1840 THOMAS BRULE’, son of Alexis and Genevieve married ANGELIQUE BRUNET, daughter of JOACHIM BRUNET, in Ottawa Cathedral on 19 October 1840.  His brother Edouard attended the ceremony and later married Zephirine Brunet, daughter of Janvier Brunet.  Recent research by Carol Ann Turner identified the Brunet girls as cousins and found Thomas’ parents and grandparents. Thomas was classified as ‘laborer’ not a blacksmith.  We have no information when Thomas left Rigaud for Ottawa.  Thomas was apparently astute enough to realize this and became a blacksmith as did his son Emery.

1843 Emery Brule’ was born on the fourth of July, 1843, in Bytown, Carlton County, Ontario, Canada.  Today Bytown is knows as Ottawa, but the other place names have not changed.  When Emery married in 1886 he said his father was THOMAS BRULE’ and his mother was SOPHIA CARIERS.  I have never come across the name ‘Cariers.’ 

1851 According to the 1851 census of Canada, Emery’s father Thomas, a blacksmith, was born in Montreal around 1815 (Actually Rigaud, per church records).  Thomas with 8 year-old Emery, 10 year-old Sophie, and 3 year-old Thomas lived in a two-story log house on property which measured 33’ x 99’.  Sophie Burnet, 25, is listed as married and a family member.

Living in the house with Thomas and his wife are Zepphirine Brunet, a 20 year old widow with Heloise Brule’, 4, Evina Brule’, 2 and Theodosia Brule’, age 1.  Zepphirine was Thomas’ brother Edouard’s widow.  He died in 1851 before the census was taken.  Baptismal records show Edouard and Zepphirine had children as follows: Zepherine who was born on 20 March 1848 and baptized on 2 April 1848; Maria Theodosie, baptized 2 January 1852.  Theodosie would die in February or March of 1854. Evina [Hevina?] also died in early February or March 1854. These are not listed as family members.  All were Roman Catholics.

The census apparently lists married women by their maiden names.  Angelique Brunet was also called Sophie.  In the 1851 census she is Sophie Brunet and is shown as 25 thus she was only 14 or 15 when she married Thomas!  Perhaps this wasn’t as surprising for the times as the 20 year old widow who also lived with the family had a 4 year-old child, thus would have married at 15.

My cousin Phyllis (Wiesner) Choura, daughter of Anita (Brule’) Wiesner, wrote in February of 1982 that when her mother turned 65 and applied for Social Security she discovered, in her records that her name was really Sophie Mary!  Sophie Burnet (Angelique) was named as a married family member of Thomas’ household in 1851; we know Thomas named his first daughter Sophie.  Mother told me her father Emery was very fond of his mother, and thus may well have added Sophie to his first daughter’s name.

 1853 Ten years after Emery was born, his brother Edward was born in Ottawa on 10 August 1853.  Grandfather’s sister Josephine is not listed in either the 1851 census or the 1861 census so I cannot estimate her birth year.  I believe I have a date for Josephine’s marriage to Joseph Desislets.  On film LDS #1571038 from Carol Ann Turner, on what appears to be an index card, Joseph and Josephine’s names are listed along with the date of ‘1874 - 6/6.’  Mother recalled the couple lived first in Great Falls, Montana and then in Seattle.  Joseph was much older than Josephine.  He was a skilled piano finisher by profession.  His recipe for furniture care was to wash with Ivory soap, rinse well, follow with vinegar/water rinse, then dry and wax. Their two sons were remembered as Claude, a pharmacist in Portland, Oregon, and Irving.  Mother said her Aunt Josephine had pure white hair and was a nurse.  She was tiny and very meticulous.  Josephine and her son Claude were in Neillsville at the Brule’ home when Dede was born.  By that time Josephine was a widow.  She spoke French as fluently as her brother Emery.

Aunt Dede said when Emery was a young man he played an E flat cornet in the Ottawa City Band.  The King of England was to visit to Ottawa, and the band was to play.  The king disliked the French.  Emery, who was French Canadian, did not want to welcome the king.  He and a like-minded friend intentionally blew their horns ahead of time, and were promptly dismissed from the band.  In a snit, Emery threw the cornet down the well, remarking "Here’s your darn parrot."  What his comment meant I don’t know.  The cornet belonged to the band so I wonder if Emery later fished it from the well.  Emery also said he’d come home late more than once, been locked out, and climbed down the chimney.

1858 Angelique (Sophie) Brule’, Thomas’ wife and the mother of his children, died on 30 Sep 1858.  She was only 40 years old.  Thomas Brule’ married ELMIRE BEDAD on 26 Dec 1858 at St. Paul d’Aylmer Church at Aylmer, Quebec.  Emery would have been about 15, Thomas 10, Edward 5.  In those years men often remarried quickly as, unless willing relatives lived nearby, there was on one to look after the children, and the men needed to work to feed their families.

1861 In the 1861 Canadian census Emery is shown as a 17 year-old blacksmith living with his father and stepmother in a larger house.  The family had moved from a log house to one of frame.  The property measured 53’ x 70’.  Edward was 7; Zirephin who may be Josephine was 5 and Olivia 3, Olivia presumably was the child of Thomas and his wife Elmire.  Ottawa directories for 1861-1862 show Thomas Brule’, a blacksmith; living on St. Patrick Street between Dalhousie and Sussex.

Sophie was the first child to marry.  She wed Joseph Pelletier on 28 August 1861 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa.  Both my mother and Aunt Dede believed the Pelletiers lived in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

 1862 Nineteen year-old Emery Brule’ married Philomene Bachants/Beauchamps at Notre Dame Cathedral on 29 September.

1866 The young couple was shown as living at 45 Clarence in Ottawa in the 1866-1867 Directories per researcher, Jade Belyea.   Emery, like his father, was a blacksmith.  In those directories Thomas Brule’ lived on the north side of Park Street in Ottawa.  I assume this is Emery’s father as Emery’s younger brother Thomas would have been only 18.

Both my mother and Aunt Dede were aware that Emery did not care for his stepmother Elmire.  He was probably anxious to live away from her.

1868-1869 Emery and Philomene left Canada in 1868.  The write-up in the 1881 Clark County history says of Emery "…in 1868 went to Minneapolis, Minn., and afterwards to La Crosse, where he met Mr. Stafford and came up with him to Staffordsville, in 1868; came to Neillsville and started a blacksmith shop, which ran for 9 years, then opened a clothing store."

Emery’s younger brother Thomas married Emma Loguer/Loyer on 23 October 1869 at Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa.

Emery’s uncle Joseph (Eustache) came to Neillsville after Emery settled there.  The families may have been close in early days, but apparently not in later years.

1870 The census for Neillsville shows Emery as a 23 year old blacksmith who was born in Canada West.  Philomene is his 21 year old wife, also born in Canada West.  Real estate: $500; personal estate $150, Emery’s younger brother Edward is not shown, thus I assume he was still in Canada.

Mother said her father was a most patriotic American, and his birth date was quite appropriate for his adopted country.  Emery filed his "Declaration of Intent" to become a citizen on 5 November 1870 with the office of the Neillsville Clerk of Circuit Courts.   However, he, like many others, did not file what were called "second papers" which would have made him eligible for citizenship.  He may well have thought he filed all that was needed to become a citizen of the United States as he definitely believed he was. 

1873-1874 Meanwhile back in Canada; I believe it is Emery’s brother Thomas who appears in the Ottawa city directories as a grocer with a hotel at 128 Sussex in Ottawa.  Mother said her Uncle Tom had a hotel in Ottawa.

1876 Someplace along the way, youngest brother Edward followed Emery to Neillsville.  In 1876 he married Mary Campbell.

1869-1878 Neillsville - the site of Emery’s blacksmith shop during these years.

1880 Emery was in the clothing store business in Neillsville.  He said his store stock was valued at $9,000 and his annual business ws $25,000.  Per the census, 35 year-old Emery ‘keeps clothing store.’  Both his and Philomene’s parents were Canadian-born.

Brother Edward and wife Mary are also in the 1880 Census. They have 3 year-old Hannah L., and one year-old Mary Elizabeth.  I assume Hannah L. was the Leah who married Isaac Stockwell.  Mary Elizabeth (know as Mate) was later the wife of Levy Williamson.  Ida, not born by 1880, eventually was the bride of Dr. Warren Bradbury.  Louis was the Williamson’s only child; the Bradbury children were Mary Elizabeth who married Samuel Groseclose; Robert and Philip.

1883 Businessman Emery was listed in Dun & Bradstreet.  Aunt Dede had a copy of that issue, but loaned it to a friend who lost the volume.  Surprisingly, Dun and Bradstreet records do not go back as far as 1883.

1885 This is the year Philomene and Emery planned and built a new eight room home.  But Philomene, his wife of twenty-three years, died on 24 April.  Whether she died before the house was completed or was too ill to move into the new home or if she actually lived in it at the time of the death we do not know.  We do know some time before August of 1886 when Emery married Margarette "Maggie" McGinnis, he and Richard Dewhurst traded houses.  Emery and his bride would live in the former Dewhurst home.

Almost one hundred years after Emery and Philomene’s home was built it became a museum.

Tufts Museum - Neillsville, Wisconsin

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