San Sebastian Avenue
by
John Presco
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
On July 14, 2024, at 5:00 A.M……I John Presco discovered another book written by Count Leonetti Cipriani – AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA! A resident of Belmont, the Count talks about his meeting with Mormon leaders. When I contacted the Belmont Historical Society, it took three days before I heard from them. I showed them the Stuttmeister-Janke crypt, and got no questions. They did not discuss who was at rest in this lost crypt with me, because – they already knew! They spent three days combing this blog, Royal Rosamond Press. Did they cherry-pick what they wanted? Not once did they utter the name Stuttmeister! They knew this name was my foot-in-the-door. Books had been written, and were being written. It was obvious I was…..THE ENEMY COMPETITION! Were my lost dead ancestors – overjoyed to be found!!!!
Augustus Janke-Stuttmeister purchased 8 tracts of land that recently belonged to Louis Mailliard. This made the Stuttmeisters large property owners in Marin County. Did any of the Stuttmeister in Berlin invest in California real estate? Did they know Mailliard?
Mailliard to Lagunitas Development Co., mortgage 43-119; lot 13, Map of Sub. No. 10, Lagunitas Tract. Deed — Lagunitas Development Co. to William O. and Augusta D. Stuttmelster, lot 13, Map of Sub. No. 10, Lagunitas Tract. Deed of Trust — W. 0. and Augusta Stuttmeister lo Katherlne Sheehy and F. Levy, to John B. ColeI man; same as above Deed
Then there is the strange adoption of the Benton name.
“Mrs. Caroline C. Benton, wife of Colonel Z. H. Benton, formerly of Antwerp, who died at Richfield Springs some years ago, was a natural-born niece of Napoleon I., she being the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain.”
On this day, I place the statue of Christus inside the Janke-Stuttmeister crypt, where a divine light fall upon my beloved ancestors – through a Tiffany window! Upon this glass is written…
AUGUSTUS STUTTMEISTER
“Come unto me”
Here lie The Lady Liberty of Marin!
http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SN19190118.2.62
Prussian Colony In California
Posted on January 21, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young.
From Mortefontaine to America
Mailliard was not Joseph Bonaparte’s son, although it is sometimes stated that he was. Louis Hypolite Mailliard was born in Mortefontaine, France, on May 22, 1795. In 1798, Joseph bought the château of Mortefontaine, north of Paris. In 1808, Mailliard entered Joseph’s service. He accompanied Joseph when the latter became King of Spain, and stayed with him through the fall of Napoleon’s Empire. In 1815 he fled with Joseph into exile in the United States.
“Returning to Paris in October, 1855, he was warmly received
by his friend Prince Napoleon who overwhelmed him with questions
about his travels in America. “I answered them the best I could.”
Cipriani wrote, “But , it is a veritable deluge….We keep talking
about my journeys, of the Sanora, of conquering it.” Perhaps he
thought of seizing it for France and hoped the prince might persuade
his cousin the Emperor to finance the undertaking. “It is an idea in
the air,” he added, “that I would willingly undertake, if necessary
capital and men were available.”
AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…
Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888)
Bologna: N. Zanichelli editore, 1934
First edition
DG552.8 C56 M67 1934
In 1852, Leonetto Cipriani was appointed by the King of Sardinia as that country’s first consul in San Francisco. Cipriani, born into a Florentine family living in Corsica, fought against Austria in 1848 and was imprisoned and then exiled. After resigning as consul, he purchased cattle in the American mid-west with the intention of selling them in California. During his cattle drive, in 1852, six years after the Mormon settlers arrived, he passed through Salt Lake City. There, a converted Sicilian, Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young. In this book, Cipriani reminisces about the Salt Lake Theatre, where Ballo conducted the orchestra, and conversations with Taylor regarding polygamy and politics.
University of Utah copy gift of Michael W. Homer.
Read more about Leonetti Cipriani here, on the Italian Consul General in San Francisco’s blog. Read an abstract of his memoirs from On the Way to Somewhere Else, published by The University of Utah Press and edited by Michael W. Homer, member of the Marriott Library Advisory Board and ever-faithful friend of Rare Books.
Meet the first Italian Consul in San Francisco, Leonetto Cipriani
(A fascinating reading for anyone who loves the adventures of the American West)
Mike Homer, Italy’s Honorary Consul to Utah since 2008, is a historian among many other talents and has written several books on the American West and Mormonism. In 2007, the Mormon History Association awarded him the Steven Christensen Best Documentary Book Award for On the Way to Somewhere Else: European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834-1930 (see cover above). Today, I’m pleased to bring you a selection from this book about Italy’s first Consul in San Francisco.
The Belmont Rose – College of Espionage
Posted on June 8, 2023 by Royal Rosamond Press
Photographed By Mathew H. Kohnen, July 3, 1997
Lagunitus and Belmont Theme Park
Posted on September 22, 2017 by Royal Rosamond Press
Here
De Bourmont served in Italy and on the staff of the Eugène de Beauharnais during the Russian campaign of 1812.
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais ([øʒɛn də boaʁnɛ]; 3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was a French nobleman, statesman, and military commander who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Through the second marriage of his mother, Joséphine de Beauharnais, he was the stepson of Napoleon Bonaparte. Under the French Empire he also became Napoleon’s adopted son (but not the heir to the imperial throne). He was Viceroy of the Kingdom of Italy under his stepfather, from 1805 to 1814, and commanded the Army of Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. Historians consider him one of Napoleon’s most able relatives.[1]
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64624540/caroline-charlotte-benton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eug%C3%A8ne_de_Beauharnais
Mrs. Caroline C. Benton, wife of Colonel Z. H. Benton, formerly of Antwerp, who died at Richfield Springs some years ago, was a natural-born niece of Napoleon I., she being the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. Though so near a descendant of a family that helped so greatly to make history, she seldom made an allusion, save to her intimate friends, to the fact that she was the only descendant in America of that distinguished house. It may not be altogether unbecoming for an historian to make mention of some well-known facts concerning people who have passed away, for sometimes such allusions may help to “point a moral or adorn a tale.” In such a light we present a few remarks:
When Joseph Bonaparte, who had been King of Spain when his great brother had thrones and crowns to give away, took up his residence in Bordentown, N.J., he met and loved a beautiful Quaker girl. Her family were eminently respectable, and it was a great blow to their just pride to see their daughter contract a mesalliance with an acknowledged French roué like Joseph Bonaparte, then an old, corpulent man. Outside of her won friends and acquaintances, no one knew the family name of the fair Quakeress, nor do we here give it, although well known to the author of this History. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both daughters. The younger died in infancy, and the other was she who married Colonel Benton. Her mother came to Watertown in the thirties, under the name of Madam de la Folie, and resided for a long time on Arsenal street, in the brick double-house later owned by the DeLongs, and demolished to make room for the Opera House. There Mrs. Benton grew to woman-hood, and there she was married to Col. Benton early in the thirties, there ceremony being performed early in the old Trinity Church on Court street, destroyed in the great fire of 1849. Shortly before the year of this marriage, Joseph Bonaparte spent a large part of his time in this northern country, having 240,000 acres of land in Northern Jefferson and Southern St. Lawrence, the Natural Bridge being his headquarters, and there he erected quite a pretentious dwelling. He also built a hunting lodge on the high rocky hill that forms the eastern shore of Bonaparte Lake, but only the foundations walls are now traceable. It is a lonely, bleak place, the trees all cut down, and the naked rocks adding to the desolation. During his residence in this northern section, he chose to be called the Count de Survilliers. He finally disposed of his lands to the Antwerp Company, we believe, though not positive. In the fall of 1830, having heard of the French Revolution of the previous July, he departed for France.
Mrs. Benton received a pension of $1,200 a year from France up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war. After that she taught French for a living. She was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in no way ever violated the rules of conventionalism. She left several children; one of her sons is a summer resident upon the shore of Bonaparte Lake, where he has a fine cottage. In 1879 Mrs. Benton wrote an interesting book about France and the French people. She visited Paris, and is said to have been received by Napoleon III., but we have no authority for the statement that she was acknowledged as a legitimate Bonaparte. She is represented as having been a splendid girl, with beautiful eyes, and a manner that was charming. Her residence in this remote section is not so remarkable, when we consider that the very first efforts at a settlement of the Black River country were made by émigrés from France, driven out by the Revolution of 1793, as the Bonapartes were in turn driven out by the returning Bourbons, after Waterloo–they too, seeking this northern section for a home. At Cape Vincent there were Frenchmen who entered Moscow with Napoleon I., and survived the awful horrors of that campaign. They even hoped to see “L’Emprere” himself among them at Cape Vincent, after he should have escaped from St. Helena. Vain hope! His restless ambition left him, as it should have done, to die a prisoner upon a lonely island in a distant sea.
Family Members
Parents
Spouse
Siblings
- Princess Zenaide Laetitia Julie Bonaparte Bonaparte1801–1854
- Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte1802–1839
- Pauline Josephann Holton1819–1823
Children
Susan Benton at La Caze
Posted on September 11, 2013 by Royal Rosamond Press
Susan Benton Boilleau died in Paris. She gave birth to seven children of which there is no history, but for the artist, Philip Boilleau. Her husband, Charles Henri Philippe GAULDRÉE-BOILLEAU, was arrested for some railroad scheme involving his brother-in-law, John Fremont, why may have been blamed for Boilleau’s downfall.
Norte Dame de Namur
Posted on May 31, 2023 by Royal Rosamond Press
Illustrious Kindred of Virginia Hambley
Posted on January 3, 2013 by Royal Rosamond Press
Françoise Blin de Bourdon was a native of Picardy. Her family belonged to the old nobility of France. She was the youngest child of Viscount Pierre Louis Blin de Bourdon and the Baroness Marie Louise Claudine de Fouquesolles.
William Stuttmeister, married Augustus Janke at Ralston Hall where the Sisters of Norte Dame de Namur found a home for their college. To find your bloodline piled in a grave together, invokes a mountain of literature. Indeed – it is the Deed of Many Stories! My dead, will go, where they will go. I own the Sea Beast of de Anjou and Merovee. Dan Brown and his wife, eavesdropped on our Gmail groups? Is that too a legend that took on real life?
Eugene Beauharnais of 819 Broadway
Posted on September 11, 2013 by Royal Rosamond Press
General Beauharnais says his mother was a
Benton. My father had been on friendly
terms at Washington with Senator Benton of
Missouri. My father was well known here by
the late Judge Leander Quint and also Cap
tain M. R. Roberts of this City.
http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/new_jersey/new_jerseys_ex_king.htm
Thomas Hart Benton; note: this family was not related to the more famous T H Bentons, but Zebulon reportedly felt the name was appropriate.
[illegitimate by Annette Savage, of Philadelphia] Caroline Charlotte Delafolie (1822-Philadelphia 1___/New York Dec 1890); m.Watertown NY 31 Jul 1839 Zebulon Howell Benton (d.1893)
Known for his expensive and usually unsuccessful business ventures in the area financed by his wife; Caroline Christina (daughter of Joseph Bonaparte by his American ‘wife’, Annette Savage).
Joseph Bonaparte Benton
Caroline Charlotte Bonaparte Benton, Joseph Bonaparte’s daughter, died in comparative poverty on Christmas Day, December 25, 1890 in Richfield Spring, NY. A small monument in Oxbow is all that shows where she is buried. She moved to Oxbow in July of 1939 after marrying Zebulon Howell Benton, son of a local physician, and the family was considered wealthy by local standards. When they got married it was at that time the most elaborate marriage ever in the area. But after the fall of Caroline’s cousin, Napoleon III, her pension stopped and she had to give French and music lessons to students in Watertown, Utica, and then Richfield Springs; where she died.
Eugène Rose de Beauharnais (3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824), was the first child and only son of Alexandre de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, future wife of Napoleon I.
He was born in Paris, France and became the stepson and adopted child (but not the heir to the imperial throne) of Napoleon I. His biological father was executed during the revolutionary Reign of Terror. He commanded the Army of Italy and was Viceroy of Italy under his stepfather.
De Bourmont served in Italy and on the staff of the Eugène de Beauharnais during the Russian campaign of 1812.
http://jeffco.wikispaces.com/Joseph+Bonaparte
General Beauharnais says his mother was a Benton. My father had been on friendly terms at Washington with Senator Benton of Missouri. My father was well known here by the late Judge Leander Quint and also Captain M. R. Roberts of this City.”
Jessie Benton lived in France for nearly a year and was fluent in the French language. She was very close with Count de la Garde, a cousin of Eugene and Hortense Beauharnais, who left her letters from all members of the Bonaparte family, and filled her in on the latest intrigues of this family that many authors connect with the Priory de Sion. I once subscribed to the theories there was such a thing, and filed a claim in the Probate of my later sister, Christine Rosamond Benton, where I mention the Merovingians.
Jessie Benton’s daughter burned many papers and documents she inherited from her mother and father.
https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/jessie-benton-napoleon-beauharnais/
In 1774, she and her husband emigrated to North Carolina.[2] During the American War of Independence Captain MacDonald served the British government in the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants). Legend has it that she exhorted the Loyalist force at Cross Creek, North Carolina (present-day Fayetteville) that included her husband, Allan, as it headed off to its eventual defeat at the Battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge in February, 1776.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora_MacDonald_(Scottish_Jacobite)
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe13
The Bentons were originally established in Lincolnshire England. A branch of the family went to South Wales. In 1731, three brothers, Benton, came from Wales to America. They intended to settle on Chesapeake Bay, but contrary winds drove the ship south, and the brothers landed on Albermarle Sound, North Carolina, whence they went to the uplands and settled at Hillsboro, Orange County, N.C. These brothers were Samuel, Abner, and Jesse. The latter never married. Abner married in Wales, Samuel in North Carolina. This sketch has to do with Abner Benton and heirs. To him was born Jesse B. and Catherine. The latter never married, both born in North Carolina U.S.A. Jesse B. Benton was sent to England and educated. On his return from England, he was appointed (by the Crown), Secretary to the Lord Tryon, Governor of the Province. Afterwards an ugly British General in the Revolutionary War, Jesse B. Benton broke with his chief in the War for American Independence, and was an officer in the American Patriot Army. He, Jesse B. Benton, was married during the War for Independence to Ann Gooch, the daughter of a disreputable English officer under Lord Tryon. Her mother was named Hart and was American born, and Ann Gooch always said, “I came from a family of Harts.” Her cousin Col. Nathaniel Hart was killed at the “River Raisin”, in a battle with British and Indians, during the War of 1812. To the union between Jesse B. Benton and Ann Gooch, there was born Thomas Hart [the Senator], Jesse, Samuel, Nathaniel, Susan, and Catherine Benton. Susan and Catherine never married. In 1793, at the age of 46, Jesse B. Benton died at Hillsboro, N.C.
BEAUMONT, EUGENE BEAUHARNAIS (1837–1916). Eugene Beauharnais Beaumont, United States Cavalry officer, the son of Andrew and Julia (Colt) Beaumont, was born in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, on August 2, 1837, and appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point on July 1, 1856. His father had served in the United States Congress from 1832 to 1836 and was descended from a line of Mayflower colonists. His classmates included Confederate major general Thomas L. Rosser of Texas. Beaumont graduated thirty-second in his class and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First United States Cavalry on May 6, 1861. From then through June he drilled volunteer troops in Washington, D.C., and participated in the battle of First Manassas or Bull Run as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Col. Ambrose E. Burnside in the First Cavalry. After transfer to the Fourth United States Cavalry on August 3, 1861, he served as acting adjutant general of the regiment.
1a) Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain, etc, b.Corte 7 Jan 1768, d.Florence 28 July 1844; m.Cuges 1 Aug 1794 Julie (b.at Marseilles 26 Dec 1771, d.Florence 7 Apr 1845) dau.of Francois Clary by Francoise Somis
1b) Julie Josephine Bonaparte, b.& d.Genoa, March 1796
2b) Zenaide Bonaparte, b.Paris 8 July 1801, d.Naples 8 Aug 1854; m.Brussels 29 June 1822 Charles Lucien Bonaparte (see below)
3b) Charlotte Bonaparte, b.Paris 31 Oct 1802, d.Sarzana 2 Mar 1839; m.Brussels 23 July 1826 Napoleon Bonaparte (see below)
4b) [illegitimate by Maria Giulia Colonna] Giulio N (9 Sep 1807-1836)
5b) [illegitimate by Maria Giulia Colonna] Teresa N, b.30 Sep/29 Oct 1808, d.young
6b) [illegitimate by Annette Savage, of Philadelphia] Pauline Josephe, b.1819
7b) [illegitimate by Annette Savage, of Philadelphia] Caroline Charlotte Delafolie (1822-Philadelphia 1___/New York Dec 1890); m.Watertown NY 31 Jul 1839 Zebulon Howell Benton (d.1893)
1c) Josephine Benton (1840-Philadelphia 1___)
2c) Charlotte Benton
3c) Zénaïde Benton (Jun 1847-Toledo 24 Oct 1909); m.1869 Benjamin A Hughes (Pennsylvania May 1847- )
1d) Caroline Hughes (Pennsylvania Nov 1869- ); Note: This is almost assuredly not the Caroline Hughes who m.Samuel Krieger, as some genealogies suggest. If she were, she would have married and born a child by the age of 14. Census records list her with her maiden name, living with a sister, in 1930
2d) Emily Zenaide Hughes (Missouri Dec 1873- )
3d) Mary E Hughes (Chicago 19 Oct 1876- )
4d) Agnes E Hughes (Chicago 26 Dec 1879- ); m.Carl Suebert/Senhart
1e) Zenaide Seubert/Senhart
4c) Joseph Bonaparte Benton
5c) Louis Benton; m.Laura ___
6c) Zebulon Howell Benton, Jr. [also seems to be known as Zebulon Napoleon Benton and Zebulon Napoleon Benton] (Philadelphia 8 Aug 1858-3 Oct 1947); m.Cuhahoga Co., Ohio 28 Nov 1898 Eliza E McMillan
7c) Thomas Hart Benton; note: this family was not related to the more famous T H Bentons, but Zebulon reportedly felt the name was appropriate
http://www.angelfire.com/realm/gotha/bonapartedescendants.html
Zebulon Howell Benton
Known for his expensive and usually unsuccessful business ventures in the area financed by his wife; Caroline Christina (daughter of Joseph Bonaparte by his American ‘wife’, Annette Savage).
Zebulon Benton was a native of Oxbow and son of the well-known Dr. Abner Benton as well as being considered a favorite of Joseph Bonaparte’s while growing up. Later he became a commander during the Civil War. It was said that he liked to be called “Colonel” even after the war, and was well-known as wearing a Napoleonic type of hat turned sideways.
He started a bank in Watertown and re-fired the iron furnace at Alpina, the iron furnace was unsuccessful and bankrupted both he and the bank that he had started.
Staying with his venture he lived in Alpina for some time, though Caroline left and lived elsewhere in the area teaching French and piano and other cultured pursuits.
Zebulon and Caroline also lived in his father’s home; the Abner Benton House in Oxbow, up until the 1890’s.
Caroline Charlotte Bonaparte Benton, Joseph Bonaparte’s daughter, died in comparative poverty on Christmas Day, December 25, 1890 in Richfield Spring, NY. A small monument in Oxbow is all that shows where she is buried. She moved to Oxbow in July of 1939 after marrying Zebulon Howell Benton, son of a local physician, and the family was considered wealthy by local standards. When they got married it was at that time the most elaborate marriage ever in the area. But after the fall of Caroline’s cousin, Napoleon III, her pension stopped and she had to give French and music lessons to students in Watertown, Utica, and then Richfield Springs; where she died.
Bonaparte’s home became a social hub for both his New Jersey neighbors, who liked to spend quiet afternoons browsing his library, and American and European elites. Among the distinguished guests who came through Point Breeze were John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, the Marquis de Lafayette, and Stephen Girard, a French banker from Philadelphia who was then the richest man in the U.S.
Since Bonaparte’s wife did not accompany him to America (he did not see her for 25 years after he left), another frequent guest at the house was his mistress, Annette Savage. Bonaparte had met Annette, the 18-year-old, French-speaking daughter of distinguished Virginia merchants, while he was shopping for suspenders at her mother’s shop in Philadelphia. During their time together, Bonaparte and Annette would have two daughters, Caroline Charlotte and Pauline Josephe Anne.
Read the full text here: http://mentalfloss.com/article/27826/last-king-new-jersey-suburban-life-napoleon%E2%80%99s-brother#ixzz2eXpwbBew
–brought to you by mental_floss!
Zebulon Howell Benton
* Apulia, New Jersey 27.01 . 1811 + Oxbow, New York 16.05 . 1893 * Apulia, New Jersey 27.01 . 1811 + Oxbow, New York 16.05 . 1893
Parents Parents
Father: Abner Benton * 1786 Father: Abner Benton * 1786
Mother: Hannah Cooper * 05.11.1787 Mother: Hannah Cooper * 05/11/1787
Marriages Marriages
Watertown, New York 01.08 . 1839 Watertown, New York 01.08 . 1839
Caroline Charlotte Delafolie * 1822 Caroline Charlotte Delafolie * 1822
Children Children
Joséphine Charlotte Benton * 1840 + Filadélfia Josephine Charlotte Benton * 1840 + Philadelphia
Zenaide Benton Bonaparte * 01.06.1846 Zenaide Benton Bonaparte * 06/01/1846 Benjamin Allen Hughes Benjamin Allen Hughes
Louis Joseph Benton * 07.03.1848 Louis Joseph Benton * 03/07/1848 Laura Laura
Zebulón Napoleón Benton Napoleon Zebulon Benton
Thomas Hart Benton Thomas Hart Benton
Dr. Abner Benton followed his brother-in-law, Abraham Cooper, to Jefferson County from Trenton, New Jersey, in 1817 to settle on land purchased by Cooper in the town of Antwerp. This land would later form the hamlet of Oxbow, near the Oswegatchie River.
Benton immediately opened a medical practice in the hamlet, and in 1819, built a federal style brick farm house for himself and his family. Benton quickly became a civic leader in his community, and was the only medical doctor in northern Jefferson County for many years. After his death in 1843, Benton’s son, Zebulon Howell Benton, lived in the house with his wife Caroline (daughter of Joseph Bonaparte) up until the 1890’s
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hom42&id=I45926
Name: Thomas Hart Benton
Surname: Benton
Given Name: Thomas Hart
Sex: M
_UID: C9289C6B94D000469B10207595AD9C3FFF58
Change Date: 30 Jun 2005 at 05:19:27
Father: Zebulon Howell Benton b: 27 Jan 1811
Mother: Caroline Charlotte Bonaparte Delafolie b: 1822 in Philadelphia, PA
http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=hom42&id=I17935
http://www.citywatertown.org/index.asp?NID=450
http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20121003/DCO01/710039999
THE BEAUHARNAIS HONORS
Claims of the Marquis, Gen
eral and Inventor Are
Questioned.
NAKRATIVE OF PLAIN EUGENE.
Widow and Son of a Count Beau
harnais Are Still Alive In
This City.
In humble lodgings at 819 Broadway in
this City live the widow and son of Count
Eugene de Beauharnais, according to their
statements, and they are” inclined to take
exceptions to the pretensions, as they al
lege, of General Beauharnais.
General Beauharnais, it will be remem
bered, was the lion at the Palace Hotel
hers not more than five weeks ago and
called himself the Marquis Eugene de
Beauharnais of Paris and New Orleans.
His grandfather, he said, and the father of
the Eugene de Beauharnais who was the
first husband of the Empress Josephine —
Napoleon being the second — were brothers.
According to his own story the general
was born in Virginia and was stolen by
Cherokee Indians while a boy of tender
years from his father’s place near Pow-
hattan to be made to pose as a twin
brother of a son of Chief Elkpost at their
camp in the Shenandoah Valley, but the
son dying he was returned to his father in
deference to the superstitions of his cap
tors. After he grew up he became a brig
adier-general of the bout-hern army, a
Charleston harbor blockade-runner, the
financial agent of the Confederacy, the
right-hand man of General Lee and a
marked man, upon whose head was a
pric ■, ?50,000 reward for his capture being
offered by the United States Government.
As the* general had a crude petroleum
generator patent, and as he had occasion
ally called himself by some other name it
was thought at the time that he and
Colonel A. P. Chamberlain, who also had
such a patent and had been born in Vir
ginia, were one and the same person.
Young Eugene Beauharnais of 819
Broadway, sailor, miner, engineer, fond of
travel arid adventure, and to whom the
v.-jst coast of Africa and parts of the Orient
have become almost as familiar as his own
domicile, says, in so many words, that he
thinks the general represented himself to
be one of the noble Beauharnais family
without good, legitimate reason for so do
ing. ”Z’xrX.V
It is an interesting story which young
Eugene tells, to wit:
I believe this man is using my father’s title.
In my childhood I went to school here at the
College de Charlemagne, which was conducted
by A. Hamel, a son of the Viscount Hamel.
Mons. Hamel made a statement in writing to
my mother saying that ne recognized in my
father’s picture the features of his old com
rade. Count de Beauharnais, with whom he
went to school in Paris in 1833 and 1834 in the
Institution Gourmand, at Fontecoy aux Roses.
From the time they went to school together we
have had no trace of my father until he ap
peared in Providence, R. L, lecturing in 1854
–1855. My father was a well-educated man and
lectured on the sciences and spiritualism, and
when he felt like it he could practice medi
cine. •’:’.•’*-‘:.:•/-,, ■■’-,
My mother’s maiden name was Sarah Kis
sack, and she comes of an old Manx family as
old as the Beauharnais. My father married
her in this City on June la, 1859. He was
then plain Valentine Eugene Beauharnais,
M.D.
I was born in March, 1860, at Stockton, and
in the following January my father died of
brain fever at Culiacan, in the* State ot Sinaloa,
Mexico. Father had gone there to practice
medicine, and mother and I were at Mazatlan,
where I was taken sick with smallpox.
We have never had any chance to look up
any records because since we returned to this
City from Mexico it has been one of constant
struggle for existence.
General Beauharnais called upon my mother
and myself one evening, but he did not seem
to be very much interested in our statements,
though he was full of stories about himself
and his invention. It was the 28th of July
he came. He asked if I could produce any
good proofs of my identity, and when I an
swered I could not he seemed very much re
lieved and turned the conversation entirely.
Neither of us can lay any claim to any rela
tionship with the Empress Josephine. The
children of her husband, Eugene Beauharnais,
are all accounted for. One son married a Rus
sian Princess and the other a Queen of Portu
gal. One daughter married a son ol the King
of Sweden, another a Hohenzollern of Ger
many and another was in Austria. The Beau
harnais family has some representation in
almost every European court. My father may
have descended from a brother of Alexander
Eugene’s father.
Ibis General Beauharnais pronounces
the name “Eugene” in such a way
as to lead one to believe that he
had never learned to speak French in his
youth. He pronounces it “Oozhun,” with
some accent on the tirst syllable.
General Beauharnais says his mother was a
Benton. My father had been on friendly
terms at Washington with Senator Benton of
Missouri. My father was well known here by
the late Judge Leander Quint and also Cap
tain M. R. Roberts of this City. Besides these
there were Dr. Grattan of Stockton, Dr. Goss,
Mr. Harris of Sandy Gulch, and many more.
Artist Emil M. Pissis went to school with me
and must have heard Mons. Hamel’s state
ment. Madame Hamel is still living, but she
is in France, she and her two daughters being
at St. Malo. in Bretagne. They have a niece
here, Eivine Lapariat, living on Sutter street.
The statement made by M. Hamel
reads as follows:
At the demand of Madame de Beauharnais I,
the undersigned, A. Hamel, director of the
College de Charlemagne, at San Francisco,
certify to having been a student atFontenay
aux Roses, Institution Command, in 1832, 1833
and 1834, and of having for a comrade in my
class a young man named Eugene Beauharnais”.
I further certify that Madame Beauharnais,
whose son I had as a scholar in 1865 and 1866,
has shown me a photograph of her husband,
now deceased, and that I notice, in recognizing
the portrait, little change by age of my old
comrade, Eugene Beauharnais. A. Hamel.
San Francisco, March 1, 1875.
The notice of Count Beauharnais’ death
was published in the Alta California of
April 14, 1861, after the return from Mexico
of Mrs. Beauharnais and her son. It read
simply:
Died— At Culiacan, Mexico, January 27, Val
entine Eugene Beauharnais, M. D.
French and German papers please copy.
Eugene Beauharnais of 819 Broadway
therefore says that he is determined to de
vote his life to the work of ascertaining
who and what he is, and, incidentally, he
reiterates his belief that the Marquis Eu
gene de Beauharnais of Paris and New
Orleans is not as he ought to be.
https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/illustrious-kindred-of-virginia-hambley/
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