Honoré Beaugrand

Honoré Beaugrand (24 March 1848 – 7 October 1906) was a French Canadian journalist, politician, author and folklorist, born in Berthier County, Quebec.

Mayor Honoré Beaugrand
18th Mayor of Montreal
In office 1885–1887
Preceded by	Jean-Louis Beaudry
Succeeded by	John Abbott
Personal details
Born	24 March 1848 Saint-Joseph-de-Lanoraie, Lower Canada
Died	7 October 1906 (aged 58) Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Profession	Author, journalist, publisher, soldier

As a young graduate from military school Beaugrand joined the French military forces under General Bazaine in Mexico, supporting the ill-fated emperor Maximilian of Mexico. He returned with those troops to France after the fall of Chapultepec and Maximilian's execution. After some months he moved to New Orleans in 1868 and became a journalist. Subsequently, he wrote for U.S. newspapers in St. Louis, Boston, Chicago, and Lowell and Fall River, Massachusetts.

In 1878, he returned to Canada and founded the newspaper La Patrie in Montreal to take the place of Le National which had recently folded. It ceased publication in 1957, after 78 years. In August 1879 he acquired Le Canard from publisher and satirist Hector Berthelot. He made a name as a political writer and reporter, and in 1885 received the cross of the French Légion d'honneur.

He became a freemason in 1873 and took part in the foundation of Montreal Émancipation lodge in 1897.

He was elected mayor of Montreal in 1885. Today, a street in Montreal and the Honoré-Beaugrand station on the green line of the Montreal metro are named in his honour. He is most famous in Quebec for writing down the legend of the "Chasse-galerie", published in 1891 in La chasse galerie: légendes canadiennes, which also included "Le loup-garou," "La bête à grand'queue," "Macloune," and "Le père Louison."

Publications

• Anita
• Jeanne la fileuse
• Contes Canadiens
• La Chasse-galerie et autres récits

Gallery

• 
  La chasse galerie, Illustration from Henri Julien Quebec museum
• 
  As mayor of Montreal
• 
  Last wishes of Honoré Beaugrand

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Extensive dossier on Beaugrand at L'Encyclopédie de l'Agora (in French)
• Works by Honoré Beaugrand at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Honoré Beaugrand at Internet Archive
• Works by Honoré Beaugrand at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Ancestry of Honoré Beaugrand (in French)