Maine’s French language newspapers were once delivered daily to households in cities like Lewiston and Biddeford, where significant numbers of Franco-Americans lived and worked.  Robert B. Perreault writes in the essay, “The Franco-American Press: An Historical Overview,” published in the anthology “Steeples and Smokestacks,” that the French press in New England dates as far back as the American Revolution.

French newspapers were popular with the French Canadian immigrants who followed the rise of New England’s textile industries to find work and economic security at a time when Canada was an unfavorable environment for their futures, writes Perreault

Le Messager was the well known Lewiston daily printed from 1880-1968.  Biddeford’s La Justice was published from 1896-1950.

Although the daily French newspapers are long gone, two French speaking Maine women continue to manage and edit the printing of bilingual newsletters. Both publications report cultural activities in French and English.

Le Messager Aujourd’hui: Today’s Messenger is a newsletter edited by Rita Dube, the executive director of the Franco-American Heritage Center in Lewiston. 

Another biennial journal is published by Le Centre Franco-Americains at the University of Maine, named Le Forum.  Lisa Desjardins Michaud is Le Forum’s managing editor.

Dube is a French=speaking native of Lewiston.  Both sides of her family communicated in French when she was growing up..

“I am proud of my Franco-American heritage,” she says.  She has spoken French all of her life. “I started school knowing only French.  It was the same with my oldest son, Chris, who is 42,” she said.  “I had several aunts and uncles who barely spoke English and a few who spoke no English,” she says.

Dube became the executive director of Le Centre D’Heritage Franco-American a Ste-Marie when it opened over 10 years ago in Lewiston.  She says the newsletter is named in tribute to Lewiston’s newspaper Le Messager.

“We wanted to keep the name Le Messager because so many people recall reading the newspaper back in the 1950s and 60s,” she says.

Dube says about 2800 copies of the Franco-American newsletter are distributed.  “There is no membership or subscribers.  I send a news letters to everybody who wants one and I’m always looking to add more interested folks to the list,” she says. 

A bilingual article in the fall 2010 newsletter describes the new illuminated marquee recently installed in front of the center’s
Canal Street location. It marks the historic building which was once the St. Mary’s church serving Franco-American Roman Catholic parishioners.

Le Forum is a bilingual Franco-American print and on line journal packed with first person stories and articles submitted by readers reporting on their Franco-American history, culture and genealogy.   Michaud became the managing editor 10 years ago, and has been at the University of Maine for 14 years.  Le Forum is distributed to 1,100 readers and on line at www. francoamericanarchives.org.

Michaud, 46, was born in the northern Maine town of Van Buren in the St. John Valley.  Her family genealogy is both Acadian and Quebecois.  “My Acadian ancestry is through my Thibodeau and Soucy family names. Berube and Desjardins names are on the Quebecois side.  Being from the beautiful St. John Valley, I spoke French and very little English till the age of 5, but English was spoken more frequently after I began going to school,” she says.  Although her parents spoke French at home, she and her siblings often replied in English.  “Even when we spoke French, we would often slip in some English as well,” she says.

Although French language news was once a powerful form of communication for Franco-Americans, Perreault says many of the old newspapers can no longer be found today because some libraries and historical societies did not archive them.