Pierre-Nicolas (Peter) Remillard & Cordule Laurin Family

GENERATION VII

Pierre-Nicolas⁷ “Peter” Rémillard; Guillaume¹, Francois², Francois³, Joseph-Marie⁴, Francois-Hyacinthe⁵; Hilaire⁶; (Hilaire and Marie-Reine Boule); born April 1837 at St. Valentin, Quebec near Montreal; died 4 August 1904 at Oakland, California. In 1854 he came to California as an aspiring and self-reliant seventeen-year-old. He became involved in gold mining and saved what was later described in his obituary as a “snug sum” of money. In 1861, at the age of twenty-four, he moved to Oakland where he became an employee of a brickyard. Within five years, he rose from hired hand at the brickyard to its owner and opened an office and yard at Clay and 2nd streets and a brick plant in nearby Brooklyn. His brothers Hilaire and Edward also came from Quebec to join him in the enterprise. The business expanded and in 1879, was incorporated as Remillard Brick Company. For a number of years, the Remillard brothers provided contracting service to the building trade in addition to manufacturing bricks. In 1882, the company established a large yard at Pleasanton. The Remillards supplied bricks for many important buildings including the old Palace Hotel in San Francisco and many large and important buildings in Oakland including the First Unitarain Church. For some forty years the Remillards were the only brick manufacturing company in Alameda County and supplied material for nearly every brick building in county and held a near monopoly on supplying bricks to the western states and Pacific Islands. In 1890, a brick yard was established at Greenbrae in Marin County and two years later in 1892, the Remillards established a yard that employed over 300 men at San Jose, Santa Clara County.

 

Pierre-Nicolas Remillard married Cordule Laurin in January 1867 in San Francisco. He died suddenly on August 4, 1904 at his home on Adams and Perkins Street from a heart attack. Although he had been in poor health for the previous year, he was able to go to his office until about three months before his death. Pierre Remillard was one of the founders of the First Unitarian Church of Oakland and one of the first members of the Athenian Club. Pierre Remillard’s blue Eastlake frame home is in Preservation Park, at 13th and Castro in Oakland. Children;

1.      Philip Remillard; born 1868; died at age 33 years in 1901 from a fall from a restaurant window in San Francisco; not married;

2.      Emma Remillard; born Oct 9th 1869; when Lillian was living at The Carolands Mansion in Hillsboro, one day the "fresh" produce came in and watermelon was served to everyone.  Emma was always a little weaker than the rest.  The watermelon was bad and Emma died a couple days later on June 4th 1956;

3.      Walter Edmond Remillard; born 1877; died in 1879, age two (Morning Call newspaper) ... 1879D-3004

4.      Lillian Remillard; born about 1880 in Oakland; died July 17, 1973 in San Francisco, she is buried in the Remillard Vault in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland Calif; where a lot of Bay Area millionaires are buried; she married Count Alessandro Dandini about 1932; they were divorced about 1939.

San Francisco Chronicle; Obituary (date)

Biographical Sketches; The San Francisco Bay Region; pp.152-155 including photo;

San Francisco Chronicle; Death notice; August 4, 1904; 11-2;

San Francisco Chronicle; Funeral; August 7, 1904; 25-1;

San Francisco Chronicle; Will; August 12, 1904; 10-3.

 

GENERATION VII

 

	Donelan	Perron	Remillard
McAndrews	Jordan	Fox	Klein

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