This Changes Everything

A while ago I asked my mother for a picture of her paternal grandmother. As a great surprise she also came up with a small package of the Jones family history. Within this envelope was a original copy of the 1966 article featuring my Great (x3) Grandmother Catharine Dufour. I had been given what I thought was a copy of this small article already. Turns out it was a full page spread in the Saginaw News.

From the article I was able to gleam most of a interview she gave to a historian named, James Sweinhart, in c. 1900. Intimate details that explain some of the timeline distortion are available in just these small glimpses of her interview that was included in the 1966 print about Jonesfield Township.

Beginning in her childhood Catherine reffers to her father as Peter who owned a strip of land across the river from the fort. She had a sister who may not have survived into adulthood and she was close to a paternal aunt.Her family watched from accross the bank in fear as French nationals as the fort was taken.

“One night in summer I and my sister in bed. My sister asleep, but I awake. I hear my mother call fadder to the door, Peter to the door. Someone knock, I think the Indian come and I cry. I hear great noise cross the river.” “Next morning I get up and look out the window. All the bank of Canada side lined with solider. My dear boy, how fine they all looked in their red suits. Six O’ Clock come. They draw up cannon and fire at the fort.”

“Then Fadder come pick us up and hurry to the woods. After a time the solider go away. Pretty soon they come back and go straight into the fort.” “The officer come out and talk a long while. A white flag is on the fort. Pretty soon they take it down and a red English flag is put up. Then the blue coats all march out and the red coats march in. Then Fadder tells us the fort is surrender and we stay no longer.”

Other notable information bits include her mother's death date within two years of the Fort being taken. Her father than passed her on to his mother who was too old to raise another child and gave her away to a local young couple. The name listed on Catherine's death record as her Father may in fact be this man who raised her in his household from 10-20 years of age.

“When I grow up I go back to Detroit. In those days there was a hotel named ‘The Eagle’ and I work dere as a cook. Den after a long time I get married. I 29 years old.” (All during her story to Sweinhart and reportedly all during her life, Catherine fondly referred to her husband as “Johnny”. He was also 29 when they married.)“My Fadder get married too same year and I never see him again. My man his name John Jones. He come over from England (actually Wales). In 1832 and two year later we get married.”

Perhaps Peter Dufour can be gleamed from the new information but regardless I have the joy of hearing my frontier ancestor talk about her life in a intimate way. Not everyone gets to enjoy the words of their ancestors so freely.

“After a time our cornmeal begin to get short and we have no flour. In wintertime I cannot go to Saginaw and back in a day. The Injun gone long while and left us alone and I afraid to leave children by themselves.” “Den, ah den, my child, we begin to listen for the footstep of da Fadder. Every day we watch da stream dat flow by our cabin and listen far into da night. One day da sun go down and all the sky was red as fire. Everything was dry, da tree an’ branches above and the twigs on da ground.” “A leetle snow was on da tree. We all watch da sun as he sink down to sleep in a blaze of red fire. As we look suddenly we hear far away as it was a hundred mile, a cry. ‘Yo-HO! Yo-Ho!’. My child, how da warm blood ran from ma ole heart. We listen.” “Again it come a leetle louder, leetle clearer. ‘Eagle’ say the baby (Thomas). ‘No’ say Edward, the oldest boy, ‘it’s fadder, fadder, fadder.’ An it was. When it come again, I answer and it come nearer and nearer. Da sun been down and hour and it twilight. We had the fire heaped high. Da fire shown bright and warm and made da spur on da evergreen glisten, and we all stand round da door as da dark night settle down. Soon we hear a step and in come da Fadder with flour and other things we wished for so long. ”

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Who is Henry Dupuis?

My Great (x3) Grandmother Catharine is a enigma. Upon her death in 1912 she had stated that she never left the great lakes in all her life. According to limited genealogical data her father was Peter Duforce of Fort Detroit, a Frenchman. Her death certificate written at a Nursing home in Big Rapids, Michigan tells a different story. (K)Catherine according to that document was daughter of Henry Dupuis, a Belgian immigrant. So who is this Henry Dupuis and how could he possibly be her father?

In searching the back story of Peter Dufour born of Bonvivant in New France (1754) one comes across the general consensus that Peter was a traveling man. Thinking back to the research shared with me by Guy Carpentier,of the Dufour Family organization, we have evidence that post revolution Peter traveled under assumed names between the lakes and river fronts. Peter eventually retook his name over time and it is here that we find him mentioned in the journal's of  John Baptiste Perrualt II, which are published in "Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections" in 1909". Perrault began traveling in 1783 with the local fur trade alliances down the Mississippi. His companions for this trip are named as Canadian men: Mr. Sacharit of Quebec;  St.Germain, Mr. Robert & Mr. Dupuis of Maskinong; Antoine & Francois Beauchemin, Manard, L.Lavalle of Sorel & Yamaska. Marchesseau sold all his goods in the trade to Chouteau, of St-Louis.
It is here that we have the first appearance of Dupuis alongside a trip that would fall headlong into a encounter with Peter Dufour (alias Dufaut).

"...Upon entering the river the next day and doubling the point of the little lake, we saw a wintering-house. It was that of Mr. Dufaut, come from Grand Portage, clerk for NW. and we stopped before his door. As Mr.Kay had perhaps taken only one drink he now took the second which made him ill-tempered so that instead of receiving politely Mr. Dufaut, who came down to meet him on the beach, he treated him rudely... "


At this time Dufour and children of related surnames began to be birthed in the area in which both Dupuis and Peter Dufour travelled. A Pierre Dufault for example appears in one of the areas know to be propagated by Pierre son of Bonvivant.

Pierre Dufault, Ojibwa Metis, b-1815 Sault Ste Marie son of Ojibwa Metis parents, listed March 28, 1836 treaty.

It was popular at the time for Frenchmen to have multiple families because the Catholic church did not always honor marriages between frenchmen and Indians. It is possible that Catherine's mother was never legally wed which explains the lack of documentation. However family story claims that there is a existing newspaper announcement from the times stating that Pierre Dufour had wed an indian woman. For now information like that remains a holy grail. Yet I cannot dismiss the existence of Henry Dupuis from Belgium.