And now for the children of Jude W. and Marie Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa.

The first child was Jude Bourassa, Jr. He was born in Southwest Michigan, but the exact location has not been recorded. He lived only one year and died as an infant in 1833. The location of his burial is not known.

The second child was Eugene Bourassa born in 1835. Not much is known about Eugene Bourassa, except that he was married to the daughter of a French-Canadian fur trader by the name of Ellen Gagnon. IMPORTANT!!! Do not confuse this Eugene Bourassa with the person of the same name who lived in Maple Hill. That Eugene Bourassa was the son of Leon Bourassa, the brother of Daniel Bourassa. This Eugene Bourassa died in 1852 according to family records but his life history and the circumstances and location of his death have not been recorded.

The third child is perhaps the most important to Maple Hill history, because it will be his third child, Isabella Bourassa, who was appointed post master and gave Maple Hill its name. Isabella was born July 12, 1836. It is not known if her birth occurred in Michigan or Indiana, both possibilities. Isabella was first married to C. W. Higganbothom in 1850. Most likely they were married by a priest at St. Marys Mission. In another record on Ancestry.com it is reported that Higganbothom died in 1853. I have not been able to verify that. Students of Rossville, Kansas history will note the last name and relate C. W. Higganbothom to one of the founders of that community by the same name. Mr. Higganbothom was a long time merchant in Rossville, and perhaps there is a connection but I have not been able to find it. Isabella is listed as a widow and living with her mother Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa on the 1860 U. S. Census of Wabaunsee County, Kansas. Isabella was married a second time to another well-known Maple Hill resident, Rufus H. Waterman. Their marriage is one of the earliest recorded in Wabaunsee County and took place at the residence of the minister in the town of Wabaunsee. It occurred on July 18, 1859. The Watermans lived on a farm on the south sied of Mill Creek. The farm was for many years owned by Steele Romick Sr. and Steele Romick, Jr. It is now owned by Greg Deiter. It is at the southeast corner of the K-30 bridge across Mill Creek. Rufus H. Waterman had been a seaman before moving to Kansas in the early 1850s. He first lived at Lawrence, Kansas and then removed west to present-day Maple Hill. He was appointed post master of Maple Hill on May 1, 1860 and the post office was kept in his home. In 1864, Rufus Waterman was murdered while brining a wagon load of supplies from Topeka to his home at Maple Hill. His killer was never identified. The Citizen Band Potawatomi were offered land allotments in Pottawatomi County, Oklahoma under the terms of the Treaty of 1867. Isabella was Potawatomi and among those who chose to take allotments and not remain on the Kansas Potawatomi Reservation. She moved to Oklahoma on her allotted land and there married William Chris Boyer. The Boyers had one daughter, Ethel L. Boyer, who married a Higganbothom. Isabella died on November 14, 1881 and is buried in the Wanette Cemetery, Waynette, Oklahoma. Her daughter Ethel L. Boyer Higganbothom is burried beside her but if their husbands are buried there, no record exists. I will include a couple of photographs I have been able to find on the web. One is that of Isabella Bourassa’s tombstone in Wanette Cemetery and the other is a photograph of William Chris Boyer and a hunting party in front of his Oklahoma log home in the 1890s.

I will continue with the remaining ten children of Jude W. and Catherine (Sharrai) in another writing.