Accessing the historical experience of Franco-American women is not an instantly easy task, at least if we rely on written records. Many types of documents were, at their inception, purposefully gendered. The cult of domesticity, limited access to education, and entrenched barriers in the shaping of social narratives combined to conceal women’s lives.

In addition, a blog that devotes as much attention to politics (in one form or another) as mine will often fail to make explicit the extensive domestic labor—and many suppressed ambitions—that made men’s political involvement possible. A year ago, in the spirit of addressing this imbalance, I shared some of the fruitful research on Franco-American women and gender that has emerged in the last two decades.

When it comes to Franco women’s own writing, we also have access to valuable leads. In an overview of the Franco-American press and its history published in 1911, Alexandre Belisle devoted a full chapter to female journalists. Granted, this chapter is a rather short part of the book, but the acknowledgment of women’s contribution to U.S. journalism in this era is in itself noteworthy. Belisle’s work highlights the tension that existed between the pursuit of a literary career, family responsibilities, and in some cases the need to seek remuneration elsewhere.

I offer below a lengthy excerpt of that chapter, which I believe to be translated for the first time. I have followed the quirky French phrasing while also eliminating redundancies.

---

Among French-Canadian publications in the United States there was one unlike any other. This was a paper dedicated specifically to women; it was published and edited by Ms. Virginie Authier in Cohoes, N.Y., and was titled Journal des Dames. Ms. Authier came from a family of journalists and printers. She had three brothers who worked in newspapers, of which the oldest, Misaël, later published La Patrie Nouvelle in Cohoes and L’Espérance in Central Falls, R.I. Afterwards he entered the U.S. consular service . . . [1]

Ms. Authier was born in Saint-Hilaire on August 31, 1849 to Louis-G. Authier and H. Guertin. She studied at the Holy Names Convent in Saint-Hilaire, where she shined by her talent, her love of study, and her interest in literature.

In 1872, Ms. Authier followed her family to the United States. She first resided in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she took part in nascent parish activities. The Authier family was always at the forefront when it came to theatrical, musical, and other events benefitting the first Canadian parish of Worcester, which Father Primeau had just founded.

In October 1874, the Authier family left Worcester and settled in Cohoes. It was in this city that Ms. Authier began to plan the publication of a newspaper devoted specifically to women’s interests. The Journal des Dames, a weekly, appeared in September 1875 and survived a little under six months. Lack of support undoubtedly forced Ms. Authier to abandon her generous endeavor. In 1880, she married the attorney Eugène Desrosiers in Cohoes. She died there in 1899.

Ms. Yvonne Lemaître is a woman of letters who has written in both French and English. Recently, she has written in English only while working for a Lowell newspaper. Still, as she started in journalism with L’Etoile and then wrote a great deal in another French newspaper in Lowell, the now-defunct Franco-Américain, she must have a place in this biographical gallery.

Ms. Lemaître was born in Pierreville, Quebec. Residing in the United States since the age of ten, she has only been educated in public schools. Her initial education was exclusively in English. Ms. Lemaître claims to be a mediocre writer in the French language. But from reading her columns, we would never think that she has had no instruction in French. She has talent and the rare quality of bettering herself in our tongue. She has learned to write correctly and to master the challenges of our language by studying the best French-language authors.

She started at L’Etoile in 1902 with columns that were noticed and reproduced in other newspapers. In 1904, she joined the editorial team of Lowell’s Courier-Citizen. The following year, 1905, she travelled to Europe, visiting Paris (where she stayed for a time) and then Germany and Holland. At the same time she was sending travel accounts to the Courier-Citizen. In 1908, she travelled to England and Scotland and sent again, to the same newspaper, her notes. Upon returning from this trip, she wrote French-language columns for the Franco-Américain, a paper then published in Lowell.

After seven years with the Courier-Citizen, Ms. Lemaître resigned in order to accept a place of honor and public confidence in the field of English letters. In May 1911, she went to Paris to become the correspondent of certain large American papers with literary vocations, including the Boston Transcript.

When she left Lowell for the City of Light, Ms. Lemaître received generous commendation on the part of the press . . . In the Courier-Citizen, the editor, Mr. Marden, wrote: “Readers of the Courier-Citizen no less than the staff will be sorry to see Ms. Yvonne Lemaître leave the writing team. Ms. Lemaître, who intends to settle in Paris, has been a regular contributor to these pages over the course of years, first taking charge of Franco-American news, and then providing numerous articles relating specifically to French literature and artistic subjects in a joyful and captivating tone. It is a pleasure to attest to the editors’ appreciation for this admirable body of work—appreciation also fully felt, I am sure, by all Courier-Citizen readers.”

To close this short sketch, let us note that Ms. Lemaître is a first cousin of Charles Gill of Montreal, the famous Canadian poet.[2]

Mrs. Leroux of Providence, better known in the literary world under the pen name Blanche-Yvonne, is a woman of letters of great talent, as we see from the columns that she has been publishing in L’Opinion Publique. She was born in Saint-Urbain, in Châteauguay County, Quebec, in 1876, but she has spent the better part of her life in Saint-Lambert, which she left in 1898 to settle in Providence, R.I.

Her father was Dr. L.-A.-H. Héroux and he practiced in Louisiana and in the counties of Jacques-Cartier and Champlain in Canada. Her father’s side of the family comes from Yamachiche . . . Her mother is from the county of Chambly; her name was Léda Bétournay. Her family is one of the oldest in this county . . .

Blanche-Yvonne’s mother was her first instructor and to her she owes her taste for literature and history. At the age of twelve she became a boarder at the Villa-Maria Convent in Montreal. She left at age fourteen and a half.

Blanche-Yvonne’s career as a columnist only began in 1905. This was a particularly painful year for her and a close friend recommended distracting herself from grief by putting pen to paper . . . This friend was well-justified in leading to the art of writing a young woman so gifted in the qualities that makes a good author: originality in thought, an abundant and alert style, and a knack for pleasing. She was first a collaborator at the Jean-Baptiste, where she developed her skills. Then she worked for the Courrier de Montmagny. She also wrote for the Journal de

Françoise, a woman’s paper published in Montreal, well-known in its day but no longer extant. She also wrote for the Réveil of Manchester, N.H., L’Indépendant of Fall River, the Tourist of Rivière-du-Loup, and so on. Nowadays she is a regular contributor to L’Opinion publique.

Blanche-Yvonne’s reputation earned her admission to the Rhode Island Short Story Club, a female and feminist group to which are admitted only those who make a living of their pen. She is also a corresponding member of the Paris society of “Mussettistes,” of which Mr. Magne, dean of the Comédie Française, is president.

Ms. Camille Lessard, an associate of the editorial team of Le Messager, in Lewiston, Maine, and a columnist who signs “Liane,” was born in Sainte-Julie in Megantic County, Quebec, on August 1, 1883, the daughter of Pierre Lessard and Marie Fortier. She is the eldest of seven siblings. She was educated at the school of her village and at age sixteen she was certified for elementary education. She taught for three years. In the spring of 1904, she emigrated to the United States with her family and they settled in Lewiston. She worked for four years in textile mills.

Once, Ms. Lessard read in Le Messager a humorous article and decided to reply. The paper’s owner, Mr. Joseph-B. Couture, having discovered the author of the response, asked her to keep using her spirit and skill as a writer for the benefit of his readers. She wrote two short tales for the paper. She was warmly congratulated.

The start of Ms. Lessard’s literary career was laborious and difficult. She had to face the necessities of life while committing herself to her love of writing. She explains it all in a letter to the present author. Here is an excerpt:

“Encouragement given to my first piece emboldened me and I put myself to work; at night, on returning from the factory, I spent hours writing, striking out, and adding. The task was difficult and, when I re-read my work today, how many faults I find! No one to guide me, too poor to pursue my education or acquire books that might have helped me: I was at the mercy of my imagination and the inspiration in my little mind. Very often my tender wings closed and my poor pen broke against the table yet, in spite of it all, encouragement here and there stimulated me and I continued to write, without remuneration, simply for the pleasure of writing . . . Challenges? By God’s grace, the struggles of life, often terrible, can leave an impression on the soul that never leaves.”

Ms. Lessard had been writing a weekly column in Le Messager for two years when Mr. Couture offered her an editorial position. For three years now she has served in that capacity . . . [S]he has her own column on Wednesdays, and it is partly thanks to her that Le Messager is the only French-Canadian newspaper in the U.S. that publishes—not unlike the great dailies of Canada—a page entirely for women, titled “Chez Nous.”

In January 1910, Ms. Lessard took part in a public discussion in support of women’s suffrage. This is not to say that she was a “suffragette.” But she was asked to develop this position as part of a literary debate and she came out of it with success . . .[3]

Mrs. Alexandre Belisle, of Worcester, is a woman whose cultured spirit and happy disposition are known to a close-knit group of friends. Mrs. Belisle has never sought fame; on the contrary, her tastes naturally incline her to domestic life, to the calm existence of the home . . . She was born in Saint-Pie, in the County of Bagot, in 1854, the daughter of Narcisse Boulay and Hedwidge Laviolette. She studied in Fraserville and with the Ursulines in Quebec City. In 1875, she was the organist at the church of Notre-Dame-des-Canadiens in Worcester. For several years, under the pen name “Marguerite,” she wrote a weekly column and a musical review in L’Opinion Publique. She was part of a musical family, the seven Boulay sisters, that was known from Montreal to the Lower St. Lawrence some forty years ago. She has been not only an accomplished woman in letters and arts, but also a devoted wife, a mother worthy of that name who raised a large family and often had her heart broken by the loss of a child. A true Christian woman, she has always faced the challenges brought to her by God with courage, accepting the designs of Providence with the strong faith characteristic of French-Canadian mothers.

Mrs. Anna-M. Duval-Thibault, wife of Mr. Onésime Thibault, the general manager of L’Indépendant in Fall River, was born in Montreal on July 15, 1862. Her parents settled in Troy when she was only three. She attended parochial and public schools and then studied to be a teacher. From an early age she read with interest the great French classics and L’Indépendant printed many of her literary works, both poetry and prose. She married Mr. Onésime Thibault . . . on September 10, 1888. To this marriage were born eight children of which five survive. She is the author of Les Deux Testaments, which first appeared serially in L’Indépendant and then separately in 1889.[4] In 1892, she published Les Fleurs du Printemps, a collection of poems of 250 pages. Mrs. Duval-Thibault is a distinguished writer with an elegant style and a lively imagination.

---

[1] Misaël Authier was a committed Republican who rivaled Benjamin Lenthier for influence in the Franco-American press in the 1890s.

[2] For more on LeMaître, see Michel Lacroix and Nadia Zurek’s article in Recherches féministes. Zurek has authored a thesis on LeMaître’s body of work.

[3] Belisle’s profile of Lessard reflects the prejudices of the time regarding women’s political engagement and erases Lessard’s heartfelt convictions. Rhea Côté Robbins has written about Camille Lessard Bissonnette in anticipation of the women’s national suffrage bicentennial. Janet Shideler has penned a longer work on Lessard’s life and writing.

[4] Like Lessard’s Canuck, Les Deux Testaments was reissued by the National Materials Development Center at the turn of the 1980s. Duval-Thibault saw her novel as a reflection of French-Canadian customs when sophisticated literature was often imported from France and had little relation to the way of life in French America. Her work, of course, would feature the right mores as well as a higher moral standard.