Family Lines From New Madrid County
Goodspeed's History of
SouthEast
Missouri-1887
Section 1:1786-1798
Transcribed by Tara R Barrett,
1999
Section 1:1786-1798
Page-2
This letter produced upon Gov. Miro the effect desired by
Wilkinson. On the 20th of May 1789, Miro wrote the Spain
concerning the impolicy of the conditions of the concession to
Morgan, and the extent of it. He denominated it an
Imperium in Imperio and protested against it. He also wrote
to Morgan, stating how he had been deceived in regard
to the conditions and extent of the concession, and declared
that it was entirely inadmissable. He also infinitely regretted
that
Morgan had, without authority, laid out a town, and spoken of it
as "our city." He further informed him that a fort would be
constructed there,
and a detachment of soldiers placed in it, to receive favorably
all his emigrants. Morgan replied the next day, tendering an
apology for his
course, but his loss of influence with the Government cost him
his prestige among the colonists, who began to murmur against his
authority. Finally they sent an agent, one John Ward, to
present a complaint to Gov. Miro. Morgan, thus stripped of his
concession and influence, soon
after returned to the United States. Several of the colonists
also returned to their former homes.
Of the emigrants who came out with Col. Morgan, the greater
number were from Maryland and Pennsylvania. The names of but few
could be ascertained.
There were David Gray, Alexander Sampson, Joseph Story, Richard
Jones Waters, John Hemphill, Elisha Winsor, Andrew Wilson,
Samuel Dorsey, Benjamin Harrison,
Jacob Meyers, Benjamin Meyers, William Chambers, Elisha Jackson,
Ephraim Conner, John Hart, James Dunn, Lawrence Harrison,
William Harrison, John Gregg,
Nicholas Gerry, James Gerry, John Morris, John Becket, John
Summers, Louis and Joseph Vandenbenden, Joseph McCourtney, John
Pickett and David Shelby.
Of the earliest French settlers the Lesieurs, Francois and
Joseph, were not only the first, but also among the most
influential, and their descendants are now
numbered by the hundreds. They were sons of Charles Lesieur,
who came from South France early in the last century and located
at Three Rivers, Canada. About 1785 they came
to St. Louis and found employment with Gabriel Cerre, a fur
trader, who sent them out to establish a trading post, as before
related. Joseph had married before leaving Canada,
and became the father of two sons, both of whom died young. He
himself died in April, 1796. Francois married Cecile Guilbeaut
on May 13, 1791; she was a native of
Vincennes, and a daughter of Charles Gailbeaut and Cecile
Thiriat. In 1794 they removed to Little Prairie, where they
resided until the earthquakes of 1811-1812, when
they returned to what is now New Madrid County, and located at
the old Point Pleasant, about a mile above the present village
of that name. There Francois Lesieur
died in 1826, after having been three times married. By his
first marriage he had seven children, viz: Francois, Jr., who
married a Miss Le Grand and reared a large family:
Collestique, who became the wife of Noah Gambol; Margurite, who
married Hypolite Thiriat (now Teror); Godfrey, who, in 1818,
married Mary E. Loignon, and reared a family of eleven children;
Matilda, who became Mrs. W.B. Nicholas; Christine, who married
George G Alford, and an infant. His second wife was a Miss Bono,
who bore him one son, Napoleon. In 1820 he married
the widow of Charles Loignon, of Little Prairie. Raphael
Lesieur, a nephew of Francois and Joseph Lesieur, came to New
Madrid in 1798, and lived to be seventy-two years old. He
married
Frances Guilbeault, and had a large family.
The majority of the French settlers were entirely uneducated,
could neither read nor write, and possessed but little property.
Among this class were Joseph Hunot, and his sons Gabriel and
Joseph,
and Joseph and Etienne St. Marie, all from Vincennes. By far
the larger number of the French pioneers were orginally from
Canada, but had resided at some of the neighboring
posts-Vincennes, Kaskaskia
and Ste. Genevieve. A few, however, were natives of France, and
these were usually the best educated. To this number belonged
Pierre Antoine Laforge, who came to New Madrid in 1794. He was a
member of an aristocratic
family, and had been educated for the priesthood, but having
fallen in love with his cousin, Margaret Gabrielle Colombe
Champagne, had married her. He lived in Paris until driven out
by the Revolution, when,
taking his wife and family, with the exception of the youngest
child, he sought refuge in America.
He located at Gallipolis, Ohio, where his family remained for
several years. In 1794 he came to New Madrid, where he was
appointed interpreter and public writer, and was held in high
esteem by the authories of Upper Louisianna.
He was recommended to Capt. Stoddard by De Lassus, in 1803, as
"a very zealous officer, performing the duties of adjutant of
militia. He is also a justice of the peace and notary public.
He performs these various offices with
correctness and precision. I can do no less than reccomend him
as a man very active, earnest and useful for the public service;
but he does not write English."
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