Date Published:
January 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Joseph Charles Taché

Taché, Joseph Charles (1820-1894), journalist and author, was born at Kamouraska, Lower Canada, on December 24, 1820, the son of Charles Taché and of Henriette Boucher de la Broquerie. He was educated at the Quebec Seminary, and became a physician and surgeon. From 1847 to 1857 he sat in the Legislative Assembly of Canada, first for Rimouski, and then for Témiscouata. From 1857 to 1859 he was editor of Le Courrier du Canada ; in 1860 he became professor of physiology in Laval University ; and in 1864 he was appointed deputy minister of agriculture for Canada. This office he continued to hold after Confederation until his retirement in 1888. He published many books and pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects; but his chief publications were Esquisse sur le Canada (Paris, 1855), Des provinces de l'Amérique du Nord et d'une union fédérale (Quebec, 1858), Trois légendes de mon pays (Montreal, 1876), Forestiers et voyageurs (Montreal, 1884), and Les sablons (Montreal, 1885). He died at Ottawa on April 16, 1894 . In 1847 he married Françoise Lepage; and by her he had six children. See P. G. Roy, La famille Taché (Levis, 1904).

Source : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., "Joseph Charles Taché," The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p., p. 97.