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Leaving Canada
There are several version of this accounting of how our ancestry came to the United States. The following version, although emphasizing the COTA lineage, is the most complete that I have found.
(Richard McQuisten, 1997)
Cota/Cote History -- by Zita Gavin
1989
(copy is in possession of Richard McQuisten, Laramie, WY)
"My niece
Cathy Baum Paulson, Agnes Conway Baum's daughter, looked up this information
at Washington D. C. when her husband was there.
A group of 500 persons, all French Canadians, started from St. Beaupre, near Montreal, Canada, heading south seeking a promised land in which to settle and build homes. They loaded their belongings and took along their goats to provide the milk for the group. Also provisions on wagons drawn by the oxen and began their journey. Their route took them to the mouth of the Mississippi River and from there on followed the river. They did most of their traveling in the winter because much of the land over which they passed was swampy. Therefore in the summer they would find a suitable place to settle and raise enough crops to last them through the winter while they were moving on. Many of the group stayed and settled at the various places they stopped. Many also died. The rest kept on moving. Among those that continued southward were Joseph and Mary (Martelle) Cote and their children John, Edward, Frank and Mary.
After 5 long years of traveling they reached what is now
Harpers Ferry, Iowa. Joseph's wife was about to have a child so they found a place to their liking. Everyone
helped in building
their cabin and after the cabin was built the rest of the group went and settled in what
is now
Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin, but what they called French Towne then. Two weeks later
Theodore Cote was born. The mother and baby were in the care of an Indian squaw.
The
Indians had a big celebration at the birth of the first white child in the vicinity.
The group from
French Towne came to see the Cota's by boat, but the visits were few even if there was
only a
few miles between them. Among the group at French Towne was a family named Fernette
(Peter
and Mary LaValle.) Their children were Paul, John, Ida, Virginia, Mary, Emma, Sally,
and
Adridge.
Theodore Cote (born Oct 1850) and Emma Fernette (born Dec. 17,
1856) were married, and to this union 12 children were born, 6 boys and 6 girls: Agnes (Nov. 10, 1875), Deo,
Emma,
Ida, John, Ellen, Dennis, George, Louise, Celia, William, and Martin. When Martin
married he
stayed on the old home place. He married Rose Wagner who died at the birth of their
first child. The baby Earl, also died 3 weeks later. His second marriage was to Leona Goebel in
1929. Two
children were born to them, Janice and Charles who with his wife Shirley and their
children Lori,
Debbie, and David (twins) live on the old home place. The house they are living in
was built
when Theodore was 14 years old, which now would be 125 years old in our year of 1989.
It is
made of quarried rock from a hill on the farm. They added an addition to the house
and the
inside has been remodeled many times, but the original stone structure stands as firm as
the day
it was built and will pass on God willing to the next generation who will be a proud of
its
excellent workmanship and of the pioneer forefathers as the previous generation of Cotas.
Joseph and Mary Cota (Theodore's parents) lived with Theodore and Emma Cote several years. They only spoke the French language and taught my mother, Agnes Cota, their first child her prayers in French. She learned English when she started to school in Harpers Ferry. She tried to teach me French, but I wasn't interested (English was enough for me.) Mrs. Theodore (Emma) Cota died when she was 60 and Theodore when he was 83 years. She died on the home farm and he died at Ida Kelly's (daughter) in Harper's Ferry where he had lived for several years.
Agnes Cota (my mother) married Martin Conway, January 7, 1896,
and lived 3 miles
west from her parents, Theodore and Emma Cota. They bought this farm from Walter
Bolzea.
They had 9 children, Celia, Sara, Peter, Mary, Ellen, Marcella, Leo, Agnes and Zita.
I married
Clarence Gavin on June 15, 1943 and be bought the home farm in June 1943, and raised seven
children, Regina, Michael, Jeanette, Rita, Donald, Raymond, and Linda there. Donald
bought
the farm and is still living there. On our home farm the old house was torn down and
a new one
built in 1916. I was 7 months old when my parents put me in the house first and
said, "This is
Zita's house!" That is how the prediction turned out as I am still here.
My dad was proud to tell that years ago Mass was offered on our
farm where the silo is
now by the Priest from Wexford and the water for Mass was taken from our Spring (where it
starts 60 feet from where he offered the Mass.) No other church around the area then
and the
people would walk miles to attend the Mass. This sounds like Sister Theresa (Ellen's daughter) in Bolivia
telling about the Bolivians
walking miles to Mass.
My dad passed away when he was 83 years old and my mother 99
years old. Both had a
good life."
The Mary (Martelle) Cota, above, is one sibling of Jean Baptiste "Old Man" MARTEL and Marie-Christine CARON; who were married November 4, 1806, in Baie-du-Fabrve, Québec, Canada. "Old Man" Martell, his wife Marie, daughter Mary, and three other of his twelve offspring (Jean Chrystome, Alexis, and Jean Baptiste, Jr.,) were among the group of Canadians to leave Canada for the United States and settle near Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin.
Michel Gabriel MARTEL, Jean Baptiste's brother, his wife Mary Louise CHENEVERT and six children of his very large family (Augustine, Joseph, Louis "Ta-Fa", Marie-Genevieve, Moyse "Moses" and Mathilde/Matilda) were also among the group to arrive and settle on the banks of the Mississippi. Michel Gabriel MARTEL and Mary Louise CHENEVERT were married June 30, 1790, in St. François-du-Lac, Québec, Canada, and conceived seventeen offspring.
From what is currently known, these two brothers were the only two from this
line of MARTELs to migrate with this group to the United States. Their father,
Gabriel MARTEL, born September 2, 1742, in Québec, Canada, and
mother Marie-Madeleine "Mary" LIONIAS, born March 23, 1749, in Québec,
Canada, raised a family of nine children. Gabriel and Mary were 2nd
cousins, their LeFebvre mothers were 1st cousins.
Richard McQuisten -- October 9, 1999