Benjamin Sulte (September 17, 1841 – August 6, 1923), baptized Olivier-Benjamin Vadeboncœur, was a Canadian journalist, writer, civil servant, and historian. Born in

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River across from the city of ...

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec ...

(now

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

), to Benjamin Sulte dit Vadeboncœur, and Marie-Antoinette Lefebvre, Sulte had to leave school in 1851 as a consequence of the death of his father in 1847. He held a variety of jobs including working in a dry goods shop, as a clerk in a grocer's shop, as a bookkeeper for lumber merchants, as a paymaster on a steamship, and as an owner of a shop on a

Grand Trunk Railway The Grand Trunk Railway (; french: Grand Tronc) was a railway system that operated in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and in the American states of Connecticut, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The rail ...

line. In 1861, he joined the militia eventually becoming a sergeant-major. In 1866, he was appointed editor of ''Le Canada'', a Conservative Ottawa newspaper. In 1867, he became a translator in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Commo ...

. In 1870, he started working for the Department of Militia and Defence eventually becoming chief clerk in 1889. He retired in 1903. In 1871, he married Augustine Parent, daughter of

Étienne Parent Étienne Parent (May 2, 1802 in Beauport, Lower Canada – December 22, 1874 in Ottawa) was a Canadian journalist and government official. He was editor of the newspaper ''Le Canadien'' and, as such, supported French Canadian journalism and writ ...

. He wrote poems, songs, and was a historian. In 1882 he was appointed a charter member of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, and served as its president from 1904 to 1905. In 1916, he was awarded an honorary LL.D. by the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Selected works

* ''Les Laurentiennes: poésies'' (Montréal, 1869) * ''Histoire de la ville des Trois-Rivières et de ses environs'' (Montréal, 1870) * ''Mélanges d'histoire et de littérature'' (Ottawa, 1876) * ''Chants nouveaux'' (Ottawa, 1880) * ''Histoire des Canadiens-français, 1608–1880: origine, histoire, religion, guerres, découvertes, colonisation, coutumes, vie domestique, sociale et politique, développement, avenir'' (8 volumes, 1882-1884) * ''Mélanges Historiques : Études éparses et inédites'' (21 vols. Montreal 1918) *

References

External links

* * * *
Gravures dans l'Histoire des Canadiens-Français de Benjamin Sulte
', Web Robert DEROME, professeur honoraire d'histoire de l'art, Université du Québec à Montréal. {{DEFAULTSORT:Sulte, Benjamin 1841 births 1923 deaths 19th-century Canadian civil servants 20th-century Canadian historians Canadian male non-fiction writers Canadian male journalists Journalists from Quebec People from Trois-Rivières Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) 19th-century Canadian historians