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Belgians in the Civil War

Emigrants arrival

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BELGIANS IN AMERICA:    Biographies of Belgian settlers  

Charles Crevecoeur, a native of Belgium, came to the United States with his father and three brothers in the year 1856, and lived in Iroquois county, Illinois, until the fall of 1869, when he loaded his belongings in a wagon and came to Kansas. He drove to Waterville, where he learned that there was a French settlement at Neuchatel, so he retraced his steps and arrived here in September. He then homesteaded the 80 acres now occupied by his widow and the writer, and built a log house, which still stands and which is covered with walnut shingles made by Henry Hoover, and that are still doing good service after being in use thirty-two years.

In the spring of 1870 his brother's widow, who was a German by birth and who had come to the United States the same year as himself, arrived from Chicago, accompanied by her young son, the writer of this paper(F.F. Crevecoeur), and was married to her at Louisville soon after her arrival. His youngest brother, Florent, came out here the following winter and remained until spring, when Charles, in driving, lost one of his horses, and having nothing to live on, concluded to return with him to Illinois to work, where he followed railroading until fall, when he returned to his farm. After he returned he traded his remaining horse for a donkey, and though the animal could not do the work of a team, he was quite useful, and his gentle disposition made him a great favorite with the children, who would ride two and three at a time on him, beside doing considerable work when hitched alone.

Mr. Crevecoeur died on his homestead nine years ago.

In the fall of 1870 Baptist Robin, his wife, Genevieve, natives of Belgium, and three children, two girls and a boy, arrived from Chicago and stayed in the writer's house (F.F. Crevecoeur) for about seven weeks. Mr. Robin then built a shed-roof shanty across the slough from our house, on what is now Mr. Honig's land, which then belonged to the railroad company and which he intended to buy; but finding the price too high, he, the next spring, removed to Cloud county. We lately saw an item in the Mail and Breeze saying that Mr. Robin, of Cloud county, was going back to Belgium on a visit, and late news from Illinois informs us that he is the same man as is the subject our our sketch.

Alphonse Carlier, another Belgian, his wife and three children, two girls and a boy, came from Chicago in the spring of 1872, accompanied by a young man named Eugene Dupont. They lived in the writer's house(F.F. Crevecoeur) for about a week, when the youngest daughter, an infant, died and was buried in the Pleasant Valley cemetery. The oldest child, a girl, who was a regular tom-boy, was always in mischief, and on this account her parents were requested to seek a stopping place somewhere else. They then moved to Mr. Stiennon's, where there was children enough to watch her. Mr. Carlier then built a small stone house across the creek from Mr. Stiennon's, at the foot of the hill, just west of the schoolhouse, where his wife took sick and died. She was buried beside her child, and not long after Mr. Carlier and his two shildren [sic] returned to Chicago, where Mr. Dupont had preceded him. Mr. Carlier once had occasion to kill a chicken. He had someone hold the chicken while he held its head on the block with one hand and with the other he brought the axe down, when the chicken, to avoid the blow, drew its head back, pulling his hand with it, and his thumb, which received the blow, was nearly cut off. He roundly abused the chicken for playing him such a trick. 

Source F.F. Crevecoeur : Old settler's Tales