Fonds F 496 - Jean Liboiron collection

Jean Liboiron was born in Ponteix, Saskatchewan on April 18, 1940 to Adrien and Marguerite (nee Mercier) Liboiron. He was the youngest of seven children. Liboiron attended at College Mathieu and Ponteix High School and studied electronics at DeVry Technical school in Toronto, Ontario. He served four years in the Canadian Armed Forces, then settled in Regina.

Liboiron studied architectural drafting and worked in the construction industry prior to pursuing political science studies at the University of Regina in the 1960s. He returned to Ponteix in the mid-1970s and operated a construction company with his brother.

In the late 1970s Liboiron became director of communications for l'Association culturelle franco-canadienne de la Saskatchewan. In 1984 he left that organization to work as a civil servant in information services at the Department of Tourism and Small Business. In 1987 Liboiron accepted a position with la Commission culturelle fransaskoise where he worked in cultural tourism development. He became the executive director of that organization in 1988. Liboiron continues to be active in historical pursuits and francophone culture through la Société historique de la Saskatchewan.

Jean Liboiron married Rita Durella Perron of Montmartre. They had two children: Colette and John Jr. Liboiron and his wife reside (2007) in Regina.

Adrien Liboiron was born on September 9, 1885 to Joseph and Emma (nee Hamelin) Liboiron of St. Polycarpe, Soulange, Quebec. Educated by the Clercs St.-Viateur, he came to the Notre Dame d'Auvergne (Ponteix) area of what is now Saskatchewan with his parents and family to homestead in 1909. Prior to this time, Adrien Liboiron had taught in schools for the deaf in Rigaud and Terrebonne, Quebec.

Liboiron homesteaded on the south half of 27-9-12 W 3rd, was the first teacher in the Ponteix area. In 1910 he worked as a Dominion Lands agent for the Swift Current district. In 1913 he opened offices in Ponteix where he offered services as a notary public, road inspector, collection agent and insurance agent. He built many homes and businesses in Ponteix and also operated a men's clothing store.

Liboiron also served as councilor and mayor of Ponteix, and as parish trustee. Following the death of his friend, Abbé Albert Royer, he took over as editor of “L'Hirondelle” a column in the Patriote de l'Ouest.

Adrien Liboiron married Marie-Louise Mercier in 1912. They had two children, Joseph (1913-1916) and another child who died with its mother in the Spanish Flu of 1919. Adrien Liboiron married Marguerite Mercier on May 3, 1920 and they had seven children: David (died in infancy), Francois, Thérèse, Jeanne, Marie, Claire and Jean.

Adrien Liboiron died on September 17, 1947 and is buried in Ponteix.

Marie Albert Royer was born ca. 1860 in Riom, Puy de Dome, Auvergne, France. Educated in the seminaries of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit and Sulpicians, Royer was ordained to the priesthood and became a pastor in Ponteix, France.

Royer came to the Swift Current area of Saskatchewan in 1905, in search of a possible site for a parish. He wintered in 1907-1908 at the Notukeu Creek area with a group of settlers, near the future site of Gravelbourg. In April of 1908 Royer and settlers from Swift Current gathered on the south-east quarter of 30-9-11 W3. This site became the parish and hamlet of Notre Dame d'Auvergne.

When the Canadian Pacific Railway by-passed the hamlet in 1913, many businesses and homes moved to the south side of the creek near the railway station. Abbé Royer had a new church built there and named the new site Ponteix after his home parish in France. Abbé Royer served the Ponteix parish until his death in November 1922.

Some of Royer's siblings, Eugene (Alexis) Royer, Marie Alexis Royer and Marie (Royer) Marl also settled in the Ponteix area.

Marie Royer was born in Riom, Puy de Dome, Auvergne, France in 1872. She came to the Ponteix, Saskatchewan area in May 1913 via the United States and Georgovia, Saskatchewan.

In 1915 Marie Royer left Saskatchewan to nurse overseas at the Riom Military Hospital, remaining there until 1919. She returned to Ponteix in August 1919 and applied for naturalization in 1920. Royer married Eugene Alexis Marl.

Marie Royer was a sister of Abbé Marie Albert Royer founder of Notre Dame d'Auvergne, of Marie Alexis Royer who homesteaded on SW 15-3-11 W3, and of Eugene (Alexis) Royer who homesteaded SE 15-3-11 W3 before moving to Louisiana, U.S.A.