M. 8 Feb 1770 in Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory
Husband: Louis Godere
D. 11 Sep 1798 in Vincennes, Northwest Territory
When Barbe-Elizabeth Levron wanted to get married, there was no priest around to conduct the ceremony, so she and her hopeful husband had to find another way to make their vows.
Barbe was born on December 20, 1748 at Fort Frontenac to Joseph Levron dit Metayer and Josephe-Amable Cousteau. Fort Frontenac was a remote military post and had few families living there; Barbe’s grandfather was a captain at the fort. When she was 2-years-old, her parents moved with her to the area around Fort Detroit, and they lived for the next few years starting a farm on the south shore of the Detroit River (present-day Windsor, Ontario). She seems to have had a slightly older brother who died at Fort Frontenac in January 1751; perhaps the boy was sick and her parents had left him in the care of his grandfather. While in Detroit, two more girls were born. By 1759, the family moved to Post Vincennes, where a younger sister was born, and four more children were born by about 1770.
This was a time when England defeated France in the French and Indian War, and Vincennes came under British control. In 1764, the French authorities, along with the parish priest, left town, and French settlers were left to manage on their own. Barbe was 17 or 18 when she was betrothed to Louis Godere. Without anyone to perform the marriage, they recited vows before witnesses and began living as husband and wife.
On November 4, 1766, Barbe gave birth to a daughter who was baptized in a makeshift way by a notary. She had two more children before a priest came to Vincennes, and on February 8, 1770, her marriage to Louis was legitimized along with the baptisms of her children. They went on to have 8 more children, with the youngest born in 1788.
Transcript copy of 1766 Vincennes parish register with notary Phillibert officiating.
Some sources have claimed that Barbe was the “Madame Godare” who famously sewed a flag for George Rogers Clark during the American Revolution, but it's more likely that the wife of her husband’s brother François was this woman. Barbe may have supported the American cause in other ways. On the night after liberating Vincennes from the British, the women of Vincennes welcomed the American troops by preparing them a feast, and she may have been a part of that celebration.
Barbe continued raising her family in the years after the war. Her husband Louis died on June 14, 1794, and she died on September 11, 1798 at the age of 50.
Erroneous Honor
In spite of the fact historians have shown there is no way to really identify Madame Godare, the University of Vincennes decided to proclaim it was Barbe, and they named a residence hall after her. In January 2017, a writer for the Vincennes Sun-Commerical looked into the evidence supporting this, and the facts cited by the school are completely mangled. They claimed Madame Godare was 54-years-old, the mother of an 11-year-old girl named Marie-Joseph, and that her name was “Marie-Elizabeth Leveron.” There was even a portrait painted of Madame Godare that now hangs in the lobby of the building.
Sign in front of University of Vincennes residence hall. (Source: Google Street Views)
Children:
1. Françoise-Agnes Godere — B. 4 Nov 1766, Fort Vincennes, New France; D. about 1835; M. Louis-Favel Ravellette (~1758-1835), 2 Aug 1784, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
2. Marie-Josephe Godere — B. 16 May 1768, Fort Vincennes, New France; D. 12 Jul 1794, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; M. Honore Denis
3. Louis Godere — B. about 1770, Fort Vincennes, New France; D. 11 Jan 1795, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
4. Felicité Godere — B. 20 Nov 1773, Fort Vincennes, New France; D. 25 Feb 1795, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; M. Alexander Vallé, 23 May 1793, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
5. Pierre Godere — B. 6 Nov 1775, Fort Vincennes, New France
6. Jean-Baptiste Godere — B. 1 Aug 1777, Fort Vincennes, New France
7. François Godere — B. 13 Sep 1779, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; D. 24 Feb 1837, Vincennes, Indiana; M. (1) Marie Boneau (1786-1831), 30 Jan 1804, Vincennes, Indiana; (2) Genevieve Carie (1789-1855), 27 Dec 1832, Vincennes, Indiana
8. Elizabeth Godere — B. 9 Sep 1781, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
9. Marie-Louise Godere — B. 2 Oct 1785, Vincennes, Northwest Territory, M. François Cadoret (~1780-?), 28 Jan 1802, Vincennes, Indiana
10. Joseph Godere — B. 22 May 1786; D. 1787
11. Françoise Godere — B. 31 Mar 1788, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
Sources:
Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, George F.G. Stanley, 1954
“Edward Cicotte Ledger 1749-1752,” Michigan’s Habitant Heritage, Vol. 29, #3, July 2008
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Records: Baptisms 1749-1838, Barbara Schull Wolfe, 1999
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Records: Marriages and Deaths 1749-1838, Barbara Schull Wolfe, 1999
Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, dar.org
“Who was Madame Godare? Little is known about the namesake of VU residence hall,” Vincennes Sun-Commerical, January 29, 2017
