The Dusseau and Duso Families of Ohio and Michigan:
Descendants of the Lords Toupin-DuSault de Belair aux Ecureuils
2007
Translated, compiled and edited by:
Patrick LaVoy Tombeau, Ph.D.
1462 Middlewood Drive
Saline, MI 48176-1278
(734) 429-9945
[email protected]
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The DuSault Coat of Arms. Motto reads, “In God, believe”
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Foreword................................................................................................................... vi
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................. xii
PART ONE: Translation of the text of Eugene-F. Dussault’s Les Toupin Du Sault, Sieurs
de Belair, Seigneurs des Ecureuils
Chapter One: Toussaint Toupin dit DuSault (1616-1676) ............................................2
Chapter Two: Jean Toupin, 2nd Lord DuSault, Founder of Ecureuils (1648-1700) ....42
Chapter Three: Jean-Baptiste Toupin DuSault, Sr. (1678-1724) ................................67
Chapter Four: Jean-Baptiste Toupin DuSault, Jr. (1707-1780)...................................80
Chapter Five: Jean-Baptiste Toupin DuSault, III (1732-1801) ...................................84
PART TWO: From Jean-Baptiste Dusseau, III, Fifth and last Lord Dusseau,
to Michigan and Ohio
Afterword .................................................................................................................92
The History of the Dusseau/Duso Family in America ................................................94
Index of Names in The History of the Dusseau/Duso Family in America ..................95
First Generation: Jean-Baptiste DuSault, IV and Tharcile LaForest .........................100
Second Generation: The Five Children of Jean-Baptiste DuSault and Tharcile
LaForest…. .................................................................................................102
Third Generation: The Nine Children of Joseph Dusseau and
Mary Cluckey/Cloutier…. ...........................................................................108
The Fourth Generation: The Six Children of Samuel Levi Dusseau and
Matilda Mary Jarvis… .................................................................................115
The Fifth Generation: The Eight Children of Harvey Joseph Dusseau and
Gertrude Sarah LaVoy.................................................................................125
Addenda..................................................................................................................132
Errata......... .............................................................................................................133
Appendix A: The Ancestors and Descendants of Joseph Dusseau and
Mary Cluckey .............................................................................................134
Appendix B: The Ancestors and Descendants of William John Duso of
Kawkawlin, MI............................................................................................157
Appendix C: The Ancestors and Descendants of Louis Joseph Dusseau of
Erie, MI.......................................................................................................169
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Foreword
This account of the French-Canadian-American family of DuSault/ Dusseau/
Duso has been divided into two parts. Part one consists of a translation of a
French language book entitled Les Toupin Du Sault, Sieurs de Belair, Seigneurs
des Ecureuils (The Toupin DuSault Family, Masters of Belair and Lords of
Ecureuils). This book was authored by the late Eugene-F. Dussault and
published in 1959 at Quebec by Editions Pavi. Mr. Dussault’s book narrates
the lives of the five Lords DuSault, all of whom are the ancestors to the Bay
County and Toledo, Ohio, branches of the family. The Dusseau Family
located today in Erie, Monroe County, MI, is descended from the first two
Lords DuSault.
The estate of the Lords DuSault was called alternately “Ecureuils” or “Belair”.
The Ecureuils name came from the fact that part of the estate was on jut of
land named La Pointe aux Ecureuils, or Squirrel Point. “Belair” means
“Beautiful View”. The name DuSault means “near the waterfalls” and is
believe to be taken from a waterfall on the family’s farm at Chateau-Richer
called Sault-a-la-Puce (Flea Falls).
Mr. Dussault’s book carries our family history down to a mention of LouisBasile Dussault of St. Antoine de la Valtrie, Province of Quebec, French
Canada, the son of the last Lord DuSault and the father of Jean Baptiste
Dussault IV, our immigrant ancestor, who first settled in Erie, Michigan, in
the 1840's. By 1880, his eldest son, Joseph Dusseau, his wife Mary Cluckey/
Cloutier, and their nine children moved from the Erie, MI, area to Toledo,
Ohio, and Jean Baptiste’s younger son, William Duso, his wife Suzanne
Cluckey/Cloutier, and their family of two children moved to the town of
Kawkawlin in Bay County, MI, taking his parents Jean Baptiste IV and
Tharcile LaForest with him. William’s many descendants live to this day, with
the name spelled phonetically as “Duso”, in the Bay County-Flint area.
Part two of this DuSault/Dusseau/Duso Family history, consists of both oral
traditions of the American family and the research of this author combined
with the research of others to record the many descendants of our
immigrant ancestors Jean Baptiste DuSault IV and his wife Tharcile LaForest
of the first two branches. (See Apendices A, B, and C for acknowledgement
of other contributors)
The third branch of the Dusseau family descends from the immigrant
ancestor, Louis Joseph Toupin dit DuSault who settled in St Antoine de la
Riviere aux Raisins, Monroe County, (now St. Mary’s Parish in Monroe, MI)
in about 1846 and whose numerous descendants are now found in Erie,
Michigan, under the name Dusseau. (See Appendix C for the ancestors and
descendants of Louis Joseph Dusault/Dusseau.)
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The translation of Mr. Eugene-F, Dussault’s DuSault Family history requires us to
acknowledge a special vocabulary. First of all, the term “Sieur” was only a polite
form of address toward a man who was a landowner. It did not have the sense
of the English “Sir”, referring to a man knighted, but more the sense of the
American “sir” or Mr. On the other hand, “Seigneur” in French means “Lord”
and his domain is called a “seigneury”, or fief.
It should be understood, however, that feudalism in Europe was on its last legs
and the remnants of it brought to Canada were quite different from what was
found in the Middle Ages in Europe. In Canada, there were no fancy courts, no
courtiers in powdered wigs
and ribbons, no chateaux or
palaces along the St Laurence
River, like the ones along the
Loire River in France. The
French-Canadian Seigneurs
were hard working pioneers
who obtained the concession
of their fief directly from the
King through his chief officer
in Canada. In return for this
land they swore an oath of
fealty and they were charged
with the obligation of finding
people to rent or buy lots on
their fiefs to cultivate the land
and raise families in order to
populate the virtually empty
country of Nouvelle France,
or New France, now the
province of Quebec, Canada.
This would seem simple
enough, but at first Canada
was primarily a land of
bachelors who came excited
about a whole new world of
opportunities From 1634 to
1662, only18% of the new
arrivals were women, called
“filles a marier”,
Arrival of La Filles du Roi, or The Kings Daughters
marriageable women. From
1663-1673 King Louis XIV, the Sun King, sent young women, giving them a
dowry, in order to ensure that the population of Canada would grow rapidly.
These women were called “filles du roi”, the King’s daughters. They were
generally young and orphans, or partial orphans, as the result of their fathers’
premature deaths in France. Some marriages took place between mature men
and girls as young as 12-13. Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church of the
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time permitted marriages for girls who had turned twelve and boys who had
turned 14.
Problems of settlement were also caused by the fur trade. This trade required the
men who plied it to leave the towns and villages for the forests for weeks and
months at a time in order to trade with the Indians. Men who went on their own
into the forests to trap and trade with the Indians for pelts were called “coureurs
des bois”, or wood-runners. Under the regulations of the time, the trade of the
coureurs was illegal because they were free lancers, or poachers, without a
license to trade. Some of these men stayed for years among the Indians; others
became wild and uncouth, wearing only loin cloths and came to town merely to
sell their pelts, get drunk on the money and disappear into the forests again.
Such practices were hardly productive of fruitful marriages. The King and his
ministers passed laws to penalize this traffic. These laws were met with only
varying degrees of success. Those who signed contracts and formed crews to
paddle large “Montreal canoes” with goods up and down the St. Laurence River
were called voyageurs, or travelers, and, having obtained licenses, now had a
legal right to work in the fur trade. Eight to sixteen men rode in these “long
boats”, 6 feet wide and 36 feet long, made of birch bark and able to carry up to
four tons of cargo. These hardy young men plied the rivers and lakes in brigades
of canoes, often rowing for fifteen solid days, from May to late September. Led
by the man with the best voice, they sang boisterous folk songs along the way to
mark the rhythm in their rowing and to keep up their spirits in often treacherous
places as they portaged their canoes over land into the deep forests or settled in
camp over night. Their over-turned boats were used as tents. One of the
hundreds of songs they sang comes down to English speakers to this day:
“Alouette, Gentille Alouette!” (Skylark, Pretty Skylark!”) (See Wikipedia. org.,
voyageur; whiteoak.org/learning/canoes.htm)
But others who came to Canada were generally trades people with practical skills
such as barrel makers, carriage-makers, blacksmiths, farmers, etc. To this day, as
we shall see in the modern Dusseau Family, French-Canadian descendants retain
their skills with their hands in many different trades.
The scholars of the time were the Jesuit priests who came to convert the Indians
to Christianity. They kept detailed notes on the comings and goings of people in
their communities which today form a 71 volume work called The Jesuit Relations
(1610-1791), a rich repository of stories about our ancestors three and four
centuries ago.
Early society in New France was hierarchical, with common men on one level
and the seigneurs, clergy, and government officers on higher levels. The
seigneurs, who developed little communities of farmers and tradesmen on their
seigneuries, were held in respect. They dressed differently, often had larger wellfurnished homes, called manoirs, or manor houses.
Once a year, on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours, the patron saint of
France, the town crier would stand on the steps of the church, announcing that
this was the day that the habitants, or settlers, had to pay their taxes, called “cens
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et rentes” to their seigneur. Cens were very small farm rental fees, a few sols,
usually paid in cash. Rentes were fees paid to the seigneur in cash, farm produce
or capons, at the discretion of their lord, based on the frontage, or width of their
farm land. Prime land had frontage on the St. Laurence River, while the second
and third tiers of farms did not.
Surprisingly, this was a day of great rejoicing. It was an all day affair as whole
families rode up to the manor house in various conveyances or on horseback.
The fees were paid, the harvest was finished and all were in a mood to celebrate.
The men sent up clouds of smoke from their crude, self made pipes, some times
joined by their wives. As the air was often damp and cold, the seigneur, flush
with profits, would send out a flagon of eau-de-vie, or brandy, to warm his
guests. Tongues were loosened and gossip flowed as freely as the drinks. The
capons and farm animals added to the noise and excitement. At day’s end,
shaking hands, all parted friends, as we are told, and all in the seigneury felt they
belonged to one big family. (See canadiangenealogy.net/ chronicles/
seigneur_habitant.htm; C.W. Jeffries, National Archives of Canada)
As a sign of his status, the seigneur held a special prominent pew in church,
which was granted to the family in perpetuity. Our DuSault ancestors indeed had
such a pew in the parish church of Quebec and one in a small church, or chapel,
which the third Lord DuSault had built at his own expense on his own land for
the neighboring community. The seigneur was often responsible for “high,
middle and low justice” in his domains. He also built the only community flour
mill, often powered by water from the river along which side it was built. The
habitants had to pay to use this community mill by a percentage of their flour so
obtained (1/14th). Our DuSault ancestors also constructed such mills, one of them
being not only a flour mill, but a saw mill with two blades, built along the
Jacques-Cartier River. In addition, the seigneur was in charge of building and
maintaining roads through out his domain. In this regard, each habitant had to
contribute three days a year in assisting his seigneur on his farm or the roads.
One of the quaintest of obligations owed to the lord by his tenant farmers was
the annual Maypole obligation. On May Day, bright and early in the morning,
the tenants, decked out in fantastic garb, saluted the manor house with a salvo of
blank musketry. Strong men carried in a tall fir tree, bereft of its limbs, except at
its crown, and gaudily festooned. They hoisted it into the air and planted it in
front of the manor house, before the lord and his family who sat enthroned on
household chairs. The lord nodded approvingly, as men and maids danced
around the pole, shouting “Long live the King” and “Long live our Seigneur”.
After an hour of dancing and merriment in the fresh spring air of May, the
seigneur invited his guests in to sample brandy and cakes. They in turn
generously toasted his health, and one by one, the health of all his kin. In
between times, men would rush out and shoot at the May Pole. Before noon,
after a round of handshaking, the revelers went their way, shooting their
muskets in the air from time to time as they returned home. The blackened May
Pole remained behind in the seigneur’s yard as a souvenir of the festivities (See
canadiangenealogy.net/chronicles/seigneur_habitant. htm)
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Some seigneuries were actually military enclaves of soldiers and ex-soldiers
because the Iroquois Indians were implacable enemies of the French-Canadian
habitants, massacring, torturing, and cannibalizing them, so that the habitants
needed the protection of these fortified seigneuries. The DuSault Seigneury was
not one of these, however, but committed to being a farming community only.
Land granted to a seigneur by the King’s Intendant, passed thereafter from one
person to another in two basic ways: sale or inheritance. When land was sold, it
was paid for in livres, sols, and deniers. A livre was originally worth one pound
of silver. A sol was worth 1/20th of a livre. A denier was worth or 1/12th of a
sol.
French linear measurements of the land were not in miles, yards, or feet. Instead
a variety of terms developed to indicate the dimensions of a piece of property: a
lieue, or league, was approximately 2.4 miles; an arpent was 192 feet; a square
arpent was only about 85% of our acre in size. A perche was slightly over 19 feet.
A pied, literally meaning a “foot” in French, was almost exactly 12 inches. A
pouce, literally meaning a “thumb” in French, was an inch.
One volumetric unit of importance was the minot which was equivalent to one
bushel.
As mentioned above there were two ways of transferring a piece of land to
another, the first being through selling it. In such a case, the seigneur had a right
to lods et ventes, a sales tax.
The second way was through inheritance. The Lords DuSault used the old feudal
custom of primogeniture for dividing the estate on the death of the old Lord.
This gave the eldest son the right to one half of the land and the proceeds there
from such as rentals, sales, crops, etc., as well as the manorial house and its out
buildings and half the profits from the mill. The other children and the widow
split up the other half of the land and its proceeds in equal portions.
For the DuSault family this practice kept their property in the family for five
generations, but with increasing difficulty. While the first three Lords DuSault did
not have to split the land in two for their siblings, the fourth and fifth
generations did, resulting each time in taking one half of the successor Lord’s
lands from him, making the estate smaller and smaller and decreasing the
Seigneur’s ability to live off its proceeds. And the other heirs’ properties were
even more minuscule. So that in the fifth generation the amount was insufficient
to sustain the heirs to its numerous divisions and subdivisions and much, but not
all, had to be sold to an outsider, a rich Scotsman named Matthew MacNider.
The French feudal system in Canada had become even more unstable for
another reason when in 1759 the English conquered New France, thus leading
also to the estate’s inevitable alienation from the French-Canadian DuSault
family into the hands of the conquerors. Nonetheless, The DuSault family
experienced a long period of prosperity, as evidenced in the Wills of the deceased
Lords, the family’s social connections, and the fact that two childless widows,
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second and third wives of deceased Lords Dusault, did not move out of the
manor house for the rightful new Lord, the eldest son of the deceased Lord
DuSault’s first wife. One dispute ended in legal action against one of the widows
protracted over years, while a quick compromise within five months solved the
issue in the second case.
The Lords Toupin- DuSault de Belair aux Ecureuils and their Toledo, OH, and Bay
County, MI, descendants have one further distinction to be added to their name.
The wife of the third Lord DuSault, Madeleine-Jacquet Turcot, was a descendant
of Charlemagne (AD 742-814), Holy Roman Emperor of the West, and his
ancestors St. Arnulf, Bishop of Metz (AD 582-643), and St. Begga (AD ?-693)*
Consequently, Jean Baptiste DuSault, Jr., 4th Lord of Belair, and all his
descendants may lay claim to being descended from the Emperor Charlemagne,
Saints Arnold and Begga, and many crowned heads of Medieval Europe.
*See Michigan’s Habitant Heritage, October, 2002, Vol. 23, #4, pp. 149-154.
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Acknowledgements
This Dusseau family history book would have been impossible if not for the
weekly Saturday visits of John Evans for the last three years. John, who will be
starting medical school in 2007, was instrumental in the collection, organization,
and presentation of the materials contained in this book. He has also arranged
my 50 years worth of genealogical research into a website that can be reached at
www.tombeau.net.
Many others too numerous to mention have also contributed. Those who have
supplied me with branches of the Dusseau Family Tree or oral history have been
acknowledged in the sections to which they have contributed.
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For well over a hundred years such a scene occurred annually in the manor house of the Lords DuSault on November
11, the Feast of St. Martin of Tours..