John Baptiste Toussaint CORNEAU

Eigenschaften

Ereignisse

Eltern

Ehepartner und Kinder

Notizen zu dieser Person

-] He left Tours, France in Septemeber 1799 for travelthroughFrance. He went to Saumur for a short visit and then ontoNantes; but he was unable to carry out his plans because oftheconstantly recurr ing turmoils in France. He, therefore,stayedin Nantes. He was threatened with conscription in thearmy,being 20 years old. He stayed at Nantes for 2 yearsbecauseToures was being occupied by revol utionary forces. -]Uponlearning of the death of his father, he was in a verysadcondition, but his Uncle Rene' cared for him until 1 Mar1804,when Rene' was also murdered at Jerimie. -] Before th emassacreof his uncle, John and Rene' were captured andimprisoned. Johnwas impressed into the negro military serviceas the negroeswere forming an army. They had possession ofJerimie. Whilebein g pressed to tell where their money was,John was hauledaround by a rope around his neck. Rene's bodyservant, a negrolad, revealled all. The Captain of John'scompany, having takena liking to him an d having secured about $1,000.00, he releasedhim and Rene' from prison. Rene' returnedhome and John wasmade a 2nd Lieutenant in the company. Thissaved John's life.The Captain was appointed to anot her part ofthe island andasked John to accompany him there. John declined,and his termin the company having expired, he remained atJerimie, butunmollested even though the situation was growingwors e. TheFrench troops were not able to quell the revolt. -]AfterRene's death, John was able to save some papers which hebroughtto the U.S.. John had a watch, a silver one, that hisuncleRene' had g iven him to secrete his own gold watch. He hadthemboth in his fob pocket when the negroes were rummagingaround.The pocket was very deep and they did not find thewatches. Hebrought these to the U. S. and always wore the goldone. Beforehe came to springfield he seemed to have left itwith his sonJohn in Cincinnati. -] At John's death it passed tohis sonCharles, and at his death it passed t o his brotherEllis. -]From March 7, 1803 when John arrived in Saint Domingotill June8, 1804 when he fled the island, the revolt had spreadto allparts. With his father and uncle massacred, the plantationsseized and the improvements destroyed; the cityproperty,personal effects and stocks of coffee and otherplantationproducts were carried away by the negroes. Accordingto thereport of the King 's Commission, Rene' owned and worked127slaves. He seemed to have been rich and prosperous withnodebts as the Commissioners did not have any claims presentedtohim. To the contrary, M. _______, h is agent and ConsigneeatPhiladelphia where he sent the coffee, sugar, etc.. owed him.-]As John had been bereft of any relatives and no propertytobenefit by, he had for some time been contemplatin g a plantoleave Saint Domingo and had often been in conference with4young men who were disposed to join him. These young menwereM. Bruette, M. Mendardy, M. Lacataiguinais, and M._________whose na me cannot be found. They finally decided onprocuring aboat for themselves to leave Jerimie in the night andtry toreach Saint Jago, Cuba, now known as Santiago, which istheSpanish spelling. In som e way their scheme became known toafriendlyfrenchman, who sought them out and claimed he hadsomefriends who could procure a boat, provisions, etc.. Theyatonce accepted his offer and bought his boa t for about 600fr,or$ 200.00. -] The boat was a hollowed out mahogany log,15ftlong, 2 ft wide and 20in deep. It had 2 masts andsails,rudder, oars and water cask. Having completed allarrangements ,they left on the night of Sunday, June 8, 1804,stealing quitelyout from under a cavernous indentation wherethey made theirplans, then along a treacherous shore, until theywere able tohead their bo at for the open ocean. Some young menwho leftJerimie in a boat a short time before John, feared toventureout to sea and were overhauled and captured near thecoast. Theywere then taken to the cit y and executed. John andhis partyput right to sea and steered northwest for Cuba.Theyencountered gales, ruins ans spent perilous days and nightsintheir open boat. On the third day they were pick ed up byaprivateer and solicited to join the crew, but theydeclined.They were immediately put back on their boat. Theywere thenpicked up by the English Man-O-War "Hercules" of 74guns. TheCaptai n took their boat in tow, kept & fed them 3 daysand thenlanded them at Barcoa, Cuba. Barcoa was a rendezvous forthepirates of the Carlbbean sea and adjacent waters. Theycouldnot remain there and p ut to sea again leaving one of theirpartybehind as he was too ill to travel. This was on the 16thofJune. Barcoa was on the northerly side of the easternextremityof Cuba, formed by Cape Maysi an d entirely out oftheir coursefor Saint Jago. Consequently they had to saileasterly, thensoutherly, doubling Cape Maisi and westerly toSaint Jago, alonga rugged, dangerous coast, beset with storms ,deluges of rain,hurricanes and starvation. The pirates theyfound at Barcoawere the only people who treated them kindly tillthey got toSaint Jago. They landed several times at variouspoints to ge tfood and water and were always searched assmugglers. They werealso subjected to indignities, somethingnear brutality by theguards, soldiers and officials at thoseSpanish ports. Theywent ashore a t Yatera and at Los Alteras;when they climbed thebank at the latter place they saw in thedistance a dilapidatedfort, guarded apparently by 2 sentinels.Still they pressed on.They were not halied o r ordered to halt,which was unusual, theywent on until they were under the wallsof the fort when theydiscovered the sentinels to be dummies madeof logs and dressedand equiped as soldiers. -] The y reachedthe bay at Santiago onJune 22 and on the 23rd went to the city.This was 15 daysafter leaving Jerimie, 3 of which were spent onthe Hercules,and 12 in the open boat. They had not landed often, as theycould not pilot their way. For safety, althoughoften amidststorms they spent their nights at sea far from theinfluence anddangers of the breakers. It will be remembered thata M.Gillett e was the commander of a soldier's rendevous nearRene'splantations. He had a son who resided at Saint Jago. Hewasnot a refugee, but had located there in a business, whichseemedto be a dairy. Hi s father knew Rene' and his propertyand alsowas aquanted with John. John sought him out at once andwaskindly received and given employment, some of which wasmilkingcows. John was taken ill and re mained so for some weeksandthen was able to resume his work. He had met severalrefugeesby then, among them a M. Bertier who was also aquantedwithRene'. He was intending to go to Philadelphia as h e, likemanyothers had claims there. He advised John to go there also.-]John decided to go, but he was out of money or nearly so.M.Bertier had taken passage on the schooner "Fly", avesseltradin g between Cuban ports and Philadelphia. Uponlearning ofJohn's situationhe went to the Captain and guaranteedJohn'spassage money, $ 40.00. They left Saint Jago on Septemebr12and arrived in Philade lphia on October 1, 1804. The passagewasuneventful except for storms. John found at Philadelphia aM.Nainae, whom he had known at Jerimie. They had leftSanDomingo very early in the revolt. John a lso sought and foundM.Lagnelle who many years before had resided in Jerimie andhadbeen associated in business there with Rene'. All ofthesepeople were kind to John and the other refugees. John alsofound Rene's agent and had assistance from him but,aspreviously stated, he and other agents went away whenhardpressed for money by refugee heirs. At that timePhiladelphiawas a richer and more com mercial port than NewYork. It had thetrade of all the West Indies and largely thatof Europe andSouth America. -] John's life in Philadelphia wasquiteuneventful. He never accumulated money, but a lways insome waymanaged to keep his family genteel and comfortable. Hewasgreatly handicapped by not understanding the Englishlanguage,and having no trade or profession or any experience inbusines s.He was reared as a young gentlemen, well educated, hismother'splans being to have him enter the priesthood, a verycommondesire for the fist male child. He was an intelligent manandvery handy wit h tools. The city was growing and he foundaplace among the contractors and builders. He alsolearnedenough english to understand and be understood aboutwork. Johnlater became a collector on the g reat Market Streetbridgeacross the Schuylkill River. He remained there for a longtime.When the bridge was sold it became a free bridge at whichtimeJohn's occupation was gone. He had saved money an d investeditin groceries and set up a store, unfortunately it didnotsucceed. -] John remained at Philadelphia until his son,John,moved to Cincinnati and engaged in the native winebusiness.John an d his wife joined their son there. John provedhimselfto be invaluable around the vineyard, presses and thewinestorage cellars. This was because of growing up inthesesurroundings. In 1855, after h is son died, John movedtoSpringfield, IL.

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Titel	Weule-Woile-Datenbank 2022
Beschreibung
Hochgeladen	2022-02-13 20:53:23.0
Einsender	Reinhard Weule
E-Mail	reinhard.weule@t-online.de
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