Item 149690 - Marie Louise Thériault prayer card, Fort Kent, 1914

Item 149690 - Marie Louise Thériault prayer card, Fort Kent, 1914
Contributed by Acadian Archives
Item 149690
Marie Louise Thériault prayer card, Fort Kent, 1914
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Marie Louise Thériault, the daughter of Michel Thériault and Marie Boutote, was born on November 20, 1887, and baptized at the Catholic Church in Fort Kent. She was an Acadian through her direct paternal line. Her ancestor Paul Thériault and his wife Marie Anne Hébert fled from eastern New Brunswick during the British-led deportation of Acadians, which displaced 17,000 people in the 1750s. The Thériaults found refuge in the Rivière-Ouelle area on the shores of the St. Lawrence River.

Marie Louise’s father, a native of Isle-Verte in Lower Canada, migrated to the St. John Valley and married Marie Boutote. Michel died of cirrhosis of the liver in Fort Kent in 1902. Marie Louise may have had to seek her own fortunes after the loss of her father. She likely worked as a domestic servant in a private home. She died in St. Francis, Maine, on October 25, 1887. Fort Kent's Roman Catholic parish register gives the cause of death as “brûlure” (burns). Her body was laid to rest in the “old cemetery” in Fort Kent.

This card, which gives her date of death and age, is the oldest in the Acadian Archives’ collections. The back, left blank by the printer, includes handwritten numbers. The right-hand pane features prayers. It also reads, "Her reward will be great, for God tried her in suffering and found her worthy of Him. Having submitted herself to God's will, she saw death come with the serenity and courage that faith provides."

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