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Salome LaBerge was baptised the same day as her birth on the first day of November, 1857 in the 10 year old parish of St-Louis-de-Gonzague. She was the last of 7 children born to her parents, Louis LaBerge (1822-1893) and Henriette Legault dite Deslauriers (1822-1893).

Her father farmed land in the Quebec county of Beauharnois, and both her parents lived out their lives in the Province.

But her brothers decided to leave the small community to find their fortunes in the United States. Her brother Louis (1846-1917) was the first and became a naturalized citizen in 1865 at East Tawas, Iosco county in Michigan. Her brother James Onesime (1852-1927) followed him in 1867, and brother Noe (1848-1910) in 1887.

In St-Louis-de-Gonzague, Salome married her soulmate, Fabien R. Regimbal on January 27, 1875. She was 18 and he was 22; a lifelong friend born in the same village. The couple had 4 children there, Marie Sara 'Sarah' (1875-1913), Louis Fabien (1877-1949), Edmond Francois (1880-1966), and Marie Denise Olivine (1881-1959).

Instead of the path of Salome's brothers, her husband Fabien chose to follow his siblings to Minnesota and the family of 6 left the village in 1882.

In Gentilly, Minnesota she became mother to Marie Mable Desneige (1883-1969), Francis Xavier (1885-1962), and Joseph Ernest (1887-1965).

In Crookston, the family continued to grow with the births of Marie Ann Salome (1889-1963), Joseph Adolphe Clement (1891-1933), Joseph Armand Donat (1893-1928), and Marie Emelie Lorie (1895-1992).

In 1897 the family went with others to newly opened farmland in the Yakima Valley of Washington State. She, her husband and 9 children living at home, along with her first born, Sara and her husband Hilaire Fortier, traveled by boxcar in a Northern Pacific train to Yakima, then on to Moxee City to stay with friends until they could find a place to live.

Salome and Fabien settled in North Yakima on November 15, 1897 with son Edmond (then 17); daughter Olivine (age 16); daughter Desneige (age 14); son Xavier (age 12); son Ernest (age 10); daughter Salome (age 8); son Clement (age 6) and daughter Lorie (age 2).

They moved to Artesian District, 12 miles east of North Yakima, on January 15, 1898, where in September their 12th child, Marie Henriette 'Stella' (1898-?) was born. Son Pierre 'Peter' Aime (1900-1946) was born there too, as well as their last child, daughter Olympe Marie (1902-1989).

In 1907, the Regimbals moved a short distance to the new Moxee City (the town was relocated) in Yakima County, Washington.

Around 1910, Fabien and Salome moved back to North Yakima after they purchased a grocery store from brothers Fred and Eldege Mailloux.

Two of Fabien and Salome's daughters became nuns: Olivine with the Sisters of Providence, and Desneige with the
Sisters of Charity of Providence. Their son, Clement was called to the priesthood and was ordained in 1914.

In 1913, their daughter Sara died a month after the birth of her daughter Helen. Helen Julia Fortier (1913-1980) was raised by her grandmother, Salome; then by her aunt, Sister Olivine Regimbal. As a young woman, she worked for the deputy prosecutor at the Yakima Courthouse.

War in Europe forced the couple to sell their store, when son F. Louis, the manager, and his sales clerk, then 21 year old Avilla Fortier, Fabien & Salome's grandson, my grandfather, were called to duty.

They retired to a small farm in Moxee City where they lived out their days. - M Fortier