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Subject: Lucius R. Darling undoubtedly lived in the Bartlett neighborhood.
Date: 7 May 2003 13:46:31 -0600

This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list.

Surnames: Darling, Bourbonne, Holcomb, Chevalier, Wilmet, LaFrombois, Beaubien, Chopo, Verreydt, DeSmit
Classification: Biography

Message Board URL:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/ok.2ADE/2074

Message Board Post:

Mr. Maritt: I'm going to start posting on this current page. That way, I won't have to look up where our old postings are found.

I had said that I would back-track on old notes, hoping to uncover leads I had passed over originally. For no particular reason, I started with Note No. 3 as designated on my post of 26 Sep 2001--that is, the baptism of William, son of L.R. Darling, on June 9, 1838. This note comes from what is called "The St. Joseph Register", kept by the Jesuits who had been named to man that mission at present day Council Bluffs, Iowa. I was very surprised to see what laid just beyond what had been my first very superficial reading. But, this added information only comes from detailed notice, so here goes.

This register has eight columns per entry, four on the left hand page and four on the right hand. The Jesuits were supposed to record the following information: (Oh, yes, it is all in Latin--which I studied in a two-year course in Sidney High School 60 years ago--so be sure to keep this in mind! even though I will try to be as accurate as possible.)

LEFT HAND PAGE:
Column one: "Tempus", or the date.
Column two: "Nomen Baptisati", or the name of the person being baptized.
Column three: "Parentum", or the parents of the person baptized.
Column four: "Patrinorum", or the names of the godparents.

RIGHT HAND PAGE:
Column five: "Loci", or the place where the baptism took place.
Column six: "rationis obquas ceremonia omissa" , or the reason if the baptismal ceremony had been omitted.
Column seven: "quo suppleta", or on what date was the supplication for baptism made.
Column eight: "atas", or the age of the person being baptized.

The very first baptisms made by the Jesuits at St. Joseph were made on June 9, 1838, just nine days after arriving at The Issue House, at The Council Bluffs, from aboard the Missouri river steamboat WILMINGTON on May 31, 1838.

Now consider that names of the parents of those being baptized on June 9: (1) Petrus Bourbonne and Mary Holcomb; (2) Medard and Mesnokwe; (3) Petrus Chevalier and Kiwete; (4) Lucius R. Darling and Elizabeth Wilmet; (5) Louis Wilmet and Alkont Nahoki; (6) Petrus J. LaFromboise and Lucinta Jauns.

About BOURBONNE: I know they had a wood yard on the Missouri; had a place of "public accommodation"; lived in the very southwestern corner of present day Mills county, Iowa, not very far north of Bartlett, Iowa.
About "MEDARD": This man needs to be identified as Medart B. Beaubien, who received annuity payments as a member of Waubonsie's band; he returned to Chicago to live out his life and is remembered there as being the "handsomest man that was ever in Chicago"; his claim to a large section of downtown Chicago became a celebrated cause in that city's history...His daughter's godfather was one LaFrombois.
About CHEVALIER: He was sixty years old, and the son of Pier Chevalier and (and the famous?) Chopo. Archangela Chevalier was his sister.
About WILMET: This is a phonetic spelling of Quilmette, and is known today in Chicago, from the suburb named Wilmette.
About LaFROMBOIS: This family had been very prominent in Potowatamie history for some time by the 1830's.

There is little doubt in my mind, now, that this was very important as a social event, and was chosen to emphasis the presence of the Jesuits at St. Joseph's Mission. Of the two Jesuits priests at the mission--Verreydt and DeSmit--DeSmit went on to become one of the most recognizable Jesuit in America. Verreydt superintended the opening of St. Mary's School, in Kansas, in 1848-49, where the St Joseph Registers are found.

The "loci" is given as "Potowatamie" in all cases, meaning the baptisms took place in Potowatamie Country. But it wasn't until June 12, 1838 that the Jesuits baptized in the northernmost part of The Council Bluffs--which we know because one of the godparents on that day was Caldwell, the chief who lived in the present day city of Council Bluffs. His band formed a buffer between the hostile Sioux and the Potowatamie.

It is very obvious that these first baptisms in southwestern Iowa took place in families who lived on both sides of what is now the present line between Mills and Fremont counties. I have known for a long time that there had been Half-Breed farms around the area where Bartlett was later laid out, and have wondered if Lucius Darling was one of them. NOW I KNOW that he was.

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