The Curious Trail of Catharine Dufour

It’s always great to hear from people interested in family history, at least that’s what I tell myself. I let my website go stale for some time now as I was finishing undergraduate school and wasting my free time on video gaming. I gather that at some point Google updated its service protocols making my page live in Web searches. Suddenly I have people who were wholly uninterested to help seeing my document list and deciding they have loud opinions to share. I ranted some posts ago about people not understanding the organic nature of self publishing versus professional works. No doubt the comments and demands would eventually fall onto my favorite topic, Catharine Dufour. I was lucky that the third party relation who wanted my work indeed contacted Mr. Charpentier of my post “midnights are not for making friends”. He was kind enough to look into the information our family has especially as he is in my opinion a specialist in French river region history. The work has come out most fruitful this time, a majority of that owning to Mr. Charpentier’s access not mine.

Catharine’s birth date has always been passed down since her sons based on the interview she gave in 1905. While her husband was alive however documents including her in his household indicated an 1813 birth year. The summative works of French genealogy do not have an individual born in 1805 to any of the Dufour, Deveaux couples. The death certificate that I was provided an image copy of by a 3^rd cousin does state Mr. Duforse as Catharine’s father. Nay, the Duforse name is nonexistent in records of that period. Adjusting her birth date uncovers a slew of records due the family most especially while they lived in Canada for some years. Three of the known children now have French catholic baptism statements. One of these children was of the missing portion of eleven that did not survive to adulthood. Marie- Agathe Jones died the same year that Edward Junior’s baptism took place. Indeed it was Catharine’s grandmother, Josephe Garand, who sponsored his baptism as Edouard Jones at her local parish. The same parish had baptized Henry John earlier as Honoré Jones. As French culture in that area was dying out it is not surprising that the children simply lost sight of their heritage.

Yet what about Catharine’s account in the newspaper, does this all not invalidate it? Not exactly.  Catherine’s parents by document consensus were Pierre Louis Dufour and Archange Garand married in 1811 as St. Anne Cathedral. As a family they lived in Frenchtown, a small settlement south of Fort Detroit. While Catharine was born at the height of the war she could not have witnessed the surrender. However she may well have been mistaking the final abandonment of the Frenchtown settlement due to increasing raids and attacks. The emerging soldiers in uniform may well have been coming to protect the settlement. The direction as well that she describes her home from the Fort agrees with the assertion she is recalling Frenchtown. Now while I am ashamed of my third party relative’s reaction to this data I can also say that my own qualms regarding it are just as silly. Indeed this would seem to dismiss the assertion that Catharine was a Métis child. Yet not enough is known of her mother Archange Garand to me yet as well as Louis Dufour’s mother also being undiscovered. I look forward to finding more documents to uncover the Dufour/Dautour/ Garand connection. Meanwhile I have work to update my website to keep me busy!

Metis On All Sides

Recently I've come across an interesting fact regarding Ancestry and family legends. As my Father's story goes, a grandmother accused his Father of having Jewish ancestry. I was searching for that angle so hard that I was genuinely surprised to find a different answer. My fathers paternal great grandmother did not carry Jewish ancestry but she did hide a branch of Muscogee (Creek). My father's Metis heritage is Anglo-Metis occurring first in Virginia and then travelling through North Carolina to Oaklahoma. Anna Dabney was the most recent ancestor who was considered a full tribal member. Her Children appear on the Rolls including the 1835 Trail of Tears. The boys of her family however all appear to have inherited their grandfathers status of "Cherokee by Blood". Tracking down the tribes to which I have a family history has been somewhat difficult considering the non-status of Metis here in America.

My working list so far consists of the following:

• Metis of the 3rd Generation
  None in USA; Michigan, USA
• Mi'kmaq of the 9th Generation
  Bear River First Nation; Annapolis, NS
• Muskogee of 8th generation
  Muscogee Creek Nation; Tulsa, OK
• Cherokee of 6th Generation
  Appalachian Cherokee Nation, Montross, VA 

     This revelation is not lost on me considering the finding of Metis ancestry on both sides of my maternal grandfather's parentage. The Mi'kmaq is documented however to far removed for a tribal membership and I assume Pottawatomie for my Metis grandmother but recentness hasn't met me with much paper evidence. This is due in part no doubt to her birth shortly after the fire that consumed Detroit in 1805. Another aspect would be the probability of a "country marriage". After all her father not only flees the area when the British take the fort, he also marries again after her mother in a legal fashion sometime around 1834. Peter never returns to Michigan by all accounts. Two generations now in order to create me and my sister, peoples of varying degree of native blood but all Metis have found each other. That has to be meaningful considering I now find myself near marriage to a half-blood Ojibwae.

The feeling that I was different and more alike a different people than those I encountered been a lifelong occurrence. This is something I have been discussing with my Native Studies teacher at University. She is absolutely thrilled to learn what traditions bled through all the years of lost identity for my families. Small things like aboriginal art (Mi'kmaq) and hand-me-downs no one could assertain too. For me however it was personal and spiritual experiences, including reciprocity that is unlike modern sensibility.

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. ”

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.

A History Divided

As readers no doubt would know my focus on genealogy always seems to come back to the War of 1812 within the Detroit River area. At the time our nation was liberal and as such the peoples straddled lands that today are quite separate. While renewing my research interest I came to the realization that this division is a great hurdle to my record finding.

My maternal line consists of a strong influx of French and German Canadians all of who traveled quite often into Michigan. This creates a disparity between records. While I can easily search the Library of Canada's Genealogical supply I am limited in my findings due to coresidency or immigration. Sadly during this period not only were the first generational wave immigrants themselves, from France (or otherwise), but their children then became Canadian immigrants into the United States. 

Growing up in my day I have always visited my family still residing in Canada so I can understand how living so close in the Detroit River area one simply considers it a skip across the stream. Our Secretary of State would of course not agree since I have to hold a Enhanced license as supplement for a Passport. Historical Detroit's records are measly at best from what can be accessed online and I feel as if the States has failed me in this respect.

Yet new information always appears such as my stumbling upon a possible site for my Ancestors wedding site. I had been given the name "Eagle Hotel" in Detroit, Michigan to which nothing existed. However a pleasant surprise in my search today lead me to the Eagle Tavern of Greenfield Villiage.Possibility is high that this tavern was the site of my Great Grandparents wedding as the groom was a Ferryman for some years running the water trail from New York to Detroit originally. I can only look forward to what more study might bring and perhaps more records may open up here in Michigan.

Midnight Introductions aren't for Making Friends

When I began to have a strong interest in the information a close cousin passed down to me about my Great Grandmother Catherine Jones (Dufour) I took each element word for word. That is to say no independent fact checking before running head first into the Drouin Collection of records on the Dufour Family in Quebec.

Last night I received a response from the Vice-President of the Dufour families association of North America. He was nonetheless not to happy about a midnight message I had sent last year complaining about the merging of two first cousins into one record.

Mind you I was suffering Sepsis from a liver abscess and blocked gallbladder so I doubt I wrote my comments to the webmaster very tactfully.

According to Guy Charpentier, the Pierre Parfiat Dufour of St, Anne parish changed his name and relocated to Missouri where he married, twice.

Due to his actions during the American Revolution, in 1778, Parfait assumed temporarily a false identity, calling himself Antoine during the hostilities, most likely to avoid retaliation by the British against his siblings living in the Detroit area. Once the war of independence had ended, and Detroit had been handed over to the U.S.A., he reassumed his true Christian name - Parfait. He used indifferently or jointly the names of Antoine and Parfait thereafter.

Now while I should be incredibly happy with this since I have recently considered a generation younger to most likely contain Catherine's father by a son of Joahim Dufour... Mr. President states that through firsthand research he can find no document proving these men: Antonie Dufour born in Montreal and Pierre Parfiat born in Quebec are separate individuals.

The hilarity here is that with divided interest I recently filled out the siblings tree's looking for another Pierre Dufour who could have passed down the name. This led me to review the marriages of women into the Dufour family of which those attributed to Pierre incognito are clearly documented elsewhere with younger men. Now if Pierre Parfiat was my Grandmother's father then he would have been 51 when he conceived her. My Grandmother's obituary says that she never moved from the Detroit river region and her father was with her all of her youth.

"Jonesfield Township History Traced to 1812: Mrs. Edward Jones, A.ea's First Resident, Lived to be 107." "In Detroit August 16, 1812, American General William Hull ... gave up the fort...a 6 year old half French half Indian girl named Catherine DuForce ... was at the fort. She had been born September 15, 1805, the daughter of Peter DuForce and his Indian wife, and had lived all her life along the Detroit River." ~ through death "Catherine's death notice came in the Big Rapids Bulletin Herald September 6, 1912. She died September 5, just 10 days short of her 107th birthday. The notice said: "In the death yesterday afternoon at Mercy Hospital of Mrs. Katherine (Catherine) Jones, the State of Michigan lost its oldest Native inhabitant. She was 106 years, 11 months and 17 days (actually 20 days), and despite the ravages of time, she retained a remarkable physical vitality and a wonderfully clear memory. The body was shipped to Hungerford this afternoon and the funeral services will be held at the Hungerford Church. Internment will be in Hungerford." She was buried in Hunkleford Cemetery near Woodville, about seven miles west of Big Rapids."

Source: The Saginaw News, Sunday May 29, 1966 (section B, Page 3) & USGENWEB

Oh and Mr. president you are about to publish that Pierre Dufour Born April 1754 married his nephew's wife who was almost 30 years younger. Good luck with that...

Now onto the more interesting ideas. If Pierre did go into hiding in Missouri than that places him in the Red Reedies area to which another mystery Dufour/Dufault family exists. Therese Dufault maybe another child and lays creedence to the family tales of a mixed heritage. (Clues to ancestry of Therese Dufault)

If Pierre Dufour, Jr. did leave the Great lakes region than why is he listed as a founding member of Wayne County (Historical Publications of Wayne County)

Oh Pierre you Dirty Bird...!