Bellegarde, Saskatchewan

• In 1891, a few settlers, residents of Grande Clarière, came to homestead at what they called la quatrième coulée (the 4th creek).  Amongst these settlers, were Alphonse Copet, Cyrille Delaite, Joseph Delaite, Cyrille Libert and others.
• In the spring of 1892, these settlers left Grande Clairière full of enthusiasm, with baggage, that is to say, their cattle and ploughs.  After trying without success, to break land at Alphonse Copet's, they returned to Grande Clairière discouraged.
• Cyrille Sylvestre and his four sons took up homesteads at St. Maurice, they had definite intentions on settling there. 
• In 1889, the families of Honoré George, Fortunat George, Edouard Delaite et Jean-Bapiste Stringer arrived at Grande Clairière from Luxembourg, Belgium. They later took up homesteads at St. Maurice.
• During the winter of 1893, the Jean-Baptiste Moreau family was the first family to spend the winter as isolated settlers.
• In 1894, the Moreau family was joined by Sylvestre, Stringer, Carbotte, and Revet families.  These settlers stayed to break the land.  Soon Georges, Tinants, Legros, Pierrards, and Stevenots, arrived to reinforce the colony.

       WHY THIS AREA?
Father Jean Gaire, a young priest, was founding a parish in Grande Clairière, Manitoba, in 1888. St-Maurice de Bellegarde didn't exist.  By 1892 settlers came from Grande Clairière to the quatrième coulée to do an in-depth study of the area to determine its suitability for settlement.  They concluded that the soil was rich, that there were immense pastures, with an abundance of hay in the sloughs. The trees offered protection against forest fires, and they'd grow and reproduce.  This seemed like a magnificent countryside,  watered by a wonderful creek with superb ponds enriching and nurturing the surrounding lands. They were home.