Bourbonnais Grove

Bourbonnais Grove’s first families came from Quebec’s Upper St. Lawrence Valley in the 1830s and ’40s to settle what would become the largest 19th century French-Canadian agrarian village in Illinois. Some immigrants moved on to found St. Anne, St. Mary, L’Erable, and Papineau. In 1865 Viateurian Fathers established St. Viateur College. The Letourneau Home Museum, Maternity V.B.M. Church and surviving Viateurian buildings are memorials to these French Canadians who were an influential part of Illinois’ pioneer population.