JOSEPH-ADRIEN BOISSONNEAULT
(1913-1989)

 Occupation: miner, ship’s cook, farmer, well driller, dance hall owner

           Adrien was the third youngest of Napoléon and Melia’s children. Born in Saint-Flavien, Lotbinière, 15 May 1913 as most of their children, however, he would spend less time there than the others. 

           As a young lad his parents sent to live with an aunt and uncle near Sherbrooke, Québec, Ludger Roy and his wife Alma, was his mother’s sister. His Uncle Ludger and Aunt Rose Alma Côté did not have children of their own, and often those with large families gave the guardianship of one or more of their children to a family with none.

           Adrien was no stranger to work and was of great help to his uncle, who had a hotel in or near Sherbrooke, Québec. One wonders what the effect of being given to someone else to raise has on any child. His uncle instilled good work ethics in the boy, which would serve him later in life. 

           Adrien married Fernande Côte, a young woman from his birth town, St-Flavien, in Lotbinière, March 6, 1943. Adrien was thirty when he married Fernande Côté, the daughter of Pierre Côté and Marie Auger. He was ten years her senior. The couple were married in Quebec City at Notre Dame Church.

           During their first years of marriage, Adrien and Fernande would work in western Ontario near Delhi picking tobacco. It was a gruelling job, but the pay afforded them to save money for their future. Years later, after settling in Val-Alain, they would leave their young boys in the care of a maiden aunt to make the journey in August harvest tobacco in Western Ontario.

           The young couple moved to Montréal after their marriage, where Adrien could find work. Drawn to the country, they left Montréal and for a time Adrien worked in Thetford Mines in the Asbestos Mines, while the young family lived in St-Remi de Tingwick, near Danville.

           He could put aside enough money to buy a plot of land (100 acres) in Val-Alain, Lotbinière where they built a house of their own, hoping to farm.

           The family continued to grow, forcing Adrien to find work away, returning every few months to see his young family. Meanwhile, his wife, with the help of the young boys, tended the farm.

           For several years, Adrien worked as a cook on an ocean vessel. Each time returning home with seafood, salt cod and other delicacies not available in the small community of Val-Alain.

           At one point, he decided it was time to leave the ship and return to his home, starting a business with his brother Apollinaire “Paul”. For several years, the business worked well, but Adrien was always looking for a new adventure.

           In the 1960s he built and opened a dancehall, which remained successful for several years, also providing work for his wife, several of his son’s and some of the local people in the village. 

           Friday and Saturday night bands played while local young people gathered to enjoy the music, dance and do what young people do. The dance hall also serviced weddings. Adrien and Fernande prepared the celebrations and food, hiring people to help with the prep work and serve to sometimes over one hundred guests. The meal was a full course hot dinner of either chicken or pork with all the fixings. Adrien scouted out the entertainment, often getting well known bands from Quebec to come and play at the dance hall.