Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau

Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau (May 11, 1848 – November 17, 1923) was a self-taught naturalist and Canadian government official. The city of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, is named after him, as well as this city's history museum building.

He was born in Les Îlets-Jérémie (located in the municipality of Colombier), not far from Betsiamites on the North Shore of the Saint Lawrence River. He was the eldest of eleven children. His father, Antoine-Alexandre Comeau, was an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. His mother, Mary Luce Hall-Bedard, was of Irish origin. Napoleon-Alexandre Comeau spent his childhood in the woods in Labrador, at North-West River and the Mingan Islands, along with the Innu and Inuit, who taught him to hunt, fish and navigate.

As a teenager, he spoke fluent French, Montagnais, Naskapi and Inuktitut. In 1859 he was sent to an English school in Trois-Rivières, where he learned to read, write and speak English.

In 1860, Napoléon-Alexandre Comeau joined his father in Trinity Bay. His father appointed him, at fourteen, "guardian of the Godbout River". This, one of the 116 salmon rivers in Quebec, is a fishing area, and was then the private property of William Agar Adamson. Comeau retained this position throughout his life. He completed his training through the library. With Ashini Montagnais hunters, he learns the hatch and deepens his knowledge of the fauna and flora.

He worked for 15 years as a trapper. He married Marie Antoinette Labrie on June 14, 1871. In 1877 he was appointed postmaster at Godbout. He became the assistant coroner (even practicing medicine, he attended the births of more than 250 newborns), before becoming, in 1879, Superintendent of Fisheries for the Canadian government.

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