Wilfred passed away in 1936 and Matilda in 1949. Their father, Albert, died in 1968 followed by his wife, Helen, in 1974.

Aime married Irene and had three sons: Brian, Gary and Warren. Pete and his wife Elizabeth also had three children: Helen, Lucille, and Robert.

Aime and Irene still live in St. Catherines, On- tano.

LOUIS CONAN

I was born in Brittany (Bretagne), France, on March 17, 1895. My family was relatively well-off, so in 1912 my mother gave me some money and I came to Canada to visit my brother, Joseph, who had a homestead near Fisher Branch. I traveled to Quebec, Winnipeg, Arborg and made the last leg of the trip by foot, through swamps. I had met Sam Claimant in Arborg and he knew my brother who only lived two miles from Sam’s place. We started walking towards Fisher Branch but it had snowed and that made the going tough. Sam had overshoes but I wore leather shoes. I kept slipping backwards on the ice. I had a hard time walking that day.

Mr. Louis Conan 81:, 1950.

The first job I had was working for Felix Hebert of Broad Valley. He asked me to help him out a road through the bush. I walked eight miles there and back every day. We cut poplar trees. The road was two feet wide and the job lasted two weeks.

During the first winter, I was busy cutting logs for

liti-

lumber to build a new house to replace the shack we were living in. We cut spruce trees and took them to Bouvier‘s sawmill. In 1913 we built that house. It was finished after the war.

I visited Saskatchewan. In September, 1914, my brother, Joseph, went to war and in October, I went to war. I was sent to France. During the war I received one cent a day as wages and during five years I earned nineteen dollars and twenty cents. In 1917 I married Angelique Moisan. We returned in 1919 and my wife and I traveled all the way to Fisher Branch by train. The tracks had been built while I was away. My brother, Joseph, never returned from the war. I took up his homestead and cleared it all by hand. Those were hard times.

I bought my first car in 1926. To go to Winnipeg, I had to go through Arborg, Hnausa, Winnipeg Beach and finally, to Winnipeg. Of what I know, Alcide Gamache had the first car in Fisher Branch. I couldn’t afford to buy a car earlier, many things were needed before I bought that Chevrolet. Ever since then, I stuck to Chevrolet.

When I first came here, thick bush occupied most of the homestead. I would cut cordwood all winter and sell it for seventy-five cents a cord. Then in the spring, I would burn the stumps and small bush.

At first I had oxen, but I didn’t keep them very long. I bought horses to replace them. I lost a crop because of the frost, but apart from that, crops were good.

I built an icehousc to keep some of our supplies cool during the summer. During the winter, I would cut blocks of ice and stack them in the icehouse. These blocks of ice were covered with sawdust, the sawdust prevented the blocks from melting during the summer. Cream, milk, butter and fresh meat were kept in this icehouse. Fresh meat was easily ob« tained. Deer could be shot close to the house.

Groceries were bought in Bouviile. This was the name given to the store and postoffice owned by Bouvier. Sometimes I went to Vidir to get supplies. Once, on the way back, the wagon got stuck in the mud. I had to unload the wagon and put the supplies on a piece of dry land. Then I hitched the oxen to the wagon by means of a long chain. I had to repeat this many times. That day I made two miles.

We would send our children to Bartlett School which was just half a mile south of the fann. It was much closer than sending the children to Dumoulin School. At times there were forty kids going to that school, but usually there were around twenty-five school children. .

On Sundays we’d have picnics and play hardball. There were teams from everywhere. These picnics were held at different places each Sunday, sometimes