She had a point. In one of the two dining rooms, 10 men had shoved their tables together to solve the world’s problems over lunch. As he does about three times a week, former mayor Emile Beaulieu stopped in for a daily special. Sister Rita waited at the counter for a big order of take-out. And heaping plates of food kept pouring out of the kitchen.

Even though it was past noon, Holden assured us that the breakfast special plates were still available, and recommended the slice of pork pie (an old-time dish that survives in Franco-American New England but has largely vanished in French Canada) with fried eggs. She also warned us that the “small” plate of poutine would be more than one person could eat, and advised us to stick to the Manchester-favorite chicken gravy. How could we resist? The mash-up of fried potatoes, gravy, and fresh cheese curds is practically the national dish of Quebec.

In fact, when Manchester’s textile mills were at their apogee about a century ago, half the workforce consisted of French speakers whose families had emigrated primarily from the province of Quebec. When they completed their 12-hour shifts at the Amoskeag mills, they trudged up the steep hill on the west bank of the Merrimack River to the neighborhood known as Petit Canada — now styled Rimmon Heights, as the gateway arch embellished with a fleur-de-lis announces.

The neighborhood got its own parish church, Sainte-Marie, in 1880. The majestic brick and granite Gothic-style building perches at the lip of the hill just across Notre-Dame bridge from the Amoskeag mills. Much of the striking interior decoration was carried out by noted Quebec artist Ozias Leduc based on a 1906 commission from Monsignor Pierre Hévey. The stained glass windows, which range from pastel neo-Renaissance style to vivid expressionism, were installed at different points across the 20th century as gifts from the D’Amours, Phaneuf, Beaudet, Plante, Dufour, and other families.

Monsignor Hévey looked after the fiscal as well as the spiritual welfare of his parishioners. In 1908 he joined forces with Alphonse Desjardins, the founder of credit unions in Quebec, and local lawyer Joseph Boivin to create La Caisse Populaire Ste.-Marie (St. Mary’s Cooperative Credit Association). The first US credit union, it was also the first banking enterprise in the country organized for the welfare of its members rather than to maximize profit. For generations, St. Mary’s (now St. Mary’s Bank) was the first place that Manchester’s Franco-American population turned for a home or business loan and the place where workers deposited their wages.

Boivin’s home, just a few blocks from the church, served as the first headquarters of the credit union. The building is now the Credit Union Museum, and preserves the first floor of the house largely as it was during the Boivin family’s tenure, including the lawyer’s office and the hallway where workers would wait to conduct their business. When the museum was created about 10 years ago, Boivin’s daughter Gilberte provided a first-hand account of the credit union’s early years. Many of her reminiscences are recounted on wall plaques. Particularly moving is her description of children who would deposit a nickel or a dime in the tin box Madame Boivin kept locked in a special drawer. In 1908, children worked 12-hour shifts at the textile mills for 60 to 90 cents per day. 

By 1915, the mills of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Co. (or AMC) constituted the largest cotton textile manufacturer in the world, eclipsing even Lowell and Lawrence farther down the Merrimack. A century later, the handsome red-brick-and-granite mills still stretch more than a mile along the river, many of the buildings redeveloped into house offices, restaurants, and even a brewery. Two museums are located in Mill No. 3, built in 1844 and enlarged in 1870 to 440 feet long by five stories high.