Thomas Moisan was first an engage of the Hudson's Bay Company, then a California miner, and last a farmer of large holdings in the Lake Labiche region at the southern end of the Prairie. From his various enterprises he amassed considerable wealth and built a pretentious home with a third story cupola from which he could observe his cattle herds and watch for the dust of the approaching Salem stage while reading his French books. His children were Francois Xavier, Alexandre and Philomine. He died in 1888 ; his wife Henriette (Harriet) lived to be  very old, dying in 1913. Both are buried in the Gervais Catholic Cemetery with an imposing stone, " Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven ".