Daughter of Rosalie Cherrier and well-known politician Joseph Papineau, Rosalie was the only surviving daughter of this family of ten children.  Her older brother by about a year and a half  was none other than Louis-Joseph Papineau, the man who would later become the leader of the Patriotes, and to whom she was very close throughout her life.  

Her father aquired the Seigneurie de La Petite-Nation in the Outaouais region, where he brought the family to live.  It was quite a change of scenery for this young lady from a good family, used to the big city and its amenities. Always positive, she took up vegetable gardening and found pleasure in writing and correspondence.  Though single until well into her twenties, she eventually wed the widower Jean Dessaulles and they had three children, which sadly they lost too at very young ages.

Dessaulles himself was also a politician, elected deputy for the riding of Richelieu in the year of her marriage in 1816, so Rosalie often found herself running their estate alone. She was a determined young woman who did not hesitate to take matters into her own hands when necessary. 

Rosalie took a very active part in the development of Dessaulles’ seigneury, that of Maska which would later become the city of Saint-Hyacinthe. Her noble soul and her great charity towards the sick and the poor were recognized. When necessary, she transformed her home into a dispensary, isolating her children in a part of the manor to protect them from contagion. She even gave away her own clothes to help the needy. She was nicknamed “the Providence of the poor”. She founded the Comité des Dames de la Charité (Ladies of Charity) and was its first president.

On 20 June 1835, Rosalie lost her husband who died at the age of sixty-nine, after an illness that lasted six months. He had left his position as deputy for Saint-Hyacinthe the previous year. Their children were still young; Louis-Antoine was seventeen, Rosalie-Eugénie eleven and Georges-Casimir only eight. Rosalie had to take charge of the destiny of the seigneury until her eldest son reached his majority, which was set at the age of twenty-five at the time.

A fervent admirer of her older brother Louis-Joseph, she approved of him and supported him in his efforts to obtain better conditions for the French Canadians. However, she was very concerned for him and his family when things started to go wrong in 1836. During the unfortunate events of 1837-1838, she did her best to support the rebels, either by providing them with food or by lodging them at the manor, even though she knew that the English authorities were suspicious. It was there that Louis-Joseph Papineau took refuge, after leaving Montreal on November 16, 1837, before leaving the country to go into exile in the United States until his death.

Source:  Translation from French texts at Wikipedia entry Rosalie Papineau-Dessaulles — Wikipédia with only minor changes. 

“On February 18, 1846, Rosalie Dessaulles married Maurice Laframboise (1821-1882), a lawyer in Saint-Hyacinthe. Mr. Laframboise was mayor of Saint-Hyacinthe from 1857 to 1860 and was also involved in politics like the Dessaulles, Papineau and Debartzch. Called to the bar in 1843, he was elected member of the House of Assembly of Lower Canada for Bagot County from 1858 to 1867, Minister of Public Works (1863-1864) under the McDonald-Dorion government, and then member of the provincial House for Shefford County from 1871 to 1878. He was appointed judge of the Superior Court for the district of Bonaventure-Gaspé in 1879. The couple had thirteen children, one of whom, Jules Laframboise, distinguished himself in Saint-Hyacinthe when he was director of the Casavant Frères organ factory. The Laframboise family lived in their magnificent manor house on Girouard Street in Saint-Hyacinthe, which was succeeded by the Patronage Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and the Patro buildings. The family left Saint-Hyacinthe in 1864 to settle in Montreal.” 

Source:  FONDS FAMILLE LAFRAMBOISE – Centre d’histoire de Saint-Hyacinthe

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