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HURTEAU, ISIDORE, notary, company director, and mayor of Longueuil; b. 11 July 1815 at Contrecœur, Lower Canada, son of Gabriel Hurteau and Louise Duhamel; d. 16 Dec. 1879 at Longueuil, Que.

Isidore Hurteau completed his course of study at the age of 18. He received legal training from a practitioner whose name we do not know, and on 24 Dec. 1838 obtained a commission as notary. At this time, when the province was under martial law, he took up residence at Longueuil, where on 1 Feb. 1839 he signed his first act. He was to practise there for nearly 40 years, and in particular he was the notary and adviser of the Montenach family, which was closely related to Marie-Charles-Joseph Le Moyne de Longueuil, Baronne de Longueuil and seigneur of Belœil. The parish council of Saint-Antoine-de-Longueuil also called upon his services when it made over some land to the newly formed community of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.

In 1846, at Longueuil, Isidore Hurteau organized a brewery, which lasted only a short time. According to the Gazette (Montreal), “after the temperance lectures delivered by Father [Charles-Paschal-Télesphore Chiniquy*], Mr. Hurteau became convinced of the evils of the liquor traffic and preferred to lose the sum he had invested in the brewery and to destroy the business which he had inaugurated at so great an expense.” In 1848 Isidore Hurteau became the first mayor of the municipality of the parish of Longueuil. During his period of office he obtained from the agent of the barony of Longueuil a grant of a piece of land for a public market. Thirty years later this site, “embellished with magnificent clumps of trees,” received the name of Hurteau Place. Hurteau was elected mayor a second time in 1870, and held the same office once more from 1876 until his death, by which time Longueuil had become a town. In 1847 he was lieutenant and adjutant of the 4th Battalion of Chambly, in 1853 captain and major, and in 1862 he became lieutenant-colonel commanding the 3rd Battalion of militia in the Chambly division.

In 1865 Isidore Hurteau took part in instituting the Longueuil Shipping Company, which operated a ferry service between Longueuil and Montreal, and became its principal director. To his manifold activities he added that of co-owner and probably principal silent partner of the Montreal political daily, La Minerve. Precise details are not known but this development may have occurred around 1874–75, when Ludger Duvernay*’s son, Louis-Napoléon, ended his association with the paper on assuming other managerial responsibilities. Hurteau’s son-in-law, Clément-Arthur Dansereau*, was at that time the senior editor. Hurteau was appointed arbitrator for the Canadian government in 1868, and held this important office for nearly ten years.

Isidore Hurteau passed away at Longueuil in December 1879, after long months of suffering. He was still mayor of his town, and was given an impressive burial. He was interred in the crypt of the church at Longueuil, the resting-place of so many members of its founding family, the Le Moynes de Longueuil. In February 1838, at Longueuil, Hurteau had married Françoise Lamarre, who survived him by 25 years. Of this marriage were born four girls, one of whom, Cordélie, married Clément-Arthur Dansereau in 1866.

Jean-Jacques Lefebvre