Joseph Edouard Beaupre (1881 - 1904)

Edouard Beaupré was born January 9, 1881 in Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was a son of Gaspard Beaupré and Florestine Piché.

Legend has it that Édouard Beaupré weighed between 9 and 14 pounds at birth. His growth was normal until he reached the age of seven, but he began to grow rapidly soon after he started school. At nine he was nearly 6 feet tall, at twelve 6 feet 6 inches, and at seventeen 7 feet 1 inch. He attended school off and on for four years. He never had more than a rudimentary education and, according to an article published in 1967, “it was alleged, even by those closest to him, that he was as dull as he was tall.” He was not stupid, for all that. He learned to carry on conversations in French, English, Cree, Sioux, and Michif.

During his adolescence Beaupré was awkward, a little naïve, and disconcertingly silent. He felt at ease, not on a school bench, but out in the open on the ranches near Willow Bunch, where he learned to throw a lasso from two local cowboys, Johnny Chartrand and John Savary. Unfortunately he had to give up that work at the age of 17 because, according to tradition, when he rode a horse his feet touched the ground. About this time a horse kicked him in the face, breaking his nose and most likely other bones as well. The accident left him disfigured and his unsightly face, together with his gigantic size, intensified his feelings of insecurity.

Under the guardianship of André Gaudry, a Métis from Willow Bunch, Beaupré then began a tour of several Canadian cities, where he performed feats of strength, lifting a 600-pound horse on his shoulders and bending iron bars. Between tours he always returned home. However, there was not much profit and he had to keep going back on the road. After visiting a number of cities in the eastern United States, he lived in California for a year. The loneliness and boredom that gnawed at him between shows drove him to drink, often to excess.

Beaupré went back east and with his father visited New York and other cities. Returning to Montreal, he fought the Quebec strong man Louis Cyr* in Parc Sohmer on 25 March 1901. Cyr won easily, although the supporters of Beaupré the giant claimed that he had been weakened by tuberculosis and was only a shadow of his former self.

Beaupré then decided to resume working as a cowboy and moved to a ranch in Montana. But tuberculosis had undermined his strength and endurance, and the state of his health forced him to give up his work. He went on tour again, this time with the Barnum and Bailey Circus. During a show at the Louisiana Purchase exposition in St Louis, he collapsed and died of a massive pulmonary haemorrhage on 3 July 1904, at the age of 23. At the time of his death he was 8 feet 3 inches tall and weighed 375 pounds. His was a case of pituitary gigantism and his height made him the fifth-largest known giant.

Following an autopsy, Beaupré’s body was turned over to the undertakers Eberle and Keyes for embalming and burial. The remains were to be sent to Willow Bunch, but the family was too poor to pay the transportation costs. The undertakers decided to recover their expenses by putting the body on display in a store window. The police authorities intervened to prohibit this spectacle. Pascal Bonneau, a businessman from Willow Bunch, went to St Louis and had the body sent to Montreal, where it was shown for more than six months at the entrance to the Musée Éden. So many curious spectators came that the municipal authorities stopped the visits.

In the spring of 1907 some children found Beaupré’s body in a shed at Parc Bellerive in Montreal. Apparently the circus that had been exhibiting it had abandoned it after going bankrupt. It was sent to the anatomy department of the Université de Montréal, where it underwent a special mummification process. It was then displayed in a kind of glass shrine at the faculty of medicine until the mid 1970s. Finally, at the request of some members of his family, Beaupré the giant was cremated and buried in Willow Bunch on 7 July 1990, more than 85 years after his death.

Andre Lalonde

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Beaupré was the eldest of 20 children born to Gaspard and Florestine (born Piché) Beaupré in the newly founded parish of Willow Bunch, Saskatchewan, Canada, and was the first child to be baptized in the parish. Beaupré did not appear abnormally large at birth, and for the first three years of his life, his growth was relatively normal. However, Edouard's growth rate then increased dramatically, so much so that by age nine he was six feet tall, and by the age of 17 his height was recorded at 7 feet 1 inch (2.16 metres). In 1902, Edouard's height was measured at 8 feet 2.5 inches (2.50 metres) and he weighed over 400 pounds (180 kilograms). His death certificate described him as being 8 ft 3 in (2.51 m) tall and still growing.

As a young man Beaupré quickly grew into a first-rate horseman. Edouard had a dream of becoming a cowboy when he was growing up. When Beaupré was 15, he quit school to pursue his dreams of riding the open range. Legend has it that he had to give up his cowboy dream because his legs dragged on the ground when he rode even the tallest horses, but that is unlikely, since an average-sized saddle horse is about 5 feet tall at the saddle. He then decided to use his size to his advantage to support his family. Edouard would become known as the "Willow Bunch Giant".

At the urging of others and to help support his family, he went on to tour the North American freak show circuit. Over the years he would be stared at by onlookers, wrestle strongmen, and perform feats of strength. His signature stunt was crouching underneath a horse and lifting it up to his shoulders. He would then go on to star in Barnum and Bailey Circus, even though life on the road was not easy for Beaupré. (To accommodate his size, hotel staff would line up trunks to support a second mattress to lengthen his bed.) He would spend the latter part of his short life performing in freak shows and circuses reportedly lifting horses as heavy as 900 pounds (410 kg).

While in Montréal, Que., March 25, 1901, Edouard wrestled Louis Cyr, who was known as one of the strongest men. The match was very short, Cyr winning the match, because Edouard didn't dare to really touch him, probably because of his gentle nature.

Death

In 1902 Beaupré was diagnosed with tuberculosis. By the time he reached the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, his rapid growth and the disease had taken a heavy toll on him. He became ill and died at a local St. Louis hospital on July 3, 1904. Even at the time of his death at age 23, doctors determined that Beaupré was still growing.

Gaspard Beaupré made a trip to St. Louis to retrieve his son's body. When he reached his destination, however, Gaspard turned back when he realized that he didn't have enough money to pay double fare to return home with the body.

The elder Beaupré believed his son's body was going to be buried in St. Louis or used for medical experiments, but that was not the case. When the circus refused to pay for the transportation costs back to Willow Bunch, Edouard Beaupré's body was embalmed and put on display.

Scientific study

Around 1905, his body made its way to a museum in Montreal and then a circus. When the circus went bankrupt, the body was claimed by the Université de Montréal, whose scientists then discovered the cause of Beaupré's giant status — his pituitary gland had secreted an abnormal amount of growth hormone throughout his body. Burial

In 1975 Ovila Lespérance, Beaupré's nephew, discovered the whereabouts of his uncle's body. Lespérance's efforts to return Beaupré's body back to Willow Bunch were unsuccessful, as the university claimed it was still needed for research and refused to assist with the efforts to give Beaupré a proper burial. An agreement was finally reached in 1989. To ensure that Beaupré would not be publicly displayed or used for personal gain, his family insisted that his body be cremated. His remains were brought to Willow Bunch, and buried during a memorial service on July 7, 1990.

Sources

• Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edouard_Beaupr%C3%A9

• According to this Article- It was actually the Montreal Museum Authorities whom were insistant on Eduards' Body being creamated before being returned to the family- (and the Museum at Montreal had offers from a European Museum that wanted to purchase Eduards' body to again display), this was at the same time period that his family had been trying to get his body returned specifically for burial

• Source:https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Willow_Bunch%2C_Saskatchewan.html

• "Canada, Saskatchewan Catholic Church Records, 1846-1957", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK95-NXND : 23 February 2021), Joseph Edouard Beaupré, 1881.