Hugues Picard dit LaFortune.

A New Recruit.

The French colony was bracketed on the one hand by apathy from its mother country across the Atlantic versus keen interest from the Iroquois and the British expanding their territories from the south on the other. Two settlers sought to bolster the holding and went to France seeking men who were skilled tradesmen, could defend Ville-Marie (Montréal) and would perhaps start a family to cement the French presence. They would assemble la grand recrue de 1653. Several of our ancestors were part of this effort, including Guillaume Chartier, Jeanne Soldé (one of the few women on board), and Honoré Danis.

Hugues Picard, son of Gabriel Picard and Michelle Clavier, fit the bill. The 26 year old scieur de long hailed from Bretagne. The voyage was fraught with peril; indeed, their first ship was so leaky it had to be abandoned on an island off the coast of La Rochelle, France. He perhaps felt lucky to be alive as he took the dit name of La Fortune.

Scieur de long.

Long sawyers worked in pairs, cutting tree trunks lengthwise into planks. The log was set up on a trestle, or spanned a pit that was dug underneath. The blades, set in large, rectangular ash or maple frames, were made to cut in both directions.

The box man stood below, wearing a large hat to keep the rain of sawdust off his face, while the tiller man worked the long pit saw from above. They alternated pulling the heavy blade through the wood. The tiller man had the advantage of gravity while his partner had to draw upwards. The box man guided the saw to produce a board with an even thickness. He was often the stronger of the two, and the one responsible for the quality of the plank.

The planks and beams they produced were used to build boats in ville de Québec, as well as homes and some furniture.

Militia.

Hugues Picard was a member of the Milice de la Saint-Famille, responsible for the defense of the colony until le régiment de Carignan-Salières arrived in 1665. He served in the same unit as our ancestor Jacques Beauvais dit St-Gemme, in the 12th Escouade (squad) in Ville-Marie. The militia lost very few of their number during their term of service.