Boilleau

The chargé recorded as Boilleau was Charles-Henri-Philippe Gauldrée-Boilleau, identified under that full name in the guide to Charles Sumner’s papers. His Washington service was followed by consular work in Quebec and New York. After Lincoln’s assassination, he joined chargé d’affaires Louis de Geofroy in signing the French community’s resolutions of condolence in New York on 18 April 1865. ^{1, 2, 3}

In Quebec he also undertook an early social investigation influenced by Frédéric Le Play. Visiting Saint-Irénée in 1861, he studied the household of the farmer Isidore Gauthier with help from the parish priest, Jules Mailly. His observations covered crops, household production, crafts, and religious and family practices. Published in 1875 in Les Ouvriers des deux mondes, the study presented the household as a stable, rooted family. ³

That interpretation did not survive unchanged. When the sociologist Léon Gérin returned to Saint-Irénée decades later, he found that Gauthier’s descendants had left for the Saguenay region. Gauldrée-Boilleau’s observations remained valuable evidence about rural life even as the family’s migration challenged his theoretical model. Historian Serge Gauthier also records a troubled end to the diplomat’s career: he was imprisoned amid allegations of financial misconduct when his study appeared. The circumstances of that case and even his death date require firmer documentation. ³