USA > Illinois > Randolph County > Memoirs of a French village : a chronicle of old Prairie du Rocher, 1722-1972 > Part 3
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Mr. Kribs was elected on the Democratic ticket as circuit clerk, and was mayor of Prairie du Rocher for four years. In social and fraternal societies he was honored, being president of the Prairie du Rocher Commons; a member of the Knights of Columbus, Mod- ern Woodmen, Mutual Protective League and Chester Fishing Club.
Mrs. Kribs was born in Alton, Illinois, February 10, 1871. She attended the Alton paro- chial and public schools. She was graduated from the Alton High School in 1890, and is a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Louis Bissinger. Mrs. Kribs' father has been in the Alton post- office department for the last 20 years; also a member of the school board for 20 years. In 1892 Mrs. Kribs took a teacher's examination in Edwardsville, Ill., for the purpose of teaching school, and after passing the examination successfully, and preparing to teach at Alton, Mr. Kribs decided it best for her to teach his little school instead. So her school was given to another applicant.
Harold Kribs was born in Prairie du Rocher, Ill., Sept. 15, 1894, and graduated from the parochial school there. He was a winner of The State Normal Course. Then he went to Alton and attended the Brown's Business College and took a general business course, graduating in 1911. After finishing school he was engaged in the office of the United States Radiator Corporation at Edwardsville as Stenographer, and the next year was pro- moted to inspector of the plant, and a short time after that the company sent him to Dun- kirk, N. Y., as an inspector there. Later he was sent to West Newton, Pa., and then back to Edwardsville, Ill., for a short period, when the company again sent him to Pittsburg, Pa., for six months, and now he is in Detroit, Mich., as office manager at that place.
Lewis J. A. Kribs was born in Prairie du Rocher, Ill., October 24, 1897. He graduated from the parochial school there and was one of the winners of the State Normal Course. He attended the Chester High School and later on went to Sparta, Ill., for a business course, and finally finished his stenogra phic course in St. Louis Brown's Business Col- lege, from which he graduated in Oct. 1915.
Charles A. Kribs was born in Prairie du Rocher, Ill., September 15, 1899. He graduated from the parochial school in Chester, Ill., after having gone to the school at Prairie du Rocher until the family moved to Chester, and then finishing at Chester.
William Kribs was born in Prairie du Rocher, Ill., May 4, 1902, and attended the paro- chial school at that place until 1912, when the family moved to Chester, where he is now attending the parochial school and is in the eighth grade.
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C. J. Kribs & Company Merchandise Store
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Mr. and Mrs. C. J. Kribs
The ancestors of most of them had come from the Normandie, and they naturally ad- hered to l'usage du pays --- the custom of the country. The first settlers followed the rivers --- the only highways of those days. Every cultivateur wanted frontage, bottom ground, and high ground. So they laid out narrow strips, measured in arpents, and gave to each four to six arpents in width and ten or more in length. The houses were built in a row, each on its own land, but never far apart. Their ancestors in Canada had so long been subject to the brutal attacks of the savages that they preferred the open prairie, where no Indian could lurk behind a tree, and, in case of attack, the settlers would al- ways be near one another.
"The houses", writes Breese, were built in a very simple and unpretending style of architecture. Small timbers which the 'Commons' supplied, roughly hewed and placed up- right in the ground a few inches apart, formed the body, the interstices being filled with sticks, pieces of stone and mud, neatly whitewashed within and without, with low eaves and pointed roofs, covered with thatch, or with shingles fastened by wooden pins. Those of the wealthier class were of strong, well-hewed frames, in the same peculiar, though more finished style, or of rough limestone, with which the country abounded. Porches, or galleries as they were called, protected them on every side from the sun and storms, whilst the apartments within were large, airy and convenient, with little furniture, but well- scoured or neatly waxed floors. Pictures illustrative of our Saviour's passion, or the Blessed Virgin . . . decored the walls ... well calculated to inspire devotional senti- ments in a people naturally and by education so much inclined thereto."
A typical French Home at Prairie du Rocher.
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Their dishes and pots were mostly of earthenware; they had tin spoons, zinc coffee pots and tea kettles, iron forks, perhaps a copper dipper, - but no knives for table use. Those were still the frontier days, when men and women had to be prepared to fight off the lurking savage, and each man and woman carried a large dagger-like clasp knife for protection, usually dangling on a little chain fastened to the cincture or belt. Why have two knives! At meals both men and women used their dagger knives. "By honoured tradi- tion," writes Adjutor Rivard, "The cradle passed from generation to generation, a precious family possession; and it is the born right of the eldest daughter to bring it down from her father's roof when she awaits the first visit of the stork. Thus from mother to daugh- ter has the old cradle, affectionately known as the "blue box", decended to us. And who fashioned it in the far away past? . . . The colonist has hewn for himself a home in the forest. In the middle of the clearing he has built the house which harbours the love, his joy, his dearest hopes
The children did not eat at the family table until they had received their first Holy Communion. In better situated families they had a small table to themselves, in others they ate at the block, on which meat was chopped or people sat, for want of an extra chair. Children in their quarrels would say to one another: "You still eat at the block."
All the early settlers were hunters; and the flint-lock muzzle-loader and powder-horn hung from the middle beam of the kitchen, which also served as living-room and bedroom.
The Last Will and Testament, sometimes drawn up by an itinerant, notary, was a solemn document. It set forth that nothing is more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the hour thereof. In the formula used, the testator then professed his faith and "re- commended his soul to God the Father Almighty, praying Him, through the merits of the passion and death of our Lord and through the intercession of the glorious Virgin Mary . . . that when his soul shall free itself from his body, to vouchsafe to place it among the number of the blessed in the heavenly kingdom."
A peculiar custom prevailed, that immediately after the death of the testator, the not- ary, who had written the will, was called, and the will was solemnly read in the presence of the family, over the corpse of the departed.
MISSISSIPI
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Map of the Kaskaskia Country - 1796
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"Rocks
Men and young men, on week-days and on Sundays wore the capot -- a garment of home- spun gray, caught about the waist by a belt of red or checkered woolen stuff, and topped off with a tuque of Norman hat with a broad ribbon about the crown and hanging down on one side. The color of the tuque varied. In the Quebec district, white; and at Montreal and Fort de Chartres, blue.
Most of the habitants made their own shoes -- soft sole, and top reaching to the knee. They were called bottes sauvages. Of course, they did their own tanning of hides.
Women's dress! Blue or scarlet bodice without sleeves, skirt of a different color, and straw hat while at work in the fields. The inventories of those days show a large assort- ment of short clocks made of 'etoffe or calico; bodices of woolen stuff; skirts of dimity or drugget, and of white and red striped cotton or flowery calico, and handkerchiefs of many colors, made of cotton, muslin, or even silk. Jewelry was rare. Every good wife wore her wedding ring, a silver ring, and a silver cross.
"In their domestic relations", writes Breese, "they were exemplary, kind to their slaves, and affectionate to their children, loving each other as much as they should, and faithful to all their vows. In truth, the domestic circle was a very happy and a very cheer- ful one."
"Though there were slaves within, it was not a prison house, and such was the kind- ness always manifested towards them in health and in sickness that they sought not to escape from it ... When sick or afflicted, they were nursed with the greatest care, and withal, were the recipients of so much kindness, as to become unmindful of the fetters with which a wicked policy had bound them."
As tillers of the land, the habitants in the Mississippi Valley were not very successful. They had the advantage of a rich alluvial soil, and it was perhaps not so much due to their own industry as to the soil that the crops grew.
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Market Street, Prairie du Rocher, II]. - Fullo' Photo,
According to Breese, "their implements and mode of using them were primitive indeed, a wooden plow, generally, and to carry their grain at harvest, small carts resembling those used by the Swiss peasantry in their vintages, with no iron about them . ... To these, if oxen were used, they were connected not by a yoke, but by a strong wooden bar, well se- cured to the horns by strips of untanned hide, and guided by a rope of the same material. If horses were used, they were driven tandem, at length, or one before the other, and con- trolled entirely by the whip and voice, without ropes or reins."
The life of the habitant was patriarchal, simple, sober, and frugal; hospitality was gen- erous, and courtesy charming. He was satisfied with little on the principal that "content- ment surpasses riches." He was retentive of the old. Why do things differently? Ce n'est pas l'usuage du pays! -- It is not the custom of the country!
"They (the habitants) visited on feast-days and Sundays," writes Roy, "to enjoy them- selves, to dance, to eat fruit, to play cards. Houses in which there was no violin were rare. The workingmen, bent over his plow or in the midst of his hardest labors, loved to sing. It was the same with the frugal, thrifty housewife, no matter how tired from her work."
"Pretexts for merry making, were many. If they killed a hog, they gave the choicest pieces to their friends. They exchanged blood-sausage and liver-sausage. St. John's fires were lighted; .. . the baptism of a baby was nearly always a pretext for a reunion of rela- tives and friends . . It was not a real wedding, if it did not last three days and three nights".
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Georges Bouchard, who, in Other Days Other Ways, so beautifully sketched the simple, humble life of the habitant of former days, writes: "One must have lived among these men of the soil to be able to appreciate all the wholesome and exuberant gaiety, all the charm of these village feasts . .. The old fiddle, fashioned by the dexterous hand of the grand- 'pere, out of a length of plaine (hard maple) free of knots and a plank of fir, in the course of long winter nights spent at the corner of the fireplace, often revealed itself a choice instrument under the deft touch of the village fiddler . . . The fiddlestick was formed very simply of a lock of horsehair from la Grise (the gray mare), drawn taut on a bow of supple wood
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"At weddings particularly does the fiddle demonstrate its superiority over all other in- struments of music. His services, retained a long time ahead of the ceremony, the violon- eux arrives with a flourish and is received with enthusiasm. He is less of a hireling than a professional man called in to direct consequential and stirring entertainment . . .
"After kissing la mariee (the bride) and greeting la compagnee (the company, the guests), the violoneux allows himself to be steered into la grand'chambre (the big room, the bedroom of the father and mother) where he lays his wraps on the bed and partakes of the customary p'tit coup (little drink) . .. The fiddle is stripped of its shroud of check- ered cotton to be tuned up and adjusted to the shoulder of its owner with a solemnity that compels the deepest silence. The silk kerchief wraps itself about the neck of the artist. The dancers swiftly find their places in the middle of the floor for the opening cotillon . . . In the bottom of a glass of rum the fiddler finds the fortitude to carry on to the end . . . "
Another important ceremony was the drawing up by the notary and signing of the ante- nuptial contract. This ceremony generally took place the Sunday preceding the wedding. The notary would solemnly read the contract in the presence of the relatives and friends. When he came to the part reciting the mutual dowry, he would "rush for the bride and place a sonorous kiss on both cheeks.
It must be remembered that the Commandants and officers of Fort de Chartres were mostly men of the nobility, and some of them Knights of the Military Order of St. Louis. Their families lived in the village of Ste-Anne. This infused into the social atmosphere a certain refinement and etiquette. Then, too, there was the proximity of the fort, the Fleur-de-Lis floating over its ramparts, the morning and evening drumbeats, the bugle calls, the commands of the officers and the drilling of the soldiers, the hurried departure
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or arrival of messengers, the coming and going of convoys with news they brought from New Orleans.
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JOHN N. LOUVIER
The oldest resident in the town of Prairie du Rocher is John N. Louvier, who was born in the village, in the year 1802, and has since lived in the town or in the vicinity. His fa- ther was Antoine Louvier, a Frenchman, who came to Illinois country when a boy. Antoine Louvier was born about the year 1767, and was ten or fifteen years of age when he came to Randolph County. He married Louise Langlois. The Langlois family was Ons of the earliest and most influential in the community, the first of which to come to Frairie du Rocher was Etenne Langlois.
Antoine Louvier was a farmer, and lived a short distance to the south of Prairie du Rocher. Here on the old homestead four children were born and raised. The fourth of these was John N., the subject of this sketch. Only two of his brothers, Cyprian and Benjamin, are now living, both near the town of Prairie du Rocher, John N. Louvier was born in the year of 1802, on the second day of March. There were few schools at that day in Prairie du Rocher. The population then was almost entirely French. Subscription schools were held whenever any one could be obtained to teach. Mr. Louvier only went to school three months of his life. This was to a French school, and for his English education he was compelled to look out for himself. His father was a man of good circumstances, in fact what would be called a rich man in those early times, when little wealth was known in comparison with the present, and when the inhabitants could boast only of the commonest comforts of life. He owned a farm of three hundred acres, and the work was done almost entirely by negro slaves, while the father and sons acted the part of overseers.
Mr. Louvier was married on the fifth day of March, 1822 to Mary Louise Blais, a mem- ber of the Blais Family, one of the oldest in Prairie du Rocher. Mr. Louvier was only three days from twenty years old. It was a more common practice in those days to marry at an early age than at the present. Mr. Louvier rented land from his father and began farm- ing. He lived on rented land about five years. At the expiration of this time he had saved enough money to buy two hundred acres of land at the government price of a dollar and a quarter an acre. All this money he had earned by his own labor. When he was married his father gave him money enough to pay the expenses of his wedding day, and then left him to his own resources. The land which he bought lay on the Fort Chartres Reserve and Mr. Louvier moved on the place and farmed successfully for forty-two years. His career as a farmer was one which may well be alluded to. with more pride. He began work at once with energy. He has probably been more successful as a corn raiser than any one else about Prairie du Rocher. The virgin alluvial soil near old Fort Chartres offered him a field.
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and some years he was accustomed to sell as much as fifteen thousand bushels of corn. Year by year he averaged five thousand bushels. He had one hundred and fifty acres under cultivation, and this was put in with corn every year. Part of the ruins of the old fort were embraced within his farm.
Mr. Louvier's wife died in the year 1867. On the ninth of February 1869, he was married the second time to Mary Louise Barbeau, the daughter of Antoine Barbeau. Mr. Louvier has since made his home in Prairie du Rocher. By his first wife he had twelve children, of whom five are now living, four sons and one daughter. These are Eugene, Vietal, Gabriel, John and Josephine. The daughter is now the wife of Antoine Horel. All the children are living in the neighborhood of Fort Chartres. During his long life Mr. Louvier has generally voted the Democratic ticket, though he has not been particularly interested in the schemes of the politicians, and has occupied a somewhat independent position. Mr. Louvier bears well his more than three score and ten years. He was originally possessed of a stout and vigorous constitution, which years of hard labor and exposure have not affected as much as might be supposed. He is hale and hearty with the promise of many years before him. As has been before remarked, Mr. Louvier is the oldest native - born inhabitant of Prairie du Rocher, the person who, more than anyone else, supplies the link which binds the old Prairie du Rocher of the beginning of the present century - a straggling village of meanly - built log huts, in whose streets was scarcely overheard a word of English, with the Prairie du Rocher of today - a neat and pretty village, thriving with industry, and well worthy the beauty of the hills which surround it. Here Mr. Louvier's life has been spent, and here he has earned the reputation of being an honest, industrious and good citizen.
To quote Breese again: "When their isolated position is considered, separated by a long river and a vast ocean from old France, and by a trackless wilderness from Canada, . .. every institution calculated to inspire the feelings of equality and soften and subdue their native asperities would in this way contribute to swell the measure of their happi- ness, and what could be better adapted to this end than a religion whose holy days and fates brought the whole population so frequently together as one one common level . . . In the same dance all classes cheerfully participated . . . The black-eyed brunette, who en- gaged as a daily avocation in what the fashionable might consider menial services, in the ball-room, attired in her finery, full of cheerful smiles and artless coquetry, might be the leading star of every eye . . . To her a courtly Knight of the Military Order of St. Louis might bow with the most respectful obeisance, while at the same time, she was the be- trothed of a poor, but honest laborer ... and so they lived on in comparative happiness and tranquillity, laughed and danced, loved and married, and died, and these make up their short and simple annals."
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MR. JOHN GRASSINGER
Mr. John Grassinger of Prairie du Rocher, was born July 6, 1836, in Bavaria, Germany, and came to America in 1850. Coming first to St. Louis, he remained there until his father died, in the same year, and left him an orphan. He worked as a gardener until 1865, when he bought the farm which is now owned by his son-in-law. He owns his present home in the town, whither he removed on his retirement from farming. In 1856 he was married to Miss Mary M. Chapen, who bore him four children, Henry J., William P., Lucille and Liz- zie. Mrs. Grassinger died in 1908. Mr. Grassinger is a Democrat, a member of the Catholic Knights of America and of the school board. He enjoys perfect health and is a familiar figure in the town.
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Gilbert Blais
Mrs. Gilbert Blais
John Grassinger
Maurice Frawley
MR. MAURICE FRAWLEY
A very beloved inhabitant of Prairie du Rocher is Mr. Maurice Frawley. He was born in beautiful Ireland, in County Limerick, in the year 1833. Here he spent his childhood, went through the parish school, and was married to Miss Mary Crimmins on February 4, 1859. Of their children only a daughter is still alive. They came to America in 1862, residing in New York until October, 1865, when they joined the westward tide and came to St. Louis and continued their residence there until 1872. That year Mr. Frawley and family moved to Kidd, Monroe County, Illinois, and rented the Waddle farm, which they continued to till until 1913, when on account of old age Mr. Frawley retired and took up his residence at Prairie du Rocher. Mr. Frawley looks back upon a life of toil, yet filled with the happiness of having gained his livelihood by honesty and sacrifice.
MR. AND MRS. GILBERT BLAIS
Mr. Gilbert Blais was born December 20, 1840, in Prairie du Rocher and after going to school, spent his youth on the farm of his mother. Here he learned all the secrets of suc- cessful farming and was finally able to go to farming on his own account. He now married Miss Mary E. Louiver. She was a native of Prairie du Rocher, where she was born on the Commons on January 24, 1849. Her father was Henry Louiver.
The couple then entered upon that life of farming, and the improvement of their land, which went on uninterrupted until the death of Mr. Blais. This occurred February 1, 1887. The results of their efforts were so marked that they came to win a farm of 120 acres of the choicest land and improved in every respect. Five children were born to them, one son, Thomas G., and four daughters, Olive O., Leona E., Anna S. and Zoe L. The family includes also a daughter of Mrs. Blais by a former marriage, Mary G. Kerr.
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Nor had they been idle socially, for they were well known in a circuit of many miles and beloved of a wide circle of friends. The husband was a devoted Catholic, and the wife has at various times done a good deal for the Church. She is a member of the Altar So- ciety. After the death of her husband she took up the management of the farm, continuing his good methods and keeping the family together.
Every home is a universe in miniature. Here, too, powers and influences of great mo- ment are continually at work. But within the family the forces making for great and lasting ends spring forth from moral and spiritual sources and lie in the soul of the man and wom- an. Thus, the most beautiful aspects of the family radiate from its relations to the Church, this everlasting fountain of peace and happiness. Without this inestimable feature social standing and industrial capacity dwindle into insignificance, and with it relatively un- acquainted human beings rival mighty potentates and emperors.
Indians and Climate
By the time the early French arrived, the Mississippi had laid layer upon layer of rich silt on the land for decades. They copied the Indian way of planting corn in the spring, forgetting about it, and harvesting it in the fall. Since there was no need to till the soil, the populace had leisure time. Why the Indians did not build a great culture can be ex- plained partially through the humid climate.
The American Bottom is humid and moist which produces a lassitude and inertia that hangs heavy over the valley. Consequently, creative work is to a large extent inhibited. Visitors to Prairie du Rocher who sleep in the bottoms often comment how difficult they find it to rise in the morning, and how this sluggishness increases with the heat of noon. Exhaustion from this lanquor is soon dispersed with as the visitor returns homeward. The climate is partially responsible for the preservation of many old interesting buildings; moreover, for the calmness, and peacefulness which is characteristic of its' inhabitants.
Strangely enough the French settled at Prairie du Rocher before the Metchigamias In- dians with whom we associate this area.
Illinois consisted of at this time five basic Indian tribes known as the "Illinois Confed- eracy":
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HENRY KER
The father of Henry Ker, a leading farmer in the neighborhood of Prairie du Rocher, was a man than whom few have seen more varied vicissitudes or lef lives of more remark- able adventure. His name, like that of the subject of our biography, was Henry Ker, and he was born at Boston, Massachusetts, the son of English parents, who were temporarily residing at that place. He lived but a short time in Massachusetts. The family moved back to London where Henry received his education. He seems to have been born with an adven- turous disposition, and habits of personal courage and daring.
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