Leonard Gagnon, 1942
Photo by John Collier Jr., used with permission
114. Leonard GAGNON was born on 17 Dec 1902 in Upper Frenchville, Maine. He died on 14 Oct 1970 in Fort Kent, Maine.(96)

This family was the subject of a series of photographs taken by John Collier, Jr in August 1942, as part of the Farm Security Administration's documenting of conditions on American's farms.

Acadian Hard TimesThe photographs have been published in a book, Acadian Hard Times, compiled by C. Stewart Doty and published by the University of Maine in 1991 (it is still in print).

Some of them are also online, as part of an online exhibition "The American Image: The Photographs of John Collier Jr." organized by the University of New Mexico's Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. (Go to the link, click on "The Collection" to see all of his photos.) The photos in this exhibition are all at the online photo website Flickr; if you go to "John Collier Jr's photos" you can search using terms "Gagnon" and "Maine" to see the photos of this family.

Some of Collier's photos of this family are also online at the website of the Visual Anthropology Review, under the category "Acadians of Maine and Nova Scotia."

I have received permission from the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the Univ of New Mexico to reproduce some of the photos on this website.

He was married to Emma MARTIN (daughter of Honoré MARTIN and Flavie BOURGOIN) on 5 Sep 1922 in St. Agatha, Maine.(142) (110) (Maine marriage index notes groom was from Frenchville and bride from St. Agatha.)

Emma MARTIN was born on 1 Mar 1901. She died on 1 Jun 1944.

Leonard GAGNON and Emma MARTIN had the following children:

child    i. Marie Pearl GAGNON.
child+172 ii. Antoine Emile GAGNON.
child iii. Gerald GAGNON.
child iv. Benoît GAGNON.
child+ v. Jeanne GAGNON.
child+ vi. Lillian GAGNON.
child+ vii. Marie Anne GAGNON.
child+ viii. Thérèse GAGNON.
child+ ix. Rita GAGNON.
child+ x. Aline GAGNON.

Lillian, Thérèse, and Marie Anne, 1942
Photo by John Collier Jr., used with permission

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Last revised 6 Feb 2007