Monniers and Rindisbachers

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Elizabeth Campbell on October 22, 2009 at 11:30am

Hi Christine~

I'm so pleased to meet you here. I was just reading about Peter Ridisbacher, who made an amazing contribution to our history by documenting so many aspects of life and Red River scenes in his paintings. Unfortunately, most of the Swiss left Red River after the disastrous years 1825-6. The Lord Selkirk Association of Rupert's Land has very little on them at this time, although we hope to address that as our research allows.

In the meantime, I would suggest you take a look through the Selkirk Papers for the period of 1820-1826. You would need to order the microfilms through inter-library loan from the National Archives of Canada. Their website would also be worth searching, as they often have some very interesting material on the RRS: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/index-e.html and their genealogy site: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html

I hope this helps. If you are unable to obtain the Selkirk Papers through inter-library loan (I'm not sure how the Archives deals with international requests), please let me know. I can help you further, but it will perhaps take some time...

BTW, I just used an image of one of your ancestor's paintings in the TLSARL blog: http://www.lordselkirk.ca/?p=349

Happy hunting!
Elizabeth Campbell'

Permalink Reply by Christine Emerson-Moulton on October 22, 2009 at 12:46pm

Thank you Elizabeth! I recently received a copy of Alvin M Josephy Jr's book The Artist was a Young Man all about Peter Rindisbacher's life and work. It contains many more historic images than I found on the web, as well as portraits of his parents, one of a sister (Madeleine), Philippe and Eugenie (Monnier) Schirmer, and a self-portrait. I've scanned them and posted them to our Moulton Family Tree on ancestry.

I'll look into the inter-library loan through my local library and if that doesn't work I'll give you a shout.

Best, Christine

Permalink Reply by Arnold Garson on August 7, 2010 at 5:08pm

My wife, Lynne Garson, also is a Quinche/Monnier family descendant. If interested in further discussion, contact at hbstpo@gmail.com.

-- Arnold Garson

Permalink Reply by Stewart L. Darrah on December 7, 2010 at 1:00am

Which one of these lines are you talking about? I know of my great-great grandparents, Elijah and Marianne Quinche Ferguson, Charles Quinche, who was a professor at Washburn University in Topeka, and Alexander Quinche, who was a Latin professor at the University of Mississippi. They also had a sister, Carrie, who never married. Are there more, or is your wife from one of these lines?
Stewart Darrah

Permalink Reply by Christine Emerson-Moulton on December 7, 2010 at 9:19am

Stewart, It looks like you're replying to Arnold (above) but I'd like to respond to your note. It was only in May that I learned about the Quinche family through a deposition document of my husband's great-grandmother Frances Rawlins Moulton and think I have a fairly complete picture of their family. I'd love to learn what you know.

You referred to Marianne Quinche. Is this Marianne Elizabeth Monnier who married Isaac Henry Alfred Quinche? Isaac died five months after Carrie was born so it makes sense that she would remarry but I don't have any indication that she did. Their children were Alexander James, Julia Monnier, Charles, Edward, Henry, and Caroline "Carrie" Elizabeth. I have birth and death dates and locations for all but Charles. Do you have that information? Also I don't have any information about Charles being a professor; tell me more. I could never find him on the 1860 census; was he a professor around that time? I just looked at the 1850 census; Charles is the head of the family with his mother Marianne, and sibs Edward and Caroline; there is an Elijah Ferguson as head of the family directly above them, married to Mary A, with children Franklin, Columbus, George and Henry. Is this the Elijah Ferguson you referred to?

Thank you for any light you can shed on this family!

Christine

Permalink Reply by Arnold Garson on December 9, 2010 at 8:29pm

My wife is descended from Marianne Elizabeth Monnier and Isac Henri Alfred Quinche. Their daughter, Julia, married John Jones. The Jones's daughter, Caroline Eva, married W. D. McHugh, and their daughter, Adele, married Clair Baird. Clair and Adele were my wife's grandparents.

 

I, too, have no information on a remarriage for Marianne after her husband's death in 1841. Moreover, Marianne's obituary in the Galena Gazette makes no reference to a remarriage, and neither is there any record of such in the Illinois marriage index. None of this proves that she didn't remarry, of course.

 

Permalink Reply by Stewart L. Darrah on December 18, 2010 at 5:33am

Mr. Garson,

 

I really don’t have much information available to me right now.  I moved last year, and plan to move again in late spring of next year, when I semi-retire.  Most of my genealogy material is still packed up. 

My great grandmother was Mary Ferguson Darrah.  You can find some information on her in Joanna Stratton’s Pioneer Women.  There is also a bit of information about Mary Ferguson Darrah in the report of the “Darrah Twins” in the book, We Rode the Orphan Train. 

Mary Ferguson Darrah’s parents were Elijah Ferguson, who was one petitioner for the formation of Jo Davies County, IL.  His wife was Marianne Quinche, daughter of Alfred Quinche and Marianne Monnier.  I have never been able to locate Marianne Monnier Quiche’s birth certificate; however the other children of David Monnier’s were listed as among her survivors, in her obituary.

Elijah and Marianne Ferguson moved to the Leavenworth, KS, are in the 1850 and spent the rest of their lives there.  At one time he was warned by a pro-slavery friend to hide out, as other pro-slavery men were out to kill him.  Elijah Ferguson hid out for a year or so and finally went home.

James Bryan Darrah and Mary Ferguson met in school in Leavenworth, and eventually married when he was 21, as he didn’t want to have to ask his widowed mother’s permission.  He “wanted to be married as a man, not as a boy.”  They settled in McPherson County, on land which he had noted when freighting on the nearby Santa Fe Trail.

My grandfather was their only surviving child, but his generation and my father and his siblings were all born in the same bed, on the home place.  

Several of Mary Ferguson Darrah’s family also settled in the McPherson County area.  Now they have spread all over the country.

One of her brothers, Columbus Ferguson settled in Taos, NM, where his grandson, also a Columbus Ferguson was Sheriff and later Mayor of Taos.  He also held a state office or two.

Charles Quinche was a professor at Washburn University in Topeka.  I believe I have a photo of him and his wife.    The Kansas State archives had a newspaper article that mentioned his children who attended their 50^th anniversary.

Alexander Quinche was a Latin Professor at the University of Mississippi, who happened to be in charge of the library, when Gen. Grant and his troops came through.  He prevailed on his childhood friend from Galena, IL not to burn the campus, so the university still has its antebellum campus.  Some of those Quinches remained in the area for a generation or two, according to the census records, but I have never been able to contact any of their descendants.

Probably enough for now.

Stewart Darrah

Permalink Reply by Christine Emerson-Moulton on December 19, 2010 at 12:39am

Stewart,

 

You are a font of knowledge.  I love IT!  Thank you for the information about Mary Ferguson and her family.  I've looked into the twins, too.

 

I imagine that a reason that you could not find a birth certificate for Marianne is that she and Isaac were married before they emigrated.  Have you seen the emigration data on the Monniers and Quinches?  http://www.junod.ch/en/redriver_eng.shtml

 

Have you seen the family trees on Ancestry?  There are photos of Marianne and Elijah and their children Columbus, Mary and Julia. And I posted a portrait of Alexander Quinche that I found in the 1861 yearbook for U of Miss.  FindAGrave has memorials for Columbus (and possibly his grandson Columbus), James & Mary Darrah, Adelle Ferguson Allison and more, some of which include portrait photos.

I have record of only two children for Alexander and his wife Mary J Wilcox: Helen Marion and and Annie E.  It was Annie Mason's death that brought about the need for a deposition that included my husband's great-grandmother.  As a result of those records I learned about the Quinche part of the family and began learning about Alexander and his family.  Helen married McLean Blair in 1893 and Annie married Henry Mason in 1900; it appears that neither couple had children.

 

As for the other Quinche descendants I have some data but perhaps not enough to find living descendants; that might take more research.....

 

I have much more to share and imagine you do too.  Would you like to exchange information via email?

 

Best,

Christine

Permalink Reply by Arnold Garson on December 19, 2010 at 9:27am

Stewart/Christine --

 

I have Marianne Quinche Ferguson in my genealogy as Mary Ann. But given that her mother was Marianne Monnier, it does seem more likely that her given name was Marianne. I have Mary Ann/Marianne Quinche Ferguson as being born at Fort Snelling, MN while her parents were en route from Red River Colony to St. Louis. Stewart, I do not have a copy of her obituary, so if you can locate that and send it electronically, I would appreciate that. I, too, propose that we convert this discussion to email.  For public post purposes, I use hbstpo@gmail.com; I'll send my more usual email directly when I hear from you; Christine, I think you may already have my more usual email address. I have photos of siblings Alexander and Julia Quinche, but not any others.

 

-- Arnold Garson

Permalink Reply by Judy Sweets on June 20, 2011 at 9:29pm

Have you seen the wonderful portrait of Peter Rindisbacher painted by George Markham in 1830?  It appears in an article, "Peter Rindisbacher (1806-1834): First Artist of the North American Frontier" by Karen McCoskey Goering in the Gateway Heritage quarterly journal of the Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Missouri in the Summer 1985  issue (Vol 6, Number 1).

 

Within the footnotes of the above-named article is mention of the marriage of Peter Rindisbacher's sister, Magdalena who married Utisser GODAT on 17 Nov 1834 in St. Louis, MO. [Civil Marriage Records of the City of St. Louis, I, 243]

 

Best regards,

 

Judy Sweets

 

Permalink Reply by Christine Emerson-Moulton on June 20, 2011 at 11:11pm

No I hadn't, Judy.  Thank you for the reference.  I'll look into the article in Gateway Heritage.  I do have a book about Peter by Alvin Josephy which includes several portraits of family members and one of himself.  It will be great to see his portrait done by someone else.  I would very much like to learn about Peter's wife and children but so far ,,,, nothing.

 

Magdalena's marriage is recorded in "Early U.S. French Catholic Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1695-1954"; turns out the groom's full name was Charles Ulisse Godat.

 

Thanks again, Judy.

Christine

Permalink Reply by Stewart L. Darrah on December 19, 2010 at 10:42am

My e-mail, if you wish to use it is sldarrah@gmail.com. 

The contract and individual descriptions in Nicholas Junod's page are hilarious, if you can read them in French.  The English translation is somewhat watered down. 

 

My father used to enjoy telling of his father's Uncle Bill Ferguson.  Bill Ferguson happened to be in central Kansas, working for his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and Jim Darrah, when Jim Darrah's hogs came down with hog cholera.  My great grandfather told Bill that if he could save any of the pigs, he could have them.  Bill Ferguson saved quite a few and gradually evolved a personal sayings of "buy more land to raise more corn to feed more hogs to buy more land."  Uncle Bill became the richest man in McPherson Co, Kansas, and remained a bachelor all of his life.  According to my grandfather, Uncle Bill would cook once a week, on Sundays.  He cooked beans and biscuits, to last all week.  According to my grandfather, the biscuits would become hard enough, by the next week end, that they could have been loaded into a gun and shot through a brick wall.  Bill Ferguson would also hang a large bunch of bananas to the side of his buggy and ride around inspectiong his property.  Unless one of his family invited him for a meal, his diet consisted of those beans, biscuits, and bananas.  When his will was probated in the early 1930's, he left property which he valued at $50,000, to each of his siblings, and property valued at $10,000, to nearly 50 neices and nephews.