There have been few stories told of the man called Napoleon Lavallee that once owned the Carleton House in Carleton Place and then the Mississippi Hotel (The Grand Hotel), and I have often wondered why. The only picture of him we know of once hung on the wall of the Mississippi Hotel and now hangs on a wall in my home.. Yesterday I found a story about him and want to document it.
March 7th 1890- Almonte Gazette
N APOLEON LAVALLEE Called to Rest
A Resident of Carleton Place for Sixty Y ears—Sketch of His Life.
Few men in this county are better known than was the late Napoleon Lavallee, who passed away from earth on Tuesday morning last at four o’clock, aged 88. The Ottawa Citizen says: “At the moment of his death no one was present in his chamber, death not being then expected, but that the old man passed away all alone, his light going slowly out.”
Mr. Lavallee was born in the Province of Quebec on the 20th day of February, 1802. Very little is known of his early life. At fourteen years of age he left his home and began to paddle his own canoe. He had a strong and active -constitution, and from the very start of his independent career forged ahead in the face of obstacles which would have terrified and turned back a less indomitable spirit.
We first hear distinctly of him in the Canadian North-West about the year 1816, where he worked for the North-West Fur Company that subsequently was swallowed up by the Hudson’s Bay Company, for whom Mr. Lavallee continued to operate. At that time the most rapid of transits was accomplished by dog trains, and these the young adventurer handled with pride and skill. His intimacy with the country was so accurate that he could in recent years readily recall places and distances, astonishing railroad travellers by the mass of the geographical knowledge he possessed.
Leaving that country, he made his way to Toronto, where he worked at his trade as a cooper, and then pushed on down the Mississippi as far as New Orleans. At last he arrived in Ogdensburg, and seemed to settle down. A gentleman there, who was a friend of Mr. Bellows, then a merchant of many departments in Carleton Place, and our first postmaster, was asked if he knew of a good cooper, and recommended the young Paul and as the result was that Mr. Lavallee came to this spot, in the year 1830.
He worked with fidelity for Mr. Bellows a great many years, and then set up for himself, doing a tremendous business all over this country, making tens of thousands of flour and pork barrels, butter tubs and like articles, chiefly with his own strong skilled hands, during a portion of this period occupying the office of Government Inspector of Pork. His place of business then was in the shop now occupied by -Mr. Miner, which he built. He owned half of a lot there, and sold half of his half to Mr. Robert Bell.
Giving up his business, he bought the Carleton House, built by James Bell, and ran it until his old love for roving broke out furiously, and he made plans for a trip to California. He had married the Widow Paris (Sarah Coates), an amiable and athletic young woman. She had come to this country with her husband, Mungo Park Paris, whose father was a friend of the famous African explorer, and along with them were his brothers John and James Paris, David Pattie and Adam Beck. It was the cholera year that they landed in Montreal, and young Paris died. The widow came onto Carleton Place with the others of the group, and in the fall of 1833 married Mr. Lavallee.
When he resolved to go to California, she and her son Hugh Paris accompanied him, as well as a young man who had been clerking for Mr. McArthur. He took with him £200. They did not tarry long in California, but pushed on through South America, and finally wound up in Australia. Here they stayed number of years. One day a mine caved in, and Hugh and the clerk were smothered. Mrs. Lavallee could not endure to stay longer in that place of sorrow, and they came back home much poorer and the hotel business was resumed. Mr. Lavallee prospered all the time until the Carleton House became too small, and he had to find relief for the pressure by erecting a larger hotel, the Mississippi as it was when Mr. Mjcllquham bought it in 1883.
Lavallee joined Rev. Mr. Fairbairn’s church, 6th line Ramsay, in 1830, largely through his respect for his friend Mr. Robert Bell, who from the start was his guide, philosopher and friend, and managed for him for a period of sixty years his financial operations. The personality of no citizen has been so marked as that of Mr. Lavallee. He had no claims to any educational advantage.
He was simply a “plodder”—a plain, simple, honest man, who lived within a comparatively limited circle, but whose mind grasped the wide and varied questions of the day as conveyed to him by the lips of readers or narrators. He saw a great deal of the world—its glitter, pomp and show, as well as its dark trappings of misery and misfortune. Calm and cool as he was, he was beyond the reach of- temptation, and even as a youth, when thrown in the way of tempters he never allowed himself to find out whether there were within him the seeds of abnormal desires. He had the means to gratify any taste, however luxurious’ it might have been, but he avoided experiments calculated to develop unhealthy’ characteristics with a philosophical contemplation of the worth of the results to be achieved. He measured every thing and founded his decisions on merit always.
There were no children of the union, but through the years a number were adopted and well educated. Many incidents of the busy life now no more might be mentioned, and the popularity of the deceased with commercial travellers, particularly with respect to his powers of entertainment in the line of narratives from his own affluent experience. The history of his life is a useful lesson of inspiration to all young men, in that he showed how, without an education, equipped only with the qualities of honesty, industry and perseverance, he commanded success in an ‘adverse world’ and secured a considerable fortune.
Mr. Bell was present at his marriage sixty years ago , when Napoleon was in the full bloom of youth. He saw him yesterday as he lay in his coffin, and to him he seemed more attractive in death than on that day of joy so many years ago. Mrs. Lavallee is very feeble. She was just able to go to the room Tuesday to look upon the face of the dead.
Related reading:
The Mystery Streets of Carleton Place– Where was the First Train Station?
| Name | Napoleon Lavallee | |||
| Event Type | Death | |||
| Event Date | 04 Mar 1890 | |||
| Event Place | Carleton Place, Lanark, Ontario | |||
| Gender | Male | |||
| Age | 88 | |||
| Birthplace | Quebec | |||
| Birth Year (Estimated) | 1802 | |||
Perth Courier, Jan. 15, 1892
*LaVallee—Died, at Carleton Place on the 8th Jan., Sarah Coates LaVallee, relict (widow) of the late Mr. Napoleon LaVallee, aged 82.
1851 Carleton Place Business Directory
Alphabetical List Of Professions, Trades, &C.
Pattie, David, carpenter and builder.
Bell, R., & Co., tannery.
BELL, ROBERT, & CO., dealers in dry goods, groceries, crockery, hardware, &c.
Bell, Robert, M.P.P., agent for marriage licenses, town reeve, and postmaster.
Bells & Rosemond, grist, saw, and oat mills.
CARLETON PLACE HERALD, weekly, James C. Poole, publisher.
Constable, Rev. T. W. Wesleyan Methodist. County Agricultural Society, Robert Bell, secretary and treasurer.
Duncan, James, blacksmith and axe factory. Equitable Fire Assurance Company R. Bell & Co., agents.
DUNNET, GEORGE, dealer in dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, drugs, &c.
Fuller, Samuel, foundry.
Galvin, Patrick, tailor.
Graham, John, wagon and sleigh maker.
Gray, Rev. Peter, Free Church.
Halcroft, Rev. L., Baptist.
James, Cameronian.
Johnston, Robert, general store.
Lavallee, Napoleon, hotelkeeper and inspector of beef and pork.
M’ARTHUR, A., & CO., general store, dry goods, groceries, hardware, crockery, &c.
M’Gregor, Duncan, blacksmith and axe factory.
M’Laren, Robert, Robert Burns tavern
M ‘Donald, Allen, wool-carding and cloth-dressing mills.
Moffat, William, carpenter and builder.
Murphy, Michael, tavern keeper.
National Loan Fund Life Assurance Company,
Nelson, Hugh, saddler and harness maker.
Nelson, Johnson, classical and commercial school.
Peden, William, general store.
Pittard, Joseph, wagon and sleigh maker.
Poole, James C., clerk of division court.
POOLE, JAMES C., printing office.
Pyne, Rev. A., Church of England.
R. Bell & Co., agents.
ROSEMOND, JAMES, woolen manufactory.
Wilson, Rev. Richard, Wesleyan Methodist.
Wilson, William, M. D.
Mungo Park Paris
| Name | Mungo Park Paris | |||
| Gender | Male | |||
| Christening Date | 31 Mar 1800 | |||
| Christening Place | , STOW, MIDLOTHIAN, SCOTLAND | |||
| Birth Date | 28 Feb 1800 | |||
| Father’s Name | James Paris | |||
| Mother’s Name | Mary Pringle | |||
| Name | Hugh Parris | |||
| Gender | Male | |||
| Age | 19 | |||
| Birth Year (Estimated) | 1832 | |||
| Birthplace | Canada | |||
| Province | Canada West (Ontario) | |||
| District | Lanark County | |||
| District Number | 19 | |||
| Sub-District | Beckwith | |||
| Sub-District Number | 175 | |||
| Page Number | 93 | |||
| Affiliate Film Number | C_11731 | |||
Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum ·
Mary Josephine Lavallee McDiarmid 1860 – 1935
lindaseccaspina 
So I am assuming that is how the street names of Napoleon st and Sarah st came into fruition. They are both side to side of each other. Regards, Tim.
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Tim, yes as told in my blog The Mystery Streets of Carleton Place– Where was the First Train Station? Linked above:
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Reblogged this on lindaseccaspina.
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