Joseph-Napoléon Bureau was the son of Jacques Bureau and Françoise Deveau. He was born on March 15, 1827, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. He began his studies at the Séminaire de Nicolet (1839-1847) before studying law.

Joseph-Napoléon practiced as a lawyer, first as president of the Bar, then as president of the General Council of the Bar and deputy attorney general in the district of Trois-Rivières.

He was also interested in politics. In 1874, he ran in the district of Trois-Rivières to sit in the House of Commons. He was also the president of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society. In 1872, then again in 1877, he was elected mayor of Trois-Rivières. In addition, he participated in the writing of the La Concorde newspaper from 1881 to 1884, and he founded the bi-weekly L’Ère Nouvelle with Georges-Isidore Barthe in 1884.

Joseph-Napoléon Bureau died on October 3, 1897, at the age of 70.

As for his wife, Sophie Gingras, baptized Sophie Louise (1835-1910), she was the daughter of Louise Contremine dite Jolicoeur and Édouard Gingras (1806-1857), a wheelwright and mechanic from Quebec City—the same one who, in September 1843, patented “a new method for making springs for carriages.”

Donation from Berthe Bureau-Dufresne, the couple’s great-granddaughter
Musée Pierre-Boucher Collection
2005 96 F