Subject: Wabash Blues
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 12:05:47 -0500
From: "C. Alan Boneau"
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Richard
I was fascinated with your Home Page and associated cannections. It must be useful to a large number of people. I found it because I was searching for some Indiana history leads. My ancestor Charles Bonneau arrived in Vincennes in 1751 apparently and proceeded, with his wife, of course, to have 19 children. That is according to records I ran across in Vincennes a few years back.
But I have been wondering. What did these people do for a living, and why did he go there in the first place? There doesn't seem to be much available on Prerevolutionary activities of the French in what became the Northwest Territory and, in particular, Indiana. Do you have any suggestions for my enlightenment? Thanks for your help.
Alan Boneau
6518 Ridge Drive
Bethesda, MD 20816
Subject: Re: Wabash Blues
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1998 20:24:13 -0500
From: "C. Alan Boneau"
To: rking@indian.vinu.edu
Richard
I am looking forward for anything further that you can provide about the Bonneaus of Vincennes and the Wabash.
I really have no folklorish kinds of things about my family and Vincennes. I know none of the personal things about any of them. The French began to depart aboout the time the Virginians moved in and confiscated land, I understand. Some headed for the Spanish side of the Mississippi where things were more hospitable, at least for a while. My direct ancestors left for Logansport, Indiana, about 1800 and were settled in French Village, Illinois, by 1830 where they were into such things as coal mining in the bluffs along the Mississippi. My family recollections go back to the late 1800's. My Grandfather was born in French Village in 1866, but he was dead before I got interested in what he might have known although he lived to be 91. He was a railway mail clerk on the B&O East from St. Louis to Cincinnati, and he eventually moved to Cincinnati which is where my father and I grew up.
Of the 19 children of Charles Bonneau who were born in Vincennes from 1751 to 1784 or thereabouts, many died in early childhood, of course. The rest scattered around and some seem to have married other French settlers who came up the river from New Orleans. One of those Bonneau ladies is buried under a big flat gravestone in the cemetery behind the old church there in Vincennes, I believe the one who married a Villeneuve. There was a lot of cousins marrying cousins in this picture, but I guess that's all there was. One of these days I plan to sit down with my notes and get this all straightened away. It's a complicated story
I'm looking forward to your help. Thanks.
Alan
From: Bama5015@aol.com
Date: 01/25/2005 06:59 PM
Subject: Bonneau
This is what I have on my Bonneau family
From "George Rogers Clark Adventure in the Illinois" by Katharine Wagner
Seineke
He was the 52 signee of the Oath of Vincennes
Charles is either the father-in-law or the brother-in-law of Charles Villeneuve.
The elder Charles Bonneau son of Jean Bonneau and Marie Madeleine Moreau,
was baptized at Québec on Dec 14 1714. He married his third
wife, Genevieve Charlotte Dudevoir, at Detroit on July 13 1751. They
were living at Poste des Quiatenons in 1752 and in Vincennes from 1757 on.
In a list of concessions at Vincennes in the Haldimand papers, Charles received
a concession from St. Ange in 1762. The elder Charles was living in
1771 and deceased by 1784. He and Geneviéve had about 15 children,
most of them baptised at Vincennes. However, their eldest son, Charles
Marie was born May 26, 1752 and baptized the next day at Poste des Quatenons.
He and his wife, Marie Chaterine Compagnot, baptized 8 children at Vincennes,
1776-1790
Genevieve was his 3rd wife
Revolutionary War Soldiers of Knox Co Indiana
Charles Bonneau [Bono, Baunaux] was born about 1750 at Post Ouiatauons.
He died before 1784. Probably buried in the St. Francis Xavier Cemetery.
He was married to Genevieve Du Devoire. Children Genevieve born 1773;
Nicholas born 1795; Francoise born 1784. Source Page 65, Roster of
Soldiers and Patriots of the American Revolution Buried in Indiana, 1938.
Bobby Hendrick
Bothell, (N of Seattle) WA