M. 8 Feb 1770 in Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory2
Wife: Barbe-Elizabeth Levron
D. 14 Jun 1794 in Vincennes, Northwest Territory1
During the 18th century, present-day Indiana was populated with a few scattered outposts of French families, and villages of Indigenous tribes, which made for a culture mixed with elements of each group. This is where Louis Godere spent his life.
Louis was born on May 14, 1739 to François Godere and Agnes Richard at Ouiatenon,1 a small garrison and village on the Wabash River. Louis was one of about ten children; his father was involved in the fur trade, and his mother was the daughter of an interpreter of Native American languages. The name Godere appeared in records spelled many different ways — Godere, Gaudere, Gauder, Codere, Coder. Most people in the region were illiterate, and Louis couldn’t sign his name on documents,3 suggesting he had little or no education.
It’s easy to imagine Louis as a young child playing outside his home among fur traders, frontier soldiers, and Indigenous people. Ouiatenon was a French outpost next to an existing village of the Wea people, a sub-group of the Miamis tribe (Louis’ great-grandmother was a Wea). The location was said to be favorable because it was near the head of navigable water that fed into the Mississippi River system.4 Inside Ouiatenon's stockade were a double row of ten houses, a chapel, and a blacksmith’s shop.4 There may have been as many as 90 dwellings outside the stockade walls housing a mixture of French and Wea, and during the years 1720 to 1760, the population was as much as 3,000.4
Fort Ouiatenon in 1752.
The date when the Godere family moved downriver to Vincennes isn’t known, but it was likely sometime around 1750.5 Louis’ father died within a couple of years, and his mother remarried in Vincennes in 1756.6 The outpost of Vincennes was down the Wabash River, also with a garrison surrounded by French settlers, but differed from Ouiatenon in that grants of land were awarded to them. During the late 1750s, the Goderes were among about 60 families living there.7 People worked on farms in long ribbon-shaped lots along the river, while living in log cabins clustered together in a village near the fort.
France controlled Vincennes until the British defeated them in the French and Indian War in 1763. This was around the time that Louis came of age. Just before the British takeover, he received a grant of farmland.8 But when the French authorities vacated the town, their church was left without a priest, and there was no one to perform marriages. Louis sought to make Barbe-Elizabeth Levron his wife, so the couple declared their intentions in front of witnesses, and proceeded to live as a married couple.9 Their first three children were born before a priest visited Vincennes and made their marriage legal on November 8, 1770.2 They went on to have eight more children.
The British authorities weren’t much of presence in Vincennes until they sent a military regiment to man the fort during the American Revolution. The French people carried on as best they could, but when they had their chance, they aligned with the Americans by signing an oath of allegiance on July 20, 1778, and Louis was one of the men who put his mark on the document.3 The following year, George Rogers Clark led a force that was a mixture of Americans and French; it’s not known if Louis played any part in the action. The wife of Louis’ brother François is believed to be the woman known as Madame Godere, who was credited with making a flag for the Americans.7 It’s likely that Louis was one of the many Vincennes people who assisted in the fight as well.
Louis' mark on the oath of allegiance.
After the war, with former French outposts under the control of the newly formed United States, the culture Louis had known gradually died out. Vincennes continued on with an influx of American settlers from places like Kentucky and Virginia, but Ouiatenon was wiped off the map by order of President Washington in 1791 — a military force burned the largely now Indigenous settlement to the ground.4 Louis continued to live and farm in Vincennes until he passed away on June 14, 1794.1 His wife lived only a few more years and died on September 11, 1798.10
Children:
1. Françoise-Agnes Godere — B. before 4 Nov 1766, Fort Vincennes, New France;11 D. about 1835;12 M. Louis-Favel Ravellette (~1758-1835), 2 Aug 1784, Vincennes, Northwest Territory13
2. Marie-Josephe Godere — B. 16 May 1768, Fort Vincennes, New France;14 D. 12 Jul 1794, Vincennes, Northwest Territory;15 M. Honore Denis, before 19 October 1785, (probably) Vincennes, Northwest Territory16
3. Louis Godere — B. 8 Feb 1770, Fort Vincennes, New France;9 D. 11 Jan 1795, Vincennes, Northwest Territory17
4. Felicité Godere — B. 20 Nov 1773, Fort Vincennes, New France;18 D. before 22 Feb 1795, Vincennes, Northwest Territory;19 M. Alexander Vallé, 23 May 1793, Vincennes, Northwest Territory20
5. Pierre Godere — B. before 6 Nov 1775, Fort Vincennes, New France21
6. Jean-Baptiste Godere — B. 1 Aug 1777, Fort Vincennes, New France;22 D. 19 October 1820, Vincennes, Indiana22
7. François Godere — B. before 13 Sep 1779, Vincennes, Northwest Territory;23 D. 24 Feb 1837, Vincennes, Indiana;24 M. (1) Marie Boneau (1786-1831), 30 Jan 1804, Vincennes, Indiana;25 (2) Genevieve Carie (1789-1855), 27 Dec 1832, Vincennes, Indiana26
8. Elizabeth Godere — B. before 9 Sep 1781, Vincennes, Northwest Territory27
9. Marie-Louise Godere — B. before 21 Dec 1783, Vincennes, Northwest Territory;28 D. Oct 1820, Lawrence County, Illinois;29 M. François Cadoret (~1780-?), 28 Jan 1802, Vincennes, Indiana30
10. Joseph Godere — B. 22 May 1786, Vincennes, Northwest Territory;31 D. 16 Sep 1787, Vincennes, Northwest Territory31
11. Françoise Godere — B. 31 Mar 1788, Vincennes, Northwest Territory32
Sources:
1 Find-a-Grave listing of Louis Godere
2 Marriage record of Louis Codere and Elizabeth Levron, Indiana, Marriages, 1780-1992, FamilySearch.org
3 “The Oath of Vincennes,” The American Catholic Historical Researches, Vol. 7, 1911, p. 400
4 “Fort Ouiatenon and Feast of the Hunters’ Moon School Guide,” Tippecanoe County Historical Association, TippecanoeHistory.org
5 Baptismal record of Agnes Godere (Louis’ sister), Vincennes, 17 Oct 1750, Indiana, Births and Christenings, 1773-1933, FamilySearch.org
6 Marriage record of John Baptist Vaudry and Agnes Richard, I. M.
7 Creole Pioneers at Old Post Vincennes, Indiana State University Library, 1930s
8 Documents relating to the French Settlements on the Wabash, Jacob Piatt Dunn, 1894, p. 425
9 “Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901
10 Death record of Barbe Levron, Indiana, Deaths and Burials, 1750-1993, FamilySearch.org
11 Baptismal record of Agnes Codere, I., B & C.
12 Ravellette’s from Indiana Roys, Griffith, etc, Orval L. Ravellette, genealogy.com
13 Marriage record of Louis Ravallet and Agnes Codere, I. M.
14 Baptismal record of Marie Josephe Renault Coder, I., B & C.
15 Death record of Marie Godere, widow of Honore Dany, A complete survey of cemetery records, Knox County, Indiana, collected and compiled by Mrs. Alta Amsler, 1975, p. 302
16 Baptismal record of Honore Denis, I., B & C.
17 Death record of Louis Gaudere, A complete survey of cemetery records, Knox County, Indiana, p. 300
18 Baptismal record of Felicité Coder, I., B & C.
19 Burial record of Felicite Gaudere, I., D. & B.
20 Marriage record of Alexander Valeix and Felicite Coder, I. M.
21 Baptismal record of Pierre Coder, I., B & C.
22 Baptismal record of Jean Baptist Coder, I., B & C.
23 Baptismal record of François Godere, I., B & C.
24 WikiTree listing of Pierre François Godere
25 Marriage record of François Godere and Marie Boneau, I. M.
26 Marriage record of François Godere and Genevieve Carie, I. M.
27 Baptismal record of Elizabeth Godere, I., B & C.
28 Baptismal record of Marie Louise Coder, I., B & C.
29 Burial record of Marie Louise Godere, I., D. & B.
30 Marriage record of François Cadoret and Marie Louise Godere, I. M.
31 Baptismal record of Joseph Codere, I., B & C.
32 Baptismal record of Françoise Codere, I., B & C.
