At this point, I want to write about the death of Jude W. Bourassa and the two subsequent marriages of his widow, Marie Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa.

Jude W. Bourassa’s exact death date has not been recorded. Family members and oral history indicate that it occurred in 1856 or 1857 after the Bourassa Family gave shelter to an migrant family that suffered from small pox or cholera. It is know that a small pox epidemic did occur during those years among Oregon Trail travelers.

Jude W. Bourassa was buried in Uniontown Cemetery with other relatives and friends, as well as members of his brother Joseph Napoleon Bourassa’s family. I have included a photograph of the Bourassa tombstone in the Uniontown Cemetery. The second photograph is a wider view of the Bourassa/Native American burial area at the cemetery. European settlers are buried in a portion of the cemetery that is just south of the Native American burial area.

Here is further information about Uniontown from the Kansas State Historical Society: Uniontown

“In March 1848 two government Indian agents, Richard Cummins and Alfred Vaughan, chose a new site for a Potawatomi Indian trading post. It was located where the Oregon Trail crossed the Kansas River near the present town of Willard in Shawnee County.

Proclaiming the site of their new village, Uniontown, Cummins and Vaughan went to work building a community that held several promising advantages. These included a high, level elevation, plenty of water, and an immense trading business. Uniontown quickly became a last chance stop for emigrants on the Oregon Trail and a trading center for the local Potawatomi Indians, who received their government payments here and whose reservation was only a short distance away.

Uniontown grew rapidly in the spring and summer of 1848. It had a population estimated at around 300 and 60 buildings were constructed, many of them last chance trading stores for the pioneers heading west. Soon, many emigrants were bypassing the famous Pappan ferry crossing location at present-day Topeka in order to cross the river at Uniontown. The community offered the emigrants a much better crossing point because the current near Uniontown was slower and the water much more shallow than the Pappan crossing.

Though the trading business at Uniontown was good for several seasons, the town was beset by major disaster within a year. In the spring and summer of 1849 and 1850, a cholera epidemic ravaged the community, changing the town’s future forever. Many of the settlers abandoned the village, and those who stayed died. The Potawatomi Indians were not immune from the epidemic. Hundreds died, 22 of them were buried in a mass grave in the Uniontown cemetery. The town was then burned in order to insure that the cholera epidemic would not spread again.

This, however, was not the last chapter in the history of Uniontown. Traders returned and the town was reestablished in 1851. Once again, it played a dominant role as a trading point for western travelers. It became a designated stop for almost every trail in northeast Kansas during the four years preceding the opening of Kansas Territory.

When Kansas Territory was established in 1854, it was the beginning of the end for Uniontown. New towns sprang up nearby in the Kansas River valley; towns such as Topeka and Tecumseh. While at its peak, Uniontown was the only community for miles; now competition for trade became stiff. Topeka attracted more settlers and businesses and soon the traders of Uniontown abandoned their homes to make their fortunes elsewhere. By 1858 no one was left, and Uniontown became a ghost town.

Today, little remains except a country cemetery, a few charred and broken pieces of glass, and old steps in the prairie that lead nowhere. The heritage of one of the oldest communities in the state contains few reminders of the unlucky times in the settlement of Shawnee County and the state of Kansas.”

Keep in mind, that Jude W. and Marie Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa and their family lived about two miles west of Uniontown, on the banks of Mill Creek in what is today Maple Hill Township, Wabaunsee County, Kansas.

After the death of Jude W. Bourassa, his widow married a second time on November 21, 1859 to Francois Bazil Gremond-Grimond-Greenmore-Gremore. He used the name Bazil and was born the son of Charles Gremond-Grimond-Greenmore-Gremore in 1809 on the banks of the Wabash River in Vincennes, Knox County, Indiana. Vincennes was made up mostly of fur traders and merchants who were of French and French-Canadian descent. Catherine and Bazil were married by the priests at St. Marys Mission, St. Marys, Pottawatomi County, Kansas. Although Catherine retained the ownership of the Bourassa Farm, Bazil moved to the farm on the banks of Mill Creek and assisted in its operation.

Bazil and Catherine were the parents of a son, Peter Bazil Greemore-Greenmore who was born January 5, 1862 at the farm on Mill Creek. He spent his early years on the Mill Creek Farm, until his mother, Catherine (Sharrai) Greemore-Greenmore died on March 17, 1872. From that time on, his Bourassa half brothers and sisters cared for him, especially Deliliah Bourassa. Here is a short biography of his life written by a relative:

Peter was born January 5, 1862 on the Kansas Potawatomi Reserve, near St. Mary’s, KS. He was christened by Fr. Maurice Gailland on February 2, 1862. The sponsor or godfather was Louis Vieux, a friend of Bazil and a prominent leader in the Potawatomi Tribe. Peter was the only child of Bazil and Catherine but he had 15 known half-brothers and half-sisters. Bazil had 4 children by his first wife, Catherine Welch, and his second wife, Catherine Charet, had 11 children by her first husband, Jude Bourassa.
Bazil, the father of Peter, died July 4, 1863 when Peter was about a year and a half old and his mother, Catherine, died when he was ten. He was cared for by the Bourassa children. His half-sister, Delilah Bourassa, who became the wife of Leon Bergeron, put him under her wing and when the Citizen Potawatomi started moving to their new reserve in Oklahoma, took him with her. They arrived, along with a few wagons of other Potawatomi, mostly related families, in the fall of 1872. They may have lived temporarily in some abandoned cabins that were built by the Seminole Indians after the Civil War. They had traveled in a group that also included the Joseph and Sarah Nedeau family. Sarah may have been related to the Grimard (Greemore) family. She was at least, well acquainted. She said that Bazil, who was a trader among the Potawatomi, was mean and a know-it-all, according to Peter’s daughter, Martha Greemore Springer.

Peter went to school and was well educated. He probably went to Catholic school in Kansas and he probably attended the Wagoza School near where Wanette, Oklahoma is now located. Brinton Wilson, a white man, started teaching at the Wagoza School on December 2, 1875, with 16 pupils and with only 4 or 5 books and some crayons and by February 1, 1876, he had 21 pupils. Mr. William Gardner, and Indian teacher, followed Wilson.

Father Dom Isidor Robot established the Sacred Heart Institute (forerunner of the Sacred Heart College) in October of 1880 but whether Peter attended this school is not known but his daughter, Martha, said he had attended college and he learned to be a photographer and some of his pictures are in existence today.

Peter B. Greemore was listed as being an early day settler and homesteader in the community of Boyer, now a ghost town, before was the town was started. This was before 1888 when he was given his allotment. About 1885, Peter was married to Adarka Elizabeth Ramsey. Adarka’s father must have died for her mother, Martha, had remarried to a man named Claiborne Johnson, who had several children by his first wife. Those known were; Hattie Johnson Goad, who lived in California; Zula Johnson; Jep Johnson, who spent some time in the pen; John Johnson who lived in California; Martha “Mattie Johnson; and Cass Johnson.

Pete built a house near a good spring on his allotment. The house was a double-log house with a hall between the side-room on the east side. He built much of the furniture like a dresser for Adarka with 4 drawers in the bottom and 2 on the side and a round mirror. He made trundle beds and hickory-bottom chairs. They left all these things in the house when they went to Mc Allister except the goods they could carry in the covered wagon. Pete worked there for some time in a coal mine. Pete and his family finally returned to the Potawatomi Reserve but Mr. and Mrs. Johnson stayed in McAllister where they passed away sometime after 1900.

Pete and Adarka were the parents of three girls. Clarissa May, born November 6, 1886; Isobelle, born July 22, 1888; and Martha Evelyn, born November 26, 1890. Martha was named after her grandmother, Martha Johnson. Adarka had the measles shortly after the birth of Martha. Pete grazed his livestock on the open range called the Greenhead Prairie. He was out on the range tending the stock and Uncle Billy Truesdale was building a smokehouse for Pete. Uncle Billy or his wife came everyday to check on Adarka and the baby and the other two small girls. Adarka became chilled while milking one evening during a cold misty rain and had a relapse of the measles and passed away. This was in February of 1891. Martha was 3 months old. Adarka’s mother, Grandma Johnson, took care of the children after their mother’s death. This was before the move to McAllister and the Johnsons were living on a part of Pete’s allotment.

Pete married his second wife, Becky Jane Tucker, a daughter of “Doc” Tucker and his wife, Eleanor Patton in 1892 but she lived with him only a short time before leaving with her parents and going to the Chickasaw Nation, near Marietta, Oklahoma. Here she gave birth to a daughter, Callie, April 2, 1893. In 1893 or 1894, Pete married Nancy Ann Morris, who had been previously been married to Jack Sullins. By this first marriage, she had 2 daughters, Leona and Pearl. When Nancy Ann and Pete were married, she weighed 98 pounds but a few years later, she weighed 215 pounds. Though Nancy Ann made a distinction between her own children and her step-children to the extent that they were made to eat at separate tables, the step-children were well cared for and they seemed to like her. The three girls were sent to boarding school at Sacred Heart but when Martha was about 8 years old, she got typhoid fever and Nancy Ann and Pete came and got her and Nancy Ann would not let her return to school. The school burned a few years later.

Martha or “Mattie”, as she was called, said she was like her Poppa. When she got mad, she would run off and hide. Once, when she was pouting, whe pulled up the corner of a hide her father was tanning on top of a big wooden box and climbed inside. She stayed inside so long she became drowsy and fell asleep. When she was missed, the family called in the neighbors and a search was made. Finally, Momma saw the corner of the hide was loose and said Mattie was probably in there, maybe with a big rattlesnake. When Momma found Mattie and saw she was safe, she started crying. Instead of paddling her, Momma picked her up and carried her in and put her to bed.

As Mattie said, Poppa would get mad and pout. Once when Nancy Ann couldn’t get him to talk when she asked him what was wrong, she decided to try something else. She called the Doctor. When he arrived, Poppa said, “What the Hells going on?” Momma told him she just wanted to find out what was wrong with him. The Doctor thought it was very funny and Pete loosened up and started talking again. When Pete and his half-sister, Delilah, had an argument, they believed in settling it the Indian way. Sometime after a dispute, Nancy Ann would look out from the cabin and see Delilah coming down the road with a hatchet in her hand and Momma would tell the children, “Here comes Delilah to settle an argument”. Delilah and Pete would go out into the woods and fields on Pete’s allotment and they would bury the hatchet. This would settle the argument. No one was allowed to go with them. Mattie said she had no idea how many hatchets were buried on Pete’s property, but it was several.

Pete never liked to be tied down at one place. He spoke several Indian dialects and was welcome in the camps and at the pow-wows of the tribes. He liked to travel over the Indian Nation in the summer, visiting his freinds. Sometimes he would travel with Theodore Bourassa, (“Uncle Santa”) his half-brother, and his family. One time, after Pete and the family had been traveling during the summer, they returned to the allotment and found the two-room cabin had burned with all the contents. He had left the stock to graze on the Greenhead Prairie. When they returned, the stock had all been stolen except 4 cows and a few horses. A squatter couple had built a one-room shack on Pete’s property, near the road. Pete and his father-in-law built another house up near the spring. The squatter continued to live on Pete’s property until his wife died and he moved away. Pete sold his farm and in 1909, he and Nancy Ann traveled by covered wagon to the Osage Indian Nation. Not much is known of his time there except he worked for a well-to-do Osage man named Pete Kenworthy near Fairfax, Oklahoma. Kenworthy was another of Pete’s friends that he had gotten acquainted with, in his travels through the Indian camps. He made one more visit back to the land of the Potawatomi in 1920 or 1921. He visited his daughter, Martha, and her family near Earlsboro and then went on down to near McAllister to visit his two other daughters, Clarissa and Belle. He lived in a tent in their yard while he was visiting them. While he was there, Callie, his daughter by his second wife, came to see him and told him that she was his daughter. It was the first time he had met her. He had always thought she was a boy. Pete had a heart attack while visiting Belle and Clarissa and he stayed with them until he recovered. Then he returned to the land of the Osage where he continued to live and work until he fell dead of another heart attack. His daughters were not notified of his death which occurred on a Good Griday. Clarissa finally received a letter from Nancy Ann telling of his death and burial.

Peter B. Greemore died at the age of 61, on April 25, 1923. He was buried in the beautiful Fairfax Catholic Cemetery, in a lot given by his friend, Pete Kenworthy. Nancy Ann, who married again, died October 17, 1927 and is buried by the side of Peter. Due to a mix-up, her grave was marded with the headstone of another person. This record is found at the Fairfax, City Clerk’s Office, Fairfax, Osage County, Oklahoma. None of Pete’s children had ever attended his grave or knew where it was located until 1966 when Martha and some of her family were able to go there and place a metal marker on it. His grave is in Lot 63, Block C, Space 4, from the South End. Nancy Ann’s is Lot 58, Block C, Space 1.

(written by Jim and Mary Prine)

Sources: Martha Evelyn Greemore Springer,
St. Mary’s College Archives, St. Marys, KS.
1863 Pottawatomi Tribal Rolls, KS.
Kansas Historical Society, Topeka, KS.
Bourassa Family Records kept by Dorothy Strickland, Shawnee, OK.
Catholic Cemetery, Fairfax, Osage Co., OK.
History of Pottawatomie County, OK. to 1907, by Charles W. Mooney.Court Records, Pottawatomie Co., OK.

Catherine’s marriage to Francois Bazil Grimond-Greemore-Gremore-Greemor would not be her last. In 1864, she was married to Franklin Leslie. Family records indicate that Franklin Leslie died that same year. I have not been able to find either marriage records or death/burial records for Franklin Leslie. However on the Kansas 1865 Census, Catherine (Sharrai) Leslie is listed as “head” and living on the old Bourassa Farm. The same is true for the U. S. Census taken in 1870. She is living on the Bourassa Farm and is listed as “Catherine Leslie” widow.

This small article appeared in the Alma newspaper: ” Mrs. Catherine Greemore (nee Bourassa), an historical character
favorably known to every traveler across the reserve by reason of her many kind acts, died March 17th (1872.)”

The burial location of Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa-Greemore-Leslie has not been recorded, nor has the burial location of her second and third husbands. Perhaps they were buried on the Bourassa Farm along the banks of Mill Creek, which was the custom of that day. I have searched the Uniontown Cemetery and all of the Catholic Cemeteries in St. Marys, Kansas and there is no record of any of their burials.