Fonds F005 - Fonds Pierre Ménard

Pierre Ménard was born in Fairfax, Vermont on 13 July 1829. He moved to Contrecoeur, Quebec in the 1850s, where he married Marcelline Blanchette in 1856. Together they had seven children: Joseph, Zoé, Perpétue, Élizabeth, Angélina, Catherine, and Pierre-Louis. The family made a series of moves and settled in Compton Township in 1872 where Ménard purchased land from Josephus Rugg. He was a successful businessman, with a particular interest in raising horses, until the death of his wife in 1877. Ménard sold the family with the intention of moving to Manitoba but, instead, he met and married Christine Pelletier (widow of Alfred Fontaine). For a time they lived on Christine’s land in Clifton, where the couple’s son, Roldolphe, was born in 1881. In 1882, Ménard purchased a bakery in Coaticook, on St-Jean-Baptiste Street. Not having much success in this business, he sold the bakery to Nazaire Girardin in 1886. In the same year, he purchased a farm in Compton but it was not long before large amounts of debt forced him to work in the United States. In 1897, Ménard was able to return to the farm in Compton where he lived until his death on 1 March 1913.