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Curé Labelle at Grenville Surrounded by Some of His Beloved Colonists

Black & white photograph of a group of around twenty people on the porch of a wooden house. In the centre of the group, Curé Labelle, a heavy-set man wearing a cassock, is seated in a chair. At right, on the ground in front of the porch, is a large birchbark canoe.

Photographer: Unknown
Date: Around 1890
Source: Société d’histoire de la Rivière-du-Nord, Michel Sauvé collection
Reference no.: P013,P02

Antoine Labelle saw the long hours he spent at his desk in the legislature in Quebec City as a necessary sacrifice for the good of his country. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, though, he would return home to engage in one of his favourite activities: travelling in the Northern Townships. This photograph shows him on what was surely one of his last such expeditions, a trip to Chute-aux-Iroquois (today the city of Labelle). Settlers were always delighted to welcome back their curé, and came in large numbers to greet him.