Honoré Beaugrand
Honoré Beaugrand (1848-1906) was a notable Canadian journalist, politician, and author, originally from Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie, Quebec. He began his diverse career as a soldier in the French military during the Franco-Mexican War before transitioning to journalism in the United States, where he wrote for several newspapers and engaged with the Quebec immigrant community in Fall River, Massachusetts. Beaugrand was the founder of the liberal newspaper L'Écho du Canada and later La Patrie, which he developed into a significant publication in Montreal. His political career included two terms as the mayor of Montreal, during which he advocated for health reforms like mandatory vaccinations during a smallpox outbreak. Known for his anticlerical stance, he was involved with various political and social movements. In addition to his journalistic work, Beaugrand is remembered for his literary contributions, including the famous legend of the Chasse-Galerie. He spent his later years traveling and writing until his death in 1906, leaving behind a complex legacy that continues to spark interest and discussion. A street and metro station in Montreal honor his contributions to the city.
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Honoré Beaugrand
Writer
- Born: March 24, 1848
- Birthplace: Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie, Quebec, Canada
- Died: October 7, 1906
Biography
Honoré Beaugrand (baptized Marie-Louis- Honoré) was born in Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie, Berthier County, Quebec, Canada, on March 24, 1848, the son of a mariner, Louis Beaugrand (of the Champagne lineage from France), and Marie- Josephiné Marion. In his youth, he studied briefly at the Collège Joliette in Joliette, Lower Canada, and spent several months in the novitiate with the Clerics of St Viator. He then took a short training course at the School of Military Instruction of Montreal. The seventeen-year-old graduate then journeyed to Mexico to join the French military forces for eighteen months under General Bazaine, who was defending Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. After the fall of Chapultepec and Maximilian’s execution in 1867, Honoré Beaugrand then traveled to France. He journeyed back to Mexico and then the United States, working in various trades. His journalistic career started in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1868. He wrote for several U.S. newspapers in St. Louis, Boston, and Chicago, and in Lowell and Fall River, Massachusetts.
By 1871, the twenty-three-year-old Beaugrand became an influential figure in Fall River, Massachusetts, organizing political and cultural societies among the Quebec immigrants residing there. He published L’Écho du Canada, a liberal newspaper that championed the cause of French Americans. He married Eliza Walker (1854-1934) on October 5, 1873, at St. Paul’s Methodist Church. After selling L’Écho du Canada in 1875, he spent the summer in the province of Quebec on the editorial staff of Le Courrier de Montréal. In the fall of 1875, he returned to Massachusetts to relocate the Boston newspaper, La République, to Fall River.
At age twenty-five, Beaugrand became a Freemason. La République then became a sounding board for his most radical views: He declared himself deist, republican, and anticlerical. Throughout his career and life, Honoré Beaugrand maintained close contact with anticlerical groups. Later in his life (in 1897), he helped found a radically inclined masonic lodge in Montreal called L’Émancipation. At the age of thirty, Beaugrand returned to Canada with his wife in response to the Liberal Party’s assumption of power in Ottawa. The newspaperLe Fédéral was established, and it lasted until September, 1878. He then launched first a satirical Montreal weekly, Le Farceur, and in February, 1879, he launched La Patrie, a daily newspaper founded at the request of the Liberal Party. Beaugrand’s marriage produced one daughter, Estelle (1881-1918).
For the next decade, Beaugrand concentrated on politics and on newspaper publishing. Championing the purest liberal tradition, Beaugrand was often in vigorous conflict with the Conservatives and the clergy. Established as a political writer and reporter, he would remain as the publisher of La Patrie until 1897. He developed the paper into a significant commercial success by amassing a large subscription readership that helped it become financially independent of political parties. He enjoyed political success as mayor of Montreal for two terms (1885-1887), and he championed such causes as mandatory vaccinations during a smallpox epidemic.
Though regarded during his lifetime as a controversial political figure, history now finds Honoré Beaugrand of interest due to his literary accomplishments. The 1890’s found Beaugrand retreating from the political scene due to failing health. Decorated with the Legion of Honour in 1885, he spent the last fifteen years of his life as a traveling correspondent, sending reports back to La Patrie from the Mediterranean, the American Southwest, and the Far East. Several of the reports were published in book form. He also produced many short stories, along with several studies on ethnology, science, and forest and village customs; these studies were compiled into bound collections. He is most famous in Quebec for writing down the legend of the Chasse-Galerie in 1891.
Even in death, Honoré Beaugrand remained controversial, and reports of a religious conversion on his deathbed were publicly debated and categorically denied by his family. His remains were interred in the city’s Jewish cemetery upon his passing on October 7, 1906. A street and metro station in Montreal are now named in his honor.