Jose Julian Jacques 1758-1820

 

So, as we wind our way through and past the Covid-19 Pandemic, we can spend a little bit of time on our ancestors. Their stories are important as we look to how we came to be, how our DNA imprints our lives and how we are connected.

I ordered a magazine by the name of “Herencia” (Heritage in Spanish) and Volume 14 Issue 4 from October of 2006 has a wonderful article about Jose Julian Jaques, the son of Juan Joseph Jaques and Maria Rosa Villalpando. Jose Julian was the child (probably about two) who escaped the brutal attack on the village and was most likely raised by his mother’s family before M.R. was carted off by the Pueblo Indians.

I was given permission from Ronaldo Miera, the President of Herencia, to share this article with you on my blog. This article contains letters regarding J.Julian. How cool is that?

Jose Julian Jacquez was born in approximately 1758 to Maria Rosa Villalpando. I have written extensively about her but haven’t shared the story of Jose Julian. His father was Juan Joseph Jacquez and on August 4, 1760, a Comanche attack occurred at the Villalpando Estancia in Taos Valley, NM. This Estancia comprised of about seven different households and many people were killed in the attack. Over 56 women and children were taken captive, including Maria Rosa. Juan Joseph was killed in the attack but Jose Julian, age two was not harmed nor was he kidnapped. (Truthfully, they probably took all the children they could turn into slaves and he was too young).

With his mother kidnapped and his father dead, we are not positive of his upbringing but can only assume his mother’s family raised him. We know that Pablo Villalpando, Maria Rosa’s reported father, escaped the attack as he was not at home when it occurred. We suppose that her family members that were left raised him.

In 1783, in San Juan Pueblo, Rio Arriba, Jose Julian, now 25 years old, married Maria Paula Martin.

They had 9 children as follows:

Juan Manuel Jaquez                                                       1784

Maria Gertrudis Jaquez                                                 1787

Juan de Jesus Jaquez                                                      1788

Felipe de Jesus Primero Jaquez                                  1789

Maria Manuela Jaquez                                                   1790

Maria Pacifica Jaquez                                                     1792

Manuel Benancio de los Dolores Jaquez                 1794

Felipe de Jesus Segundo Jaquez                                1795

Maria Ysabel Jaquez                                                       1797

 

Maria Paula Martin, wife of Jose Julian, passed away in 1798. Jose Julian remarried in 1798 and had two more daughters.

So now that is the background to Jose Julian’s story. And, just in case you don’t know, Felipe de Jesus Segundo Jaquez is our direct ancestor and the father to Jose Eusequio Jaquez, grandfather to Juan Nepomuceno Jaquez, great grandfather to Celestino Fidencio Jaquez, great-great grandfather to Tim Jaquez and great, great, great grandfather to myself.

Now back to the Herencia article. My favorite thing about this article is that the authors, Patricia Sanchez Rau and Henrietta Martinez Christmas have cited the letters that they found in relation to Jose Julian. Their article does judge Jose Julian but we can discuss that after we look at their article.

The article supposes that in 1802, Jose Julian, in some unknown fashion, is made aware that his mother is still alive and resides in St. Louis. He sets out for Missouri. It was a dangerous time to travel and he could not have left without permission. He must have farmed out his 8 children to relatives and then he left with his second wife and two daughters for Santa Fe where he obtained permission from Governor Nava to go to St. Louis. In 1803, J. Julian has met his mother and half sister, Helene Sale Leroux. He signs a document yeilding his claim against his mother’s estate. For his signature, he was given $200 and the document was witnessed by Jose Ortiz and Francois Valois.

Here is the first article

The article says that “Jose Julian Jacques the amount of 200 pesos in hard currency” in exchange of transfer to his sister Helene his inheritance”.

Jose Julian must not have left St. Louis immediately but eventually made his way back down the Mississippi River to Natchitoches, Louisiana then San Antonio, Monclava, El Paso then Santa Fe. Julian was stopped by the military of Texas and made a declaration of goods to Governor Joaquin Ugarte. The Governor describes Jose Julian’s appearance in this document (the listing of items Jose Julian was carrying with him) and he says that Jose Julian was very dirty in appearance (good lord, in the document it claims that Jose Julian hadn’t bathed or cleaned his clothes in two years!!).  This letter is dated March 4, 1804.

Just thinking about this travel/path, on the road, either by boat, horse or walking, and carrying these objects with him. But our Julian doesn’t head right home. For someone who was trying to take these fine belongings to his family, he simply disappears.

After the meeting with Governor Ugarte, he was not heard from for a while. The next document is a letter written in 1809 from Maria Francisca Pacheco looking for information or news about her missing husband Julian Jacques. “Her letter is the sad pleading of an anxious wife to have her husband shipped home.”

The Governor writes back that he has been located and that a Vicente Cruz has loaned Julian 150 pesos to pay his debts so that he can return to New Mexico.

But, as you can see in the next letter, that didn’t happen. Julian goes into hiding again and no way to know where he is during this period.  Finally, a warrant for his arrest is put out for his immediate return to New Mexico for his family.

Brigadier General Antonio Cordero indicated that Julian has given a deposition as to his whereabouts.

J. Julian Jacques is finally brought in person in front of Governor Antonio Cordero at San Antonio De Bexar.

J. Julian was very surprised that anyone was looking for him. The actions of the Governor are unknown.

On October 9, 1815, Julian Jacques was escorted by a militia and that Jose Julian has made his way back to New Mexico and to the arms of his loving wife on October 9, 1815.

So there it is. Jose Julian Jacques left to visit his mother in 1802 and returned home to a loving wife in 1815, twelve years later.

I think the saddest thing is Jose Julian dies in 1820, five short years after his return. Did he reunite with his own children, those that he’d abandoned, our ancestor and his siblings?

The very last document listed in this article is the will of Maria Rosa Villalpando.

 

The writers of this article, Henrietta M. Christmas and Patricia Rau are not related to the Jacques family. But they do have questions posed in the article. The best person to have answered their questions would have been Tommy Martinez. I wish he were still here because i know he would have had an opinion about this article, these letters and the questions posed.

I did ask Henrietta Christmas her thoughts about Julian. She said she thought of him as a “scoundrel” haha. Her thoughts are that he got to see St. Louis and venture out and coming back to sheep and plowing fields wasn’t in his plans. Clearly, his descendants are ages 18-5 when he leaves, not including his second wife and her two daughters. When he returns, all living children are grown, no need for him to parent anyone.

I think of my father as a good father and a good man. I think of Juan N, his grandfather as a good father and a good man. My Grandfather Celestino, may have been a bit more like Julian. Good to some of his children, not great for all of them. This is just my opinion. But, I have to look kindly on Julian, too. He produced 9 children, one of which was Felipe de Jesus Segundo. He married Maria del Carmen Lujan in 1817 in San Juan Pueblo, NM and we have a book that shows his descendants (it was revised in 2016) and compiled by Tommy Martinez. The total number of those descendants listed in his book are approximately 4000 people. Could we be at 5000 now? I’m not sure, but it would not surprise me.

So thank you J. Julian Jacques, for your perseverance and your genes, good and bad.

 

DNA Surprises

I like to periodically review my DNA matches on my Ancestry account. Most of my matches in the early days of DNA tests showed all of my cousins that I’d grown up with or at least knew of them and could point to someone on my tree and know how they were related.  However, I came across a name that I couldn’t match with any line and she was listed as a second cousin. After tons of messages, I realized she must be a descendant of an Archuleta cousins and I’m pretty sure I was correct. She came to a family reunion and she met an Aunt and Uncle, and it was so great to get to know her.

I also ran a DNA test on my daughter Hailey. I found a surprise on her Bennett line. A relative that had been adopted was a DNA match and we found that Paul’s aunt shared a father with Paul’s grandfather. Confusing, right? Jerry Springer would have loved that story.

Now, I have a DNA match that is fun and surprising, especially for my Jacques/Archuleta cousins.

Virginia, Ruby and Kathleen Hardin

Escaping the Dust Bowl, Charles, Virginia, Ruby (center) Kathleen and Flora

When my mother arrived in California, her father, Charles Hardin, had driven them from the Texas and New Mexico area, looking for work. Mother had a lot of cousins in Alabama and Missouri, as that is where her parents had been born. The Dust Bowl travelers arrived in 1935 California and headed to a place where Charles had family, in the Corning area. Charles’ mother, Lula Young Hardin, had a sister by the name of Eugenia Adderine Young Trapp. Eugenia had married Henry Trapp and their son was Jack Trapp. Jack married Etta Thomas Trapp. These people were family, friends, just about the Hardin’s entire world.

The Trapp family began in Tennessee and South Carolina. The 1930’s arrived and along with the Great Depression, the teenage Etta was living in Texas. Her stepfather had died, leaving her mother Mary with seven children and 160 acres of land to be farmed. Etta and Jack were married about this time, hoping for a better life. Dropping prices for cotton forced farmers to search for other employment but in Texas, there was no other employment.

Jack and Etta

The Trapps had their first two children, Dorothy Fay in 1928 and Doris Jean in 1930. Dorothy remembered, “My sister and I would be outside playing and a big sand storm would suddenly come up. The sand would blow against our bare legs and sting so bad. They would run to the house as fast as they could, screaming, “Mama, Mama.” After the storm, the sand would pile up in big drifts like snow.

Jack Trapp with the children

Etta and Jack were forced to walk away from 160 acres in Texas and Jack became a wandering wage earner, taking any job he could find. They traveled to New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and back to Texas.

Etta’s sister Cora and her family had moved to Corning, CA where her husband Carl and her father in law found work picking olives, peaches and prunes. Knowing that times in Texas were bad, she urged Jack and Etta to come to California. Etta had four children: Dorothy- 5, Doris- 4, Bill- 2 and Bobby, a new born baby. They were living with Etta’s mother and her own 5 children. Jack traveled to California, alone with no money and no transportation. He hitched rides along Highway 66, and jumped trains to California. When he reached Corning, he worked picking fruit until he had enough money to send a train ticket to his wife and four small children. One train ticket. The children were allowed to ride for free.

Etta packed all she could carry into a few boxes and started to board the train with her belongings and her four children. The conductor wasn’t happy and said if the train was fully occupied, she could only take up one seat. He told her he couldn’t promise she would make the connecting train in Barstow. Bill had a leg infection and couldn’t walk and with an infant, she relied on her 4 and 5 year old girls to carry their belongings. She had no money for a second ticket.

Dorothy could recall being a small girl and being carried by some CCC boys (Civilian Conservation Corp) who worked at the station. Etta was grateful to reach her final destination of Vina, California but the train pulled into the only public building. There was no one to meet her. She watched the train pull away, still clutching her meager belongings and her babies.  She had been afraid she’d gotten off at the wrong stop. Not too long after that, her husband Jack and sister Cora came running up for a joyous reunion.

Henry Trapp (father of Jack), 1-5-1857 to 12-1957…100 years old

Etta, Jack Trapp and Charles Hardin in the front yard of Shafer Drive, Santa Clara

My grandparents, Charles and his wife Flora had three daughters: Kathleen, Jeanie and Ruby. Jack and Etta had five children, Dorothy Fay, Doris Jean, Bill, Bob and Harley. Etta’s sister Cora also moved to the same area. She was married to Carl Smithers. The Smithers had four children, Onera, Jeremy, Imogene and Joyce. My mother used to call Cora Smithers “Aunt Cora” and she considered her children to also be her cousins, although they weren’t. But the little Hardin family was so relative poor, they clung to these family members. Whenever my mother would tell a story about them, I’d always ask, are these the real cousins or the fake ones? Mama would laugh.

Cora and Carl Smithers, Flora and Charles Hardin

Onera Smithers, Jeremy Smithers, Jubie Hardin (top row, L to R), seated Imogene and Joyce Smithers

Doris and Dorothy

Bob and Bill

Harley

I visited with Bill Trapp and his wife Margaret not too long ago. I just love them and  I have known them all my life.

So, last week, I was tooling through the DNA matches on my tree and I came across this one. “MCasados70”. It showed that we had ancestors in common – with both have a direct line to G.W. Young and Mary E. Duncan. I knew Uncle Bryan called her Grandma Young, and then I stopped on the button that shows what the ethnicity is, how it compares to my own and what we have in common.

                                                                         Me                                           MCasados70

England                                                          47%                                              58%

Indigenous Americas—Mexico           18%                                              14%

Ireland                                                          14%                                              8%

Spain                                                             10%                                            4%

Odd, I thought, he has almost as much Native American as I, that is kinda funny. So I pull up our matches…

2nd Cousin

Doran Archuleta

Gregory Quintana

Jennifer Kosich

I thought, how is that possible? Our matches are Jennifer Kosich (my cousin’s daughter on my mom’s side) and Greg Quintana and Doran Archuleta from my dad’s side…What the heck?? Hahaha so, a relative of my father’s married a relative of my mother’s and yes, my parents would have loved knowing that. Mother’s cousin Doris, was born the same year as my mother. She had three daughters, Virginia, Gladys and Patricia. Patricia married Rudy Casados and their sons were Manuel and David.

In the 1980’s, my mother had a family reunion of sorts at our home in Stockton. The whole Trapp crew arrived to a backyard bbq with stories, songs and love.

Mother would have said it was “old home week”. These were the people she had grown up with, who’d known her mother and father and had so many shared experiences.

When I went to their home, Bill and Margaret Trapp had shared the Trapp family book with me. It was written by Dorothy Trapp’s daughter, Abbie Ehorn. She very graciously allowed me to share the Trapp family story and their pictures.

Charles Hardin, Carl Trapp, Henry Trapp, Minnie Trapp and Minnie’s daughter Roxie

Casados Family Line:

So, I have not solved this connection as yet. I can see (because I am obsessed with family lines that are not my own lol) that the Casados line starts in the Los Angeles area with a Rudolph Casados born about 1925. He was born in Abuelo in Mora County, New Mexico. His parents were Benjamin and Francisquita Casados. Mora County is very close to Santa Fe, NM. A lot of our relatives came from Santa Fe. Benjamin’s mother may be Valdez although I haven’t confirmed that.

So, to the Jacques/Archuleta family, and the rest of you, I will continue researching. I love making a connection.

At the end of the Trapp Family Book, Abbie writes that she’d inherited all the old photos and albums and that her mother had started an album with stories and some names and dates. On the last page of her mom’s album, she’d placed a note that said, “Would it be worthwhile, or fun to get together some sort of remembrance or book? Please think about it”. I appreciate Abbie sharing the Trapp family story, photos,  and her mother’s words. Her mother was correct.