Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau
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Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau (May 11, 1848 – November 17, 1923) was a self-taught naturalist and Canadian government official. The city of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, is named after him,[1] as well as this city's history museum building.[2]
He was born in
As a teenager, he spoke fluent French, Montagnais, Naskapi and Inuktitut.[5] In 1859 he was sent to an English school in Trois-Rivières, where he learned to read, write and speak English.
Life and career
In 1860, Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau joined his father in Trinity Bay. His father appointed him, at fourteen, "guardian of the Godbout River". This, one of the 116 salmon rivers in Quebec, is a fishing area, and was then the private property of William Agar Adamson. Comeau retained this position throughout his life. He completed his training through the library. With Ashini Montagnais hunters, he learns the hatch and deepens his knowledge of the fauna and flora.
He worked for 15 years as a
In 1883, he became a telegraph operator in
In 1888, his wife Antoinette died of cancer. Comeau, who had no children from his first marriage, remarried in 1889, marrying his wife's sister, Victoria Labrie, who gave him 12 children.
He was invited by Dr. Stevenson and Dr. Ahearn to stay at the
Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau died on November 17, 1923, in Godbout, where a monument was dedicated to his memory in 1927, with the text: "Humble child of the North, he learned to read with authority in the great book of nature while serving his people and his country." There is a copy of this monument in
Naturalist
From 1882, Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau developed a friendship with naturalists
That same year 1882, he became a member of the
In 1914, he collaborated on a study by the Canadian government on fisheries in the Arctic and the tourism potential of the Hudson Bay. Five years later he helped found the Provancher Society of Natural History.
Works by Comeau
- Comeau, Napoleon A. (1909). Life and sport on the north shore of the lower St. Lawrence and Gulf: containing chapters on salmon fishing, trapping, the folk-lore of the Montagnais Indians and tales of adventure on the fringe of the Labrador Peninsula (1st ed.). Quebec: Daily Telegraph Print. House.
- Comeau, Napoléon A. (1923). Life and sport on the North shore of the lower St. Lawrence and Gulf: containing chapters on salmon fishing, trapping, the folk-lore of the Montagnais Indians and tales of adventure on the fringe of the Labrador Peninsula (2nd ed.). Quebec: Telegraph Printing Company.
Notes
- ^ "Fiche descriptive - Baie-Comeau" (in French). Commission de toponymie du Québec. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Maison du patrimoine Napoléon-Alexandre-Comeau". Ville de Baie-Comeau. Retrieved April 26, 2010.
- ^ "Comeau, Napoléon-Alexandre - Québec" (in French). Grandquebec.com. 2007-01-15. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ a b "Zone Radio - De remarquables oubliés" (in French). Radio-Canada. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
- ^ "Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau". Histoires oubliées. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
- ^ "Ces gens qui ont marqué notre histoire: Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau « Patrimoine, Histoire et multimédia" (in French). Tolkien2008.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2010-04-26.
General references
- Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
- Réjean Beaudin, « Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau. Le héros légendaire de la Côte-Nord », Editions XYZ, collection Les grandes figures, Montréal, February 16, 2006 ISBN 978-2-89261-459-6
- Victor-Alphonse Huard, Labrador et Anticosti, C.-O. Beauchemin & Fils, Montréal, 1897.
- Revue d’histoire de la Côte-Nord, no 25-26, 1997.
- Pauline L. Boileau, La Côte-Nord contre vents et marées Septentrion.
- Yves Thériault, « Roi de la Côte-Nord (La vie extraordinaire de Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau) », Éditions de l’homme, 1960.