many years tracking down countless Roberge family members from both the
USA and Canada. The info & pictures
I chronicle on this site (on
the Napoleon side of the family)
I received from her.
Her Grandparents were Avilor &
Eleanore Roberge. Avilor was a
brother to our Grandma MarieAnne
and Aunt Minnie. Avilor & Eleanore
are pictured on the previous page.
They are interred at Maryville
Cemetery.
on a recent visit to Rugby
to Terry Flaherty (about 1972)
Hello, Terry, This is Virginia Roy. I know your great-uncle Alfred
Dupont, the priest. I was very young, but I remember him very well.
He was a nice old guy. He used to be a missionary with the Indians
when he first became a priest and the Indians they were afraid of
him because he had a black robe. They called him "The Black
Robe." They wanted to kill him. One night the chief was in his tent
and he told one of his huntsmen to get the priest. He was going
to hit him on the head with his tomahawk. Father saw that and
when he came in the door of the tent he saw the man holding the
tomahawk in the air so when he put his arm up he caught the ax
and it broke the head off. They got scared of him because the
material they used for handles was really good stuff. So there was
no man able to break it. They were afraid and started to believe him.
There were lots of miracles that happened while he was there with
those Indians. He had plenty of dogs to eat. Father Dupont was sent
to the northwestern territories with the Indians and he learned the
language quite well. When he first came to Belcourt he started a
sermon and caught himself using Indian words and he'd turn red as
a beet, and excuse himself. We just loved to hear him talk. He was
such a good speaker.
When Father Dupont's mother came to Belcourt, they decided to
take the coffin of the priest and put it on a higher hill and they had a
big chain gate around the priests there. She wanted to see if there
was any robe of the priest left and she ordered the coffin opened.
They opened it and it was all in dust except his right hand - from
his fingertips to his elbow. It was just as natural as when he was
alive.
Father Dillon, an old Irish priest, was assigned to the Sisters
of Mercy. The convent burned down and he was killed. After
that Father Dupont came to Belcourt. He had El Cid, a little
church there, another mission - four altogether. You might think
it impossible to say mass at all four, but he often did in one
Sunday.
Your grandfather, Avilla, was the man that used to drive him around.
He had a team of horses and he used to go to visit the parishioners.
He often had the noon meal and supper and stayed overnight with
them. I remember his team very well. Avilla, my brother, used to put
me on his back and we would go to the creek to water the horses.
That's where I learned to ride horseback - on Father Dupont's little
mare. I do remember Eleanor Dupont. She was a very pretty girl.
I met her when she came with her Dad and Mother to see Father
Dupont. She went back to Minnesota and then my brother went and
got her and they were married. We like her very much. She was a
very smart woman.
My Dad was born in [St. Hyacinthe], Canada, my mother, too. In the
Province of Quebec. They were French Canadians. They moved to
Massachusetts when my Dad (Napoleon) was 14 or 15. My mother
was a little younger. They met there. My dad was working in a shoe
factory when he met his wife. (Virginie Plante)
At first they had a big house - a boarding house. My mother and her
four sisters and their mother boarded about 200 people there. My
dad took over and it was too much for him. Father Malo came over
and he wanted the people to settle the northwest territories. They
got a lot of people to go and the government paid their fare and all
their shipments of furniture to St. John, North Dakota. They stayed
there in the church for a while till they came to Belcourt.
I remember my mother in a little shack with us children and she was
afraid of the Indians. In the bright moonlight the Indians would look
in and she would see them and couldn't sleep a wink.
My dad, there were ten in the family and then my grandmother died
and my grandpa remarried and by that second marriage they had
three children, Solome, Malchide and Pierre. We went to visit
them in Canada.
I also visited my grandpa, too. He was 103 when I saw him.
He was a six-footer in his prime, but I think he was no more than
4 feet when I saw him. He was a nice old man and his mind was
just as clear as a whistle. One night I was with him in a little room
and he was by the stove. He had his rosary in his pocket and he
was saying his rosary most of the time. He stopped and started
to tell me what they used to do when he was a little boy. It was a
reading room and a dining room. There was a long table there.
He was a very fussy man and he wouldn't eat anything from the
- Auntie had to bake his bread and stuff. She had a big
Finally that cat climbed on the table and started to drink that water
from the crystal pitcher and made a little noise. He turned around
and saw that and he goes walking over very slowly and he went
and grabbed the cat by the neck and struck his head in the water
and said, "drink, drink, you want a drink, drink!" The cat was
choking and finally he let him go because I went and told Auntie
and she came running. She took the pitcher away and cleaned it.
Boy, did I laugh! My father had ten in his family. There was Joe
(Napoleon Jr.), Esdras, Elie, Louie* (our Grandpa Louis' Dad [CW]*)
& Fidelem (Felix) He was a nice old man. He stayed with us. He
never married. He went blind about five or six years before he died.
My son used to walk him around with his cane outside.
