Ephrem Boudreau was born in River Bourgeois in 1905.
After his classical studies from 1922 to 1928 at the seminary at Trois Riviere, he spent three years at agricultural school at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere. Here he earned bachelors’ degrees in arts and one in agricultural science. In addition, he acquired a diploma in Social Sciences from l’Universite de Laval in 1935.
In 1980, he published, in Editions d’Acadie, Moncton, the history of the trappists in Nova Scotia (1823-1919) entitled Le Petit Clairvaux. He also authored Riviere Bourgeois from which this history is taken and translated.
The following provides more information on some of the River Bourgeois localities:
Thibeauville was a small, isolated, heavily-wooded community. The name was bestowed in honour of a Jacob (or Jacques) Thibeau who settled there in 1836. An old resident of this area, Henriette-Anne (MacDonald) Thibeau, deceased some years, provided this history of Thibeauville in 1955. This hamlet, according to her, was founded by three brothers who changed their true names to Thibeau. Mistreated on a naval warship, the three brothers deserted and went into hiding.
This retreat evolved into a hamlet attached to the Riviere-Bourgeois parish. Were they soldiers in Napoleon’s army? A button from a military uniform was found in an old foundation, but unfortunately, was lost before its provenance could be determined.
La Fausse-Baie is located immediately west of Haut-du-Bras and near a small inlet or bay – which gives this place its name and which joins the Petit Passage – was inhabited for a long time by the McPhees and Pates (probably originally Pathe). Regis McPhee came here from Fortress Louisbourg, according to one of his descendants. He deserted from his ship and established at False Bay where many of his descendants can still be found. As for the Pates nothing is known of their origins.
Cannes: When a post office was opened at Haut-du-Bras in 1884, it was named Cannes for Cannes in France. From that time on, the area was known by two names: the younger generation called it Cannes giving it the English pronunciation, while the older folk preferred the original designation of Haut-du-Bras.
Les Pointes: All maritime landscapes have their points just as they have their inlets, their bays, their passages, and their gulleys. Riviere-Bourgeois was situated on a coastline much divided by many points of land in spite of the fact that the shoreline was relatively short.
And so you have La Pointe, in reality a peninsula that begins at Fond-du-Bras and stretches west for a distance greater than a mile. At the height of the church, this peninsula divides into two parts: one ends to the northwest at the point called Lesime at the northern end of the entrance; the other part, because the terrain causes such a small passage to the south, ends at a point known as La Patoune at the entrance to Grand-Goulet and facing l’ile du Bistouri (Bissett Island according to contemporary maps).