1. "Dr. Chagnon: Rats & Slander"
Posted by edisto on Jun-22nd-02 at 6:37 PM

The first volume of the "Victorian Vistas" series contains very little of interest about the Bordens.  However, various minor characters do make appearances here and there.  Dr. Chagnon, the Bordens' neighbor, was having a bad time of it ca. 1880.  There are two stories that mention him.
The first conccerns a three-month-old baby, residing on Borden Street, who was badly bitten by a rat during the night.  (As in the "Pied Piper" rhyme, "They bit the babies in their cradles.")  The infant was taken to Dr. Chagnon's office for treatment
Then in October 1881, Dr. Chagnon sued a Rev. Bedard for slander.  Damages of $20,000 were sought, and a convent and other buildings were attached.  (A convent?  This guy owned his own convent?)  It seems that the Rev. Bedard denounced "someone" from his pulpit, in terms that suggested he meant Dr. C., and forbade his parishioners' employing the doctor or buying drugs at his store.  He also refused to administer rites to ailing members of his parish unless they would sign an agreement not to patronize the doctor.  The reason for Bedard's conduct was supposedly that Dr. Chagnon had joined the Ancient Order of Foresters, a secret organization.

Fascinating stuff, Edisto!  There's quite a few web pages for the Ancient Order of Foresters which was an English organization which spread to the U.S.  It is apparently now defunct in the U.S.. I used the Google search engine at www.google.com

Edisto, do we know where Dr. Chagnon lived or where he had his office in 1880?

In your post #29, under topic "Lucy Collett", you mentioned he had only immigrated to Fall River in 1879.  So he must have been pretty new in town?

I don't think there's anything in "Victorian Vistas" about where the office was located.  He may well have been on Third Street at that time, since these people (whose baby was bitten by a rat!) lived on Borden. 
I have a niece who was bitten by a rat when she was small, but the circumstances were somewhat different.  My parents' cat, a Siamese, loved to roam in the tall grass of a nearby vacant lot.  One day she must have found a nice juicy rat in there.  She mauled it a bit and then dragged it up onto the porch as a "gift" for her owners.  My niece, who wasn't familiar with rats, found it on the porch and picked it up.  It wasn't dead, just stunned, and it promptly bit her.
Off to the pediatrician...

(Message last edited Jun-22nd-02  10:50 PM.)

I've been checking this computer for census records but didn't find what I needed, which would also be city directories for 1880.  They're all "B" in here...no "C"'s, for Chagnon.


I did find a cute map of the area around Bordens c.1883.
Note behind "our" house, a yard and buildings that extend toward where Chagnon's house would be(?), and it's marked "Le Beuf", or something "Beef" in French.  I can hardly make it out.
It doesn't SAY "Chagnon" on the map, but that might not mean anything...


Will try to "Attach" so anyone can make up their minds...
(If it's too much "K" it won't take the file)


(Message last edited Jun-23rd-02  4:19 AM.)

I guess it won't work...

(Message last edited Jun-23rd-02  4:24 AM.)

Reading on in "Victorian Vistas," I came to an account of Rev. Bedard's death, which occurred only a couple of years after the lawsuit.  He was only 42 years old and was described as owning a lot of mill stock.  There's a picture of him - quite a handsome man.  Not being Catholic myself, I'm not acquainted with too many Catholic priests, but somehow I don't think of them as owning mill stock, commercial buildings, and a convent.  Maybe times have changed!

Yes, Catholic priests and nuns are supposed to take a vow of poverty.  I guess that is why the Catholic religion is one of the richest in the world today. 

That vow of poverty is usually used by member of monastic orders (Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.). Ordinary parish priests do not take such vows (to my limited knowledge).

If the Catholic Church is "rich", how does that compare to any other organization (like Episcopalians or Orthodox?) who have a central authority that claims ownership to all buildings and land? By definition, owning the local parish real estate will make ANY large organization "rich" in land holdings, but not necessarily in income.

I think that supports my point.  I would have assumed that the church itself would have owned property, such as convents and maybe mill stock.  But an individual priest?  I don't think so...Incidentally, Rev Bedard lived a rich, full "life" even after his death.  Fourteen years later, his remains were disinterred and reburied in a more choice location.  He kept making the papers!

Rays, in the Roman Catholic church I was brought up in, we were told repeatedly the vows that the priests and nuns took.  But, a Reverand is a horse of a different color, or, I should say, religion.