The 2011 Selah Community Days Association's Fourth Honored Selah Pioneer is 76 year old Raoul Bernier!
Raoul Leland Bernier was born on september 15,1935 here in Selah. His grand parents Alvido david and Marie Ann Poulin Bernier moved here from Minnesota 1903. They had 10 kids. Raoul and the other kids went to Selah Schools. Raoul played Basketball, Football and Cross Country he graduated in 1954. Raouls soon to be wife Rosemary L, Heureux graduated in 1955. They got married on June 9,1956 and had their first baby in April 1957 they had 15 more kids 10 boys 6 girls. There is now 31 Grand kids and 11 Great Grand kids!
Raoul has worked in many spots over the years. Some are Packwood Lumber, Snyders, Tree Top, Central Premix. In the 70s he went to work on the Alaska Pipe Line and became a heavy duty mechanic and worked on crushers etc. To support the his family he has worked in Alaska, Oregon, California, and of course Washington. He went back to Alaska in the late 80s and in 1995 he finally retired
Over the years while the kids were in school Raoul was there for the kids Cross Country events etc. Raoul and the family has been providing the flowers for St. Josephs church for almost 20 years. Raoul has been there to lend a helping hand for all those who have been in need. Whether they have been a stranger, friend or family. When you visit the Bernier's home he makes you feel welcomed and will talk your ear off. When driving with him he will tell you what the area used to be and giving you the idea of what the area was like in the past.
Raoul hasn't done anything big but he has touched the lives he has come in contact with he is respected and loved by friends and family alike!.
Since he has retired he spends his days still working to help those around him and enjoys his gardens and small farm and he enjoys his large family when they get together!
The below story is about Raoul Father!
There is a very considerable element of the citizenship of the Selah valley that has come from France or traces its ancestry to that land. Among this number is Alvido Bernier, who is of French lineage although born in St. Paul, Minnesota,on the 7th of February, 1873. His parents were Telespher and Odelia Bernier,pioneer settlers of Crookston, Minnesota. where they took up their abode in 1878, when their son Alvido was a little lad of but five years. They were farming people and the father devoted his attention to the cultivation of the soil in that locality to the time of his death. His widow survives and is now living with her son.
Alvido Bernier acquired a public school education in Minnesota, where he was reared to the occupation of farming, which he followed in that state until 1903.The reports which reached him concerning the opportunities of the west determined him to try his fortune in this section of the country and in 1903 he arrived in Yakima county. After looking over the district he purchased, in 1904,forty acres of land on Selah Heights and since has bought sixty acres more. It was a wild and undeveloped tract on which not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made, in fact he had to open a road to his place. After a time he sold twenty acres of the original purchase but still has twenty acres of that tract, which he has planted to apples, grapes, prunes, and cherries. His orchards are in excellent condition, his vineyards also bring forth excellent fruit and he has won for himself a creditable place among the horticulturists of this part of the state. In 1911 he erected a fine stone residence upon his ranch and he has also built a good packing house and such barns and sheds as are necessary for the shelter of his products and the stock upon his place.
On the 18th of April, 1898, Mr. Bernier was married to Miss Marie Poulin, who was born in Polk county, Minnesota, and they have become the parents of ten children: Bert, Odele, Sydney, Rosabel, Mabel, A. J., Teles, Maurice, Ernest and Nelson, who died in infancy.
The family are members of St. Joseph's Catholic church and are loyal adherents of its teachings. Mr. Bernier is a republican in his political views but is not an office seeker. He served as school clerk in Minnesota but has always avoided public office, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his business affairs that he might provide a comfortable living for himself and family. In this he has succeeded and his prosperity is shown in the fact that in 1918 he purchased thirty-three acres of land adjoining his original holdings and now has eighteen acres of this planted in orchard. He also has forty acres in Grant county, Washington, which makes a total of one hundred and fifty-three acres in this state. He is constantly developing his orchard property and displays the utmost care in propagating and nourishing his trees, studying the condition of the soil and the needs of the fruit. That his labors have brought most excellent results is indicated in the fine apples, cherries, prunes and grapes which are annually shipped from his place and which command the highest market price.
Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
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