Baptismal Certificate
From Benoite's document
On the 19th day of May 1882, I baptized Charles J.R. Comeau the legitimate child of Jos. R. Comeau and Rosalie Comeau. Born in Comeauville, Nova Scotia on May 17th 1882. Sponsors were Isaie Comeau and Marie Comeau. Signed Jean M Gay.
Obit in The Chronicle Herald
Sat 11 Dec 1971 WEYMOUTH - Charles J.R. Comeau, 89, of Weymouth was buried in St. Mary's cemetery Church Point following funeral service. Born in Comeauville he was the son of the late Joseph and Rosalie Comeau. He is survived by four daughters, Benoite and Minnie (Mrs. James J Mead Jr) both of Randolph Mass; Helen (Mrs. Gerald Robichaud), Somerville Mass; Zelma (Mrs. Henry Rowe) Wakefield Mass. two sons, Armand Comeauville, and Dr. Jean Eudes Weymouth; 22 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He was predeceassed by two wives, Marie Anne and Leah Saulnier, adn one son, Leonard.
Memories
In 1999 and 2005 I asked my grandmother Hélène Cormier/Comeau about her memories of Charles à Joe.
From Hélène Cormier/Comeau (1999-09-09): Jean-Eudes would occasionally go on logging trips around Eel Lake with his father, Charles à Joe, and they would stay at the ‘Tit Cabane’ (which was on a property around Eel Lake).
He was of that 19th Century generation that always wore long underwear, and at the end of his life he always wore red long underwear. Hélène would help him bathe but she complained about the "old man smell" because at this point he was near death at age 89.
Charles à Joe was completely illiterate and worked in the mills in Metaghan River. His last 2 years were spent with Jean-Eudes and Hélène. His last three weeks were spent at his nephew Elie’s. Jean-Eudes had once told him he would never let him ‘dans le chemin’ – i.e. homeless, and when reminded of this later by Charles Jean-Eudes nodded and said ‘oui, j’ai dit ça” ("yes, I said that") – and so Charles moved in with Grandpère.
Grandmère and Grandpère (GM and GP) were going on a trip, so they had to put Charles somewhere. But Jean-Eudes' brother Armand didn’t want him – or he went there for a little while, but asked to go to his Jean-Eudes' cousin Elie’s. At the end of his first week he called and asked to stay another. Hélène said sure. The next week, the same thing.
Every night he’d eat 2 crackers and sometimes have a weak tea. He used to complain, “I’m dying, I’m dying,” but he was always fine. So when Jean-Eudes was called and told that his father had died (Nov 26 1971), they headed down to Elie’s, and Grandmère said, “Oh, you know he’s not dead”. But she was embarrassed when she saw him sprawled out on the couch, and always felt bad about it afterward. Grandmère said he liked it down at Elie’s because he could watch the mill workers out the window, and that was the life he had known.
From Hélène Cormier/Comeau (2005-08-01): Charlie à Joe’s nickname was ‘Dash Bitch’ (or ‘Das Bitch’) because this is what he’d swear instead of 'godamn' or 'jesus christ'
Charlie à Joe would pay $75 a month rent to Grandmere and Grandpere, through a pension cheque via Armand. Charlie à Joe would sign his cheques with an ‘X’ because he was illiterate, and Armand would pay the rent, and cash the cheques and give Charlie à Joe a carton of cigarettes
The mill Charlie à Joe watched before he died was the one between the third one, ("à Moise") and the one in Bangor (the first one, the museum) - it was the second mill on the river. As of the 2020s, only the Bangor one remains.
From Eddie Comeau (2006-07-24): Eddie told brought up Charles à Joe’s ‘dash bitch’ again and said that he whistled when he was angry; that’s how you knew he was pissed off about something, when he was whistling.
From Hélène Cormier/Comeau (2006-07-26): Charles à Joe didn’t think much of education, but had none either so he didn’t see the value. Grandpere Jean-Eudes found support from one priest who encouraged him, after another had told him to just ‘go dig potatoes’. The dismissive priest was somehow friendly or connected to Charles à Joe and was part of that line of discouragement. This other priest found him $200 from somewhere with which Jean-Eudes got himself to Montreal and enrolled in a course.
After they married, Jean-Eudes and Hélène lived with Charles à Joe for two weeks before moving out to the house by the brook. She was happy with the very little they had in the house because Hélène didn’t want to be with Jean-Eudes’ family. She’d gotten up at 9am once during those first two weeks and Charles told her, ‘Here, we get up at 7!’ ('ici on s'leve a sept!')
