Tonnelier.

The Paul Mondoux family lived on Chemin de Saint-Jean in LaPrairie in 1831. The road ran in front of the church heading toward the Saint-Lawrence river. He did not own the home he resided in with his family of ten. Paul was a tonnelier or cooper. A young man served as an apprentice for six or seven years to master the necessary skills to make sturdy casks without the use of any glues or liners. In time Paul would see that his sons learned the trade.

Coopers often specialized in the type of cask that was produced in their cooperage, or shop. Hogshead, barrel or firkin refer to the capacity of the cask. For instance, a kilderkin holds about half the amount of ale that a barrel contains. Dry casks were employed to transport dry goods such as grains or products like nails. A slack-cooper built a dry-tight cask which kept out moisture and was used to store flour or gunpowder. White coopering involved the production of butter churns and tubs so important to daily life. The wet cooper had the particular skill necessary to build a cask which was tightly sealed to store liquids such as water or wine. The wet cooper would know the importance of not breaking the grain of the wood to insure the cask would be watertight.

Paul chose wood that was free of knots with a nice straight grain. Denser pieces cut from the center of the tree were aged for a number of years to make casks to store liquids. Woods like oak would impart a tasty flavor to some wines which might not be welcome when storing butter. Resistance to salt made poplar a favorite for storing salted fish.

The cooper used a short maul as a club to strike a curved froe to split the rounded staves for the barrel from a block of wood. A hand adze was employed to smooth the interior and a down-shave finished the exterior. Paul likely had a hooper working with him to form the iron rings necessary to hold the staves in place. After drying, the ends of the stave were tapered to fit into the narrower chime hoops positioned at either end of the barrel. A second iron hoop was added farther down to further secure the two dozen or so staves. This stage was known as mise en rose or setting the rose since the splayed staves resembled a flower with petals reaching out. The cask was then fired on a brazier while doused with a wet mop to steam the wood so that the staves could be bent to form the characteristic bulge in the center.