Post by Robert Braun on Mar 15, 2005 16:22:12 GMT -5
Close readers of the Black Hawk War and these pages will recall the name of "Paschal Bequette in asscoiation with the fight at Bloody Lake (Horseshoe Bend) in June 1832. In this action, hisotry noted that Bequette broke his sword.
However... the fact that Bequette was acquainted with Dodge may well have been more than coincidence...
Bequette was born in on October 24, 1805 to Jean Baptiste Bequette and Louise Mesplait in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. (Dodge was 23 when Bequette was born; Dodge's first daughter Nancy was born that same year.)
Bequette's paternal relatives came from Canada, while his mother's side hailed from Creole New Orleans. Obviously, Bequette grew up speaking French, and soon learned to speak English fluently. He learned the merchant trade in Ste. Genevieve and also ran a store at Mine La Motte. He emigrated to the Lead District and commenced merchandizing and lead smelting at Mineral Point. He was among the first to answer Dodge's call for volunteers in the Spring of 1832 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
After the BHW ended, Bequette married Elizabeth Piety Dodge on November 25, 1832 at Dodge's Grove, Iowa County, Wisconsin. The couple had nine children-- and the Dodge family was well represented in the Children's names: Henry Dodge Bequette; Lewis Linn Bequette; Mary Louisa Bequette; Christiana Adele Bequette; Elizabeth Augusta Bequette; Paschal Bequette II (how'd THAT sneak in there?
) Virginia Jospehine Bequette; Francis Rudolph Bequette; and Salina Gertrude Bequette.
The family lived in Wisconsin for twenty years in either Dodgeville or Diamond Grove, and engaged in a variety of enterprises. In 1852, after having ammassed a tidy fortune as "Receiver of Public Moneys" during the tide of land sales in the late 1830s and 1840s, the Bequettes beacme "Argonauts" and moved to California in 1852, riding the tide of the Gold Rush... never to return to Wisconsin.
---Source: Louisa Bradley Watson, "Paschal Bequette History."
However... the fact that Bequette was acquainted with Dodge may well have been more than coincidence...
Bequette was born in on October 24, 1805 to Jean Baptiste Bequette and Louise Mesplait in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. (Dodge was 23 when Bequette was born; Dodge's first daughter Nancy was born that same year.)
Bequette's paternal relatives came from Canada, while his mother's side hailed from Creole New Orleans. Obviously, Bequette grew up speaking French, and soon learned to speak English fluently. He learned the merchant trade in Ste. Genevieve and also ran a store at Mine La Motte. He emigrated to the Lead District and commenced merchandizing and lead smelting at Mineral Point. He was among the first to answer Dodge's call for volunteers in the Spring of 1832 and rose to the rank of Lieutenant.
After the BHW ended, Bequette married Elizabeth Piety Dodge on November 25, 1832 at Dodge's Grove, Iowa County, Wisconsin. The couple had nine children-- and the Dodge family was well represented in the Children's names: Henry Dodge Bequette; Lewis Linn Bequette; Mary Louisa Bequette; Christiana Adele Bequette; Elizabeth Augusta Bequette; Paschal Bequette II (how'd THAT sneak in there?
) Virginia Jospehine Bequette; Francis Rudolph Bequette; and Salina Gertrude Bequette. The family lived in Wisconsin for twenty years in either Dodgeville or Diamond Grove, and engaged in a variety of enterprises. In 1852, after having ammassed a tidy fortune as "Receiver of Public Moneys" during the tide of land sales in the late 1830s and 1840s, the Bequettes beacme "Argonauts" and moved to California in 1852, riding the tide of the Gold Rush... never to return to Wisconsin.
---Source: Louisa Bradley Watson, "Paschal Bequette History."