Joining the American Melting Pot — Francis LaBree

B. 15 Jan 1828 in St-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, Quebec
M. 23 Jan 1854 in St. Paul, Minnesota
Wife: Eliza Furlong
D. 27 Dec 1909 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Francis Labree had a pedigree that was entirely French-Canadian. For generations, his people farmed along the lower St. Lawrence River, going back to the founding of New France, and except for one indigenous ancestor, they all traced back to France. Then Francis broke the chain when he moved to the United States, a place where he came into contact with people of a variety of backgrounds. 

Francis was born as François LaBrie on January 15, 1828 in St-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, Quebec. His parents were Joseph Mignault dit LaBrie and Marie-Charlotte Dubois, and he was one of eleven children. Little is known of Francis' early years, but his education must have been minimal because he was illiterate. His father was a potato farmer, who died when Francis was age 18.

At the time Francis reached maturity, opportunities were opening up to the south in the United States. What motivated him to move there isn’t known, but it’s easy to imagine that he saw the struggle his father went through plowing fields in the harsh climate of Quebec. Francis made his way to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1848. Located on the Mississippi River, it was a place that was just being settled by people of European descent, and many of them were the remnants of the fur trade. Several of Francis’ siblings also made the move around this time, including older brother Jean-Baptiste, and sisters Genevieve and Adeline. 

St. Paul, Minnesota area as it looked when Francis arrived.

In about 1853, Francis came to a place called West St. Paul, a new farming community populated primarily with French-Canadian, German and Irish immigrants. Minnesota’s melting pot, even at that early date, brought people of different nationalities together, and Francis decided to marry an Irish woman. Her name was Eliza Furlong, and on January 23, 1854, the couple was wed before a Catholic priest in St. Paul. Francis’ brother Jean-Baptiste served as one of the witnesses. It’s interesting to note that Francis was the only one of his siblings to not take a French-Canadian spouse. 

Francis and Eliza rented a farm in the township of Inver Grove, which was just south of St. Paul. Over the next several years, the family moved around to various places in the area: Mendota, Cottage Grove and back to West St. Paul. Francis and Eliza had ten children, but only three survived their early childhood. One who lived to adulthood was Alex, born in 1856. When the boy was 5 years-old, he traveled with his father back to visit the family in Quebec. It isn’t known who they visited (perhaps Francis’ aging mother). It’s unlikely Francis ever returned to Canada after this trip. 

1857 Minnesota Territorial Census for Dakota County. Francis' neighbors were from many places.

In August of 1862, trouble arose in southern Minnesota when members of the Lakota tribe began raiding the farms of white settlers, often killing them, including women and children. There was evidence that Francis had some contact with the Lakotas maybe even before the violence — Alex, as an adult, told of learning their language as a child. When the possibility of raids spread to Mendota, Francis and his family took shelter with others in a local schoolhouse. The situation, which became known as the 1862 Sioux Uprising, brought many settlers together, united against the threat. It was said that Francis was present at the hanging of 38 of the rebels at Mankato, Minnesota in December.  

Not long after the uprising, Francis decided to enlist in the U.S. Army to fight in the Civil War; this was in spite of the fact he was in his late 30s and was supporting a family. For many immigrants trying to gain a foothold in the U.S., serving in the military was a chance to make quick money, so it’s likely this was the reason Francis joined. The records show that he signed up in St. Paul on February 10, 1864, and he was described as being five foot ten inches tall, with dark hair, blue eyes, and fair complexion.

Francis may have thought he would be a soldier on the battlefield, but as it turned out, his entire service in the army was spent in Minnesota. After leaving Fort Snelling in St. Paul, he was sent to a camp in the town of Kasota, and on April 1st, he suffered a rupture of his viscera trying to lift a barrel of water off of a wagon. Francis spent the next three or four months in an Army hospital at Fort Ridgley, and didn't participate in any further active service. After the war ended, he was discharged on May 16, 1865. For the rest of his life, he was partially disabled with a hernia, and had to wear a truss.

After Francis was discharged from the the army, a daughter Ellen was born, then the family moved to Barron County, Wisconsin. Their farm was adjacent to Francis' brother Jean-Baptiste, and a younger brother Edward, who had also moved down from Quebec. Francis and Eliza had one more child, a son Louis, in 1868. The family returned to Minnesota in 1872, and Francis purchased a farm in Wright County in the town of Marysville (later called Waverly). This would be Francis’ home for most of the remainder of his life. 

Some of Francis' granddaughters, and his son Alex with wife Leda in front of the Marysville farmhouse, circa 1935.

In 1897, Francis filed to become an American citizen. His naturalization took place on his 69th birthday at the district court in Buffalo, Minnesota. At that point, Francis had been living in the U.S. nearly 50 years. Usually there is a practical reason to get naturalized, especially when it's so late in life. Perhaps with his health issues in old age, it helped Francis in some way to get treatment and support himself.

The war injury continued to plague Francis, and in 1888, he applied for a veteran’s pension; on the form he claimed to be “half-disabled.”  It was granted within a year, and within a few months, money started coming in from the government. Francis made a claim for full disability in 1899. He now described having a double rupture in the viscera, and was almost totally deaf in both ears. With this new claim, he was put into a nursing home — the National House in Milwaukee. His wife Eliza didn't go with him to Milwaukee, staying with married daughter Ellen in Minneapolis as son Alex took over the farm. 

Francis was transferred to several veterans' homes during his final years. From 1899 to 1901, he was in Milwaukee, and over the next few years, he was in Danville, Illinois and Leavenworth, Kansas. Then in 1906, he was transferred to Sawtelle in Los Angeles. A photo exists of Francis taken among a group standing in front of the veterans’ home at Sawtelle. He's slightly out-of-focus and the photo has a water stain over his body. The identity of the other people in the picture is unknown.

Photo of Francis taken at Sawtelle in about 1906

By 1907, Francis’ health declined severely and he was transferred one last time to the Minnesota Soldiers' Home in Minneapolis, where Eliza was able to live with him. On December 27, 1909, Francis died from peritonitis, probably related to his war injury. He was buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis. Eliza passed away in 1912.

In the generations that followed, Francis’ descendants would become even more a part of the American ethnic stew. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren married spouses of German, Swedish, Danish, Anglo, Irish, Scottish and Greek descent. An American culture among the family replaced one that was strictly French. And it all began when Francis made the decision to leave Quebec in 1848.

Children:
1.  Eliza LaBree – B. about 1855, Minnesota; D. before 1865

2. Alexander LaBree – B. 1 Nov 1856, Pine Bend, Minnesota; D. 4 Oct 1939, Wright County, Minnesota; M. Leador Labelle (1869-1947), 1 Jan 1885, Waverly, Minnesota

3. Edward LaBree – B. 1850s; D. before 1860

4. John J. LaBree – B. Jan 1860, Minnesota; D. before 1865

5. Ellen M. LaBree – B. 27 Dec 1865, Wisconsin; D. 10 Dec 1935, Minneapolis, Minnesota; M. Francis Chatelain (1857-1917), 27 Oct 1884, Waverly, Minnesota

6. Louis Martin LaBrie – B. 3 Feb 1868, Barron County, Wisconsin; D. 4 Mar 1911, St. Paul, Minnesota; M. Julia A. McGuire (1871-1922), 1 Jun 1891, Minneapolis

Sources:
Birth record of François LaBree, St-Joseph de la Pointe-Lévy, Quebec, 15 Jan 1828
1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900 U.S. Cenuses, Minnesota and Wisconsin
1857 Minnesota Territorial Census
1865 and 1885 Minnesota State Census
Marriage record of Francis LaBree and Eliza Furlong, St. Paul, Minnesota, 23 Jan 1854
Military records of Francis LaBree, 1864-1865
Military pension file of Francis LaBree, 1888-1910
Francis Labree hospital records 1899-1907
Death certificate of Francis LaBree, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 27 Dec 1909
"LaBree History," Wright-Way Shopper, Monticello, Minnesota, 2 Oct 1980
Letters of Hazel Swenson to Laura Mitchell, 1977-1978
"LaBree Helped Bring Log Cabin Transition," Wright County Journal Press, 12 Oct 1939
Minnesota death index, 1908-2002
Wright County, Minnesota marriage index
World War I draft registration database
Minnesota deaths and burials, 1835-1990
Death certificate of Louis LaBrie, 6 Mar 1911, St. Paul, Minnesota
Marriage record of Louis LaBrie and Julia McGuire, 2 Jun 1891, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Death certificate of Julia LaBrie, 19 May 1922, St. Paul, Minnesota
Birth certificate of Julia McGuire, 23 Jun 1871, Washington Lake, Minnesota