A pioneer of Western Canada who contributed greatly to the development of the Northwest Territories, my father, Gratien Ouellet, was the eldest son of Jean-Baptist Ouellet and Josephine Miville-Deschênes. He was born in Rivière Ouelle, Quebec, on the eighteenth of November 1887.
In 1910, at the age of 23, planning to join the Oblate missionaries, he gave up his birthright by going to Montreal to enter the Oblates. After completing several months as a postulant, he decided, upon consultation, to leave, as it was determined not to be his calling.
Left without lodging, he decided to go West. Having only two years of primary school and with a bilingual dictionary in his possession, he set out on what would be a life of adventure.
He obtained a quarter-section of land one hundred miles north of Edmonton. After having cleared the land, he sold it as he had been hired to work in construction, building boats under Captain Matheson. Navigation on the North Saskatchewan was very much alive at the time.
It was in 1915 while working in boat-building that he came in contact with Oblate Bishop Gabriel Breynat of the District of Mackenzie as the Diocese of Mackenzie-Ft. Smith was then known. The bishop had come to Edmonton looking for a carpenter to help the Oblate brothers in many projected constructions in the Mackenzie area.
Among the notes I gathered from the Oblate Archives in the Provincial Archives of Alberta were the following:
Bishop Breynat was looking for a carpenter to help the Oblate Brothers in many projected constructions. His meeting with Gratien was a godsend. A good carpenter and a kind and devoted man, Gratien would have no difficulty adjusting to missionary life.
In July 1915, Gratien arrived at Fort Resolution. A year later, he was sent to Fort Simpson to build the first hospital along the Mackenzie River. It was there that he was called for military service in 1918. The mission’s diary records: “It is not without regret that we see Mr. Ouellet go away. He leaves among us the memory of an honest man, a skillful and diligent carpenter.”
Gratien was back in Edmonton in 1919; that same year, he married Rose-Alma Blanchard. He stayed a couple of years in Edmonton, building boats with Captain Matheson, which proved to be a very valuable experience for him later when he was called upon to build many types of seacraft either for the missions or the native people.
The Ouellets’ first child, Josephine was born in Edmonton in 1920. In 1923, Gratien went back to the Mackenzie diocese in the Northwest Territories. He built St. Alphonsus church at Fort Smith. From 1924 to 1925, he designed the plan and built St. Joseph church at Fort Resolution. His wife and daughter joined him there in 1924. Their second daughter Thérèse was born therein 1926.
They left shortly after for FortRae, where St. Michael church was built from 1926 to 1927. Alberta, their third daughter, was born there in 1927.
In the spring of 1928, the family moved to Fort Resolution. Gratien was given the job of renovating the sawmill of the mission. The sea craft, The Northlander Trader, had been wrecked on Loutit Island the previous fall. Gratien, assisted by Mr. Durocher, the mechanic of Dr. Bourget, and Fred Bennett, retrieved the boiler from the wreckage and installed it in the sawmill. “Super job!,” writes Father Mansoz, superior, “A new sawmill we have, and it will run most effectively.”
Gratien was then transferred to Fort Providence, where, from1929 to 1930, he helped some of the major church structures. Lucia, the Ouellet’s fourth daughter, was joyfully born there in 1931.
From 1930 to 1931, Gratien built the second hospital, St. Margaret, at Fort Simpson. In1933, Marie Anne Louise was born in Fort Resolution. The following year, Gratien and his family were at Fort Smith where an extension was added to St. Ann Hospital. From there, he went to Fort Chipewyan to help Oblate Brother Lecuyer build an ice house.
In all these constructions, Gratien always had a number of helpers under his direction: brothers, laymen, natives and non-natives. He enjoyed sailing by boat in summer; by sled, in winter.
How many hours he must have spent producing games and toys for the children, helping with bazaars and other social activities. He had the knack and the skill of making tools to fabricate things: caulking irons, two feet-long tin shears, came out of his hand as if mechanically made. A first-class craftsman and blacksmith, he fixed numerous guns for the residents of Fort Resolution.
In 1936, he finally retired at LacLa Biche, and later in Edmonton, where both Gratien and Rose-Alma died in the early sixties.
Marie Ouellet and Alberta Ouellet-Boileau are daughters of the lateGratien and Rose-Alma Ouellet.
