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River Bourgeois is just a few miles east of Louisdale, and a shorter distance from St. Peter's.
River Bourgeois holds an annual festival on the Labour Day weekend. Historical walks through different parts of River Bourgeois have included Boyd's Lane and Thibeauville Road/Grimes Lane, the South Side and Richards Pond Road. Eugenie & Damien Burke's property has been included, as has the property Fred Burke owned before moving to Louisdale.
The River Bourgeois CAP site, a community website, can be found here... Here is a direct link to the site's archive of the River Bourgeois newsletter "River Roundup".
A detailed map showing Isle Madame and Lennox Passage, and a small portion of the Cape Breton mainland.
Eugenie and sister Maggie on their property in River Bourgeois.
This photo shows the property the Burkes had in River Bourgeois - the middle house is Alfred's, the right-most belonged to Damien and Eugenie...
This photo shows the "south side" of River Bourgeois. The house with the porch belonged to Celeste Anne and Peter Landry. It has been extensively expanded and renovated, and their granddaughter Laurie and her family live in it now (in 2007). The small building behind it was Eugenie and Damien's house previously. It was moved from its original site when Eugenie died.
Peter and Celeste's son Leo and family live in the house on the left (in 2007) - you can just see its roof overtop of the fishing tackle shed at the water's edge.
The house to the right, with what appears to be an open door, at one time belonged to Henry and Emily Anne Fougere (and daughter Isabelle).
This is how the area where the grandmother's house stood looks today - on a visit paid by Theresa, her husband Fred Longhurst and son Cam, in the summer of 1998. The property is no longer a farm - it is overgrown with evergreens and shrubbery. The only indication that a house stood on the property is a hole in the ground where the root cellar would have been. Once you get past the trees and onto the cliff edge leading down to the water, the view expands to reveal a landscape that would have been quite similar to the view 100 years ago. The property is now owned by "an American".
Notes from Anne Landry, great granddaughter of Eugenie and Damien Burke... "The original homestead on the pointe a Bouleau (as they called this area in River Bourgeois at that time) is an empty lot next door to my late Uncle Anthony's home. The porch of the original homestead was moved and became a daytime living quarters for Eugenie when she came to live with Celeste and Peter after Damien's death. She would sleep in the main house but during the day she had her own kitchen/living space."
"After Eugenie died, my father hauled the house over and added it to his property as a work shed. It eventually had to be torn down. There was an original wall cupboard hanging in the new shed. I have all the glass mugs and the top of an old glass butter dish that used to be in it. I also have the chair Eugenie used when she was in her "daytime" house. Because it was the porch it had a low ceiling so they'd cut the legs down on the chair to lower it as they'd done for the table she had in there. I found the chair in Mom and Dad's basement years ago and stripped all the layers of paint off it. One can tell it's old as it has no nails, just wooden pegs holding it together. (Someone) unfortunately used it as a stand to cut things on, and there are deep gouges in the seat. I use it now as a plant stand."
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