Marc à Camille à Ulysse à Élisée à Jean-Pierre Robichaud
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Jean-Pierre Robichaud (also written as John P Robisho and John Robicheau).
I wanted to post an article on my great-great-grandfather Jean-Pierre Robichaud.
In 1855, at the early age of 24, he was already very active in the community, owning several plots of land. In 1867, he founded a sawmill, which we consider the starting point to present-day UJ Robichaud TIM-BR Mart.
Several years ago, we discovered Census records from 1871 that provided a glimpse into who Jean-Pierre was and how he lived. We know where he lived - as the blue house across from UJ Robichaud is indeed his original homestead. And we know he was a well known businessman and that he had worked with his sons to create a woodworking mill, but this census data was a real treasure that allowed us to travel back in time.
In 1871, he writes his name as John P Robisho, a male of 39 years of age with main occupation of a farmer and married. The spelling of the name is interesting as we note many variations in our archives, from JP, to Jean-Pierre to John P, and Robisho, Robichau, and Robicheau. Most business documents, including his will are written as John P Robicheau.
His wife is Margerite and in 1871, he has 4 sons and 2 daughters (In total, they had ten children, five boys and five girls). The coffin originally built for his wife Margerite when she died in 1912 survives in our archives and was the subject of an earlier blog posting.
A land owner - The records show he received income under the title of "Return of Public Institutions and Real Estate. Unfortunately, the records are not clear enough to read to see whether the income was derived from land use or from serving in some form of public capacity.
A farmer - He was the owner of his lands and occupied 76 acres. 26 of these were in pasture for his livestock, 1 was an orchard and the rest was farmed land. Incredibly we know that in 1871, he planted 159 bushels of oats, 2 acres of potatoes yielding 261 bushels, 7 bushels of turnip, had 12 acres devoted to hay and collected 20 bushels of apples.
Livestock - As any farmer needs good animals to help tend the farm, Jean-Pierre was no exception. He had one good horse over 3 years old, two working oxen, and three milk cows. From these cows, he was able to produce 311 pounds of butter and 31 pounds of cheese. We likely believe he had other animals as well, but the text isn't clear in the records.
Woodworker - With an investment in fixed capital of $3.50 and a working capital of $0.30 (which I can only imagine was a decent sum for 1871), he operated for two months a year a sawmill which employed 2 people. Total yearly wages are listed at $1.00. But more interestingly it used water power to cut its logs. As there is no running river or lake at the present site, this means the first sawmill in what became UJ Robichaud was not at its present location. (We do know that in 1882, with his two sons they built a new mill at the present day location. And we also know that in 1894, the Evangeline reported that Jean and Élisée were busy building a new steam sawmill on Lake Mardi Gras).
From this water powered sawmill, they were able to cut 23 cubic square feet of sawed birch and maple as well as 7 cords of firewood. There was likely more wood cut, but again the records are deteriorated where we tell there there is an entry for 66, but the title of the column is unreadable.
Fisherman - Operating one boat with two men, they fished a total of 17 nets. This harvested 4 quintals of cod, and 18 quintals of haddock, hake and pollock as well as 1 barrel of herring.
In 1882, Jean-Pierre and his two sons would build a second mill, across from their home in Meteghan Center, on the site of present day UJ Robichaud TIM-BR Mart. At this time, the company was named E.J. Robichaud. What the original name was before this had been lost to time, but the Evangeline published in 1902 an entry which list the factory of Messrs Robichaud & Co from the Riviere Meteghan.
Having lived to 1920, Jean-Pierre lived to see this 1882 mill lost to fire and then later rebuilt, as well as the building of the flour mill co-op in 1912.
He died at the age of 89, leaving behind a legacy of hard work, honesty, integrity and goodness. One of his grand daughters once commented he was the kindest man ever to have walked the earth.
And this is the story of my great-great grandfather, Jean-Pierre Robichaud.
Interested in more? - Check out the very cool book my mother wrote on the Robichaud story, "The Robichaud's in Acadia and the historical account of the Family Business UJ Robichaud & Son Ltd."
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