The son of Michel Blais and Victorie Lemieux, Jean lived near St. Henedine, Quebec; he married Elisabeth Gosselin (1808 - 1876) at St. Henedine). (Her parents are Marie Anne Roy and Jean Gosselin who married at St. Gervis May 21, 1798).

He lived near St. Henedine, Quebec, on a farm and had a big family - mostly boys. Besides much land, he owned two sawmills and a flour mill. He was a tyrant for work and as soon as the boys were allowed to, they left home. Some that I know of, came to the United States: Francois, Andre, Simeon, Joseph, Nazair, and John Bastiste.

While home, they worked in the woods, drove the logs to the mills, worked on the farm, and in the flour mill. He was a good Christian and a charitable man. He would often give flour or half a cow or pig to a poor family in the winter.

He built a large home. Fred Blais, who lived in Duluth, went to Canada in the 1920's and visited this home. He met an elderly man who remembered John Blais and said he remembered he was a fine man who did everything in a big way. The home was built as strong as a battleship with heavy beams across the ceiling. At that time, there were four families living in the house.

There is a story of the doughnuts. It seems our great-grandmother would bake a batch of doughnuts and store them in a barrel at the top of the stairs. Great-grandfather would call the boys early in the morning and during Lent, expected them to go to work immediately without breakfast. So the boys would fill their pockets with doughnuts before running downstairs. That would take care of them for a few hours. I wonder if that was the intention of their mother putting the doughnuts there. She must have been a wonderful person to work that strategy.