Frenchtown, Washington
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Frenchtown was a settlement in the
History
Michel Pellissier and Catherine D'Aubuchan built the first cabin in 1823.[5] Joseph LaRocque and Lizette Walla Walla built the second one in 1824, according to best estimates.[6] Retired Canadian Métis fur traders continued to settle and marry into the local tribes. Roughly twenty French Canadian Métis and twenty Ojibwe, Cree, and Iroquois formed the core population of the settlement. This would evolve into a mixed ancestry village of log cabins and Indian camps scattered over approximately 50 sq mi (130 km2). Fifty Métis families lived in the area by 1847, as estimated by counting the number of cabins on Thomas Bergevin’s map. [7] [8][9]
Following various Indigenous uprisings throughout the
The original Saint Rose Cemetery was established in 1853 at the site of the Saint Rose of the Cayuse Mission on Yellow Hawk Creek. The 1853 Mission house was burned during the war of 1855. A log chapel was subsequently built on the McBean land claim in 1863. After a few years the St. Rose Mission and cemetery were moved to a site on the Walla Walla River now owned by the Allen family. In 1876, the river burials were moved to a hill at the Frenchtown site and the Saint Rose of Lima Mission Church was erected on the lower portion of the site, which served the French-Canadian community in the area until about 1900.[11] Nearby the city of Walla Walla was established in 1859 and incorporated in 1862. For a while, Walla Walla was the largest community in the Washington Territory. In 1915, the name of the area was changed from Frenchtown to Lowden.[12]
The Frenchtown Historical Foundation was first organized in 1992 to rehabilitate the historical site. It acquired the land for the present-day historic site, including the cemetery, in 2005. A formal opening of the site and re-dedication of the St. Rose of Lima cemetery occurred in 2010 in collaboration with the
References
- ^ Barman, Jean French Canadians, furs, and indigenous women in the making of the Pacific Northwest. UBC Press. Vancouver 2014. Chapter 7 and Part 3: Beyond the fur economy
- ^ Robert Foxcurran, Michel Bouchard, Sébastien Malette. Songs Upon The Rivers. Baraka Books. Montreal 2016. Foreword
- ^ "Walla Walla Frenchtown is established about 1824". www.historylink.org. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ "Frenchtown Historical Site". Frenchtown Historical Site. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ "Frenchtown Collection - Archives West".
- ^ "Columbia Magazine" (PDF). washingtonhistory.org. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
- ^ "Frenchtown Historical Marker".
- ^ Munnick, Harriet and Adrian Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest: Missions of St. Ann and St. Rose of the Cayouse 1847-1888, Walla Walla and Frenchtown 1859-1872, and Frenchtown 1872-1888. Binford & Mort Publishing, Portland 1989
- ^ Lyman, W.D. Lyman's History of Old Walla Walla County. S.J. Clarke. Chicago 1918
- ^ "Oregon volunteers battle the Walla Wallas and other tribes beginning on December 7, 1855". www.historylink.org. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ "History of Frenchtown- Sam P." Frenchtown Historical Site. 2016-01-16. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
- ^ "Drink wine and get a history lesson at L'Ecole No. 41". The Seattle Times. 2015-09-11. Retrieved 2019-06-11.