Leon and Obeline were born in adjacent very small farming towns, about 15 miles southeast of Quebec City. They were married in 1870 in Sherbrooke, a town east of Montreal, near the Maine border. I don't know why they were there. After their marriage, they moved to Lewiston, Maine, a major mill town. The French-Canadian population was booming at the time, and the first French Catholic church, St. Peter's, was built there in 1872. Leon and Obeline worshiped there, and it was there that their children were baptized.
In 1882, they moved to Minneapolis. Leon was a carpenter, and in the 1900 census his occupation is listed as "millwright". Presumably he moved to Minneapolis for more work or better pay. Although the family mostly used their "Boulanger" name while in Maine, in Minneapolis they used "LeFebvre", which is the name that has continued down through most of their children's children.
In the 1900 census, Obeline reported being the mother of eight children, only four of whom were still living. One of these was my great-grandmother, Dora LeFebvre Cunningham.
With no further ado, some pictures of their graves:
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| This is the shared tombstone for Leon and Obeline. As far as I can tell, none of their children are buried nearby, but I haven't checked all of the names yet. |
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| A close-up so you can see the inscription. It says "Leon Lefebvre 1848-1918 Obeline Lefebvre 1848-1928" |
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| An overview of the cemetery where they are buried. That's their tombstone just left of center. It really is a lovely area, although the dirty, melting snow at the tail end of a January thaw doesn't do it justice. |
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| If you go to St. Mary's you may find yourself wondering, as I did, "where, in this giant cemetery, are the graves I'm looking for?" I took this screenshot of the map on my phone while I was standing at the grave. the blue dot marks the spot. |
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