M. 7 Feb 1747 in Fort Frontenac, New France
Wife: Josephe Custeau
D. 29 Jan 1771 in Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory
Joseph Levron dit Metayer was a farmer who owed a lot of money at the time he died, and his children were held responsible for it decades later. He was born on June 18, 1728 in Boucherville, a town near Montreal. His father was Joseph Levron dit Metayer, a sea captain involved in the fur trade, and his mother was Rose Veronneau. Joseph had four siblings.
When he came of age, Joseph headed west to Fort Frontenac, a military outpost at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. There on February 7, 1747, he married Josephe Custeau, who was from Montreal. Within the next two years, they had two children born at the fort, a son and a daughter. Joseph’s father, now widowed, was remarried at the fort in 1750.
Joseph was looking to move on and saw an opportunity in Detroit. As New France spread to the west, authorities sought to populate places that were on the fringes to make them more secure from invasion. In 1749, a program was begun that offered incentives for people to set up farms in the Detroit area. Any man bringing his family there would receive land to cultivate and enough supplies to get started. Joseph decided to take up the offer the following year, and he arrived on August 19th with his wife and young daughter. His son seems to have been left behind in Fort Frontenac and died there in September 1751; perhaps he was too sick to travel and stayed behind in the care of his grandfather.
18th-century map showing Detroit and the south shore settlement.
A month after Joseph’s arrival in Detroit, a census was taken that showed him living on the south shore of the Detroit River in what is now part of Windsor, Ontario. His new farm included two oxen, two cows, one hog and six poultry, presumably all given to him as part of the deal. Also on that side of river was the Huron mission, where Joseph had daughters baptized in 1754 and 1756. Sometime before about 1759, the family left Detroit and moved to Post Vincennes, perhaps as a result of military activity in Detroit during the war with England. Joseph likely continued farming in Vincennes as his family grew; by about 1770, he had five more children.
Then on January 29, 1771, Joseph died at the age of 42. He was heavily in debt at the time of his death, owing a man named André Lacoste the equivalent of over $1,000 in cash plus $450 in goods, totaling an equivalent of more than $40,000 in today's dollars. Joseph's widow Josephe married Lacoste on January 15, 1773, which likely complicated the debt situation. In 1799, the heirs of Lacoste sued to collect money from Joseph’s descendants, which included four of his children, a granddaughter, and some of their spouses. The case was decided in the favor of the Lacoste heirs, but it’s not known whether Joseph’s heirs paid the debt or not.
1799 court summons for Joseph's descendants.
Children:
1. Jean-Baptiste Levron — B. about 1747, Fort Frontenac, New France; D. Sep 1751, Fort Frontenac, New France
2. Barbe-Elizabeth Levron — B. 20 Dec 1748, Fort Frontenac, New France; D. 11 Sep 1798, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; M. Louis Godere (1739-1794), 8 Nov 1770, Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory
3. Marie-Amable Levron — B. about 2 Jan 1754, Detroit, New France
4. Marie-Charlotte Levron — B. about 28 Jan 1756, Detroit, New France; Jean-François Mallet (1746-?), 30 Jan 1770, Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory
5. Marie-Josephine Levron — B. about 1759, Post Vincennes, New France; D. 26 Feb 1835, Vincennes, Indiana; M. François Turpin (~1743-1809)
6. Joseph Eugene Levron — B. 14 Oct 1760, Post Vincennes, New France; D. 1824, Vincennes, Indiana; M. Celeste Cardinal (1766-?)
7. Rose Genevieve Levron — B. about Feb 1763, Post Vincennes, New France
8. Marie-Louise Levron — B. about 28 Aug 1765, Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory
9. Louis Levron — B. about 1770, Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory; M. Marie Sauvagesse, 18 Jul 1787, Vincennes, Northwest Territory
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française, George F.G. Stanley, 1954
The Windsor border Region: Canada’s Southernmost Frontier, Ernest J. Lajeunesse, 1960
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Records: Baptisms 1749-1838, Barbara Schull Wolfe, 1999
Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (website)
The Windsor border Region: Canada’s Southernmost Frontier, Ernest J. Lajeunesse, 1960
St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church Records: Baptisms 1749-1838, Barbara Schull Wolfe, 1999
Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (website)
