Manitoba Heritage Council Commemorative Plaques

St. Boniface

In 1817 Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiére and his wife Marie-Anne Gaboury settled on Seine River lots granted them by Lord Selkirk. They arrived in 1806, the first white couple to settle in the northwest. They became the grandparents of Louis Riel. Near them the same year settled the De Meurons troops Selkirk had brought from Montreal to oppose the North West Company forces. In 1818-19 Fathers Provencher and Dumoulin established here the first permanent school and mission in the west. Such were the beginnings of St. Boniface, soon to become the centre of French-Canadian life in Western Canada.