Joseph Octave Lemay was born in Lotbinière in what was then the colony of Lower Canada. He was baptised there at Louis-de-Lotbinière on 18 Mar 1829. His parents were Isaie Lemay & Julie Jacques. (See Baptême record #4697498 from the database at Le Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH) de l'Université de Montréal).  He was educated at Québec City.
    In 1852 his family with most of his many siblings (and presumably himself) migrated to Minnesota where they settled at New Canada (later to become Little Canada) in Ramsey Co. to the north east of St Paul on the Mississippi in the Territory of Minnesota. His parents were there at the 1857 Territorial census and the 1860 Federal census although he was married and had his own household with three children and a teenage servant in the 2nd Ward Saint Paul when the 1860 census was taken.
    He had married Julie Camille Augé (Auger) at Mendota, Dakota Co. Minnesota 28 Jan 1855. She was the daughter of Dosite  Augé who had also migrated with his children from Lotbinière (they were relations of the Lemays and very possibly neighbours). Dosite had settled in Eagan,MN in 1853 just to the east of Mendota and St Paul. Joseph & Camille were 2nd cousins; their mothers were cousins.
    Joseph had obviously taken US citizenship as he was admitted  to the bar and appointed as a justice-of-the-peace in St Paul. In 1854 he was elected to the Minnesota Territorial House of Representatives  as a Democrat for District 2 in St Paul. He and Camille had three children in Saint Paul (George, Josephine & Alvina).
   In the early 1860s Joseph took up an appointment as the US customs agent at Pembina on the Red River just south (3 miles) from the border with the British territory known as Rupert's Land administered by the HBC. Pembina was at the northern border of the area that would be separated off when the State of Minnesota was established and would become the Dakota Territory (later the State of North Dakota). The British area north of that would  be sold to Canada. Canada had been established by the British America Act in 1867. The area would become the province of Manitoba in July 1870.
   Joseph and Camille would be at Pembina throughout the 1860s and they would have three more children born there (Alfred, Wilfrid & Marie). Sometime about 1869 Joseph lost or resigned his appointment and he and his family moved north to Upper Fort Garry (then later to St Norbert) on the south side of the Township of Winnipeg. In a letter to the to the “Nor' Wester,” Joseph Lemay had described the difficulties he had attempting (rather unsuccessfully it appears) to stem the smuggling over the border that was rampant once a route had been established that went through Pembina on its way from from the settlements on the Red River all the way from its junction with the Assiniboine at Upper Fort Garry south and east to the growing market at Saint Paul.
   There is an article about Joseph's account of the actual and threatened abuses by shippers at his post at Pembina (mainly from “his own countrymen resident at Red River Settlement”) and the threats from the Sioux he was exposed to after abandonment of the barracks in Pembina by the military. This article is in Red River by Joseph James Hargrave, (Montreal: published for the author by John Lovell, 1871), pp. 333-36; digitalized version by google available at archive.org/details/redriver00harggoog; (The reference pages have been abstracted and published on the web at St Vincent Memories (a small town in Minnesota across the Red River from Pembina, ND) as “The Life of a Customs Official in Old Pembina”. http://56755.blogspot.com/2011/01/life-of-customs-official-in-old-pembina.html)
    In 1866 an Eno Stutsman was appointed as a Treasury special agent to investigate smuggling. He was also an advocate of US annexation of the Red River settlement and was likely involved in trying to instigate insurrection among the population and to gain their support for annexation (“the American solution”). There was conflict between Lemay and Stutsman (see Enos Stutsman's biography: Gibson, Dale, Attorney for the Frontier: Enos Stutsman, (University of Manitoba Press, 1983).
    There are various references in that biography to Stutsman's dealings with Joseph Lemay. These possibly include forcing Joseph to hire Eno's acquaintances and his reporting earlier problems in customs enforcement and suppression of smuggling, that may have precipitated Lemay's replacement circa 1869. Stutsman was an advocate of annexation of the north-west territory by the US and was probably involved in trying to instigate a civil war with the métis community supporting annexation. His biography documents Lemay's opposition to Stutsman and “the American solution” of annexation and it mentions the influence that Lemay perhaps exerted on Louis Riel who headed up the provisional government and with whom he had friendly relations.
   Joseph advocated negotiation with the Canadian government for métis land and language rights in the transfer from the HBC and this is the path that the provisional government followed although they probably would have preferred  independant colonial status (ibid p.133). And the area came into confederation in July 1870 as the province of Manitoba with provisions that guaranteed language, religion and land claim rights. The biography further mentions that Lemay was a witness to the expulsion of the governor-designate when he arrived early from Canada before the agreement came into effect and that he was at a meeting with him at Pembina where he admonished  him to avoid involving the Indians (ibid p.125-26).
      Joseph Lemay's  friendly acquaintance with Louis Riel mentioned in the biography likely understates their relationship. Apparently there is a reference to a letter from Riel thanking Joseph Lemay for helping support Riel's family while he was away and it is understood that Joseph was one of the nominators of Riel as federal member of parliament (an election he won but the orange lodge dominated parliament rejected him when he tried to take his seat). There is also a “family legend” that Louis Riel was hidden by Lemay when he snuck back from his voluntary exile during the early 1670s (apparently a fact brought up during Riel's post-mortem retrial to illustrate that he had wide general support that went beyond the  métis community). There is also the story that the young Lemay child, probably Marie, was used as part of a disguise for Riel as a grandfather out with his granddaughter in getting past the authorities that were looking for him.
     After 1670 Joseph Lemay established himself in St Norbert just south of Winnipeg where he was a successful merchant, operated a steam mill and speculated in land. He was one of the founders of the Winnipeg Board of Trade (see biography at Memorable Manitobans: Joseph Octave Lemay (1829-1892) contributed by Robert Harrison, published by the Manitoba Historical Society on the web at  www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/people/lemay_jo.shtml revised 2011).  Joseph won a seat as the Member of the Legislative Assembly for St Norbert in the first general election in the province in 1870 and then for St Vital in 1874. (see C.H MacKintock, ed., “The Canadian Parliamentary Companion and Annual Register 1877”, (Ottawa: Citizen's Printing and Publ Co., 1877) pp.366-67  “ Sat for St. Norbert, North, from g.e. 1870 until last g.e, when returned for present seat [St Vital]. Has no political creed and will support the present Govt., so long as they faithfully discharge their duty – St. Norbert”) And he continued an active role in municipal affairs all of his life.
     Joseph and Camille had two further children in Manitoba; Emma who died at five years old and Joseph Gregoire who his widow Camille lived with after his death. When she died in 1919 she is buried in the same site as their son in the church cemetery at St Norbert (see Find A Grave, database & images https://www.findagrave.com: accessed June 2018, memorial page for Camille Auger Lemay 12 Apr 1831–8 May 1919, Find A Grave Memorial no. 120133565, citing Saint Norbert Cemetery, Winnipeg). In the 1881 census Joseph & Camille are enumerated as family #8 at Cartier, Provencher (district 184 sub 'F') with four sons; George, Alfred, Wilfred and Joseph Gregoire, and daughter Marie.  Joseph Octave Lemay died 12 Dec 1892 and is buried 15 Dec 1692 (see record in the Archives de la Société historique de Saint-Boniface; fonds Paroisse Saint-Norbert, Winnipeg, MB – St. Norbert Registres, Wpg B/M/Bs 11 Jan 1859 – 29 Dec 1888).