Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-02-06
LIFE LONG
RESIDENT
PASSES AWAY

There are times when thoughtful
person reflects on mortal existence
in general, and tries to reach con-
clusion as to what constitutes a life
worth living. 1t may be said, with
no fear of contradiction, that such a
life consists of being able to work
contentedly at an honorable occupa-
zion that will earn the neccessltles
and comforts of the position a man
occupies, to live in a home made
happy by a congenial wife and
children who are welcome, and to
constantly follow the light of an
immortal faith. To so live in health
and peace through many years, and
to be a part of the formation and
development of primitive conditions,
till the sunset gate is aglow with
respect and love and generation of
friends and family and church,
seems in its outline more wish than
fact, and yet it is a sketch, not
overcolored, of the period on earth
of Gabriel C. Vallee.
Mr.. Vallee was born October 18th,
1880, in the French Canadian hamlet
of Riguor, Province of Quebec, which
was also the birthplace, six years
later, of Stephanie Cabana, to whom
he was married, at Sherbrooke,
P. O., April 18th, 1858,
From its inception. Mr.. Vallee has
been engaged in construction work
on the St. Lawrence and Atlantic
Railroad, which was being pushed
from the St. Lawrence River to the
Canadian and Vermont boundary to
connect with the Atlantic and St.
Lawrence division which was being
constructed. from Portland to the
line, and he was soon put in charge
of the telegraph line over territory
increasing as the work progressed
till it reached from the st. Lawrence
River to the Atlantic Ocean. His
earliest trips over the road were
made when S. T..Corser was Super
intendent, and, east of Island Pond,
Charles Morgan W as in charge of the
ballast train, G. G. Waterhouse was
the first passenger conductor ,Georg e
w. and Warren Noyes were engi-
neers, and when the mail was carried
across the st. Lawrence River in
row boats.
When Mr.. Vallee brought his
bride to Island Pond to make their
home, there were few houses here
and primeval forest stood almost
unbroken to Coaticook on one side
and to Stratford on the other. Mr..
and Mrs. Vallee lived for the first
few months in one of the little
houses on the street that extended
along the base of the hill that was
removed for the present round.
house. In this house, with only
three rooms on the lower floor
commenced sthe hospitality to the
Right Reverend Bishops of the
Church, to whom, as we'll as to the
humblest missionaries, the .Vallee
home, for more than half century
was always open as welcome to the
presence Of one who came as tn.
guest who of all others on eartl
could, in their regard, honor it the
most. They soon purchased thu
place which became their home
thereafter, and from which no soul
passed out till the father recent,
entered life immortal from tn.
identical room in which all tn,
children drew the first breath O.
mortal existence, only one of whom
living to have home of his own
preceded his father. Here wer
born to them, Martha g., of Chicago
widow of the late DR.. G. w, Rey
nolds; Walter G.. deceased at ISLAM
!, Pond in 1898; George H., of Sa
Gabriel, CAL; William c., of Chip
pewa Falls, Wis; Andrew H., Q
Boston, Mass; Charles A., of West
brook, Me-; Sister Vallee( Emma) ,fo
twenty-three years of the Mothe
4 House in Montreal; DR.. John E., O
New York. Since Mr.. and Mr.
\ Vallee selected their abiding plac
for fifty-two years it has RENAME
l1nchanUad in even IFS least partic,