Page 7 - Fortier Family History

Introduction Some of my earliest memories as a small boy growing up in Wheaton, IL in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s are of the old black and white photos my mom would show me whenever I asked her about our family in Canada. There was something “exotic” and “adventurous” and “unique” about being from another country, albeit one relatively near and similar to the United States. When I was a child my mom still spoke fluent French when she phoned our Bigaouette grandparents, “Po-Po” and “Mo-Mo” in Montreal. Their actual names were Alphonse Bigaouette and Alice Larue Bigaouette. I vividly remember when they came to visit us while we were still living in the “child city” known as Mooseheart, IL. Mooseheart was founded by the Loyal Order of the Moose in 1912, and is located about 40 miles west of Chicago on the banks of the Fox River, surrounded by fertile farmland and thick woods of oak. In 1961, my father Walter Richard Fortier joined his local Moose Lodge #1366 in Beardmore, Ontario, at the age of 21. Many decades later I asked my mom why he joined and she explained that in the 1960s there was no nightlife in Beardmore, not even a movie house. The one exception was the local Moose Lodge, which sponsored dances every weekend, and that is why he joined. I highly doubt he knew anything about the history of the Loyal Order of the Moose. Years later I did some research and wasn’t too shocked to discover that beyond the obvious “total whitewash” of its earliest founders, members, and children; Mooseheart was embroiled in controversy in the 1950s when it was alleged by a pediatrician conducting a longitudinal study of children’s growth at Mooseheart that the board of directors ordered the study to prove the superiority of the white race. I suppose it was a good thing they did not ask Walter too many personal questions because I doubt they would have let him join back in 1961 if they knew he was “part Indian.” It is with sweet irony then, that today most of the children living at Mooseheart are from non-white “minority” families. Most of our family members already know the basic history regarding our move to the United States. In 1963 Walter was employed by James Martin, a pulpwood contractor based in Nipigon, Ontario on the north shore of Lake Superior. He died on September 27, 1963 after being struck by a felled tree while working in Cameron Falls, Ontario, not far from Nipigon, where I was born and where we lived at the time. We lived at 331 Churchhill Street to be exact. Our dad and mom, Henriette Bigaouette Fortier were only 24 years-old at the time. I turned one the day he died. Walter was supporting his young family of five kids on the meager earnings of a pulpwood cutter working in the “bush.” No wonder he and my mom looked forward to their Moose Lodge dancing on the weekends. So, as a little boy in Illinois I recall telling new friends that my dad died working as a lumberjack in Canada and that we were “French Canadian.” My siblings and I took a lot of pride in that proclamation, “we are French Canadian!” I still have the original local newspaper with my dad’s picture and his obituary. They got a few facts wrong. I’ve since corrected them. I remember my mom used to show me a picture of him in his casket. We lost that photo over time, but the image is still seared in my memory. We also used to have the original local Nipigon newspaper article from when we left on September 27, 1964. It was exactly one year to the day after Walter died. The article made a big deal of the Beardmore Moose Lodge sponsoring our move to Mooseheart. It also included a photo of our family, with me in my mom’s arms and a birthday cake presented to me by the mayor of Nipigon to celebrate my second birthday. I’ve spent years on and off searching for another copy of it. In 1990 the Nipigon Museum