Claris (Côté) Arpin (1841 - 1926)

Born 6 Aug 1841 in Saint-François-du-Lac, Nicolet-Yamaska, Quebec, Canada

Ancestors

Wife of Jean-Baptiste Arpin — married 5 Sep 1859 in Saint-Thomas-de-Pierreville, Nicolet-Yamaska, Quebec, Canada

Descendants

Died 26 Dec 1926 at age 85 in Wisconsin Rapids, Wood, Wisconsin, United States

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Biography

Claris was born in 1841. She is the daughter of Louis Côté and Marie Biron.

1859 - Immigration to Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, USA from 1900 US Census From the Wood County, Wisconsin Town Histories: Mrs. Clarice Arpin, whose maiden name was Clarice Cotey, and who was married to John Baptiste Arpin in 1859, came to Grand Rapids about the time of her marriage. She described it as being in those days "a rough lumbering town, filled with lumberjacks who engaged in many drunken brawls, and Indians, who when they had an over-supply of firewater yelled and danced in the middle of the streets." At one time a band of more than a thousand Indians passed their house on Drake street journeying south. It took them nearly two hours to pass one house. The squaws would come upon the porch and peer into the windows and it was a great relief when the last red man had passed. At that time the land all around where the Howe school is located was a dense forest thickly wooded with poplars, and for two seasons great flocks of pigeons flew here and roosted in the trees. Mrs. Arpin said that many people would go and shake down young squabs by the wagon load and take them home and keep them in barns or sheds and kill them whenever they wished a feast. These pigeons flew in great flocks all over the state. This region was also visited by a curse one season when swarms of locusts flew over the town in such numbers that they formed a dense cloud which entirely shut out the sunlight. They totally destroyed all the season's crops, and prayers were offered in all the churches for relief from the pests. They remained but a short time and the city has never been visited by the locusts since. Mrs. Arpin was the proud possessor of the first baby carriage ever brought here, which was bought at the Peter Vestefuille store in 1852. She also owned the first sewing machine used here, a Wilcox & Gibbs chain-stitch machine which was run by hand.

Clarissa was born in 1842. She passed away in 1926.

Sources

• Baptized Record 7 Aug 1841 - uebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979 Saint-François-du-Lac Saint-François-du-Lac Baptêmes, mariages, sépultures 1836-1847 - Image 241 [1]

• Find A Grave: Memorial #69772051

• Wood County, Wisconsin Town Histories [2]
• Family History