ETIENNE, LOUIS, & LOUISON PENSONEAU - From:
The Pioneer History of Illinois by John Reynolds |
 Three
brothers, *Etienne, Louis & Louison Pensoneau emigrated from Canada, and settled in
Cahokia in 1798. They were born at the old Prairie Fort, so-called, in the
Three-River Settlement, Canada, between the years 1772 and 1776. These brothers
married in Cahokia and made excellent citizens. Louis occupied the ferry between
Cahokia and St. Louis for many years. In olden times the ferry between these
two villages was kept below the mouth of the old Cahokia Creek. This was west of
Cahokia & Louis Pensoneau was the ferryman for a long time. Etienne was a very
active business man. He possessed extraordinary energies,and improved the country
considerably. He made the first house, "the brick-house", so-called, in
olden times in Illinoistown. He then purchased the site of Belleville from George
Blair, and sold it to Gov. Edwards. He went to St. Louis, purchased property,
and died in 1821.
Louison Pensoneau, when he arrived in Illinois, embarked in the Indian
trade and remained in it almost during life. He made the Illinois River the scene of
his operations, and the Kickapoo Indians were his customers. Peoria was his main
depot, and the prairies round about were he counters where he sold his goods. He was
the first person that moved in the adjustment of the old Peoria claims. He got up a
petition from the Peoria inhabitants and sent it to Hon. Daniel P. Cook, representative in
Congress; and the consequence was the act of congress of 1820, authorizing the register of
the land-office at Edwardsville to hear evidence and report on the claims. His
report was confirmed by another act of congress, passed in 1823. These Peoria
claimants stand in the same situation as any of the ancient inhabitants of Illinois who
have had lands granted to them by the government. Louison Pensoneau died in 1832,
much regretted.
*Diligent inquiry has so far failed to discover the descendants
of Etienne and Louis Pensoneau, and it is not known if they left any. After Etienne
purchased from Blair the land upon which the city of Belleville stands, he built a
water-mill on Richland Creek about two hundred yards south of the present site of the
great Harrisons steam-mill, and continued to operate it until he sold out to Gov. Edwards.
He then returned to Cahokia, and from there removed to St. Louis, where he
engaged in business and remained until his death.
About 1794, Louison Pensoneau married Miss Lizette LeCompt in the
village of Cahokia, and after residing some years in Peoria, settled on a farm at Point a
la Pierre, near the Grand Marais, four miles east of the Mississippi, on the Belleville
road. At that place he died in 1832, and his widow continued to reside there until
her death in 1841. Of this union there survived ten children, three daughters and
seven sons; The daughters were Bridget, Marie, and Louisa; the sons were
Louis, Paschal, Laurent, Edward, Narcisse, Charles, and Francois, the two last being
twins.
Bridget was married to Amable Tramble in 1818, and died in 1831, and
her husband, a Canadian-Frenchman, survived her but three or four years. They left
two sons, Louis and Francois Tramble, who both died without issue: Louis, a
journeyman printer, dying in San Francisco, Cal., in the spring of 1850, and Francois was
drowned in the Missouri River, near Fort Leavenworth, in the same year, on his return from
the Yellowstone as an employee of Jonh P. Sarpy & Co., fur-traders of St. Louis.
Marie married John Valentine, and both died in a few years after their
marriage, leaving one daughter, named Louisa, who subsequently married Octav Born, a
Canadian, and with him emigrated to New Orleans.
Louisa married Joseph Trotier in 1820, and lived and died in Cahokia.
She had two children, Mary and Joseph. Mary Trotier was married to Co.
Vital Jarrot in 1845, and died in 1852. Her brother, Joseph, wandered to the
Far-West, and is perhaps still living.
Of the sons of Louison Pensoneau and Lizette LeCompt - now all dead -
Louis, born in 1800, married Henriet, youngest daughter of Jean Francois Perry, in the
fall of 1822, and died where he had always lived, at Point a la Pierre, Feb. 22, 1826.His
only child, Louis Perry Pensoneau, born May 1, 1824, is now residing at East St. Louis
with a married daughter, his only child. The widow of Louis Pensoneau, with her son
and widowed mother (nee Perry), removed to Belleville in 1833, and she died at Mascoutah,
St. Clair County, April 22, 1882.
Paschal Pensoneau, the next son, in early manhood became identified
with the Kickapoo Indians, married one or more of them, and died a few years since on the
reservation of the remnant of that tribe, in the Indian Nation, leaving several half-breed
children.
Laurent, the next son, born in 1805, married Elizabeth Hays,
daughter of John Hays, Esq., and died at Point a la Pierre, without issue, July 18, 1848.
His widow afterward married Bradford Broulette, and removed to Vincennes, Ind.,
where she still resides, her second husband having died several years ago.
Edward Pensoneau was born in 1810, and married Miss Isabella Boismenue
in 1843, who died in 1846, leaving one son, Edward, now residing near East St. Louis.
Edward, Sr., was again married in 1853 to Margaret Saucier, daughter of
Matthieu Saucier, who, with three children, survived him, and still resides in or near
Cahokia. Edward Pensoneau, Sr., died in 1860.
Narcisse Pensoneau was born in 1812, and married Felicite Pensoneau in
Belleville in 1835, and died at Mascoutah, Ill., Oct. 8, 1878. His wife died at the
same place, November 28, 1876. Of several children they had, but two survived them:
Felicite, born in Belleville, July 22, 1836, who is living and unmarried, and
William Bissel Pensoneau, married and residing in Jackson County, Ill.
The twin sons, Charles and Francois were never married. Charles
died in Belleville in 1860, and Francois about the same time in Louisiana.
About the time the three brothers, Etienne, Louis, and Louison
Pensoneau, arrived in Cahokia, two other Pensoneaus - second or third cousins of theirs -
who are not mentioned in the "Pioneer History," came to that village from
Canada. They were brothers and named Francois and Augustine. They were
citizens of Cahokia for many years, and both died and were buried there. Augustine
Pensoneau married the widow of Jean Francois Perry in 1815, and died in the fall of 1819,
leaving his widow and two children: Felicite, born in 1817, who married Narcisse
Pensoneau, and Augustine, born in 1819, who was raised in the family of Hon. Adam W.
Snyder, and is now residing in Belleville. |
|
SUZANNE ORELIA MICHAUD was my great
grandmother. She was born 2 November 1857 in Cahokia, St. Clair County, Illinois.
She was the sixth of eight children. Orelia was the daughter of
Francoise Pensoneau & Joseph Michaud. Her birth was recorded in the Church
of the Holy Family in Cahokia. Her father was from South Canada & her
mother was a native of St. Clair County, Illinois. After Joseph Michaud's
death 1870 - 1875 in East St. Louis, Illinois Francoise & Orelia moved across the
Mississippi River to St. Louis where they resided in a boarding house. Here Orelia
met Samuel 
HUBERT
DeLORNE/DeLORME, my 4th great grandfather, was the youngest of ten children. He was
born in 1762 in Quebec & was the son of Louise Fricon, Frigon or Prignon
& Jean Baptiste DeLorne. Hubert migrated to America in 1782 settling in
Cahokia, Illinois. On 1 November 1792, in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, he married Marie
Francoise LeBoeuf who was the daughter of Marie Catherine LeFrance and Phillip LeBoeuf
(dit LaFlamme) who were natives of Prarie DuChien. Marie & Hubert resided in
Cahokia where they became the parents of six children: Hubert, Dennis, Celeste,
Susan, John Baptiste, Louison. Marie died 2 December 1808 & Hubert died 23 July
1818, both in Cahokia. They were buried in the Holy Family Cemetery.
