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- Prudent Joseph Blais-Blair (9 Nov 1825-4 Jan 1916) was born in St-Louis-de-Lotbiniere, Quebec, Canada to parents Joseph Blais (1791-1864) and Marie Josephte Larrive (1794-1874).
On 22 Apr 1850 in St-Louis-de-Lotbiniere, he wed Odelie Marie Bergeron (16 Aug 1827-abt 1892). Her parents were Antoine Bergeron (1787-1863) and Marie Marguerite Lemay dite Poudrier (1796-1878). Prudent was listed on the wedding registration as a “navigateur” (ship navigator).
In 1865, Prudent and Odelie and their five children (Louis, David, Andrew, Napoleon and Lumina and her husband Telesphore Picotte) moved to the Chippewa Falls area to settle. They as well as other family and friends from the Lotbiniere area were among the first pioneers to settle in Chippewa County.
In the US 1885 Census of Chippewa Falls, it lists Prudent as running a boarding house. This was most likely for the men working in the lumber mills in that area.
Odelie died sometime in 1892 according to her gravestone. Prudent was listed in the US 1900 Census for Chippewa Falls as “widower"and living with eldest daughter, Alphonsina (Blais-Blair) Meinen and her husband, William Meinen and family. Prudent was 78 years old at that time.
In 1911, Prudent applied for a homestead for his son, Louis P. in Kilwinning, Saskatchewan, Canada NE Section 12, Township 47, Range 5, West of the 3rd Meridian (2127929).
Sometime before 1915, Prudent left Saskatchewan and returned to Chippewa Falls. On 4 Jan 1916, he died in Chippewa Falls at age 90 of “apoplexy” (a venerable term for a stroke or cerebrovascular accident).
On Prudent's death certificate, it indicated that he was buried in Chippewa Falls on 8 Jan 1916, but it doesn't list the cemetery. It is most likely Hope Cemetery (Roman Catholic) - the same cemetery for his wife, Odelie.
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