Blog
Article List Home My Research Services Contact Me
|
Wilkes July 13, 2023 Return to the Story of
Francis Moreau This is a followup to the article I wrote last
week about the 550-acre vineyard property that was owned by Francis
Moreau on the Brushy Mountains. If you
haven’t seen that article yet, you’ll want to read it first. Jule Hubbard pointed out more
information that he had found about Francis Moreau, and that prompted me to
look for additional records about his life before and after living in Wilkes
County. In fact, Jule wrote a 2013
article in the Wilkes Journal-Patriot that mentioned Francis Moreau from
the perspective of geologist Dr. Elisha Mitchell of UNC. Mitchell kept a diary to record his
observations about the geological aspects and mineral content found along the
Yadkin River and the region west into the Great Smoky Mountains. On a hot summer day 195 years ago this
month, Dr. Mitchell visited Moreau’s vineyard on July 19, 1828. His comments suggest that he wasn’t really
impressed with what he saw. As I wrote last week, Francis Moreau
and his family were in Wilkes County by at least 1824, and they stayed until
1833 or 1834. He received his 500-acre
grant in 1827, and Mitchell’s visit occurred the following year. Mitchell determined that Moreau was “not
much acquainted with the cultivation of the vine. The yard certainly presents but a sorry
appearance which he attributed to the delay incident to the distance of
Wilkesboro from the place where the shoots were cut in Pennsylvania.” Mitchell’s diary entry regarding the
vineyard is shown below.
Mitchell’s diary details his visit to
Moreau’s vineyard on July 19, 1828. The diary was published in 1905, and
that’s when the footnotes were added.
Footnote 2 describes the vineyard as “a failure”, but it doesn’t say
on what information that assessment is based.
Perhaps there were people in Wilkes who remembered the vineyard or who
heard stories about it from older relatives. The Moreau Family Francois Moreau was born in France on
October 24, 1789. His wife Mary Ann
was born in 1800, and their first child Theophilus Francois Moreau was born
on January 4, 1820. They had a total
of nine children, with the youngest Columbus Moreau born in 1839. This family information comes from births
recorded in the family Bible.
This image of the Moreau family Bible
was found on ancestry.com. An online marriage index lists the
marriage of Francois Moreaux and Mary Ann Weiss in Baltimore, MD, on January
14, 1819, but it doesn’t provide any additional information. This could be our Francis and Mary who
moved to Wilkes County, or this might be a different couple with the same
names. It’s worth mentioning that the
Francis and Mary who moved to Wilkes had a daughter Isabella who married a
man named Volatine Weiss. Perhaps
Isabella’s mother and husband were both named Weiss. In the records, Weiss is also spelled Weis,
Wiss, and Wess. Most of Francis and Mary’s children
were born in Wilkes, perhaps within the town of Wilkesboro. By 1835 the family was in Burke County
according to deeds. The 1840 Henderson Co, NC,
census lists the household of Francis Morreau with himself, his wife, and nine
others who were all under age 20. They
were almost certainly his children. In
1840, only the head of household was listed by name. Before 1850, the family moved to
Tennessee. The 1850 Hickman Co, TN,
census lists the household of Francis Moreau (age 60, taylor, born in France)
with his wife Mary (age 50, born NC), daughter Ann (30, born NC), daughter
Issabella (age 16, born NC), and Columbus (age 12, born NC). It’s interesting that Francis is listed as
a tailor since that is the occupation he was assigned to teach his apprentice
William Swiney in 1831. Also, Dr.
Mitchell referred to Moreau as a tailor.
You have to wonder if Moreau’s talents were more aligned with being a
tailor or with establishing a winery. The 1860 Hickman Co, TN, census
lists the household of Volatine Wiss (age 37, taylor) in the town of
Centerville. He is listed with his
wife Isabella (age 27) and their three children. Also in the family are C. A. Brickwell
(girl age 12, born TN), Francis Moreau (age 70, taylor), and Mary Moreau (age
60, born MD). Francis and his wife
Mary were living with their daughter Isabella and her family. I found photos of two of Francis and
Mary’s children on ancestry.com, one of William and another of Isabella. William Alexander Moreau was born in 1823,
soon after his parents arrived in Wilkes County. He married Rebecca Garvey, or Jarvis, in
Ashe Co, in 1844. They moved to Lee
County, VA, before finally settling in Boone County, MO. In the photo below, William is shown with
his son’s family.
William A. Moreau (1823-1905, sitting
at right) was the third child of Francis Moreau. Pictured with his son and his son’s
family. Francis and Mary’s daughter Isabella
Moreau Weiss was born in 1833 in Wilkes County just before her family moved
west into Burke County. She died in
1905 in Centerville, TN.
Isabella Moreau Weiss (1833-1905) was
the seventh child of Francis Moreau. In 1862, Francis Moreau was taxed on
his 200 acres of land in Hickman Co, TN.
1862 tax list for Hickman Co, TN. Francis Moreau died in 1867 near
Centerville, TN, at the age of 77.
Centerville is a small town located 40 miles west of Nashville on the
Duck River, and it happens to be the birthplace of Minnie Pearl! This area is very flat, especially compared
to the terrain of his vineyard tract high up on the Brushy Mountains. Census records indicate that he spent the
years after leaving Wilkes County as a tailor, and there’s no further mention
of him operating a vineyard.
Comment below or send an
email - jason@webjmd.com |
