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Welcome to
Gallia County, Ohio
History & Genealogy

Source:
History of

GALLIA COUNTY
Containing
A Condensed History of the County;
Biographical Sketches; General Statistics;
Miscellaneous Matters, &c.
H. H. HARDESTY & CO., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO AND TOLEDO.
1882

Gallipolis Township

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII XXIV XXV XXVI XXVII XXVIII XXIX XXX

For Chapters XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI & XXVII - SEE TOWNSHIPS BELOW HERE

TOWNSHIPS:
includes biographies

XVIII
Gallipolis
XIX
Guyan
XIX
Ohio
XX
Clay
XX
Harrison
XXI
Walnut
XXII
Green
XXII
Perry
XXIII
Greenfield
XXIV
Addison
XXIV
Raccoon
XXIV
Springfield
XXVI
Cheshire
XXVII
Huntington
XXVII
Morgan

BIOGRAPHIES

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Page IX -

     MONS. DUDUIT was born near Paris, in 1770, and came to Gallipolis in 1790, one of the victims of the Scioto Company fraud, and with him his wife, a lady of a very wealthy and refined family.  He lived seven years in Gallipolis, and while there was variously employed.  He was a great hunter, and known as the best marksman among the French settlers.  He was also one of the four spies, heretofore mentioned, who scoured the country around Gallipolis on the watch for Indians, serving in this capacity about three years, Colonel Robert Safford, for a time, being his companion.  M. Duduit went to the grant in 1796, being one of the first there, and assisted in erecting the log houses for the families, who came March 21st, 1797.  He became busily engaged in improving his land, and soon had a fine place.  His wife died July 11th, 1811, and he re-married July 3d,, 1817.  He was in the war of 1812, where he rendered efficient service, and died April 5th, 1836.

     MONS. FRANCIS LE CLERCQ was a man of fine education, and born in Annis, France, January 8th, 1773; came with the first colonists; taught school at Gallipolis, and married Eulalie C. Marret, about 1808, who died January 12th, 1809.  Nine months afterward he married Marie Louise Cadot, a young lady whom he met at the Grant while engaged in surveying town lots of what was then Burrsburg, now Haverhill.  For more than twenty-five years he was clerk of the court in Gallia county, and postmaster at Gallipolis for the same length of time.  He was a Whig in politics and a member of the order of Free Masons.  He was a highly respected citizen during his active life, and died November 175h, 1837, in his 64th year, and with his first wife, is buried in the Gallipolis cemetery.

     MONS. JOSEPH GUILLAUME DEVACHT was born in the year 1761, in Ipres, Fanders.  With other French he embarked from Havre de Grace in the ship "La Patrie,"  Feb. 3d, 1790, arriving in due time at Gallipolis, where he worked at the silversmith business, and being a man of intellect and ability, he soon attained a position of high standing in the community, and considerable wealth.  In March, 1798,he married Madame Parmantier, a widow lady of good education, Robert Safford, esquire, officiating.  He was well skilled in his business, and his reputation was widely extended.  Orders for delicate workmanship were received by him from Cincinnati, Louisville, New Orleans, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Richmond.  M. Devacht died May 12th, 1844, in his eighty-fourth year.
     MADAME DEVACHT - was born in Paris, France, January 15th, ,1775, and died January 17th, 1856, aged 81.
     CAPTAIN JOSEPH W. DEVACHT - a son of the subjects of the above sketch, was born in Gallipolis, July 28th, 1803, where he has always resided, and is still living, in his 80th year, unmarried, a most social and agreeable gentleman, widely known and respected.  It has long been a custon for Roman Menager and Franklin Carel to meet at the house of Joseph Devacht on every Sunday afternoon, and after a pleasant hour, spent in recalling early scenes and incidents, start out together for a stroll.  To one who is fortunate enough to be allowed to enter and listen, it is an hour of unalloyed pleasure, and seems a wonderful chapter of romance.

     MONS. JEAN GABRIEL GARVAIS was born in 1764 in Paris.  His first visit was to the island of Cuba, and returning to France after accumulating considerable wealth, he came to this country, in 1790, with the French emigrants.  The terrible disappointment which they experienced at the deception which had been practiced upon them discouraged him, and he soon went back, but returned again in 1792.  From this time until the autumn of 1796, he was variously engaged, remaining most of the time at Gallipolis.  He was fond of hunting, a man of excellent culture, and gained some reputation as a poet.  He was present at the wedding of General Newsom, an old resident of Gallipolis, and the next morning composed and presented to the town a poem, written in answer to a question which came up the previous evening, which was long sung and admired by the French, and is yet extant.
     He was one who was most influential in procuring the 25,200 acres from Congress for the French settlers; was the bearer of the petition, and his valuable and efficient services were recognized by an award of 4,000 acres in addition to the 217½ acres which were allotted to each.  As the grant was awarded upon the condition that a settlement should be made within a specified time, M. Gervais settled upon his land for that purpose, erecting shanties in the fall of 1796, for the reception of his effects the following March, when he started for his new home, in company with Mons. Duduit, Bertrand, Lacroix and Duteil, landing at the grant on the 21st.  He was at Gallipolis when the news of the proclamation of peace arrived, and celebrated the occasion by a grand display of sky-rockets of his own manufacture.  He was fond of music and dancing, and a fiddle for which he paid fifty dollars, brought from Paris, and used by him for many years, is exhibited by the descendants of General Newsom.
     The village of Burrsburg, now Haverhill, was laid out as a town in 1806, by M. Gervais, who employed M. LeClercq, the subject of a preceding sketch, as surveyor.  He sold his lot of 4,000 acres in two parcels - 200 acres to P. S. Duponceau, the lawyer employed by him at Philadelphia in obtaining the grant, for $600, September 23, 1805; the balance, 3,800 acres, May 26th, 1806, to a Yankee named Samuel Hunt, for two dollars per acre, and also his grant of 217½ acres.  the land for which he received about $8,750, is now worth over a quarter of a million.
     After selling his land he spent the remainder of his sojourn in America at Gallipolis, in the society of his old friends.  He deposited his money with Mr. Menager, a merchant, for safe-keeping, receiving his board for the sue of it, and agreeing to give six months' notice when it would be required.  His continued to reside here until June, 18717, when he returned to the land of his birth.  Before leaving he presented his horse, which he loved and valued very highly to E. S. Menager.  He died, unmarried, at Paris, in 1824, aged 60 years.

     MONS. PETER SEROT was a French sailor until he arrived at Alexandria with the emigrants.  There, in 1790, he married Mary Catherine Avaline, a Parisian lady of education, after a courtship of five days.  Mons, and Mad. Serot resided at Gallipolis, and by their industry received the respect of the community and gained considerable property.  September 30th, 1796, M. Serot died, leaving four children:  Mary, Leonard, John and Peter, and was buried in the public square at Gallipolis, six years after his arrival.  February 12th 1797, Mad. Serot married Andrew La Croix, a settler of the French grant.

     JOSEPH VANDEN, whose correct name is Vanden-bemden, was born in Amsterdam, Holland, Apr. 1st, 1787.  When four years of age he came to Philadelphia, and after a two years' residence in that moral city, he landed in the aggregation of log-cabins known then as Gallipolis.  The heavy primeval forest encircled the clearing, and the new Dutch arrivals found themselves among French, who had deserted their trans-continental homes for the same reasons - political unpleasantness.
     The little colony was not quite three years of age when he came, and he lived to see the iron rail wind down the beautiful valley of the Chicamauga, and the iron horse puff and blow where the deer had lived and retired life in its sylvan home, and the Indian held undisputed sway.  Three of his father's brothers had leaned on the block, and their gory heads had been carried off in baskets, and he had cast his lot in the country where the law has never claimed but one neck in its whole history, that of James Lane in 1817.
     In the year of 1812, Joseph Vanden placed himself at the head of the first company of patriots that volunteered in defence of liberty and independence.  Not until the last clash of arms had echoed did the active young Dutchman come home and hang up his rifle and pouch over the broad mantlepiece.  June 15, 1815, he wedded Mary Randall, the lassie of his choice, and merry flew the feet over the puncheon floor in honor of the occasion; and it was the day when Blucher and Wellington became heroes and Napoleon met his defeat at Waterloo.
     His life from this time was peaceful in the pursuit of home comforts.  He was an intimate friend of Col. Robert Safford, the subject of a former sketch.  He stood upon the bank and hailed the first steamboat that appeared upon the Ohio river, with gaping wonder.  He was deputy-sheriff in 1817, at the time when James Lane, the only man ever executed in the county, was hung.  The first president who obtained his vote was James Madison, and the last was the lamented James A. Garfield.  He died Monday evening, May 16th, 1881, aged 94 years, and left a large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

     MRS. ADELAIDE MAGUET is, at the present writing, (1882), the only living representative of the original French settlers of Gallipolis.  She was born in Havre de Grace, France, March 26th, 1787.  Her father, Louis Le Clercq, was one of the first settlers of Gallipolis, arriving here in 1791, and was followed by his family one year later.  Miss Adelaide was at that time nearly five years of age, and has continued to reside here ever since, with the exception of a short time when she was a captive among the Indians.
     ON January 27th, 1806, she was married to Anthony Rene Maguet, who was born in Paris, France, in 1788, by whom she was the mother of seven children.  Mr. Maguet came here in 1792, where he continued to reside until his death, which occurred in January, 1829.
     She is the surviving head of four generations, which are at present represented among the most respectable residents of Gallipolis. 
     Mrs. Maguet is very active, and retains her faculties in a remarkable degree.  In 1882, at the age of 95, she is engaged in piecing a quilt for a great-grandchild, which is a very fine sample of needle-work.  She has as beautiful a set of pearly teeth, and as keen eye-sight as any maiden of "sweet sixteen" would desire; is enjoying excellent health, and her descendants delight in doing her honor, frequently gathering about her with earnest congratulations and words of good cheer.

     MONS. FRANCIS VALODIN.  The subject of this sketch was one who, despite an entire want of education, struggled successfully in the pursuit of wealth, until he was one of the most extensive land-owners, and by far the wealthiest man in the French grant.
     He was born in 1765, and at the age of twenty-six, secreted himself on

See Page X -

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