Joseph "Jos" Montferrand was a French-Canadianlogger, strongman, and folk hero of the working man, who was the inspiration for the legendary Ottawa Valley figure Big Joe Mufferaw. Joseph Montferrand, dit Favre, was born in the St. Lawrence district of Montreal in 1802. The family men were known for their strength and powerful build. Joe was tall with blue eyes and fair hair. Although he was mild in manner and appearance, he could more than hold his own in a street fight. He successfully challenged several famed boxers during his youth. He came to fame as a result of a challenge issued at a boxing match in the Champ de Mars, Montreal. Two English-speaking boxers had just fought for the championship. The organizers then asked if there was anyone in the crowd who wished to challenge the champion of Canada. The 16-year-old Montferrand stepped into the ring and with one punch, felled the champion. News of this surprising event spread quickly. At the age of 21, he joined the Hudson's Bay Company as a voyageur. In 1827, he began work as a logger on the Rivière du Nord in Lower Canada and then moved to the upper Ottawa River. The loggers felled trees over the winter and then drove the logs down the river, eventually arriving at Quebec City. Montferrand spent the remainder of his working years in the lumber trade in the Outaouais. There was ongoing animosity between Anglophones and Francophones and frequent fights between English-, Irish-, and French-Canadian loggers. Montferrand's prowess with his fists and boots was legendary in avenging the wrongs he and his compatriots were subjected to. Montferrand defended French-Canadian workers against gangs of Irish immigrants known as "Shiners" in the Bytown area. After 1840, he mainly worked the log drives as foreman and retired in 1857. In his later years, he suffered from pain in his back and joints. He died in Montreal in 1864, aged 61.
Legacy
Montferrand's legendary nickname, Big Joe Mufferaw, is believed to be a result of English speakers mispronouncing "Montferrand" phonetically. Already a legitimate folk hero in his own time, his reputation grew into the mythical hero when exaggerated tales were told about him. Like Paul Bunyan, he became the subject of many similar tall tales. Mufferaw is sometimes enlisted as a defender of oppressed French Canadian loggers in the days when their bosses were English-Canadians and their rivals for work were Irish-Canadians. In one story, Big Joe was in a Montreal bar, where a British army major named Jones was freely insulting French Canadians. After Big Joe beat the major, he bellowed, "Any more insults for the Canadians?" Some Mufferaw tales take place in the northeast United States. French Canadian writerBenjamin Sulte told this man's story in a 1884 book. He also is the subject of a chapter in Joan Finnigan's 1981 book Giants of the Ottawa Valley and her 1983 book Look! The Land Is Growing Giants. Bernie Bedore of Arnprior also wrote several books recounting Joe's adventures. Stompin' Tom Connors made him the hero of a 1970 song. A statue of Joe Mufferaw was erected outside of the Mattawa Museum in Mattawa, Ontario, during the spring of 2005. It was carved by local carving artist Peter Cianafrani, and was his last statue before he died later in the spring. A plaque commemorating his name sits at the base of the statue. He was also the inspiration for the Big Joe mascot of the Ottawa Redblacks CFL team.
