From a certain perspective, the community of St. Albert could
be considered as the first centre of French Canadian settlement
in Alberta, but the lands were ultimately divided into river
lots and given to the local Métis in the scrip settlement.
The first French-Canadian settlers to come to the area and
claim land for farming were the two Lamoureux brothers who
arrived in autumn 1872. Their family history varies, but Joseph
and Frank, after a considerable odyssey through the United
States, met up accidentally in Oregon after not having seen each
other for many years. They teamed up and headed for Caribou gold
fields, but didn’t find any gold. On their journey, they were
told of the fertile Saskatchewan valley and decided to see it
for themselves. Upon their arrival, the brothers decided to
settle across from Fort Saskatchewan, approximately 10
kilometres from St. Albert. The brothers sent for the rest of
their family and a number of friends to come and join them at
the little town they call Lamoureux.
Several years later, in 1890, settlement in the region was
officially promoted by Jean-Baptiste Morin, a young priest who
became a federal government agent in charge of recruiting
settlers. Morin was named to the position at the urging of
Bishop Vital Grandin and father Albert Lacombe.1
Based in Montreal, where he had an office, Morin gave
presentations and prepared promotional articles for
French-Canadians on settlement in Alberta. He visited the
northern United States a great deal, and as a testament to his
success, historian Donald Smith notes that of the 620 families
who settled eight localities in Alberta, more than half were
from the United States, while only a fifth of were from Quebec.2
Morin was considered to be the founder of Morinville and
Beaumont where several hundred French-Canadian families
eventually settled. Nine localities in the area (Edmonton, St.
Albert, Morinville, Fort Saskatchewan or Lamoureux, Stony Plain,
Beaumont, St. Pierre de Villeneuve, Rivière-qui-Barre, and
Vegreville) were settled by migrants from Eastern Canada and
immigrants from the northern United States.
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