We have been living on the lands of the Shareholders of the Ohio Company

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

“Note: Gallipolis is a newly built town on the banks of the Ohio,
across from the mouth of the Great Kanawha River, in the territory north west of the Ohio River, United States of America.

“You must have received news of us through Mr. Monnot, who is supposed to come back to America. We haven’t heard anything from him yet, about which we are sorry. That means one fewer worthy citizen in the Colony. Besides, they have distributed land to the inhabitants of Gallipolis and, since he isn’t here anymore, he won’t be able to have any. It’s too bad for him the distribution is over, if he really intends to come back here.¹

“Each colonist here owns 207 acres of land on the banks of the Ohio. We owe this present to the Congress,² you probably know that the Scioto Company went bankrupt. There are three of us; my husband Marest and our two sons,³ Joseph and Pierre Marest, each owning 217 acres, which amounts to 651 acres for the family. The land-surveyors are presently at work measuring the lots.⁴

“Until now, we have been living on the lands of the Shareholders of the Ohio Company, which leads us to hope that we will get the lands we are occupying. To get this letter to you, since I am already worried about the one I entrusted to Mr. Monnot, I am taking advantage of the trip of a trusty young man named Joitot,⁵ a friend of mine, who is going back to France to visit his family; he will present you with a beautiful Bison skin as a gift from us.

“The country where we are has an abundance of all kinds of game: wild turkeys especially are so numerous that Joseph, by himself, since the beginning of July, that is to say in less than three months, has killed more than 200. The turkeys weigh 16 to 18 pounds, some as much as 30 pounds. Joseph and Pierre do a lot of fishing, which brings variety to our menus.

“For besides turkeys, there are, as meat, lots of deer, bears, buffaloes and doves. But since the streams are teeming with fish, we prefer that catch, as it is much easier. Joseph and Pierre have caught 12 fish in a single day. Each of these fish weighed 16 or 18 pounds; some fifty-pounders were caught, and even one 88-pounder; all that is caught by angling, and one becomes good at it easily when there is hope of such total success.⁶

“We hear from our eldest, my dear Marest. He probably has been affected by the fire at the Cape.⁷ He was at the time in the offices of the Administration.

“Felicite is very well established, married to a 26-year-old man, who comes from a good family, very clever and well educated.⁸ Before the revolution, he was an officer in the Queen’s regiment, where his father was a captain. The family is from Epernay, in Champagne, their name D’Hebecourt. Felicite’s husband is a commander in our militia. He receives forty dollars a month.⁹

“The dollar is worth just a little less than 50 sols tournois and 3 deniers.¹⁰ As for my husband Marest, he is a soldier, as are his two sons, and between the three of them, they make twenty dollars a month. Besides that, my husband is a baker, so we live a respectable and comfortable life.

“None of us has been ill since we left France.

“Deer meat is worth 1 sol 6 deniers a pound. Bear meat is between 2 and 3 sols a pound. Medium-sized turkeys go for 12 sols and 9 sols, and the smaller ones, which weigh only 4 or 5 pounds, go for 6 sols apiece. Meat at the butcher’s is 3 sols a pound. Pork is the same.

“The climate here is not bad at all for us, although it is very cold in the winter and very hot in the summer.

“Poverty doesn’t exist here.

“Sugar is 2 shillings a pound, coffee and chocolate three shillings. Bread is 2 sols 6 deniers a pound. But at the height of summer, there are short periods of drought when the mills can’t grind, and then bread goes up to 4 sols a pound.

“Wine isn’t common, yet it can be obtained everywhere easily if you are willing to pay. What you get is wine from Madeira. It costs about half a dollar a bottle, about a petit ecu. French brandy is worth the same price. Whisky or apple brandy is 12 sols a bottle. Peach brandy, which is excellent, is worth 24 sols tournois or 2 shillings.

“Some of our colonists make wine and sell it for 4 shillings a gallon (a gallon contains 4 bottles Paris-size).¹¹

“We don’t need to be afraid of the savages any more, peace was signed with them last month.¹²

“Good cheese is worth 9 sols a pound. Butter 12. Eggs right now are 1 sol apiece, and 8 deniers in the summer. A hen is worth 12 sols, chicken 9 sols, ducks 4 sols 4 deniers. Hens lay eggs all year round except for moulting season, and they set 3 or 4 times a year. A six-month-old pullet begins to lay eggs and it broods right away, and sometimes a nine-month-old pullet has had two broods.

“Clothes are expensive here, but it doesn’t bother us, because people dress informally here.

“Felicite is as tall as I am, but of a much bigger build. She is a good-looking woman with a pretty face. You wouldn’t recognize her; she swims like a fish, she speaks English well. She may have the pleasure of seeing you again soon, since her husband is still thinking of going back to France to see his family, and since they own property there, they may stay.

“As for my other children, Joseph, Pierre, Madeline, Marianne and Eulalie, they have but one desire, to stay here, and my daughters often wish their cousins would come over too. As for good Marosteau,¹³ be sure to tell him that laborers are scarce here; they earn half a dollar or 50 sols. Because it’s easy to find work here, it’s possible for a laborer to set money aside; but the lazy ones, let me tell you, they would be even less well-off here than in France.

“Our crops are corn, wheat, melons, cucumbers in abundance, pumpkins, turnips, potatoes. One has trouble growing onions, but parsnips, carrots, beans, peas, leeks and cabbages do very well.¹⁴

“Hard cider isn’t expensive. Peach trees bear a lot of fruit, and fruit trees grow so fast that a peach stone planted in the ground will produce a tree in four years, which bears fruit as early as that 4th year. Peaches are most useful: they are made into brandy and a kind of wine; they are dried for the winter and, cooked with a little maple sugar, they make excellent stewed fruit.

“Could you possibly have the following sent to me in a small crate (but as cheap as possible): manna, emetic, some hipecanuana in a small bottle, also in small bottles 3 or 4 ounces of jalap, in a leather pouch 2 curved combs, 2 ivory ones, 2 ordinary snuff-boxes at 2 sols apiece, some senna, some Epsom salts, some rhubarb, some germander, 50 sols worth of veronica.

“You will be a tremendous help to me because in America medicine is very rare, very expensive and, on top of all that, not very good. It will be good if you can add some miramionnes unguent, or any dissolving unguent.”¹⁵ …

from ‘A Settlement That Failed: The French in Early Gallipolis, an Enlightening Letter, and an Explanation,’ by Lee and Margaret Soltow, in “Ohio History, A Scholarly Journal of the Ohio History Society,” Volume 94/Summer-Autumn 1985

online at:
http://publications.ohiohistory.org/ohj/search/display.php?page=1&ipp=20&searchterm=Marest&vol=94&pages=46-67

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1. Monnot is not among the names of those who received Gallipolis town lots on
   January 20, 1791. See Vance, “The French Settlement,” 56-59; this does not mean that
   he was not in Gallipolis on that date, however. He signed the petition to Congress for
   relief, dated December 22, 1792; see Territorial Papers, 425. He missed eligibility for
   land in the first French Grant by not being in Gallipolis on November 1, 1795, but qual-
   ified for land in the so-called Little French Grant under an act of Congress passed June
   25, 1798. His name appears on a tax list from 1800 as owning 150 acres of second-rate
   and 2346 acres of third-rate land. He paid tax in Gallia County in 1806, 1808. See “Re-
   turn . .. Gallipolis District . .. 1800,” Powell, Early Ohio Tax Records. On page 126, the
   name appears as Monnet in 1806, and on page 128 as Mounot for the year 1810. His given name was Stephen. Also see Albion Dyer, First Ownership of Ohio Lands (Baltimore,
   1969), 85. ↩︎
2. Dyer, First Ownership, 85. ↩︎
3. The name of Charles Vaux Maret appears on the Gallipolis town lot list for Janu-
   ary 20, 1791; see Vance, “French Settlement,” 57. Signers of the petition in 1792 in-
   cluded C. Marret an P. Marret; see Territorial Papers, 425. The list of names of Gallipo-
   lis proprietors, prepared by Mr. Gervais in 1795, included “Marais,” no given name;
   ibid., 505. Recipients in the French Grant, resident in Gallipolis on November 1, 1795,
   included, for Lot No. 9, Peter Marret, Sr.; for Lot No. 57, Basil Joseph Marret; and for
   Lot No. 68, Peter Marret, Jr. See Dyer, First Ownership, 84. It would seem that these
   last three were the names of Mrs. Marest’s husband and two sons. ↩︎
4. Evans reports that the land for the Grant was surveyed on April 9, 1796, by
   Absalom Martin. Except for the 4,000 acres awarded to Mr. Gervais who had labored
   on behalf of the petitioners, the lots were 217.39 acres each. Here, Evans states that
   not more than ten settled on the Grant. See History of Scioto County, 368. ↩︎
5. This name appears as Joitteau in the 1792 list of petitioners; see Territorial Pa-
   pers, 425. Lewis Joiteau received Lot No. 38 in the French Grant; see Dyer, First Own-
   ership. 84. ↩︎
6. Milton B. Trautman, The Fishes of Ohio (Columbus, Ohio, 1981), 167, 174, 177,
   256-57, 250, 472, 491. Possibilities for these fish include the lake sturgeon, paddlefish,
   alligator gar, and the Ohio muskellunge which was known as pike and was regarded as
   the “king of fish of the western waters,” according to a quotation Trautman attributes
   to S.P. Hildreth. In addition, blue catfish, channel catfish, and flathead catfish are in
   the realm of possibility. Fish found in the Kanawha River were the black perch, salm-
   on pike, grennel, blue cat, fine flavored buffalo fish, and a species of sturgeon. See Jo-
   seph Martin, A New and Comprehensive Gazeteer of Virginia and the District of Colum-
   bia (Charlottesville, 1835), 375 and 379. ↩︎
7. A “fire at the Cape” would have had to be something generally known both in
   France and in the United States. My guess is that the eldest Marest son had a govern-
   ment job in Santo Domingo; in 1792, conflicts over political rights between whites, mu-
   lattoes and Negroes resulted in a fire at Le Cap Francois, and was the reason for the em-
   igration of many thousands to the United States or to Europe. See Frances S. Childs,
   French Refugee Life in the United States, 1790-1800 (Baltimore, 1940), 10-13. ↩︎
8. The name of Francis D’Hebecourt appears often in the Gallipolis stories. Helene
   (Selter) Foure, in Gallipolis Ohio, Histoire de l’etablissement de cinq cents Francais dans
   la vallee de l’Ohio a la fin du XVIIIe siecle (Paris, 1939), 64-65, presents a biographical
   note about the apparently wealthy man. His marriage to Felicite took place the 16th of
   September, 1795, she states, as did the marriage between Madeleine Francoise Maret
   and Jean-Pierre Bureau. D’Hebecourt served as the first postmaster in Gallipolis,
   among other things. In the 1800 tax list, it is stated that he owned 1100 acres of land
   and paid $4.98 in tax. Another biographical sketch appears in Evans, Scioto County. ↩︎
9. In a letter dated November 26th, 1790, the territorial governor, St. Clair, wrote
   to the Secretary of War, “I am persuaded that some protection will be necessary for
   them [settlers] as well against the savages as at least to support civil authority, which
   will be established in the settlement forming near the Kanawha, as soon as possible,
   and in all the others, as they take place.” The St. Clair Papers, and the Life and Public
   Services of Arthur St. Clair, arranged and annotated by William Henry Smith, vol. 2
   (Cincinnati, 1882), 195.
   Under the Ordinance of July 13, 1787, Chapter 1, provision was made for a militia
   that was to be formed: “All male inhabitants between the age of sixteen and fifty,
   shall be liable to and perform military duty, and be formed into corps in the following
   manner. Sixty four rank and file shall form a company. … to each company, one cap-
   tain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four serjeants [sic], four corporals, one drummer and
   one fifer. . . . And whereas in the infant state of a country, defense and protection are
   absolutely essential.” See The Laws of the Northwest Territory 1788-1800, ed. Theodore
   C. Pease, Law Series, Vol. 1 (Springfield, Ill., 1925), 1.
   A further provision would have applied to Gallipolis: “And whereas in the present
   state of the territory it is necessary that guards be established; the commander in
   chief, and the commanding officers of counties, and of smaller districts shall make
   such detachments for guards and other military duty as the public exigencies may in
   his, or their opinion require.” Ibid., 2.
   There is a specific reference to D’Hebecourt by a traveler who stopped in Gallipolis
   on November 10, 1795, Thomas Chapman: “This was a Military Station for 100 Sol-
   diers during the Indian War, but the number is reduced now to 5, under the Com-
   mand of Captain Derihecour, a Frenchman,” quoted by John F. McDermott, “Galli-
   polis as Travelers Saw It, 1792-1811,” The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical
   Quarterly, 48 (1939), 294. This article gives easy access to views of travelers at that time.
   Edward Naret remembered that “a full company of the colonists was formed and
   taken into active service under the territorial laws.” See his History of the French Set-
   tlers at Gallipolis, Ohio, in 1790 (Cincinnati, no date [1890?], 22. ↩︎
10. John J. McCusker, Money and Exchange in Europe and America, 1600-1775
    (Chapel Hill, 1978), 88; Joseph Lippincott, A Collection of Tables (Philadelphia, 1792),
    41; and Documentary History of Banking and Currency in the United States, ed. Her-
    man Kroos (New York, 1969), 155. One ecu de change was equal to three livre tournois
    or to 60 sols tournois or to 720 denier tournois. In 1789, 1 livre was the equivalent of 181/2
    cents; 1 sou, slightly less than one cent, and 1 ecu was worth 55.5 cents. A sol was the
    same thing as a sou. A denier had almost no value, at 1/2 of a cent. ↩︎
11. It took only a short time for the French to discover that wine could be made
    from wild grapes. They also had some success in cultivating grapes. The most efficient
    way to market their crops of apples and peaches was to convert them to brandy. Refer-
    ences to this subject appear in almost all of the articles about Gallipolis. ↩︎
12. It took only a short time for the French to discover that wine could be made
    from wild grapes. They also had some success in cultivating grapes. The most efficient
    way to market their crops of apples and peaches was to convert them to brandy. Refer-
    ences to this subject appear in almost all of the articles about Gallipolis. ↩︎
13. It is obvious that Marosteau’s identity can not be established within the context
    of the letter. In doing the research for this article, I did not find this name in any other
    connection. ↩︎
14. The Scioto Company hired General Putnam and a company of men to build the
    log cabins for the settlers, and, for a few months, hunters to supply them with fresh
    game. There was a company store which supplied their other needs; evidently, after
    the first two winters, the settlers became more self-sufficient. See Belote, Scioto Specu-
    lation, 55; this author states that the French knew little about gardening, but visitors
    to Gallipolis found them to be proficient at raising vegetables and fruit. McDermott
    quotes these observations in “As Travelers Saw It,” 286, 291, 296. ↩︎
15. Besides bleeding, induction of vomiting and purging were used to treat most dis-
    eases in the eighteenth century. Manna was used as a children’s laxative; emetic (or
    tartar emetic) was used to cause vomiting; jalap, epsom salts, senna, and rhubarb were
    either chemical or botanic purgatives; germander was used for swollen glands and in-
    termittent fevers; veronica was used as a diuretic, expectorant, and tonic as well as in
    nephritic complaints and in diseases of the skin and wounds; unguents were used for
    diseases of the skin. It is possible that the specific unguent Mrs. Marest asked for was
    made by a religious order, disbanded during the French Revolution, but restored in
    1797. See N.J.B.G. Guibourt, Histoire Naturelle des Drogues Simples, 7ed., vol. 2 (Par-
    is, 1876), 523; Finley Ellingwood, American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharm-
    acognosy (Chicago, 1919), 152, for the uses of hypericum: sore muscles, tenderness of
    spinal column, etc. This is the closest I can come to the elusive “hipecanuana.” Harold
    B. Gill, The Apothecary in Colonial Virginia (Charlottesville, 1972), 47; Horatio C. Wood, Jr., The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 21st ed. (Philadelphia
    and London, 1926), 1141, 1501, 1521; Atlantic Merchant-Apothecary, Letters of Joseph
    Cruttenden 1710-1717, ed. I.K. Steele (Toronto and Buffalo, 1977), Letter 97, note I and
    Letter 101, note 1; Larotusse du XXe Siecle, public sous la direction de Paul Auge, vol. 4
    (Paris, 1931), 896. Background information on the treatment of diseases can be found in
    Howard Dittrick, “The Equipment, Instruments and Drugs of Pioneer Physicians in
    Ohio.” The Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, 38 (1939), 198-218; and in
    Lester Snow King, The Medical World of the Eighteenth Century (Chicago, 1958), 124,
    128, 129, 131, 314. Snow states that there was a constant struggle against fevers during
    that century and that treatment was essentially symptomatic, “to expel the morbid
    matter.” Also common was arthritis, treated with elixir of guaiac, wine of antimony,
    tincture of opium, calomel, scilla, jalap, and powered rhubarb.
    It appears that Mrs. Marest had medical skills, short of blood-letting, roughly
    equivalent to those of the physicians. There were physicians among the settlers; Dr.
    Jesse Bennet established a practice at Point Pleasant in 1797, reported (erroneously?) to
    be “the only physician within a radius of 50 miles.” See Otis K. Rice, The Allegheny
    Frontier, West Virginia Beginnings, 1730-1830 (Lexington. 1970), 201. ↩︎