Home Social Landscape Featured Articles Armand Trochu and the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Founding of Trochu: A Speech

Armand Trochu and the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Founding of Trochu: A Speech

by Jacques Bence

1  |  Page 2  |  3  

Armand Trochu inherited a country home and received from his father a position as a stockbroker. He had to demonstrate his ability at a time of economic difficulties in France, which certainly was a weight on his shoulders. A temporary problem and the simultaneous appearance in the French press of advertising for the opening of new lands in Western Canada was enough to light the fire of adventure. Trochu's great merit is that he made the decision to leave, alone, for an unknown country. Some years later, when he was honoured by the government of Quebec, and then by the prime minister, in spite of his modesty, his pride appeared in a rare letter addressed to his father describing his meetings. The same pride appeared some time later when he wrote in France: "We are just simply founding a town!" On their side, the officers' motivation was clearer. They resigned from the French army to keep their honour and their duties towards Catholics, when the government decided to use the French army against the Catholic Church's goods. Others probably had some good reasons and a strong sense of adventure to join them.

In any case, what strikes me first is their courage and their fierce will to win, even as they arrived in this open country, which is apparently hostile, with its tremendously severe winter/summer climate variations, compared to France. All had several qualities in common: an eagerness to work, an extraordinary ability to face any situation, an acceptance of a rugged life, and, above all, honesty, and a sense of honour and duty. Here are the true instruments of their success. Their will to succeed is easily perceived. Within a few weeks they had built residences made of boards bought at Didsbury or Calgary or shacks made of logs cut on the banks of the Red Deer River. These modest dwellings, so convenient for a team of bachelors, after 1905 became much more comfortable, sometimes with two storeys. The timber constructions then reached greater dimensions, notably with the building of Sainte Anne-des-Prairies and the St. Mary hospital.

The sweet French life was forgotten. There was a sweeping change from the society life to the rough prairie life, far from the conventions and conformism. Truly inspired, all of them rolled up their sleeves to build ranches, an inn, a post office, a general store, a school, a butcher shop, a creamery, a saddlery, and so forth. Before four years had passed, a business centre grew up with a modern spirit that many European villages could envy. What does it matter whether it was freezing cold inside most of the places, for a new city was soon born. All this signifies an integration of will and a collectively independent disposition against the conformism of the establishment. Everybody adapted immediately to the way of life imposed by the prairie, the horses, and ranching, including typical British expressions which they used in their correspondence with people in France.

However, the life was hard. With very little manpower available, they had to build their housing and domesticate the great open prairie, where many herds of roaming buffalo fed on the grassland. They had to do this despite freezing temperatures, snow, fires, mosquitos, scabies, and all sorts of dangers, some of them a result of their isolation. With no roads, and no one for miles around, they had to find their own way, especially at night when they came back from journeys on horseback to find cattle. They were able to do everything: grow cattle by the thousands, cultivate hundreds of hectares of wheat, and enclose many kilometres of land or corrals. They were cooks, butchers, bakers, saddlers, mechanics, engineers, carpenters, gardeners and businessmen. It seems, according to Philomene Butruille, that "there was always new prairie!"

They adapted themselves to all sorts of discomfort except loneliness, which forged their personality and character. The word is often cited in their letters to their relatives in France. Those who did not learn to endure it returned to France. Life was hard but beautiful, to the point that Joseph Devilder later wrote: "Those were the most beautiful years of my life. Life of work, of deprivation, of open air, of horseriding, of risks, of big and lovely physical activities." This daily battle by men, women and children in turn created such an incredible core of relationships and strong friendships between the families of pioneers that 55 years later, Valentine Eckenfelder maintained a correspondence with Adrienne Trochu, whom she had known for a very few years in Trochu Valley.

[<<previous] [continue>>]