Just like a forward-looking, agile, and hard-working squirrel, this commercial sign was produced for J. B. Loranger, the owner of an ironwork and hardware store, probably for the first establishment located initially on rue Badeaux in Trois-Rivières, just after the fire of 1908.

A retail and wholesale merchant, Jean-Baptiste Loranger moved to rue des Forges. There is also a branch in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, on rue Notre-Dame, as of the 1930s.

In the 1921 Canadian census, Jean-Baptiste Loranger lived with his family on rue Plaisante in Trois-Rivières. He was 39 years old. His wife was Alma Hamel. They had two sons, Jules, who would die accidentally in June 1929, and Maurice. The couple also had four daughters: Cécile, Léonie, Jeanne (1916-2017), and Bernadette. The latter was born on January 21, 1918; she was a nun for 40 years with the Sœurs Grises de Nicolet. She died on April 12, 1980.

J. B. Loranger was also one of the commissioners of the Commission du Havre des Trois-Rivières in the early 1930s.

A street in Trois-Rivières honours the memory of this merchant, who was also a municipal councillor (1923-1929).

The donor is the fifth daughter of Jean-Baptiste Loranger. In 1947, Angèle Loranger (1921-2006) married (Joseph Camille Gilles Raynald) Rainald (sic) Godin (1910-1991), the son of Hector Godin, a coffin manufacturer, and Amanda Girard. Angèle Loranger was therefore the sister-in-law of Dr. Conrad Godin as well as watercolour artists Rollande Godin-Nobert and Berthe Godin-Crête.

Donation from Angèle Loranger Godin
Musée Pierre-Boucher Collection
1984 995 A