Louis Beeshy: New Clues

Back in April, I wrote about my mystery ancestor, Louis Beeshy. He’s a mystery because we don’t know where he came from, and we don’t know where he got to. He appeared in Waterloo County at some undisclosed time, married Barbara Wanner in 1838, fathered 9 children with her, and then disappeared while on a trip to Dundas to get some flour milled. I mentioned in that earlier piece that there are stories in the family suggesting he was French Canadian with, perhaps, some First Nations blood.

Since April, I have come across something on-line written by my second cousin Peter Hoover, who is also descended from Louis Beeshy. I’ve tried to get ahold of Peter by email several times to determine exactly where and how he discovered the “facts” he relates, but it appears the address I’m using is no longer valid. Anyway, here’s the enhanced story, as told by Peter Hoover.

According to Peter, Louis Beeshy’s earliest known ancestors were Nicolas and Robine (Lessert) Viger of Rouen, in Normandy, France; Samuel and Marie (Delain) Papineau, of the Poitou-Charentes region of western France; and Adrien and Jeanne (Juneault) Quevillon, also of Rouen. The sons of the first two couples, Désiré Viger and Samuel Papineau, immigrated to New France in the 1600s. It isn’t clear whether the third couple’s daughter, Catherine Quevillon, immigrated or was born in Canada.

Désiré Viger married Catherine Moitié (not sure about her parentage) in Montreal on 19 September 1667; they farmed around Boucherville, and are buried in a cemetery there. Their grandson, Jacques Viger (1696-1757) married Marguerite Brodeaur (ca 1704-1728); they had a son, Louis (1737-1812). [Note: It appears that Louis may actually be the son of Jacques’ second wife, Marie-Louise Riday (1712-1782).]

Samuel Papineau married Catherine Quevillon, and their son, Joseph Papineau (1719-1785), married Maria Josephe Beaudry (1729-1814). Joseph and Maria had a daughter, Maria Agnes (1749-1817). Maria Agnes Papineau married Louis Viger, and they had a son, Pierre Benjamin Viger (1787-1832).

According to Peter Hoover, there is no record in Quebec of Pierre Benjamin Viger ever marrying, “but he apparently spent time amongst the coureur des bois (French-speaking fur trappers), later leaving a son, Louis Viger, at the home of David and Leah (Bauman) Schneider, at Freeport, Ontario, in the 1820s.” It would seem that David and Leah (he was a son of our immigrant ancestor Christian Schneider of Doon) raised this child as “Louis Beeshy.”

In another document, Hoover writes about “… Louis Viger, a little boy who came riding in, on horseback, with his French-speaking fur-trapper father. They stayed the night at David and Leah Schneider’s place, just south of the Freeport Bridge, and Leah, feeling sorry for the little motherless boy, asked for him.” Since Pierre Benjamin (supposedly) never married, I would guess that the child’s mother was a First Nations woman who had either died or been left behind in the bush by Viger Sr.

Now here I have some questions for Peter. Where did you hear that Louis Beeshy was raised by the Schneiders? I haven’t been able to find any other evidence of them having raised the orphan son of a French Canadian trapper—Ezra Eby lists only their five natural children, with no mention of an adopted one, and this is exactly the sort of detail he delights in mentioning. On the other hand, young Viger/Beeshy’s marriage to Barbara Wanner of Hespeler might support the notion of a childhood in Freeport; they would have both attended the Sunday services at the Hagey meetinghouse north of Preston (the Wanner meetinghouse wasn’t built until after their marriage).

And even if you heard that Louis was raised by the David Schneiders in family lore, how did you connect Beeshy with the Viger family of Quebec? It is true that this name shift is not implausible, as the substitutions of “b” for “v” and “sh” for “zh” (soft g sound) are quite common childhood phonetic shifts and not unlikely in the translation from French to Pennsylvania German (note that German “Weber” and “Huber” were often anglicized to “Weaver” and “Hoover”). But I’d still like to know, Peter, how you bridged the gap between the Louis Beeshy we know about and the hypothetical bastard child of a (possibly) black-sheep single scion of several prominent Montreal families.

And yes, the Vigers and Papineaus were very prominent families in Quebec history. Several Vigers were reformist newspapermen and politicians, as well as businessmen and bankers, in the 18th and 19th centuries, but I haven’t been able to connect them directly to the Vigers that Peter mentions. There is a Joseph Papineau (1752–1841), who was a prominant political figure in Lower Canada and whose estate is now home to Château Montebello; this guy might plausibly be the son or nephew of “our” Joseph Papineau. This Joseph was father of Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786–1871), leader of the reformist Patriote movement and instigator of the Lower Canada Rebellion of 1837–1838, as well as grandfather of Henri Bourassa, founder of Le Devoir and thorn in Wilfrid Laurier’s side.

I wouldn’t mind having those people and that heritage of rebellion in my bloodline.

Now, Peter Hoover has another intriguing suggestion. He repeats the story that Beeshy/Viger took off for the California gold rush (he says it was in 1849, but that’s impossible, as his youngest son was born in 1854), abandoning his wife and kids, but he then goes on to write:

“Later, in the West Coast Gold Rush of New Zealand, in the 1860s, a man carrying the Viger name appeared—amongst many diggers from North America, Europe and Australia. He established a family and eventually settled at Governor’s Bay, Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand. This family wrote their name both Viger and Beechey. Was it our Louis?”

I believe that Peter and his family lived in New Zealand for awhile (one of his daughters was born on the South Island), so maybe he knows a thing or two about those Kiwi Beecheys. But even he admits that this connection is educated guesswork. Is the Quebecois Viger-Papineau lineage just another bit of creative genealogical speculation?

Whatever the case, these are some very interesting additions to the legend of Louis Beeshy. I am seriously considering having my DNA analyzed to see whether I actually have some French—and maybe even First Nations—ancestry and relatives. Maybe I’d even find some cousins in Christchurch.

[Note: I did get my DNA tested. You can find the results at “Surprise! I’m a Swiss-Pennsylvania-Ontario Mennonite“.)

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Sources:

Fernand Ouellet, “Papineau, Louis-Joseph,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol X (1871-1880) (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/papineau_louis_joseph_10E.html).

Fernand Ouellet and André Lefort, “Viger, Denis-Benjamin,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol IX (1861-1870) (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/viger_denis_benjamin_9E.html).

Jean-Claude Robert, “Viger, Jacques,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol VIII (1851-1860) (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/viger_jacques_8E.html).

Peter Hoover, “Quebec,” The Rainham Settlement (http://rainham.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/24-Boucherville1.pdf).

Peter Hoover, “Louis Viger,” The Rainham Settlement (http://rainham.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/25-Louis-Viger.pdf).

Peter Hoover, “Waiting, Waiting when the Lord Shall Come,” The Rainham Settlement (http://rainham.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/200-Franconia-with-page-numbers.pdf).