Today is Memorial Day.  My family, like many ordinary families, has a long history of service to the nation, and I remember everyone who is or has served our nation, not only in the military.

Today I recognize this Memorial Day in two ways, both somewhat ‘spur of the moment’, and perhaps a bit different than what is usually seen as normal.

Today’s (May 24) Heather Cox Richardson has an announcement of particular historical interest

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The first recognition:  I title this post “Kindness” thanks to about five minutes  on a recent CBS Evening News segment about  a visit to an elementary classroom about 40 miles down the Mississippi River from where I type, in Red Wing MN.  Hopefully the segment is still on line.  Here is the link.  Again, take the five minutes….  It will speak for itself.

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The second recognition relates to a person I’d never heard of til recently, who happens to be a distant part of my family tree.  He is Amable Guion.  He “died in combat on May 26, 1780, during the Battle of Fort San Carlos (a British and Native American attack on St. Louis)”.  This is a family history deal, about an event in America’s revolutionary period, and if you’re interested in family history, particularly French-Canadian, you’ll likely be interested in this.

First, the summary.

In the summer of 1980 I first became interested in the history of my Dad’s French-Canadian, and my mother’s German-American families.  I’m still at it 46 years later, and its a fascinating journey.  The big files are here.  This relates to the French-Canadian ‘side’, and relates to the ‘war’, largely between the native peoples, and the Spanish, French and English interests in North America.

For the U.S., 250 years ago, 1776, was the Declaration of Independence.  Thirteen years earlier, in 1763, the French and Indian War was settled by the Treaty of Paris, which essentially carved up the to-be United States into two huge pieces, one England, the other Spain.  Of course there were natives too, but not in the real estate business.  (Most of my story is in the links following the text.)

How Amable Guion fits into the story.

About 35 years ago my Dad and I were visiting the Gateway Arch area in St. Louis, and I came across a new book, “St. Louis: A Concise History” by William Barnaby Faherty, S.J.  At the beginning of the book, on page 5, was a sentence that drew me in: in February 1764 “Mrs. Margaret Blondeau Guion, presumably the first woman to come to St. Louis, crossed the river from Cahokia in late May to join her husband Amable who had signed up with Laclede”,

This intrigued me greatly, as an ancestor of mine who came to what is now the Minneapolis area in 1854, was Simon Blondeau, my great-great grandfather, who purchased land on the Mississippi River at Dayton MN.  My cousin, Remi Roy, documented that Marguerite Blondeau Guion and Simon Blondeau were from the same Blondeau line, two or three generations removed from each other.

So, a relative was around at the very beginning of St. Louis MO.  Neat.  I shared this at my grandsons wedding in March of this year.

I knew nothing at all about about Amable Guion .  In the last month or so, looking at another e-mail from cousin Remi, I noticed the name “Guyon” among my Collette family ancestors in Quebec.  More correspondence with Remi, and indeed Amable Guion was in another of my ancestral lines.  His bio is also linked below.

Finally comes the connection with War.

In the 1763 Treaty of Paris, England essentially got what is now the United States east of the Mississippi, including French outposts among which was Fort de Chartres, on the Illinois side of the Mississippi a few miles north of present day Ste Genevieve MO.  Spain got the area west of the Mississippi,  France was no longer a player, having been defeated by England at Quebec in 1759.  So, in 1763 the French-Canadians were in English lands, and in 1764 Amable and Marguerite and others moved across into Spanish territory, which was to become present day St. Louis.

The few French who came across the river in 1764 apparently lived freely until 1780, when Amable was killed, as described in the below link.  Marguerite remarried five months later, and lived on until her 90s, becoming known as one of St. Louis’ original settlers.

(In 1802, Napoleon purchased from Spain what a short while later became the Louisiana purchase.  (see the link “Louisiana” below.).  In 1804 the slaves in Haiti declared their independence from France.  Napoleon unloaded Louisiana to the U.S. (the “Louisiana Purchase”) not long after he acquired it, and  not long after came the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the rest is history.)

If you wish, take a quick trip through the links, and you may find something of interest, as I did.

Guion Amable history

Marguerite Blondeau history

Historical U.S. Map 1750 1763 – National Geographic map 1988 adapted by Dick

Historical US NatGeo1988001 – National Geographic maps 1775-1890

Louisiana – Council on Foreign Relations April 30, 2026

Blondeau as part of my personal family tree (pages 34-47 and 72-81)

COMMENTS: 

from Dave: Thanks for the “thoughts” today Dick. Your family has an amazing history. I was able to find you through a French website. Hope all is semi-well. My oldest daughter just visited Hawaii and spent several days at Pearl with her husband. They know the story of Max and Petey. What Kash Patel did was sacrilege. I’m trying kindness, but it’s not easy these days.

from Fred: Always a fan of early American history, particularly in the ‘west’ and ‘northwest’ and even when those regions were really not a part of America. Thankfully Manifest Destiny prevailed and the US has the contiguous 48 states, Hawaii, Alaska, Pacific holding, Caribbean presence, Greenland and Canada!

response from Dick: I just did an update on earlier post on Cuba.  This one includes recollections of three folks who actually were visitors to Cuba a few years ago.