Siméon Mondou.

Little value was placed on formal education, other than that received from an apprenticeship or hands-on skills acquired working the family farm. Yet Siméon was sent to school in LaPrairie, and from there, to the College de Montréal where he built a solid network of community leaders. By all accounts he remained proud of his French Canadian heritage.

Siméon married Mélina Leduc in Montréal on 13 May 1862. In the 1871 city directory he is listed as a bookkeeper. His older brother Paul and sister Edesse moved to Wisconsin that year and it appears that Siméon tried the new location at that time too. His name is in an ad in the Milwaukee Sentinel that same year as a passenger agent for Goodrich Transportation Company. According to the Milwaukee city directory he was boarding in a room at 476 Pierce where his brother Paul lived. It is unclear whether or not his wife was with him at this time but in any event he soon returned to Montréal where a record of burial is found for his son Alexandre on 13 June 1872.

Siméon, 39, a clerk, and Mélina, 40, are recorded in the 1881 census in the Saint-Lawrence ward of Montréal. Their daughter Marie, 16, a servant Elmire Godoin, and Napoleon Leduc, 19 (perhaps a relative of Mélina's) live with them.

Siméon held a prestigious position of secretary-treasurer of la Fabrique de Notre-Dame de Montréal. The volunteers in the organization were caretakers for the church's rich legacy of art, architecture, and history. While so engaged, he wrote Les premiers cimetières catholiques de Montréal about the first cemeteries in the city which was published in 1887 to favorable reviews.

In 1891 he was an agent for the largest insurance company in the city, Canada Life. He became the secretary of the commissioner of toll roads, followed by a stint as tax collector of the College of Physicians of the Province of Québec. At the same time he worked for the Phoenix Insurance Company of London, England.

The couple had nine children, though only one survived to adulthood. Marie Louise Clémence was born about 1865 and married Arsène Bernard, a well-known pharmacist, on 6 June 1886.

But death is jealous, and as if not one of Mr. Mondou's children were to survive, she came to claim her and, despite the most devoted and scholarly care, also won the day.

The death of her only surviving child on 8 June 1899 may have been too much for Mélina to bear for she died shortly after on 12 August. She and her daughter were buried in the Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Nieges.

Siméon remarried the following year on 27 January 1900. Hélèna Vermette was described as being a charming Canadienne with "superior intelligence." Siméon passed away on 17 December 1923 and was buried in Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Nieges. Hélèna joined him there 23 February 1945.