Three Jean Baptiste Rocque's upper Mississippi

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FIRST JEAN BAPTISTE

Jean Baptiste Rocque, born about 1805 [based on baptismal record].
He is the 9th and youngest child of the French-Canadian trader and government interpreter Joseph Rocque (1747-1815/1819) and Joseph's third wife, a Sisseton woman [name and birth/death info unknown].
Baptized on 30 Apr 1817 at Prairie du Chien [recorded as being age 12 at the time of the baptism].
Served in Capt. Thomas McNair's militia company in the Winnebago War, 16-31 July 1827 [as Baptiste Roche]
Voted in elections at Prairie du Chien on 6 Apr 1829. Excused as a juror at Prairie du Chien on 4 Oct 1829.
Voted in elections at Prairie du Chien on 5 Apr 1830
No record of a marriage, children or date and place of death or his burial has been found.


SECOND JEAN BAPTISTE

Jean Baptiste LaFramboise Rocque, born about 1825/1828 [based on three records]
He is 7th and youngest child of Augustin Rocque (abt. 1787 - abt 1856) and his only wife Angelique [half Sioux - half Fix] who survived him.
He is a nephew of the FIRST JEAN BAPTISTE [above].
Qualified as a Civil War Veteran [War of the Rebellion (1861-1865)] but never faced Confederate troops.
Served in Company A, Brackett's Battalion (Calvery) during "Sibley's Punitive Expedition after the 1862 Sioux Uprising."
Recorded as Recruit #62, Rogue, Baptiste, age 38 in the final record of Company A. Further military information shows he was born in Wisconsin, was residing in R'd's Land'g when enrolled Feb 29, 1865 [? 1864 was leap year?] and "discharged with the company" [no date listed]
He died 27 Feb 1893 iin Buffalo County, Wisconsin in the home of his sister Josephine Rocque (Mrs. Charles Ebersold).
He was survived by many adult children.


THIRD JEAN BAPTISTE

Jean Baptiste Rocque was born in 1840 or 1842.
He is the 2nd of 6 children born to Joseph Rocque (1811-1875) and Madaline Robinson (1822-1902)
He is a nephew of the SECOND JEAN BAPTISTE [above].
He was listed as age 13 in August 1855 on his father's Half-Breed scrip affidavit indicating a birth year of 1842.
He was baptized in St. Gabriel's Church, Prairie du Chien 6 Feb 1842. [No age given]
He enlisted 15 Feb 1862 [as Baptiste Q. Rocque] at Fort Snelling at the age of 22 [indicating a birth year of 1840] and assigned to Company G, 5th Infantry Regiment.
He took part in the Seige of Corinth, Mississippi. His unit was next placed on picket duty at Camp Clear Creek. While his unit was on picket duty the whole regiment suffered from typhoid, malaria and kindred diseases.
Baptiste died August 14, 1862 due to illness in a Union Field Hospital at Camp Clear Creek, Mississippi City, Harrison Co., Mississippi.
He was officially mustered out the day he died and is presumed buried in one of the many unmarked graves in the Corinth National Cemetery.
His dependent mother, Magdalene (Madaline Robinson) Rocque filed for his pension July 9, 1888.

[Rivergal]

You might be interested in knowing that the records of St. Gabriel's Catholic Church of Prairie du Chien have "Roc Francois [married] Robertson Magdaline February 12 1842" per Father Joseph Cretin. What a confusion between those names Robinson and Robertson! Even though Cretin eventually became a bishop in Minnesota, he never served there as a priest, so would have not known those families. What, if I may ask, makes you so sure the maiden name of your ancestress was Robinson?

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Your February 12, 1842 marriage record is a very interesting piece of information. It differs from James L. Hansen's June 15, 1837 information contained in his research paper.{1} My immediate thought is that they were married civilly in 1837 and had the union blessed by the church in 1842 when a priest or missionary arrived in Prairie du Chien. I've come across a few other "two-marriage" examples that were explained in that way. I'd appreciate your opinion regarding my reasoning.

Hansen in his paper also states that Joseph Roc (I use Joseph Rocque) was baptised May 5, 1817 as Francois!

Madaline (Robinson) Rocque, as my family always referred to her, is my great-great-grandmother and I've devoted a website to her memory.{2}


{1} James L. Hansen's "The Origins of the Roc/Rock Family of Prairie du Chien and Wabasha" THE GENEALOGIST - A.S.G. Picton Press. Volume 11, No. 1 - Spring 1997
{2} freepages.rootsweb.com/~madalinerocque/genealogy/index.html

I wish I had found this ProBoard site eight years ago! More to follow. . . .

[Deleted]

You asked "what makes [me] so sure the maiden name of [my] ancestress was Robinson?

My assuredness comes from three main sources, first of which is Hansen's "Origins."
Second, would be three pages from George W. Featherstonhaugh's two volume "A CANOE VOYAGE UP THE MINNAY SOTOR - WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE LEAD AND COPPER DEPOSITS IN WISCONSIN ; OF THE GOLD REGION IN THE CHEROKEE COUNTRY ; AND SKETCHES OF POPULAR MANNERS." These pages are contained in Madaline's website stated previously.
Third, would be the 1855 Half-breed scrip affadavits of her husband and her brother, Thomas Robinson. Once I can find my translations of them, I'll post them here.

I didn't get off to a great start on Madaline's genealogy because I was relying on her published obituary as my starting point, which has errors or mis-information in about every sentence. I recently did a critique on that obit which is on her webpage.

TWO HOURS LATER


Affidavit No. 21

I, Joseph Rock of Wabashaw, Minnesota Territory do solemnly swear that I am the son of Augustin Rock who is a Half Breed of the Medawahkanton Band of the Sioux. My mother is half Sac and Half Sioux of said band. I am therefore a Half Breed. I am about forty to forty-five years of age & reside at the place.

I also solemnly swear that my wife Madaline, daughter of _ _ _ _ Robinson, is a Half Breed of said band, her mother being a squaw. She is about 30 years of age, resides with me here. We have four children, viz; Baptiste aged about 13 years; Matilda aged about 11 years, Josephine aged about 8 years, and Leander aged about one & a half years. My wife and myself being both Half Breeds, I consider them also Half Breeds, deriving a quarter from each parent.

Joseph [X his mark]
Rock
Witness
:  Wm. Ashley Jones


Affidavit No. 34

I, Thomas Rock of Wabashaw being duly sworn depose and say that
  
I, Thomas Robinson of Wabashaw being duly sworn depose & say that my mother was a full blood Sioux woman of the Medawahkanton band and that my father Dennis Robinson was a White man. I am therefore a Half breed & about 30 years old. My wife is a full blood Sioux and daughter of the Chief Waucouta. We have three children viz. Eliza aged 9 years; Maria Louise aged 5 years and Celeste Jane aged 2 years. The children have therefore one half or more 3/4 of Sioux blood.

Thomas [X his mark] Robinson

Witness: Wm. Ashley Jones

[Deleted]

You also state "What a confusion between those names Robinson and Robertson!"

Yes it is. But in Anderson & Woolworth's "Through DAKOTA Eyes," they offer explanation. The "two unrelated Tom's" were often referred to as the "Robertson boys" To differentiate them, Thomas Robinson was called "Big Tom" or "Tom Tonka." During the 1862 Minnesota Uprising, they twice carried messages between Col. Sibley and Little Crow. In the second trip, they also carried a secret message from Chief Wapasha et al. Thomas Robertson writes about this in his "Reminiscence" autobiography.

[Rivergal]

Thanks for your clarifications. The Prairie du Chien priest must have gotten confused. At that time they were all French-speakers and sometimes became baffled by non-French names when they had to write them into a record. Sometimes they could ask the other parties to spell these names, but many times they were illiterate and didn't know how, themselves. Yes, I do know of cases of people being married twice, civilly and then by a priest. Visiting priests came to a community very seldom and by the time they married couples, the man and woman had been living together for years [often without even a civil marriage] and had quite a few children. Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, is an old community, but there was no actual church there with a resident priest until 1839 or so. But we have records of men and their wives [mostly Indian] living there more than twenty years earlier.

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A lot of viewer's, no poster's. Getting disappointing.