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Note: TOULOUSE (By Charles Strong) Parents of Jefferson Toulouse unknown at present. Supposedly they came from Toulouse, France during the "Reign of Terror" about 1795 and settled in Canada. It is thought their name was originally Raymond and they changed it to Toulouse when they came to North America. The Margaret Scott family have information in their family genealogy of a book named "History of the Raymonds" compiled by Samuel Raymond of Brooklyn, N. Y. and published by the press of J. J. Little and Co., Astor Place, N. Y. around 1886. A copy of this book was loaned to Muzetta Rudat by a Mr. Raymond who lived in San Rafael. Names found in this book were names of relatives of Margaret Ursula Scott. Those included were her sisters, Eliza, Ida May, Mary, Teresa, Rebecca and the name of Margaret Ursula Toulouse Scott. Jefferson Toulouse (was) born Sept 15, 1805 at Detroit, Mich. (He) died at the age of 84 in Harrison Twp., Wis. on Apr. 29, 1890. Burial (was) at Swaledale, Ia., Cerro Gordo county. We sent to the National Archives at Washington, D. C. trying to find out something about the Toulouse family. The only Toulouse resembling our family was Jeffrois, who fought in the Black Hawk War. When we requested this information they sent us letters written Nov. 7, 1850 in which Jefferson states he was enlisted in the army in 1832 under the name of Jeffrois, which he was commonly called. (On John Toulouse's marriage certificate his parents names were listed and the name Jefferson agrees with this name.) At the time he entered the army Jefferson could not understand English well so he had trouble giving his correct name. In 1850 when the letters where written he was still unable to write so the letters were notarized and signed with his X mark. These letters were written for the purpose of obtaining the bounty land to which he was entitled under a law passed Sept. of 1850. According to a letter dated Mar 31, 1855, Jefferson had received 40 acres of bounty land and legally disposed of it. He made a new application for bounty land under the Act of 3, 30, 1855. The papers show nothing else on bounty land so we assume his application must have been denied. The information on these papers show he enlisted at Galena, Ill, May 27, 1832. Jefferson fought as a private under Cpt. Gear of the Ill. Vol, commanded by Col. James Strode in the Black Hawk War and served until Sept 6, 1832. As a young man Jefferson was a fur trapper for the American Fur Co. It is thought he trapped in Montana. In the 1st census of the original county of Dubuque and Des Moines, made July 1836, a Jeffrey Toolose is listed with family of 1 female over 21 in the household and 1 female under 21. According to the information received from Helen Jones Jentz of Platteville, Wis., the eldest daughter was born near Dubuque, Ia. The time of their move to Potosi, Wis. is unknown, but we do know they were living there by 1839 when my grandfather, John Toulouse was born. Rebecca Droullard was born Aug 13, 1816 and died Feb 27, 1900 with burial at Guthrie, Okla. In the Grant co. census of 1850 Rebecca was said to have been born in Ohio. From the marriage record book of Jo Daviess co., Rebecca Droullard and Jefferson Toulouse were married by Rivers Cormack, minister of the gospel, the 1st day of Dec. 1833. After her husband's death, Rebecca lived for a time with her son John. Later she went to Guthrie to live with her daughter, Rebecca Schwab. Her son Pete T. was also living in Guthrie. In papers for application of a widow's pension in 1892, Rebecca states she was married in her sister's home in the presence of her sister and husband, Emerson Huppman (1), who were both dead at the time of the application. Rebecca also was unable to write & these papers were signed with her X mark. According to the records she received a pension of $8 a mo. from July 27, 1892 until her death in 1900 at Guthrie, Oklahoma. (Comments--R. Droullard--This document was received from Francis A. Droullard on January 7, 1991. He received it from Lester Carney III on Christmas Eve 1990. (1) This name is most likely wrong. Rebecca would have been 17 years old at the time of her marriage to Jefferson Toulouse. Her two older sisters Mary and Barsheba were married to husbands named Amyson Chapman (m.1826) and Joseph Burnett (m.1829) in the same order. Of the two, Amyson Chapman sounds the most like "Emerson Huppman".) OBITUARY OF JEFFERSON TOULOUSE SR. One of the early Indian Traders, Jefferson Toulouse whose name is familiar to all the early settlers of Grant County, died at the home of his son-in-law, Barney VanNatta, in the town of Harrison, on Tuesday, Apr 29, 1890, at the advanced age of 85 years. His illness was brief and thought to be (not) serious until the end came. In company with his venerable wife, they had been spending the winter among their Wisconsin children, grandchildren and old neighbors and expected soon to return to their Iowa home where they have resided for the last 11 years, when death, the unwelcome guest, came upon him. Mr. Toulouse was a man of remarkable physical endurance and of a genial joyous disposition always hopeful and happy, contented with his lot, whatever that might have been. He was born at Detroit, Mich., Sept 15, 1805; when two years of age he was taken to Montreal, Lower Canada, where he learned the patois of the country and indulged in the enjoyment of all the sports and pastimes which constitute the happiness of the young and old who are brought up in the French provinces. At the age of 20, in company with other young and active French boys he engaged his services to the North American Fur Co. and commenced travel as a voyageur and traded through the wilds of the Northwest. These voyageurs carried heavy burdens of goods upon their athletic shoulders and on foot traversed long distances over dry plains, dark dense forests and among streams, lakes and mountains which still reposed in the solitude of creation undisturbed by the sound of human voice or print of human foot, save the wild Indians, if they may be so classed. After a service of 7 years in the employ Roulette and Dousman of Prairie du Chien who were in charge of this famous Fur Co., Mr. Toulouse sought a change from the hardships of his nomadic life and in the year 1833, having previously served in the Black Hawk War, he located a homestead on Turkey River, opposite Cassville, then an Indian out-post. Two years later, in 1835 he came over to the lead mines and engaged in mining and smelting down in Rigsby Hollow. This place was one of the first settlements in the town of Potosi and besides the smelting furnace contained (too faint to decipher) of which is now left to mark the site. His employers were .Messrs. Camp and Scholivia, smelters of that early day, both of whom have gone hence and long since forgotten. About this time Mr. Toulouse married Miss Rebecca Droullard who, at the age of 75 years, is still living in comparative good health. In this union, she became the mother of 11 children - 6 girls and 5 boys, 9 of whom, Mrs. Mary Rech of Harrison, Wis., Rebecca Schwab of Sheffield, Iowa; John, Peter and Jefferson Toulouse, of Swaledale, Iowa, Eliza, wife of Henry VanNatta, and Theresa wife of Barney VanNatta, of the town of Hurricane, are still living to mourn the death of the good old man, their father, who in the fulness of years has been called to rest. The remains were taken, on Thursday, to Swaledale. Iowa, where his children lie buried, and where he desired to be placed by their side. Mr. Toulouse was the last of a small colony of Canadian French who came to the mines at an early date and have left many imprints of their presence. There were the Guyons, the Montpleasures, the Gotiers, the Robideaus, the Coniques and several other families, some of whom had been in the employ of the American Fur Co. and some had come down from Pembine on the Red River. They were light-hearted, fun loving people and scarcely a week passed in which a dance, a wedding or a gay party of some kind did not take place within their cabins. The death of this patriarch of the early settlers of the mines, vividly recalls the scenes which transpired here now nearly fifty years ago. Then a boy myself, I witnessed their pastimes and rural sports with scarce less delight than they themselves took in them. Their homes were indeed crude and inexpensive, but places of neatness, comfort and pleasantness, and many of them recalled that Arcadian life of bliss which once marked the early settlements of this race of people. Pictures of the Madonna and the beloved saints adorned the walls of their dwellings while vines clambered around the white curtained windows and over the porch where they took their evening siesta. The door yard and garden near at hand clustered with gayest flowers which filled the evening air with their sweet scented breath and gave a quaint charm to these idyllic homes of the first settlers. Deprived of the adornments of art and the lavishment (the obituary is torn here and we know of no way to find what the lines say). The obituary continues - It was among such primitive rural scenes as these happy, contented and beloved by family and friends, Jefferson Toulouse passed his younger years - and having been permitted to see nearly 3 generations of his friends and kindred pass to the life beyond, at last, the old voyageur in this wilderness of woe, has laid his burden down, passed over the dark river and gone to that undiscovered country where his ________ de voyage await to bid him welcome and where the weary are at rest. Peace to his name. This obituary was sent by Mildred I. Krohn of Lancaster, Wis. One of her aunts loaned her the copy which was taken from an unknown newspaper of that day. Mildred Krohn is the county clerk of Grant County, Wis. She is a descendant of Mary Toulouse Rech. (Comments--R. Droullard--This document was received from Francis A. Droullard January 7, 1991 and re-typed to diskette. It includes a picture of Jefferson and Rebecca Droullard Toulouse).
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