Hi All, Bonnie Bess Wood sent this for us to add to our Antoine folder Thanks, Bonnie! Bonnie, just curious.... did you type this all out for us, or is there a way to scan long paragraphs of text into an email message.... hope so, this could be useful in the future. Renee -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Early documented forms of the name Antoine deGruy Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 22:52:26 -0500 From: B. B. Wood <beebeewood@hotmail.com> To: degruylist@earthlink.net "Was present Mr. Antoine Valentin Degruy Verloin, Lord Dumenil Fouchard, Ecuyer de la Folie, officer of a company of infantry of the detachment of the Marine garrisoned in Illinois, residing in this town of Kaskaskia, parish of the Immaculate Conception, who has acknowledged to have by the presents sold, ceded, quitted, conveyed and left, now and forever, and promises to warrant against all troubles, debts, dowers, mortgages, evictions, substitutions and all other incumbrances whichever generally, unto Mr. Alexandre Duclos, Ecuyer, officer of a company of infantry of the detachment of the Marine also garrisoned in Illinois, residing in Fort de Chartres, parish of St. Anne of said Fort presently in Kaskaskia, here present and accepting acquirer for himself, his heirs and assigns, one house and the lot belonging theretro, on which there are built one barn, one stable, one well shared with one Desmars, and such as the whole stands and lies, which said acquirer dceclares that he well knows for having resided more than one year in said house as proprietor of the same, by verbal sale made to him thereof by said Degray, and of which he is satisfied, without reserving or retaining anything on the part of said vender, said lot is bounded on one side by that of Desmars, on the other by that of du Conte, in front by Royal street, in the rear of St. Anne street , situate in the village of Fort de Chartres, belonging unto said Degray, as having acquired it from Mr. Depopulus by deed executed before the Notary undersigned the 20th of March 1742, being of the King's domain and up to this day free from any charge, rent or dues; to be enjoyed and disposed of by said Duclos, his heirs and assigns unto him belonging, the possession to begin from the day on which he enjoyed of the same. This sale is thus made under the clauses and obligations aforesaid for the sum of one thousand livres, which said Alexandre Duclos has heretofore paid cash in hand into said Degray, as he acknowledges, and of which he is satisfied, quits said Duclos and all others. Conveying said vender unto said acquirer all rights of property, names, reasons, actions and others which he has or may have on the house and lot hereby sold, divesting himself thereof for his benefit his heirs and assigns, willing that he may be put in possession by whom it may pertain, appointing to that effect as his attorney the bearer of the presents. Promising. Binding. Renouncing. Done and executed in Kaskaskia, in my office in the year 1736, the 4th day of April in the forenoon in presence of [blank in text], witnesses, who have signed the presents with the acquirer, the vender and the Notary after reading. [Signed] De Gruyverloin; Duclos; Deguire; Labriere; Barrios, Notary." [Brown, Margaret Kinball and Lawrie Cena Dean, ed. The Village of Chartres in Colonial Illinois, 1720-1765. LaCompagnie des Amis de Fort de Chartres, 1977. p543] "Was present Jean Baptiste Lalande, residing in this town of Kaskaskia, parish of the Immaculate Conception, and Dame Charlotte Marchand, his wife, authorized by him to the effect of the presents, who have acknowledged to have sold, ceded, quitted, conveyed and left, now and forever, and promised to warrant against all troubles, debts, dowers, mortgages, evictions, substitutitions and all other incumbrances, whichever generally, into Dame Mathurine Guilmot, wife of Aufrere, merchant in New Orleans, parish of St. Louis, therein residing, trading separately, now in this town of Kaskaskia and Mr. Antoine Valentin deGruyVerloin, Lord Duménil-Fouchard, Ecuyer de la Folie, officer of a company of infantry detached from the marine garrisoned in Illinois, residing in this town of Kaskaskia, parish aforesaid, here present and accepting acquirers for themselves, their heirs and assigns, one windmill situate in Fort de Chartres, with the lot belonging thereto, and such as said mill stands with its sails, cables, iron levers and the well, which is to be finished by Gossiaux, who is paid to do it, in providing the workmen with material and boarding, and such as the whole stands and lies, with which said acquirers declare to be satisfied, without reserving or retaining anything on the part of said venders, to whom said mill and lot belong, as having had said mill built and the lot as having been conceded by Mr. le Chevalier de Bertet, Commandant in Illinois and Delaloere Flancour, Commissary in said place by request of [blank in ms.] undersigned by them; the whole being of the King's domain and up to this day free from any charge, rent or dues, to be enjoyed and disposed of by said Dame Maturine Guilmot d'Aufrere and DeGruyVerloin, their heirs and assigns, as things unto them belonging from this day. This sale is thus made for the sum of three thousand in bonds of the King's treasury and thirteen hundred pounds of flour, which thirteen hundred pounds of flour said venders acknowledge to have received from said acquirers, of which they are satisfied and quit them, and the three thousand livres in bonds said Dame Aufrere promises to pay unto said Lalande; saving recourse for one-half against DeGruyVerloin her son-in-law, to whom she gives by the presents a delay of two years to repay the same to her, to wit: two thousand one hundred livres on this days and which said venders consider as presently paid and quit said acquirer and all others, and for the nine hundred remaining livres, said Dame Aufrere promises and binds herself, to pay unto said Lalande at their residence in this town one month after the arrival of the convoy and not later under the penalty of all costs, damages and interests, under the pledge and mortgage of all their property real and personal, both present and future; the mill presently sold remain by privilege especially bound and mortagaed for said payment, one obligation not doing away with the other. Conveying by said venders unto said acquirers all rights of property, names, reasons, actions, and others, which they have or may have on said mill, hereby sold, divesting themselves thereof for the benefit of them, their heirs and assigns, willing that they may be seized and put in possession by whom it may pertain, appointing to that efect as their attorney the bearer of the presents giving him full power, promising said venders to deliver up the papers and titles, which they have concerning said mill and lot. For thus has been agreed between the parties, who for the execution of the presents and dependencies have appointed their domicile in thier residence aforesaid. Promising. Binding. Renouncing. Done and executed in Kaskaskia, in my office, in the year 1748, the 13th day of March in the afternoon, in presence of Jean Baptiste Robitaille and Jerome Matis, witnesses, residing in said place, who have signed the presents with the parties and Notary, after reading. [Signed] Lalande; Maturine Guilmot; F. Aufrere; DeGruyVerloin; Charlotte Marchand; Matis; Robitaille; Barrois Notary." [Brown, Margaret Kinball and Lawrie Cena Dean, ed. The Village of Chartres in Colonial Illinois, 1720-1765. LaCompagnie des Amis de Fort de Chartres, 1977. p556-558] "C. C. Robin, whose Voyages dans l'Interieur de la Louisiane ... was published in Paris in 1807, gives an interesting account of the development of the sugar industry in Louisiana. He states that in 1802 there were seventy-five sugar plantations and a number of sugar refineries and describes the design and construction of Verloin de Gruy (deGruise)'s ciruclar sugar mill, which was probably located on the plantation that the 1834 Zimpel map shows on the west bank of the river and that John H. B. Latrobe sketched in the same year. 'All construction work is done by the Negroes on the plantation, and it must be admitted that some of the Louisianans show much intelligence in this work. Here is a remarkable example: The San Domingan who directed the construction of the first sugar houses built the grinding mill in a hexagonal or octagonal form. A Creole named De Gruise, a descendant of one of the French officers who came out at the founding of the colony, without instruction, but by native ability, found that an angular edifice was both displeasing to the eye and wasteful of material, but circular construction was too difficult for the local colonial laborers. M. De Gruise had heard of la Halle in Paris (the central market of Paris now known as Les Halles) and from descriptions of it, he had built in brick two leagues from the city, on his house, a rotunda so like it, that on seeing it I expressed astonishment. I was even more astounded upon learning how M. de Gruise had conceived and executed the work.' In his journal Latrobe describes the visit to a sugar plantation about two miles above New Orleans, at which time he had 'an opportunity of learning something of the manufacture of this artilce.' He states that 'the mill that I have drawn in my sketch book ... is one of the old-fashioned ones, and, I should judge from its appearance that it had been erected some fifty or sixty years ago [150-1740] . It was originially intended for horse power in grinding the cane. Steam has been introduced now, and the buildings put up since are very different in their appearance from the one which I have drawn.' Latrobe's pencil sketch show a circular domed structure that may well be the one mentioned by C. C. Robin some thirty years before." [Robin, C. C. Voyages Dans L'Interieur De La Louisiane. Paris, 1807 IN Green Fields: Two Hundred Years of Louisiana Sugar. p69 & 70.] "In 1741, a young French officer with an artistocratic name, Antoine Valentin de Gruy Verloins Dumesnil Fouchard de la Folie, arrived at the 'Establishment' as contemporaries called Fort de Chartres. Before 1741, almost nothing is known about De Gruy, as he usually signed his name. In that year, he first appeared as a witness on a bill of sale for a stone house near Fort de Chartres. He certainly was a member of the large De Gruy family from the area around New Orleans... Perhaps he and other members of his aristocratic famliy, down on thier luck in France, had come to Louisiana to make their fortunes. Enough information exists about Antoine's activities in the Illinois Country to verify that business, not soldiering, constituted his principal occupation. Virtually all of the officers assigned to Fort de Chartres supplemented thier meager military incomes with business enterprises--fur trading, lead mining or salt manufacturing..." [Ekberg, Carl J. Antoine Valentin de Gruy: Early Missouri Explorer. Missouri Historical Review 76.2 (1982): 136-150.]