The Reverend Charles Alfred Marie Paradis 1848-1926

Born in Kamouraska County, Quebec, Paradis studied at Sainte-Ann-de-la-Pocatière College and taught art in Ottawa. Following his ordination in 1881, he was posted to Lake Timiskaming as missionary of the Oblate Congregation. Paradis’ travels as a missionary provided the information for his pamphlet “From Temiskaming to Hudson Bay”. In it, he strongly recommended the colonization of the region. After leaving the Congregation in 1890, he encouraged many French-Canadian farm families from Michigan to settle in the region of Verner and took up farming himself. An enterprising individual, he prospected for gold at Nighthawk Lake, wrote, painted in watercolour and worked on the compilation of an Ojibwa dictionary. He died in Montreal on May 10, 1926.

Né dans le comté de Kamouraska, Québec, il fit ses etudes au college de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, il enseigna le dessin à Ottawa. Après son ordination, il devint missionaire oblat au lac Témiscamingue. Ses notes de voyages ont documenté la brochure “De Témiskaming à la Bair d’Hudson”. Il y recommendait fortment la colonization de ce territoire. En 1890, il quitta la Congrégation des Oblats. Il encouragea plusieurs familles canadiennes-françaises du Michigan à s’établir dans la region de Verner et lui-même exploita une ferme. Homme d’initiative, il repêra de l’or au lac Nighthawk, laissa des écrits, des aquarelles et un ébauche d’un dictionnaire odjibwé. Le Pére Paradis mourut à Montréal le 10 mai 1926.