Le Courant

Do you know Menard Road in Barnston? It was named after the Menard family who lived there for more than a century. Here is the story of Pierre Menard who led this family to our region.
Pierre Menard was born in Fairfax, Vermont on the 1 3th of July 1829. He spent his youth in the United States before moving to Contrecoeur in the early 1850's. He married Marceline Blan¬chette in 1856 and they had the following chil-dren: Joseph, Zoe, Perpetue, Elizabeth, Angelina, Catherine and Pierre-Louis.
They moved to Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de-Rouville in 1865 and thon ta Saint- Antoine-sur-Richelieu in 1867. Pierre finally ended up in Compton in the summer of 1872. He bought Mr Josephus Rugg's farm for 2 500$. This farm was located in what is now known as Grenier Road. Pierre Menard lo¬ved to do business and was always looking for a good deal. One day, he bought the land of Calvin Drown in Barford who could no longer afford it. He got it for the balance of Drown's payment thon sold it back four years later with a good profit. Besides being a former, Pierre Menard made sure he had time for his horses. Raising horses made him happy. He even took part in a few races at the Coaticook Driving Park. Everything was fine until his wife passed away in November 1877.

He thon sold his Compton farm to Hyppolite Beaudin and thought of going West to Manito¬ba. But he met a widow of East Clifton: Christine Pelletier. They got married and settled on Chris¬tine's farm where there son Rodolphe was born in 1881. Rodolphe later became the head coach and manager of the Barnston baseball club.
In November 1882, Pierre Menard bought George Rivard's bakery witch was located on St¬ Jean-Baptiste Street in Coaticook. He needed mo¬ney to make the transaction. Ten people owed him a total amount of 460.77$. Since he could not wait for each payment, he sold these promissory notes to James Mullins of Barford for 414.70$. Mullins would make a profit and Menard got the clown payment he needed. The bakery was not as good as he had thought. He ran into a series of financial troubles and he even lost a new born son. The bakery was finally sold to Nazaire Girar¬din on April 3'd 1886. Pierre Menard came out of this venture at age 56 without any money. But yet he had to feed his family. Pierre Menard found a good place to live in the 3'd range of Barnston. He acquired the farm of a certain Pierre Goulet also known as Peter Gooley on the 21't day of April 1886. Since he had no money, he got a mortgage agre"rnerrf with Ralph T. Spalding, a former of compton. This is the farm the Menard family lived for four generations. Pierre Menard needed money just to get by. He had to borrow money from different people such as Casius N. Remick who owned a general store and was post master in Barnston.

In 1888, Menard was on the brink of looking his farm., He had to do something to fix his debts. On Saturday November 3'd 1888 he auctioned off everything he had but the farm. Edwin Howe of Hatley took charge of the auction. Èi"o. Me¬nord moved his family to Holyoke, Massachuset ta work at a wool factory (Connor Brothers). He came back to his farm only in 1897 to live there until his death on March l't 1913.