Display Patriot - P-150868

Charles DUFOUR

SAR Patriot #: P-150868

The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.

State of Service: ESP Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service

DAR #: A034412

Birth: abt 1756 Arkansas River / / AR
Death: bef 31 Mar 1809 / Pointe Coupee Parish / LA

Qualifying Service Description:

A fusilier in the Company of the Militia for Pointe Coupee Post of Louisiana serving under Bernardo de Galvez during the Baton Rouge campaign

Additional References:

Louisiana Patriots, 1776-1783. Elizabeth Whitman Schmidt, compiler. DAR. 1994
DeVille, Winston. "Louisiana Soldiers in the American Revolution." Ville Platte, LA: 1991, pg 32
Schmidt, Elizabeth Whitman. “Louisiana Patriots, 1776-1783. “ Washington, DC; National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1994, pg 17
Churchill, Charles Robert. “Bernardo de Galvez: Services to the American Revolution.” Louisiana Society, Sons of the American Revolution, 1925, pg 330
"1770 Militia Rosters for the Acadian Coast and Pointe Coupee." Papeles Procedentes de Cuba, edición 141, legajo 161A, folio 13; Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain
Granville W. & N.C. Hough. “ Spain’s Louisiana Patriots in its 1779-1783 War with England during the American Revolution.” Pt. 6, 2000. Laguna Hills, Ca: GW & NC Hough, pg 72

Spouse: Adrienne Deshotels
Children: Charles;

Members Who Share This Ancestor

Date Approved	Society	ACN	SAR Member Info	Lineage via Child
1991-10-23	TX	215697	David Lacey Garrison Jr (137094)	Heloise
1994-08-25	TX	212553	James Gardiner Garrison (139524)	Heloise
2017-04-21	TX	72738	David Lee Peavy (194635)	Heloise/Eloyisa
2024-10-04	TX	112991	Stephen Wayne Dufour (231259)
2025-01-17	WA	110335	Jerry Michael Bordelon (206717)	Valery
2025-03-07	TX	115470	Hudson Dean Dufour (232855)

Burial:

Saint Francis of Pointe Coupee Church (aka Saint Francis Catholic) Cemetery_(C-0373711)

Location:

Pointe Coupee / Pointe Coupee Parish / LA / USA

Find A Grave Cemetery #:

2147785

Grave Plot #:

Grave GPS Coordinates:

n/a

Find A Grave Memorial #:

132054150

Marker Type:

SAR Plaque / DAR Plaque

SAR Grave Dedication Date:

29 Oct 2011

Comments:

On 29 October 2011, the Enenomd Meullion (Cenla) NSSAR Chapter dedicated a plaque at the St. Paul the Apostle cemetery in Mansura, Avoyelles, LA. The plaque is a memorial to those soldiers who served in the militias of Pointe Coupee, Attakapas, Natchitoches, New Orleans, Mobile, and the German Coast. Charles Dufour is listed as on the memorial plaque as a member of the Pointe Coupee militia
The marker is located at: St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Cemetery, Little Cemetery Rd., Mansura, LA 71350 (Lat: 31.08157, Long: -92.04408)
The Pointe Coupee NSDAR chapter held a ceremony on 16 May 1976, honoring some of the Pointe Coupee militiamen. A plaque was hung in the Pointe Coupee courthouse listing the soldiers, including Charles DuFour. (See: "Pointe Coupee's Patriots." (2016))
Photos displayed courtesy of David L. Peavy, TXSSAR

Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:

In 1739, the original St. Francis Church of Pointe Coupee was dedicated along the Mississippi river. It was later destroyed during a storm. The second St. Francis church was built in 1760. Attached to the church was the cemetery. Over the course of more than a hundred years, the Mississippi river slowly eroded the cemetery. After the 1890 great flood, the cemetery and the church site were located on the bed of the Mississippi river. The second church was dismantled in 1891 and construction on the third church was begun in 1894

Photo: 1 of 2

Photo: 2 of 2

Author: David Lee Peavy

Charles DuFour was born to Jean DuFour dit Braindamour and Marie Philippe DeCoux on 27 October 1756 at the French trading post Arkansas Post, which was located on the banks of the lower Arkansas River. Charles' father was a "french leader of the French Outlaws who supplied guns to the Indians in exchange for horses, mules and slave" (see Lacour, Jeraldine Dufour. "Dufour, Les Creoles des Avoyelles"). One of his own men reportedly murdered Charles' father in November 1758. (See: Moreau, Harry James. "Jean dit Braindamour and his American Descendants.")

Before his murder, Jean had moved his family to the Pointe Coupee Post. After his father's death, Charles' mother married Pierre Methode in 1763. A lawsuit filed in 1780 provides a great deal of information regarding Charles' mother and step-father. In the suit, Charles is listed as one of his step-father's creditors for holding a mortgage on a portion of his step-father's property. This claim came from his inheritance of his late father's estate. (See: Portreous, Laura L. (ed). "Index to the Spanish Judicial Records of Louisiana, XXXIV." The Louisiana Historical Quarterly, (Oct 1931), v. 14, no. 4. pp. 627-34.)

As a resident of Pointe Coupee, Charles was a member of the settlement's militia. His name is on the 1770 roster of militiaman as a fusilier, as well as the 1777 roster.

Charles was a farmer for the majority of his life. On 8 November 1778, he executed a marriage contract with Adrienne Deshotels (b. 20 July 1765 in Pointe Coupee) and married her on 28 November 1778 in Pointe Coupee. We know of the following surviving eight children they had during their marriage: Charles, Jr. (b. 1779), Isadore (b. 1782), Valery (b. 1785), Heloise (b. 1788), Hedvidge (b. 1789), Eugenie (b. 1794), Marcelline (b. 1806), and Faustin (b. 1807).

During the American Revolutionary War, Spain provided assistance to the Continental Army beginning in 1776 and by 1779 declared war on Britain. All of Louisiana's militias had been activated by 1777 with the arrival of Bernardo de Galvez as governor. Charles participated in Galvez's campaigns against the British to capture the forts in Baton Rouge, as well as West Florida.

After his participation in the AWR, Charles returned to Pointe Coupee to continue his life as a farmer, purchasing land and slaves (see: American State Papers. (1861), v. 8, p. 920.). At that time, to be a successful farmer in Louisiana required enslaving Africans to work your property. Charles owned a number of humans to do just that.

By 1795, there were 7,000 slaves living in Pointe Coupee, while there were only 2,000 settlers. The news of the successful slave revolt in the French colony of Saint-Dominigue eventually reached Louisiana and many slaves planned to revolt as well. Unfortunately for them, two militiamen overheard some Tunica Indians, who were fearful of their own lives, as they had heard that slaves were plotting to kill all non-slaves. Over the next few weeks, slaves who were found to be part of the plot were arrested. This resulted in between 23-26 slaves being hanged, while 21 were sentenced to 10 years of hard labor, and an additional nine were sentenced to 5 years of presidio duty. One of the slaves arrested was owned by Charles and that slave was sentenced to five years of presidio duty. (See: Holmes, Jack D. L. "The Abortive Slave Revolt at Pointe Coupée, Louisiana, 1795." Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 11, No.4 (Autumn, 1970), pp. 341-362.)

At the age of 52 years, Charles died on 30 March 1809. His widow, Adrienne, never remarried and died on 18 December 1819. Both died and were buried in Pointe Coupee.

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