The following article is about Michael J. Carbonneau (1895 – 1980).   His son, John Carbonneau of Tampa, FL and Island Pond, VT submitted the article at the request of the newsletter editor. 

The oldest boy of Eugene & Josephine Carbonneau, Michael was born and raised in Exeter, NH.  He always had a great sense of responsibility to family.  He never graduated from High School.  But, until the day of his marriage, kept only $5.00 of his pay and sent the rest home to help his folks with a growing family.

During World War I, Michael enlisted in the Army from Exeter.  He served with the Military Railway Service in France.  He was a natural interpreter, as French was the spoken language in his family’s home.  He hauled munitions and supplies from Atlantic ports up to the troops fighting the Germans.  He lost his mother to the great influenza epidemic of 1918 while he was away.

One of Michael’s early jobs had been in the local cotton mill …. long hours 6 days a week.  He soon realized there was something better, and went to work for AT&T as a lineman.  He helped build the first telephone lines through the White Mountains.  While in Gorham, NH he met Zelma Hurley, who later became his wife of 60 years. 

After marriage he worked briefly at the Brown Company in Berlin, NH  but didn’t like mill conditions, the wages or that life.  His wife Zelma’s family had worked in lumbering in the north woods of New England since migrating from New Brunswick and had moved on to railroading.  Two of her brothers and a brother-in-law became engineers for the Grand Trunk railway.  Dad got a job as Fireman on the Grand Trunk and he and Zelma moved to Island Pond, VT.  Mike and Zel raised their family there and lived out their lives on the beautiful lakeshore.  

In the 1920’s as railway work declined Dad left railroading and became the Railway Express Agent at that busy international terminal.  On the side he had a trucking business, briefly sold coal and ran a farm.  His younger brothers Harold and Jack, who had always looked to Mike for guidance and direction, came up to Island Pond over the years to help “Mutt” during the summer months.  Dad’s brother Archie (Arthur) followed and got a job on the railroad in Maintenance of Way and retired there with a railroad pension.  Island Pond was his home too.

Some of the next generation also spent time in Island Pond.  Edgar (Eugene’s son from Stratham) worked on the railroad for years.  Alma’s son “Dutch” (Paul) and Jack’s son, Bob helped out on the truck picking up rubbish from their Uncle Mike’s customers.   

The very area where my father’s parents entered the USA as immigrants became a favorite place for his siblings and their families to visit.  His mother, Josephine, entered through Island Pond and his father, Eugene, came through nearby Derby Line-Newport, VT. 

Dad’s great respect for his parents instilled in him his love of his French heritage and of his Catholic faith.  Every night he found time for God . . . .down on his knees beside his bed.  He became a fiercely dedicated American without losing his French Canadian heritage.   America served the hardworking Carbonneau family very well. .