Jean Baptiste duSable
New pieces of the old St. Charles puzzle
by Cleta M. Flynn
Jean Baptist duSable, the official first settler of Chicago, also lived and died in St. Charles, Missouri. We know that because of three documents at the St. Charles County Historical Society Archives: 1) a Bill of Sale between Francois Duquette and “Point de Sable” from 1796, 2) entries in the St. Charles District Court of Common Pleas Record Book regarding the administration of the estate of “Pointsable’s” son, Jean Baptiste Pointsable, Jr., in 18141 3) and a St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church death record for “Point de Sable” in 1818
Two St. Charles historians brought these documents to the public’s attention. Benjamin L. Emmons, a title and abstract expert, found deeds for variations on the name Point duSable in St. Charles and wrote about it in the 1920s.2 He researched at the Missouri Historical Society Library in St. Louis, Missouri, with Stella Drumm, librarian, who also wrote an article on Point du Sable. They found: 1) a roster for Manuel Lisa’s expedition up the Missouri River in 1812-1813 showing the name “Pointsable” and 2) a Missouri Gazette notice for 1814 that Point duSable was in jail in St. Charles to satisfy debts. In the 1960s Edna McElhiney Olson, founder of the St. Charles County Historical Society Archives, collected all the information she could find on DuSable—which is now in a DuSable Collection there. She made it her mission to have a monument placed at St. Charles Borromeo Church Cemetery for him in 1968. The event attracted officials from Chicago and Haiti. Haiti, at the time, was duSable’s supposed birth place,3 one of many legends that developed about the man.
At a Quarterly Meeting in 2006, SCCHS members and guests heard Professor Timothy Baumann speak about the archaeological dig he worked on in 2002 at St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery. The dig was under the direction of the African Scientific Research Institute (ASRI) at the University of Illinois, Chicago, headed by Muhammad Jihad. The purpose of the dig was to find duSable’s actual remains. Though none were found, Kris Zapalac, one of the participants,4 researched the St. Charles-Pointsable connection and wrote an article for the ASRI website. While speaking to SCCHS in 2006, Dr. Baumann revealed that a colleague had very recently found duSable’s birth record at Cahokia—knocking out the Haiti theory.5
Now duSable has appeared in the Early Circuit Court cases recently found in the basement of the St. Charles County Courthouse6 giving us three “new” pieces to add to the old puzzle of Jean Baptiste duSable in St. Charles. By simply placing all the documents, “new” and “old,” in chronological order, not only a few new dry facts were revealed but also a surprising new depth to the life of “Pointsable”—the name most often used in the court records.
Pointsable’s Early Life
First, here is a brief overview of Pointsable’s life condensed from an article in the SCCHS duSable collection by John F. Swenson written in 1996.7 Using the new birth information will also help clarify some of Pointsable’s later actions.
Pointsable was born at Cahokia, then part of French Illinois country, ca 1740, to a slave named Catherine, father unnamed. Slaves in Cahokia at that time were from Santa Domingo and were mostly farming at the Holy Family Mission there. This West Indies tie is probably how Pointsable later came to be thought of as born in Haiti. He received his freedom somehow because he called himself a “negre libre” and must have been able to prove it. He spoke French and signed with his initials “J.B.P.S.”8
By 1773, he had a land grant and was farming in Peoria, northern Illinois country lost to the British at the end of the French and Indian War in 1763. He was married to Catherine, a Pottawatomie woman, and had two children, Suzanne and Jean Baptiste, Jr.9
He is next found in 1779, running Pierre Durand’s trading post in British upper Indiana Territory where a bill of sale was found for goods commissioned by General George Rogers Clark on his drive north to take British Detroit. Pointsable, then a British citizen, was thrown into prison for aiding the enemy and Durand’s goods were confiscated. British Lt. Wm Bennett of the 8th Regiment reported to his superior: “the negro Point au Sable… had many friends who give him a good character.”
In 1780 a delegation of Indians in a British settlement south of Port Huron called The Pinery demanded that Pointsable be released from the stockade and made their overseer. He was. Catherine and the children may have joined him there as the Peoria area and their farm had been commandeered by the British. We can perhaps assume that he learned to speak some English and Pottawatomie.
By 1788 Pointsable had moved over into Indian Territory at the mouth of the Chicagou River where he owned and operated a large farm, the only source of produce in the area. He traveled with his family to Cahokia to be married by a priest at the Holy Family Mission and in 1790 his daughter Suzanne married Jean Baptiste Pelletier there.
Petite Cotes Fur Trader, Francois Duquette
So far all reports of Pointsable had been of him as a farmer or running a post or overseeing Indians. But at least by 1796 he was also trading furs across the river from Cahokia at Petite Cotes —soon to be renamed St. Charles—in Spanish Upper Louisiana territory. French fur trader Louis Blanchette, Spanish Commandant and founder of the post there, died in 1793 but there were other traders working out of Petite Cotes. The bill of sale—the earliest document placing Pointsable in St. Charles—shows that he made a barter-system payment on account with Francois Duquette, a twenty-two year old Petite Cotes trader with an agent ranging as far north as “Chicagou” by 1796.10
Received from J. B. Pellier for account of J.B. Point de Sable – 3 packages cats – 6 skins deer... 6 dozen eggs of Monsieur Pellier for having (pressed) 3 packages in Chicagou 30 June, 1796 For Francois Duequet, John Baptist Gigon (“Pellier” is assumed to be Jean Baptiste Pelletier, Pointsable’s son-n-law and it is not quite known what “pressing” means.)
Now we can look at the first “new” case.
First Case—Filed in 1807 for an incident that took place in 179611
The Plaintiff’s Complaint—Filed April 1807—Debt, note12
First complaint…
Jean Baptist Pointsable was attached to answer unto Francois Duquette of a plea … whereupon the said Francois…complains... that the aforesaid Jean on the second day of May in the year(1796) at Petite Cote, to wit, at Saint Charles…by a certain writing commonaly called a promissory note signed by the said Jean in the manner following. J.B.P.S. being his usual mark & signature of the said Jean by which… he bound himself to pay unto the said Francis the sum… equal in value to ($299.62) currency of the United States which he… promised to pay the same to the aforesaid Francis on request
Second complaint—same case—same page
And...the aforesaid Francis sold… to the aforesaid Jean on the day and year last aforesaid other goods wares & merchandizes at the special…request of the said Jean for which he…assumed upon himself to pay…worth ($500)… – Nevertheless the aforesaid Jean…intending craftily & subtelly to deceive and defame the plaintiff …hath not paid the aforesaid sums on either of them tho to do so hath been often requested but ... hath hitherto wholly refused and still doth refuse whereby the said Francis says he is greatly injured and hath sustained damage to the amount of ($550) wherefore he sues by H. Hight, his attorney
Point Sable’s defense—written in both French and English—1807
And the said Jean Baptiste Point Sable by Isaac Darneille his attorney comes &…doth says that he did not undertake and promise to pay in manner and form as the Plaintiff thereof hath above complained against him and of this he puts himself upon the country… I. Darneille…And the plaintiff likewise…H. Hight
What did we learn from the first case?
There has been a controversy over whether the above payment had been made in Petite Cotes or in Chicago for services rendered in “Chicagou.” This court case shows that Pointsable and his son-in-law, “Pellier,” actually came to Petite Cotes, ordered supplies on consignment from Duquette in May—with whom he had a running account—and signed a promissory note for them, as was customary in the business. Then in June, he made the payment above on his account in furs and produce. The list of supplies Pointsable signed for were items to be delivered to various people such as a load of “chimney bricks for the house of Chartran” in “Chicagou” and “Mackinnac.”13 A note left by Edna McElhiney Olson gives us this picture: Two writers describe his colorful parade approach to Mackinac Island in 1796 in a birch bark canoe with two or three hundred Pottawatomie Indians trailing in the rear. ‘The Brittish saluted him with a discharge of cannon.’ They may have been home in time for the birth of Suzanne’s daughter Eulalie in October 1796.
From 1796 until 1807
The sale of consignment goods was made in 1796 but the case above wasn’t filed until 1807. Duquette waited eleven years to sue Pointsable. Why? There are at least two reasons. 1) Pointsable stayed in the north. But then in 1800 he sold his large farm and all his household goods in Chicagou. Catherine is not mentioned again so her death may have been the reason for the sale.14 In 1802 Pointsable was a witness at a case involving Indians in St. Clair County. (Cahokia?). Then, a “Pointsable” purchased property in St. Charles in 1805 which we will go into later. We can note here though, that Duquette still waited two more years to sue, leading us to the second reason for the delay. 2) The lack of a court to sue in.
Francois Duquette, Esquire
In 1803 the thirty year old Duquette was appointed as one of the first U.S. circuit court judges for the St. Charles District from Indiana Territory.15 The St. Charles Court of Common Pleas was established in 1805. The index to the Early Circuit Court Cases shows that Duquette took full advantage of the new court and sued twenty times from 1806 to 1814. At least fifteen of the cases were against small traders like Pointsable who were middle men in a cash poor system. In fact, it was argued by 1800 that the system of small independent traders dealing directly with the Indians in Illinois Territory was already bankrupt and should not be allowed to come into Spanish Upper Louisiana and should be left to larger “monopolies” (like Duquette).16 But now, with his American court contacts and newly hatched history of suing, we can perhaps assume that Duquette would file against Pointsable the minute he saw him in his jurisdiction.
1807 and another Chicagoan in St. Charles
Still setting the issue of the purchase of property in 1805 aside for a moment, we know that Pointsable was in St. Charles in 1807 because of this case. He may not have realized that Duquette was now a member of the court when he came back to town but he soon found out. A warrant was issued in February and the complaint was filed in April, so he was in custody by then and would be held until the next court term in July. It can’t be a coincidence that another early Chicagou trader was also in town: John Kinzie.17 He filed four warrants for arrest in debt cases—just as Duquette was doing against Pointsable—with the St. Charles District Court of Common Pleas in July. All four cases are found in the Early Circuit Court cases and all were filed while Pointsable was being held for that same court session.18 According to the Encyclopedia of Chicago, Kinzie built a trading post there in 1803 and bought Pointsable's house and farm from the man who had bought it from Pointsable. The same lawyer, “I Darnielle,” filed the Kinzie cases and signed Pointsable’s denial of debt (above). Since nothing further was filed, Kinzie probably again left town—most likely with Pointsable as soon as he was released—since his case, too, was dropped until revived in 1813. It is hard to image Duquette letting the case lapse for six more years if Pointsable lived in town the whole time.
Back to that list of supplies and the denial of debt…
Duquette’s original complaint from the 1807 case (above) was for $299.60 with an additional $500. But the actual bill in the case signed with Pointsable’s “J.B.P.S.” was for $265.90. No bill was produced for the additional $500. The St. Charles District Court Record Book for 1807 is missing so we can’t know exactly what happened, but one could guess that Pointsable was released because the second bill was not actually introduced by Duquette—and, hopefully, because the amount of damages was a bit exorbitant. Pointsable may have felt that his denial was sufficient and he could leave town. If Pointsable had been unaware of Duquette’s habit of suing in 1807 when he came to town with Kinzie, he knew it now. But something was causing him to come to St. Charles; something that brought him back into Duquette’s territory again in 1813.
Willing Property to Eulalie Barada DeRoi/DeRoy--1813
The revived judgment was filed in August 1813, which we will get back to in a moment, but now is the time to look at the property issue. The most well-known tradition about du Sable in St. Charles is that he deeded property and a stone house at Second & Decatur to Eulalie Barada DeRoi to care for him in his last illness and to bury him in the “cemetery of the parish.” Later this same stone house will be sold to Governor Alexander McNair.
Emmons’ study of deeds, however, showed that Pierre Rondin, another “free black man” from the “West Indies” had received a Spanish land grant in 1797 for that lot at Second & Decatur in Block 63 and built the stone house. The grant also included all of Block 96 (Third & Decatur) and land in the Common Fields. Emmons goes on to say that in 1805 a “Point du Sabre” purchased all of Block No. 96 from Rondin but with no mention of the lot at Second & Decatur.19 (See map).
The deed conveying property to Eulalie DeRoi is at the Missouri Historical Society Library and at the St. Charles County Recorder of Deeds office. Here is an excerpt of a translation from the French by John Swenson found in the SCCHS duSable collection:
In the presence of the witnesses… there was personally present Jean Baptiste Point de Sable …who of his own free will…confessed having given…by gift…to Mme. Eulalie Barada…Two contiguous parcels: having on one side Francois Duquette, the donor on the other…Also…a third parcel, in part fenced and in part without fences, on which has been built a house of poteaux en terre…having on one side the said…Eulalie Barada, on the other a street which separates this parcel from those of Francois Duquette, having in front a large street …which parcel the said Jean Baptiste Point de Sable, along with the said house, reserves to himself during his lifetime…
This donation is so made in consideration that the said Eulalie Barada…care for the said Jean…in his illnesses…and…is obliged… to have buried in the cemetery of this parish the body of Jean Baptiste Point de Sable after his death… Witnesses: Basile Proulx, Carbonneaux…For Recorder’s office… I hereby certify that the within instrument of writing was on the fifteenth day of August 1813 & that the same is recorded in Book B pages 338 & 9…H. Hight
Tradition vs. The Deeds
There are two points to be made here: 1) the house. This deed says that the house was of the French upright post style, poteaux en terre, —while tradition says that Pointsable lived in a stone house. But remember that Emmons did not say he bought that lot at Second & Decatur and Rondin himself sold that lot and house in 1818 to Jean Baptist Cotes.
We saw above, however, that “Point du Sabre” bought Block 96 from Rondin.20 Later, in the sheriff’s sale, (below), the house will be described as directly across from Duquette’s house. Block 96 was between Third & Fourth on the north side of Decatur and Duquette owned the block at Third & Fourth on the south side of Decatur—as part of four blocks he owned that became the Sacred Heart Academy and St. Charles Borromeo Church.
A drawing showing Duquette’s house as being opposite Block 96 and the poteaux en terre house, not the stone house in Block 63 is in the book, St. Charles Borromeo, by Jo Ann Brown. And Block 96 could have been parceled in the four quarters of the “Eulalie” deed. The Block 63 lot owned by Rondin was always pictured as the long narrow French lot with one other man owning the remainder of the Block. (See map)
2) The actual name in the “Eulalie” deed is not “Point de Sable” as translated by Swenson but “le dit Jean Baptiste Point de Sabre.” Various spellings of names are always a problem but especially here. The father was called “Pointsable” in the court cases but Emmons says it was a “Point du Sabre” who bought Block 96 in 1805.
Another of the deeds at the St. Charles County Recorder of Deeds shows that “Jean Baptiste Point Sabre fils ”(Jr.) sold land to Charlotte Cardinal in February 1811. (See deed list in notes.) That deed was signed “Baptiste de Sabre,” indicating that it was the son who went by “Baptiste” not the father as he was always referred to in the documents as Jean/John.
The 1811 deed was witnessed by two neighbors: Francois Duquette and Carbonneaux. If it had been the father who made the 1811 sale with Duquette as witness, it is hard to believe that Duquette didn’t get at least some of the sale money at that time, mitigating the need to revive his suit two years later.
It appears from these clues that it was the son, Baptiste—who gave himself a French-style nickname/alias (dit) to distinguish himself from his father—who bought the properties in St. Charles in 1805 from Rondin—and sold land to Charlotte Cardinal in 1811 witnessed by Duquette
Estimating that Baptiste was born ca 1765, he would have been about 40 years old in 1805 and more a contemporary of Duquette’s. If it was Baptiste who lived on the Decatur property and was in good standing with his neighbors, then the transfer of land to Eulalie Barada DeRoi to “care for him in his illness” makes sense. His neighbors approved the transfer of land (even if it wasn’t strictly legal) to provide for care for their neighbor. “JBPS” signed the deed for his son, perhaps because his son was unable to sign.
Pointsable was drawn back to St. Charles, it now appears, because his son lived there and had property there, and maybe because Pierre Rondin, another free black man with a Santa Domingo accent, was there. And he came back in 1813 because of his son’s illness. But are there any other clues that point to Baptiste being ill instead of his father as thought all these years?
Manuel Lisa’s Expedition in 1812-1813
Remember, above, that the name “Pointsable” appeared on the roster for Manual Lisa’s expedition up the Missouri in 1812-1813. The roster at the Missouri Historical Society Library actually shows the name to be “Bte. Pointsable.” A famous journal from this expedition22 has a brief entry calling this person “Pointsabir.” “Bte.” and “Pointsabir” and the fact that Pointsable the father would have been about 72 years old at the time, seem to indicate that it was the son on the expedition.
The 1812-1813 expedition has been called a “disaster” because Lisa had to abandon his Fort Manuel. Increased Indian unrest caused the crew to “flee back to St. Louis” having lost at least two members in attacks. Also, two people died of “putrid fever” (typhus). The first one was “the wife of Charbonneau a Snake Squaw…aged about twenty-five years...”23 On January 4th a young cadet also died of typhus. They passed St. Charles on the return trip sometime after the last journal entry in April, probably by May 1813. And then Pointsable signed his son’s (deSabre) land over to Eulalie Barada DeRoi on June 21st to care for “him” in his illness. Typhus is an infectious respiratory disease that can kill you quickly or “weaken you to die later.” Though this is circumstantial evidence, voyaging, even without being attacked, was risky business, and even Baptiste, in his late 40’s, was no longer a “young voyager.”
Pointsable the father did not die for five more years, nor is his health an issue in the court case that immediately follows this transaction but his son will die within six months. Where Pointsable was when word came about his son can’t be known. He may have been farming at Marais Croche, a lake and common fields just north of the Block 96 property, as a lot will be sold there as part of the Sheriff’s Sale (below), but that is unlikely as it was still in Duquette’s “baliwick.” Pointsable had to have been close by, though, (maybe Cahokia). He would have known it would be a risk to come back into the District but he came and signed over the property to Eulalie Barada DeRoi in June to care for and bury his son if he couldn’t. He must have stayed with his son then since the later (below) description of the house says, “presently occupied by him.” The official court transfer was signed in August by Duquette’s lawyer and by September a warrant had been issued and Pointsable was back in jail.
The Case is Revived.
When the case is reopened, Pointsable signed the original bill of $265.90 and wrote on it that it was true and accurate but now there was no further mention of the additional $500 bill or the huge amount for damages. Also, the amount in the complaint (below) is lower, perhaps now reflecting the payment Pointsable made in June 1796 or even additional payments.
Second Case—September 18, 1813—Duquette wins his judgment 24
Jean B Pointsable – The Plaintiff by Easton signs Judgement by default for want of a Plea for the Sum of ($250.08) debt, and for the sum of ($93.53) damages…Therefore it is considered that said Plaintiff do have and recover against said Defendant his debt.
F. Fascias (action taken) I have executed the within by reading the same to the within named John B. Pointsable in presence of Henry Hight and John B___ On the 18 day of September 1813 N Simond, Sheriff
The judge said that since Pointsable hath not yet paid, nor in any manner satisfied the judgement aforesaid, nor surrendered his body in execution of the same…he ordered the sheriff to make know to him the revived judgment and to be holden until the last Monday in October 1813: There and then to shew cause if any he can…why the said Frances Duquette should not have judgement… against him…Witness the honorable James Talbott esq. Presiding Judge
Nothing more survived from October so we don’t know what happened except for the actual filing of the case and Pointsable’s imprisonment and release. But on November 13th it was ordered that Pointsable surrender a list of his properties to be sold to pay Duquette and he was again ordered to be arrested…
The United States of America, to the Sheriff of the county of Saint Charles, Greetings,
These are therefore to command you, that of the goods and chattels, lands and tenements of the said Jean Baptiste Pointsable you cause to be made the aforesaid debt… and for want of sufficient goods and chattels, lands and tenements whereon to levy and make the same, we command you that you take the said Jean B. Pointsable if he may be found in your county and him safely keep, so that you have his body before the same Judges on the said First February (1814) next to satisfy the said Francis Duquette. Witness Uriah T. Devore clerk
January 1814 – Notice of Sheriff’s Sale to be 16 Feb 1814
Sheriff Sale
Taken on execution…will be sold at the Court house Door in the town of St. Charles…all the right and title of Jane B Pointsable to a certain tract or parcel of land… situated at the Marais Croche near St. Charles…Also… all the right title and claim of the said Jane B Pointsable in and to a certain house and three ordinary lots of 120 feet in front by 150 in Depth at present occupied by the said Jane B Pointsable bounded southerly by a cross street separating it from the present residency of Francois Duquette (west?) eastwardly by a lot or part of the commons… northwardly by the Commons... And eastwardly by the third street from the Missouri river… sold to satisfy a judgement in favor of Francois Duquette...January 8th 1814 – N Simonds, Sheriff (See Map) (Yes, the name is clearly written as “Jane.”)
Administration of Baptiste’s Estate
Baptiste died that winter. No death record has been found but, as mentioned above, the third item long known to researchers were entries in the St. Charles District Court of Common Pleas Record Book for 1814 saying that Baptiste’s estate was being settled. The February 11th entries show how Louis Chancelier, another neighbor, applied to be the administrator of Baptiste’s estate. It was then taken from him and given to Henry Hight, Duquette’s lawyer, and then it was taken from him and given to Pointsable. The third recently found Early Circuit Court Case gives the actual petition:
Third Case – Early Circuit Court Cases25
J.B. Pointsable – Application for Administration – Wm Christy, Jr.
John Baptist Point DeSable Sr being informed that several persons have made applications to the court of Common Pleas of this district… to obtain Letters of Administration on the estate of Baptist Point deSable his son deceased—require that according to law the letter of Administration on the Estate of Baptist Point de Sable Jr. may be granted to him and he the said John Baptist Point de Sable is ready to give sufficient security. (signed) J.B.P.S. Louis Tayon A Janis
Louis Tayon and Antoine Janis were both influential men of the community. Janis was even related to Duquette (15) but both men gave security for Pointsable, who may or may not have been in prison when he was finally “informed.”
Sat Feb 11, 1814 Record Book
On motion of John Baptiste Pointsable by David Barton, Esq.…The Court Grant him a letter of adm on the estate of said dec’d. and revoke the letter Granted to H. Hight, Esq.…
Baptiste died sometime before February 11th and the land deeded over to Eulalie DeRoi to care for him that was officially recorded by Hight in August, and for which Hight tried to get custody of as administrator, is now, perplexingly, in the sheriff’s sale on the courthouse steps. (On the undated map copied here, from after 1819 when Rondin was “last seen,” the Block was still owned by Pierre Rondin’s heirs, indicating the shaky nature of these transactions.)
February 18th, 1814 Record Book – Our friend, H. Hight, bought the two properties in the sheriff’s sale. Rufus Easton and H. Hight, as Duquette’s lawyers, and N. Simonds Sheriff, received their money on February 18th. The two sales brought in $116.00 and the lawyers and the sheriff got $110.28—not much to show for an eighteen-year pursuit by Francois Duquette. 26
A Return to Tradition
Returning to the benefits of chronology, there are two handwritten statements by Pointsable and Henry Hight held by the Missouri Historical Society Library and dated the very next day. They fill in at least one gap:
February 19th, 1814 27
I, Jean Baptiste Pointsable under my ordinary mark or signature renounce forever my right to administration on the estate of my deceased son Jean Baptiste Pointsable Junior. Witness my hand and seal the 19th day of February 1814. IBPS Test (witness) her mark Eulalie Barada Deroy
I, Henry Hight bind myself to secure by lease to Jean Baptiste Pointsabre a house in the town of Saint Charles that is to say all my right & title thereto during his natural life whenever there to required. February the 19th 1814. H. Hight Test Eulalie Barada Deroy
This had to have been Baptiste’s house just purchased by Hight that he leased to Pointsable the next day. Pointsable may have had to renounce his rights because of his plea of insolvency and/or because his administration allowed Baptiste’s property to be sold for his debt—or he did so in exchange for the right to live in his son’s house for the rest of his “natural” life, remembering that he was now 74 years old. Also, Hight used the name “Pointsabre” Baptiste’s nickname and Eulalie Barada DeRoy witnessed both men’s statements, as she had the earlier transfer of the house to her. Ironically, Hight—at least in part—redeemed the old tradition of Pointsable living his last days in St. Charles on Decatur Street.
The Insolvent Debtor Rule
Pointsable was again arrested on September 14, 1814, because the sheriff’s sale did not bring in enough to satisfy the judgment…
By Virtue of the within Execution I have taken the body of the within named John Baptist Pointsable and commited him in the jail of the County of St Charles as herein commanded on the fourteenth of Sept 1814 (No good or chattels belonging to the said Pointsable to be found in my Bailiwick) And the said John B. Pointsable was discharged from his confinement in said jaile by Francis Saucier Esq., one of the Judges of the Court of Common Please of said county by virtue of a law concerning Insolvent Debtors on the thirteenth of Oct 1814. Nath. Simonds Sheriff 28
Amazingly, just before Pointsable was arrested, there was another deed signed by “JBPS” on September 2, 1814. (See deeds) The French deed says that “Mr. Pointsable and his son sell….” It concerned a plot of land in Marais Croche and tenant farmers paying in crops and cash. About ten days later Sheriff Simonds said (above) that Pointsable had no goods or chattels “in my Bailiwick.” How legal that sale was is an open question. Pointsable was no longer the administrator of his son’s estate or if the property was in father and son’s name, it should have been included in the Sheriff’s sale. It seems that the father, too, had friends in town. And Pointsable was still declared insolvent less than two weeks later.
The Missouri Insolvency Law said that anyone who “throws himself on the country” could only walk away with “necessary wearing apparel for himself and family.” But the “Eulalie” deed specifically said that household utensils and hogs and chickens went with the house. One could see Pointsable move back into Baptiste’s house across the street from Duquette just for spite. In 1815 a long contested claim for payment for Pointsable’s farm in Peoria abandoned to the British was settled, but whether he went there or whether he actually received any money is unknown. Duquette died at the age of forty-six in February 1816 and Pointsable sold “a parcel of land…on the Marais Croche…containing fifty three arpens of land” in November 1816 to Louis Chancelier where he probably had tenant farmers. The deed says that “Baptiste Point Sabre his heirs” sell, but is, of course, signed by “JBPS”. Pointsable was at least nearby when he died on August 29, 1818, because he was buried at the first St. Charles Borromeo Church cemetery at Main and Jackson Streets the next day.
Remembrances
When Duquette died in 1816, the equally formidable widow Duquette took in boarders in their old mansion. One boarder, Rev. Timothy Flint, described the property: The river spreads out below in a wide and beautiful bay…The trees around the house were literally bending under their load of apples, pears, and yellow Osage plums. 29 With Pierre Rondin living next door in the stone house, it would not have been a bad place to retire. Oddly, though, the 1817 census does not show any “free black men” of their age in town—perhaps they were both out hunting when the census taker came by. If Pointsable had lived one more week, he would have had Madame Rose Philippine Duchesne as his neighbor, as she moved into the old Duquette mansion on September 8, 1818.30 Rondin sold the lot at Second &Decatur less than a month after Pointsable died.
The Missouri Historical Society Library has a file of remembrances of duSable.31 One is from “Louis DeNoya” who remembered that he saw him several times at Duket’s in St. Charles, had a son with him, a mulatto. A Louis Denoyer, son of Charlotte Cardinal to whom Baptiste sold property in 1811, was married at St. Charles Borromeo Church in 1814.32 This remembrance seems to show that Duquette and Pointsable began their relationship with a friendly business deal. Baptiste chose to live next door to Duquette for nine years and Duquette witnessed one of his land transactions.
Another remembrance shows that Pointsable had a successful (undated) trade with Auguste Chouteau in St. Louis earning him considerable money. True or not, he got a good price for selling his home in Chicago and would continue to trade and buy and sell property and have tenant farmers even after being declared insolvent—which almost seems now to be a ploy used to keep from paying Duquette that one disputed bill. It almost seems like a feud between two stubborn men. Maybe that bill was their line in the sand.
To end on another note of irony, make a visit to St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery and notice that Pointsable’s gravestone is in the same row as Duquette’s monument—in direct line of sight—next door neighbors to this very day—though, as the archaeological dig confirmed, Pointsable’s remains were once again “not found in Duquette’s bailiwick.”
Notes:
(1) The SCCHS Archives house many record books from the Court of Common Pleas. Unfortunately, the 1808-1815 Book is the earliest one that survived.
(2) Ben L. Emmons wrote and spoke extensively in the 1920s and 30s on early deeds and the founding of St. Charles. In 1927 he wrote: Historical Sketch of Three Distinguished Pioneer-Day Negroes (Rondin, duSable, and Sina Simonds). His main collection is housed at the Missouri Historical Society Library.
3) The marker at St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery was placed by the Illinois Sesquicentennial Commission in 1968. Olson corresponded with Chicago associations and Haiti families and earned plaques and certificates for her efforts. She wrote four of her Historical Series articles on him.
(4) Jihad Muhammad, ASRI, Tim Baumann, UM-St. Louis, Msgr. Robert McCarthy, Director of Cemeteries for Archdiocese of St. Louis, KRT Productions, Kris Zapalac, Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources, and Carolyn Roth, Archivist at SCCHS, participated in the dig. Pointsable’s remains, along with others buried in the original St. Charles Borromeo Church cemetery between Main and Second at Jackson Street were moved three times. Most remains from early burials there were unidentified.
(5) Two years later, the only site to be using the new birth information: The Search for Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable: A Bio-cultural Study of Chicago’s Founder by Jihad Muhammed, President of ASRI. Professor Baumann did not reveal the name of the colleague who had just found the birth record or exactly where it was found so the colleague could officially break the news himself.
(6) The Circuit Court cases are from 1805-1835 and were preserved, indexed, and microfilmed at the Missouri State Archives under the direction of Lynne Morrow. The indexes are on the SCCHS website.
(7) Jean Baptiste Point Sable: His Life and Times is the original article behind the website Early Chicago by John P. Swenson, 1996 with a 1997 revisopn.
(8) He took the name “Pointsable” as a surname but it is actually a “dit” French nickname.
(9) No actual birth information on the children is known nor what became of Suzanne. There is documentation of a baptism of a child of Suzanne Pelletier at St. Louis in 1799.
(10) The original bill of sale in French is the first item in the Deeds file at SCCHS Archives. There is also a bill of sale JBPS signed in 1795 at “Chikagou” in the first case filed in 1807 but it does not seem to have been part of the case.
(11) These cases are handwritten in English and I have transcribed them. I left spellings as I found them and chose not to use “sic.”
(12) Early Circuit Court Cases Box 3 File 59 1807.
(13) I used a French/English dictionary and basically guessed at a word here and there. Hopefully, someone who can translate Canadian French will take up this research.
(14) A copy of the inventory is in the SCCHS duSable collection. It was dated September 18, 1800 and includes a frame house, a mill, a “bakehouse,” portraits of British royalty, and a lot of livestock.
(15) History of St. Charles County, Missouri (1765-1885)
(16) The Spanish Regime by Louis Houck—has a petition written to the Spanish governor at New Orleans requesting that the small traders of Illinois be allowed to operate in Spanish Territories and is signed by many St. Louis and St. Charles fur traders. There is an anonymous rebuttal saying that the small traders with the Indians in Illinois are bankrupt and they should not be allowed in Spanish Territory and that a political monopoly should be given the business. The two biggest traders in the area did not sign the first document: the Chouteau’s and Duquette—indicating, perhaps, that they aspired to be that monopoly.
(17) Encyclopedia of Chicago website says that Astor’s American Fur Co. established in 1808, wiped out many of the smaller independent traders in the Chicago area. Kinzie was appointed as one of its first agents out of Mackinac Island after he was unable to collect on his lawsuits in St. Charles in 1807.
(18) Early Circuit Court Cases Box 4. Folders 32, 40, 43, 47. In one case he calls himself “John Kinzie and Company” and in three cases “John Kinzie and Robert Forsythe,” a step brother.
(19) Emmons, in his newspaper articles on deeds (SCCHS “Emmons” file) said that many early land transactions are lost and what is there often does not match up with the surveys as we know them. He says his translations of deeds are in his collection at the Missouri Historical Society Library. “Pointsabre” also purchased Block 72 (Second & Clay) but it is not part of the cases.
(20) Deeds I found at the Recorder of Deeds office
1805—Pierre Rondin bought land from Baptiste Petite in Marais Croche
1811, Feb 2 – “Jean Baptiste Point Sabre fils” (no JBPS) sold land to Charlotte Cardinal “Laflamme or “Espouse de Laflamone” by St. Charles Prairie Commons/farmland.
1813, June 21—JBPS donates “Point Sabre” land to Eulalie Barada—three lots (Block 96)
1814, Sept 2—JBPS signed over son’s tenant land in Marais Croche to Joseph Garvais just before the sheriff’s sale.
1816, Nov 6—JBPS sold 53 arpens of land at Marais Croche to Chancelier after Duquette died.
1818, Sept 20—Rondin sells lot at 2nd & Decatur to Jean Baptiste Cote.
(21) St. Charles Borromeo by Jo Ann Brown says that from 1813-1816 the church was without a priest. Only four burials were recorded for 1814 and only one had the priest Dunand in attendance Dunand came back to St. Charles specifically to bury Duquette in 1816. The priest left because the Americans refused to pay his upkeep as the Spanish had done. Carbonneaux was an official of the church handling burials.
(22) The Journal of a Fur-Trading Expedition on the Upper Missouri, 1812-1813 by John C. Luttig, Clerk of the Missouri Fur Company
(23) Discovering Lewis & Clark, Manuel Lisa’s Fort Raymond (website). Also, Luttig’s journal, Footnote 157 says that this was not Sacagawea but another of Charbonneau’s native wives, though it was Sacagawea on an 1811 Lisa Expedition according to a journal of that expedition written by Henry Brackenridge (also on line). While still debated, most researchers feel this was her death record in 1813.
(24) Early Circuit Court Cases: Box 12, Folder 9
(25) Early Circuit Court case: Box 15, Folder 26
(26) End notes in Early Circuit Court Cases: Box 12, Folder 9
(27) Missouri Historical Society Library card file under “Pointsable” and “duSable.” There is also an affidavit from L. Chancillier saying that he had applied to be administrator of Baptiste’s estate before he knew about Hight’s “designs.” To lease the house to Baptiste’s father for the rest of his “natural life?”
(28) The sheriff charged the courts: Travil to take prisoner before Judge 12 miles…13 October 1814. Was he taken to Judge Saucier in Portage des Sioux to be legally released or was he held elsewhere?
(29) Pierre Rondin was on the tax lists for St. Charles District—but not a Pointsable: 1805—Perre (free negro), 1807—Peere Randy, 1809—Pierre Rondy. Emmons article (above) on Rondin says that “his last appearance in St. Charles was in 1819.”
(30) St. Charles Borromeo by Jo Ann Brown—Madame Duchesne is quoted in her first letters from St. Charles as saying that the rent charged by Madame Duquette “was exorbitant.”
(31) Missouri Historical Society Library Forsyth Papers (Box 4 N.D.) From Draper’s notes Vol. 22. Olson has a quote in her files that “Grigon” said that Pointsable “drank freely” and that he “caroused with the Indians”—a description often used for the inhabitants of early French Petite Cotes.
(32) St. Charles Borromeo Church records. (An unsigned article in the SCCHS collection says: “Pointsable” signed an affidavit in St. Charles in 1809 where he calls himself “Baptiste Point Sable, a free mulatto man,” leading to some confusion, but it was Baptiste who was of mixed parentage, making it the son documented in St. Charles in 1809, not his father.)
(33) The duSable collection at SCCHS Archives has a copy of Pointsable’s account at an Indiana Territory trading post and the website for Antoine Reynal Family Papers and Olson say that Pointsable had an account with Reynal’s St. Charles Fur Company started in 1808, though the Fur Company, itself, is controversial and it may have been Baptiste, not Jean.
Acknowledgements—I would like to thank Carrol Geerling, Carolyn Roth, Maureen Rogers-Bouxsein, and Bill Popp for their editing assistance.
Undated Early map of St. Charles at SCCHS Archives
1) Traditionally, duSable owned the stone house at the corner of Second and Decatur that was later sold to Governor McNair but that lot and stone house belonged to Pierre Rondin, another free black man. That lot is show on several old maps as being in Block 63 and was only one lot in the French style of 60 x 300 in the Block. (2) According to this map, Rondin also owned all of Block 96 and according to Emmons sold it to “deSabre” in 1805—which better fits the dimensions in the deed for the land donated to Eulalie Barada and then sold at the sheriff’s auction: “3 ordinary lots of 120 x 150” with a neighbor in one lot and bordering the Commons, the house was of the French log style, was bounded on the east by Third Street, and was directly across from Duquette’s residence. (3)Duquette’s home placed where the book St. Charles Borromeo by JoAnn Brown, shows it to have been. Block’s 94, 95, 65, 64 now Sacred Heart and Borromeo.)
