Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Who Do You Think You Are?

By Joann M. Ringelstetter

Ten years ago, in late April, 2008, Ruth and I took a 9-day trip to Missouri and Arkansas to photograph in the Ozarks for the first time. On the 9th day, we had a lot of ground to cover and spent the morning making our way to what would be our last stop, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, before hitting the highway home.

Ste. Genevieve is a city of about 4,400 located approximately 60 miles south of St. Louis. It was founded in 1735 by French Canadians and is the oldest permanent European settlement in Missouri, which became a state in 1821. Unfortunately, it was already around 1:00 p.m. when we arrived, and we knew it would take us about 8 hours to get home from there. So, we had to work quickly.


We stopped at the first brick building west of the Mississippi River (shown above), which was built circa 1785. Historical information from the Old Brick House Restaurant said, "The Old Brick House was erected by John Price, local merchant and ferry boat operator between Ste. Genevieve and Kaskaskia. Tradition has it that the bricks were brought from France in boats as ballast. The building was also the site of the first Territorial Court in the District."

Ste. Genevieve's Historic District is said to contain 29 types of architecture, with some buildings dating back to the late 1700's. The Bequette-Ribault House, built by Jean-Baptiste Bequette, Sr. in 1808, is noted for its “poteaux-en-terre” construction, or “posts-in-the-earth,” a reference to its vertical logs built directly into the ground. Five such “poteaux-en-terre” structures remain in the United States, and Ste. Genevieve is home to three such buildings.


We also visited the Louis Bolduc House, a French Colonial "poteaux sur solle" or "posts on sill" vertical log house that was built circa 1792 by Louis Bolduc. Bolduc was a prosperous French Canadian lead miner, merchant, and trader.


The Bolduc House, which is now a museum, is a National Historic Landmark. It is surrounded by a stockade fence, which would have been used to keep the animals away from the house. The steep hip roof covers an enclosed porch, which was called a “galerie.” The galerie was beautiful with rustic wooden shutters on the windows and antique barrels and tools displayed.


All of these structures from the 1700s were impressive, but my favorite place was the Church of Ste. Genevieve. Founded in 1759, Ste. Genevieve Parish is the oldest parish west of the Mississippi. The current church is the third one erected on this site, with the main body of the church being completed in 1880.


There was one more very special place we visited before leaving around 4:30 p.m. It was another "poteaux sur solle" home built circa 1790 by Francois Janis and known since 1804 as the Green Tree Tavern. The house is a National Historic Landmark and is one of the oldest surviving original structures in Ste. Genevieve. In November 1807, it was the site of the first meeting of Louisiana Lodge #109, the first Masonic Lodge west of the Mississippi River. Also known as the Janis-Ziegler House, it is thought to be the oldest residence in the state.


I didn’t realize just how special the Green Tree Tavern was until I watched an episode of the show “Who Do You Think You Are?” on the TLC Channel in April, 2015. It featured Grammy-winning musician and activist Melissa Etheridge, who was searching for the history of her mother’s French Canadian ancestors. The show starts with Melissa saying that her father grew up in a family of migrant farmers in a small town near St. Louis, Missouri.

She traces her five-times-great-grandfather, Nicholas Janis who left Quebec, Canada, traveled the Great Lakes and then down the Ohio River to Kaskaskia, which is now in Randolph County, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Ste. Genevieve. At that time, Kaskaskia was a strategic trading hub in the French Territory. Nicholas was an experienced fur trader.


In 1787, after the French lost their territory east of the Mississippi in a battle with Great Britain, Nicholas, at age 67, decided to move his family across the Mississippi to the colony of Louisiana, which was then governed by Spain. He and his family moved only a few miles to Ste. Genevieve, but they crossed an international boundary, making them “immigrants from the United States.” In 1796, Nicholas gave his entire estate (the house, barn, stable, garden, and orchard) to his son Francois.

In the last few minutes of the show, as Melissa Etheridge speaks with a local historian about this, he tells her that the house from the estate that Nicholas turned over to his son is still there and arranges for her to go see it. As she drives up to the house, I realize that it’s the Green Tree Tavern! It’s only shown for a few seconds, but I know it immediately, especially because I remember the water pump that I had seen at the back corner of the house. If you look closely at the photo above, you will see it (shown close-up below).


The show ends with Melissa saying, “I have a strong belief that the influence of your ancestors, that influence of their journeys, of their adventures, of their thoughts, of their dreams, are handed down through traditions, through ways that we don’t even know.”

I agree with Melissa. Our ancestors worked hard, suffered greatly, had the courage to take chances, and lived their lives to the best of their abilities to establish a foundation for future generations. We owe them a debt of gratitude.


This episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” was produced by Shed Media. All content is copyrighted by Wall to Wall Media Limited.

Happy Shunpiking!
Joann

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4 comments:

  1. Thank you for once again capturing so poignantly the importance of linking the past to our present! I love old structures and have often wished that those walls could tell their tales.

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  2. Thanks for this very interesting story and the wonderful photos. We never really explored that part of Missouri while we lived in that state since we lived to far away (in St Joseph in the far northwest corner). I think we need to do some exploring in that part of the state!

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    1. Meant to say "so far away..." not "to far away".

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  3. As usual wonderful! The next time I am down that way, I will have to look at the buildings. :)

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