NAME INDEX

Amons, Edward   •    Amons, Hazel M. (Schroeder, Overwick)   •    Amons, Nellie E.   •    Baldwin, Bailey T.    •    Baldwin, Lucy   •    Baldwin, Margaret (Bleau, dit Rossignal)   •    Baldwin, Mary (McClure McRay)   •    Baldwin, William   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Aiken   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine I   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine II   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine III   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Charlotte   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Felix   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Marguerite  (Margaret Rushenall Baldwin)   •    Bleau dit Rossignal, Aiken (Ekan Blue)   •    Bleau, Marguerite (Blu, Blue; Margaret Machequayzaince, or "Clear Sky")   •    Blowe, Louis   •    Blowe, Louise   •    Blowe, Nellie (Ellen, Ella, Nellie, Nettie Kinsman Lang Blow Church)   •    Bottineau Baldwin, Marie Louise   •    Bottineau, Basile / Bazill   •    Bottineau, Charles   •    Bottineau, Jean Baptiste (John B.)   •    Bottineau, Pierre   •    Bourdon, Margaret   •    Church, Charley   •    Church, Dorothy   •    Church, Henry   •    Church, Mary (Maime Sullivan)   •    Church, Robert   •    Conway, Eileen (Dolly)   •    Conway, Bernard   •    Delehanty, Anastasia   •    Delehanty, Betty Jane (Schroeder;  Liz Tedmon)   •    Delehanty, Bridget (Waters)   •    Delehanty, Daniel   •    Delehanty, Elizabeth   •    Delehanty, James Andrew   •    Delehanty, James H.   •    Delehanty, John   •    Delehanty, John   •    Delehanty, Lester   •    Delehanty, Margaret   •    Delehanty, Mary (McCormick)   •  Delehanty, Mary Harney   •    Delehanty, Mathias    •    Delehanty, Mathias   •    Delehanty, Patrick   •    Delehanty, Patrick Henry   •    Delehanty, Patrick J.   •    Delehanty, Philip William   •    Dolly (Eileen Conway)   •    Downs, Patrick H.   •    Eaton, Mary (Kinsman)   •    Eichendorf, Henriette   •    Eichendorf, Rudolph   •    Harney, Mary (Delehanty)   •    holbrecht, Louisa (Kaddatz)   •    Kaddatz, Augusta (Schacht)   •    Kaddatz, Bertha Augusta Wilhelmina (Schroeder)   •    Kaddatz, Carl   •    Kaddatz, Charles W.  (Karl)   •    Kaddatz, Louisa (Holbrecht)   •    Kaddatz, Louise (Zeige)   •    Kaddatz, Minnie   •    Kaddatz, Tillie   •   Kinsman, Asa   •    Kinsman, Ella (Ellen, Nellie, Nettie; Lang Sullivan Blowe [Bleau, Blow] Church)   •    Kinsman, George   •    Kinsman, Mary Eaton   •    Kinsman, Selma   •    Kinsman, Sheldon   •    Lang, Frank (Franz Lange)   •    Lang, Frank, Jr.   •    Lang, Jennie (Sullivan)   •    Lang, Nellie (Atkins)   •    McClure, Josephine   •    McClure, Theodore   •    McDonough, Bridget   •    McGrath, Margaret   •    McRay, Mary (Baldwin)   •    Morris, Clara   •    Perry, Anthony   •    Pollard, Martha A. (Van Arman)   •    Pollard, Matilde   •    Pollard, sarah   •    Reilly, Raymond   •    Reiser, Richard   •    Rossignal / Rushenall / Rossinal / Rashnold:  see Bleau dit Rossignal   •    Schroeder, Bertha Wilhelmina Kaddatz   •    Schroeder, Betty Jane Delehanty (liz tedmon)   •    Schroeder, Betty Jean (Tedmon)   •    Schroeder, Harold Frederick, Jr.   •    Schroeder, Harold Frederick, Sr.   •    Schroeder, Hazel (AMONS, Overwick)   •    Schroeder, Karl   •    Schroeder, Raymond George (R.G.)   •    Schroeder, William   •    Sullivan, Cornelius   •    Sullivan, Edward James   •    Sullivan, Ella (Conway)   •    Sullivan, Genevieve Agnes (Delehanty)   •    Sullivan, Grace Ann   •    Sullivan, Jennie (Lang)   •    Sullivan, Mary (Maime Church)   •    Sullivan, Neal C. (Uncle Neal)   •    Sullivan, Mary H.   •    Sullivan, Timothy   •    Sullivan, Timothy   •    Tedmon, Clifford   •    Tedmon, Liz;  Betty Jane Delehanty (Schroeder)   •    Tiner, Millie   •    Thibodeau, Adelaide   •  Thibodeau, Edward   •    Thibodeau, Lillian   •    Tuthill, Eliza   •    Van Arman, George  (also Vannarman, Vanaarman, Vanarmon, etc.)   •    Van Arman, John V.   •    Van Arman, Mabel (Amons)   •    Van Arman, Phylinda   •    Van Arman, Sidney W.   •    Waters, Barbara   •    Waters, Bridget (Delehanty)      

  Amons, Edward

b. ca. 1871, Germany, d. aft. 1920, Wisconsin?

Father of our paternal grandmother Hazel Amons.  German immigrant, came to the US, probably Wisconsin, around 1882, when he was 11.  On adulthood became a naturalized citizen.  Married Mabel Van Arman in Douglas Co WI, on June 30, 1900, had nine or ten children with her from 1901 to 1921.  Mabel filed for divorce in 1922, claiming willful desertion, but never followed through on the paperwork.  Fate unknown; never heard of him till Sept 2006 when research revealed that Hazel's birth surname was Amons.

Our paternal great-grandfather.

links   •    hazel's divorce & ancestry

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

  Amons, Hazel M.  (Schroeder, Overwick)

b. Sept 18, 1903, Superior, WI, d. May 26, 1996, Minneapolis, MN

Wife of Harold F. Schroeder, Sr., mother of Harold F. Jr. and Betty Jean Schroeder.  Married Harold on 23 Jan 1923 in Duluth MN.  Listed in 1930 census as wife and mother of two, living at 1411 Randolph St., St. Paul MN.  On 24 April 1939 the courts agreed that she had abandoned her husband and two children in April 1937 and granted Harold Sr. a divorce.  He received custody of the children, the house, and all the property.  She received a "wash machine, one tea set, one breakfast set, one end table, one bridge lamp, one telephone stand, and [her] personal dishes."

Daughter of Edward Amons and Mabel Van Arman Amons.  Born in rural Douglas Co WI two years after her sister and eldest sibling Nellie E. Amons.  Raised on a farm in the SW¼ of the NW¼ of Section 36, Twp 47, Range 13 of Douglas Co.  Cannot be found in 1910 census; not listed with her mother Mabel, who's living with her parents and siblings.  In 1920 Hazel living with grandparents and uncles in Superior WI but neither parent, while her parents are in the same county with a houseful of her siblings.  Childhood appears marked by instability and sporadic paternal desertion.  Mother Mabel filed for divorce in December 1922, charging willful desertion, but never followed through on the paperwork.

Second child of nine siblings:  Nellie (b. 1901), Hazel (1903), Edward (1906), Harry (1912), Francis (1914), Lloyd (1915), Grace (1917), Robert (1919), Carol (1921).  Sister Nell and Uncle Robert Van Arman witnessed her Jan 1923 marriage to Harold Schroeder in Duluth.  Evidently ¼ Dutch, ¼ English, and ½ German (father German, mother half Dutch and half English).  Mother Mabel's Dutch paternal line in upstate New York traced to 1790; it may go back to the original Dutch settlements in the mid-1600s.

Bore her third child, a son, on June 26, 1938, 10 months before her divorce from Harold was finalized:  Donald Edward Overwick, fathered by Elmer Julius "Al" Overwick (1914-1985; mother's maiden name Lee).  Married Al Overwick soon after, with whom she lived for many years, having one more child with him, daughter Mary Lee.  Died on May 26, 1996 in Anoka County MN.

Our paternal grandmother.

links   •    hazel's divorce & ancestry

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Amons, Nellie E.

b. Oct 5, 1901, Superior, WI, d. aft 1920

Sister and eldest sibling of Hazel M. Amons.  At age 18 living with sister and grandparents Sidney W. and Martha Van Arman in Superior, WI.  Cannot be found in 1910 census.  Witness to sister Hazel's wedding in Duluth MN in Jan 1923.

Our great-aunt.

links   •    hazel's divorce & ancestry

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Baldwin, Bailey T.  (1820-1904)  

b. 12 Feb 1820, Madison City, Alabama, d. 19 Dec 1904 Minneapolis, MN

A fascinating, colorful, and enigmatic character who from the 1870s in NE Minneapolis became an intimate part of the family of Nellie Kinsman Lang Blowe and her small daughters Jennie Lang and Nellie Lang when Nellie married his wife's brother Louis Bleau.  Generous of spirit, kind of heart, intrepid in his youth, and, for the last 40 years of his life, blind and suffering chronic and severe ill-health that he claimed stemmed from his service in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Born in the Alabama-Tennessee piedmont during a period of rapid white population growth and mounting conflicts among whites, Indians, and slaves.  Early history is a complete blank.  Arrived in Minnesota around spring 1845, age 25, "among those who came from the South to the new trading post at St. Paul," according to an 1899 Minneapolis Tribune news article.  "He had lived in Alabama, brought up among the Southerners of the Southland, and he was eager to try his luck in the north, even though his fortunes should lie among the much dreaded Indians."

Lived in St Croix Falls WI in 1847, where he very probably met William R. Marshall, lifelong friend and future governor of Minnesota (1866-1870).  For some six years (1845-51) he traded with the Ojibwe and Métis of the Red River Valley, repeatedly making the long journey to and from St. Paul, and integrating himself into diverse and conflicting cultures.  Described by several examining physicians as having "dark" complexion, he may well have had Indian ancestry, though was portrayed in the 1899 article and elsewhere as a "white man."

In Feb 1851 in St. Paul he married the "half-breed" Marguerite Bleau dit Rosignal Bottineau, widow of Basile Bottineau (d. 1850), the brother of Pierre Bottineau, famous in Minnesota history as an Indian scout and guide.  Adopted and helped raise Margaret's small son Charles Bottineau (b. 1838).  Married to Margaret for just shy of 50 years when she died on 31 March 1900.  Raised three of his own children with her:  Lucy (1852), William (1856), and Mary Baldwin (1862).

In 1857 he and one George Worts acquired 83 acres from the U.S. General Land Office near Stillwater, MN.  Census of 1860 shows him living with wife, children, and wife's brothers Aiken and Felix among French Canadians in Centreville, Anoka County, MN.  Moved to NE Minneapolis after the Civil War, living at or near 716 Lincoln St. until his death.  Occupations listed as farmer and "real estate" -- evidently speculative trading in land.  His children lived near him all his life, and he kept his friends from his arrival in Minnesota in the mid-1850s until his death early 1900s.

In winter 1862 at Fort Snelling in St Paul MN he enlisted with Company D of the Fifth Regiment of the Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, probably for a bounty of several hundred dollars.  In March or April 1862 Company D was assigned to Fort Abercrombie on Dakota-Minnesota frontier.  Pregnant wife Margaret and children came to join him in June 1862.  As ferryman, suffered a severe inguinal hernia in a ferry mishap on June 1, 1862, impairing his health until his death.  Great Sioux Uprising began late August 1862.  Fort Abercrombie besieged from Sept 3; daughter Mary born at the fort, during the siege, on Sept 28.

Convalescing at the fort he began losing his vision, probably from degenerative eye disease.  By January 1863, having gone almost completely blind, he was discharged for disability.  Treated for blindness, hernia, and other ailments at Fort Snelling Hospital from 1863 on.  Suffered severe rheumatism, piles (rectal tumors), enlarged prostate, and obesity, all of which grew worse with age.  By 1890s often barely able to get out of bed.  Semi-literate throughout his life.

Around 1873-74, wife Margaret's brother Louis Bleau, in his early 20s, married divorcee Nellie Kinsman Lang (age 26) -- the event that brought Nellie's family into the orbit of the Bleau-Baldwin families.  On 26 September 1874 Louis was murdered.  Technically the Lang girls' uncle and aunt, Bailey and Marguerite became more their grandparents, helping to feed, clothe, shelter, and raise them through the very hard years of the 1870s and early 1880s.  We're not exactly sure what the relationship was; what we know is their families were deeply entwined.

Owned various shooting galleries in NE Minneapolis in 1880s and 1890s to supplement his meager income.  Died at age 84, leaving his entire estate -- all $643 -- to his grandson Charles B. Baldwin and daughter Lucy Doyle Baldwin.  Both had remained close, physically and, we suspect, emotionally.  The gesture reinforces the view that to Bailey T. Baldwin, what really made a family a family was less blood than love.

Overall impression is of a big-hearted, compassionate, poor, working class, transplanted Southerner, a man of rectitude and integrity, obese and in ill-health from 1863 until his death, who along with wife Margaret did what he could to help his destitute daughter-in-law Nellie Blowe and his granddaughters Jennie and Nellie in rapidly industrializing and poverty-infested Northeast Minneapolis.  Buried in Hillside Cemetery, next to his wife Margaret and near his daughter Lucy.

Our great-great-great grandfather-in-law.

links   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file   •   bailey t. baldwin probate file and related items on  documents home, especially "modern leatherstocking tale"  and remember the red river valley, as well as hillside blues   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927  (Photo of Bailey T. Baldwin from Minneapolis Tribune, 2 July 1899; date of photo unknown)

back to  top   •   ancestry charts   •  nellie blowe in minneapolis   •   william schroeder pension file

   Baldwin, Lucy (McClure Doyle, 1852-1910)

b. April 4, 1852, d. 24 July 1910, Hennepin Co.

Eldest child and daughter of Bailey Baldwin and Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin.  Married Theodore McClure by 1880, and James E. Doyle (b. 1861 PA) by 1900.  Lived near her father in NE Minneapolis for most of his life.  In depositions of 1894, neighbors say Bailey's "son-in-law" is helping Bailey out financially.  Could be either Theodore or James.   Devoted much of her life to caring for her ailing father.  Minneapolis Tribune article says that Bailey and Margaret lived with her for "many years," presumably at their home at 716 Lincoln Ave NE.  Evidently had no children.  Bailey bequeathed most of his modest estate to her after his death in 1904.

Our great-great-great aunt-in-law.

links   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file   •   bailey t. baldwin probate file and related items on documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •   bleau-baldwin families, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Baldwin, Mary (McRay, 1862-1934)

b. 28 Sept 1862, Fort Abercrombie, Dakota Territory, d. St Peter Hospital, Minneapolis, 10 Feb 1934

Youngest child of Bailey Baldwin and Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin.  Born during the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862 at besieged Fort Abercrombie, where her father was stationed.  In 1880, living with husband Samuel and daughter Laura (age 1) six doors down from her father, mother, sister, and other extended family.  In 1898, Bailey recorded her as one of his three living children.  Bailey (d. 1904) excluded her from his will, instead granting the whole of his estate -- all $643.00 -- to grandson Charles and daughter Lucy.  Mary filed an objection to probating the will, but to no avail. 

Continued living in NE Minneapolis with husband Samuel and married daughter Laura in 1900 and 1910, sharing dwellings with many other working adults, very close to Bailey and Margaret's house.  The 1900 census shows her and her husband being evicted from one residence -- the entry is partial, and crossed out, accompanied by the word "evicted" -- and also residing in a nearby dwelling.  The same year's special Indian census records her as three-eighths Indian (father white, b. Alabama, mother Chippewa, three-quarters Indian).

Our guess is that over time she grew estranged from her father and sister, and perhaps her mother as well.  Census data hint that she lived among the poorest and most marginalized segment of NE Minneapolis's working class population.  A real story in here somewhere.

Died of bronchial pneumonia at 71 years of age in St Peter's Hospital, Minneapolis.  Widowed.  Buried in Minneapolis.

Our great-great-great aunt-in-law.

links   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file   •   bailey t. baldwin probate file   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •   bleau-baldwin families, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Baldwin, William C. (1856-1940)

b. 22 Sept. 1858, Minneapolis, d. 19 Nov 1940, Minneapolis

Middle child of Bailey T. Baldwin and Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin.  Thanks to Jeane Morneau DeCoursey, his great-great-granddaughter, we know that he married Elizabeth Perry around 1880-81, when he was in his early 20s, with whom he had five children over the next 15 or so years:  Charles B. (b. July 1882), William B. (June 1884), Frank J. (Feb 1887), Olive Agnes (1 Aug 1891, married Peter A. Perry), and Lillian (b. 31 May 1896, d. May 1987).

Wife Elizabeth died 23 Nov 1899 of ovarian cancer.  Youngest girls Olive Agnes (8) and Lillian (3) sent to live with the late Elizabeth's parents, by whom they were both raised.  Father Bailey T. Baldwin lists him in his response to an 1898 Pension Bureau circular, along with his other two children, Lucy and Mary.  William also listed in Bailey's 1905 probate file, though misidentified as William B. rather than William C., his actual name.  Bailey also excluded him from his will -- though Bailey did give $200 (about a third of his estate) to William's son and eldest child Charles B. Baldwin.

In 1920 census, living as a boarder, with no family members, in Pelican, Otter Tail Co MN.  In 1930 census living in Big Lake, Sherburne Co MN, with wife Catherine (19 years younger), son William B., his wife, and others.

Buried in Sunset Memorial Cemetery, Minneapolis.

Our great-great-great uncle-in-law.

links   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file   •   bailey t. baldwin probate file   •    felix blue pension file   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •   gravestone

back to  top   •   ancestry charts   (Photo of William C. Baldwin, ca. 1890, courtesy of Jeane Morneau DeCoursey)

   Bleau, Aiken (Ekan Blow, 1846-1903)

b. 1846 Minnesota Territory, d. 1903, White Earth MN  

Younger brother of Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin (b. 1824), elder brother of Louis Bleau, Nellie's second husband.   Son of Antoine Bleau dit Rossignal (b. 1790), and Marguerite Bourdon (b. 1805).  For quite some time we thought he was Nellie's second husband.  In the process of proving ourselves wrong we learned a great deal about him.

Siblings Marguerite (b. 1824), Antoine (b. 1827), Joseph (b. 1837), Felicite/Felix (1848), Delacrois (b. 1843), and Louis, all born in Minnesota Territory.

Listed three times in federal censuses, spelled differently each time:  1850 Aiken Bleau, 1860 Ekan Blowe, 1870 Ekin Blu.  Living with and caring for his aging mother in the Indian community of Watab outside Sauk Rapids MN in 1870.

Identified in various documents by as many as 13 different names:  Aiken Bleau dit Rossignal, Aiken Bleau, Ekan Blow, Ekin  Blu, Ecan Blue, Etienne Rasignole, Etienne Blue, Stephen Rossignal, Stephen Blue, Ecan Ressenblue,  Ecan Rescenlibue, "Captain" Blue, and "Cap" Blue.  This list is probably not comprehensive.

Appears as Ecan Rescenlibue in the Ancestry.com military service database -- enlisted as a private in the Union Army on 15 Aug 1862, age 19, mustered into Company H, 8th Infantry Regiment, MN, 30 Oct 1862, and mustered out of the same company at Ft Snelling on 11 July 1865, with commendation for Distinguished Service.  Looks like he served an amazing three years, part of it on the Punitive Sioux Expedition into the Dakotas and Montana.

Could neither read nor write, according to 1870 census, though his Civil War pension file shows that he could write his name.  In January 1870 in Anoka he married Angeline Blaire by a Catholic priest, and over the next 30 years he and Angeline raised a houseful of children in at least three different places:  on a farm near Centerville in Anoka County; in the city of Minneapolis; and from around 1888 until his death at age 57, near Richwood on White Earth Reservation, in the same neighborhood as his brother Felix, his nephew Charles Bottineau, and their extended kin.    Children included Maggie (b. Feb 11, 1873), Jennie (b. Aug 11, 1876), Annie (b. May 13, 1881), Sarah (b. Sept 22, 1883), Frank Louis (b. Dec 20, 1885), and Ida Louisa (b. March 17, 1896).  Buried at White Earth Indian Reservation, Minnesota.

Our great-great-great uncle-in-law.

links   •    solving the mystery of ekan blow   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bleau, Louis  (1852-1874)

b. ca. 1852, St Paul MN, d. 26 December 1874, Centerville, Anoka County, MN

Nellie's second husband, whom she met and married after divorcing Frank Lang in January 1871 -- most likely in 1873 or early 1874.  Like his siblings, displaced Ojibway-Métis from the Red River Valley.  Younger brother of Felix and Aiken Bleau and their eldest sister Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin.

Like a ghost in the documents, as the homepage says.  We've been trying to track down Louis Bleau for a good spell now.

Appears in no censuses.  We don't know why.  Born right after 1850 census, somehow missed (or name corrupted) in 1860 and 1870.  Does appear in the Half-Breed Scrip investigation of 1871 (where they denied his scrip application of 1869), and as a scrip recipient in 1873 under the terms of the Pembina Treaty of 1863-64, along with his siblings.  In March 1873 the federal government issued him scrip for 160 acres near St. Cloud. 

Thanks to EagleEye Bill DeCoursey, we've just learned that Louis Bleau met a violent and tragic end — stabbed to death at a holiday dance in Centerville, Anoka County, on the day after Christmas, 26 December 1874.  Nellie was pregnant with his child (Louise) at the time.   She may even have witnessed the event.  A stunning revelation.  Watch this space for updates.

Our great-great-grandfather-in-law.

links   •    half-breed scrip   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •   bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •   the murder of louis bleau

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

    Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine  (1790-aft. 1850)

b. ca. 1790, Red River Valley, Manitoba, d. aft. 1850, St Paul MN?

The "first Antoine."  Patriarch of the Bleau dit Rossignal family.  Married to Margaret Bourdon (b. 1805), with whom he had children Marguerite (b. 1824), Antoine (b. 1827), Joseph (b. 1837), Aiken (1846), Felicite/Felix (1848), Delacrois (b. 1843), and Louis (b. 1850) all born in Minnesota Territory.  Last appearance in census is 1850, three years after his daughter Marguerite walked 600 miles from St Paul to Pembina and back to fetch her family and bring them back to St Paul.  1850 census shows him living in St Paul with wife and children -- all except son Antoine, who decided to stay up in the Red River Valley region.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine (1827-?)

b. 1827, Red River Valley, d. aft. 1870, Red River Valley area

The "second Antoine."  Eldest son of Antoine Bleau dit Rossignal (b. 1790) and Margaret Bourdon (b. 1805).  Brother of Aiken, Felix, Margaret, Louis, and other Bleau dit Rossignal siblings.  Evidently lived up near the Red River Valley his whole life.

Married Catherine (Mohzo?) around 1847.  When his sister Margaret Bleau dit Rossignal walked 600 miles from St Paul to Pembina and back in fall 1847 to fetch her family and bring them to St Paul, evidently everyone came with her except Antoine, who decided to stay up in the Red River Valley.  With wife Catherine had children Antoine (b. 1848), Charlotte (b. 1849), Mary/Bastake (b. 1852), Eustace/Clemence (b. 1854), Solomon (b. 1857), Joseph (b. 1860), François/Frank (1862), Isabelle, and Andre (b. 1866).

Census listings:  1850:  Antoine Rashold, Pembina Co MN.  1860:  Antoine Belair, Red River Junction, Polk Co MN.  1870:  Antoine Blow, Hawk River, Renville Co MN.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bleau dit Rossignal, Antoine (1848-?)

The "third Antoine."  Son of Antoine Bleau dit Rossignal (b. 1827) and wife Catherine.  Brother of Charlotte.  Cousin of Louis Bleau and his siblings.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bleau dit Rossignal, Charlotte  (1848-?)

Daughter of Antoine Bleau dit Rossignal (Antoine II) and wife Catherine (Mohzo?).  Siblings Antoine Bleau dit Rossignal (Antoine III), Mary, Eustace, Delia, Solomon, Joseph, Andre, Margaret, Clemence, as best as we can tell. 

Married Jerome Davis, known as Mung-ge-Sheegan; Jerome's father William known as Kug-Kay-Dway; Jerome's grandfather Charles Henault.  Charlotte's daughter Eliza Davis Gouin married Joseph Gouin whose mother was Suzanne Piche.  "The Piches are an interesting bunch," according to Jane Bucknall who kindly sent us this information; "most of them are buried at Saint Francis Xavier outside of Winnipeg."

Cousin of Louis Bleau, and thus our . . . something-in-law.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bleau, Felix  (1848-1926)

b. 18 Dec 1848 MN Territory, d. 20 May 1926, Becker Co MN

"Half-breed" Ojibwe-Métis brother of Aiken Bleau and Louis Bleau.  Son of Marguerite Bourdon and Antoine Bleau.  Brother-in-law of Nellie Kinsman Lang Blow.  Census has him living with brother Aiken (Ekan) and Bailey T. and Margaret Baldwin in 1860 and married with children in 1870 and after.  Married Josephine McClure, the sister of Lucy Baldwin's first husband Theodore McClure, suggesting the density of the familial relationships between the Bleau's and McClure's.

Fought in the Civil War as a private in the same company as his brother Aiken (Company H, 8th Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry; mustered in 2 Feb 1864, mustered out 11 July 1865).  Civil War pension file contains tons of information about his life and is examined at length and in detail on two separate pages on this website.  Buried in Calvary Cemetery, White Earth, MN  56591.

Our great-great-great-great uncle-in-law.

links   •    felix blue pension file documents and felix blue pension file interpretations   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •   bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •  

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

Bleau dit Rossignal, Marguerite (Margaret Rushenall, Bottineau, Baldwin, 1824-1900)

b. 1824, Red River Valley, Manitoba, British America, d. 31 March 1900, Minneapolis MN

A fascinating character, profiled in the Minneapolis Tribune in July 1899 as "a half-breed Chippewa Indian" and "the widow of Pierre Bottineau's brother."  Married to Bailey T. Baldwin from February 1851 until her death half a century later.  Her younger brother Louis Bleau married Nellie Kinsman Lang in the early 1870s, which is what brought Nellie and her small girls into the orbit of the Bleau-Baldwin extended kinship network.

Eldest child of Antoine Bleau dit Rosignal and Marguerite Bourdon.  Grew up in the rural districts of the Red River Valley.  In autumn 1847 made an epic 600 foot journey from St Paul to Pembina, Manitoba, and back again in order to fetch her family and bring them to St Paul, as described in the "Modern Leather-Stocking Tale" (link below).

In 1848 at age 24 married Basile Bottineau, brother of the famous Pierre Bottineau.  Bore him one child, Charles, on 7 March 1838.  In late 1840s, husband Basile drowned working for the Hudson Bay Company on an expedition out West.

Soon after, in Feb 1851 married Alabaman Bailey T. Baldwin, who adopted young Charles and fathered three of her children:  Lucy (1852), William (1858), Mary Baldwin (1862).  Fascinating tales of her life in Tribune story -- not only the 600 mile trek in fall 1847, but also giving birth to her youngest child at Fort Abercrombie during the height of Great Sioux Uprising of 1862, and much else of interest.  Ironically, the Tribune ignored her death, only eight months after profiling her life in a lengthy story, devoting but a single line on a single day for her death announcement.

From 1863 until her death, living in NE Minneapolis with a blind and ailing husband and an extensive network of friends and kin.   A fascinating match:  a "half-breed" woman from British Manitoba and a poor white (part Indian?) southerner from Alabama.  What is their story?

Evidence seems strong that her influence was crucial in Jennie and Nellie's upbringing.   Itching to learn more about her.  And her relationship to Nellie and the girls.  There's got to be more.

Our great-great-great grandmother-in-law.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on documents home   •   "modern leatherstocking tale"    •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927   •   on pierre bottineau and the bottineau family see offsite:  http://users.ap.net/~chenae/bottineau.html   (photo: tintype of Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Bottineau Baldwin, ca. 1862, courtesy Jeane Morneau DeCoursey)

back to  top   •   ancestry charts   •   nellie blowe in minneapolis

Marguerite Machequayzaince Son-gabo-ki-che-ta, or "Clear Sky Woman", 1775-1864

Ojibway mother of Pierre and Basile Bottineau.

links   •   bleau, rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Blowe, Louise  (1875-aft. 1916)

b. 1875, Minneapolis MN,  d. aft. 1916

Daughter of Nellie Kinsman Lang Blowe and Louis Bleau.  Never knew her father, as he was murdered before she was born.   In 1880, at age 5, she's living in the house of Lucy Baldwin McClure (daughter of Bailey T. Baldwin and Marguerite Bleau dit Rossignal Baldwin) on Sinclair St. in Minneapolis, right around the corner from Bailey and Marguerite on Bachman St.  Five years later, in 1885 at age 10, she's living with the Le Perdo (Thibodeau) family, not far from Bailey and Marguerite.  Doubtless a French-Canadian connection with Bailey's wife Marguerite. 

No trace of her after 1885, though Nellie's wedding article from August 1916 said Nellie had three daughters, so she must have still been alive.   (Jennie, b. 1866; Nellie, b. 1868; Louise, b. 1875).  The nine grandchildren mentioned in the article also suggest that Louise had at least one child.  (Jennie had seven children, all Sullivans; Nellie had none or perhaps one; so Louise must have had one or two).  Didn't attend Nellie's 1916 wedding.  Her life remains largely a mystery. 

Our great-great aunt.

links   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bottineau Baldwin, Marie Louise

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links   •   bleau (blue, blow), rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bottineau, Basile / Bazill  (1820?-1850)

Métis guide and trapper, brother of famed Pierre Bottineau.  First husband of Margaret Bleau dit Rossignal, with whom he had one child, son Charles, b. 1838.  The story is that after marrying Margaret "he left to go with the Hudson Bay Company to the Rocky Mountains.  He was drowned shortly after," in the late 1840s.  Exact chronology unclear.  After his death, his fourteen year-old son Charles was adopted and raised by Bailey T. Baldwin when Bailey married the widow Margaret.

links   •   bleau (blue, blow), rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file and related items on  documents home   •   nellie in minnesota, 1866-1927

back to  top   •   ancestry charts

   Bottineau, Charles Mijigisi  (1838-1921)

b. 7 March 1838, Pembina, British Canada,  d. 5 May 1921, White Earth MN

Only son of Basil Bottineau and Margaret Bleau dit Rossignal Bottineau.  Born 7 March 1838 one mile south of Fort Garry MN.  Met Bailey T. Baldwin in 1851 at age 13.  A year later Baldwin married his widowed mother and adopted him.  Fought in Company F, Fifth Regiment, Minnesota Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War (the same regiment as Bailey, who was in Co. D).  Was in active service for 3½ years -- mustered in on 14 Jan 1862 at Fort Snelling, age 24, and mustered out on 23 March 1865; he was one of the few in his company neither wounded, killed, or transferred to the Invalid Corps  (Minnesota in the Civil & Indian Wars, St Paul Pioneer Press Co., 1890, p. 292).  In the same company was Peter (Pierre) Bottineau, age 22, probably his cousin and son of the famed Pierre Bottineau.

His Civil War pension offers many details about his life and family and community in White Earth.  First wife "Josephine Cobb died at Minneapolis Minn in 1867 . . . in childbirth the child also died."  Married Mary Bottineau Ducette in 1912 at White Earth by father Alouysis, Catholic priest, though by his own account the couple had "lived together for some time previous" -- probably from the early 1880s.  Wife Mary Ducette had been married previously to Jean Baptiste Bellacourt, who died in White Earth MN in 1862 or 1866 "as near as I can tell."  She died Jan 7, 1920.   The couple lived in poverty and he remained illiterate.  At age 74 described as 5' 11", dark complexion, dark grey eyes, black hair, occupation laborer.  Children with Mary Bottineau named Mary Bottineau, b. April 11, 1881 and Charles Bottineau, b. July 26, 1882. 

Died Saturday night, March 5, 1921, according to The Tomahawk, "a weekly publication published at White Earth, Minn."  (Civil War pension file)

Jennie Lang's uncle-in-law.  

links   •   bleau (blue, blow), rossignal, bottineau & baldwin families in minnesota, 1790-1930   •    bailey t. baldwin pension file