French Island
La Crosse Tribune and Leader-Press
Wisconsin
Sunday August 4, 1935
Family histories of Goyettes and Jolivettes interwoven into that of French Island; Xavier Goyette arrives here in 1849.
Xavier Goyette, then probably in his early twenties, stood on the eastbank of the Black river and surveyed the promising greeness of the land that stretched as far as eye could reach on the distant side of the then broad river.
The time was 1849. La Crosse, then a village, was but in its infancy. Lumbering and logging was the chief industry though a number of hardy settlers were already clearing the virgin coulee-land that now makes up La Crosse county.
It was the promised land for young Xavier. Tired after his long and arduous trek from the distant Montreal, the young French-Canadian stared with wonderment at the island refuge ahead of him. Many long weary miles had he traveled- by lake boat and overland-and many wonderous sights had he seen on his westward trip. But, for some reasons unknown to his many descendants, the island lying between the Black and Mississippi rivers, was "home" to him.
STARTED SETTLEMENT
Thus was started the French settlement on the nearby island, the settlement that eventually caused the island to be known as French island. Xavier was the first of the French to arrive although he found when he had paddled across the Black river to his future home that two other white persons had preceded him and already settled there.
Charles Sears, whose little log home still stands (1935) on the bank of the slough now known as French slough south of Steve's dancing pavilion is reputed to have been the first white man to settle on the island. As to his antecedents and descendants, nothing is known. The name of the second settler has become lost in the shuffle of history but is thought to be Canna. Goyette has spent his early life in Montreal and came west by way of the Great Lakes to Chicago thence overland to Dubuque. He stayed at Dubuque some time, and then, undoubtedly hearing of the thriving little lumber town upriver he came to La Crosse to investigate and eventually make his home.
The history of French island began with the arrival of Goyette, but it was not until after the arrival of Moses Jolivette, grandfather of present Jolivette men, that the island began to make progress as a community. Moses Jolivette arrived at the island three years after Xavier Goyette first settled there. He too, came from Montreal.
Moses bought his farmland, from Goyette rather than spend time in clearing his own land and today Cornelius,familiarly known as Neal Jolivette, farms the same land. Neal is a grandson of Moses.
The Goyette and Jolivette family histories are so closely intertwined with that of French island that in relating one, the history of the other is told.
INHABITED BY INDIANS
French island, however, had a history long before the French arrived. It was a history of a peaceful but enterprising Indian people who made frequent use of the island as a camping and hunting ground. The island abounded with inland lakes and bayous and sloughs, and, naturally, with game and fish. Even today those parts of the island that are not refuge lands and waters are popular as hunting and fishing resorts.
Peculiary the history of the island has never been recorded in the many attempts that have been in the past to write the county history. Neither the county historical society nor the libraries in the city have anything to offer in the way of historical data on the island.
As a result of the lack of interest on the part of past historians, exact dates, names and locations have been lost. Perhaps the oldest person on the island is Mrs Elizabeth Jolivette, widow of Frank Jolivette and daughter of Xavier Goyette. Mrs Jolivette is 93 years old but still spry and bright. and exceedingly interested in the history of her own family as well as that of her adopted family.Today she lives (1935) with a daughter near the Wakeen shore and it is she and two of her daughters who are responsible for most of the information unearthed. A part of the information concerning the early times was included in an essay written by Elda Jolivette, now Mrs Samuel Hamilton, in 1904 on her graduation from High school.
SETTLED ON FARM
Moses Joliette settled down to farm life of peaceful contentment and proceeded to raise a family of 10 children while his neighbor Xavier Goyette raised a family of nine, Jolivette gave a tract of his land for use as a cemetary and his own daughter was the first to be buried there in 1854. Moses, Fred, John, Jerry, Frank, Peter and Theophile were Jolivette's seven sons, and, Delphine, Lenore and Delia were the daughters. Frank Peter and Theophile remained on the island throughout their lives, and the following grandsons of old Moses still reside there: George, Bert, Henry, Alvin and Cornelius.
Fred, Henry, Joseph, Alexander, Lucinda, Mary, Elizabeth, Philonene and Arilla were the children of Xavier Goyette. Of these only Elizabebh remains on the island. The late Alexander Goyette was proprietor of the Goyette boat livery on French lake for many years. Sears, Canna, Goyette and Jolivette were the first settlers on the island, in the order named but others followed and most of them were French-Canadians from Mlontreal who had been informed of this verdant country.
Among the earliest to follow Goyette and Jolivette were LaBelle, Brucseau, Beaubain, Bisansout, Vardont, Morrin, Clemont, Rabbideau, Grinnee, Lambert and Lenniville.
In later years the Richmonds, Asselins, Martelles, LaFleur, Marcous, Valiquette and others came from the same territory .
Note. We printed only part of the article published in 1935. We have also respected the orthography of the french names as printed in that newspaper.
Note: The above was cited in The Goyette Family Genealogy, 1959 edition , written by Armand Goyette.
Copyright 1997 © - Pierre J. Goyette
Dernière mise à jour - Last Updated 1997-03-28