Monthly Bulletin - Vol. IV. N^o 6 - June 2024

Cover illustration:

From top to bottom, left to right: Jacques La Ramée, General François-Antoine Lallemand, Etienne Provost, Antoine Robidoux, Captain Benjamin de Bonneville, Charles Larpenteur, Théophile Bruguier, Michel Branamour Menard, Charles Cronéa, Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell, Henri Castro, Pierre D. Papin, Pierre Garreau, Mayer Halff, Victor Considerant, Ceran Saint Vrain, Eugene Pillot,Jacques Adoue, Antoine Janis, Léon Blum, Alexandre Toponce, Charles Armand Schreiner Sr., Louis Dupuy, Thomas de Beau Soleil, Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa, Marquis de Morès, Pierre Wibaux.

France has a deep fascination for the "wild west." When I grew up as a young boy in France in the 60's, watching on TV The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin like millions of French kids, my favorite "panoplie" (outfit) was that of a cowboy, and among my preferred comics books were Lucky Luke and Blueberry. Truth be told, I equally liked to don my Indian "panoplie" at various times, as I instinctively felt respect for their bravery in combat - - or was it the appeal of (pretending) smoking the peace pipe?

Because they were dubbed in French, it never occured to me that John Wayne spoke English... The irony of this personal anecdote is that, after all, it wasn't far from the truth, since many of the very first settlers and pioneers spoke French, as we will discover in this Bulletin, the 3rd part of our series.

In this Bulletin you will meet some very colorful characters. One of them wrote about his long life in the Far West: when reading the "Reminiscences of Alexandre Toponce" you realize that in the 1850's, very few pioneers settled among the Indians, before waves of immigrants ventured with their wagons en route to California.

This month, we are paying tribute to Corp Philip Phillips 'Phil' Benney, who “Died for France” and whose remains rest at the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial in Marnes-la-Coquette just outside Paris.

You all saw on TV the coverage of the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in France a few days ago. We will share some photos of two events that took place outside of Normandy: one in the heart of Paris, held on June 6th by our friends of TheFrenchWillNeverForget, the other one far away in Alaska, yet close in our hearts: a tribute to Anna Marly, composer of the "Chant des Partisans", in partnership with the Alaska Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. We will also share photos of "Operation Mirror": 12 young French students brought "The flame of the Nation" from the French Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. These examples showcase the impressive achievements that dedicated citizens can make through their own efforts in our democratic societies.

Speaking of democracy, one of the most illustrious defender of liberty, and "America's best Friend", the Marquis de Lafayette, will take centerstage again! The Bicentennial of the Lafayette Farewell tour is about to debut!

We are honored to have worked all these past few months alongside many devoted volunteers of the American Friends of Lafayette. The Lafayette Bicentennial Committee has finalized the kick-off events in New York.

We will of course publish details of many other events that are in the works in the next 13 months, and throughout the 24 States the legendary general visited in 1824 and 1825. You can already get an overview at www.Lafayette200.org. Please support these celebrations with your presence or financial help (the e-boutique is replete with wonderful gifts).

Before that, we look forward to see many of you in Newport, R.I. for the "Tribute to France" weekend on Saturday, July 13, celebrating the arrival of the French troops under Rochambeau on July 11, 1781.  The next day is the traditional Bastille Day celebration at Central Park in New York on Sunday, July 14. All details are at the end of this Bulletin.

Top: "A Prairie Windstorm" by Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier, May, 30, 1874, wood engraving with later hand coloring for Harper's Weekly, 9 x 13 3/8 in., private collection, By Paul Frenzeny and Jules Tavernier - Jules Tavernier, Artist & Adventurer by Claudine Chalmers, Scott A. Shields, and Alfred C. Harrison Jr., Pomegranate Communications, Portland, Oregon, 2014, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41010672

Middle: "The Pioneer" by Jules Tavernier, 1877, oil on canvas, 29 x 45 in., The Society of California Pioneers. By Jules Tavernier - Jules Tavernier, Artist & Adventurer by Claudine Chalmers, Scott A. Shields, and Alfred C. Harrison Jr., Pomegranate Communications, Portland, Oregon, 2014, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41202352

Bottom: "The Big Medicine Man,” 1873-87, by French artist Paul Frenzeny. Transparent and opaque watercolor over graphite pencil on blue-gray paper, 57.256, Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and Drawings, 1800–1875, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

• As we have seen in our past Bulletins, the French had long established interest in the West, exploring today's States of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Wyoming, North & South Dakota, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, worrying the Spanish on the northern frontiers of their Mexican holdings. Upon entering parts of present-day Colorado, the Spanish encountered evidence of Frenchmen having already visited the Great Plains. Native Americans relayed accounts of French traders arriving from the East, showcasing firearms as proof of increasing trade. As early as 1714, Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis had established trading posts in Texas, in 1739, brothers Pierre Antoine & Paul Mallet brothers explored the Great Plains, and in 1756 Joseph Blancpain established yet another trading post in Texas. French explorers had also ventured into various remote areas.

• Even after France ceded its North American territories in 1763, French traders continued to explore the river systems of the Great Plains. These unnamed fur traders bestowed distinctive names upon familiar landmarks. For instance, Longs Peak and Mount Meeker were referred to as "Les deux Oreilles" (The Two Ears) by early French trappers who observed these prominent features from the plains, and later chosen by Jules Verne as the site of the telescope in his famous science fiction novel "From the Earth to the Moon".

• French names abound throughout the West: Laramie, Wyoming... Deschene, Utah... Havre, Montana... Frenchman Flat, Nevada... Boise, Idaho... Bordulac, ND... Belle Fourche, SD... Montclair, Colorado, La Prele Creek, in Wyoming, Cheyenne, WY (from the French pronunciation and spelling of the Dakota word Sahi'yena, a diminutive of Sahi'ya, a Dakotan name for the Cree people), Grand Teton National Park, WY (from French grands tétons, "large teats" - presumably referring to the mountains' shape)...

• Historian Hiram Chittenden observed that a mountain man's belongings were simple, including a rifle, traps, knives, hatchets, cooking utensils, tobacco, coffee, sugar, salt, bedding made of buffalo robe, and a horse with pack stock for carrying furs. The mountain men were described by him as "lonely hermits" who enjoyed being alone in the wilderness rather than in civilization. Chittenden depicted them as "ordinarily gaunt and spare, browned with exposure, his hair long and unkempt, while his general make up, with the queer dress which he wore, made it often difficult to distinguish him from an Indian." 

“Enfant de Garce, me see bout honderd, when I pass Squirrel Creek, one dam war-party, parce-que, they no hosses, and have de lariats for steal des animaux. May be de Yutes in Bayou Salade." What he said was that “sneaky Indians who were ready to steal horses were lurking around. It didn't matter if those Arapaho were going to attack the Utes in South Park.”

• In 1846, historian Francis Parkman explored the Western region and spent an evening sitting around a campfire with a group of people "uncouth figures," among whom were "two or three of the half savage men who spend their reckless lives in trapping among the Rocky Mountains”...”They were all of Canadian extraction," he wrote, "their hard, weather-beaten faces and bushy moustaches looked out from beneath the hoods of their white capotes with a bad and brutish expression, as if their owners might be the willing agents of any villainy. And such in fact is the character of many of these men." 

• These early explorers eventually led early French speaking pioneers to settle in these very sparsely populated regions, trading with Indians with whom they would often mix. They would meet in seasonal "Rendez-Vous" sites, and paved the way for waves of later immigrants of all European origins.

In this Bulletin, we selected just a few of these French, French Canadiens and French Métis settlers of the West (We will do so mostly in chronological order, thus jumping from State to State). Several others, memorialized by monuments, statues, markers, are listed in our compilation "French Memories in the United States".

Above:

Left: Métis fur trader, c. 1870, By Unknown author - http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/troufs/Buffalo/PB42.html Minnesota Historical Society Location No. HD2.3 r7 Negative No. 10222, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3125593

Right: A Metis family poses with their Red River carts in a field in western North Dakota. (1883) State Historical Society of North Dakota (A4365) By Unknown photographer - Métis Nation of Alberta and State Historical Society of North Dakota, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61027009

GPS: 42.200950, -104.558533

• Inscription (excerpt):

“French, Spanish and Indian and mixed are very common here and all languages are being jabbered in promiscuous interchange.”

Erected by National Park Service.”

GPS: 47.062617, -109.430433

• Inscription (excerpts): 

“In 1879, Metis—people of French and Chippewa-Cree descent—homesteaded in this area, near the army’s Camp Lewis. Many street names memorialize these settlers, who included Francis A. Janeaux and Paul Morase” . [...]

Erected by The Montana National Register Sign Program.”

We will devote a future Bulletin to the French-American Métis, and their long history, from the first initial recorded "métis" child, a girl who was born around 1628 close to Lake Nipissing in today's Ontario. She was named Marguerite and her parents were a Nipissing Indian woman and Jean Nicollet de Belleborne, who was born around 1598 in Cherbourg, France.

Above: Poster with an artist's illustration of Jacques La Ramée. No actual portrait exists.

Photo: https://www.visitlaramie.org/listing/jacques-la-ramee/265/

• Jacques La Ramée (born in Québec, June 8, 1784 – 1821) was a French Canadian and Métis "coureur des bois", frontiersman, trapper, fur trader, hunter, explorer, and mountain man who lived in what is now the U.S. state of Wyoming, having settled there in 1815. In 1820 he arrived for a season of trapping along the river that now bears his name; he was never seen or heard from again.

• Tradition says he was an honest, just, and courageous leader and trader.

• His name appears in several spellings, including LaRamee, Laramée, LaRamée, La Ramie, La Rami, La Remy, and Laramie. La Ramée is credited as an early explorer of what is now called the Laramie River of Wyoming and Colorado.

• The city of Laramie, Wyoming, with an Americanized spelling, was later named for him, as well Several geographic sites in Wyoming were named for La Ramée (anglicized to Laramie), including the Laramie River, Fort Laramie, Laramie Peak, and Laramie County.

GPS: 41.311000, -105.595983

• Inscription (excerpts):

Fort Laramie National Historic Site, 965 Grey Rocks Road, Fort Laramie WY 82212

GPS: 42.201033, -104.559100

• Inscription (excerpt):

The river below, once abundant with beaver, was named for French-Canadian trapper Jacques LaRamee. Reportedly killed in the early 1820s on the stream that now bears his name, LaRamee remains an enigma. Little else is known about the man who has no less than seven geographic features in Wyoming named after him.”

Erected by National Park Service.” 

Left: Jacque La Ramie Monument, Wheatland, WY

Photo: https://wyomingsteakhouse.com/jacques-la-ramie/

Right: East facing side of Laramie Peak from 40 miles away, photo by Jamesmartin111 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87665986

• One of these geographic landmarks are memorialized with an interpretive marker:

GPS: 42.233500, -105.022300

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Visible from over 100 miles away, Laramie Peak is named for the early French trapper, Jacques La Ramie. While on a beaver trapping expedition, La Ramie vanished from what is now the Laramie River. Upon learning of his disappearance, other trappers in the region named the river after him. Soon the nearby mountains, plains, and many other areas also took the name.”

Erected by Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office.”

• While the exact date, circumstances and location of his death are unknown, a memorial has been erected:

GPS: 42.129800, -104.936300

• Inscription :

Erected 1941 by Historical Landmark Commission of Wyoming.”

Above:

Left: Général François-Antoine Lallemand by Jerome Charles Potts., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3834441

Right: The 1936 Granite Centennial Marker located at the Southeast side of the Trinity River Bridge. Photo Courtesy of the Liberty County Historical Commission, https://www.thevindicator.com/article/community/lallemand-riguad-and-other-french-settlers

• This short-lived colony was founded in 1818 by  General François-Antoine Lallemand of the Napoleonic wars, some 100 foreigners and 200 French veterans from the Grande Armée, some coming from the Vine & Olive colony in Alabama*.

GPS: 30.057433, -94.816083

• Inscription:

who, after many trials and adventures, came to Texas in the spring of 1818 to found on the banks of the Trinity River the Champ D'Asile: a last refuge for peace and liberty "Nous voulons vivre libres, laborieux et paisibles" 

Erected 1936 by the State of Texas. (Marker Number 9671.) "

Note *: Not to be confused with his younger brother Henri Dominique Lallemand, who was also one of Napoléon’s generals, and who led several French exiles to another short lived settlement in Marengo County, Alabama in 1818, called "The Vine & Olive Colony".

Left: Engraving portrait of Etienne Provost, Image from the Utah Historical Quarterly (1940s)

Right: "Catching Up" Painting by American painter Alfred Jacob Miller, around 1860. Photo by Guerinf - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=89209837.

Miller was the only painter to portray during their heyday the men who "may be said to lead the van in the march of civilization,- from the Canadas in the North to California in the South;- from the Mississippi East to the Pacific West; every river and mountain stream, in all probability, have [sic] been at one time or another visited and inspected by them. Perhaps they numbered no more than a thousand, but their impact was incalculable".

• Étienne Provost, also known as Proveau and Provot, was a Canadian fur trader who engaged in trapping and trading activities in the American southwest. He was born on December 21, 1785, in Chambly, Quebec, to Albert Provost and Marie Anne Menard. Little is known about his early life. Provost spent ten years in St. Louis, Missouri,. In late 1814, he left St. Louis with Auguste Chouteau and Jules deMun to pursue trade with the Indians and was imprisoned twice in Santa Fe, New Mexico. As the leader of a company headquartered in Taos, New Mexico, Provost was active in the Green River drainage and the central portion of modern Utah. 

• He was one of the first people of European descent to see the Great Salt Lake, purportedly reaching its shores around 1824–25. However,  maps from the 1600s may show the Great Salt Lake, possibly indicating European explorers reached the area over a century before Prevost or Bridger. Around 1822, Provost returned to New Mexico as one of the early traders and formed a partnership with a certain Leclerc to trap in the Uinta Basin. In October 1824, his party was attacked by Snake Indians at the Jordan River near its mouth at the Great Salt Lake, resulting in the loss of eight men. However, Provost survived and established trading posts on the banks of both Utah Lake and the Great Salt Lake. 

• Provost's company of trappers preceded the men of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in the central Rocky Mountains.  After returning to St. Louis in 1826, he became an employee of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. He continued his own trapping ventures, as well as leading AFC men on ventures on the upper Missouri River. Provost married in 1829 but continued escorting AFC caravans to the annual rendezvous until 1838. From 1839 until his death on July 3, 1850, he continued to recruit and escort the employees of the fur company and various private expeditions, including John Audubon's natural history expedition of 1843. 

• The Provo River and Provo Canyon in central Utah are named for the fur trader, as is the adjacent city of Provo. Provost is memorialized on the “This Is the Place” Monument in Salt Lake City.

GPS: 40.195567, -111.621767

• Inscription (excerpts):

When Spanish Fathers Dominguez and Escalante visited Utah Valley in 1776, they found it inhabited by Timpanogots Utes. […] Nearly fifty years later, French-Canadian mountain man Etienne Provost led a group of ten trappers down the Timpanogos River and into Utah Valley. They rode around the north end of the lake, followed its outlet into Salt Lake Valley, and met a band of Shoshone warriors.

Erected by Rotary International and Provo Parks & Recreation. (Marker Number 54.)”

Above:

Left: Monument to Antoine Robidoux and the Ute Indians with which he began trade at Fort Umcompahgre, 108 Gunnison River Dr., Delta, CO 81416, Photo: by MathsTeacher, https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm94GF_Antoine_Robidoux_and_the_Ute_Indians_Delta_CO

Right: Portrait of Antoine Robidoux - artist and date unknown

• Antoine Robidoux (b. in Saint Louis, September 24, 1794 – August 29, 1860) was a fur trapper and trader of French-Canadian descent best known for his exploits in the American Southwest in the first half of the 19th century.

• Robidoux's post at Uncompahgre river was arguably the first permanent trading operation west of the continental divide. He did several expeditions in the far West, notably in Utah and worked in various capacities as an emigrant guide and a U.S. Army interpreter. In 1846, Robidoux served as an interpreter with General Stephen W. Kearny during the Mexican–American War. He was severely wounded at the Battle of San Pasqual. He died in St Joseph, Missouri, in 1860.

Statue, “Antoine Robidoux and the Ute Indians”

GPS: 38.748111, -108.070500

• This bronze statue was installed in March 2010

GPS: 38.749350, -108.073933

• Inscription:

“One of the many trading posts built by Antoine (Anton French) Robidoux, First built around 1828 at the juncture of the Grand (Gunnison) and Uncompahgre Rivers then a territory of Mexico and Ute Indian country on the well traveled "Old Spanish Route" that ended in Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kit Carson, Robert B. Lee and Joe Meek were frequent visitors. The fort remained until Sept. 1844, when most of the occupants were killed in an attack by the Ute Indians. Constructed

Erected 2004 by the Al Packer Chapter 100 Colorado E. Clampus Vitus and the City of Delta Colorado.”

• Antoine Robidoux is very much present in other sites in Colorado:

GPS: 37.325667, -108.132917

• Inscription (excerpts):

“[...] One prominent traveler on the trail was Antoine Robidoux. He used this snow-free route to supply Fort Uncompahgre which he located on the Gunnison River. Robidouxtraded cotton, blankets, tobacco, tea, coffee, knives, liquor (“Taos Lightning,”) and an occasional rifle to the Ute Indians in exchange for deer skin clothes, beaver pelts, and castoreum – a beaver scent gland that was used to make perfume and medicine..”

Antoine Robidoux, a French Canadian, became a Mexican citizen and married the daughter of the Mexican Governor. Through marriage, he was granted the right to control trade in what would later be western Colorado and eastern Utah. In 1828, Robidouxestablished Fort Uncompahgre on the Gunnison River and Fort Uintah on the Green River...

Erected by Old Spanish Trail Association (OSTA).

• There are duplicate markers, one in Durango, the other one in Silverton:

GPS: 37.811600, -107.664650

GPS: 37.268950, -107.882167

• Inscription (excerpts):

“In 1828 Antoine Robidoux of St. Louis built the first western Colorado trading post (near present-day Delta). He initially packed supplies from Santa Fe along the Spanish Trail, then from 1841 used the easier "Northern Spanish Trail" across Cochetopa Pass.”

Erected by Durango Railroad Historical Society.

For further reading:

The State Historical Society of Colorado. VOL. VII. Denver. Colorado, July, 1930. No. 4. “Antoine Robidoux, Kingpin in the Colorado River. Fur Trade, 1824-1844”…https://www.historycolorado.org/sites/default/files/media/document/2018/ColoradoMagazine_v7n4_July1930.pdf

Left: Bonneville Point Site Overview, Photo National Park Service 

Right: Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville, Union Army, Missouri Historical Society, by Karl Charles Alfred Zimmermann - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5995260

• Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville (April 14, 1796 – June 12, 1878) was born in Paris. His godfather was none other than Thomas Paine, who lodged at his parents when he was a deputy at the National Convention during the French Revolution. Thomas Paine paid for the family passage to the US in 1803, eventually bequeathed his 40 acres estate in New Rochelle, NY, to the Bonneville family. Young Benjamin graduated from West Point, had an illustrious career in the US Army and explored many parts of the Far West.

• Lafayette hosted him during a trip to France in early 1824.

GPS: 43.491883, -116.040567

• Inscription:

“According to tradition, a hunting party led by the explorer Captain Benjamin Bonneville reached this promontory in 1833. They saw the lush river valley below and exclaimed in French, “Les bois; les bois; voyez le bois!” (“The woods; the woods; see the woods!”) In this way, Captain Bonneville’s party became credited with naming the Boise Valley. A career soldier, Bonneville secured a leave of absence from the Army to “examine the locations, habits and trading practices of the Indian tribes, visit the American and British establishments, and study the best means of making the country available to American citizens.” He left St. Louis in May 1832 with 110 men and 20 wagons. Bonneville explored Utah’s Great Salt Lake and crossed southern Idaho several times. His routes helped establish what became the Oregon Trail for settlers entering the Boise River Valley. He finally returned to the East in 1835.

• Bonneville Point is named for U.S. Army Captain Benjamin Bonneville.

GPS: 43.491850, -116.040583  

• Inscription:

Erected 1927 by Kiwanis Club of Boise.”

• Bonneville's namesakes include:

Left: Charles Larpenteur

Middle: Charles Larpenteur's short-lived trading post. It was located adjacent to the Fort Union–Fort Benton road and several hundred yards west Fort Union Trading Post. This road, which visitors can still see traces of today, followed a traditional Assiniboine war path into enemy territories to the west.By William H. Illingworth/ John Carbutt - NPS Fort Union Trading Post Retrieved 2017-10-28, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63682695

Right: Théophile Bruguier, (Sioux City Public Museum) 

• Charles Larpenteur (born in Fontainebleau, France in 1807 –died November 15, 1872, in Little Sioux, Iowa) was a French fur trader. At the age of 12, he and his family immigrated to Baltimore, MD. At 21, Larpenteur went to St. Louis, MO and joined the Rocky Mountain Fur Company in 1833. He joined an expedition and co-founded Fort William, later known as Fort Laramie, WY. He then went to Fort Union, and constructed Fort Alexander, a trading post situated along the Yellowstone River.  He married an Assiniboine woman, who died in 1837 and re-married with “Makes Cloud”, another Assiniboine woman, with whom he had five children. In 1848, Larpenteur became a free trader. Around 1850, he settled on a farm near Little Sioux, Iowa, which he named

Fontainebleau after his birthplace. In 1860, he founded Larpenteur, Smith & Company. He also served as an interpreter for the government, playing a crucial role in negotiating treaties with various Indian tribes. He retired  from his travels in 1871 and returned to his Iowa farm. 

SD Route 50, Gayville SD 57031

GPS: 42.880917, -97.162250

• Inscription:

"In 1822, the Columbus Fur Company established a post at Audubon’s Point, opposite the mouth of Petite Arc Creek. Later taken over by the American Fur Company. William Dickson was factor from 1832 until his death before 1840 when Father Christian Hoecken baptized his daughter, Louise, there on May 30th. Theophile Bruguier was later in charge. Father Hoecken was again there in December, 1850, and Charles Larpenteur was then the factor." 

Erected 1966 by Clay Post 3061, V.F.W., Vermillion and State Highway Commission. (Marker Number 415.)”

• Théophile Wowapikaga “Clerk” Bruguier,

(born 31 Aug 1813 in L'Assomption, Lanaudière Region, Québec – died February 18, 1896in Salix, Woodbury County, Iowa) was the first white settler in the Sioux City area in today's State of Iowa, arriving there in 1836. He had been educated as a lawyer in Canada but headed to St. Louis to work for the American Fur Company after the death of his fiancée. His work as a fur-trader and interpreter took him to Dakota Territory where he learned the Sioux language and traded with Chief War Eagle’s people. Bruguier later married two of the chief’s daughters. Like Charles Larpenteur, he retired in his cabin in Sioux City, Iowa.

The cabin can still be visited at 1298-1272 Council Oak Dr, Sioux City, IA 51109 (GPS: 42.496800, -96.474900)

Left: Portrait of Michel (Michael) Branamour Menard

Photo: By Lewis Publishing Company. - A History of Texas and Texans, Including a Biographical Sketch of the Cities of Houston and Galveston. Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1895. archive.org, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=64055630

Right: Home of Michel B. Menard 

Photo: By Jim Evans - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20477511

• Michel Branamour Menard (born on December 5, 1805, at La Prairie, near Montreal, Quebec, died Sept 2, 1856 in Galveston, TX) ) was a cousin of Médard Menard and nephew of Pierre Menard, the first governor of Illinois. He was the Founder of the city of Galveston, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, a Member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas.

GPS: 29.292917, -94.812267

• Inscription:

“A native of Canada, Michel B. Menard came to Texas in 1829. He lived in Nacogdoches and Liberty before settling in Galveston in 1833. He was one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836, and later represented Galveston in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. As one of the founders of the Galveston City Company he was instrumental in the development of the island. Menard County was created in 1858 and named in his honor.”

Erected 1994 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 7529.)”

• His home is the oldest home in Galveston, TX.

Ménard requested the building of a two-story house in the Greek Revival style. The house was dismantled and transported from Maine in separate parts. The Michel B. Menard House is located at 1605 Thirty-Third Street in Galveston and remains intact to this day. It is recognized as a historic landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. His home was later sold to the Allen brothers, founders of Houston. As of 2018, it holds the distinction of being the oldest standing house in Galveston.

GPS: 29.291550, -94.801783

• Inscription:

“A signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. Founder of the city of Galveston. Member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas.

Erected 1936 by The State of Texas. (Marker Number 7530.)”

Above:

Left: Photo: http://dandjreed.homedns.org/cronea/d1.html

Right: Home of Charlie Cronea in High Island, Texas. Source: Gulf Coast Peninsula Features&Facts History Photographs Maps by A.Pat Daniels. The home of pirate Jean Lafitte's cabin boy, and Veteran of War against Mexico, Charlie Cronéa, is believed to be the oldest building in Bolivar Peninsula. It is located on a hill southeast of the main business district of High Island. Cronéa built this home in 1876. It was remodeled about 1972. Yet we have not been able to find the exact address and GPS online.

GPS: 29.558867, -94.396000

• Inscription:

“Born in Marseilles, France, Charles Cronea came to America on a French frigate as a cabin boy in 1818. Soon after, boarding a ship out of Charleston, South Carolina, Croneaand several companions entered the service of Jean Laffite of Galveston engaged in privateering cruises off the coast of Spanish Mexico. After nearly a year under the command of Capt. James Campbell, he left the ship when it was burned at the mouth of the Mermentau River in Louisiana.

Erected 1996 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 7423.)”

Left: Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (1818-1875), owner of the Maxwell Land Grant, one of the largest landholdings in U.S. History, in what is now New Mexico and Colorado. By Unknown - https://www.legendsofamerica.com/nm-maxwell/ Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101939757

Right: Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell Marker, Photo: by Thomas Fisher https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9925464/lucien-bonaparte-maxwell#view-photo=2911398

Bottom left: Photo of plaque by Billy Hathorn at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17701756

Bottom right: Cimarron NM Stone Statue Of Lucien B. Maxwell Postcard - New Mexico (undated)

• Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell (September 14, 1818 – July 25, 1875) was a mountain man, rancher, scout, and farmer who at one point owned more than 1,700,000 acres (6,900 km2).  Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history. In 1959, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

• Maxwell was born in Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory. He was the son of Hugh Maxwell, an Irish immigrant, and Odile Menard, daughter of Pierre Menard, a French Canadian fur trader who was the first Lieutenant Governor of the State of Illinois shortly after Maxwell's birth (Pierre Menard was featured in our previous May Bulletin)

• He met and became fast friends with Kit Carson, who was almost nine years older. Both were to sign up in 1841 for western expeditions, with Carson serving as guide, and Maxwell as chief hunter.

• Eventually his landholdings then peaked at 1,714,765 acres (6,939.41 km2). The entire area is referred to as the Maxwell Land Grant, and he leased his land to gold miners, making him immensely rich. 

• Outlaw Billy the Kid was killed on Maxwell’s ranch, where both graves can be visited.

GPS: 34.403633, -104.193283

• Inscription:

GPS: 36.511430, -104.916234

•       This statue of land baron Lucien Maxwell shows him in patriotic (red, white and blue) frontier garb, "guarding" the town of Cimarron, NM. Maxwell was a prominent rancher in the 1800s. He owned over 2 million acres of land.

•       The statue is the work of Domenico “Professor Dom” Poglianich , called Professor Dom because he had a unique way of analyzing situations . He was a miner, gold prospector, and Philippine–American War veteran. Poglianich worked odd jobs and lived in a two-story cave in town. In the mid-1930s, Poglianich felt Cimarrón needed something to recognize its founder.

•       The brightly painted concrete depiction of Maxwell is actually Poglianich’s second attempt (the first was destroyed by vandals), for which he was paid $5.

• Inscription:

Left: Henri Castro, By Unknown —https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117083821

Right: https://texashistoricalmarkers.weebly.com/

GPS: 29.355833, -98.875183

• Inscription:

“Henri Castro, a native of Bayonne, France, and the descendant of Portuguese nobility, served briefly in Napoleon's French Army. In 1813 he married Marie Amelia Mathias. He later immigrated to the United States and in 1827 became a naturalized U.S. Citizen. He returned to France in 1838 and joined the banking house of Lafitte and Company. While there he helped negotiate a loan for the Republic of Texas for which a grateful President Sam Houston later appointed him Texas' General Consul in Paris. Between 1843 and 1847 Castro administered, as Empresario, the settlement of at least 2,134 European colonists in this area.

Erected 1994 by Texas Historical Commission”

GPS: 28.621933, -96.625250

• Inscription:

“Texas land empresario Henri Castro contracted to bring colonists of various European nationalities to Texas beginning in 1842. The first of these were Alsatians, most of whom spoke German and held German sympathies. They arrived at Galveston, their official port of entry, with 114 passengers from France in early 1843; most then sailed for Lavaca (later Port Lavaca). They waited here before beginning their overland journey to what became Medina County, to establish the town of Castroville. Another, largely Alsatian, group of 129 arrived at Galveston January 1, 1844. About 40 continued to Lavaca, landing on the 10th. Conditions were difficult, and many immigrants succumbed to various coastal fevers. Other ships followed in 1845 and 1846. Castro's contract expired in 1847, after he had transported more than 2,000 colonists to Texas, most through Lavaca Bay.”

Erected 1999 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 1147.)”

GPS: 29.356350, -98.876100

• Inscription:

“Henri Castro (1786-1861), a naturalized American of French origin, befriended the Republic of Texas and became interested in settling here. In 1842 he was given authority to establish a colony of Europeans in Southwest Texas. He succeeded in obtaining some land here on the Medina, from a 1766 grant made by Chares III of Spain. He recruited 485 families and 457 single men, mostly Alsatians. Using his personal wealth, he cared for the colonists as though they were his children. In 1844 he had the Castroville townsite platted, reserving as his homestead this block next to the courthouse site, in the center of town. He erected a stone dwelling and outbuildings, and planted an experimental garden, to discover crops suited to the locality. Bringing his wife Amelia (Mathias) and their four foster children from France, he lived here permanently. As a moral obligation, he continued to direct the state affairs for his colony, although it had impoverished him.

Erected 1978 by Texas Historical Commission.”

For further reading, visit: https://www.castroville.com/portfolio_page/alsatian-language/

Left: Image capture Nov 2021 (c) 2021 Google

Right: Pierre Didier Papin https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/34389767/pierre-didier-papin

• Pierre D. Papin was the son of Marie-Louise Chouteau and grandson of Pierre Laclède, Founder of St Louis, Missouri, whom we introduced in our Bulletin last month in May.

GPS: 41.735333, -103.698017

• Inscription (excerpts): Pierre Didier Papin

“Pierre D. Papin was a trusted and valued employee of the American Fur Company and its successors for over thirty years. He was born March 7, 1798, In St. Louis. The Papins were a prominent French merchant family in that city. Papin joined "the Company" in the early 1820s... Papin established his own trading company in 1829 but was soon bought out by the American Fur Company, which then rehired him. By 1842 Papin had moved to Fort John (popularly known as Fort Laramie) on the Laramie River and in 1845 became chief agent at that post. Meanwhile, the company had reorganized as Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co., but operations remained essentially unchanged.”

“Erected 1991 by Oregon-California Trails Association”

GPS: 44.356433, -100.374833

• Inscription:

“First visited by Verendrye, who took over for France by planting a lead plate on March 31, 1743. A monument marks the spot. It is over the R.R. track first street to right, on hill to you left .6 miles.”

“Joseph LaFramboise started first fur post here in 1817 on west bank of Missouri just south of mouth of Bad river. Whites here since then.”

“Practically on same site, French Fur Co., Pierre D. Papin & Pascual Cerres had post Ft. Teton 1827 sold to Am. Fur Co., 1830. Bad River, then called Little Missouri was site where Father Hoecken on June 12-13, 1840 baptized 25 children, offspring of 13 traders and trappers, among them Dorion, Papin, Halsey, Campbell, Brazeau and Alleron.”

Erected 1955 by R. S. Howe Co. and State Highway Commission.”

• Fort Pierre Chouteau, also just Fort Pierre, was established in 1832 by Pierre Chouteau, Jr. of St. Louis, Missouri, whose family were major fur traders as we narrated in our previous Bulletin of May 2024. This facility operated through the 1850s.

GPS: 44.356433, -100.374833

• Inscription:

Erected 1955 by R. S. Howe Co. and State Highway Commission. (Marker Number 42.)”

Above:

Left: Photo: stereograph of Pierre Garreau an Indian interpreter, Smithsonian Institution

Right: Lodge at Fort Clark, Photographed By Barry Swackhamer, August 28, 2020

• Pierre Garreau was the son of Antoine Garreau, a French trader working for Sublette & Campbell, who originally came from Canada. Antoine's first wife, Josette, was a half breed Arikara. They had children together, including Josette who later became the mother of Maggie Dawson and wife of Andrew Dawson. They also had another daughter who passed away at Ft. Clark, and a son who lived among the Arikara and was eventually killed by Bears' Ears, an Arikara leader. Bears' Ears fled to the Sioux after the murder and later became a U.S. government scout at old Ft. Lincoln. Antoine's second wife was a full blood Mandan.

Fort Clark State Historic Site, Stanton, ND 58571

GPS: 47.250900, -101.272683

• Inscription:

“ This earthlodge was the home of Pierre Garreau. Garreau, the son of a French father and an Arikara mother, was employed by the American Fur Company as an interpreter. He was well known for his strength and bravery. Interpreters, such as Garreau, served a vital role in the fur trade. Communication between trading parties may have required the use of multiple languages and several interpreters.

Erected by State Historical Society of North Dakota.”

Above:

Left: Halff House, San Antonio https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/halff-mayer

Right: Portrait of Mayer Halff, Photo: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/halff-mayer

GPS: 29.420333, -98.487017

• Inscription:

“Mayer Halff (1836-1905) immigrated to Texas from Lauterborg, Alsace Lorraine, France, in 1850. In partnership with his brother Solomon, he opened a mercantile business in Liberty and began a cattle ranching enterprise. They moved to San Antonio in 1864 and established M. Halff & Brother, a wholesale dry goods company. Their ranching interests grew to include over a million acres of land in Texas and other states, and they also became interested in banking.

The Halff family played an important role in the development of San Antonio and the Texas cattle industry. Many of their descendants, some of whom married into the pioneer Oppenheimer family, still reside in the city.”

Erected 1966 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 2333.)”

Left: Victor Considerant, portrait by Jean Gigoux, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23205458

Right: Marker is located near the north end of Stevens Park Golf Course, west of Hampton Road, Dallas, TX. Photo by QuesterMark, https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKHMR_La_Reunion

• Victor Prosper Considerant (12 October 1808 – 27 December 1893) was a French utopian socialist philosopher and economist who was a disciple of Charles Fourier, and later took part in the Paris Commune upraising of 1870.

• La Réunion was a utopian socialist community formed in 1855 by French colonists, joined by Belgian and Swiss. The founder of the community, Victor Prosper Considerant, was a French democratic socialist who directed an international movement based on Fourierism, a set of economic, political, and social beliefs advocated by French philosopher François Marie Charles Fourier. It wasa "communal experiment administered by a system of direct democracy."

GPS: 32.759633, -96.857717

• Inscription:

Above:

Left: Portrait of Ceran St. Vrain, from "History and government of New Mexico", published in 1921, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75086031

Right: St Vrain Mill in 2015, Photo: By Cmarrou - https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35682360

• Ceran St. Vrain, whose full name was Ceran de Hault de Lassus de Saint-Vrain, was born on May 5, 1802 in St Louis, Missouri, and passed away on October 28, 1870. He was the son of Jacques Marcellin Ceran de Hault de Lassus Saint-Vrain, a French aristocrat and Navy officer, who immigrated to Louisiana during the French Revolution. His mother, Marie Félicité Chauvet Dubreuil, hailed from St. Louis, Missouri, which had a predominantly French population. Seeking excitement and new experiences, Ceran St. Vrain embarked on a trading venture in Taos, New Mexico in 1824. At the time, Taos was part of the newly independent Mexico. In 1831, St. Vrain became a naturalized Mexican citizen while residing in Taos. This status allowed him to bypass the restrictions imposed on American traders in Mexican territory. Shortly after, he formed a partnership with American trader William Bent, establishing the company known as Bent, St. Vrain & Company. 

• The company's trading operations extended across Wyoming, New Mexico, Kansas, and Colorado. In 1855, Ceran St. Vrain settled in Mora County, where he constructed St. Vrain's Mill, a flour mill. He also took on the role of publisher, launching the Santa Fe Gazette, one of the earliest English-language newspapers in Northern New Mexico. During his funeral, more than 2,000 individuals paid their respects, including the U.S. Army garrison from Fort Union. St. Vrain was laid to rest in what is now known as St. Vrain Cemetery in Mora. 

GPS: 38.043567, -103.431550

• Inscription (excerpts):

“ I wish I was capable to do Bent and St. Vrain justice for the kindness received at their hands. I can only say their equals were never in the mountains.”

Erected by National Park Service.”

GPS: 35.975800, -105.329050

• Inscription :

• Ceran St. Vrain possessed much of the acreage on his vast Mexican Land Grant which encompassed Huerfano and parts of Pueblo and Las Animas counties.

• The only person known to occupy the Beaubois  “fort” in early days was Félix St. Vrain, wayward son of Ceran. 

GPS: 37.748850, -104.833733

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Here, in the shadow of the Spanish Peaks and the Wet Mountains, stands El Huerfano - "the orphan." This stark and lonely volcanic outcrop, named in the late 1700s by an unknown Spanish trader, had for centuries guided earlier Hispanos and Indian peoples passing through this country. After 1821 when this land became part of Mexico, Huerfano Butte served as a beacon to settlement [...] Eager to settle its far northern frontier, the Mexican government granted to a few favored individuals vast tracts of land in present Southern Colorado. Here on the sprawling Vigil-St. Vrain Grant (over 4 million acres), Huerfano Butte and its rich surrounding grasslands attracted many hopeful settlers, including at least one Frenchman - a man names Beaubois, who in 1858 established a ranch and later built a fort one-half mile north of this point.

Erected 1996 by Colorado Historical Society. (Marker Number 181.)”

Above:

Left: Original building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The structure suffered severe damage in the 1980s and collapsed in 1988. A replica, incorporating some of the original cast iron columns, sills, and lintels, was completed in 1990

By i_am_jim - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24040328

Center: Eugene Pillot (1820-1896) 

Photo: https://www.heritagesociety.org/pillot-house

Right: The Pillot House in Sam Houston Park

Photo: By i_am_jim - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24291037

• Eugène Pillot (born 10 Feb 1820 in Lure, Departement de la Haute-Saône, Franche-Comté, France - died 10 Oct 1896 in Houston, Harris County, Texas) was a French immigrant who had relocated with his parents and siblings to the Republic of Texas from New York City in 1837. 

• The 1868 Pillot House was originally located at 1803 McKinney in downtown Houston. He lived in the house with his wife Zeolide and their six children, one of whom was a partner in Henke & Pillot grocery. The home was continuously occupied by the Pillot family until they donated it to The Heritage Society in 1965 when it was moved to Sam Houston Park. The Pillot House was one of the first in Houston to have an attached kitchen (complete with running water), closets, and gas lighting.  Architectural enhancements such as full-length windows and wrap-around porches illustrate how residences were designed for Houston's hot climate.

• Henke & Pillot was a chain of 27 supermarkets headquartered in Houston, Texas created in 1872 and which was absorbed by the Kroger Co. in 1966.

GPS: 30.099517, -95.620183

• Inscription:

“Frenchman Claude Nicholas Pillot (1793-1862) came to this area with his family in 1837. He and his son Eugene (1820-1896) worked in the timber business and were active in the community, serving as officials in the short-lived Spring Creek County. The Willow Settlement formed around the Pillot family and other French settlers. The Pillots owned much of the land in the area and remained active in the community. A successful lumberman, Eugene also became a prominent builder in Houston, maintaining homes both in the Willow Creek area and in the city. His 1860 home was moved to this site in 1965 to serve as a reminder of the prosperous Pillot family and its contributions.”

Erected 2004 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 14850.)”

GPS: 29.760683, -95.371917

• Inscription:

GPS: 29.761633, -95.360050

• Inscription:

“The original building at this site, a cast iron front structure, was built between 1857 and 1869. Early tenants of the building, owned by French-born merchant and Houston civic leader Eugene Pillot (1820-1896), included attorneys, real estate brokers, and a dry goods merchant. Subsequently a hotel, a barbershop, restaurants, and bars occupied the building. Owned by Pillot heirs until 1944, the structure suffered severe damage in the 1980s and collapsed in 1988. A replica, incorporating some of the original cast iron columns, sills, and lintels, was completed in 1990.”

Erected 1992 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 10744.)

• Here is an excerpt of a Notice published in 1895, which French-born readers of this Bulletin who immigrated to the United States will surely relate to:

Source: History of Texas Biographical History of the Cities of Houston and Galveston (1895) cited in: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9206168/joseph-eugene-pillot

GPS: 30.064400, -95.603917

• Inscription:

“The earliest known settler on Willow Creek was Frenchman Claude Nicholas Pillot(1793-1862), whose family immigrated to the United States in 1832 and to Texas in 1837. He and his wife, Jeanne, established a home and farm in the area, and soon other French settlers joined them. Church services and school classes were held in private homes until permanent structures could be built.

Incise in base: Sponsored by Chaparral Genealogical Society

Erected 2002 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 12830.)”

Above:

Left: Jacques Adoue Bldg,. Photo: By Renelibrary - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113902284

Right: Jacques Adoue, photographer unknown

• Jacques Adoue (born 26 Jun 1851 in Aurignac, Haute-Garonne - died  October  4, 1906 in  Calvert, TX) was a banker and an entrepreneur, and a prominent figure in Central Texas. He and his brother Bertrand possessed and operated the Calvert Ice, Water and Electric Co. This establishment served as a storage facility for Adolph Busch's beer from St. Louis. 

• The notice on his funerals reads:

“The large concourse of mourning friends testified in a small degree the love in which he was held by the people of our city. For over thirty years he had been a friend and counselor of ever one even the humblest of our citizens”. Morning Eagle Newspaper, Oct 6, 1906

• Marker, “Jacques Adoue Building”

GPS: 30.979233, -96.674683

• Inscription:

“Relic of colorful career of Jacques Adoue (1851-1906), youngest of three French brothers who came to Texas (1860s) to become Calvert, Dallas, and Galveston business leaders. Jacques Adoue owned numerous enterprises. This store, built for Collat, Adoue & Risser Dry Goods, set an ambitious style for the town. It was said by friends that Adoue'sdeath, years later, from injuries sustained in Calvert compress fire, marked passing of an era.”

Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1973

Erected 1973 by State Historical Survey Committee. (Marker Number 10897.)”

Above:

Left: Janis (standing to the right) with a group of Sioux and Arapaho, 1877. Friday, seated at lower right, often camped with his band along the Poudre River near where Janis staked his claim.. Photo: By Mathew Brady or Levin Handy - Library of Congress, Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=849866

Right: Statue of Antoine Janis in Fort Collins, CO

• Antoine Janis (March 26, 1824 in St Charles, Missouri – died April 10 1890 in Pine Ridge, SD) was a French-American fur trader and the first white homesteader in Larimer County, Colorado,  where he founded the town of Laporte in 1858 (originally spelled La Porte then LaPorte).

• Janis was born in Missouri to French parents and his father freighted supplies from St. Louis to Wyoming during the heyday of the fur trade.

• Antoine Janis was the first white man to hold a land deed in Larimer County.

GPS: 40.538017, -105.020476

• Inscription:

• “The plaque behind the statue’s base notes that Janis was born in Missouri and that he was the first known permanent white settler in Northern Colorado, but little else is said — nothing about the fact that his father was French, that his mother was mixed race, and that his wife was First Elk Woman of the Oglala Sioux. Nothing about the fact that when his wife was forcibly relocated to the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 1878, he followed her, along with most of the rest of the French/Indian families who had founded and settled this gateway to the Rockies”

(excerpt from: https://redcedarwright.com/2019/09/12/mother-spring/)

GPS: 40.631850, -105.153350

• Inscription:

Erected 1916 by Daughters of the American Revolution Cache La Poudre Chapter.” 

GPS: 40.631850, -105.153350

• Inscription:

Above:

Top Left: Léon Blum, photographer unknown,

Right: Leon Blum Bldg, Galveston TX

Photo: By Jim Evans - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92528734

• Léon Blum (born 20 August 1836 in Gundershoffen, Departement du Bas-Rhin, Alsace, France - died 28 Apr 1906 (aged 69) in Galveston, Galveston County, Texas). His parents were Isaac and Julie Blum. He started as a tinsmith apprentice and moved to the United States in 1854. Initially, he established a mercantile business in Richmond, Texas, but later relocated it to Galveston. Leon and H. Blum, his company, was a stockholder in the Gulf, Colorado, and Santa Fe railroad. He was also the president of Blum Land Company and supported various charities, including the Bayland Orphans' Home for Boys. Leon was married to Henrietta Levy, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, and they had two children.

GPS: 29.306133, -94.794733

• Inscription:

"A young Alsatian immigrant, Leon Blum, joined his brother Alexander in a business partnership in Richmond, Texas, about 1852. The company, A.Blum & Bro., moved to Galveston in 1859. The new firm of Leon & H. Blum was founded late in 1868, composed of brothers, Leon, Alexander, and Sylvain, and cousins Hyman and Joseph. The firm was Galveston's leading importer and wholesale dealer in dry goods for more than twenty years. Leon & H. Blum served the southwestern United States, Indian Territory, and Mexico, and had offices in New York, Boston, and Paris, France.

The nationwide Depression of the 1890s severely affected the business of Leon & H. Blum, and in 1896 the firm was dissolved. Since that time, the building has housed numerous establishments. The Mistrot & Bros. Company operated a large retail store here until 1917. Vacant for several years, the building later housed offices of the "Galveston Tribune." Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.”

Erected 1986 by Texas Historical Commission. (Marker Number 7515.)”

Above:

Left: Alexandre Toponce by Unknown author - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32508663

Right: Freight Wagon. Photo from The Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce, 1923, https://sfcompanion.blogspot.com/2019/11/alexander-toponce-freighter-stockman.html

• Alexandre Toponce (born November 10, 1839 in Belfort, France –  died in Ogden, Utah, May 13, 1923). At the age of 23, he led a train of some 180 pioneers into the Far West from Denver. 

• Toponce knew, and was known to, a remarkable number and range of pioneers in Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Nevada.

• In his heyday, he could obtain thousands of dollars in credit on little more than a word and a handshake!

• He established coach lines, invested in mining, ranching, and even hydro-electric projects, still active by the age of 80...

• He created the Bonanza Route and co-founded Corinne, UT.

• His memoirs, The Reminiscences of Alexander Toponce, published in 1923, tell the story of the development of the far West.

GPS: 44.462400, -114.483600

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Lack of development and limited government services in the western territories created opportunities for entrepreneurs like Alex Toponce. Arriving from France at age seven, Toponce traveled west and by age 18 had worked as a bullwhacker. By 1860 he was working in the gold fields of Colorado, Montana and Idaho. [...] He negotiated contracts to haul freight and mail to Custer and gold bullion out to market. Toponce also operated a four-horse stage line from Challis to the nearest railway at Blackfoot, Idaho, a distance of 156 miles covered by stage in twenty-four hours.  "The mail came in this evening for the last time on the pony, and in the future will come in on the Toponce-Meyers Stage." Yankee Fork Herald, October 2, 1879”

Erected by U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Bureau of Land Management."

• Here are a few passages from his Memoirs, just to give a flavor of the Old West, a mere 150 years ago:

Left: Charles Armand Schreiner Sr.

Photo: https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Charles_Schreiner_(Texas_rancher)

Right: The Capt. Charles Schreiner Mansion in Kerrville, Texas, United States. The house was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1962 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1975. By Larry D. Moore, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7356087

Schreiner University, https://schreiner.edu

• Charles Armand Schreiner Sr. (born February 22, 1838 in Riquewihr, France – died in Kerrville, TX February 9, 1927), was a cattle and sheep rancher, merchant, banker, politician, and philanthropist from his adopted city of Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country. He is often called the "father of the Hill Country". Schreiner gave away more than a million dollars; his largest gift was to endow Schreiner Institute, since Schreiner University.

GPS: 30.047283, -99.140550

• Inscription:

“Charles A. Schreiner (1838-1927) was born in Riquewihr, France, and moved to San Antonio, Texas, in 1852. He served in the Texas Rangers from 1854-1857 and the Confederate Army from 1861-1865. On this site in 1869, he opened a small store made of cypress planks. From that humble beginning he built a large business empire that included banking, ranching, land holdings, and marketing wool and mohair. Schreiner's was one of the first businesses in the country to recognize the value of mohair and in 1930 Kerrville became known as the Mohair Capital of the World. He was elected Captain of the Kerrville Mounted Rifles in 1875, and carried this title for the remainder of his life. One of his major contributions to the Kerrville community was the founding of Schreiner Institute, now Schreiner University, in 1923.”

Adolphe François Gerard, aka Louis Dupuy

• Adolphe François Gerard was born in Alençon, France on Oct 14, 1844. He moved to Paris at 20 to train as a chef. He later went to London to work for a newspaper. In 1966, he relocated to New York City to work for another newspaper. In 1868, he joined the U.S. Army at Fort Hamilton, New York and was stationed at Fort D. A. Russell (now Fort Warren) near Cheyenne, Wyoming. By April 1869, he deserted to Denver, Colorado and adopted the name Louis Dupuy. That same year, he began working for the Rocky Mountain News as a reporter covering mining camps.

• Louis fell in love with the mining life in Colorado and decided to become a miner himself. Unfortunately, in 1873, he suffered a severe injury due to a dynamite explosion. Unable to continue mining, the kind-hearted people of Georgetown raised enough money for Louis to rent a building. Within a few years, he was able to purchase the building and transform it into a successful restaurant and hotel named Hotel de Paris.

• Louis Dupuy, a passionate reader of literature and philosophy, had a wide command of languages including French, English, German, and Latin. He died of pneumonia on October 7, 1900. Following his death, his housekeeper Sophie Gally inherited the hotel, but she also passed away just four months later.

• Both Louis Dupuy and Sophie Gally rest together, sharing a grave marker engraved with the words "Deux Bons Amis" meaning "Two Good Friends."

• In 1985, famed novelist Louis L'Amour immortalized Louis Dupuy by incorporating him as a fictional character in his novel "The Proving Trail."

• The Hotel de Paris is now a museum located in the town of Georgetown, Colorado. The building stands on 6th Street, across from Georgetown Town Hall, in the eastern end of the town. By the early 1890s, the original building had undergone significant changes. It had tripled in size and now featured numerous rooms, a formal dining room, a spacious kitchen, and even an apartment for Louis. The Hotel de Paris boasted modern amenities such as indoor plumbing with washbasins in each room and electric lighting, which replaced gas lamps in 1893. Guests were treated to exquisite dining experiences with meals served on fine Haviland china from Limoges, France. The table settings were adorned with elegant linens and imported glassware. The menu offered a variety of dishes, including steaks from Louis' own ranch, Troublesome Creek, as well as delicacies like oysters and anchovies in olive oil imported from France.The museum is a popular tourist attraction, known for its well-preserved interiors containing over 5,000 items from the Victorian era, 90% of which are original to the Dupuy era. In 1954, the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Colorado acquired the property and transformed it into a museum. 

GPS: 39.705934, -105.695801

•Inscription:

Erected 1954 by The State Historical Society of Colorado and the Colonial Dames Society in Colorado.”

GPS: 39.705934, -105.695801

• Inscription:

“Frenchman Louis Dupuy came to Georgetown in 1870 to seek his fortune in silver mining. A mine accident ended those dreams, and he soon opened the first phase of his extraordinary Hotel de Paris. The hotel, completed in 1890, featured steam heat, hot and cold running water in each room, the finest carpets, gas lights, black walnut woodwork, and many works of art. This jewel in the mountains truly represents successful American entrepreneurship in the late 19th century.

Erected 2007 by Town of Georgetown and Historic Georgetown, Inc.”

Left: Thomas de Beau Soleil, c. 1880, Photographer Unknown

Photo: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6802809/thomas-debeau-sun

Right: https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/exhibit/historic-sites/wyoming/sun-ranch

• Thomas DeBeau Soleil ( born on 28th Feb. 1844 in Vermont – died 5th June 1909 in Denver, CO) was a French Canadian. At the age of 11, he left his home to go to Montana to seek out his uncle. During his travels, he met a trapper named Dakota in St Louis, with whom he formed a friendship. Dakota taught him survival on the plains and how to interact with Indians while trapping. In 1872, Soleil constructed a log cabin on Sweetwater Creek near Devil's Gate, which marked the inception of the Sun Ranch. He made two trips to Oregon and brought back 4,000 head of cattle, which he used to expand his ranch into an empire that covered over three million acres, making it the largest operation in Wyoming. The ranch boasts the most extensive uninterrupted stretch of the Oregon Trail.

GPS: 42.438067, -107.218117

• Inscription (excerpts):

Tom de Beau Soleil (a French Canadian name later anglicized to "Sun") came to Wyoming after the Civil War. He worked as a trapper and as a military scout with William "Buffalo Bill" Cody. He also cut railroad ties under contract with the Union Pacific Railroad. The 1872 cabin was used as headquarters for a successful ranching and hunting guide business. It later became the "Hub and Spoke Ranch," with operations extending well into the Great Divide Basin. The Sun Ranch is a Registered National Historic Landmark. [...]

Erected by U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management.”

Left: Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa,  Marquis de Morès, Photographie Otto à Paris, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21951345

Right: Photo: Statue of Marquis De Mores Medora North Dakota Badlands, vintage postcard

• Antoine Amédée Marie Vincent Manca de Vallambrosa,  Marquis de Morès, (born 14 June 1858 in Paris - died 9 June 1896 in El Ouatia, Tunisia) was was a French duelist, an excentric adventurer, a frontiersman in the rugged Badlands of Dakota Territory in the last days of the American Old West, and a pioneer for railroads in Vietnam.a French Army officer who graduated from St Cyr Military Academy in 1879, and was a classmate of Philippe Pétain. He soon resigned his commission and moved to the US  to become an entrepreneur. His soon married Medora Von Hoffman, the daughter of a wealthy Wall Street banker of German descent, moved to the Far West and became a key player in the North Dakota badlands in the 1880s. He founded the town of Medora, named after his wife. He and Theodore Roosevelt had a tumultuous business relationship during the latter’s ranching days (He even challenged him to a duel...) The Marquis was as well known for his skill as a rifleman. He founded a meatpacking industry on the Northern Great Plains that he theorized would result in higher quality meat at lower prices for consumers. After his business failed in the West, he re-enlisted, tried to build a railroad in Vietnam, and got killed in North Africa during an expedition in murky circumstances. He was a noted anti-semite during the Dreyfus Affair and even wounded Captain Dreyfus in a duel.

GPS: 46.917167, -103.532950

• Inscription:

• Antoine-Amédée-Marie-Vincent Manca-Amat de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Mores, (1858 - 1896) founded the village of Medora (after his wife's first name) in 1883. De Mores Park in Medora, Dakota North, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. The park is located in downtown Medora. It includes a 1926 bronze statue of the Marquis de Mores, donated by his sons.

GPS: 46.914467, -103.525467

• Inscription:

GPS: 46.916150, -103.529117

• Inscription:

“The ruins on this site are all that remain of the meat packing establishment built by the Marquis de Mores, a French nobleman who came to the Badlands and founded the town of Medora in the spring of 1883. The packing plant was the nucleus of an extensive scheme to slaughter beef on the range and to provide facilities for refrigeration, transportation and marketing of dressed beef. The Medora Abattoir (French term for slaughterhouse) continued to operate until late in the fall of 1886. The lack of a constant supply of range cattle in prime condition for slaughtering prevented the operation of the plant year-round, and was a principal reason for the failure of this venture. A fire of unknown origin destroyed the plant on March 17, 1907. In 1936 Louis Vallombrosa, the Marquis’ eldest son, donated the site to the State of North Dakota with the State Historical Society as trustee.”

GPS: 46.916200, -103.528767

• Inscription:

Above:

Left: Photo of Pierre Wibaux, State Historical Society of North Dakota

Right: Photo: http://www.tworvgypsies.us/!USA-2012-trip-5/12a-Wilbaux_Montana.html

Bottom: A 20-dollar bill signed by Pierre Wibaux, head of the State National Bank of Miles City.

• Pierre Wibaux (born in Roubaix, Northern France, in January 12, 1858 – died March 21, 1913 in Chicago, IL) was a French cattle owner and ranchman in Montana during the turn of the 20th century. He immigrated from France to seek business opportunities in America and was among the most successful in the second wave of "Frontier Cowboys". He was the scion of a prominent textile industrial family in Roubaix, a Dragoon officer and excellent rider.

GPS: 46.986850, -104.186867

• Inscription (excerpts): 

Erected by Montana Historical Society.”

GPS: 46.990267, -104.179183

GPS: 46.990267, -104.179183

• Inscription (excerpts): 

“Erected by Montana Department of Transportation”

WY - 1852 Jean-Baptiste Richard, Joseph Bissonette, Charles Bordeaux, Louis Guinard

Long before the celebrated Lewis & Clark expedition, several French explorers had ventured far into the West, trying to find this direct route to China, claiming land for the King of France. Although they are duly recognized at many sites (some of them rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th Century) with markers, statues and monuments, they are mostly forgotten or barely mentioned in school textbooks, in the United States and in France as well.

They had lived for generations with the local Indian tribes, trading with them, mixing blood lines. That was before the "Conquest of the West " and the forced relocation of so many native tribes. These French pioneers of the American Frontier founded many cities.

In Part Three of our series we paid tribute to some French-Americans of the Far West, The Rockies and Texas, who were before or among the very first cohorts of immigrants.

In Part Four we will reach the Pacific along these early French immigrants to California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawai'i.

https://conta.cc/3Qz0Xjl (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3QCRqYM (version en français)

This month, we pay hommage to Corp. Philip Phillips 'Phil' Benney, who "Died for France" while serving in World War One.

Philip Phillips Benney combined with his enthusiasm a special aptitude for flying which led his commander to write that he had "rarely seen in a pilote the qualities of courage, enterprise, and daring that he possessed." But it was his likable personality that most impressed "Phil's" comrades --that and his courage. "A braver, finer, and more lovable boy never lived. He seemed to make friends no matter where he was," wrote R. B. Hoeber, of Escadrille 103, and gives a suggestion of "Phil's" character and ability when he says: "Phil was the best friend I had over here,---we had been through all the schools together, where he was extremely popular and did ripping good work. Then finally when he got out here he was so happy, and, while he had a good deal of hard luck with his machines, he was flying beautifully." Captain d'Indy helps on the description saying that "Phil" "from his arrival won every heart by his intelligence and sincere good-fellowship," and his uncle tells how the same French officer "spoke several times of Philip's wonderful courage and what a great loss it was . . . . . because of the fact that he was loved by them all," and himself adds, "No one could help loving him, he was so frank, charming, and brave."

• Having spent six years at Shady Side Academy, Philip entered the automobile business as a salesman, gaining experience there which led, when he was recommended for a reserve commission, after his summer of 1916 on a battleship with the volunteer civilian cruise, to the remark that he was especially proficient in engineering. The spirit which later caused "Phil" to enter hazardous chasse work made it impossible for him to sit at home while France battled for her existence and in January, 1917, he gave up his business and sailed for France. He went to the front with Section Twelve of the Field Service, but despite his excellent record and friendships made, he was not satisfied, and when America entered the war he waited only until his term of enlistment was ended before joining the Foreign Legion as a private and then transferring to aviation.

• He entered into the training for a chasse pilote eagerly, saying that his eleven days of acrobatics at Pau "were the most wonderful days of my life," and speaking of the splendid flying days when he "worked like a dog, flying an average of five hours a day." His zest was unbounded and his happiness in service shone from his letters, while he had also a keen eye for the beautiful and was sensitive to the wonders of flying.

• He was hurried to the hospital at Glorieux, where two Frenchmen gave some blood in an effort to save him, but he died in the early morning. "How could I do less than give him a few drops of my blood," said one, "when he had given all of his for France?"

• No words could more finely characterize Philip Benney than those of his French chief: "The poor little boy was worshiped in the squadron and admired by all because he was such a splendid soldier and of such a magnificent courage. He fell nobly, beautifully, facing the enemy in a real fight. Perhaps he envied such a death for a long time."

Our Hermione Fund raising appeal continues!

• This past November, our Society helped launch the US Fund raising campaign to help Save the Hermione and have it sail back in time for the United States Semiquicentennial. This is an ongoing campaign and all donations are tax-deductible.

Save the Date!

On Saturday August 17, throughout the morning, an ongoing presentation on the history of the frigate Hermione followed by Q&A's from the general public will take place on board of the three-mast Wavertree at South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan, as part of the kickoff celebrations of the Lafayette Farewell Tour Bicentennial.

• Our November 2022 Bulletin narrated the incredible story and ongoing legacy of the "Train de la Reconnaissance Française", affectionately called "The Merci Train" (November 2022: "The Merci Train, 49 boxcars of French gifts"

https://conta.cc/3OLtgJ3 (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3VpKzRP (version en français)

• 2024 is the 75th anniversary of the "Merci Train", a gesture of friendship and gratitude from the French people to Americans who gave 49 boxcars full of gifts for each State in 1949.

• The Merci Train, the 40&8 National Box Car Association and many other local organizations, custodians of the various "Merci train" boxcars in several States are planning celebrations throughout the year. We are honored to help get the word out.

• The Historic Museum of Holly Hill is planning with our Society, represented by Brigitte van den Hove-Smith, Déléguée Générale Adjointe, South East USA a special commemoration in Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, FL at the Florida boxcar on November 11 at 11:00AM, with the French General Consulate in Miami. Stay tuned for more details!

• Another "Save the Date": February 2, 2025 for the re-dedication of the Hawai'i boxcar, currently being restored thanks to Mr. Jeff Livingston, Historian, 40 & 8 Project Manager, Hawaiian Railway Society, and volunteers, as well as the enthusiastic support of the Aloha Chapter, NSDAR, of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Laura Ingenluyff, State Vice-Regent, Hawai'i NSDAR. See the photos below that we just received, showing the incredible efforts that are being deployed to save this historical artifact.

Above:

• On Sunday, May 26, we paid tribute to all US Veterans who sacrificed so much for our freedom. We were honored to be invited by Brig. General Thomas J. Principe, president of the Veterans of the Seventh Regiment at the Seventh Regiment/107th Infantry Memorial on 5th Avenue & 67th Street.

• Mr. Laurent Brunet, head of the Chancellery and Deputy Consul at the General Consulate of France in New York, with Alain Dupuis, president of the Federation of French War Veterans, laid a wreath from the French government.

• Another wreath was laid in front of the monument by Lt. Cdr. (Hon) Thierry Chaunu, French Navy and Lt. (Reserve) Pierre Gervois, French Air Force on behalf of the Federation of French War Veterans (FFWV), the American Society of Le Souvenir Français, Inc. and the Association of French Reserve Officers in the United States (ACREFEU).

• Deputy Consul Laurent Brunet later reminded the Veterans present at the Park Avenue Armory in a moving speech of the historic and unbroken ties of alliance and friendship between France and the United States since 1778.

• The Regiment fought in France, notably breaking the Hindenburg Line in September 1918 and with units in the Ardennes-Alsace during the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. The Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue displays portraits of the Marquis de Lafayette and General George Washington. Under the portrait of Lafayette is inscribed: "The marquis de Lafayette, Commandant de la Garde Nationale. Presented to the Seventh Regiment by the Republic of France April 12 ,1934 In recognition of the adoption by this Regiment, in the year 1824, of the name "National Guard" in honor of the First Citizen Soldier of France. "

• Brig. General Principe and the Veterans awarded two medals of the Seventh Regiment Veterans Association to the crew of Central Park Conservancy, who cleaned and restored within 24 hours the monument which had been defaced with graffitis a week prior during the students protests.

• After crossing the Atlantic on board the Queen Mary 2, they arrived in New York on May 23 where they were greeted by H.E. Mr. Laurent Bili, Ambassador of France to the United States, Mr. Damien Laban, Acting General Consul of France in New York, American WWII Veterans and members of the Federation of French War Veterans led by their president Alain Dupuis, and representatives of the Association of French Reserve Officers in the United States.

Operation Mirror was organized by L' Association du Souvenir du général Leclerc de Hauteclocque, Maréchal de France, Le Comité de la Voie de la Liberté, with Le Souvenir Français among the sponsors.

For the past 25 days, my fellow ambassadors and I have been traveling through history along a symbolic path: la Voie de la Liberté.•

• Our First Vice-President, Patrick du Tertre, who is also co-Founder of TheFrenchWillNeverForget.org, along with Paul Bensabat, Jean-Pierre Heim, and Christian Millet (in memoriam), organized a momentous celebration in Paris, with 1,944 American and French flags at the foot of the replica of the Statue of Liberty, Pont de Grenelle, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

We will publish photos of this event in our July Bulletin.

GPS: 61.607426, -149.091571

• We are also proud that on June 7th at 10:00AM, our Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution honored Anna Marly, the composer of the "Chant des Partisans".

Anna Marly is buried in Palmer, Alaska. Her hymn galvanized the French Resistance and became the second unofficial French national anthem. She became an American Citizen in 1965.

presented a wreath in the name of Le Souvenir Français in collaboration with

to whom we express our gratitude

The DAR Franco-American Memorial Committee members and family of Nicholas Makarov and Prescovia Golitsyn,

As well as all the volunteers and representatives of patriotic associations,

• Anna B. Smiernow, born Anna B. Betulinskaya, known as Anna Marly, (30 October 1917 – 15 February 2006) was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and died in Palmer, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska. Her mother fled the Russian Revolution with baby Anna and found refuge in Nice, France. As a teenager, Anna became a ballet dancer in Monaco and as a young woman became a cabaret singer in Paris when WWII broke out. She joined the Free French in 1940.

• Anna Marly is the composer of the "Chant des Partisans" ( Joseph Kessel and Maurice Druon wrote the lyrics) which became a second national anthem of France after La Marseillaise during WWII and up until today, whenever ceremonies are held in honor of the French Resistance.

• After the war and her divorce, she moved to Latin America, then Pennsylvania with her second husband, and moved to Alaska after his death. She became a naturalized American citizen in 1965.

• She also wrote "La Complainte du Partisan" (known in English as "The Partisan"), which was later famously covered by Leonard Cohen and Joan Baez.

• Inscription:

9:00AM: Rendez-Vous at Brookfield Place to see General Lafayette in person step off his ferry from Staten Island.

Lafayette will inspect the troops and be greeted by New Yorkers (you!) waving French and American flags, while the Cadets Lafayette Marching band plays our national anthems, patriotic and popular tunes.

10:30AM: We will then walk to nearby Evacuation Day Plaza at the start of Broadway for an address by Mayor Eric Adams and the new French Consul General Mr. Cédrik Fouriscot at 11:00AM . Ellie Karl will sing the Star Spangled Banner and Virginie de Lafayette will sing La Marseillaise.

12:00PM noon: a procession along Broadway will take place all the way to New York City Hall, where a Proclamation will be read on the steps.

9:00AM - 1:00PM: On board the Weavertree three mast at South Street Seaport, a series of discussions on the historical importance of the Hermione, aka "The Freedom Frigate", presented by Thierry Chaunu.

3:00PM: A special theatrical performance at Florence Gould Auditorium, French Institute / Alliance Française (tickets available at Box Office, all details will be provided in our next July Bulletin)

Lafayette Bicentennial commemorations in New Rochelle, NY, Greenwich, CT

Visit Lafayette200.org for more details.

visiting our website: www.SouvenirFrancaisUSA.org

https://conta.cc/4bUxM2d (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/4bvjipA(version in French)

https://conta.cc/3U58W8r (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3xHEvxn (version in French)

https://conta.cc/3Vnl474 (English version)

https://conta.cc/4cn6VfZ (version en français)

https://conta.cc/3OHOLM0 (version in English)

https://conta.cc/4bDQZWu (version en français)

https://conta.cc/41VLaPE (version in English)

https://conta.cc/3NWK407 (version in French)

https://conta.cc/3TzA2Wq (in English)

https://conta.cc/3TCsSAJ (version en français)

https://conta.cc/3rorh5Y (in English)

https://conta.cc/3PvqWq9 (in French)

November 2023: French Forts of Ohio & Pennsylvania

https://conta.cc/3Rlqn4B (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/47pAfjf (version en français)

https://conta.cc/3Qz0Xjl (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3QCRqYM (version en français)

https://conta.cc/460bXLT (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3tb3hni (version en français)

https://conta.cc/45h0veo (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3YIFabf (version en français)

https://conta.cc/3CO91Fi (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3q6nt8J (version en français)

https://conta.cc/3Csyfsq (original English version)

https://conta.cc/467vwm0 (version en français)

https://conta.cc/41AMMfZ (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3W5rp56 (version en français)