10. Léon and Marie Arsenault

and he was wearing it when they arrived home. Mémé was quite impressed, she could not have done a better job herself! Mom was not very old at the time, maybe twelve years old.

As we have seen, Léon spent little time in school but on the other hand, he learned much working beside his father on the farm. In fact, his father must have depended on him heavily as he was the only boy in the family for fourteen years, that is until his brother Camille was born. That same year, Léon turned to lobster fishing, an industry introduced in the area around 1880 and which was attracting many young men. Hence was born a family tradition which is now over one hundred years old. Léon himself fished until he was 85 years old!

Like many young Islanders of his time, Léon spent a few winters working as a lumberjack in the woods of Maine. He often recalled how those shanties were infested with fat healthy lice. For entertainment, the men sometimes caught them and made them jump on the hot stove!

Léon and Marie were both 20 years old when they were married on 16 April 1901 by Father Stanislas Boudreault. Their attendants were Marie's brother, Rémi Arsenault, and Léon's sister, Obéline Arsenault.

The young couple spent the first years of their married life with Léon's parents, Damien and Emilie Arsenault. In 1901, that household also included Léon's sisters Dina, Obéline, Angéline and Joséphine, his brother Camille and his grandmother Natalie (Damien's mother) who was 80 years old at the time.

The first six children of the Léon and Marie family were born at their grandparents home. Around 1910, Léon and Marie, who had planned to build their own house, finally decided instead to buy one. The house belonged to Marie's aunt and uncle, Madeleine and Pierre Pitre, who left Maximeville and moved to the area near the parish church. The experience of moving into this house, located on the other side of the road not far from Damien's home, constitutes one of Aunt Matilda Richard's earliest memories:

I remember the day that we moved out of my grandfather's home and into our house which was located across from the old school house. It was a very cold day, and we used a sleigh to haul wood to move our belonging to the house. I was sitting holding a big loaf of bread on my lap. They had made some bread and I was bringing that for our supper. I was four years old. It must have been in 1910. My father had bought Pierre Pitre's house. It was not well finished; some parts were not very fancy.

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