DROUIN,
JOSEPH OCTAVE, son of Jerome and Julia Gilbert Drouin, was born at St.
Mary, Province of Quebec, in August, 1847. Being an orphan when seven years
of age, he was placed under the care of an uncle, who owned an extensive
shoe manufactory. At fourteen years of age, he began to learn the shoemaker's
trade, serving an apprenticeship of four years at one dollar per month
and board. In the spring of 1866, he came to St. Johnsbury without a word
of English on his tongue and with only $1.75 in his pocket. He went to
work at his trade for H. A. Mooney. Mr. Drouin decided to learn the English
language at once, and to accomplish this result more speedily engaged board
at the old Passumpsic House, then kept by Mr. Remick, and remained seven
years, until in 1871, he married Marie Richard of Stanfold, P. Q.
In
1874, Mr. Drouin rose from the shoemaker's bench to become a partner in
the firm of Thompson & Drouin. After several business changes, in 1877,
he bought the dry goods and grocery business of Fred Boucher in the adjoining
store of the same block, added boots and shoes, ran this combination until
1881, when he sold the grocery stock, and bought the block for $5,250.
Having fitted up the building in good style, he conducted a large business
in the boot and shoe line until 1887, when he sold out the stock to O.
S. Abbott; and went into the lumber business, in Victory. He carried on
this business about six years, handling from a million and a half to three
million feet of lumber annually, employing from twenty-five to fifty men,
was his own superintendent and made the business a decided financial success.
In 1892
his block was burned, involving a loss of many thousand dollars, a severe
disaster, but he did not despair, and soon began the erection of his present
four-story brick block, fronting seventy-seven feet on Railroad street
and with a depth of one hundred feet. Complications arose that involved
expensive litigation and repairs, and he was strongly advised to make a
compromise with his creditors, but with characteristic honesty and courage,
he determined to “win out,” and he has labored steadily and successfully
to that end.
Mr. Drouin
carries an extensive stock of groceries and boots and shoes in a part of
his block, and with the assistance of his sons caters to a large trade.
Mr. Drouin owns a large lumber dressing mill in Paddock Village; also two
large tenement houses on Concord avenue and Railroad street; also extensive
property on Lake View avenue, Lowell, Massachusetts.
Mr. Drouin
is a highly respected citizen, has served as a village trustee and is the
honorary president of the St. Jean Baptiste D'Amerique society. The children
of Joseph O. and Marie (Richard) Drouin are Joseph Edward, who is his father's
assistant in business, Mrs. Georgiana Painchaud of Lebanon, New Hampshire,
Mrs. Mary Jane Lemerise of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Dr. John A. Drouin
of Burlington, Arthur, pharmaceutical student, Lucy, and Alphonse Drouin.
Source:
Successful Vermonters, William H. Jeffrey, E. Burke, Vermont, The Historical
Publishing Company, 1904, page 90-91.
Prepared
by Tom Dunn April 2005
|
