ARCADE CÔTÉ (1852-1932)

           ​​Arcade Côté was one of seven brothers and two sisters. His parents François and Marie-Émilie Monfet(te) were both from county of Lotbinière as were their forefathers. Arcade was one of the middle children born March 12, 1852. 

         ​​Arcade married Marie Therrien April 18 1872 in Saint-Apollinaire, Lotbinière, Québec and the couple had nine of their own children all born in Saint-Apollinaire; Émélie, Arthur, Arcade, anonyme, Wilfred, Jean, Marie-Alma, Marie-Louise and Ovide.

           ​​Shortly after the birth of Ovide in 1896 and 1901, the family moved from Lotbinière to Sherbrooke, Estrie, Québec. Sherbrooke was experiencing growth because of industrialisation and farms were becoming less and less available to the sons of the large families of French Canadians. Arcade, as a labourer, could find permanent work in the expanding economy of the Sherbrooke area and could have provided a better life for his large family. He and Marie would remain in that area until their death.

           ​​This migration would have also opened up opportunities for his children during in the period of industrialisation and offer them a way of life much different from farming.

           ​​Many of the family got involved in the hotel business, in particular his son Johny Côté, who would own a prestigious resort on

           ​​In 1921, the couple was living in the north end of Sherbrooke on Queen Street. Both are sixty-nine years of age and Arcade is still working as a labourer, earning $750 per year. 

Notes: Arcade’s younger brother would marry Marie-Vitaline Boissonneault, sister of Napoleon, and daughter of François, further connecting the Boissonneault and the Côté families. Also, one son of Mélia Côté, (married to Napoleon Boissonneault), would be taken-in by her youngest sister, Marie-Alma. Alma died prematurely, as did her husband Ludger Roy, when the boy was still young and he would have been returned to his parents at this point.