POIRIER, JULIEN

Julien Poirier was born in Cullens Brook, Gaspe in Bonaventure, Quebec, Canada on December 19 , 1934.  He is one of '16' children, was raised in Saint Elzéar, Bonaventure, Quebec, Canada, son of Werner and Regina Poirier.  His father was the owner of two saw mills in the Saint Elzéar area where Julien attended school until the age of 14.  He grew up at and played all over the saw mills and eventually worked there as well.  (".... he played in the saw mill's huge sawdust piles with friends, until the piles were flat and the boys ran out of gas."). When very young, he spent some of his summer vacations at his grand-mother's.  She would tell Julien that if he crossed the road he would not go to heaven, because there were English families that lived across the road.

At '14' years old he left home for Anticosti Island to work for the Consolidated-Bathurst logging company, as a truck driver.  Over the span of 6 months (spring to fall) he hauled logs from the forest to a dock where the logs were loaded onto barges for shipment to saw mills on the mainland..  

Having heard of a new railway to be built from Sept-Iles, Quebec to Schefferville, Quebec, adventure called.  He was hired by IOC (Iron Ore Company of Canada) and a week later he was a tractor operator.  It just so happened that his boss (from Riviére-au-Tonnerre) on Anticosti Island became his boss in Sept-Iles.  Over the span of the next 3 months, starting at mile 18, he and Marcel Lausier bull-dozed (each doing a '12' hour shift) along with a work convoy, a cut from Sept-Iles to Shefferville.  They lived in the bush and ate a lot of cold sandwiches, except when they arrived at one of the established railway base-camps, which seemed like a '5' star hotel to the bushwackers.  One of the tricks that Julien and Marcel used was to place their sandwiches on the tractor motor to warm them up.  Some of the convoy team returned to Sept-Iles, after arriving in Schefferville, via IOC's DC-3.  Each person that returned to Sept-Iles was given their choice of many different jobs.  Julien chose to work in the train car repair shop where no trade was required and the only necessary qualification was that you had to be smart.  He had always wanted to work on machine repair and maintenance, so this was a dream come true.  A lot of the other men chose to work on building the railway track from Sept-Iles to Shefferville.

Julien loved the North Bush.  In 1968 he caught a '68' lb trout (brown lake trout).

One of his most cherished memories is having taken his '9' year old grandson, Pat, on a fishing trip to one of the Northern fishing camps on Whale River, for a week-end.  They flew in by small aircraft (Sesna).   The following day Pat was the only person in the fishing camp, on that day of fishing, who caught a salmon; Pat caught '3'.  Pat personally made sure that the camp freezer (containing his fish) was locked until he could take them out and home the following day.  '9' year old Pat kept the key in his pants pocket overnight, ensuring that no-one ate his fish while he was sleeping.  The last time that Pat and Julien fished together, at a Whale River camp, they flew out via twin otter on a seriously foggy day, because the pilot ? Mckenzie had a date with his girlfriend in Shefferville.   

Fishing Camp close friends included Stan Karbowski?, from New York, Phil Lariviere?, a bush pilot and one of the founders of Nordair and Jack Plumbley?, U.S. Senator from ????????.  When Stan was trying to establish the first fishing camp on Whale River (Riviere a la Baleine), he heard of this guy, Julien Poirier, in Shefferville.  He approached Julien to help him set up the first camp, but Julien told Stan that he already had a good job with QNS&L (Quebec Northshore & Labrador Railway) and that he did not want another job.  Stan replied, probably over a beer, that he wanted Julien to help him and that he did not want anyone else to help him.  They finally agreed on some arrangement, because Julien spent every summer for the next '15' years (?) opening, outfitting and guiding people at the '7' camps that they established.  A lot of the fishing camp guests had to sleep in Shefferville overnight, on the way to the fishing camps.  Julien always made his house in Shefferville available, whether he was there or not.  The doors were never locked.

Apparently Phil Larivierre crashed 4-5 planes during his bush flying days.  Even though Phil was involved in starting Nordair, it was Phil's wife Phillis who really established, ran and controlled the company on a day-to-day basis; Phil was a great engineer who loved to fly.  Whenever the RCMP needed a pilot to look for someone stranded in the bush or to help locate a downed plane, they called Phil.  

 Jon'ski and Julien made '7' fishing/hunting camps based out of (flying from) Shefferville, Quebec.

Julien always carried '2' sets of hunting and fishing permits; one for Quebec and one for Newfoundland (Labrador).  The first few years the RCMP would ask him if he had the proper permit, to which he always replied with a grand chuckle, " which one do you want, because I don't know which province I'm in".  After a couple of years of this, the RCMP only stopped Julien to have a good chat and to catch up on things.

He married Louise Ferland, from Sept-Iles, Quebec on ......, ....... in Sept-Iles.  Louise had '5' children from a previous marriage, but Julien tried to be their father.

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Louise ???????? (Ferland, Paquet) Poirier was born in Clark City, Quebec on November 2, 1933 and was the daughter of Jules Maurice Ferland of Quebec City, Quebec , Canada and Geraldine (Elsliger) Ferland of Jacquet River, New Brunswick, Canada.  

She married Patrice Paquet in Sept-Iles on ?????????, ????????. They had '5' children, all whom were born in Sept-Iles.  Louise and Pat divorced on ???????,????, leaving Louise to raise the '5' children on her own.  Pat did not financially support his children and left Louise with full responsibility.  She continued to raise her children with very strong, loving family values and each with a wonderful education.  

She fell in love with and married Julien Poirier on ???????, ??????.  Julien absolutely loved the children and only wished and strived to be considered their father.  

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Louise's Children:

Michele, Helene, Anne, Patsy & Pat

Grand-Children: Melissa, Andrew, Jasmine, Sebastien, Julieanne, Tamarra, Justin & Matthew

Great Grand-Children: (under developement) 

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