Pierre Rajotte

  General Notes:

Special thanks to Jack Rajotte for his contributions of information to the Rajotte family line.

Pierre Rajotte was the sixth child of the seven known children of
Joseph and Francoise (Pisane) Rajotte, Jacque-4, Francois-3, Gilles-2,
Isaac-1. He was born in Sorel, Quebec in 1815 and his actual birth record
may be among the few that were not recorded with a name, so we may never
know the actual date. Pierre married Basilice Cournoyer at St-Pierre-de-
Sorel on November 6,1838. Basilice was the daughter of Joseph and Louise
(Cardin) Cournoyer, and was born in Sorel on August 5,1816. Pierre was a
farmer and had a farm on the I'le de Grace that is in the parish of
Ste-Anne-de-Sorel. This island is one of the many Sorel islands in the
delta formed by the sedimentary deposits of the Saint Lawrence River
as it is checked in it's course by the slower waters of Lac St-Pierre.
It is located on the north of the river's main channel, about 3 to 4
miles below the shore of Ste-Anne's church.
Over one hundred years ago this island used to provide a prosperous
living to the many farmers who established there. During this period,
the water regulating power of the Saint Lawrence valley forests was
decreasing with the recession of the forest itself, under the axe of
the new settlers and lumber traders. Thus, the spring season was one of
watch and worry for these island farmers as the spring thaws often
brought disastrous floods with fast flowing currents and ram battering
ice flows unmercifully sweeping along their course, everything and
anything in their way. It has been recorded that in some years, the
water level rose some ten to fifteen feet above the shore of these
low-lying islands.
In one of those years, 1854 or 1855, Pierre saw his house and farm
buildings swept away by the rampaging Saint Lawrence, thankful to God that
at least he and his family could get out of it alive. Many of the other
island farmers were also subjected to the same fate and some were also
other Rajotte families.
This sad story of this flood is recorded in books, but is recorded
more vividly in the minds of the ancestors to these survivors, as it
is handed down by word of mouth, generation by generation, that it
remains a vivid experience each time the story is told.
In the aftermath of this flood, Pierre and his wife must have made a
solemn decision to abandon the place and look elsewhere for a new
beginning. The Sorel area must have had little more to offer as most of
the farmable land was taken and St-Germain and Drummondville were
hardly known. Upper Canada was then calling for new settlers and lumber
traders and giving good sized land tracts to anyone who could live there
and settle their families. So this is what seemed to be the best
alternative to a hopeless situation of starting again on the I'lle de
Grace. Pierre, with two brothers and two Cournoyer brothers, Noel & Paul,
took the time to journey and find the place with the most hope and
promise, far from the Saint Lawrence and settled in a place called Tweed,
Ontario. They probably traveled by boat and arrived at Belleville, then
walking the 30 miles or so north to the village of Tweed, where they
settled on 100 acre tracts of land. Pierre had four brothers, Joseph,
Louis, Jean-Baptiste and Paul, and it is uncertain which of them came with
him. Pierre was the only Rajotte to stay, but both of the Cournoyer
brothers stayed. All these new pioneers from Sorel settled to the north of
Tweed in what is still known today as the "French Settlment" where they
spent their first year or so building their log cabins, barns, fences, and
clearing the forests to plant their first crops. In the next year, the
rest of their families began to arrive.
Two other Cournoyers came from Sorel shortly after Noel and Paul and
it was thought for some time they all came at the same time. An uncle,
Joachim came in or after 1858 and another cousin to all three, Antoine,
came a year or so after Joachim. Basilice Cournoyer was a distant cousin
to all four.
The Tweed area was said to have been familiar with the men of Sorel
through their work in the lumber camps during the winters.
There is a disturbing, yet humorous incident that is still
remembered by the descendants of Pierre and Basilice that gives an
insight to the perturbations they had to face. When Basilice first
arrived with her children at the sturdy loghouse that Pierre had built
before bringing his family from Sorel, she thought she could faintly
see, in the dusk of the evening, a whole flock of sheep resting
peacefully in the grazing patch adjoining the loghouse. However, what a
terrible shock she had in the early hours of the next morning, when to
her utter dismay, her wondering eyes discovered that what she had first
taken for an innocent flock of sheep, was nothing but a scattering
of cold grey boulders, lying half buried in the land she had dreamed of
providing her a new beginning. Basilice, once brought up on the rich
homeland of the I'lle de Grace, and now facing a harsh reality
unexpected, was so utterly discontented, that she cried for two days.
All of Pierre's children were born in Sorel, except the last
one which came at the time of the flood and migration to Tweed. Since
Ontario was mostly English settled, with some American loyalist
families settling there after the American revolution, these young
children of Pierre were undoubtedly the first Rajottes to learn
English as the school teacher was English speaking and taught
only in English. This teacher found it most difficult to pronounce
the names of the many French named children. So she set out to teach them
the English phonic spelling of their names and thus created the new name
of Rashotte. Therefore, wherever the name of Rashotte is found today, it
can be traced directly to Pierre Rajotte and his wife Basilice
Cournoyer. Pierre and his wife lived all their remaining years in Tweed.
Pierre died there on January 17,1899 and his wife continued to walk
every Sunday, some three miles, to and from church. She died in Tweed on
August 8,1900 and they were buried in St.Edmund's cemetery in Stoco,
where their gravestone still stands. At the time of his death, Pierre
left 63 grandchildren and 30 great-Grandchildren.
Father Alphonse Rajotte was the first to "find" and research the
Rashotte family. He composed much of the preceeding information about
Pierre and Basilice and I have incorporated it into this work. In the
early 1960's, Father Alphonse published several articles in the Tweed News
about the ancestry of the Rashott's. It was around this time or shortly
afterward, that Father Alphonse gave up his research in the Rajotte-
Rashotte family. When I copied Father Alphonse's works in 1977, There was
only about six pages of family information.
Pierre's log house was later "modernized" by the addition of vertical
clap boards to cover the hand hewed logs, and some additions were
built in later years. The homestead came into the possession of his son
Mitchell, who cared for Pierre and Basilice in their old age. Mitchell
in turn was cared for by his son Benjamin and the homestead was passed
on to him. Benjamin worked the farm until the 1930's when he sold it.
The homestead stood on its original ground for some 115 years, when it
was dismantled and moved to Actinolite, a few miles to the north. It was
reassembled in its original condition, less the clap boards and a later
addition, and now serves as an art school. In 1982, I first set foot in
this house that Pierre Rashotte built some 137 years before. It came to be
one of the most memorable moments of my long journey to discover my
family. Jack Rajotte

  Research Notes:

1881 Canadian Census - Not sure, but recorded anyway.

Pierre RAJOTTE M Male French 75 Q <Quebec> Rentier Catholique
Marie LAROCHELLE M Female French 72 Q <Quebec> Catholique
Edwidge RAJOTTE Male French 39 Q <Quebec> Catholique
Rose Delima RAJOTTE Female French 37 Q <Quebec> Catholique
Narcisse LAROCHELLE M Male French 23 Q <Quebec> Cultivateur Catholique
Delima PELOQUIN M Female French 18 Q <Quebec> Catholique

Source Information:
Census Place Sorel, Richelieu, Quebec
Family History Library Film 1375838
NA Film Number C-13202
District 61
Sub-district B
Page Number 30
Household Number 137

Pierre married Basilice Cournoyer, daughter of Joseph Eliazar Hus Cournoyer and Mary Louise Cardin, on 6 Nov 1838 in St. Pierre-de-Sorel, Quebec, Canada. (Basilice Cournoyer was born on 5 Aug 1816 in Sorel, Quebec, Canada, died on 8 Aug 1900 in Tweed, Ontario, Canada and was buried in St. Edmund's Roman Catholic, Stoco.)

  Marriage Notes:

IGI Individual Record
FamilySearch™ International Genealogical Index v5.0
North America

BASILICE COURNOYER Female
Parents: Father: JOSEPH COURNOYER
Mother: LOUISE CARDIN
Marriages:
Spouse: PIERRE RAJOTTE Family
Marriage: 06 NOV 1838 Sorel, Richelieu, Quebec