Violette Family Association

This monument was erected by the Violette Family Association in 1981 near Violette Brook and in the lot Francois was granted in 1787.
My wife and I have been traveling the last few days with my father and mother, Alderic O. “Dick” and Alice Violette, in the upper St John River Valley - in the areas […]

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In the third of a series of articles in the Maine Coast Now newspaper, John Hale describes the efforts in Augusta, Lewiston, Waterville, and Biddeford to foster appreciation of the Franco-American culture. These cities were the destination of many French-Canadian families as they left the farms of Canada in search of a better living in […]

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You’ve seen Rod Violette’s paper on “The Life and Times of Francois Violet” here at our web site (see “A Story about Francois Violet” and click to download the story) . The story has also been recently published at www.Acadian.org, an excellent web site with resources about Acadian and French-Canadian genealogy and history. A link […]

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In the second of a series of articles about the evolution of the Franco-American community in Augusta, the Maine Coast Now newspaper describes how the language patterns in Augusta have changed over the generations. Most Augustans in today’s generation do not speak French at all, while their parents might speak French some. The generation before […]

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The Maine Coast Now (Maine News) newspaper is running a series of articles on the history of the Franco-Americans in Augusta ME. The Franco-Americans started coming to Augusta after the Civil War, to work at the many mills being built there. Whole families would work in those mills, including children as young as age seven. […]

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Montage of images from Saint-Leonard-Parent and Van Buren
We have added a new link under Other Blogs and Webs to this informative web site. The Archives of the Religious Hospitallers of Saint Joseph (RHSJ) in Saint-Basile are private archives. The documents preserved are of historical, medical, educational, social and cultural interest. The archives contain funds on […]

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Gary & Jacqueline Auclair sent Rod a link to a valuable web site - Acadian Culture in Maine. You can find the web link in the Other Webs and Blogs list at the right.
This site is a web edition of the 1994 National Park Service publication Acadian Culture in Maine, a 92-page report on the history […]

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The building that houses the exhibit.
Among the early activities of Francois Violet was milling grain. Around 1791 he built a grist mill (moulin a farine) on the banks of the brook that was later named for him. His son, Francois Jr, rebuilt a mill on the same site in 1827. Eventually the property changed hands […]

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Rod Violette, Association Secretary
Rod Violette (#12) presented a paper at the last reunion, with his compilation of information about Francois and some history of his times. Read it in Adobe PDF format; click here.

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