5. Vital Arsenault

Vital Arsenault, son of Eustache Arsenault and Marguerite Poirier, was born on 28 September 1822. On 23 January 1842, he married Natalie Barriault from Maximeville, daughter of Jean-Charles Barriault and Marguerite Robichaud. Born in Saint-Louis-de-Kent N.B., on 16 June 1820, she was a first cousin of Mgr. Marcel-Frangois Richard, a well-known Acadian nationalist, who is remembered as the one who designed the Acadian flag. Sometime after her mother's death in 1829, Natalie moved to the Island with her father, brothers and sisters.

A few years after their marriage, Vital and Natalie settled in the "The Portage" (Urbainville) in Lot 16 where they became tenants by signing a 99 year lease with an absentee proprietor. By the 1861 census, they had used 17 years of their lease.

There once was in Urbainville, a small public road called "l'allée a Vital" (Vital's lane) which connected Routes 124 and 125. Not so long ago that old road was still used as a path on Alyre C. Arsenault's farm. Nearby there was also a spring called "la source a Vital" which is mentioned in a little song collected from Mrs. Obéline DesRoches of Miscouche. The ditty doesn't give a flattering picture of Natalie who, according to tradition, was not a very clean women. She made beer, says the song, but no one would drink it!

Natalie boudaingne Va-t-en faire ton train, Le soleil est tout bas Vital t'aidera pas.

A la source a Vital

Le monde va y boire, Natalie fait de la biére Personne veut la boire.

Between 1861 and 1881, Vital abandoned the land he had cleared in Urbainville and moved to Maximeville. He moved into his father-in-law's farmhouse, Jean-Charles Barriault.

Natalie gave birth to two girls, who died in infancy, and eight boys, four of whom married. Vital and Natalie spent their older years with their son Damien in Maximeville. Vital died in March 1895 (buried on the 29th), while his wife died at the age of 93 in February 1913 (buried on the 23rd). Aunt Matilda Richard remembers well her great grandmother Natalie who lived across the road: "She often came to visit us after we had moved into our new home. I remember that my mother would say: Here comes Grandma Natalie! She would then go out to meet her because she was quite old. She lived at my grandfather Damien's place. She had her own room there."

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