The French-Canadian Interview Project (Kankakee Area, Illinois, Local History): Background,
Acknowledgements, Sponsorship, and Dedication By Dr. James F.
Paul Copyright Revised November 2005 His great grandmother's brother was Geronimo. He wanted to tell us about the dead person buried under the tree in his front yard. She rode a horse to school, and her father paid the livery man $1 a year to stable the horse. For the senior class trip, they went to Rock Creek at the Kankakee River State Park. These were some of the comments my students made after their first contact with the descendants of French-Canadians whom they were about to interview. Few experiences in my more than thirty years of college teaching have given me the joy I felt when my students became connected with their community and local history during this project. The interview project was conceived about two years ago when local historian and fellow Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society member Vic Johnson asked me to consider interviewing descendants of the French-Canadians in our community-before it was too late. He had completed several French-Canadian oral histories about twelve years ago, but he needed help. I delayed my response, but then Mr. Johnson reported that another potential interviewee had died. Therefore, I decided to include a "French-Canadian Interview Project" in my three fall semester 2000 Western Civilization courses-two HIST 1514 (to 1815) and one HIST 1524 (1815 to present). At first, I set this component of the semester grade at 15%. Later when I realized the amount of work that would be involved in the interview project, I raised the weight of the grade to 20%. When the fall 2000 semester came to a close, I provided an "interview project" grade evaluation form for each student to complete. The students stated the amount of work they invested in the project. The level of work corresponded with a self-imposed grade on the project. If a team of students were to complete certain responsibilities on the project, I asked them to assign a grade to the other student team members. I did not eliminate any of the regular requirements in my Western Civilization courses. A minimum ten-page interpretive problem paper, class participation, seven quizzes, a midterm exam, and a final exam comprise the other requirements for my Western Civilization courses. In other words, the interview project was added to existing course requirements. In September, I acquainted my students with the French-Canadian aspect of our local history by introducing them to historical reenactment, local historical societies, and web site searches. The Kankakee Community College Cultural Diversity Committee had already planned a French and Indian re-enactment encampment at the college on September 22. The students were to interview the re-enactors and complete a questionnaire. The students who were unable to be on campus for the reenactment were given alternate assignments which included attending the Feast of the Hunter's Moon in West Lafayette, Indiana on October 14-15; visiting a local historical society; or conducting an internet search which listed web sites related to local history from the 1600s to the early 1800s. Realizing that students today are multi-talented when it comes to computer technology and skills, I set an expectation for the project: an off-line web page ready historical documentary by the end of the semester. My expectation for the French-Canadian Interview Project had gone through a metamorphosis from a simple audio taped oral interview to web pages on the Internet. These pages would offer the complete interview transcript, brief biography of each interviewee, family photographs, family trees, family documents, maps, links to area historical societies and newspapers, local history references, chronology of local history, and traditional French-Canadian recipes. The students indicated their technical experiences and capabilities on the appropriate forms. From these responses, I could create an organizational chart with individual job responsibilities. In late September, I dedicated the project to the memory of Donald Zeglis--who in the mid 1980s introduced me to the value of local history--and laid out a project schedule with an organizational chart (see Donald Zeglis's obituary). Vic Johnson had given me a list of eight individuals who had agreed to be interviewed, so I mailed an introductory letter to the interviewees on September 29, 2000. After some adjustments-three potential interviewees declined for various reasons, but one more was added-each of the three Western Civilization classes would have two descendants of the French-Canadians to interview. The French-Canadian descendants who agreed to be a part of this project are Bernice (Fortin) Bissaillon, Cecile LaMarre Enright, Sister Madeleine LaMarre, Lenore Pallissard, Leland Ponton, and Anne Richard. Throughout October, I distributed articles about local history and related web sites to my students. By the end of October, the interpretive problem paper deadline was past for all three Western Civilization classes. Therefore, the time to focus on the French-Canadian Interview Project had arrived. I mailed my second letter with a permission form to the interviewees on October 20, and followed up with a phone call to each interviewee in which I promised a complimentary copy of the videotaped interview. As Director, I set an agenda of activities for October 30 to November 10 and a checklist for November 13 to December 7. Please appreciate that the time to create these instructions was considerable. Early on in the project, I realized that I had to assume the responsibilities of the Director position. In late October, I distributed software (provided by the KCC Humanities/Social Sciences Division) included zip disks, 35 MM film, blank CDs, audiocassettes, and videotapes to the students. A special expression of gratitude goes to my division chairperson Lou Anderson for his support throughout this project. Ideally, I wanted to extend my good wishes to each interview team and interviewee right before the actual interview, but after getting hopelessly lost in rural St. Anne on a dark November 12 Sunday evening, I gave up this notion. After all, this was the students' project, and they should have free reign without my hovering. Actually this "hands off" policy has worked very well. The students have assumed a unique ownership of their work and responsibility in the project. They informed me that they really enjoyed the first contact visit-before the actual interview session. Two students were going to bring flowers to separate interviewees on the day of the interview. This project has allowed me to connect with the students on another level-somewhere in between the regular classroom professor-student relationship-a level that allowed them to talk with me as an equal about their project adventures and new awareness of local history. Every class session begins with an update on the project. One interview team reported that they were glad that I placed a Video Director and Audio Director on all teams because their interviewee was less talkative in front of the video camera. In early December, I presented this project at the annual meeting of the Illinois State Historical Society Symposium in Springfield, Illinois. One commentator at the symposium said that the work on this project was "cutting edge." During the winter holiday break I personally delivered a gift from the KCC Humanities and Social Science Division to each of the interviewees. This was a delightful experience since I and four of the interviewees had never met each other in person. During the spring 2001 semester, my next three Western Civilization classes carried on the project. The first hurdle was that the interviews had to be transcribed. Upon the advice of my colleagues Steve Liehr and Rochelle Kunkle, I solicited volunteers to transcribe the interviews from Professor Kunkle's transcription class. Deep expressions of gratitude go to the transcribers: Rhonda Bridges, Linda Burdick, Liz McDermott, Shirley Neal, Patty Rogers, Leatha Romine, Kim Spivey, and Janice Williams. By mid semester, the transcriptions had been completed. However, many words were unclear to the transcribers--e.g., French works, geographical reverences, and family members' names. So, one of the new responsibilities for my Western Civilization students was to complete the transcribed interview by visiting each interviewee. Other students were assigned to organize the photo gallery, write concise biographies, and create family trees for each interviewee; collect traditional French-Canadian recipes, create maps with geographical sites referred to in the interviews, and organize the web pages with links to other related web sites, local history references, and local history chronology. Toward the end of spring 2001 semester, one student, Scott Zumwalt, took charge of putting the web pages together. This monumental task consumed many hours during spring and summer. By August, Scott was transferring to Illinois State University. So, I took over, and continued to build the web pages. The KCC Computer Services Department has been very helpful in completing this task--I am especially grateful for the counsel, advice, and programming skills of Jose Hernandez. By mid fall semester 2001, I had recruited my new Western Civilization students to review, critique, and proof read the web pages. They have mopped up some unfinished components and planned the ceremony for the grand opening of the web pages on Friday December 7, 2001(click here to view the grand opening program)Kankakee Community College hosted the Grand Opening of The French-Canadian Interview Project web pages on December 7, 2001—sponsored by the Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society, the KCC Cultural Diversity Committee, the KCC Humanities/Social Science Division, and my Western Civilization course students (click here for college publicity about the grand opening). The web page highlights consisted of transcribed interviews, family/friend photo galleries, family trees, biographies, recipes, and other items related to six local individuals of French-Canadian descent: Bernice (Fortin) Bissaillon, Cicele (LaMarre) Enright, Sister Madeleine LaMarre, Lenore (Duby) Pallissard, Leland Ponton, and Anne (Raymond) Richard. The web pages are located at www.kcc.cc.il.us/hss/jpaul/french%20canadian/.
The Grand Opening group picture--from left to right: Leland Ponton, Anne (Raymond) Richard seated, Bernice (Fortin) Bissaillon, Dr. Paul, Sister Madeleine LaMarre, Lenore (Duby) Pallissard seated, and Cicele (LaMarre) Enright. In 2002, Western Civilization students conducted interviews and collected historical information (family/friend photographs, family trees, and biographies) related to ten more local individuals of French-Canadian descent: Eunice Allain Dykstra, Ambrose Dyon, Cleva (Hubert) Dyon, Duane Bertrand, Junetta (Denault) Bertrand, Ardelle (Denault) Ommen, Mimi Raiche, Leon Issert, Elmira (Smith) Wilkey, and Suzanne (Smith) Pruchnicki. Video and audiotapes of the interviews were made. In addition, students collected and saved interviewee photographs with captions, family trees, and biographies on multiple zip disks, CDs, and floppy disks. A problem developed when I was unable to proceed with putting the information on the web pages because there was no one to transcribe the interviews—which were the core of each person’s history. KCC Professor Rochelle Kunkle’s students had transcribed the original six interviews as extra credit in her transcription course. In 2003-04, along with my Western Civilization students’ and the KCC Vice-President of Institutional Advancement Rick Manuel’s help, I completed a grant proposal which was submitted to the Illinois Humanities Council for a $10,000 grant. The money would have been used in part or whole to pay for the interview transcribers. In late summer 2004, the IHC stated that the grant proposal was meritorious, but there were insufficient funds to award my proposal. Instead of submitting a new proposal to the IHC in 2004-05 which may have been denied again, I decided to ask my Western Civilization students to do the transcribing. Once I divided the lengthy interviews into manageable 5-6 minute clips for student teams to complete (each student would transcribe one minute or less of the interview), the transcription work was manageable. In 2004-05, the Western Civilization students completed the typed transcription of the interviews related to Ambrose Dyon, Cleva (Hubert) Dyon, Eunice Allain Dykstra, Duane Bertrand, Junetta (Denault) Bertrand, and Ardelle (Denault) Ommen. In 2004-05, the KCC Director of Information Technology/Alternative Delivery Jeff Bathe taught me how to use new video digital technology to create videotape clips of each interviewee speaking about her/his life and explaining the photographs in the family/friend photo gallery. After Jeff provided the hardware and software, I went to the interviewees’ homes and videotaped them speaking about their lives and the family/friend photographs. I then downloaded the video clips from the camera, rendered, and created Quick Time Movies using a Final Cut Pro program. A deep expression of gratitude is extended to Jeff for all the insights and technical innovation which he helped me to inject into this project. In 2004-05, I edited and organized the family trees, biographies, and overall web pages with hyperlinks for Ambrose Dyon, Cleva (Hubert) Dyon, Eunice (Allain) Dykstra, and Duane Bertrand. In April 2005, KCC hosted the opening of the web pages for Ambrose Dyon, Cleva (Hubert) Dyon, and Eunice (Allain) Dykstra. The Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society, the KCC Cultural Diversity Committee, the KCC Humanities/Social Science Division, and my Western Civilization course students sponsored this event. During 2005-06, I have added nine more interviewees to the web pages, most of which have Quick Time Movies technology: Duane Bertrand, Junetta (Denault) Bertrand, Ardelle (Denault) Ommen, Mimi Raiche, Leon Issert, Elmira (Smith) Wilkey, Suzanne (Smith) Pruchnicki, Adrien Richard, and Roy Arseneau. My Western Civilization students in 2005-06 transcribed the oral interviews related to the above interviewees. In April 2006, I digitally videotaped "clips" of Cecile (LaMarre) Enright and Sister Madeleine LaMarre speaking about their lives. In late June and early July 2006, Assistant Director of Information Technology/Alternative Delivery, Jessica Fehland downloaded video segments from the 2000 interviews with Bernice (Fortin) Bissaillon, Lenore (Duby) Pallissard, Leland Ponton, Anne (Raymond) Richard, and a 1983 speech of Adrian Richard. I thank Jessica for her work because this now allows the web page viewers with a high speed connection to view and listen to all the interviewees speak about their lives. I extend my gratitude to Vic Johnson for his proofreading and corrections to the Adrien Richard 1983 speech transcript and the 1988 Roy Arseneau/Adrien Richard interview transcript. These web pages offer local, state, and national historians insights about the French-Canadian immigrants in northeastern Illinois. Indeed, this project will continue to not only benefit my Western Civilization students as they learn local history during the transcription work (the writing of history), but also benefit KCC as the KCC Cultural Diversity Committee, local historical societies, and local community as a whole thank the college for preserving an essential part of local history. At KCC, we can all take pride in this project and welcome every opportunity to inform the public about these web pages. Finally, this project may also offer a model for documentation of family history to those who access the web pages. Upon completion of the project, I sent the web page address link to Professor Tim Draper who sponsors http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~illinois/. This web site links historians across the country.
Deep
expressions of gratitude go to my wife Patricia, daughter
Christina, and her husband Andy Bradley for the advice,
counsel, and web development of these pages. We
hope you enjoy what we have created! Please e-mail
us at <jpaul@kcc.edu> with your comments. |
