"Almost an idiot"

OR 

Did Acadians commonly suffer from what we now call

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) 

after the Grand Derangement?

Or was 

Geoffroi Benoit the only one with documented mental illness 

after the deportation??

Joseph Godefroy/Geoffroi/Godfroi Benoit and his wife, Madeleine Babin are ancestors of the nine Wills children who are subjects of this blog. Documents in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Archives describe Joseph Geoffroi Benoit as 'almost an idiot' and "disordered in his senses."  He and Madeleine just endured 'le grand derangement' - the expulsion from Acadia along with their children. He was arrested along with other Acadian men and boys in the church, marched to a ship in the harbor, probably watched his home being torch and his wife and  children being brutally forced onto boats.  Geoffroi and his sister Marie's families were exiled to Boston without food and material possessions.  His mother, Jeanne Hebert, died on the docks days after the overcrowded ship arrived in Boston.  She had lain sick above a fortnight without ay care'.

A communication from Michael B. Melanson (the Melanson Family genealogist) brought this  description of Geoffroi Benoit to my attention via a FB communication. In his work, "Melanson-Melancon: The Genealogy of an Acadian and Cajun Family". Dracut Massachusetts: Lanesville Publishing. 2004, Michael Melanson cites documents in the Massachusetts Archives (Volume 23) detailing events in the lives of Acadian exiles in Boston. The details include a description of Geoffroi Benoit upon his arrival at Boston harbor.  He was "disoriented in the senses" (pp 358-360). A second description noted "Geoffroi was reported to be almost an idot [sic, idiot]" (p 300).

There's two words we do not commonly use in everyday American speech: derangement from the French and idiot from the Greek "idiotes" meaning "private person" or person lacking a skill or expertise. 

Acadians call the deportation from Acadia "Le Grand Derangement".  In English it calls to my mind words like "deranged", chaos, helter-skelter. The word "Idiot" which was in common usage when I was a child but is seldom used today unless attempting an insult. Below are definitions from an online dictionary.

idiot [id-ee-uh t] noun
1. Informal. an utterly foolish or senseless person: If you think you can wear that outfit to a job interview and get hired, you're an idiot!
2. Psychology. (no longer in technical use; considered offensive) a person of the lowest order in a former and discarded classification of mental retardation, having a mental age of less than three years old and an intelligence quotient under 25.
Synonyms: fool, half-wit; imbecile; dolt, dunce, numskull. Copyright 2015 Dictionary.com

To understand what "idiot" meant in the 18th century, I found this definition online at A Guide to Eighteenth-Century English Vocabulary Jack Lynch 14 April 2006:
Idiot didn’t always have the same insulting tones it has today. An idiot was someone with impaired mental ability (Johnson’s definition is “A fool; a natural; a changeling; one without the powers of reason”). The word could be used in a value-neutral sort of way: when Swift willed money “for building and maintaining an hospital for idiots and lunatics,” he wasn’t being insulting.

derangement
Again from Dictionary.com we find in today's usage it means insanity, disorder, disarrangement or the act of deranging. In medicine it is also used for mental disorder or insanity.

Was Geoffroi Benoit traumatized by the events? Did he struggle against the colonial troops and receive injuries? Was the disorientation temporary? Permanent? We may ever learn if he overcame his trauma.

He and his family were able to immigrate to Quebec when the Quebec colonial administration offered families the option to locate there. 

Geoffroi Benoit died 2 July 1769 in St Charles sur Richelieu, Quebec Province.  He was 49 years old. His widow, Madeleine lived until she was 80.

Here is Geoffroi Benoit on WIKITREE

Here's my line to Geoffroi and his ancestors:

Dorothy Wills, my mother

Marie Elizabeth "Libby" Bissonnette, my grandmother

Celena Beauvais,  1850-1942 married Joseph Bissonnette,  was the daughter of

Solyme Beauvais, 1821-1902, who was the son of

Genevieve Benoit 1799-1832, who was the daughter of

Paul Benoit 1751-1831.  He likely experienced the Acadian Deportation as a small child - 4 or 5 years old. He was the son of

Geoffroy Benoit 1716-1769

He and his wife were exiled to Lancaster in the Massachusetts Colony where they lived until they were able to move to Quebec. He was the son of

Claude Benoit 1686-1743, he was the son of

Martin Benoit 1643-1714. Martin was born in France and came to Acadia to start a life with his wife, Marie in the spring of 1671 aboard l'Oranger.

************************************************************************

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far.  This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

For my Wills Cousin's Granddaughter - Paul Benoit, an Acadian in Our Beauvais-Bissonnette Family Tree

I have been writing about my travels this month in the land of Acadia.  A few months ago I purchased a children's book titled Evangeline for Children by Alice Couvillon and Elizabeth Moore with the intention of sharing Longfellow's epic with the children in the family who have at least one Acadian ancestor.

So my first victim is entering 2nd grade in primary school next week.  I am going to try this book out on her.

Second grader at the County Fair with  Painted Face

This second grader has Acadian ancestors in her Beauvais and Bissonnette line.  I am posting her line so other Bissonnette/Bisnett and Beauvais/Bova from Cohoes and Waterford who descended from Celena Beauvais and/or her father Solyme Beauvais may also know how they have an Acadian great grand ancestor.

So if you are a Wills or Bissonnette or Bisnett, start from Celena Beauvais who married Joseph Bissonnette.  If you are a Beauvais or Bova, start from Solyme Beauvais and go back in time to Paul Benoit:

Living daughter (2nd Grader) of

Living Female, who is the daughter of

Living Female, who is the daughter of

William Robert "Bob" Wills 1923-2007, who was the son of

Elizabeth Bissonnette 1880-1936, who was the daughter of

Celena Beauvais 1850-1942, who was the daughter of

Solyme Beauvais 1821-1902, who was the son of

Genevieve Benoit 1799-1832, who was the daughter of

Paul Benoit 1751-1831

who was just four years old when the events in this story of Evangeline occurred.

He probably experienced the Acadian Deportation as a small child.

He was the son of

Geoffroy Benoit 1716-1769

He and his wife were exiled to Lancaster in the Massachusetts Colony

where they lived until they were able to move to Quebec.

He was the son of

Claude Benoit 1686-1743,

he was the son of

Martin Benoit 1643-1714.

Martin was born in France and came to Acadia to start a life with his wife, Marie in the spring of 1671 aboard l'Oranger.

Children's Area at the LeBlanc Reunion
CMA 2014

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far.  This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

Remembering Acadian Ancestors in Rivet, Mylott and Wills-Beauvais Families

If you are a Rivet, Mylott, Beauvais, Bissonnette, St Hilaire, or Wills identified on the pages of FrancoAmerican Gravy,  you do not have an Acadian name but you do have Acadian ancestors!! All these families have Acadian great grandmothers who were exiled to Quebec at the the time of the Acadian Deportation.  These grandmothers and great grandmothers married into Quebec families and gradually assimilated Quebec customs. Then during the great industrialization of New York and New England, our families came south, assimilating again into the American mainstream. Most in our families lost our ability to use French.

I took a three week journey to remember these Acadian Ancestors and grasp their tragedy, their sorrow and perhaps some of their happiness too.

August 23, 2014 and I have just returned from  a three week journey through Quebec, Maine, New Brunswick and upstate New York to attend the Acadian World Congress in a part of the world I am not familiar. Here is the map and you can try to identify exactly where this land fits into North America.  Although, this area is not the original Acadia, many descendants now live in this area where the Acadian culture, cuisine, pride and French language remain strong and vibrant.

There's beautiful landscapes in the St John's River Valley, Passamaquoddy Bay, the Saguenay River Gorge, and the great St Lawrence.  The days were never terribly hot and the evenings were cool with striking sunsets.  People were always friendly.  Sometimes we struggled through the French and English barrier with smiles and laughs. Of course there's lot of wildlife - loons, eagles, moose, with whale and beaver lodge sightings. The blueberries were in season: blueberries and salmon, blueberries and crepes, lots of fresh blueberries, throughout the trip.  My trip was planned to remember Acadian ancestors and even though I have never identified myself as an Acadian and am totally assimilated into American culture, it was important and poignant. 

During the trip I kept a copy of John Mack Faragher's A Great and Noble Scheme (2005:W.W. Norton & Company) which was an easy introduction to the story of the Acadian people and the consequences of living  in a place and time among three warring states - the Micmac First Peoples, France and England.

When "Le Grand Derangement"  began in September 1755 and ended in December 1755, over 7000 Acadian people were dispersed into ships, scattered throughout the British colonies on the eastern seaboard and some French colonies such as Saint Dominigue (present day Haiti).  Exiled from their homeland, many never returned to Acadia. Thousands of other Acadians fled to surrounding territories in what in now northern Maine, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick.

I highly recommend all members of our family become aware of their Acadian ancestors and their story. Contact me at FrancoAmericanGray@gmail.com.

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far.  This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

Mapping the Route: Québec to Cohoes

There is a family legend that Solyme Beauvais came from Canada to Cohoes with his wife, Adele Guay, and children in a horse drawn wagon. This story is plausible but not likely. The last source for his presence in Québec is the marriage of his oldest daughter, Mathilde, to Noel Tetro in St Cesaire in Rouville in 1862.  He appears in Cohoes in the 1870 census - so sometime between 1862 and 1870, Solyme made the journey south from Québec to New York State.

Coming of age in upstate New York when Route 9 was a two lane paved highway, the Adirondack Northway was under construction and the D & H railroad ran trains up the west side of Lake Champlain, I took it for granted that my ancestors just drove their wagon straight through the  funnel between the Adirondacks and Lake Champlain!  However, in 1862, there was no highway running directly south from Montreal to Saratoga and Cohoes.  The Champlain Canal existed for 30 years already but it was primarily used for cargo transport and wasn't readily available for passenger travel.

Several local train companies began operating in and among the cities of Cohoes, Waterford, Troy, Saratoga and Ballston - a true patchwork in 1830. The Rensselaer & Saratoga Railroad started in the 1830s running between Troy & Waterford to Ballston & Saratoga.  Later it was possible to start in Cohoes and continue to Rutland, Vermont through a complex network that included the Saratoga & Whitehall Railroad, the Saratoga & Rutland Railroad or the Troy, Salem & Rutland Railroad.  Once in Rutland, passengers took the Central Vermont raiload to Burlington.

We know in December 1859,  trains carried the sad funeral cortege of John Brown from Charlestown, West Virginia to Troy, New York.  From Troy, a train transported John Brown's widow, his bearers and his body to Vergennes, Vermont where they disembarked to ferry across Lake Champlain to North Elba.  After the Brown party disembarked, the train continued to Burlington Vermont.

The route from Rutland to Montreal, the Central Vermont railway,  was a subsidiary of the Grand Trunk Railroad.  From Burlington Vermont, it was a short trip by train to Rouses Point and across the border to St John (St Jean sur Richelieu) and Canadian lines in the Richelieu Valley.

The train lines in the 1860s from and to Montreal and Cohoes were not as direct as the well organized "Grand Trunk Railroad" that funneled thousand of French Canadian laborers into the textile mills of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut.

My hypothesis is this train through Saratoga and Washington Counties to Rutland is the route used by most of the French Canadians who came to Cohoes in the mid 19th century for jobs in the textile industry.

Oh! and Cohoes had more than one railroad station! There was the D& H depot, the New York Central station and station on the Schenectady Railroad!

Please add your comments, arguments for an alternative immigration route and more.

Our Forefathers in the Carignan-Saliéres Regiment

If you are a descendant of a Mylott, a Glode, a Wills, a Beauvais, a Bissonnette, a Yetto, a St Hilaire or a Rivet on this site, you have an ancestor, at least one and probably more, who was in the Carignan-Salieres regiment.  In the mid 1660s, the Carignan-Salieres, veterans of the war with the Ottoman Empire, recruited new young men in France to be sent to the colony in Québec to protect the economic interests of the crown from the Iroquois nation.  The Iroquois, assisted and encouraged by the Dutch and later English interests in New England and New Amsterdam, picked off settlers in the French Colony - sometimes there were massacres of entire settlements in Montréal, called Ville Marie at that time.   The Champlain - Richelieu water corridor made raids into Quebec from New England a straight shot. The reverse was also true, French interests and allies used the same corridor to raid New York and New England.

Twelve hundred troops began arriving in June 1665 and were immediately put into service building Fort Sorel and Fort Ste Anne on Isle la Motte in Lake Champlain, now a part of Vermont. They also constructed Fort St Jean, Fort Ste Therese, and Fort St Louis (later Fort Chambly), all on the Richelieu River.

In January of 1666, the middle of winter, 300 under equipped troops were sent on a fool's mission into enemy territory by the Québec governor.  Traveling over a hundred miles, starving and hypothermic, they arrived in the Dutch settlement of Schenectady where the kind farmers fed and sheltered them.  They returned to Quebec having learned a brutal lesson that many upstate New Yorkers know too well.  Don't go into the north country without the proper equipment in the middle of January!

Scapulurs worn around one's neck.
Made by nuns for divine protection of the soldiers.
Displayed at the museum at Fort Chambly

Then in the fall of 1666, there was another expedition to Iroquois country.  Traveling form Québec, French soldiers reached their destination in the Mohawk Valley, west of Schenectady in two to three weeks.  This time, they were successful destroying several Mohawk villages.  Their efforts earned a peace between the Iroquois and French settlers after more than two decades of guerilla war by Iroquois.

After the peace was made in 1667, the regiments were disbanded and returned to France. However,  over 400 men choose to remain in Quebec, marry and start families there. We are the descendants of many of these soldiers.

 Below is a link to a gorgeously written document of the individual names of soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiments.

A Listing of Soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment

The Bissonnette (Wills), Beauvais (Wills), Millot (Mylott), Glode-Poissant and Rivet-LaCasse families all have forefathers who served in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment. Although this list is a work in progress, it is a beginning to identify all Carignan-Salieres forefathers of the families on this site.  You may note in the list below, some individuals are in more than one family; they are ancestors in two families and some like Louis Robert and Nicolas Sylvestre, are ancestors in three families.  Here is the list thus far:

In the Glode-Poissant  family there are at least sixteen:

Louis Badillac dit Laplante

Jean Besset dit Brisetout

Jean Bricault dit Lamarche

Jean Brochu dit La Fontaine

Michel Brouillet dit Laviolette

Etienne Charles dit Lajeunesse

Pierre Couc dit LaFleur

Jean Delpé dit Pariseau

Julien Dumont dit LaFleur

Jean Gazaille dit St Germain

André Jarret dit de Beuregard

Jean Lavallée dit Petit Jean 

Pierre Menard dit Lapierre

Issac Paquet dit Lavallée

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jacques Têtu dit Larivière

In the Bissonnette family there are ten:

Bernard De Niger dit Sanssoucy

René Dumas dit Rencontre 

Antoine Dupré dit Rochefort

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Aubin Lambert dit Champagne

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Jean Robin dit Lapointe

Antoine Rousseau dit LaBonté

Jacques Suprenant dit Sanssoucy

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Beauvais family there are eight:

Francois Biville dit Le Picard

Antoine Emery dit Coderre

Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers

Nicolas Bonin dit St Martin

Julien Lord dit Montagne

Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintogne

Jacques Paviot dit LaPensée

Pierre Morin dit Champagne

In the Millot family there are three:

Francois Chagnon dit LaRose

Louis Robert dit LaPommeraye

Nicholas Sylvestre dit Champagne

In the Rivet and LaCasse families there are ten:

Antoine Casse dit Lacasse
Francois Chagnon dit LaRose
Bernard Delpêche dit Bellair
Antoine Emery dit Coderre
Pierre Favreau dit Deslauriers
Julien Lord dit Montagne
Piere Mageau dit Maisonseule
Pierre Mésnard dit Xaintonge
Eustache Prévost dit Lafleur
Nicolas Sylvestre dit Champagne

The Québec Cholera Epidemic 1832 and the Champlain Canal

Isabelle Casssegrain/duBorg dit St-Chaumont/Livernois (I'll explain all the surnames in a later posting) was the grandmother of Solyme Beauvais who came to Cohoes from St. Césaire, Québec.  Isabelle, 72 years old,  died in August 1832 of cholera when the Quebec Cholera Epidemic of 1832 was raging in lower Quebec. Isabelle lived in the area of St Mathias, Pointe Olivier an important port on the Richelieu transportation network.

 A new paper published this month in the Journal of Public Health Policy, "Cholera, canals, and contagion: Rediscovering Dr. Beck's Report" (advance online publication 5 May 2011; doi:10.1057/jphp.2011.20)  describes the work of Dr. Lewis Beck who tracked the  epidemic's rapid spread from Quebec City to Montreal down the Richelieu Valley to Lake Champlain, to Whitehall, down the Champlain Canal to Rensselaer and Albany counties. From those counties, it spread west along the Erie canal and south to New York City along the Hudson.  The disease was following the major commercial transportation routes of its time.  Dr. Beck's data supported a contagious theory for the rapid spread of cholera.  The paper points out despite the strong evidence, the doctor's "disbelieved" his own evidence and argued the disease was brought on by excesses of appetites, intemperance and other immoral behaviors.

Click on the link below to see the

The Spread of Cholera up the St Lawrence and down the Hudson in June 1832

As I continue to research our family lines in the Richelieu Valley, no doubt, more of our ancestors who died in the cholera epidemic of 1832 will be made apparent.  Meanwhile, it is a comforting thought to know our tap water and shellfish can generally be trusted in New York State and the northeast.   More readings about cholera epidemic of 1832:

The First Epidemic of Asiastic Cholera in Lower Canada, 1832 by Geoffrey Bilson

Cholera

Below is the Pubmed Abstract for the recent paper about Dr. L Beck and his conclusions

J Public Health Policy. 2011 May 5. [Epub ahead of print]

Cholera, canals, and contagion: Rediscovering Dr Beck's report.

Tuite AR, Chan CH, Fisman DN.

Source

Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Room 678, 155 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5T 3M7. E-mail: david.fisman@utoronto.ca.

Abstract

Cholera first appeared in North America (in Montreal and Quebec) in 1832 and spread rapidly across the eastern half of the continent. The dispatch of American disease control experts to Lower Canada in anticipation of cholera's spread implies that medical professionals expected spread, possibly from contagion, even though the notion that cholera was contagious was disparaged in medical writings of the time, and would be until John Snow's landmark work in London in the 1850s. Snow's insights derived largely from his observations on spatial and temporal patterns of cholera cases. We discuss a document from the 1832 epidemic, the report of Dr Lewis Beck to New York's Governor Throop, which anticipates Snow in presenting geospatial data that imply cholera's contagiousness. Beck shows that the movements of immigrants along the newly completed New York state canal system resulted in sequential cholera outbreaks along the canal's path. Although aware of the degree to which this suggested contagion, Beck argues strenuously against the contagiousness of cholera. We explore the social context of early nineteenth-century medicine that probably led Beck to disbelieve his own observations, and to favor a medical model inconsistent with his data. Themes that emerge from our inquiry include belief in disease as a physical manifestation of defective morality, stigmatization of the poor and immigrant groups, and reluctance to overturn prevailing medical models that themselves reflected the economic position of medical practitioners. We show that these themes continue to serve as obstacles to innovation in medical and public health practice today.Journal of Public Health Policy advance online publication, 5 May 2011; doi:10.1057/jphp.2011.20.

PMID:21544099 PubMed - as supplied by publisher

Here are links to other stories on this blog about our family and medial diseases

Tuberculosis

Polio

Smallpox

Tobacco Addiction

Hypothyroidism

Family History Road Shows

Slowly, very slowly, I've been assembling Google Maps for families of this site who may want to take a road tour of towns and villages in Québec, New York, Vermont, and Nova Scotia.

 I've also added towns in France, England and Germany if anyone is planning a big trip.  If these Google maps are set right, you can see the places where our ancestors and family lived, worked, went to school and church, were born, died and buried.  The places in the Old World where our adventurous ancestors left are also included.
I will also try to put a link to the maps on the Family Page.

These maps are not completed; they are works "in progress".  If anyone in the family reading this would like to collaborate and add information, please contact me at FrancoAmericanGravy@gmail.com and I will add you as a collaborator.

Take a look and send your comments!
FA Gravy

Wills Family History Road Tour

Mylott-Millott Family History Tour

Rivet and Lacasse Family History Tour

Glode-Poissant Family History Tour

Beauvais-Bissonnette-Goekel Family History Tour

Solyme Beauvais who Brought his Family Across the Border from Québec to Cohoes

Salim, Solyme Beauvais, 1821- 1902, was the father of at least nine children including my great grandmother, Celena Beauvais.  Originally from the Richelieu Valley, two of Solyme Beauvais' great grandfathers were soldiers in the Seven Years War (The French and Indian War in North America).  His paternal great grandfather was Joseph Xavier Beauvais who came from Champagnole, France to Québec to fight in the Regiment Languedoc.  His maternal great grandfather was Jean Jacques Dubord dit St Chaume, a member of the Regiment Guyenne, who died at the end of the conflict.

We have limited but valuable information about Solyme Beauvais starting with his baptism record below:

Baptism Record

The baptism record is from St Joseph's Church in Chambly on July 1st, 1821.  The curé (priest) at St. Joseph's records his name Salim, the legitimate child of Jean Baptiste Beauvais and Geneviéve Benoit and he was born that morning.
In 1832, when he was only eleven, his mother, Geneviéve Benoit, died at the age of 32 years.  His father remarried later that year.

****

Then on January 25th,  1841 there is the marriage record of Solyme Beauvais to Adele Guais dit Castonquais at St Cesaire in Rouville.  It tells us that Solyme's mother, Geneviéve is deceased but his father Jean Baptiste is alive. Adele's parents are Jean Guais dit Castonguais and Mare Angelique Delmasse. The fathers of the bride and groom are "cultivateurs" or farmers.

Adele Guais dit Castonguais was also the great grandchild of a soldier who came from France to fight in the Seven Years War.  That soldier was Martin Delmasse who fought in the Guyenne Regiment. She was also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Payan dit St.Onge, L'Admital de Lac Champlain

Marriage

****

Next is the 1851 census of lower Canada.  Something strange happens here that only human error can explain. Solyme Beauvais, his wife Adele Guais and their three children are captured twice in the 1851 census.

Here is one, followed by a closer view

the detail

Here is the other with a closer view

the detail

In the first image Solyme, Adele and their three girls: Mathilde 10, Cordelia 6, and Celenie are living with or in close proximity to Adele's parents Jean Guais/Guay and Angelique Delmasse. In the second larger image, Solyme and Adele with the same children are not in proximity to the Guais/Guay parents/grandparents.

****

Then  in September 1855, Soylme is listed as a witness at the funeral and burial for his mother in law Angelique Delmasse at St Cesaire, Rouville.

****

In 1861, the Canada Census finds Solyme and Adele in Rouville with seven children ranging from 1 year old to 18 yeas old.

the detail

****

On August 11th, 1862 Solyme and Adele's daughter Mathilde married Noel Tetreau in St.Cesaire. Solyme is present according to the church record.

****

Nine years later, the US Federal 1870 Census captures the family in Cohoes. It is an interesting example of an enumerator/census taker with English as his first language, listening and figuring out how to spell a name that sounds different than anything he has ever encountered.  He hears the French name "Beauvais" and writes "Boovah".  The spelling variations continued through to today, some of Solyme's descendants spell their surname Bova, Bovah, Bove, Bovee, Beauvais.  Solyme's given name turns into "Silliam".

the detail

We may safely conclude Solyme brought his family from Québec to Cohoes between the 1861 census of Canada and the 1870 US Federal Census.  Perhaps the family moved after the marriage of  Matilde in August 1962 but we cannot be certain. Solyme may have made the train ride north alone from Cohoes to St.Césaire for the wedding because the marriage document does not mention the presence of Adele, Mathilde's mother.  Perhaps Adele remained in Cohoes with the children.
The last child in the family group is "Adolphine" who was born in Quebec in 1863....probably  it was after Adolphine's birth when the family moved.

The Take Away....If you  believe "Silliam Beoovah" is indeed the one and same as "Solyme Beauvais",  you can believe the Solyme Beauvais family was established in Cohoes by the 1870 census.

Cat and Mouse on Lake Champlain: "Admiral" Joseph Payant dit Saintonge & his role in the French and Indian War

Early 20th century postcard of Fort Lennox

Present Day site of Fort Lennox on Ile aux Noix
Parks Canada

Joseph Payant dit St Onge is called the Admiral of Lake Champlain  (L'Admiral du Lac Champlain) and he is a direct ancestor of many in Canada and the USA, including the Wills-Beauvais family of this blog.  If a Bissonnette/Bisnett of Cohoes was your grandparent, great grandparent, etc  (Joseph, Alfred, Elizabeth) then you are a descendant of Joseph Payant.  Thousands of people can claim "Admiral Joe" their ancestor!


Our line (Wills) is simply this:

• Nine (9) Wills children (Celena, Julia, Anna, Johnny, Elizabeth, Dorothy, Etta, Larry, Robert) whose mother was
• Elizabeth Bissonnette (1880-1936) who married John Wills, and was the daughter of
• Celena Beauvais (1850-1942), the daughter
• Adele Guais dit Castonguais (abt 1824-?), the daughter of
• Marie Angelique Delmas (1792-1855), the daughter of
• Marie Louise Allaire (1768-?), the daughter of
• Marie Louise Payant dit St Onge (1747-?), daughter of
• Dominique Payant (1724- 1778), son of
• Joseph Payant dit St Onge (1700-1783), the "Admiral of Lake Champlain"

The early 20th century entrance to Fort Lennox

To understand the role of Joseph Payant on Lake Champlain and also in the French and Indian War, it's necessary to know about his background. He was born in Québec City in 1700. His mother died when he was ten years old but his father, a shoemaker, quickly remarried. Joseph was not left motherless. As a young man he learned to pilot and navigate on the St Lawrence River.  Married at 21,  he had a wife, family, home on Rue St Flavian in Québec and a blacksmith shop where he worked in winters.  In spring when the ice on the river opened up, Joseph kissed his wife and children "adieu" was off to the Champlain Valley where he piloted ships along the Richelieu and Champlain: Fort Frederic, Ile aux Noix, Fort Chambly and probably Fort Carillon too. The ships, built in St Jean, carried troops and supplies from Montreal and Chambly to the forts south and back again. When the Swedish naturalist, Pehr Kalm, traveled in Lake Champlain region, it was  Joseph Payant who escorted him.  It is said Joseph transported General Montcalm from Carillon to points north after Montcalm's victory becoming well acquainted.  Later, one of Joseph's grandsons was named Montcalm in honor of the general.  Dominique, Joseph's son and our ancestor, was listed as a sailor with his father on Lake Champlain and married Marie Louise Laporte in St Joseph's Church in Chambly.  Their marriage contract stated Dominique owned land on Lake Champlain in the area across from Ile aux Noix close to where Lake Champlain enters the Richelieu River.

In the midst of the French and Indian War, after the French abandoned Fort Frederic to the English, Joseph Payant continued to pilot a schooner with eight cannons named La Vigilante on the waters of Champlain.   Payant was not the commander of the French fleet on the lake, that honor was held by Joannis-Galand d'Olabaratz, a commissioned naval officer. The English fleet was commanded by Captain Joshua Loring.  For several weeks that autumn, while Amherst was rebuilding and enlarging the  fort at Crown Point the English and French fleets played deadly serious games of chase on the lake.

Russel Bellico on page 100 of Sails and Steam in the Mountains (revised edition 2001: Purple Mountain Press) writes about a particular event on October 12th, 1759...

"On the first night, Loring with the brig and sloop had sailed past the three French sloops at Four Brothers Islands, commanded by Joannis Galand d'Olabaratz. The schooner La Vigilante , commanded by Joseph Payant St. Onge, was stationed further north on the lake near Grand Isle.  At daybreak on October 12th, Loring observed the French schooner apparently moving toward the two British ships.  The Vigilante fired and the Cumberland and Boscawen (the English boats) gave chase, whereupon the French schooner  maneuvered into the shallow water between the Sisters Islands (Bixby and Young Island) on the west side of South Hero Island.  The experienced French pilot (Payant) had drawn the British vessels into a trap, with both British ships running aground.  The Boscawen got off the shoal easily but the Cumberland was forced to take eight canon and all the troops off to lighten the vessel.  By the time the British were free of the shoal, the Vigilante was long gone."

After the British recovered they did force d'Olabaratz to scuttle and abandon three importance French vessels.  Over nine days, the French naval crew hike overland back to the fort on Ile aux Noix where they met an infuriated commander Bourlamague.  Bellico goes on to describe what happened next:

"La Vigilante, at the same time, had hidden in the lee of Isle La Motte.  The old lake pilot (Payant) brought his vessel into Bourlamaque's headquarters on October 16 to the wonder of the garrison, whose men thought the ship had been captured."

The area where Payant set the trap is a blue shaded triangle on the Google map below....

View Bixby & Young Islands in a larger map

and also here

For the winter and spring, the French maintained control of the fort at Ile aux Noix, while in Quebec, St Lawrence Valley and forts west, the French colony was being overwhelmed by the British. In spring, Amherst sent Robert Rogers and his rangers to raid Fort St. Jean and Fort Chambly on the Richelieu, the source of French supplies.  In the summer of 1760, the naval war games on the lake resumed until finally in August the final actions occurred in the shallow waters around Ile aux Noix.  The British forces under Brigadier General Haviland set up an offensive position on the shores southeast of Ile aux Noix erecting cannons and mortars.  Bellico describes on the morning of August 17th, a terrible scene where English crew had their legs blown off and the captain died. Then there were more casualties.  Robert Rogers dragged a howitzer and a cannon to the shore  northwest of the island.  The French ships, including  the Vigilante were separated from the French fort. Cannons fired upon the remaining French fleet with Rogers pushing forward to prevent the Vigilante from reaching open waters eventually causing the Payant's schooner to run aground in the shallow waters.  It signaled the end of the French in the Champlain Valley.

Ile aux Noix in the middle of the Richelieu River
Just a few miles north of the the Québec-New York Border

Joseph Payant dit St Onge survived the battles on Lake Champlain retiring to Chambly in the aftermath of the war.  His children and grandchildren flourished in the Richelieu Valley and many of his descendants emigrated to the lands south of the lake he once bravely sailed and defended.

click on image to enlarge and read

The calm waters around Ile aux Noix, September 2010

Bibliography:

Joseph Payant dit Saintonge: THE ADMIRAL OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. Manchester, New Hamphire: American Candian Genelaogogical Society. ACGS bulletin, #108, Volume 32, Number 2, 2006, ISSN 1076-3902.

Sails and Steam in the Mountains. Russell Bellico. Fleischmans, NY: Purple Mountain Press. 2001.

Journey's Taken. William Kane .  Tempe, Arizona: Crownest Press. 2002.

Chroniques du Haut-Richelieu III, L'Admiral du Lac Champlain. Phillippe Demers. Montreal: G. Ducharme. 1929.

"Echos de la Nouvelle France. L'Admiral du Lac Champlain". Pierre Biron. 

http://www.centpapiers.com/lamiral-du-lac-champlain/58398. Accessed February 18, 2011.