Albert Rosaire Garneau, the son of Edouard Joseph Garneau and Rose-Anna Croteau and the fifth child of fourteen, was born October 9th, 1904 in St. Fortunat, Wolfe Co., QC. He was baptized the day of his birth and his Godparents were his maternal uncle Albert Croteau, and his paternal aunt Virginie Garneau.
Albert's family were farmers in the St. Fortunat area. They worked a Maple Sugar Co-Op within their community and yearly sugar and syrup production was a time the community looked forward to at the local Sugar-Shack.
In 1918 the Spanish flu pandemic hit the area and many small communities in Quebec were almost wiped out. Albert's mother Rose-Anna sent her fourteen year old son Albert, and thirteen year old daughter Yvonne donned with necklaces of garlic and camphor around to check on neighbors. The outside of their home as well was decorated with strings of garlic and camphor for assumed protection from the evil virus. The Garneau family would come through this terrible time in history unscathed.
In his younger years, Albert worked in logging camps and sawmills as a tree feller and sawyer, and on the rivers of Quebec as a log driver, but his specialty was the art of saw sharpening. He worked at various sawmill camps where he learned about the lumber and sawmill industry and techniques of sharpening in particular.
In the spring on 1923 at the age of18, Albert moved with his family to Rollinsford, New Hampshire where work was plentiful during the textile industry boom. Albert continued to work in the lumber industry in the area while many of his family worked in the textile mills.
In 1929 he worked his way west in search of his older brother Emile who had preceded him to Alberta, Canada. Over the next ten years he worked at sawmill camps throughout Alberta and BC, finally setting up his own sawmill, first in the Drayton Valley area, and finally settling at Brule in the foothills of the Rockies.
Albert hired Daisy Davis as a "bull-cook" in 1941 and in May, 1942 they were married. They had 3 daughters who grew up in the Brule area.
Albert filled lumber contracts for the government through the building of the Alaska Highway and throughout WW2. He employed between 40 and 50 locals and during the war had 32 German prisoners of war working at his sawmill camp, many of whom returned to work in the area after the war because of the good treatment they had received while working in the camps during the war.
In 1958 Albert built a home in nearby Hinton and the family moved there. He contracted for North West Pulp and Paper over the next few years. Then, "for seven summers" he worked at Miette Hot Springs Campground as Campground Supervisor for Parks Canada. Daisy worked alongside him as Camp Registrar during some of that time. During retirement he continued to work for Parks Canada, sharpening saw blades, fashioning axe handles and doing other odd woodworking jobs. He built log cabins including one for a trap line he operated for many years. He was very knowledgeable regarding trapping, skinning, curing and tanning hides, as well as about wildlife habits and plant life species. In his later years he enjoyed having coffee at the Timberland restaurant while conversing in French with friends.
Albert Garneau passed away on the 13th of July 1984. The service was held at the Hinton United Church which was filled to overflowing for this much respected old-time Hinton and area Resident. His ashes were spread over Brule Mountain.