Person:Godfroi Rainville (1)

For twenty years following their marriage, they lived in many places. Initially, they rented a farm at St. Gregoire. In 1870, they moved to Stukely and purchased a homestead next to the farm of Godfrey’s brother, Pierre. One winter, they moved to a town called Magog, Quebec where there was a tannery and sawmill. Godfrey sold bark to the tannery but did not make as much money as he had hoped. He was trying to make money to build a frame house like his brother, Pierre. In the spring, they returned to Stukely. Godfrey then went to work in California where his brother, Joseph, was living. While he was in California, Nathalie and the children went to live on a farm, near the farm of her father, Etienne Laporte, at St. Gregoire. While Godfrey was in California, Nathalie had her right shoulder crushed when a cow fell on her. That was in 1879 and she never regained full movement of her shoulder. She found the going hard after this accident. . Nathalie's sister lived in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. In 1880, Nathalie and the children moved to Woonsocket at the invitation of her sister, so Napolean and Midas could work in the textile factories. Wages were good in the factories. Godfrey could not stand the heat in California and joined them in Woonsocket. From Woonsocket, they moved to Gardner, Massachusetts, where his sister, Emily, lived. They had been saving their money to go to western Canada for two years. In 1884, Godfrey journeyed alone to the west. He went past Stukely to pick up the money from the sale of their farm. His brother, Pierre, had sold it for them. On his way to what was then called Assiniboia he looked over some land in what is now known as Manitoba. The soil was a sticky clay and he did not like it. He continued on, and at Whitewood, he met several people who praised the Qu’Appelle Valley to the north. He went north from Whitewood to the Qu'Appelle Valley, where he settled on a homestead in the Cotham District. He was joined by his oldest son, Napolean, in May, 1885. During the third week in June 1885, Nathalie and the children began their journey to the west. They travelled from Gardner, Massachusetts to Montreal by train. In Montreal, they boarded the immigrant train that would take them to Lake Superior. At Lake Superior, they boarded a boat (“Athabaska) and spent two days and two nights on the lake. The bunks were bare and hard. Upon arrival in Winnipeg, they boarded another train for Whitewood. This train was more comfortable. It had soft spring cushions. They arrived in Whitewood at 1:00 am on July 1, 1885. Nathalie was upset to have to spend the night in the station with a couple of rough and tough looking settlers. They had knives stuck in their belts. When the station agent left, they locked the door and put out the lights. Nathalie feared for their safety and she and the children went to the bathroom and climbed out the window. They found a boarding house that took them in for the rest of the night. Word was sent to Godfrey and Napolean at Cotham and they came to pick them up. It was an all day journey to travel the 20 mites from Cotham to Whitewood with a team of oxen. They lived in Cotham less than ten years. In 1893, they moved to a farm near Wolseley (Ellisboro). Nathalie died in 1909 and Godfrey in 1910. They are both buried in the old Catholic cemetery just south of the Trans Canada Highway at Wolseley.