USA > Missouri > A history of Missouri from the earliest explorations and settlements until the admission of the state into the union, Volume I > Part 40
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
piloted Clark to Vincennes, also settled here. Dr. Lafond died at the age of forty, in 1784, at New Madrid. 45 The lawlessness of
AMOUREUX HOUSE- 1700
many of the soldiers of Clark greatly offended the more refined and cultured French residents.
These immigrants were all cheerfully welcomed by the Spanish officials. In 1789 John Rice Jones, then a resident of Kaskaskia, wrote Major Hamtranck that "Every effort is made use of by the Spanish government to depopulate this side; one step towards it is, taking their priests from them, well knowing that the people will not remain where there are no pastors. You may rest assured that these are their intentions, for Mr. Chouteau, one of the most capital mer- chants on the Spanish side, informed Mr. Edgar last spring, in my
Sieur Bernard Lauthe, a merchant, from Bern, Switzerland, did business in Ste. Genevieve prior to 1781, in which year he died; Jacques Billeron dit Lafatigue, prior to 1780; Charles Maclinden (1804); Joseph Marie Mercier (1778), chanter of the church; Henry Morris (1800); François Mark (1778), beadle of the church; Andre Manterot (1761); Michel Placet (1763); his son was drowned in the river on his way to New Orleans, in 1782; Joseph Perez (1788), a soldier, native of Spain; Richard Quimbre (1794), an Englishman; Thomas Rhust (1788); Jean François Regis (1760); Rompre (1763); Jean Bessie (or Beffie) (1766), died on river, while on an expedition with De Volsey; Dominique Taumure (1760), an officer of the militia in 1773; Louis Briart (1764); Jean Marie Le Febre (1765); Louis Milhomme dit Petit (1783); Joseph Petit (1761). John Burget (Burchard) a native of England, in 1797 married Nancy Protector, daughter of Joseph Protector and Siloam Kerr.
45 Don J. B. Vallé was appointed guardian of Dr. Lafond's children. Ber- nard and Antoine Lafond were his sons, and he had three daughters. One of his daughters married Captain Robert McCoy, of New Madrid, another, Joseph Michel, and the third married Jean Baptiste Gobeau.
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STORY OF A "GRAFT"
presence, that orders had been received from Orleans by the lieu- tenant-governor of St. Louis, for him to make every difficulty possible with the people of this side, so that thereby they might be forced to go to live on the other. Several proposals have been made Mr. Edgar, such as lands gratis, no taxes, with free permission to work at the lead mines and salt springs; all these he has refused, but if by March next no government or regulation arrives, he will remove to St. Louis, where his life and property will be in safety; and with him, take my word, will this village be effectually destroyed as a settlement." 46 About this time, too, an English lord came down the Mississippi from Michilimackinac, visiting St. Louis and Ste. Genevieve, and thence went to New Orleans, and Jones has his suspicions about him; he says that this noted traveler was Lord Edward Fitzgerald, a younger brother of the duke of Leinster, in Ireland, and major of the 54th regiment on foot, then in Canada; that he went up the Mississippi forty leagues above the Falls of St. Anthony, and held conference with the Indians above, as well as with the Shawnees and Delawares here; that he does not know the purport of his journey nor is able to conjecture, but that he never visited the American villages on the Mississippi, which he considers "rather extraordinary," if traveling for curiosity only.
A small detachment of the stationary regiment of Louisiana was always stationed at Ste. Genevieve during the Spanish government.47 These soldiers were quartered in a fort which was located on an eminence, at the lower end of the town, but where this fort actually stood is now unknown. It 'was, however, erected at a high place, so as to enable the garrison to correspond with the fort at Kaskaskia, on the opposite side of the river, by signals. Schultz, who in 1807 visited Ste. Genevieve, was informed of a singular transaction "relative to the building of this fort," and which shows the corruption of some high Spanish officials, but at the same time testifies to the integrity of the commandant of the Ste. Genevieve district. Schultz likely obtained the story from some of the parties who were cognizant of the facts, while at Ste. Genevieve. He writes: "It seems after the fort was completed the commandant had to wait upon the governor of the province, to present his charges. They were accordingly presented and amounted to $421. The governor, after examining
46 Harmar Papers, vol. ii, pp. 136 et seq.
47 I Billon's Annals, p. 72.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
the account, returned it to the commandant, informing him there was some mistake. The commandant retired and examined it again, but finding it entirely correct presented it once more. The governor, on looking it over, informed him that it was still incorrect, and advised him to consult with some friend, as he had omitted a figure or two. The commandant then called upon a friend to look over his accounts with him, who no sooner saw the account than he burst into a loud laugh, and taking the pen added a 'o' to the sum already stated. The commandant presented his account a third time, when his excel- lency replied that it was not quite right yet. The commandant was amazed, but what was his astonishment when he related the affair to his friend, to see him add another 'o' to the last sum, making it $42,100 instead of $421! On presenting the account the fourth time it was graciously received, and for the discharge of the whole a very small part paid to the commandant." 48 In addition to the company of militia which existed at Ste. Genevieve in the very beginning of the Spanish government, in about 1794, a second company was organized. The commandant of the village was in command of one company.
In 1790, according to Brackenridge, the inhabitants of Ste. Gen- evieve were all more or less engaged in trade and traffic for peltries with the Indians, and many of them were also interested in working the lead mines in the interior, but the principal pursuit of the inhabit- ants was agriculture, which was carried on in the great common field.49 Only a few mechanics were residents of Ste. Genevieve at that time, and their shops were small and inconsiderable. No groceries were retailed by the merchants, because every family provided itself with the necessities of life.
Austin was at Ste. Genevieve on the 19th of January, 1797, and
48 Schultz's Travels, vol. ii., p. 66.
49 In 1793 Lieutenant-Governor Trudeau went to Ste. Genevieve, and the following order will give the reader an idea how this business of keeping in repair the fences around the common field was managed:
"We, Don Zenon Trudeau, Captain of the Regiment of Louisiana, and Commandant in chief of the western part of the Illinois, in conformity to the orders of Monsieur the Baron of Carondelet, Governor-General of this province, to establish a beneficial stability and assure to the inhabitants of Ste. Genevieve and surroundings the crop of corn during the time that the fences of the fields should be strong and when open, certify that we repaired to said village the seventh day of the present month, where, on our arrival, we convoked a meeting of all the inhabitants and citizens of the parish and its dependencies to consider the most convenient method for the advan- tages of all, to establish the fences of the fields and preserve the crops from the depredations of animals.
"All the inhabitants having expressed their views, it was decided by the majority that it was important to the safety of the crops that the lands should be all enclosed, conformably to the regulations of the present year, of which a copy is in the archives of said village of Ste. Genevieve, to remain so the whole year, excepting a certain interval of time, when it is allowed to turn in cattle after the crops are gathered in, to give them pasture, and that only to the time when the Trustee will be required to order the execution, or shall himself so order, which must be executed
36I
POPULATION
describing the village says that it is located about two miles from the Mississippi, on high land, "from which you have a commanding view of the country and river"; that the old town stood immediately on the banks of the river, on an extensive plain, but being sometimes over- flowed by the Mississippi and river banks falling in, was removed to higher land; that the town had one hundred houses; that the inhab- itants were wealthier than those of Kaskaskia, and the houses were in better repair; that the village had some Indian trade, but that the lead and salt made the town, because the lead and salt were brought there for sale. Perrin du Lac notes that in 1802 the inhabitants of Ste. Genevieve were "entirely addicted to agriculture." When he visited the place, they still cultivated the common field of "wonderful fer- tility," but he complains that they were "without learning or the desire of learning," and that the youth of the village occupied them- selves "in hunting, riding, and dancing"; that the children, brought up among the savages, contracted their manners and especially their indolence. This, no doubt, was true as to some of these isolated inhabitants, but on the other hand, many were enterprising traders, and by industry and energy had accumulated, for that time, no small amount of wealth. That Du Lac also gives a wrong impression as to the esteem in which learning was held is shown by the fact that Brackenridge attended a school, which existed at Ste. Genevieve as early as 1790, in order to learn the French language. Of course, the residents of the town, far removed from the great centers of popu- lation on the Atlantic coast, and without daily or weekly newspapers, or regular postal service, no doubt, appeared grossly ignorant to Du Lac, just from Paris, then the center of great events and transac- tions. Yet, such ill-considered and random opinion, expressed by passing and maybe disgruntled travelers, unable to appreciate or comprehend the local situation, are too often accepted as correct pictures of the manners and habits and social conditions of these early times. When Brackenridge was at Ste. Genevieve, it con- tained only about sixty houses. Du Lac says the village contained
without opposition on the part of the owners of animals, to restore the said fields for ploughing and sowing anew, under the guarantee of their fences. This we have (conformably to the orders of the Governor-General) agreed to and ratified, to remain permanent, in accordance with the wishes and intention of the large majority of the people of said village. Wherefore, we order all others to conform to this regulation in its full sense, which each year syndic will see duly enforced under the penalty of offenders being treated as refractory to good order and government.
"Done and agreed to at the village of Ste. Genevieve, before Messrs. François & Baptiste Vallé, the requisite witnesses, who with us the commandant in chief, have signed the seventh day of the month of September, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
Francois Vallé,
J. Bte. Vallé."
Zenon Trudeau
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
three hundred inhabitants, and he states that most of these came there from the east bank of the Mississippi, after the treaty of 1763.50
In 1797, about one quarter of a mile away from Ste. Genevieve, there was a village of Kickapoo Indians, who lived on the most friendly terms with the white people. The boys intermingled with those of the white village and practiced shooting with bow and arrow, and by this association many of the white boys obtained an elementary knowledge of the Indian language. Five or six years afterward, in 1802, when Perrin du Lac was at Ste. Genevieve, a band of Peorias lived near the village, and these he characterized as "indolent drunkards and thieves," who, in order to secure spirits, would engage in hunting, but he says that the rest of the time "they spent in eating and drinking and smoking and dancing." Duvallon says that they hunted seldom, "for fear of the other Indians."51 The women of this band were clothed nearly as the men, only instead of mitasses, a sort of pantaloons, divided into two parts, they used an apron which reached to the knees.52 The moccasins they wore were made out of squirrel skin, and reached to the ankles, and were fastened with pieces of skin.
The civil and military commandants of Ste. Genevieve exercised jurisdiction at first over an indefinite district of territory. The set- tlements, from time to time, organized as far north as the Maramec as well as south and west of the village, were considered dependencies of the post of Ste. Genevieve. In the end, the Ste. Genevieve district was bounded east by the Mississippi, north by the Maramec, south by Cinque Homme, and afterward by Apple Creek, and extended west indefinitely.
One of the dependencies of the post of Ste. Genevieve, was the village of Nouvelle Bourbon, located "on a hill which commands a low point, about one league broad, between the Mississippi and said hill." This new village was only about two and a half miles from the site of the old village of Ste. Genevieve, and was established by the order of Carondelet in 1793, and so named, he says, "to put the new settlement under the especial protection of the august sovereign who governs Spain, and also that the descendants of the new colonists may imitate the fidelity and firmness of their fathers toward their
50 Perrin du Lac's Travels in Louisiana, p. 50.
51 Duvallon's Louisiana, translated by Davis, New York, 1806, p. 99.
52 Perrin du Lac's Travels in Louisiana, p. 45.
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DELASSUS DE LUZIERE
king." It was intended to establish at New Bourbon a number of French royalist families who had settled at Gallipolis, but became dissatisfied there. Trudeau says that the village was separated from Ste. Genevieve, including the "plantations of La Salina," in order to give command to Monsieur de Luziere, one of the French émigrés at Gallipolis, and a "Knight of the Grand Cross of the Order of St. Michael." Pierre De Hault DeLassus de Luziere was first interested by Barthelemi Tardiveau, "a highly intelligent man," and Pierre Audrain, then a merchant of Pittsburg, in a scheme to induce the French set- tlers of Gallipolis to remove to the Spanish territory, because, in the words of Carondelet, he learned "that the government of Louisiana is now in the hands of a Flamenco," i. e., Baron de Carondelet, "with whose family" many DE LUZIERE* of these settlers "were acquainted, and avail- ing themselves of this opportunity they determined to send one of their number" and who had "known me in Flanders and whose son serves as sub-lieutenant in the Royal Walloon Guards, to re- connoiter the lands of the Spanish part of Illinois, as far as New Madrid, and from there to New Orleans," and authorized him "to treat with me for their immigration to this province in the event that the lands shall be found desirable and the reports which they had of the mildness, liberty, and special protection of the Spanish govern- ment should prove to be true." 53 3
At New Orleans De Lassus, Tardiveau, and Audrain met Caron- delet in April, 1793, and he, of course, warmly approved their plan of removal, and as a result Audrain sailed from New Orleans to Phila- delphia, and "from which city it was proposed" that he should pro- ceed to Ohio "to gather together the families at Gallipolis and send them down the Ohio to New Madrid." De Lassus and Tardiveau went up the Mississippi to await them and conduct them to the new
53 See copy of letter of Carondelet, dated April 26, 1793, to Gardoqui, General Archives of the Indies, Department of St. Domingo, in Missouri Historical Society Archives.
* The original of this picture is in the possession of Mrs. Rice, a granddaughter of Camille DeHault DeLassus DeLuziere. It is not absolutely certain that this is the picture of DeLuziere or that on the next page is the picture of his son Camille DeLassus, but it is traditional in the family that such is the case. A portrait painted on ivory brought from France, of DeLuziere, but which has been lost or misplaced, showed some resemblance to this silhouette of DeLuziere and lends support to the supposition that it is his picture.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
settlement founded a short distance from Ste. Genevieve in the 37th degree of latitude, and which became known as Nouvelle Bourbon. Naturally, De Lassus de Luziere was appointed the first civil and mili- tary commandant when he arrived there in August, 1793, with his wife and some members of his family. Before the French Revolution De Lassus de Luziere belonged to the rich landed aristocracy of Flanders. The estates of the family were situated near Hainault, Flanders, and of Hainault the De Lassus had been hereditary may- ors for many centuries. That at the time he removed to the Spanish dominions he was not without means is shown by a statement of Carondelet, who speaks of him as " a rich French emigrant living retired in Ste. Genevieve." 54 His eldest son was in Germany when he came to Louisiana, and while in Germany made min- CAMILLE DELASSUS eralogy a particular study. Another son, Don Camille De Hault De Lassus, resided with him at Nouvelle Bourbon and occupied some minor position in the Spanish colonial service, and still another son, Don Jacques Marcelin Ceran De Hault De Lassus de St. Vrain, who had been an officer in the French royal navy, was captain of militia and commandant for ten years of the Spanish galley, "La Flecha," on the Mississippi.55
While Chevalier de Luziere was in command at NouvelleBourbon, he issued permits to settlers and exercised jurisdiction over a limited region extending west to Mine La Motte, and embracing what was
54 De Luziere in 1798 had a grant on the south fork of the Saline, where he manufactured sugar. In his petition for a grant he says that he had found an immigrant who was an expert in making maple sugar and refining it after the methods used in the Jerseys. He was also interested in mining, and with the assistance of his sons and son-in-law engaged in this work. A grant was given him in 1793 for his honorable service to the government in assisting to put the posts of Illinois in a state of defense, he entering into a contract with the Intendancy to deliver yearly, during the term of five years, thirty thousand pounds of lead in balls or bars. Albert Tisson says he was known in France and by Baron Carondelet, under name of De Hault De Lassus, and during the French Revolution took the name of De Luziere.
55 In 1797 he received a grant four leagues from Ste. Genevieve on the Aux Vasse, at a place called "Les Sucreries," where he wished to establish a mill. In 1799 we find Don Santiago de St. Vrain, brother of Lieutenant-Governor De Lassus, on the Cuivre fifty miles north of St. Louis. Had nine children, and at his death was insolvent, sold John Mullanphy his tract of land at 123 cents an arpen, which was paid for in goods at such a high price as to reduce the price of land to 2 cents per arpen.
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NOUVELLE BOURBON
then known as the Murphy settlement, the district where Farmington is now situated. In 1798 Trudeau says that Nouvelle Bourbon, including La Salina, had a population of 407 persons of both sexes, but in 1797, when Moses Austin visited de Luziere at Nouvelle Bourbon, he says that the village then had only about twenty houses. Likely, Trudeau included in his estimate the entire population of the dependency under the jurisdiction of De Luziere. Austin says that De Luziere was formerly a member of the Council of the King of France, and that he told him that he inherited an estate in France of the annual value of thirty thousand crowns, but that he was obliged to escape; that Madame de Luziere had an estate of one half that sum, their total annual income in France before the Revolution amounting to forty-five thousand crowns. Madame de Luziere "did not seem to support the change of situation so well as the Chevalier," and while Austin examined a large picture in her recep- tion-room, representing the grand festival given by the citizens of Paris to the Queen, on the birth of the Dauphin, and the parade of the nobles on that occasion, she came to his side and putting her finger on the picture pointing out a coach, said, "there was I on that happy day." 56
In 1798 Lieutenant-Governor Don Zenon Trudeau made a grant of a common field to the inhabitants of Nouvelle Bourbon, and this field, in which some of the residents of Ste. Genevieve also had lots, became subsequently known as the "Grand Park or Hill field." As early as 1793 a mill was built on the creek or spring branch now known as Dodge's creek, and which flowed near the vil- lage, by Francesco Vallé, Junior. This mill he afterward sold to Israel Dodge, one of the earliest American settlers in that locality, likely fol- lowing his brother, John Dodge, who had settled near there in 1787.57 Israel Dodge came over from Kaskaskia, and in 1798 had an exten- sive farm on the Saline, where he built a large house in 1805, but in
56 5 American Historical Review, p. 518. The maiden name of Madame De Luziere was Domittille Dumont de Beaufort. She was a native of Beau- champ, bishopric of Arras, France.
57 As to John Dodge, John Rice Jones writes Maj. Hamtranck, October 29, 1789, that John Dodge and Michael Antanya, with a party of whites and armed Piankeshaw Indians, came over from the Spanish side and attempted to carry off some slaves of Mr. John Edgar, and otherwise were guilty of "outlandish" conduct, threatening to burn the village .- Harmar Papers, vol. ii., pp. 136 142, inc. Antauya-or Antaya-or Antayat was the Indian name of the Pelletier family, because of the marriage of one of the family with an Indian woman.
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HISTORY OF MISSOURI
1800 lived at Ste. Genevieve. Among the distinguished residents of Nouvelle Bourbon was Jean Rene Guiho, lord of Klegand, a native of Nantes, Brittany, also belonging to the fugitive nobility, and who was invited by Chevalier de Luziere to take up his residence in the village. He was given a grant of five hundred arpens on the Saline, but it seems did not remain, and in 1800 returned to France. Israel Dodge says he was married, had five children and six slaves, and had been an officer in the navy. Another early resident here was Jacques De Mun, who had been captain of dragoons on the island of San Domingo.58 This village of Nouvelle Bourbon has long since disappeared, and is now a field. Nouvelle Bourbon was also known at that time as the " village des Petites Côtes." It does not seem that any other of the French émigrés of Gallipolis at any time settled at Nouvelle Bourbon. Among the early settlers in that locality, from Kaskaskia, were Nicolas Caillot dit Lachance, a French-Canadian, and his nine sons.59 It is worth remembering that this Nicolas Lachance furnished supplies to General George Rogers Clark and his troops. In 1799 the inhabitants of Nouvelle Bourbon voluntarily made a patriotic war contribution to aid the king of Spain, of five hundred and sixty-five piastres. The list of contributors, with Don Pierre de Hault de Lassus de Luziere contributing fifty piastres,
58 His son, Auguste De Mun, was killed by William McArthur, a brother- in-law of Lewis F. Linn, in 1816. De Mun and McArthur were both candi- dates for the territorial legislature, and De Mun had made some injurious remarks about McArthur coining counterfeit money. McArthur challenged De Mun, who declined because, he said, McArthur was not a gentleman. This added fuel to the fire, and McArthur then denounced De Mun as a coward, and each prepared to kill the other on sight; when they met on the steps of the territorial courthouse the bloody rencontre took place, and De Mun was killed. McArthur was unhurt, and never prosecuted.
59 These sons were named Gabriel, Michael, Antoine, Francois, Nicolas, Junior, Joseph and Benjamin Caillot dit Lachance, all cultivating the common field of New Bourbon and Ste. Genevieve, but afterward had grants on the Saline at Belle Pointe, on the road to Mine La Motte, and on Big river, several of them being among the first settlers of St. Michael; other settlers in this village were Adrian Langlois (1796), in the employ of Messrs. Lorimier, Peyroux and Menard, and still thus employed when he made his petition in 1799 for a grant, "having saved considerable money and bought many cattle." He received his concession at Flint Stone Hill. Jerome Motes dit Mattis (1797), French-Cana- dian, in the common field; Range (1797), also in common field; Marie Louise Vallé (1798), a widow of (Auguste) Leclerc (or Leclercq), owned slaves; Marie Rompres (or Rompret) (1798), widow of Bermin (or Bermes); Jesse Evans (1797), afterward on Missouri; Michael Cresswell; Louis Courtois; Nicolas Lacomb; Joseph Le Perch; John Price (1797), at New Bourbon, but claimed four thousand arpens on Grand river, owned land at Mine à Breton in partner- ship with William Perry, on the Saline in 1804.
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