Brother André in the United States An exclusive new series on the Oratory's website We will offer a new series of articles to the readers of www.saint-joseph.org. Angelika Mayr will be retracing the steps of Brother André in the United States. Over the course of seven brief articles, appearing on-line the first of each month, she will chronicle the life of young André Bessette between 1863 and 1867 in New England. Although strewn with stumbling blocks and evident questioning this period also included treasured encounters with a number of American families. The remembrances of these stays have their marks even today south of the Canadian border. For the last two years, Angelika Mayr has published her blog on this site, revealing her spiritual road map of the state of Maine where she now lives after serving at the Oratory 12 years. Let's find out what happened to Brother André in the United States!

Brother André in the United States Photo: The Archives of Saint Joseph's Oratory

Brother André in the United States: 1863-1867

Introduction   Very little is known about the four years Alfred Bessette spent in the States as a factory-hand, between 1863 and 1867. “Whenever he would be asked about it, he would change the subject,” said Brother André’s friends in later years. Etienne Catta’s 1178 page book about Brother André devotes only one paragraph to it.   “Alfred had a friend in St.Césaire, Napoléon Parent, who worked with him at the Phaneuf shoe making store. Both are in Plainfield, CT [in 1863]. It is difficult to follow Alfred in his travels through the United States. To start with, he works in Nashua, NH, since it is the nearest destination. [He travels by train in 1863 from Iberville, PQ, passing through Swanton, Burlington, Montpellier, Barre (VT), Lebanon, Concord and Manchester (NH), to Nashua, NH, where he works in a mill (or mills) along the Merrimack River].  His intended region though, is the east of Connecticut, bordering Rhode Island, whose capital, Providence, forms the economic center. He can be found in Moosup, CT, in a crauska mill [that is, one making all kinds of thread. It was located in the Aldrich Mills neighbourhood. In 1963, when the book was published, it had become a rubber mill.] in Mechanicsville [a suburb of Putnam, CT] at the Bellew & Co. factory [whose ruins were swept away in a big flood around 1958], in North Easton, MA, as a factory-hand and in Danielson, CT.”   On the other hand, without specific reference to Alfred Bessette, we do know about the life, tribulations and options of French Canadians who decided to leave upper and lower Canada to earn a living in New England. To find out more about what it was like, my first trip was to Woonsocket, RI, where Br. André used to visit Marie Villeneuve, daughter of his eldest sister Léocadie. Together, they used to attend mass at the Holy Family Parish with the Guérin Family.    Over the next months, I will sketch a picture of what Alfred went through: deciding to leave Canada, traveling by train, working in the mills, living in triple-deckers, the religious and cultural heritage, until he decides to return to Canada.   Let’s travel along with Brother André.     Connecticut Mills Co., Danielson, CT         Aldrich Mfg Co’s Mill and Village, Moosup, CT     Photos from : http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://americadeclines.com/sitebuilder/images/MOOSUP_CT_-_Aldrich_Mfg_Co-690x375.jpg&imgrefurl=http://americadeclines.com/CT3.html&usg=__Dm68txf6oWJYR4TpA1CXAbi5024=&h=375&w=690&sz=40&hl=fr&start=1&um=1&tbnid=aKkyTj4_5h-DxM:&tbnh=76&tbnw=139&prev=/images%3Fq%3DAldrich%2BMills%2BMoosup%2BCT%26hl%3Dfr%26um%3D1

Deciding to go - Part 1

Photo: Abraham Schecter Advertissement for weavers, December 7, 1833     Dear Basile, We are presently housed in Woonsocket with my uncle François, till we find our own place. The pay is good, Basile. We work from sun up till sun down, sometimes longer, but Sunday the mills are closed and it is like a Holy Day of the church. The work is not hard but sometimes boring. I am in a cotton mill, the “Social”. Some of my children work and we make more money than we can spend.  Let me know what you decide, and, if you want to come, I’ll speak to the foreman. Your loving brother,                   Émile   This is one of the many letters sent back home in a time when French Canadian families were mainly rich in children : once the eldest inherited the too small farm, there was not much left for the others.  This situation pushed them to leave behind the land and forests which barely provided enough food and fuel, as well as the hardship of artisanal work, such as spinning wool to make clothes and blankets.  What a temptation it was to be able to earn a weekly salary and benefits instead!   But there was more to it than to give up a life of outdoor work in harmony with the seasons, and accept the regimentation of the factory, the time clock and the foreman. From the time when they began leaving for the mill villages of New England in the 1860s, people did not think ahead about the work conditions awaiting them in an industrialized world. They feared far more losing their culture, their religion and their language. As a consequence, migrants brought with them their long-held belief that no matter what lay ahead, their culture – as French Canadians and as Catholics – must withstand the corrupting influences of other cultures.   The Catholic Church reinforced this feeling by criticizing – though not interfering with – all things that were not French and not Catholic. Since the founding of New France and especially since coming under British rule in 1760, the Church had led the cause of cultural survival. Consequently, it opposed the migration, warning inhabitants that their cherished traditions could irretrievably be lost in the alien world to the south. ''If you have to leave'', they would preach, ''go settle in Lac St-Jean, the Laurentians or Quebec’s outer regions : agriculture brings you closer to God and to nature. It is an appropriate way to keep traditional values safe and to insure a proper place in society for the Church.”   Alfred Bessette joint les rangs (à traduire)   But the lure of work in the mills was strong, and, in any case, many intended to return to their homeland someday. On foot or by train, alone or with their family and friends, they left. A bachelor with no land of his own, in poor health and with no skills, Alfred Bessette was one of them. They defied church leaders by emigrating, to find a land where the first French Churches were only built in the 1880’s. Throughout all this, the migrants maintained their Catholic identity, and the Catholic Church continued to be the major organizing influence among French Canadian immigrants in the Unites States well into the twentieth century.     Photo: A. Shechter Interior of a French Canadian farm house, circa 1900         Photo: A. Schechter Spirit of Woonsocket (RI). Sculpture by Robert Lamb at the Museum of Work and Culture.         Photo: A. Shechter Workers at the Social Mill, circa 1920.

Part 2, Travels by train - November 1st, 2009

Train Photo: A. Schechter         Amtrack - New England Photo: www.amtrak.com     A traveller in the 1860s had only four choices to get from one place to another. He could walk, use an animal to carry or pull him, take a boat or use the latest invention of his time: the train. In 1830, 40 miles of tracks had been laid in the USA, 30 of those in New England. Thirty years later, they had increased to 28,920 miles, with 3644 in New England.  As for the automobile, it would make its appearance only at the turn of the century.   As did many others on their exodus to the States, Brother André looked for the quickest way: Iberville, Swanton, Burlington, Montpellier, Lebanon, Holyoke, Springfield, Manchester…or else they would go further east: Plattsburgh, Keeseville, Glens Falls, Schenectady, Troy, Albany, Hartford, New Haven…a trip of 350 to 500 miles!   “The locomotives of that day were much smaller than those now in use. Most of them burned wood for fuel. In extremely cold weather, the little locomotives had much difficulty in keeping up steam, and few of them maintained their schedules. When conditions were favourable, passenger trains usually travelled about fifteen or twenty miles an hour (so an 18-33 hour ride).”   “The light wooden passenger cars were a great improvement, but they lacked many of the comforts of the all-steel passenger cars of today. They were heated by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves, making them either too hot or too cold. Ventilation was poor, since smoke, cinders and dust entered the car when the windows were open. Reading by flickering coal-oil lamps was almost out of the question, moving from one car to the other was dangerous when in motion, club, lounge and observation cars were unknown and there were very few sleeping cars. Moreover, the roadbeds were lightly and crudely built (making for bumpy rides), there were no signal systems, and few safety devices.” * Nevertheless, it was a big improvement over the stagecoach.   Used to the plains of the St. Lawrence valley, Brother André and many of his fellow travellers discovered the Green Mountains with their rolling hills and verdant valleys for the first time. They crossed forests, passed fields and lakes following silvery threads of rushing brooks and quiet rivers. Never did they forget – nor did their love diminish for – these sights.   As it did in the 1860s, the Providence & Worcester Railroad is still operating in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut today, leaving us an echo of what Brother André must have heard and seen. It changed the architecture and focal point of the cities, as explained in the walking tour of Woonsocket, RI, published by the Rhode Island Historical Society, in partnership with the Heritage Corridor Commission. “The Providence & Worcester Railroad bridge, dating from 1847, is a clue to why the canal business collapsed within twenty years. Everyone who once eyed the waters of the river and canal to bring travelers, commerce and correspondence switched to watching the front door of the train station for new business, new customers, and any sign of progress in busy Woonsocket. The depot became the new hub of traffic and transport. At its peak, the P&W ran 26 trains a day. Slightly behind the former terminal is the 1855 Harris Warehouse, a gracefully curved building designed with train tracks running inside so freight cars full of raw wool could be unloaded, and finished woollen goods reloaded, regardless of the weather.”       Photo: A. Schechter     * Railway station and train in the 1860’s: see the scan of this article at http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2009/09/railway-station-and-train-in-1860s.html

Part 3, Working in the mills tested Brother André

Photo: A. Shechter Right time     In his book about Brother André, Étienne Catta tells us: “…(in the States), Alfred was a factory hand, but with poor skills and under such conditions! People worked in the mills from six in the morning till six in the evening, with only one hour for lunch. Two or three days a week, management required two hours extra. In principle, this overtime was voluntary, but the workers knew that, should they refuse, they would be fired the following month. The salary of a good worker could go as high as one dollar per day. A woman, or a youth without training would earn much less. As it was, the French Canadian workforce, in all areas of New England, became an indispensable agent of prosperity, and was much appreciated for its resilience, its work ethic, and the high quality of production…”   Industrialisation changed people's lifestyle in many ways. First off, they discovered that time is a value in itself and needs to be tracked precisely, since it can be bought, sold, exploited or swindled. This created conflicts because the bells in church towers gave way to the factory owner’s personally controlled signals or whistles. Furthermore, few working class individuals could afford pocket watches of their own. How then could workers be sure that they were being paid for the actual time they had worked? Clocks could even be rigged to run slow in order to steal uncompensated labour. Our heritage of public clocks easily visible on buildings, displaying “accurate” time, stems from this need and was made possible by workers pooling together. At the same time, from the 1830s onward, new machinery changed the way people worked by affecting the quantity, the quality and the cost of production. Spinning jennies, for instance, replaced the traditional spinning wheel to draw out and twist loose fibres into thread or yarn, and wind it onto spools. From now on, one strong-shouldered operator, commanding both high pay and great respect, pushed and pulled the big wheels on the spinning jenny, performing the work of many.  Likewise, mechanically driven looms moved the shuttle carrying the weft threads (crosswise) across the warp threads (lengthwise). From now on, one single operator could tend several looms, but it still required several warpers—usually women with deft fingers, excellent eyesight, and immense patience—to prepare the harness one strand at a time before production could begin. These skilled women were among the highest paid female workers in the loom rooms of textile factories.    By the 1930s, “One operator, running a spinning mule with 336 spindles, could spin almost a half ton of ten-twist yarn during an eight-hour shift. With his wage at about 70¢ an hour, the labour cost in a pound of good-quality worsted yarn was less than ¾ of a penny. Similarly, one weaver could now oversee a dozen looms and produce over 2¼ miles of fabric in a 48 hour week.” *    Brother André never became a skilled labourer. In his years, he was one of many trying to eke out a living, and even his weak constitution did not exempt him from that. He was lucky that he was never caught in a deadly mill fire; that his life didn't waste away through consumption or tuberculosis; that he didn't lose a limb. He was just your fellow worker, your neighbour, the man you met on the street…. One thing though—besides prayer—that characterized him, was his attitude toward work: “his poor health was no excuse to let others surpass him”, one of his friends tells us, “and he made up for it with courage.”       Photo: A. Schechter Spinning mule         Photo: A. Schechter Mechanical loom       * Anita Rafael, La Survivance. A companion to the exhibit at the Museum of Work and Culture, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Rhode island Historical Society, 1997. ISBN 0-932840-13-2

Part 4, Living in the City in ''Triple-deckers''

Photo: A. Schechter         Photo: A. Schechter     Mills had a profound impact on towns and their people. Often, entire settlements and communities were brought into being by mill owners. According to Anita Rafael in the previously cited document, creating mill villages had two purposes: to inspire workers’ loyalty and to ensure consistent profits. An attractive, well-run village drew and retained good workers, no matter the tiring nature or demeaning conditions of the work. Also, in theory, providing cultural activities, tree-lined streets, pleasant houses, well-stocked modern stores, clean hospitals, good schools, green parks, sports complexes and even amusement parks kept potentially rebellious workers content and occupied.    The careful thoughts and planning went even further. Company-owned housing was provided for workers within walking and hearing distance of the job and its whistle. Likewise, company-owned stores stocked everything that workers and their families wanted or needed. This arrangement was not only convenient for workers, but cycled those wages back to the company as income.    The most common residential structures built for labourers were triple-deckers. Typically more deep than wide, they contained three or sometimes six apartments and were usually adorned by front and back porches on each of the three stories. With the parlor in the front, dining room, kitchen and bath in the middle and bedrooms in the back, they provided affordable housing for a large number of people in limited space. Often, relatives and in-laws lived nearby, one extended family occupying all three floors.  Within the building, rooms were rented to get extra income and to integrate newcomers into the community. This was the unimagined environment Alfred Bessette discovered in the United States. According to his biographer Étienne Catta, “An almost familial instinct quickly drew the Canadians together; they lived in their own neighbourhood, and French was their only language, jealously preserved. All they had to know in English were a few common words which allowed them to follow the foreman's orders at work. Alfred Bessette never had to learn such a vocabulary so quickly. As for housing, since he was single, he would rent a room in a tenement house, one of those brick buildings which were ancestors of our apartment blocks. Later, many, many families would maintain, “Brother Andre used to live with us when he worked in the States.”   Alfred Bessette’s World   This was a life so very different from that of the countryside or even the pre-industrialized city life his people were used to. Set close to the sidewalks on narrow lots, triple-deckers were built side by side and back to back, leaving very little room for yards or lawns. They were not boring though. Architecturally, each triple-decker had a distinctive character and individuality.   Furthermore, porches were not only places to hang the wash, but they created a “porch life” that enlivened the whole neighbourhood. Here, people sat outdoors to watch passersby, exchanged the latest news and gossip, and made music.    As did his neighbours, Alfred listened to and probably offered his views on many topics that touched their lives from near and far: the new-fangled sports of ski jumping, soccer, golf and baseball (with its then almost undefeated Brooklyn Atlantics); the founding of nursing schools in 1860 by Florence Nightingale; Abraham Lincoln’s Cooper Union Address in New York (February 27, 1860), his tour of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Connecticut that contributed to his election as president in November of that same year, and his assassination on April 14, 1865; the American Civil War (1861-1865) and the reconstruction that followed (1865-1869); the construction of the first transcontinental railroad (1863-1869); the rise in France of the Impressionist movement (1863-1880s); the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (1865); the upcoming creation on July 1, 1867 of the Dominion of Canada by the British North America Act…   The United States during that era was a world bubbling over with opportunity for the young man who would become Brother Andre!

Part 5, Religion and Culture

Photo: A. Shechter Précieux-Sang Parish Woonsocket, RI, 1873 finished in 1881. Oldest French Canadian Parish in Woonsocket.     We might call French Canadians the first settlers of the state of Maine. Indeed, they actually started to immigrate to New England on the shores of Lake Champlain, before the war of American Independence (1775-1783). Even though a second wave entered as early as 1830 in Vermont, particularly in 1837 after the failed Patriote Rebellion in Quebec, the major immigration took place in the thirty years following the American Civil War (1861-1865). Within the sanctity of their homes, they tried to maintain their religion and culture, while the outside world remained alien to them for a long time.   Though church and state were separate in this country, French Canadians, almost exclusively Catholic, were fearful they might be required to change their faith, language, style of dress and even eating habits on the way to becoming Americans. Back in Canada, they had long maintained their own religious organizations (parishes, schools and charitable institutions). Here, New England was largely Protestant, and those Americans who were Catholic were Irish; part of an alien, English-speaking tradition. To protect their heritage, they wanted French Canadian Catholic parishes, with French Canadian priests (and eventually French Canadian bishops) as well as to be able to send their children to French Canadian parochial schools, where both languages would be taught on an equal footing.   Why not assimilate? Some did, but most families making the difficult transition from farm to urban, industrial life needed the church to offer them guidance and consolation. “Have faith,” it counselled, “and adhere to the traditional values of your heritage – conscientious dedication to work, however tedious; resolute allegiance to employers, however cruel; unquestioning obedience to authority, however harsh….” But where was their beloved church to be found here? Paroisse St-Joseph, in Burlington, VT, the first ever Franco-American parish, was founded only in 1850 by a French Canadian priest, the Rev. Joseph Quévillon. In contrast to the local clergy, the few missionaries from Quebec who were assigned to work in New England had the advantage of being familiar with their compatriots, identifying with their character and customs, understanding their mentality, and so succeeded in organizing burgeoning parishes. They helped organize in 1856 the parish of the Nativité de la Sainte-Vierge, at Swanton, VT, as well as, in 1868, St-François-Xavier at Winooski, VT. Still, there were hardly any spiritual resources available to our young Alfred Bessette, who spent his time in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island!   Until 1870, Infrequent Religious Facilities for the Canadian Immigrants   Etienne Catta, biographer, sums up Brother André’s religious experience in three sentences: “One essential thing would be missing for this pious youth. Until 1870, religious facilities remained infrequent for the Canadian immigrants. There is no doubt that this spiritual shortage influenced Alfred’s resolution to come back to Canada.” After his departure, more parishes were organized in New England, so that by 1890, there were 120 churches and chapels ministered to by French Canadian priests, as well as 50 large schools, affording education to more than 30,000 children. In later travels, then Brother Andre might have rejoiced at the sight of new, French speaking parishes, emerging out of the needs of the communities : Notre-Dame du Bon Conseil (Pittsfield, MA, 1867); St-Joseph (Lowell, MA, 1869); St-Jacques (Manville, RI), St-Augustin (Manchester, NH) and St-Louis (Nashua, NH, 1872); Précieux Sang (Woonsocket, RI) and Ste-Anne (Lawrence, MA, 1873); St-Charles (Providence, RI, 1878); St-Laurent (Meriden, CT, 1880)…   To make comprehensible this new culture, newspapers in French still had to be sent from Canada, Boston or New York. The first local papers appear in 1868 (St. Albans, VT), 1869 (Worcester, MA and Manchester, NH) and 1870 (Woonsocket, RI). Considering that he was functionally illiterate, Alfred probably had very little to do with them. In concert, these newspapers exhorted Franco-Americans to prove themselves genuine citizens, to become naturalized, to preserve both their mother tongue and to learn English, to build parochial schools, and to ask for priests of their own nationality as pastors.   Finally, in order to care for widows, orphans and the sick, as well as to ensure the continued existence and prosperity of a greater number of parishes, French speaking religious orders of men and women as well as benevolent associations were established. Even though 17 such societies were extant in 1868, including the Société de Jacques-Cartier of St. Albans, VT (1848) and the Société St-Jean-Baptiste of New York, NY (1850), most became really active only after Alfred Bessette’s return to Canada.     Photo: A. Shechter St. Ann's Parish         Photo: A. Shechter St. Ann's Parish Woonsocket, RI, 1914. Second Oldest French Canadian Parish in Woonsocket.     Reference:     French Catholics in the United States http://wwwnewadvent.org/cathen/06271c.htm

Part 6, Deciding to return

Photo: A. Shechter       In all, some half-million immigrants and their families (¼ of the Quebec population) resettled in New England between 1860 and 1900.  Although at least half may have eventually returned to Canada, enough remained to make the French Canadians the fourth-largest ethnic group in America (after the English, the Irish, and the Germans).  New England textile cities – Fall River, New Bedford, Lowell, and Lawrence, MA ; Manchester, NH ; Biddeford and Lewiston, ME ; Pawtucket and Woonsocket, RI – drew the largest concentrations of French Canadian immigrants.  By 1900, Woonsocket was known as “la ville la plus française aux États-Unis”, the most French city in the United States. And Alfred Bessette?  According to Étienne Catta, “his physical strength would probably have been enough, since he was a very good worker.  But the heart was heavy.  Alfred re-crossed the lines and came back to the country of his origins.  He came back with his silence; of these four years of his harsh youth, Brother André has barely told anything.”  He is 22 years old.  Where to go and how to live?  During the following three years, he can be found first in Sutton, with members of his family: he would not stay long and did not work there. Then at the Farnham presbytery where he was a stable boy before moving again, this time to St-Césaire. There, he will meet Father Provençal, pray at all times and in any location, invite others in his age group to pray to St-Joseph…  It is the recognition of a long considered vocation.  Finally, one fine summer or autumn day of 1870, he took the road towards the St-Lawrence College in Montreal, where he began his noviciate. The rest, as we say, is history.  Nevertheless, he did not forget the ties he made in the United States.  From the 1915s till his death in 1937, he returned on a regular basis to rest or to retrieve donations.  “When he would arrive, no one was to be told of his presence; this would last for two or three days.  It was enough for him to be seen during mass and crowds would immediately gather”.  New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts…  Brother André has visited them all, leaving behind signs of his passage.  Here, descendents and friends have kept his memory alive.  There, the devotion to St-Joseph and Brother André broadened, is kept alive to this day. Nearly 150 years have passed, and I do not believe that the Church was thinking in such long terms when expressing its opinion at the time.  Obviously, a certain assimilation was to be expected and time has left its mark.  The daily French-language newspaper of Woonsocket, “La Tribune”, ended its publication in 1942, and the daily French-language broadcasts in the 1960s.  Still, the second, third and fourth generation, descendents of these immigrants, continue to give a genuine “Canadian taste”.  To this day, even without internet, one can speak French, hear French, read French, eat French, celebrate in French.  In religious terms, Roman Catholics represent the most numerous of Christian denominations (with 25%).  Finally, the heritage continues to be transmitted, not only at home but in school: “Franco American Studies” teach culture, society, history, politics, literature and the language of our forbearers to all who wish to learn.       Photo: A. Shechter