Pierrot Robichaud, second child of Jean Robichaud, was born in Memramcook in 1799. Shortly after his birth, his parents moved to Inkerman. Pierrot married Rosalie Arsenault in 1824 and the couple had twelve children.
After he got married, or possibly before, Pierrot built a house to shelter his future family. However, after several years and his family growing, he built a new home circa 1845, the one found at the Acadian Historical Village.
Pierrot was a very active man with a keen business sense. First a farmer, in 1829 he owned two oxen, grew hay, potatoes, wheat, barley and oats. He also owned a horse, as he carried goods for his neighbors to Shippagan, a village located six miles from his home.
We know that as early as 1882 Pierrot started an account book in his own name. in addition to being a farmer, Pierrot was a carpenter and a supplier of materials, the most common being wood. Thus, Pierrot carried business with the William Fruing company’s store in Pointe-Alexandre, on Lamèque Island and he is an average customer, with purchases of £4 per year.
Pierrot died on December 31, 1886.
When his son Jules died in 1894, it was his wife, Esther Boudreau, who inherited his father’s house. Esther Boudreau died in 1945 and left the property to her son Jude by will. As he had died five years previously (1940), the will was invalid. The heirs then signed the property to their sister Angèle Robichaud, daughter of Esther Boudreau and Jules Robichaud. The latter being single, upon her death in 1966 she bequeathed the property to her nephew, Jules Robichaud, son of Michel and Clara Robichaud. It was Jules (died in 1992) who sold Pierrot Robichaud’s ancestral home to the Acadian Historic Village in the early 1970s.
In 1906, Jude decided to build a new house and it was from this time that the Robichauds abandoned the old house built by Pierrot. The old house probably served as a warehouse for Jude, who was an agent for the Singer Manufacturing Company. He sold sewing mills, spare parts, thread, needles, etc. He also sold different products such as butter churns, frying pans, milk separators, etc. The house and buildings were said to be filled to capacity with various goods. He was quite well off, because during the construction of the Inkerman church in the 1920s, he paid half the cost of the altars and other ornaments, that is to say a sum of 1,500 $!
Jude probably lived in this house, but was never officially the owner, the owner being his mother, Esther.
For several years, the Robichaud house also served as an annex to the barn, then as a carpentry workshop for Jules M. Robichaud. He even had the building electrified to use his work tools.
The Robichaud farm, as presented at the Acadian Historic Village, is made up of a house, a spacious barn, a grain shed and a root cellar.
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