Urgel Martel, born February 22, 1845 in Quebec, Canada, was the 12th of 14
children of Narcisse Martel, born December 1, 1813 in L'Assomption, Canada ; his mother
was Emilie Laporte. Narcisse and Emilie were married on February 14, 1832.

     Hermenie Trepanier, born October 15, 1857 in Canada, was the daughter ofPierre
Trepanier and Philomene Beland. Hermenie and Urgel were married December 7, 1880 at
Notre Dame Church, Montreal, Canada. They lived in Montreal until late in 1881 where
first son, Joseph Trepanier Martel was born on November 1, 1881. At some point after
that and before August 21, 1882, they removed to Saint Joseph, Manitoba, Canada.
Urgel's first application to Homestead is dated August 21, 1882. The land title
proceedings began in earnest on October 16, 1882. Their second son, Aime George
Martel, was born in St. Joseph on October 2, 1884. Their other children were also born
here; Dina about 1883, Melina about 1886, Oscar in 1886, Melvina in 1887, Marie in
1887, Emilie in 1889, Aloric in 1890, George about 1890, Eugene in 1891, and Aurora in
1892. Oscar, Marie, and Emilie all died young.

     St. Joseph, Manitoba is about 15 miles north of the US border and south of Saint
Boniface, now Winnepeg, Canada. Montreal is a French community and so it was only
natural that they would homestead in St. Joseph, also a French locale. To this day in 1996
French is the primary language spoken there. It is probable that the young family traveled
by train from Montreal to St. Joseph where they homesteaded 160 acres, Township 2,
Range 1 Est, SE quarter section 32, located 2 miles North and I mile West of the St.
Joseph Church site in town. The church has been rebuilt on it's original site and the
"fUmiture" from the original church is still in use (1996). The first building was a small
Chapel that soon was outgrown and replaced by the 2nd building which in turn was
replaced in the late 1800s by the present Church. This is the Church that Urgel and
HERMENIE would have attended. Their children attended school in a building that was
located just South of the Church in the area presently (1996) occupied by the large
Convent House. The schoolhouse was later turned into a general store (the building is
gone now, pictures exist in the local museum), the Convent House is still there (1996), but
no longer used in that capacity. Urgel was to be School Trustee President in 1892 and
Trustee in 1893 and 1894.

     The land of Urgel and Hermenie was acquired fiom the Canadian Government for
twenty dollars and the required work to be done with the land...a building suitable for
living had to be built in the required time also. With the winds blowing across that flat
Manitoba prairie, this home had to be rebuilt or repaired often. Trees around the living
area had to be planted to protect both the family and the livestock. Urgel had listed on
their marriage papers that he was a carpenter so farming may not have been his primary
appointment. But the land was flat and rich, too flat in fact as there was very poor
drainage in this area of the Red River. The locals still say that before the drainage ditches
were dug , Urgel's land was "suitable for not much more than growing hay...but what hay
and so abundant". Perhaps hay turned out to be their primary crop. The roads in this area
are still gravel, located on the section lines, and most likely in the exact place they were
when Urgel and Hermenie's children went to school and the family went to church.

    Urgel died rather abruptly just before Christmas in 1896, probably a heart attack,
at the young age of 51. He is at rest in the Cemetery of St. Joseph Church, on the North
side of the building. At that time there was no plan or map for the grave sites and most
likely only wooden markers as none remain today. Later a map was started and some of
the graves moved into a row and marked. Urgel's was not one of these. Years later, Mr.
Perron, Caretaker for the church was digging a grave for the family of "Bonin" when he
came upon a wooden casket with a child's white casket on top of it from the time Urgel
and one of his children would have been buried. He asked the Priest what to do and was
told "to leave them rest and shift the grave site just a bit so as not to disturb them". If you
are searching for the grave site of Urgel, the most probable site is here, about in the
middle of the cemetery, in the row beneath the stone of the "Bonin" family. At the time
Urgel was buried here, the elderly locals recall that "nobody spent much time in the
cemetery because it was inhabited by many snakes".

     Hermenie was small of stature, petite, left alone with 8 small children to care for,
and a 160 acre farm to manage...all this at the young age of 39. Very soon it becomes
apparent to this lady of hardy French-Canadian ancestry that she needs help. Alfred Plante,
a bachelor will fill the need and they are to marry. This did not please teenagers Joseph
and Aimee to say the very least. They inform their mother, Hermenie, that if she marries
Plante, they will not stay and help support this man...they later stated that they considered
him a lazy, good for nothing who drank too much. Knowing their mother needed someone
and not wanting to help support their new step-father, circa 1898, Joe and Aimee left
home with an Uncle Trepanier and went to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, USA. Joe and
Aime evidently wanted to start totally fresh as it was at this time they added a second "L"
to Martel. The USA descendants continue to use the "Martell" surname in 1996.

     In 1901, Hermenie and husband, Alfred Plante, filed in Surrogate Court of
Manitoba, the probate ofUrgel's holdings. The court awarded her claim to these holdings
as follows: (1). Horses and cattle of the value of $370, (2). Household of furniture & effects
of value of $20, (3). real estate consisting of the North East Quarter of section twenty
eight-Trownship two and Range one East-in-Manitoba. of the value of $1500. The total
value of $1890. (Note: they made an error in the description of the land the correct
coordinates are. South East Quarter Section of Section I;hirty-two etc.) If you convert the
$1890 into 1996 dollars, she was awarded an amount well over $20,000.

     Hermenie and Plante removed to Saint Boniface where they were to have issue of
two. She lived most of the rest of her life a few blocks from the Saint Boniface Church
that she attended. A model of that church which burned down, except for the stone
Basicala which houses the bells, is in the foyer of the new church on the same site. She
lived her last years at 10 Imperial St., St. Boniface (Winnepeg), Manitoba, Canada. On the
west side of her house is a backlane (sidestreet,/alley); she spent many hours on her front
porch on the cool, North, shaded side of her house. Hermenie died in 1933 at the age of
76. Alfred Plante remarried not too long after Hermenie died. A search in 1996 by
Hermenie and Urgel's great granddaughter, Carol Martell Greene, Carol's husband John;
Hermenie and Urgel's grandson, Armand Martel, and Armand's wife, Rita, for Hermenie's
grave site ( not the St. Boniface Cemetery next to the church, but the one located
southeast oflmperial St.) revealed a family described marker made of cement and a sheet-
metal cross in the area of the 1933 burials. (Grave sites are by year, not by a plot system)

     In our search for Urgel and Hermenie in the small town of St. Joseph, Manitoba,
the aged Priest, Father Nadeau, was most helpful with information and guided tours of
the church and town area. He arranged a tour of the local museum, owned and managed
by a descendant of a Perron who served as a school Trustee when Urgel was Trustee
President; the same Perron who was the caretaker who found the two caskets mentioned
above. It was Father Nadeau's housekeeper, Vivianne Remillard (she lives 2 miles East of
the land of Urgel and Hermenie), who not only provided much assistance in our search
but invited us to her home for a delicious, traditional French evening meal. This sleepy
town of 60 on the prairie of Manitoba, French-Canadian in every way is much the same
today as it was in the 1800s. Dusty roads that radiate heat from the hot summer sun until
it sets around 11:00 PM, will freeze you in a hurry during the long winter's cold nights.
There is a feeling there that time almost stands still, that life and neighbors are most
important, that God is close. The night sky is stars that reach down and almost touch you.
     You can see where the home was located, trees are still quietly standing there.

We have walked in the footsteps of our grandparents.., on their land.., on the same roads
they walked and took horses and buggy or wagon to town, a feeling of belonging... a
connection to our past... their struggles, their happy times. When you go there, let your
mind drift a bit as you stand on their land, imagine the sound of horses pulling that hay
mower, picture those children playing near their home where freshly washed clothes are
drying in the hot summer breeze...a harsh but savory time and place to live, a time of
family, a time of love.

      Researched and compiled by Urgel and Hermenie's great granddaughter,
                       Carol Martell Greene


                           Sources include:
Manitoba Provincial Archives, Dominion of Lands/Dept. of Interior, Probate Court records: 
Histoire de la Paroisse Saint-Joseph pub. in 1964; Winnepeg Evening Tribune of 1933; 
St. Joseph Church records; Montreal Church records; interviews with several elderly 
St. Joseph residents; St. Joseph residents including: Vivianne Remillard/Father Nadeau, 
Mr. and Mrs. Perron. ArmanQ Rita, and Paulette Martel of St. Boniface (Winnepeg, Canada)
[Francis and Betty Martell of Chippewa Falls, WI; WI State Historical Society Library 
(Canadian Section); WI Vital Records; Cemetery map records of St. Boniface Catholic
Church and the Saint Boniface Historical Society Library.

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