St. Louis Rising: The French Regime of Louis St. Ange de Bellerive

When the history of St. Louis is written, historians inevitably begin with the "journal" of Auguste Chouteau.  Not really a journal but a memoir written many years after the event, Chouteau gives a version of the founding of St. Louis in which he and Pierre LaClede are the major players.  And why not?   Chouteau would become one of the most important businessmen in the young town of St. Louis, his family becoming very rich in the fur trade.  The Chouteau family were definite "winners" in the economic race run by the first founders of the City.   And, as we know, history is written by the winners.

But there are always, of course, others who were important in history.  Perhaps those who do not have descendents to write about them.  Or those for whom the written records is scattered.  If those records can be gathered they often document lives of great interest.

Carl J. Ekburg and Sharon K. Person have written about such a life in this book. Louis St. Ange de Bellerive led one of the most interesting lives in French colonial history - and possibly in all North American colonial history.  The Groston de St. Ange family came from Canada where the father, Robert, had immigrated in 1685.  Robert was a member of the French Marines.  (Despite most of the French North American colony being landlocked, the area was under the jurisdiction of the Marines.   This probably made sense as supplies needed to be sent by ship.)  He would spend his entire career in service to the French crown and his career would take him and his family all over what is today the American midwest.

In 1720, Robert, his second wife and two adult male children, Pierre and Louis, were at Post St. Joseph at the bottom of Lake Michigan near present-day Niles Michigan.  From that posting, Robert (and presumably his sons) accompanied the Jesuit Father Charles Charlevoix down the Mississippi to Kaskaskia and Fort de Chartres.   The St. Ange family were now a part of the colony of Louisiana.  In 1723, Robert and his son Pierre were ordered to accompany a man named Bourgmont who was tasked with setting up a post on the Missouri River  - Fort d'Orleans.   Louis St. Ange eventually joined the family there and remained as commandant of Fort d'Orleans in the 1730's while his father returned to Fort de Chartres and became commander there. 

When Louis' brother Pierre was killed in action against the Chickasaw, his now retired father requested that Louis be given command of the post at Vincennes.  Louis St. Ange remained as the commandant at Vincennes from 1736-1764 when the end of the Seven Years War resulted in the transition of all the land east of the Mississippi to the English.  St. Ange was then moved from Vincennes to Fort de Chartres and was made commandant of all of Upper Louisiana.  It was he who eventually handed over the fort to the English and moved his troops across the river to the new settlement established on the west bank where he remained commandant of "Spanish Illinois" until an actual Spaniard could show up to take over.  An old man, he died a few years later in St. Louis in the home of Madame Chouteau.

As a genealogical researcher with family living in Upper Louisiana during that time, including in Vincennes, I've been well aware of St. Ange's history.  Ekburg and Person are to be commended in putting the history of the St. Ange family into one place where it can be easily accessed by the general public and where Louis de St. Ange might finally get his due. 

In addition to the history of the St. Ange family, Eckburg and Person have also spent time researching the written records of the village of St. Louis in the years leading up to 1770 when Pedro Piernas finally arrived in St. Louis to institute Spanish governance.  They write a fascinating social history of the village, examing births, deaths and marriages.   They discuss the architecture of the village and include a creditable discussion of the law of the land:  the Coutume de Paris.  They include a full chapter on slavery in early St. Louis and describe the foundations of the fur trade. 

For anyone interested in the founding of St. Louis this book is a must-read.  My only complaint is that, in their zeal to show that the story of Laclede and Chouteau are not the only important, or even the most important, story to know about the founding of St. Louis, they sometimes get a little petty. Every book has a point of view - even history books.  But far better to show that St. Ange was more important than Laclede by writing about St. Ange than by editorial comments about Laclede.  If you can ignore that editorializing, this is a book well worth reading. 

250 Years Ago* ... Happy Birthday St. Louis!

Happy Birthday St. Louis.  Today you are 250 years old! Some people think your birthday was yesterday, but I side with those who think it is today.  February 15.  But we are celebrating all weekend.

How do we know when St. Louis began its existence?   St. Louis appears to be among the chosen few cities that has an account written by an eyewitness.  Many years after the fact (probably after the Louisiana Purchase in 1804) Auguste Chouteau hand-wrote (in French) his memoirs.  Unfortunately, most of the original was destroyed in the 1840's in a fire while the document was on loan.  But a fragment was found among Auguste Chouteau's papers and, fortunately for us, what survived was his "Narrative of the Settlement of St. Louis".   The original is now in the collection of the St. Louis Mercantile Library which is located on the campus of the University of Missouri - St. Louis.

In 1858 the Mercantile Library published the original of the work along with an English translation.  Then in 1911, the Missouri Historical Society Collections republished both the English and French versions and included helpful footnotes.  They also included a photograph of the original manuscript  that containes a portion of the description of the day of the founding.  This is the publication that I use. 

Chouteau wrote:

Navigation being open in the early part of February, [Laclede] fitted out a boat, in which he put thirty men, - nearly all mechanics, - and he gave the charge of it to Chouteau, and said to him:  "You will proceed and land at the place where we marked the trees; you will commence to have the place cleared, and build a large shed to contain the provisions and the tools, and some small cabins, to lodge the men.  I will give you two men on whom you can depend, who will aid you very much; and I will rejoin you before long."  I arrived at the place designated on the [15th] of March and, on the morning of the next day, I put the men to work.  They commenced the shed, which was built in a short time, and the little cabins for the men were built in the vicinity.

Ah, I hear you say.  But doesn't Chouteau state that the date was March 15th?  And isn't this February 15?  And, looking at the deep winter that surrounds us, doesn't it make more sense that they would have waited the additional month?

In helpful footnote (which refers us to the facsimile of the original page) we learn:

The date of the founding of St. Louis has been the subject of much discussion.  As will be seen in the facsimile here given, Col. Chouteau wrote fevrier - February.  By his, or some other hand, the word mars was written over the word fevrier.  In his deposition before Recorder Hunt, Colonel Chouteau testified that, "On the tenth of February, A.D. 1764, Mr. Laclede sent Auguste Chouteau, this deponent, at the head of a party of mechanics of all trades, amounting to upwards of thirty in number to select a place suitable for an establishment such as he proposed.  On the 15th of February, A.D. 1764, they landed at a place which they thought convenient for the purposes of the company and immediately proceeded to cut down trees, draw the lines of a town, and build the house where this deponent at present resides.  Mr. Laclede on his arrival named the town Saint Louis, in honor of the King of France."  1 Hunt's minutes, p. 107.

And why the brackets around the 15th?  The translation is the 14th but the footnote begs to differ: 

Some person have mistaken Colonel Chouteau's figure 5 for the figure 4 (see facsimile).  But a comparison with other documents shows beyond question that the date here is fifteen.  ...

So I looked at the way Chouteau wrote the number "5" and I'm in agreement.  It was the 15th.

Unfortunately Chouteau does not name the two men on whom he was to depend (Chouteau, you might remember, was only about 14 years old).  It also does not name the 30 "mechanics" who accompanied him.  Later, however, in the original manuscript there is a list of names which the editor says appears to be Chouteau's best effort at recalling the names of the thirty men who were with him.

• A. Joseph Tayon
• Roger Tayon
• Dechene
• Beauchamps
• Morcerau
• Joseph Bequet*
• Andre Bequet*
• Gabriel Dodier
• Baptiste Marligne
• Lemoine Marligne
• Beaugenou
• Cotte
• Pichet
• Hervieux
• Bacune
• Francois Delin
• La Garosse
• Kierseraux
• Gregoire Kierceraux
• Alexia picard
• Antoine Pothier
• Th. Labrosse
• Labrosse
• Louis Chancellier
• Chancellier
• Gamache
• Ride
• Roi
• Layoie
• Le Grain

I've asterisked the two Becquets.  As the footnote says:

... the list is intended to be the muster roll of the thirty (in a deposition given 18 April, 1825 Col. Chouteau said upwards of thirty) men who came with Chouteau from Fort Chartres.  ... The errors in the list seem to be the mistakes of a copyist, and would indicate that Col. Chouteau had transcribed it from some previously written document.  Beauchamps was probably intended for Deschamps.  Marcereau should be Marcheteau dit Desnoyers.  The Becquets were both named Jean Baptiste.  Marligne should be Martigny.  The Martignys were near kinsmen of Iberville and Bienville.  Bacane should be Bacanne dit Riviere.  Layoie was Jean Salle dit Lajoie.  Most of the men named in the list became respected citizens of St. Louis. Nearly all were Canadians who had lived in the village about Fort Chartres.  (emphasis mine).

Other books about the founding of St. Louis reference the two Becquets (or Bequets as it is sometimes spelled) and agree that they were named Jean Baptiste and were from the Fort de Chartres area.  There were two Becquets, both named Jean Baptiste, who came to St. Louis.  (There was another Becquet family who went to Ste. Genevieve.)   Later records make clear that one was a blacksmith and one was a miller.   

The blacksmith, Jean Baptiste Becquet, was my ancestor, the son of Jean Baptiste Nicolas Becquet and his wife, Catherine Barreau who were immigrants from France.  J. B. Becquet (the younger) was married to Marie Francoise Dodier, the sister of Gabriel Dodier who was another member of the group of thirty who came with Chouteau.  Both men were blacksmiths.  If you intend to build a settlement, blacksmiths are essential to help make hinges and locks, etc.  They are also very useful to have around for trade because they would draw the Indian population in to have their metal goods repaired.

Jean Baptiste Becquet and his brother-in-law Gabriel Dodier were among the thirty who accompanied Chouteau.  Eventually Marie Francoise Dodier would join her husband in Saint Louis, as well as JB Becquet's mother-in-law, Veuve (Widow)  Dodier.  The founding would be a family affair for my family.

Over the years the family would become less French and more Irish and German, just as St. Louis became less French and more Irish and German.  Eventually in the late 1800s a descendent of Jean Baptiste Becquet would, for the first time, marry someone not of French descent - an Irish immigrant girl who had recently arrived in St. Louis.   Their daughter would marry a British citizen who had come to St. Louis from the British West Indies.  Her son would marry a woman of German-Irish descent.  The stories of our family's French heritage would be almost forgotten.  I would have a general understanding that my great-great-great grandfather with the French name had come "from Canada".  The knowledge that we were descended from a founding family would be misplaced.

But knowledge that is misplaced is not lost forever.  My father started digging into the history of that g-g-g grandfather.  Thanks to the tremendous resources of the St. Louis Public Library, the St. Louis County Library and the Missouri History Museum Library, and some help from my sister and me, the link was rediscovered.    And, thankfully, it was discovered in time for the Birthday Party!

So, again, Happy Birthday St. Louis.  You are a fine place to live.

   



*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago* ... Chouteau Sets out from Fort Chartres with Thirty Men

After spending the winter in the little village outside Fort Chartres, Laclede and Chouteau were anxious to move on.  As Auguste Chouteau would later remember: 

 "On the tenth of February, A.D. 1764, Mr. Laclede sent Auguste Chouteau, this deponent, at the head of a party of mechanics of all trades, amounting to upwards of thirty in number to select a place suitable for an establishment such as he proposed."  1 Hunt's minutes, p. 107. (As cited in the Missouri History Museum Collections of 1911).

It would take about five days to get to their destination.   Let's hope that the weather in February 1764 was milder than the weather in February 2014.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.  

250 Years Ago ... Celebrating the Founding of St. Louis at the Sheldon Art Galleries

On Friday night I attended the opening of a new exhibition at The Sheldon Art Galleries called Imagining the Founding of St. Louis.  This is part of the 250th birthday celebration which kicks off this month.

Of course there were no artists who traveled with Auguste Chouteau to the location of what would become St. Louis, hence the word Imagining in the title.  This exhibition consists of paintings, drawings, sculpture and artifacts depicting either the founding of St. Louis or the people (or groups of people) involved.

Some of the most interesting items in the exhibition are artifacts of the native Americans who lived in the area at the time:  Osage, Missouri and Illini tribes.  I was surprised by the items that came from the collection of the St. Louis Science Center.  I had no idea that the Science Center had these types of artifacts in their collection. Some of the artifacts were large. There was a shield belonging to Chief Black Dog of the Osage. 

One of the highlights of the exhibition (at least, for me) was an original page from Auguste Chouteau's handwritten memoir, lent by the St. Louis Mercantile Library.  This original document will only be exhibited during the first month of the exhibit because it is tremendously fragile.  But to see Auguste Chouteau's actual handwriting was thrilling.   A woman standing next to me seemed as awed as I was.   "It's in French?" she asked.   Yes. 

I also enjoyed seeing some of the rare books and maps that were displayed.  One of my favorite items was an early Christmas card from one of the Chouteau descendents that was sent in the 1800's that contained a depiction of the founding.

There are also a number of fairly large depictions that imagine the actual moment when Auguste Chouteau arrived to begin the building of the settlement.   The curator has helpfully included descriptions of where these depictions are and are not accurate.   They are very helpful in imagining The Moment as the exhibition calls it.  

The exhibition runs until August 23, 2014.   I recommend it.  But if you want to see the page from the Chouteau manuscript you need to get there this month.   There will be an Osage blessing of the exhibit on the actual anniversary date,  next Saturday, February 15, at 1:45 p.m.  And on that date, in honor of the actual birthday, the galleries will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.


*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.  

250 Years Ago ... Let's Meet Auguste Chouteau*

As January turned into February in the little village of Nouvelle Chartres, Laclede and his companion, Auguste Chouteau, no doubt were in the midst of planning for the building of Maxent & Laclede's new trading post and settlement at the location they had chosen a couple of months previously.  In fact, later in February Laclede would send Chouteau to start the building process while Laclede remained at Nouvelle Chartres, no doubt trading. 

Who was this young man, Auguste Chouteau? 

In 1764, Chouteau was no more than fourteen years old, which seems a young age to be entrusted with the tasks that Laclede entrusted him with. But in the 1700's, boys of 14 were eligible to serve in the militia and it was not unusual for them to leave home and become apprenticed to a master craftsman or, if they were literate and knew their numbers, be hired as a clerk to a merchant. 

Chouteau was the son of Rene Auguste Chouteau, who had emigrated to New Orleans some time prior to September 20, 1748 when he married 15 year old Marie Therese Bourgeois. She was born in New Orleans on January 14, 1733 to Nicolas Charles Bourgeois and Marie Joseph Tarare. Rene Auguste Chouteau kept an inn and tavern in New Orleans. His son, Auguste Chouteau was probably born the year following the marriage.  

By 1752 the elder Chouteau had abandoned his wife and baby son and returned to France. There was a family tradition that Chouteau was abusive to Marie Therese.  But whether he was physically abusive, he abandoned a very young woman and small child leaving her to fend for herself.  By 1763, Marie Therese was calling herself Veuve (Widow) Chouteau, more an indication that no one expected Chouteau to return to New Orleans rather than any real knowledge as to whether he was alive or not. In fact, Chouteau was not dead.  In 1767 he returned to New Orleans, only to find that his wife and son had moved to the new settlement of St. Louis with Pierre Laclede. 

Within a few years after the elder Chouteau abandoned her, Marie Therese met Pierre Laclede.   She was still legally married to the missing Chouteau, and in any event divorce was not allowed in French Catholic territories, so they could never marry.  But Laclede and Madame Chouteau (as she was always known) seemed to be as committed to each other as any married couple and they had four children together:  Jean Pierre (1758), Marie Pelagie (1760), Marie Louise (1762) and Victoire, born March 3, 1764 when Laclede was in the Illinois country.  As Shirley Christian says in her book Before Lewis and Clark, Laclede and Marie Therese "followed a policy of never admit and never explain."  Thus, even though everyone knew that Chouteau had been missing for years, Marie Therese had all of her children baptised as the legitimate children of Rene Auguste Chouteau and so none of Laclede's children bore his name.  (This would cause confusion for historians and geneologists in the future). 

Laclede became, in fact if not by law, the step-father of Auguste Chouteau and it seems that they had a close relationship.  Laclede  was a well educated man and he saw that Auguste Chouteau became educated.  When young Auguste Chouteau was old enough, Laclede employed him as his clerk.  He took Chouteau with him on the 700 mile journey up the Mississippi to found St. Louis, leaving behind (temporarily) the pregnant Marie Therese and the other three children.  Eventually Laclede would send Chouteau and a group of men up the river to begin the process of building the new St. Louis.

In his old age, Auguste Chouteau would write his memoirs in which he is unfailingly complimentary of Laclede.  He called him "a man of great merit, capable from his experience, of conducting with skill and prudence the interests of the company."  It was Chouteau himself, however, who would  become the patriarch of St. Louis, its leading citizen and a very rich man.  

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014. 

250 Years Ago ... Laclede and Chouteau Scope out Locations for St. Louis*

By this time, in 1763, Laclede and Chouteau were settled into their new residence at Nouvelle Chartres. It makes sense that they would have begun their trading, including obtaining introductions by Commander De Neyon to the various Indian tribes in the area.

But Laclede had no intention of investing a great deal of time into business in Nouvelle Chartres, he was impatient to choose a location for his new trading post at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. At some point in December, Laclede set out on an exploratory trip up the river to view the Western Bank of the Mississippi River below the Missouri and choose a location for his post.

Years later, his companion, Auguste Chouteau, would remember this trip:

After all the business of trade was done, he occupied himself with the means of forming an establishment suitable for his commerce, Ste. Genevieve not suiting him, because of its distance from the Missouri, and its insalubrious situation. These reasons decided him to seek a more advantageous site. In consequence, he set out from the Fort de Chartres in the month of December, took with him a young man in his confidence, and examined all the ground from the Fort de Chartres to the Missouri. He was delighted to see the situation [where St. Louis at present stands]; he did not hesitate a moment to form there the establishment that he proposed. Besides the beauty of the site, he found there all the advantages that one could desire to found a settlement which might become very considerable hereafter. After having examined all thoroughly, he fixed upon the place where he wished to form his settlement, marked with his own trees, and said to Chouteau, "You will come here as soon as navigation opens, and will cause this place to be cleared, in order to form our settlement after the plan that I shall give you." We set out immediately afterwards, to return to Fort de Chartres where he said, with enthusiasm, to Monsieur De Neyon, and to his officers, that he had found a situation where he was going to form a settlement, which might become, hereafter, one of the finest cities of America -- so many advantages were embraced in this site, by its locality and its central position, for forming settlement.

 It is doubtful that Laclede actually said that last part, about founding a city that would become one of the finest cities of America.  Chouteau was remembering this years later, after the Louisiana Purchase by the United States, and that "memory" seems likely to be a bit of political correctness.  It is more likely that Laclede was enthusiastic about the opportunity for commerce up the Missouri River and then down to New Orleans. 

No one knows exactly when this reconnaissance trip took place, but today there was a commemoration ceremony at the Arch followed by a 1763 era Christmas dance at the Old Courthouse.  It was as good a day as any to celebrate that first landing.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago* ... Laclede Buys Property in Nouvelle Chartres; Sets up Shop

By November 19, 1763, Pierre LaClede and his companion, Auguste Chouteau, had been in the Fort de Chartres area for not quite two weeks.  Unlike today, the Mississippi River valley did not have Comfort Inns to check into, so Laclede and Chouteau were probably staying with a local family.  They needed a more permanent place to stay for at least a few months.

Laclede had already been outbid on the Jesuit property put up for auction only a few days after his arrival. Now an opportunity presented itself.  A soldier of the garrison was was willing to sell his house which backed up to the King's Road, the main road that led from the little village of St. Phillipe, north of the fort, through Nouvelle Chartres and south, past Prairie du Rocher to Kaskaskia.  If you were a merchant, it would be a good location for people to stop and talk to you about your wares.  The soldier, Jean Girardin, had acquired the house from the wife of Jean Prunet, who was on the verge of bankruptcy.  Prunet's wife claimed that she had a power of attorney from her husband to sell the property but she was now not able to produce it. Girardin was required to give the buyer an indemnity to cover damages  if Prunet or his wife showed up to claim any ownership of the house.

Laclede purchased the house on behalf of the Company.  It appears that he paid 7500 livres for it, much less than the amount he had bid for the Jesuit property.  This sum also appears to be less than the 15,000 livres that Girardin had paid Prunet's wife for the property.

It would provide a good place to stay for Laclede and Chouteau.  It was a two room furnished house with a lot.  A fence enclosed the property, as was common in French colonial villages.  It also came with 17 head of cattle.

However anxious Laclede and Chouteau were to venture up the river and scout a location for their new trading post, they would winter in Fort de Chartres. 

The following is the deed executed for Maxent, Laclede & Co.'s new location in Nouvelle Chartres (from The Village of Chartres).

Was present in person Jean Girardin, private in the troops detached of the Marine, garrisoned in Illinois, residing in New Chartres, who by the presents has acknowledged and confessed to have on this day, sold, ceded, quitted and conveyed, and promises to warrant against all troubles, debts, dowers, mortgages, evictions, substitutions and all other incumbrances whichever generally, unto Messrs. Maxant, Laclede and Co., merchants, residing commonly in Illinois here present and accepting acquirer for himself, and Messrs. Maxant and Co., to wit:

one house built on sills, consisting of two rooms, two closets, a shed, the lot belonging to said house, of which the parties cannot tell the dimensions, and on which there is a barn covered with straw, a pigeon house, a well of wood and other conveniences; said lot enclosed with cedar posts on all its faces bounded on one side by Ignace Hebert, on the other by Girardot, in front by a street opposite the lot of Girardot, in the rear by the King's road, the whole situate in New Chartres, and further all the furniture now in said house of whatever description they may be, and of which the parties have not thought proper to make a more ample statement, further seventeen head of cattle, one thousand weight fowls, and such as the whole now stands and lies and which said Mr. Laclede says he well knows for having seen and visited the same,

without reserving or retaining anything on the part of said Girardin to whom the whole belongs as having acquired verbally from Veronique Panisse, wife of Jean Prunet dit La Giroflee, who has a power of attorney of her said husband for the sum of 15,000 livres, which was applied for the payment of the debts of said La Giroflee, and without that sale the creditors of Jean Prunet would have had said house sold at auction, being said land of the king's domain and up to this day free from any charge, rent or dues;

 to be enjoyed and disposed of by said Laclede, Maxant and Co., their heirs and assigns, conveying unto them all rights of property, names, actions, reasons and other he has or may have on the property aforesaid, willing that said acquirer may be seized and put in possession by whom it may pertain, appointing to that effect as his attorney the bearer of the presents, giving him full power; and as it is found that said Panisse, wife of said Prunet dit la Giroflee, had not any power of attorney from her husband to authorize her to sell the said house, and that she could not in consequence execute a regular deed, said parties have agreed that in case of a reimbursement from La Giroflee in order to reenter in possession of his house or any other troubles he could apprehend said Girardin, binds himself to indemnify said Mr. Laclede, and to give good and sufficient security of said sum of 7500 livres, and that as soon as Girardin shall review the said bills of exchange of 7500 livres, and this has been stipulated by express clause and as to secure said Mr. Laclede against any troubles from said Prunet and wife; and for the execution of the presents, the parties have appointed their domicile in their respective residences aforesaid, where all acts of justice shall be made.

 For thus has been agreed between the parties.

Promising. Binding. Renouncing.

Done and executed in Illinois in my office in the year 1763, the 19th of November in presence of Messrs. Laysard and Jean LaGrange, merchants who have with the parties and the Notary signed the presents after reading.

 Layssard; Laclede Liguest; Jean Gerardin; Lagrange, wit.; Labuxiere, Notary.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago* ... Laclede Attempts to Buy Property in Kaskaskia

On November 6, 1763, Pierre Laclede, a visitor in the village of Nouvelle Chartres, attended a local auction. The Jesuit Mission in the Illinois was packing up and leaving as part of the suppression of the order in the France and its domains. On July 9, 1763, an order had issued from the Governor of Louisiana expelling them from Louisiana.


According to witnessess**:

"Except for some books and some wearing apparel which was allowed to them, all their property, real and personal, was to be seized and sold at auction."   The chapel ornaments at the mission in the Illinois were to be delivered to the King's procurator and the chapels were to be demolished.  The Jesuits were from that moment prohibited from living in the same house and were to take ship to France at the earliest time.

The Jesuits in Illinois had extensive property.   On the day of the auction, the property being auctioned consisted of a house that must have been quite large as it was "divided into different rooms" and had a garret and a cellar.  There were also outbuildings, including slave quarters, a weaving room, a barn, a horse mill, a dovecote, and a stable.

Laclede had no intention of establishing a permanent post at Kaskaskia, but he needed somewhere to live and to establish himself with the residents.  

Bidding seems to have been brisk.  The opening bid was 8,000 livres from Jean Baptiste Bauvais.   Raphael Bauvais immediately jumped the bid to 20,000 livres and from there it went up steadily.   Mr. de Rocheblave (who would later be acting commander of the fort) bid 25,000.  At that point Laclede jumped in and bid 30,000 livres.  But he was soon outbid as the price jumped to 32,000 and then 35,000.  Laclede re-entered the bidding at 39,000 livres but Jean Baptiste Bauvais was the winner at 41,000 livres.

Laclede was probably not concerned to lose the auction.  Many people were leaving the Illinois, including soldiers garrisoned at the fort.  There would be other properties for sale. 



*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

**For this and the details of the auction, see The Critical Period, 1763-1765, Volume 10 by Clarence Walworth Alvord.

250 Years Ago* ... November 3, 1763, Laclede Arrives in Ste. Genevieve

On November 3, 1763 Pierre Laclede and young Auguste Chouteau arrived at the village of Ste. Genevieve, on the west bank of the Mississippi River in what is now Missouri.  They had been on the river since the beginning of August, traveling slowly upstream from New Orleans with the royal convoy bound with supplies for Fort de Chartres.

Ste. Genevieve was the most northern French settlement on the west bank of the Mississippi, or at least the most northern settlement downriver from the confluence with the Missouri River.  Although the town of Ste. Genevieve still remains, the original settlement was a victim of Mississippi River flooding. By the 1790's, the residents had moved the entire town back from the river to where it exists today.

According to Gregory M. Franzwa, in his Ste. Genevieve: An Account of an Old French Town in Upper Louisiana; its People and their Homes, Ste. Genevieve was located where it was because of its easy access to the river (there were higher cliffs along the river north of Ste. Genevieve) and the route to the lead mines located northwest of the village.

In the early 1700's, the Royal Company of the Indies appointed a man named Philippe Francois Renault to explore and exploit the mineral resources of Louisiana.  The Company of course hoped he would locate gold and silver mines to rival those in Mexico.  Renault found no gold and silver, but he did find some of the best lead mines on the continent. As part of his arrangement with the company, Renault was granted a concession of land just north of Fort de Chartres and there he founded what became known as the village of St. Philippe.  According to Franzwa, Renault opened Mine La Motte on the Missouri side of the river and by 1725 was producing 1,500 pounds of lead per day.

Renault may be indirectly responsible for the founding of Ste. Genevieve on the west bank.  Sometimes the date given for the founding of Ste. Genevieve is the early 1730's but other times the official founding date is given as occurring after 1750.  Some historians, however, believe that there were people living on the site of the original village soon after Renault arrived, for the simple reason that workers would not want to cross the wide Mississippi every night to go home. But whether these, probably, itinerant workers constituted a village is open for debate.  Without a doubt, Ste. Genevieve was permanent French settlement by the 1750's.

Carl J. Ekburg, in French Roots in the Illinois Country, states that Ste. Genevieve, as a permanent agricultural community, first appears on the 1752 census of the Illinois Country (the French did not do a census every year or even every 10 years and they were not always accurate).   This census reflected eight permanent households with a total population of 23 (free and slave).

Presumably the early itinerant mine workers were superceded by permanent French Canadian families.  Ekburg, in his Francois Valle and his World, says:

Most of the residents of the Old Town [Ste. Genevieve] were a closely knit group of French Canadian habitants, or children of such habitants, who migrated from the east to the west bank of the Mississippi in pursuit of agricultural land. Multiple ties of blood, friendship and shared experiences bound these colonists together. 

By the time Laclede landed in 1763 the population would have grown. In fact, the 1760's saw an influx of French settlers relocating from what was now British Illinois to what they thought was French Illinois.  In 1765 a British captain reported Ste. Genevieve contained 50 families. By 1770 the British were reporting that Ste. Genevieve had 170 families.  French families clearly were not comfortable staying in British dominated lands, but in 1763 the only option for French families who did not want to live under Protestant British rule was to move across the river to Ste. Genevieve or head downriver to Arkansas Post or New Orleans.

In any event,  when Pierre Laclede stepped ashore in 1763, Ste. Genevieve was an established community.  Ekburg speculates that the original Ste. Genevieve was a "string town", a village laid out along one street, La Grand Rue, that would have run north/south more or less parallel with the river.  At the southern end of the village was La Petite Riviere, a stream that ran into the Mississippi.  It was here that the ferry across to Kaskaskia was located.  Secondary streets would have crossed La Grand Rue and homes, situated on lots of one square arpent, were laid out along La Grand Rue and the secondary streets.

Ekburg claims that the original town was a planned community, although no plan exists to tell us what it looks like.  Land grants made by the commandant at Fort de Chartres were not haphazard but were in accordance with a plan made by the royal surveyor, Francois Saucier. Saucier had arrived in the Illinois Country to design the new (and last) stone fort for Fort de Chartres.

Outside the village was a 7,000 acre agricultural area known as La Grand Champ, which was divided into strips of land that were owned by the villagers.   The whole area was enclosed by a large fence to keep animals out of the field.   After the harvest, the gates would be opened so that livestock could graze. As was typical throughout French North America, the French lived in their villages and traveled out to work their fields.

Although Ste. Genevieve was in French Illinois, it was directly across the river from the towns that would now be under the rule of the new British masters. This could not have been a comfortable feeling.  The French thought of the Mississippi River exactly as  we think of it today - a river located in one unified country, to be freely traversed without harassment from either bank other than from, sometimes, Indians.   As soon as the British arrived on the east bank, the river would turn into an international boundary.

The first thing that Laclede would have noticed about Ste. Genevieve when he arrived was that it was not a military establishment.  The same week that Laclede arrived in Ste. Genevieve, the French governor of Louisiana wrote to his predecessor that he intended to order the commandant at Fort de Chartres to carry off everything from the Fort when it was handed over to the British and deposit the artillery either in New Orleans or at the French post in Arkansas because "in Ste. Genevieve the  English would carry them off on their own perogative."

Governor D'Abbadie also remarked, in that November 6, 1763, letter that "the English officer assigned to command at the Illinois appears to me to be an alarming and seemingly completely dogmatic man" and D'Abbadie suggested that it would be best to warn the French commander in Fort de Chartres of this fact in advance.  Certainly this would not have made the French in the Illinois Country feel any better about the coming transfer of power.

Laclede had arrived in the Illinois Country, but his stay in Ste. Genevieve would be short lived.  Ste. Genevieve was not fortified and there was no secure location to store all of his trade goods.  Fortunately Commander de Noyes at Fort de Chartres (the brother-in-law of ex governor Kerlerec) was on the lookout for Laclede and Chouteau.  According to Auguste Chouteau's later memoir, Commander de Noyes sent a soldier over to Ste. Genevieve to tell Laclede that he was willing to assist Laclede and store his goods in the fort.  Since Fort de Chartres was another 18 miles upriver from Ste. Genevieve it is possible that Laclede and his party spent the night in Ste. Genevieve, but that is just speculation.

According to J. Frederick Fausz in his Founding of St. Louis,former Governor Kerlerec had sent an overland messenger to his brother-in-law, Commander de Noyes,  that had arrived at the Fort on October 25, 1763.  So de Noyes undoubtedly knew that Laclede, the partner of the richest merchant in New Orleans, was on his way.  According to Fausz, Governor D'Abbadie had "loaned" Laclede 300 pounds of the King's gunpowder.  The safest place to store gunpowder would be in the magazine at Fort de Chartres. (Clink this link for a view of the restored magazine building at Fort de Chartres, thought to be the oldest building in Illinois.)  Fausz sees this as evidence that Maxent & Laclede had the backing of the French colonial government in their endeavor to establish a trading post at the Missouri/Mississippi confluence.

Fausz thinks it is clear that the French colonial powers realized that there was going to be an exodus from the eastern bank of the river.  The day before Laclede arrived in Ste. Genevieve, de Noyes had treated with a group of Indians who were requesting French assistance against the British, including a request for gunpowder.  De Noyes had to deny the request because, as far as the French were concerned, the war was over.  He urged the Indians to cease waging war on the British and "retreat under French wings to the other side of the Mississippi River."  The following year, many French would "retreat" to the west side of the Mississippi to the new trading settlement that Laclede would found near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

Although Laclede's visit to Ste. Genevieve was short, it was important.  It marked his official arrival in the Illinois Country.   By the 1780's the people of Ste. Genevieve were beginning to move to higher ground where the flooding of the Mississippi River could not reach them.  Today Ste. Genevieve remains one of the oldest existing communities west of the Mississippi River and it has the largest concentration of French Colonial Buildings in the country.  In 2008 it was selected by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as one its "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" and some of the old homes are open to the public including The Bolduc House.  Although built in the 1790's, it gives some idea of the type of homes that Pierre Laclede would have encountered in Ste. Genevieve and in the Village of Nouvelle Chartres during his stay there. If you are ever in the area, I strongly encourage a visit.

In 2008 Sainte Genevieve was selected as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations.” - See more at: http://www.greatriverroad.com/SteGenHome.htm#sthash.V6wqJmne.dpuf

Ste. Genevieve holds the distinction of the having the largest concentration of French Colonial buildings in the country. In 2008 Sainte Genevieve was selected as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations.” Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation selects 12 cities that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a commitment to historic revitalization. Sainte Genevieve’s strength was its preservation, with more than 150 pre-1825 structures. Three of these buildings - the Amoureux, the Bolduc, and the Guibourd-Valle houses - are open to the public. The Felix Valle Home is open to the public and demonstrates the effect of the American influence. - See more at: http://www.greatriverroad.com/SteGenHome.htm#sthash.V6wqJmne.dpuf

Ste. Genevieve holds the distinction of the having the largest concentration of French Colonial buildings in the country. In 2008 Sainte Genevieve was selected as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations.” Each year the National Trust for Historic Preservation selects 12 cities that offer an authentic visitor experience by combining dynamic downtowns, attractive architecture, cultural landscapes and a commitment to historic revitalization. Sainte Genevieve’s strength was its preservation, with more than 150 pre-1825 structures. Three of these buildings - the Amoureux, the Bolduc, and the Guibourd-Valle houses - are open to the public. The Felix Valle Home is open to the public and demonstrates the effect of the American influence. - See more at: http://www.greatriverroad.com/SteGenHome.htm#sthash.V6wqJmne.dpuf

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago ... Meanwhile, somewhere along the Mississippi River

When we last left our story about the founding of St. Louis, Governor D'Abbadie of Louisiana had confirmed the trading license for Maxent and Laclede's company granting them the exclusive right to establish a trading post at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers and to trade with the Indians in the area.  At that time Maxent must have already been putting together the merchandise that would be taken upriver to be used as presents for the Indian tribes and for trade. Laclede, as the partner who would be "on the ground",  must have already been making final arrangements for the journey.  Laclede would take with him 14 year old Auguste Chouteau, the son of Laclede's life partner Marie Therese Bourgeois. There is a myth that Laclede also took colonists with him, but this was a merchant trading trip.  The colonists would arrive later.

A good account of the journey may be found in Frederick Fausz' book Founding St. Louis, First City of the New West. On August 10, 1763 (which Fausz assures us was a Wednesday) Laclede left a power of attorney with Judge Nicolas Forstall of New Orleans so that his affairs in New Orleans could be handled in his absence. He and Chouteau were to leave with the royal convoy that carried provisions upriver to Fort de Chartres.  Despite the surrender of the French and the subsequent treaties, the Fort was still under the control of the French military as no British troops had yet arrived in the Illinois to take possession of it.

According to histories, five bateaux left New Orleans in the royal convoy in the "first days of August" that year.  A bateaux was a shallow draft boat which could carry up to 40 tons of merchandise.  Fausz writes:

The typical crew of each "king's boat" consisted of a patrone (experienced skipper), a "royal slave" as an expert pilot and at least twenty well-armed marines, who rowed and defended the convoy. 

According to Fausz, the merchandise that Maxent & Laclede were sending upriver was valued at nine thousand livres which "was enough to provide lavish presents for twenty Indian nations."

Presents for the Indian nations were essential.  Indians only traded with allies and anyone who wasn't an ally was an enemy.  Enemies could be robbed and even killed.  Friends presented each other with presents as symbols of their goodwill.  Being on the good side of the Indians was essential for trade and also for safety.  Reports of the attacks on the British in Detroit and throughout the Illinois country in May of 1763 by Pontiac and the formerly French allied tribes reached New Orleans just before the royal convoy was scheduled to depart. Neyon de Villiers, the commandant at Fort de Chartres, reported that Pontiac and his warriors had captured seven British forts, beseiged Detroit and seized "a hundred thousand pounds" of English merchandise including ammunition. Villiers urged the Governor to maintain a full complement of troops at Fort de Chartres until the British could arrive to take control.  But the French evacuation of Louisiana was underway and would not be stopped.

Laclede and Chouteau were bound for Ste. Genevieve, the French settlement almost directly across the river from Kaskaskia and just downstream from Fort de Chartres.  Ste. Genevieve was primarily an agricultural community which also housed some French who worked the lead mines on the western side of the Mississippi.  Ste. Genevieve was the only port on the Mississippi, above the Ohio River, that the French still legally controlled (although, of course, the King had already secretly ceded the land to Spain). Laclede planned to winter in Ste. Genevieve while he selected a site further north for his trading post.

By the end of October of 1763, the royal convoy was still on its way upriver but getting near Ste. Genevieve. Laclede's journey to Ste. Genevieve took 85 days, which wasn't particularly long in the days before steam powered vessels had been invented.  The convoy would have made only about one mile per hour, operating under human power.  The boatmen had to row or pole their way against the current.   A large portion of the trip involved cordelling, a process by which ropes would be tied to trees along the shore slightly upriver from the location of the bateaux and the men would pull the boats along.  This sometimes involved zigzagging back and forth across the Mississippi.  And always they were laboring against the strong current of the Mississippi River.


The bateaux itself would have little shelter from the elements (whether hot sun or rain) - only a tent. Anyone who has lived through the heat of August along the Mississippi (not to mention the mosquitos) can imagine how hellish the trip must have been. But travel in late summer was preferable to travel during the winter when ice flowed down the Mississippi, or travel during the spring floods.  And throughout the trip the men in the convoy would be under constant pressure to keep watch against attacks from Indians allied with the English.

There is no record that this royal convoy was attacked by Indians. But perhaps the attention of the English-allied Indians was directed east during this period.   

In September, a month or so after the convoy left New Orleans, a British infantry captain arrived in New Orleans to begin the process of the handover of the land east of the river, beginning with Mobile.  On October 16, former Governor Kerlerec would report:  "The English have at last taken possession of Florida, where I think the Indians will give them some work." Also in October Kerlerec reported that the British were planning the process of taking possession of Fort de Chartres via the long trip up the Mississippi:

The English are intending to go and take possession of the Illinois and dependencies by way of the river, and according to the conferences that I have had on this subject with the captain of infantry whom Major Farmar has dispatched to me, it has been arranged that the latter will deliberate about this operation at Mobile with M. D'Abbadie and that they will be able to have the English convoy depart toward the first days of January.  They will be at the Illinois about the 20th of March, and our troops will return here at the end of April.

Laclede and Choteau were unaware of this as they continued their long journey upstream.  By this time in October they would probably have been somewhere near or above the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi.  They knew that Ste. Genevieve was not much further upstream.  I imagine they were dreaming of the day that the journey would be complete. But the leg of the journey between the Ohio River and the Kaskaskia River contained, in Fausz' words, the greatest navigational challenges, partly because quicksand lined the river's edges.  Often bateaux would make only one mile in two hours. Once they reached the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, it would only be 15 miles to Ste. Genevieve. The end was near.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago ... July 6, 1763

On June 29, 2013, Jean-Jacques Blaise D'Abbadie, the new French Director-General of the colony of Louisiana arrived in New Orleans, replacing Governor Kerlerec.  D'Abbadie's main responsibility was to see to the orderly transition to Britain of the land east of the Mississippi.   Kerlerec himself did not leave until October, providing for an orderly transition.

One week later, on July 6, 1643, D'Abbadie confirmed the trade license and monopoly granted to Maxent, Laclede & Co.  D'Abbadie was originally from Bearn, only fifty miles from where Laclede was from.  He was acquainted with the Laclede family.  That connection could only be beneficial to Maxent & Laclede's venture.

But when the license was signed, Laclede was due to leave with the annual royal convoy traveling up the Mississippi one month later.  Since one month was not nearly enough time to put together the trade goods necessary for such a venture, historians believe that the venture had received the blessing of Kerlerec long before this date.

"Only Kerlerec possessed the power, patronage, and perceptive vision to sponsor Maxent's enterprise, and he had to have issued the trade license in 1762 to give the new company the time to Indian trade goods from the merchant houses of Le Leu in New Rochelle.  The sailing time from that French port to to New Orleans ranged from fourteen to twenty-one weeks, so Maxent and Laclede needed as much advanced notice as possible in order to outfit an expedition to the Illinois country by early August 1763, when the regularly scheduled royal convoy had to depart due to river conditions. "  Founding St. Louis:  First City of the New West by Frederick Fausz.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago -- Pontiac Was not a Car

By the early 1760's the British occupied the French posts at Green Bay, Mackinac, St. Joseph (Niles Michichigan), Ouiatenon, Detroit, Fort Miami, Sandusky and Niagara. But an occupation is not a permanent situation and in all previous wars control of the land had, for the most part, reverted to the powers that originally held the land.  So, at first the occupation was peaceful. 

"Except in Illinois country, the British occupied the old French posts without Algonquian resistance.  And despite the belts urging rebellion, most of Onontio's children apparently expected the British to act, if not as fathers, then as brothers. They did not anticipate conquerors ... British policy in 1762, however, dashed Algonquian hopes for accommodation on the middle ground.  Crop failures, epidemics, and famine, particularly severe along the Ohio River and in the Wabash country, swept the [midwest], and the Algonquians begged for assistance from their British brothers. Events had now put both their lives and their conceptions of the British at risk, and the British by and large failed them. The local commanders either lacked the capacity to give aid or gave it grudgingly. " White, The Middle Ground, pp. 274-275.

In 1763 reports that France was officially ceding Canada to Britain reached Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and began to spread to the western posts.  The French inhabitants and the resident Indians were astonished and could not believe it.  The divide of the continent between the French and the British was so long standing it was probably hard to imagine the French authority leaving out.  British commanders began to receive reports from the Illinois that, although French troops were reconciled to the cession to Britain, the French traders were not and were urging the Indians to kill the British.  There appears to be no evidence the French were officially assisting the Indians in a rebellion, but the Indians certainly seemed to expect that French aid would be coming.  This may have been due to empty promises made by French traders and habitants who, themselves, couldn't imagine the continent becoming solely British.

The British had an experienced and intelligent expert on Indians and the Indian trade in a man named George Croghan.  Croghan warned the British that their victory was not complete over the Indians, who had not "surrendered".  He reported that the Algonquians were desperate enough to begin a rebellion and their past success against the British gave them confidence that they would prevail.  And, at first, they did prevail.

 In April, 1763 Pontiac called a council of war to plan an attack on the Fort at Detroit.  The British were not acting like Fathers or Brothers.  Pontiac was convinced that the British intended to open up widespread settlement in the Ohio Valley.  The threat of settlement combined with a ban on the sale of gunpowder to the tribes, which harmed their ability to hunt, seemed designed to drive the tribes eventually out of the Ohio Valley.  Attacking and driving out the British interlopers seemed the only solution.

The attack on Detroit failed, but this was only the most famous of the attacks that occurred in the spring of 1763.   All of the British occupied forts were attacked and all of them were taken except for Niagara, Detroit and Fort Pitt.  British reinforcements eventually arrived and the rebellion was quashed.  But Richard White posits the theory that this was a wake up call for the British in which they realized that, outnumbered as they were in the western country and (maybe as importantly) wanting the fur markets for themselves, they needed to work with the Indians and occupy a "middle ground" with them rather than acting like conquerors.  George Croghan said that the British needed to emulate the French when it came to Indians - they were "bred up together" and understood each other.

"There is no need to romanticize this relationship, Indians and French abused and killed each other; they cheated each other as well as supplying each other's wants. But their knowledge of each other's customs, and their ability to live together - what Croghan described as their having been bred up together - had no equivalent among the British." White

Pontiac continued, through 1763 and 1764, to move among the Indian villages of the Wabash country, fomenting resistance there and among the French habitants at Vincennes and in the Illinois country.  By the summer of 1763, France had ordered the officers commanding in the now British territory to evacuate their posts as soon as the British arrived.  The British had not, however,  reached Fort de Chartres, mostly due to resistance from the surrounding Indian tribes. So the people in the Illinois country continued under the administration of the French military officers at Fort de Chartres who were now acting for a foreign power.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago* ... The Jesuits

In honor of the new Jesuit Pope Francis, this seems as good a time as any to remember how important the French Jesuits were in the founding of French Colonial North America and talk about what was happening with them 250 years ago.  In short, 250 years ago the Jesuits lost a fight in France that would lead to them being banished from North America within the year.  The people of the Illinois country were poised to lose their King and to come under the dominion of a Protestant regime.  They were also poised to lose nearly every priest that they had.  But that wasn't the fault of their English conquerors.  I'm not an expert on Jesuit history but I'll tell you what I know about the Jesuits in the Illinois Country.

As many newspaper articles have pointed out since Francis became Pope, the Jesuits have never been the type to stay-at-home.

We can certainly expect a truly global papacy, not just because of Francis’s birthplace but also because taking the Christian message to far-flung foreign climes has always been a Jesuit obsession. 

The Jesuits came to America early.  For anyone interested in the history of the French in Colonial North America, the Jesuits are a godsend.  They were not only literate but, beginning in 1632 and throughout their stay in colonial North America, they wrote lengthy annual missives back home to France, which were then published for general consumption.  Today those missives are compiled in a multi-volume set called the Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France or the Jesuit Relations.

Originally written in French, Latin and Italian, The Jesuit Relations were reports from Jesuit missionaries in the field that were sent to their superiors to update them as to the missionaries’ progress in the conversion of various Native American tribes. Constructed as narratives, the original reports of the Jesuit missionaries were subsequently transcribed and altered several times before their publication, first by the Jesuit overseer in New France and then by the Jesuit governing body in France. The Relations gradually became more focused on the general public as its readers, in terms of a marketing tool to procure new settlers for the colonies, while simultaneously trying to gain the capital to continue the missions in New France.

For those doing genealogical research, the Jesuit Relations can also be helpful in filling in details.  For instance, I know that one of my Canadian ancestors, Antoine Desrosiers, had a servant who was killed by the Iroquois.  It happened on August 7, 1651.  The servant was out in the early morning along the St. Lawrence river, killing crows. He was found in the road with two gunshots in him and a hatchet in his head.  How do I know that?  The Jesuits reported it.

The Jesuits and the fur traders were the first Europeans to explore what is, today, the American midwest.  Sometimes they did it together.  The most famous pair was Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette and explorer/trader Louis Jolliet.  The pair set out in 1673, paddled down the Mississippi from the Wisconsin River as far as Arkansas and then paddled back up.  The Native Americans told them that, going back, it would be easier to head up the Illinois River towards the Lake of the Illinois (Lake Michigan) rather than go back up the Wisconsin River.  Today, at the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers there is a lovely Illinois state park named ... Pere Marquette Park.  Oh and note that it is "Pere" Marquette, not "Pierre" Marquette.  His name was not Pierre, it was Jacques. The French word for "Father" is Pere, which is pronounced "pear" - so the park name in English is "Father Marquette" park.  Sorry for the lecture but this mispronunciation is a pet peeve of mine.

Father Marquette later returned to the tribes on the Illinois River  near the Great Village of the Kaskaskias, and founded the Mission of the Immaculate Conception.  But unfortunately he contracted dysentery and died at the age of 37. The always indefatigable Jesuits, however, sent new missionaries. In 1689 Father Jacques Gravier was assigned to work in the Illinois Country among the Kaskaskia Indians. 

Gravier's most enduring work was his compilation of a Kaskaskia-French dictionary, with nearly 600 pages and 20,000 entries ... It is the most extensive of dictionaries of the Illinois language compiled by French missionaries. The work was finally edited and published in 2002 by Carl Masthay, providing an invaluable source of the historic Kaskaskia Illinois language.

Fr. Gravier traveled extensively around the Illinois country and couldn't always be at the official mission, so the Jesuits sent even more missionaries to the Illinois country to join him.  In 1698 Jesuit Father Pierre-Gabriel Marest was assigned to the Illinois.  He too was known to have a talent for local languages.  In 1700 the Kaskaskia Indians decided to leave the Illinois River and relocate south. Fr. Gravier and Fr. Marest relocated with them.  They ended up at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Kaskaskia River and there the Mission of the Immaculate Conception began to build a permanent church.  In 1705 Fr. Gravier was wounded by an arrow and left to return to France. Fr. Marest died in 1714, the victim of an epidemic.

But by that time more Jesuits had come to Kaskaskia, among them Father Jean Mermet who joined the mission in 1702.  The year he arrived he was told told to travel with a group of traders who intended to start a tannery operation along the Ohio River, trading French goods for deer skins brought by the local tribes.  Father Mermet was to serve the local Indians (and probably keep an eye on the French traders).   The tannery failed and eventually Mermet returned to Kaskaskia.  He died in 1716.

Father Jean-Antoine Le Boullenger came to the mission in 1719.  The following year French administration arrived in Illinois in the person of the Sieur de Boisbriant and his troops.  One of the first things Boisbriant did was establish a village for the Kaskaskia Indians that was separate from the French village.  The village church became the Parish of the Immaculate Conception but the Jesuits also served the Indian village.

When Fort de Chartres was established, a chapel called Ste. Anne was also established by the Jesuits.  Eventually a full church was built but a dispute arose between the Jesuits and the Recollect priests of the Seminary of Foreign Missions based in Cahokia as to who was to be in charge of this new parish and the two offshoot "chapels" that were also established: the Chapel of the Visitation in the village of St. Philippe north of Fort de Chartres and the chapel of St. Joseph in the village of Prairie du Rocher.  Although the Recollects were officially in charge, the Jesuits appear to have remained in control of the Fort's chapel.

In any event, in 1720 Fr. Boullenger moved to Fort de Chartres and was there until 1726.  During this time my ancestors Jean Baptiste Nicolas Becquet and his wife Catherine Barreau first came to the Illinois country and would have known Fr. Boullenger.  In fact, on October 24, 1725 Fr. Boullenger baptised their son, and my ancestor, Jean Baptiste.

When Fr. Boullenger left he was replaced by Fr. Beaubois, who was the first Jesuit assigned to the area by the Jesuits in New Orleans.  Until this time all the Jesuits had come through Canada.  Fr. Beaubois ended up traveling back to France on a recruiting mission and he took with him four Indian chiefs, including the chief of the local Mitchigamia tribe.   It is said that he created a sensation when he presented the chiefs to the King.  And he recruited a number of young Jesuits to come back to Illinois with him.  Over the years there were a number of Jesuits who served in the Illinois country.  But by mid-century trouble was brewing for the Jesuits back home in Europe.

Part of the irony in having a Jesuit Pope here in the 21st century is that back in the 18th century Pope Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuit order, following the lead of France, Spain and Portugal.  Although at first the Jesuits were strongly supported in North America by the French crown, this began to change in the 1750's.   

In the sixteenth century the English crown had found an effective means of controlling religion by separating the Church of England from the unity of the Church of Rome. By the eighteenth century, the monarchies of Portugal, Spain, and France began their campaigns to free their "national churches" from Roman influences. In the Society of Jesus, with its traditional loyalty to the papacy, they saw a stumbling block to their goal.

It was the Seven Years War that caused part of the problem.  The English navy wreaked havoc on French commerce and that included the commerce that some individual Jesuits were engaged in.

Père Antoine La Vallette, superior of the Martinique [Jesuits] ... began to borrow money to work the large undeveloped resources of the colony, and a strong letter from the governor of the island dated 1753 is extant in praise of his enterprise. But on the outbreak of war, ships carrying goods of an estimated value of 2,000,000 livres were captured and he suddenly became a bankrupt, for very large sum. His creditors were egged on to demand payment from the [Jesuit] procurator of Paris, but [the procurator], relying on what certainly was the letter of the law, refused responsibility for the debts of an independent mission, though offering to negotiate for a settlement, for which he held out assured hopes. The creditors went to the courts ...

The courts ruled against the Jesuit procurator and ruled that the order must pay the debts of the individual priest.  On the advice of counsel, the Jesuits appealed.  This was a mistake.  They not only lost but the process brought all of their enemies out of the woodwork. 

... the Constitution of the Jesuits ... was publicly examined and exposed in a hostile press. The Parlement [French high court] issued its Extraits des assertions assembled from passages from Jesuit theologians and canonists, in which they were alleged to teach every sort of immorality and error. On August 6, 1762, the final arrêt was issued condemning the Society to extinction, but the king's intervention brought eight months' delay and meantime a compromise was suggested by the Court. If the French Jesuits would separate from the order, under a French vicar, with French customs ... the Crown would still protect them. In spite of the dangers of refusal the Jesuits would not consent.

250 years ago today, on April 1, 1763, the Jesuit colleges in France were closed.  By July of 1763 the council in Louisiana would issue an order expelling the Jesuits from the colony.   By 1773 Pope Clement XIV suppressed the entire order.  Only in non-Catholic countries like Russia was the order ignored and the Jesuits retreated to those countries.

In 1814, Pope Pius VII restored the Order and the Jesuits would eventually, after many years, return to the American midwest.  They would eventually found teaching institutions like St. Louis University.  They would, once again, be part of everyday life.  And, eventually, there would even be a Jesuit pope.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.

250 Years Ago* .... What French Sounded like in Missouri

Back in the days before St. Louis existed and for a long time after that, the European language that was spoken in the region was French. There is an interesting interview on the Archaeology website in which Dennis Stroughmatt speaks about the French of Old Mines Missouri.   While you click through to read in another tab, you might want to listen to Dennis playing:

Oh, who is Dennis Stroughmatt?  From his website:  "A vibrant blend of Celtic, Canadian and Old Time sounds, this music bridges the gap between contemporary Canadian and Louisiana Cajun styles. Preserved by families in the Ozark foothills, the music remains largely intact and true to the traditions that have been passed down for over three centuries..It’ll make your soul jump, your head spin, and your heart glad to know that it is still here ... As they say in the hills, “On est toujours icitte: We are still here!”"

The linked interview is interesting.  Most people don't know that the French culture lasted in Missouri as long as it did, especially in the very rural parts prior to World War II, after which the young people moved out and began to forget, leaving only the older generation:

When I went into the mines in the late [1980's] there were probably nearly a thousand French speakers in the entire Old Mines region from Festus, you know, to Potosi, and as far west as, you know, farther west of Richwood, east to Bonterre. There were French get-togethers within the church. You'd find them in retirement homes, getting together and at houses and the parties that I went to. A lot of the French were there. They were elderly, but still very strong, getting out. Many of them were in their 60s, 70s. Some of them, probably the most intensive speakers were in their 80s. Even early 90s. Fact, I interviewed one time, videotaped an herbalist by the name of Robert Robard, who was 94. This was in 1992. And French was his first language, and he chose to speak French rather than English. But, like I say, that sort of dates where they were age-wise over a decade ago. 

 But the French spoken at that time didn't sound exactly like standard French today.  I thought this part of the interview with Dennis was really interesting.  He tells about visiting Quebec for the first time:

... It was really strange at first, because, I say I didn't really, I say I was illiterate. I had taken a couple courses in French at one point or another, here and there, but I spoke Creole French, and when I got there, the Québecois thought that, they thought that I was actually Cajun, because of my dialect. And the only reason I say that they thought I was Cajun when I got there was because I had spent so many years in Louisiana and around Cajuns that my dialect had been influenced in some ways. And of course actually Missouri French is an interesting language in itself, because, via its accent, it's very much more close to Canadian French than it is Louisiana French. But the vocabulary used by the Missouri French is almost identical to that of Louisiana, and that stands to reason because Missouri is Upper Louisiana, in that sense. And I guess, when I did go to Québec, in a lot of ways I really did feel like I was home. I used to sit down...I lived with a family there, and I remember many nights where I would sit out in the backyard at a campfire with the father of the household, and we would just sit and talk, and every now and again I would say words and he would get on me for using certain words. Because he would say "that's Old French," he said, "We don't use that anymore.”

 

I remember one night, probably the very first night that happened. I remember it was a little cold, because when I got there it was the early part of the year and it was cold at night. And I said something like, "Mais, ca fait fraitte dehors," like "man it's cold outside." And he looked at me, he agreed, he said, "Yeah, yeah, it's cold." Then he stopped and he said, "Wait a second. Why do you know that word?" I said, "What word?" He said "cold," but of course "fraitte," which is a Missouri word. A Missouri French word for froid, for cold. But it's an old, old, old word that hasn't been...I didn't know this at the time, but it's a word that hasn't been in use in the language for hundreds of years. And he asked me where I learned this, and I told him where, and he said, "That's impossible." He said, "There are no French speakers in the Midwest. That's impossible." You know, and I got out the map, we got out the map of Illinois and Missouri, and started looking at it, going over all the little place names. Rivers, town names. And he set back and I remember him just looking at me like, "Wow, I never knew." He said, "I never would have guessed that there were French there." And I said, "Well, that's where I learned my French." And he told me, he said, "Well, you know, I've always found it really weird," because, he said, "You're not from Canada. You're not anywhere near from Canada, but yet your accent is strangely familiar." And the only thing I can say on that is that accent is coming through from the Missouri French. So, because there is a great similarity. I would go down to the pub and I would sing songs with some of the local bands that would come in, and it amazed me that I was able--and even playing the fiddle, I would sit in and play with them--that I was able to play tunes that I had learned in Missouri, play with them almost note for note. And this is a separation of what, a thousand miles? Fifteen hundred?

Here's another video where Dennis and his wife explain the difference between the French dialect of the Pays des Illinois and standard French:

I always thought that the reason we massacred the French names of streets around here was because of the German and Irish influx of the nineteenth century.  And, sure, that's probably the main reason.  But another reason might be that the original French didn't pronounce it the way it would be pronounced in French today.

Here's a link to another interesting article about French History and Language in the American Midwest.

*Part of my continuing blog series leading up to the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis in February 2014.