A French Aristocrat in the American West: The Shattered Dreams of De Lassus De Luzières

Part II: Source Documents

Part II Source Documents Most of the letters and documents presented below were written by de Lu‑ zièresbetween1793and1804,duringwhichentiretimehelivedintheMississippi River valley; a handful were written by other persons but pertain directly to de Luzières, his dreams, his plans, and his activities. De Luzières’s correspondence emanated overwhelmingly from his residence at New Bourbon in Spanish Illinois , although he wrote a scattering of letters from other locales in the MississippiValley —New Orleans,St.Louis,and New Madrid.I selected documents that are illustrative of de Luzières’s life and work on the Mississippi frontier, and, more important, those that illuminate the larger geopolitical and cultural scene in the region at a critical time period, when the Spanish regime in Louisiana was crumbling and Americans were in droves pushing up to the Mississippi River from the east. I translated all documents from French originals , except de Luzières’s recruitment pamphlet (document no. 17), which he had translated into English before having it printed and distributed in Lexington , Kentucky. The documents appear in chronological order. 116 A French Aristocrat in the American West No. 1 De Luzières had been in New Orleans for several weeks when he addressed this letter to Governor Carondelet. He sketches out plans for bringing his family to the Mississippi Valley from Pittsburgh, as well as the French immigrants recently settled at Gallipolis on the upper Ohio River. His proposals for stimulating development in Upper Louisiana were fleshed out in his next letter (see below). De Luzières got back to the Illinois Country from New Orleans in August 1793 and immediately set to work overseeing construction of his residence at New Bourbon . His family finally arrived there safely from Pittsburgh in February 1794. François Vallé was first citizen of Ste. Genevieve and soon to become commandant . Israel Dodge had immigrated from the east side of the Mississippi and was one of the foremost citizens of New Bourbon. Bartholomé Tardiveau was de Lu‑ zières’s business partner. De Lassus de Luzières to Carondelet Papeles de Cuba, legajo 214, Archivo General de Indies, Seville (henceforth this collection will be cited simply as PC [Papeles de Cuba] followed by the legajo number) New Orleans, April 30, 1793 Monsieur le Baron: The spot where I’m proposing to build my residence, and where verily the principal families of farmers from Gallipolis will also settle, will be called New Bourbon. This is part of a concession originally granted to Monsieur François Vallé of Ste. Genevieve, who in turn ceded it to Sieur [Israel] Dodge, who in turn ceded half of it to Monsieur [Bartholémé] Tardiveau, who in turn ceded it to me as a gift. I beg Your Excellency to approve and accept the primitive transmissions of title for this concession. On this portion of farmsteads, already granted by the government, I intend to introduce the productive method of agriculture employed in the Chatellerie de Bouchain, province of French Hainault, our former and common homeland [patrie] But independently of this I wish to work with Your Excellency to seek out mines for lead and other minerals in the Illinois. I wish to employ practical and advantageous methods to exploit them as is done in Germany and Savoy. I beg Your Excellency to authorize Monsieur Zénon Trudeau, commandant [i.e., lieutenant governor] of the Illinois, . . . to grant to me the land where I will find the said mines, together with surrounding land sufficient to permit their exploitation, always provided that it has not been previously granted to others. I’ve brought with me to America Monsieur Derbigny, my son-in-law, his wife and their child, as well as my two youngest sons [Jacques-Marcellin-Léon Source Documents 117 1. See Gilbert C. Din and A. P. Nasatir, The Imperial Osages: Spanish-Indian Diplomacy in the Mississippi Valley (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1983), passim; also William E. Foley and C. David Rice, The First Chouteaus: River Barons of Early St. Louis (Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 1983), 45–59; Frederick A. Hodes, Beyond the Frontier: A History of St. Louis to 1821 (Tucson: Patrice Press, 2004), 252–55; Tanis C. Thorne, The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996), 91–97. and Philippe-François-Camille], all of whom will surely come to join me next autumn...