roman Catholic Bishops at that time were eager to see the area developed and put under the plow. They had, after all, built a small mission opposite Fort Temiskaming in 1863 and started a farm on the site, which was expanded to the Quebec side at Baie des Pères (later renamed Ville Marie), just above the fort.
Add to that the extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Mattawa, and the region was deemed “prime for the picking.”
Father Paradis wrote of his experiences in a pamphlet entitled “From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay.”
He along with others (notably Edward Haycock, a civil engineer from Ottawa who had stakes in a number of claims in the Temiskaming region), extolled the land he saw as rich in minerals and farming potential.
However, this meddling priest, who wanted to divert waterways and start talking about reckless lumbering practices did not impress the Ottawa lumber barons and the brass at HBC. They petitioned the Order to have him moved out of the region. They obliged, and Father Paradis found himself in Plattsburg, New York.
His confinement there was short lived as he was moved “behind walls” to Buffalo. Saying nuts to all of that, Father Paradis left the order and high-tailed it back to the Temiskaming he loved.
He took it upon himself to encourage French Canadian families (particularly many living in Michigan) to settle in what is now the Verner area, an act of defiance to his Order.
Along with four other “outlaw priests,” they formed the “Oblate Missionary Society of Saint John the Baptist,” or the “Colonizing Missionaries,” for short.
This move ushered in years of conflict between the renegades and the established church, causing all kinds of trouble and accusations.
Father Paradis’ reputation however was not diminished. He continued to bring in families, for which he received $3 a head from the government, plus another $50 a month towards supplies for the colonization effort.
So, how did Father Paradis find his way to the Porcupine? Like everyone else in the Northern part of the province at that time, he caught the gold bug.
He initially came up to provide assistance on the trail in 1909 (he had set up a halfway house near Matheson for those coming up in the Rush), but eventually prospected in the Nighthawk Lake area.
He found what he hoped was a promising show of gold but, unfortunately, when he blasted the area, he caused what would be seen today as a “major environmental accident.”
According the an article by C.W. Knight in the Canadian Mining Journal, “Father Paradis is reported to have made the statement that the clay belt of Northern Ontario should be drained, not dammed, and that the present drainage system might be likened to a man suffering from pneumonia. As to the verity of the assertions, the reader must form his own conclusions – but that said, it is certain that the reverend gentleman must have had some such belief when in the fall of 1909 he lowered the water of Frederick House River by cutting away its embankment beside a falls, thereby destroying a valuable water-power.”
Oops. And what did the newly formed mining fraternity think of this little escapade?
Mr. Knight continues: “... (they) do not believe, as a general rule, in draining the country, just as it is also certain, on the other hand, that it believes in heartily damming a certain gentleman who shall remain nameless.”
The water level in Frederick House Lake was lowered by at least five feet, and as we all know, it really isn’t conducive to boating, never mind shipping.
A warrant for the arrest of the Father was issued by the province, causing our errant priest to leave the area in a bit of a rush.
Father Paradis remained quite the character. After a brief exile back to Michigan (a sort of cooling off period with the authorities), he returned to his beloved Temagami.
He continued to produce water colours detailing the development of the area. Unfortunately, they appear to have all been lost during one of the region’s many forest fires.
He is also credited with compiling a dictionary of the Ojibwa language.
Father Paradis retuned to Montreal and died there on May 10, 1926 at the age of 78 years.
Love him or dismiss him, that is what I call a true Northern Ontario pioneer and colourful character.
Rare 'living fossil' spotted after decades of presumed extinction
(Thank you to Richard Lamoureux from Timmins, On November 2023)
Every community, from Paris to Timbuktu, from Toronto to Earlton, has its fair share of, for lack of a better word, “colourful characters” and eccentrics.
Kirkland Lake had Roza Brown (a woman way before her time who sure knew how to live).
Elk Lake claims John Munroe (war hero, mining man, mayor and surely someone who could have been the first candidate for his own reality programme).
We here in the Porcupine seem to have an unending supply: Tommy Jack, Maggie Leclair, Sandy McIntyre, and, although not purely from the Porcupine, a celebrated priest known as Father Charles Paradis.
Notorious, revolutionary and with a blazing zeal to see the Northland colonized, Paradis has left his mark from Temiskaming up to the Porcupine. Recognized or not, we still live with his influence and his controversial views on land and river management.
Charles Paradis was born in Kamouraska, Que., in 1848. He completed his studies at the seminary in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière and headed to Ottawa where he taught art.
He was ordained in 1881 and was soon sent to the Temiskaming area as a member of the Oblate Congregation, at the express request of Monseigneur Duhamel, archbishop of Ottawa. The Roman Catholic Bishops at that time were eager to see the area developed and put under the plow. They had, after all, built a small mission opposite Fort Temiskaming in 1863 and started a farm on the site, which was expanded to the Quebec side at Baie des Pères (later renamed Ville Marie), just above the fort.
Add to that the extension of the Canadian Pacific Railway to Mattawa, and the region was deemed “prime for the picking.”
Father Paradis wrote of his experiences in a pamphlet entitled “From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay.”
He along with others (notably Edward Haycock, a civil engineer from Ottawa who had stakes in a number of claims in the Temiskaming region), extolled the land he saw as rich in minerals and farming potential.
However, this meddling priest, who wanted to divert waterways and start talking about reckless lumbering practices did not impress the Ottawa lumber barons and the brass at HBC. They petitioned the Order to have him moved out of the region. They obliged, and Father Paradis found himself in Plattsburg, New York.
His confinement there was short lived as he was moved “behind walls” to Buffalo. Saying nuts to all of that, Father Paradis left the order and high-tailed it back to the Temiskaming he loved.
He took it upon himself to encourage French Canadian families (particularly many living in Michigan) to settle in what is now the Verner area, an act of defiance to his Order.
Along with four other “outlaw priests,” they formed the “Oblate Missionary Society of Saint John the Baptist,” or the “Colonizing Missionaries,” for short.
This move ushered in years of conflict between the renegades and the established church, causing all kinds of trouble and accusations.
Father Paradis’ reputation however was not diminished. He continued to bring in families, for which he received $3 a head from the government, plus another $50 a month towards supplies for the colonization effort.
So, how did Father Paradis find his way to the Porcupine? Like everyone else in the Northern part of the province at that time, he caught the gold bug.
He initially came up to provide assistance on the trail in 1909 (he had set up a halfway house near Matheson for those coming up in the Rush), but eventually prospected in the Nighthawk Lake area.
He found what he hoped was a promising show of gold but, unfortunately, when he blasted the area, he caused what would be seen today as a “major environmental accident.”
According the an article by C.W. Knight in the Canadian Mining Journal, “Father Paradis is reported to have made the statement that the clay belt of Northern Ontario should be drained, not dammed, and that the present drainage system might be likened to a man suffering from pneumonia. As to the verity of the assertions, the reader must form his own conclusions – but that said, it is certain that the reverend gentleman must have had some such belief when in the fall of 1909 he lowered the water of Frederick House River by cutting away its embankment beside a falls, thereby destroying a valuable water-power.”
Oops. And what did the newly formed mining fraternity think of this little escapade?
Mr. Knight continues: “... (they) do not believe, as a general rule, in draining the country, just as it is also certain, on the other hand, that it believes in heartily damming a certain gentleman who shall remain nameless.”
The water level in Frederick House Lake was lowered by at least five feet, and as we all know, it really isn’t conducive to boating, never mind shipping.
A warrant for the arrest of the Father was issued by the province, causing our errant priest to leave the area in a bit of a rush.
Father Paradis remained quite the character. After a brief exile back to Michigan (a sort of cooling off period with the authorities), he returned to his beloved Temagami.
He continued to produce water colours detailing the development of the area. Unfortunately, they appear to have all been lost during one of the region’s many forest fires.
He is also credited with compiling a dictionary of the Ojibwa language.
Father Paradis retuned to Montreal and died there on May 10, 1926 at the age of 78 years.
Love him or dismiss him, that is what I call a true Northern Ontario pioneer and colourful character.
Rare 'living fossil' spotted after decades of presumed extinction
(Thank you to Richard Lamoureux from Timmins, On November 2023)