He was born
Francois Xavier Vautrin on May 10, 1815, in the Parish of St.
Philippe, in Quebec. His
parents were Pierre Vautrin dit Bienvenue and Agathe Baudin
(or Baubin). His
paternal grandfather was Charles Vautrin dit Bienvenue who
was born in Lorraine, France and came over to New France with
the Royal Rousillon Regiment in the 1750s.
His mother, Agathe, was part Miami
Indian from the Detroit River Region. We have been in
contact with descendants of several of Xavier's siblings and
at least one cousin, who have generously shared genealogy
records, in one case dating back 14 generations from our own.
Xavier was
recruited from the Parish of St. Edouard, Quebec and entered
the HBC service in 1834, at about the same time as his
brother Jean Baptiste Vautrin (born February 1, 1813.)
Xavier and Jean Baptiste had at least nine siblings.
As far as we know, these two brothers
were the only family members who joined the Company.
According to a
descendant of Jean Baptiste who searched through hundreds of
hours of microfilm from the HBC archives, the brothers
arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1834. Per records received
from Bruce Watson, Xavier worked at Fort Vancouver as a
middleman until 1835 at which time he was assigned to the
Columbia Department. In 1837 he was sent to Fort
Langley where he worked for the next fifteen years. In
1852 he went to Victoria where he joined his brother.
Jean Baptiste had
gone from Fort Vancouver to New Caledonia and worked at
various locations over the years until 1851 when he was
assigned to Fort Victoria. Both brothers retired from
the HBC around 1852 though they periodically carried on
transactions with the company for some time after that.
While at Fort
Langley Xavier took up, in the custom of the country, with a
Quantlen woman. The
earliest record we've found so far is reflected above,
wherein a daughter Florence (about 3) was baptized by Modeste
Demers on September 4, 1841. She is described as the
illegitimate daughter of Francis Vautrin and Emilie, Kwoithe
(probably a variation of Kwantlen/Quantlen). However,
when he moved with his family to Victoria and had his
relationship formalized in 1852 (apparently in a double
wedding with his brother Jean Baptiste and his Songhee bride
Elizabeth), his wife was referred to as Marie Quantlen.
Together they acknowledged their children Emilie, age 11
years, Helene, age 6 years, and Catherine, age 3 years.
We don't know if
Florence (about 14 by then) had married or possibly
died. Nor do we know what happened to "Emilie,
Kwoithe." Since the next eldest daughter also
bears the same name Emilie (or Amelie), perhaps it is
possible that "Emilie, Kwoithe" and Marie were the
same woman, or were related. Another daughter, Rosalie,
was born to Xavier and Marie after their move to Victoria in
1852, but she only lived 2 years. They
also had a son Francois Xavier who may have died in 1857.
Xavier and
Marie's daughters Helene and Catherine were both early pupils
of the Sisters of St. Ann's at their two room convent school
in Victoria. They enrolled there in November of 1858,
about six months after the Sisters started the school.
We have found
later records pertaining to Helene/Ellen Vautrin. She
married Moise Plamondon, a son of Simon Plamondon, another
HBC employee who had worked at Fort Langley. She died
and was buried in Victoria in October 1864 at eighteen years
of age.
As yet, we don't know what happened to
Catherine Vautrin.
After the
brothers left active service of the HBC, they settled on land
in the Mill Bay area of southern Vancouver Island that they
had apparently been visiting since the late 1830s according
to oral history. In various local histories they are
credited with being "the first white men" to settle
in the Cowichan Valley. They eventually pre-empted the
properties after the surveying had taken place.
The south side of Xavier's 100 acres
went approximately along what is today Kilmalu Road across
the road from the St. Francis Xavier Church that still stands
and the Island Highway now cuts across the west side.
Jean Baptiste pre-empted a 100 acres that was southwest of
Xavier's and hence the story is that they "settled next
door to each other" and took up farming. Both
brothers also worked for some time at a nearby mill.
We don't know for
sure the fate of Francois Xavier Vautrin though we believe he
died on the Island. We have read that local oral
history says his remains are in a grave near the waterfront
north of Mill Bay. There is a road near Section 6,
Range 9 (near his pre-empted land) that is named Voutrait,
one of the many variant spellings of the name. It is
possible he rests near there.
Jean Baptiste
Vautrin's wife Elizabeth of the Songhees died in 1857.
In 1860 he married Marie Anne Brule, the widow of Joseph
Brule. In the late 1880s it appears that Jean Baptiste
and Marie Anne moved to the Grande Ronde area of Oregon, near
where Marie Anne was from. Church records indicate
that a man named Jean Baptiste Vautrin died there on February
18, 1893.
We do have quite a bit
of information on Jean Baptiste Vautrin and are in contact
with direct descendants of his who have significantly
more. Should any of his other descendants read this, we
would be happy to direct you toward same.
We do have
extensive information on most of the above mentioned
individuals. This includes ancestors as well as
descendants for the most part. Should any of the surnames be
related to research you are conducting please be sure to
check out our website at
http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/k/a/t/Laurel-Katernick/index.html
