The Labattes were among the Métis families who were relocated to Penetanguishene from Drummond Island following the British ceding the island to the United States after the War of 1812.
Antoine Labatte, son of Métis War of 1812 veteran Louis George Labatte and his Métis wife Julia Frances Grouette, later recounted details of their family’s 1828 journey to Penetanguishene:
“We left Drummond Island in August, in a bateau, towed by the schooner Alice… We came by the outer channel, past Tobermory, and landed at Cedar Point in Tiny, the same month.”
They were accompanied by other Métis families that together possessed a fierce determination to maintain their community and find a better life for themselves along the shores of Georgian Bay.
“Eighteen persons came in the bateau, besides provisions and household effects. There were six of the Labatte family, four of the Grouette family, Antoine Recollet and child, Francois Recollet and child, Jessie Solomon, and an Indian named Jacobe.”
The Labattes’ journey did not end with their arrival in Penetanguishene. In 1834, as the winter weather loomed over southern Georgian Bay, the Labattes were shipwrecked near Christian Island, and took shelter in what is now Thunder Beach. As the ice thawed the during following spring, the Labattes made Thunder Beach their permanent home.
“Antoine Lacourse, a fisherman from Penetanguishene, and some friends, came to take us back to Penetanguishene. We started, but the ice was so thick it took three men with sticks in the front of the bateau to break it. We got as far as Thunder Bay (Tiny)…We built a place to winter in, then built a log house, and lived on the bay ever since.”
The Labatte family’s resilience and enduring legacy within the Georgian Bay Métis Community remains commemorated by the Labatte House in Thunder Beach, which still stands today.
Comments