Description of Historic Place

Léger Brothers Mills Site consists of a 1.53 hectare property in Saint Antoine, through which a small brook flows.

Heritage Value

Léger Brothers Mills Site is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the village's first industrial centre and for being the birthplace of Mother Jeanne de Valois.

Léger Brothers Mills Site, which included a sawmill, a grain mill, a shingle mill, and a woollen mill, marks the location of the village's first industrial centre. As reflected by the place names in the vicinity of Saint Antoine, such as Renauds Mills and McKees Mills, the mill industry contributed greatly to the region's industrial and economic development.

The Léger Brothers Mills in Saint-Antoine were a continuation of a true family tradition. A mill at Renauds Mills run by brothers Michel and Magloire Léger and Auguste Renaud, the first Francophone MP from New Brunswick to sit in the House of Commons, burned down in 1870, but was rebuilt and later abandoned. Laurent and Jean-Baptiste, the two sons of Magloire the miller, took over in 1892 before that mill caught fire in 1896. They moved to Saint-Antoine the same year and got back into business at the current site. That would not be the last mill fire for the Léger family. Fires in 1906, 1930, and 1960 completely ravaged the mills, while others in 1927, 1942, and 1944 caused partial destruction. The brook on the site was used to power the mills.

The first boards cut at the sawmill were used to build the nearby house where the family of Laurent Léger lived then and continues to live today. Among the family members who lived there was Bella Léger, also known as Mother Jeanne de Valois, founder of the Collège Notre-Dame d'Acadie, graduate of the Sorbonne, and Superior General. According to her, she was born in a cupboard in the first grain mill on the site on May 15, 1899, before the Léger family moved permanently into the newly constructed house on the other side of the road in 1900.

Source: Village of Saint-Antoine Municipal Office, File Number A11 – “Site des moulins Léger frères"

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe Léger Brothers Mills Site include:
- strategically located former site of the mills adjacent to the brook;
- small brook that powered the mills;
- location of the site adjacent to the family home of Laurent Léger.