The faster I go the behinder I get!!! I have a lot I want to accomplish on this site before I leave for the month of June. This morning, I’d like to write a bit more about the Bourassa Family. In the last post, I gave the background and history of Jude W. Bourassa and his wife Marie Catherine (Sharrai) Bourassa. Jude and Catherine Bourassa played an important role in area history during the 1840s and 1850s.
I want to talk about their children today. Here is a list of their children and their birth and death dates (if known.)
Jude Bourassa, II – 1832 – 1833
Eugene Bourassa – 1835 – 1852
Isabella Bourassa – 1836 – 1884
Louisa Bourassa – 1836 – 1837
Theodosia BOurassa – 1842 – 1843
Stephen Jerome Bourassa – 1844
Basil Bourassa – 1848 – 1860
Theodore Santa Ana Bourassa – 1848 – 1930
Jacob Daniel Bourassa – 1849 – 1849
Adelaide Delila Bourassa – 1850 – 1900
Eulalia Josephine Bourassa – 1852 – 1856
Mary Eleanore Bourassa – 1853 – 1937
Helena Bourassa – 1856 – 1857
The first four children were born in Michigan and Indiana. Historical records relate that Jude Bourassa was often away from the family representing the Potawatomi in Washington, DC and when engaged in the treaty making process. During those times, Catherine Bourassa lived with her father-in-law, Daniel Bourassa and the large extended Bourassa Family.
In 1837, Jude and Catherine Bourassa removed from Indiana with the extended Daniel Bourassa family, participating in what has become known as The Trail of Death. The Bourassa’s reached their new home on Sugar Creek in Miami County, Kansas on November 4, 1837 having left Indiana on September 4, 1837.
The next three children, Louisa, Theodosia and Stephen Jerome Bourassa, were all born while living at the Sugar Creek Mission in Kansas. Their next move was to Uniontown, Shawnee County, Kansas and finally to the northeast corner of Wabaunsee County where they built a stone mill and log house. Jude became the miller for the Potawatomi people, grinding their wheat into flour and their corn into meal. Unfortunately, he contracted small pox and died in 1857. He was buried in the Uniontown/Green Cemetery which is located on a county road southeast of Willard, Kansas.
In future episodes, I want to provide copies of several letters and journal entries that relate information and history about the Jude and Catherine Bourassa home and mill on Mill Creek in Wabaunsee County, Kansas.
Just to put this family’s history into perspective, it will be Jude and Catherine Bourassa’s daughter, Isabella, who marries C. W. Higginbotham and becomes the first post master and provides the name “Maple Hill” for both Maple Hill Township and the future town of Maple Hill. But there are many other reasons why this family is important to our town and community. We will talk about them here in the future.
