Ancestors in the Making
Ray and I spent more time in the recording studio on Monday and Tuesday as we work to finish up the first two audio books of our history curriculum, one for high school and one for grades 5 through 8. As we pulled away at mid-day on Tuesday, I asked Ray to drive me to a statue by the Cumberland River, so I could take some pictures of it. I have been thinking about writing to you about the man the statue represents since we returned from Quebec.
Jacques Timothe Boucher de Montbrun was born in Quebec. He was the great, great grandson of Gaspard Boucher. At about the same time that the Pilgrims were landing at Plymouth in New England, Gaspard Boucher and his family were landing farther north in New France, which became what is now the Canadian province of Quebec.
The plaque below the statue lists some of the accomplishments of Jacques Timothe Boucher de Montbrun, whose name became shortened to Timothy Demonbreun after he left Canada and came to live in America. He was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer, an American officer in the American Revolution, and Lieutenant Governor of the Illinois Territory. He is also honored as the “first citizen” of Nashville, because of his early fur trading expeditions there before white settlers established the city.
The plaque reads:
Jacques Timothe Boucher de Montbrun
(Timothy Demonbreun)
1747-1826
French Canadian Fur Trader and Explorer
Officer of the American Revolution
Lieutenant Governor of Illinois Territory
Honored as Nashville’s “First Citizen”
Sculptor: Alan Lequire
Plaque donated in memory of:
Dr. Truman Weldon Demunbrun, President of the
Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Soceity 1977-1996
After Nashville became a town, Timothy Demonbreun moved there permanently and had a home and a store there. However, his first residence in the area was a cave beside the Cumberland River, where he lived for six months while trading with Native Americans.
The area was a wilderness when Timothy first arrived. When I was there on Tuesday, I walked about five yards to the left and took this picture of the Tennessee Titans stadium across the river.
I stood a few feet in front of the statue and took a picture of the AT&T building. Around here we call it the Batman building.
Much has changed in the past almost two hundred and fifty years!
I am particularly interested in the history of Timothy Demonbreun because I am a direct descendant. I know that because Daddy Leland, my daddy’s daddy, told me so himself. Information I learned in Quebec and research that I have done since we returned home have made me more and more fascinated with my ancestry through the Demonbreuns and Bouchers (some family members have shortened their last name to Demonbreun, with many varying spellings and some have shortened it to Boucher).
I am not only looking backwards; I am also looking forward. History writer David McCullough says that the people who were living history didn’t know they were living history. They were just living. I don’t know that Timothy Demonbreun thought much about being an ancestor while he was living, but now, of course, he is one.
We folks who have children and grandchildren are on our way to becoming ancestors ourselves. We are ancestors in the making. I appreciate the careful way you are living your lives so that you will pass on many blessings to the generations who come after you.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,
And shall declare Your mighty acts.
Psalm 145:4