On the Frontier

On the evening of February 7, 1807, Father Jean-Baptiste Marchand sat in the small chapel of Saint Jean-Baptiste at Amherstburg, Western Canada and recorded the second baptism of Godfroi Raymond. After his early birth in September 1806, his survival was in doubt, and he was given the baptism rites of an infant not expected to live.

Godfroi did survive and lived a long, full life. As a fur trader for John Astor's North American Fur Company and soldier in the Black Hawk War, he was called a more English version of his name, Jeffrois Toulouse, . And, on moving to frontier Wisconsin and marrying, he became known as Jefferson Toulouse.

Over one-hundred-fifty years before Father Marchand scribbled Godfroi's baptism record, in 1687, a twenty-three-year-old French solider, Jean-Bertrand Raymond et Toulouse stepped off a troop ship; and, within a month, was fighting Iroquois warriors for his survival.

Jean-Bertrand married and his children settled at La Prairie on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, near Montreal. Three generations of Jean-Bertrand's descendants worked to became one of the most successful voyageur fur trading families. They would suffer and endure continued Indian attacks and the atrocities of the French and Indian War. But, would also travel as far west as today's Winnipeg and as far south as Iowa. And, in the fourth generation, a "second son" would move to frontier Detroit.

That pioneer's son, Jefferson Toulouse, married another descendant of French origin, Rebecca Drouillard. The couple had eleven children and suffered the tragedy of losing a seven-year-old son. The surviving ten children all married and found success, some by farming in southwest Wisconsin, others by striking out to the "boomer" land rush in Indian Territory, farming in Iowa, homesteading in frontier Montana and South Dakota, pioneering a Sonoma County, California ranch or helping build frontier Spokane. Each had their own challenges to overcome, and they and their children helped build America in the early 1900s.