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LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: Fonds
No.: PR3336
TITLE: LaPerle Family fonds
CREATOR: John LaPerle
DATE RANGE: [189-]-1995
EXTENT: 2.4 m of textual records and other material
The fonds also includes 1020 photographs, 398 negatives, 354 slides, ca. 60 post cards, 8 maps, 33 film reels (ca. 1205 m, ca. 5.5 hr.): col., 8 mm.
ADMINISTRATIVE
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Hermosa LaRue (Mar. 5, 1869-July 27, 1947) married Félix LaPerle (May 12, 1867-Oct. 14, 1949) in 1887 in Cornwall, Ontario, and moved to the west of Edmonton in 1898. They had three sons, Euclide, Percy and Eleodore Joseph (Léo, born 1895), and one daughter, Hermosa. They bought a quarter section of land from the Canadian Pacific Railway for $427, in the area later named Winterburn. Eva LaPerle, Percy's wife, was born January 1, 1900. Léo enlisted in 1916 and served overseas during the First World War. He married Annie Marie Lambert on August 20, 1929. Annie was born February 7, 1903, youngest of six daughters of Hormidas and Olivine (Plante) Lambert. Her parents were married in the United States in 1887 and came to the Beaumont district of present Alberta in 1893. Her sisters were Marie-Louise (1888), Eugenie (1891), Rose-Alma (1893), Clarice (1896) and Agnes (1899, died in infancy). Annie was a school teacher and member of the Association des instituteurs bilingues de l'Alberta before marrying.

In 1906 John and Eleodore LaRue built Winterburn Store, where the post-office was housed in a corner; they sold it in 1929 to Léo and Annie LaPerle, who expanded the building and managed both the store and the Winterburn post-office for 40 years. The store became a centre of the Winterburn community. During the Depression, people from a nearby work camp would walk to the store to listen to the radio on Saturday or Sunday and often stay all night. In 1969 the Winterburn Store was sold to the Department of Highways to build an overpass. The LaPerle family then retired on their farm, 1 mile south of the store.

Annie LaPerle was a member of Winterburn Women's Institute and died November 17, 1997. Léo LaPerle was a long time member of the Knights of Columbus, La Verendrye Council 1938. He served on the local school board for many years and was also on the executive of the Winterburn Community League. He died February 6, 1980. A neighbourhood and an elementary school in West Edmonton are named in honour of E.J. (Léo) LaPerle. Annie and Léo had two sons: Olivier (Oliver) Nelson (1930-1954), who died in a tractor accident, and Jean (John) Eugene, born October 21, 1934. John LaPerle went to the Memorial High School in Stony Plain; he married Colleen Meehan on July 14, 1972 and together they had one daughter, Laurielle (Hainsworth), and one son, Laurier John.

SCOPE AND CONTENT: The records of the family are extensive and consists of photographs, correspondence, diaries and other personal papers, cookbooks and recipes, gardening, how-to and decorating magazines, books and booklets, biographical and genealogical papers, press clippings, school handbooks and other materials used or accumulated by Annie LaPerle as a teacher. Also included are records from the Winterburn Golden Agers and Winterburn Women's Institute, store and farm cash books and statements of accounts and other records documenting daily activities, as well as greeting and sympathy cards, maps, slides and 8 mm film reels.
The photographs, slides and films depict the LaPerle family and friends, the Winterburn Store, post office, house and other buildings, farming, farm machinery and crews, weddings and anniversaries, burials, churches and other buildings, cars, picnics, parties and leisure activities, students and schools, soldiers, First Nations people, Banff and Jasper, Edmonton and other places in Alberta, and the Edmonton Ski Club.
LANGUAGE NOTE: The material is in English and French
RELATED RECORDS: Other information pertaining to the LaPerle, LaRue and Lambert families can be found in the fonds Jeannine Goudreau (PR3378) and Bilodeau Family (PR3330) at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
GENERAL NOTE: For the French version of this description, click here.
Information for the biographical sketch is from the records.
RELATED FONDS: SL3336 (Fonds Famille LaPerle)
RELATED FILES: Display FileList
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