How did someone from the abolitionist northeast end of Ohio, up by Lake Erie, wind up down in the Deep South? On a slave-owning plantation, even if briefly?

She would marry at her aunt and uncle's plantation in Claiborne County, MS, then go with her spouse to a frontier of their era, to Minnesota, when it was still a territory. Her husband Joseph B. Reynolds was easier to find in records, once there, as her own name varied too much. The only thing certain was that a "V" would be somewhere in her name?

Both were said to be teachers in a government school for native children, running a hotel/inn/tavern at the same time, becoming a witness to unfortunate events in August of 1862. Escaping alive, she would say in her testimony that everything they owned had burned.

They'd been in a sparsely settled area called Shakopee, named for three hereditary chiefs of some tribes locally. The Shakopee region then was much larger than the current town called Shakopee now (at the west-southwest corner of Minneapolis). The broader region consisted of varied places on the Minnesota River, mostly on the river's south side as it bent and turned to go upstream away from Minneapolis. The part where she and Joseph B lived was said to be ten miles north of the old Sioux Agency offices, nearer modern day Olivia, than to modern day Morton.

They too their buggy westish to Fort Ridgely, on the river's north side, instead of eastish to New Ulm or, past that, to Mankato. Friendly natives particularly advised avoiding New Ulm., with good reason. The Reynolds encountered carpenter John Nairn and wife Dora and five children, maybe not yet convinced to stay away from New Ulm. Not having children of their own to worry about, the Reynolds took the two eldest of the Nairn children into their buggy and agreed to meet later at Fort Ridgely.

Her and others' testimony on all of this was much more detailed than the above summary. The record were gathered by the Minnesota Historical Society, microfilmed in 1994. Their title is "Dakota Conflict of 1862 Manuscripts Collections". Copies for public viewing have been left at archive.org, allowed on the condition that nothing be re-microfilmed or copied verbatim without Society permission.

Her spouse was still living when she died. They were apart, however, for their 1880 US Census. He was traveling for work as a "mail agent", while she'd made her way to her prospering brother's house in northwestern Ohio, saying she was in care of houework housework. An old neighbor also said to be Painesville-born, Mattie Williams, a dressmaker, was also in the house of brother Oratus Seba French, also said to be Painesville-born, also present in Minnesota for the difficulties of 1862. Mattie would continue as the brother's housekeeper after Valucia died.

HER MISSISSIPPI HOSTS. Her name spellings vary greatly, across records. Valucia J. was put on her stone. Did her parents maybe intend Valusia, remembered as a town in Florida? It was tempting to abbreviate that as V. , seen as "V Jane Reynolds" for her 1870 US Census, after their part of old Shakopee clearly separated as Redwood County. She was seen as "Ann J V French" at her Uncle's house pre-marriage.

Her marriage record called her Valencia, the name of a city in Spain.

"Reynolds, Joseph - French, Valencia J. A. - 3 Mar 1851."

SOURCE: Volunteers for Mississippi.MSghn.org, the section called "Claiborne County, Mississippi Genealogy & History Network", alphabetical by groom's name

The same source showed the following marriages 12-14 years earlier. Note that Jasper Richmond was her maternal uncle, he'd married Eliza Phillips, who'd welcomed Valucia into their home:

"Phillips, Eliza - Richmond, Jasper - 19 Feb 1839"

"Philips, Amanda R. - Wright, James R. - 28 Sep 1837"

Amanda R. and Eliza were different people, possibly sisters, possibly cousins, who were sufficiently close friends to live in the same house for a time. They and Jasper were seen together in the 1850 US Census, with the two guests from Ohio, one soon to marry. Amanda Wright was, by then, perhaps a childless widow, given no other Wrights were present and Amanda Wright re-married, elsewhere, later. The children present were those of Jasper and Eliza, so cousins of Valucia.

HER FATHER. What brought Valucia to Mississippi? When Valucia/Volucia/Valusia was in her early 20s, her father, Warren French, Vermont-born, died of "lung fever", a Painesville, Ohio, newspaper had said at the time. Warren would die before his own mother. He'd headed the household where his parents, Seba French and Mary/Molly Ide, also had lived, judging from household size in 1840 and from Mary's pension papers as a widow, her spouse having served in the Revolution.

OLDER FAMILY HISTORY-- Father Warren and grandfather Seba French descended from Puritans, their immigrant Frenches having worked as tailors, while waiting a brief time, at a mother church, at old Dorchester, for their old minister from England to arrive. Once the minister came, their very first US burials and multiple infant baptisms would be recorded at their Ipswich church, considerably northward of Boston, in Essex County, up by Maine. Matriarch Susan Riddlesdale French was buried there, with siblings of two sons who left also buried there. The two who left westward, for the Connecticut River Valley were John French the tailor, wife Freedom Kingsley, deaths upriver, in what became MA, at Northampton (Hampshire County), and Thomas French, the planter, first wife Mary Button, deaths downriver, in what became CT, at Guilford (New Haven County). The immigrant men had too common names, their own set Haplogroup G, in DNA testing in 2014 that proved them different from same-named Frenches, instead Haplogroup I, different location, directly south of Boston at Braintree (now in Norfolk County).

Warren and his father Seba descended of John and wife Freedom, who were of record selling their property in Ipswich, then moving their children across the Bay colony to be near her brother Enos Kingsley, not far from his brother, planter Thomas French. Of Freedom's many children, her eldest son, another John French, is believed most likely to be the father of Valucia's Frenches.

Unlike other Puritan immigrants called John French, their immigrant John French had been brought by his parents. He also stood out from the rest, as his wife had been Freedom Kingsley, maiden name given in records, once as a witness for an employer, before she married, the later time, implied when she was named in the will of her father, John Kingsley. In his will, patriarch John Kingsley was careful to state that Freedom's John was a "taylor" who'd taken John's daughter too far away to care for John in his last days.

After John French and wife Freedom left Ipswich, they re-settled down at Northampton, on the Connecticut River. There, Freedom's brother Enos Kingsley had gone with a Mather minister, of the Mathers from the mother church at Dorchester.

When John and Freedom died at Northampton, someone recorded their death dates and place, back at the home town of Ipswich. Read her grave page for details.

Their John was not of the same male Dna as the probably older John French who had also waited at Dorchester, with wife Grace, for a different congregation to open. Once he was declared a "freeman", in 1640, his church-town combo was to be at Braintree, instead just south of Boston, with their future minister Rev. Thomson previously at the opening ceremony of Richard Mather's church, a "signing of the covenant" in 1635, elders leading the line of males singers, their wives early in the line of women signers. No Frenches signed that day, but Freedom's father, John Kingsley, signed as an elder, her mother Elizabeth signing after the wives of the other elder's wives, not making a mark as many women did, but signing for themselves.

Of his descendants staying longest at Braintree, one submitted male DNA in 2014. He wishes to remain anonymous, but still has John's wallet. He had had been told, as a family tradition, that their John, while in the British military, had refused a commander's order to commit atrocities against the Irish, so was punished for that. (The British often punished via transportation to distant places, accounting for Irish sent to the Caribbean and the American South. For example, as recently as the 1800s, they were sending to Australia some of northern England's loom breakers, who'd objected, among other things, to children being used to run the new machines. Spouses and children if they wished , could go as well and wait for the imprisonment or indenture to end, but had to pay for their tickets and support themselves.)

That John was not a tailor, would be an orchardist and farmer, with salt marsh pastures also listed later in his will. His first wife was a Grace with maiden name not found in old records, though her first name is found with John's multiple times. When she died, he married minister Tompson's widowed daughter, Elinor, widowed name Vesey/Veasey, that name to be seen in the family later, as for example, when a descendant called Nathaniel French, off to daughter colony of Braintree Vermont, married befoe going to Lake County, Ohio.

Unlike Valucia's John and Freedom and John Kingsley, unlike some descendants, Braintree's John and Grace did not make big colony-crossing moves. Their family remained for generations at Braintree, 1640 through the Revolution and beyond.

Both sets had children with too common names, Mary, Thomas, William, not useful for separating family trees. Their unique names separated them, Valucia, after Freedom and then Elkanah and then Seba, the early in-laws, Kingsley/Kinsley, then, in western Mass., the later in-laws, Pomeroy in-laws for some, future Richmond in-laws for her branch, though not married until in Ohio. In contrast, the Braintree DNA had a Grace and then a Dependence (dependence on God), with in-laws Vesey and Thayer and Lamb, then the Vintons and Wales, then when at Hampshire County, Alvord in-laws and the Bartletts (think of pear orchards).

Bartletts? Wasn't this other DNA, Valucia's, related to them too? Yes.

TWO MAIN DNA CROSSINGS. The two sets' paths would cross, twice. First, by the Revolution, both DNAs had gone to the cluster of western Mass. towns with names ending in "-hampton" (meaning a riverside town, their varied ones near the Conn. River, a widening flood plain, as it came down into Mass. ,from future Vermont, the flood deposits fertile).

Volucia's set was there first, a century earlier, beginning with Freedom and her John arriving. Their eldest son John was probably Volucia's ancestor, maybe dropped off en-route to Northampton, at Freedom's Kingsleys, given he married there and is buried there.

The two sets intermarried in 1801, back in Hampshire County, Jacob French to a Bartlett. (Abigail Bartlett was descended of a female Pomeroy as her grandmother. That grandmother was believed descended of Freedom's youngest son Jonathan French, by his son, Ebenezer French, both remaining in the -hampton towns, with Jonathan's will found, confirming he died while at Northampton.)

For the second crossing of DNAs, later, in Ohio's Western Reserve, Painesville area, contact was verified when Jacob's married sister Rebecca, by then, married to Wm Mc Millen/Mc Millan, sought legal assistance from Daniel Ide French, Valucia's uncle. She wanted to protect her Clapp children's rights to property inherited from their father, Elah Clapp, who'd died young, bought from his father's buying group.

The Western Reserve, in northeast Ohio, was formed out of the Northwest territory. French officials transferred the land under the condition that there be no slavery. Indenture, with either benevolent or cruel masters possible, often moved the young away from their families, too many "never seen again". One researcher of Virginia indentures noted that about 50% died before their contracts were over. Those settlers who did not like indenture for themselves, would not like slavery for someone else.

They thought "no slavery" was a plus, hoping to make indenture of children illegal as well.

Volucia's branch had had a split, with certain in-laws, over slavery. It's inferred by the geography, by slaves present or absent in their 1840 and 1850 Censuses, rather than spoken about.

Both DNAs had located, pre-Civil War, in mother Painesville township. This time, the Braintree set was there first.

They had family connections, the Claps, part of a group of buyers acquiring land in the "Western Reserve" area of northeast Ohio. (Profits from sold land went to Connecticut, used for its school fund, to repay Conn. for its excess losses in the Revolution, after its shoreside towns fired upon by the British navy were destroyed, forcing move-outs, to western Mass.and then up into Vermont.)

As a benefit of moving, the Reserve's counties had access to shipping over Lake Erie, down the Great Lakes, Painesville's port, ont the Grand River, at first superior to Cleveland's port, on the Cuyahoga, pre-Canal. Their situation was different from the territory in south Ohio, instead handed over to Virginia, instead tied to shipping the Ohio River. Virginia had not paid enough of its soldiers in the Revolution, so granted them land bounties in Ohio instead. (French-surnamed families brought in by receiving or buying Virginia bounties were of still other DNAs, adding to the over twenty male DNAs in a study of surname French at FamilyTreeDna.com, sponsored by FrenchFamilyAssoc.com, a club of Frenches from different geographies trying to better separate their trees. )

Inside the Reserve, both sets' began with records in Geauga County, their parts spun-off as Lake County in 1840. Allocated to daughter townships by the 1840 Census, justified by population growth, Valucia's relatives were then counted as in Concord Twp., not just Painesville.

Again, the two sets intermarried in her father Warren's generation, while still back in western Massachusetts. The Braintree set was to the Painesville area by 1805, pre-War of 1812. This was documented by neighbor and in-law Spencer Phelps, at first of future Leroy, then moved to Mentor, buried there. (Mentor spun-off its south end as Kirtland.) He spoke of seeking "ridge roads" (translate that to above the mosquito swamps and near water-power to turn mill wheels).

Valucia's set delayed going there. They were not clearly in the Painesville area until her parents married in the early 1820s, post War of 1812, having instead gone to Vermont first.

SOME SPECIFICS. The linking marriage in 1801 in Hampshire County, saw Jacob French of Westhampton, eldest son of Braintree's Abiathar French the junior, again, of different DNA than Valucia French, wed Abigail Bartlett, of West Farms.

Abigail was of Valucia's DNA, her mother and grandmother believed descended of the youngest of Freedom and tailor John's sons. (John and Freedom's youngest son Jonathan stayed close to Northampton, whereas his older brothers left , one northward to Deerfield and one eastward to the Kingsleys.)

Volucia is likely of the set geographically associated with John Kingsley. Elkanah French, in that set, had been a surveyor. As such, he was likely to know of new places early. Delaying a good understanding of their tree, the boulder marking John Kingsley's graves was moved from his farm yard to a burial place now in East Providence, RI. (Look in East Providence for Newman Cemetery, named for the first minister down there when more was still in Mass. Find John Kingsley, then look for the surname French. )

Warren's set went to the Painesville area, his younger brother Daniel Ide French's farmland by 1840 clearly in Concord Twp,.)

HER MOTHER'S SIDE. With her father Warren deceased, her mother, Amanda Richmond French, was free to move (perhaps obligated to move, if someone else owned the property where they had been living, in Painesville).

Valucia's mother, Amanda Richmond French, Massachusetts-born, passed away in 1852, able to see Valucia marry in 1851. Her marriage and her mother's burial were not in Painesville, but in the Deep South plantation lands of Claiborne County, Mississippi.

Amanda died in a year when cholera killed many in that place. However, she might have been weak from something else that then killed her. What was the "lung disease" that killed Valucia's father, Warren French?

By the time Valucia's uncle, Artemus French, died (in 1879? at/near his son Warren A., aka Put, in Indiana, legal residence of Artemus still Painesville) , "consumption" (TB) was mentioned in the probate book about as often as heart disease. Once people were aware how "consumption" spread ("germ theory" developed when?), many were reluctant to marry and infants of germ-carrying mothers might have difficulty.

Her brother Oratus never married. Valucia never had children of her own.

Valucia's brother, Oratus or O.S. French, was quite young at the time, when the 1850 Census found them in MS, away from their mother Amanda (thus, kept apart, as if she were quarantined?)

He tried to remember the causes of his parents dying, later, but was right only for his mother. Cholera was a disease of the lower tract, not of the lungs, imported from India in the early 1830s, a second round in the early 50s for those not. exposed in the 30s.

The disease could kill in hours after onset. Eventually known to follow rivers downstream, after people had dumped untreated sewage upstream, people at first thought "bad air", aka "miasma", caused the sickness. They thus hoped it could be cured or prevented by moving. Steamboats moved along the rivers at the time, dumping their sewage as they moved, with occasional cholera outbreaks on-board. Some steamboat survivors provided a clue, early, as to causes, saying they survived by drinking whiskey while on-board, staying away from their boat's drinking and washing water.

Valucia's widowed mother, Amanda Richmond French, took Valucia and her much younger brother down the Mississippi River, probably by steamboat, to visit their uncle, Jasper Richmond. Again, they would be seen living there, with Jasper's family, in the 1850 Census.

HER UNCLE. Jasper, like Amanda, was Massachusetts-born, so technically a Yankee, even by the stricter way that northerners defined the term, as New Englanders only. Previously, Jasper had gone down to Port Gibson, MS, as a young attorney. This was something multiple young attorneys and young doctors were said to have done, perhaps traveling as a group. Were they there for the sights, or for the politics?

There had been a movement in Mississippi whereby certain slave-owners wanted to free their slaves. However, the Mississippi legislature put a stop to that, by passing a law forbidding it. Those still wanting to free slaves suggested next that they be allowed to pay for the passage of their slaves to Liberia, a new country created in Africa for that purpose. No newspapers asked the slaves what they wished?

In the middle of this, Jasper fell in love with a southern woman, Tennessee-born, named Eliza Philips. Her family had moved to western Mississippi, claims of land found higher up, not on the river bottoms. The giant river was known to flood the lower areas alongside, making a rich "delta", so perhaps soil fertility would be sacrificed in order to go high enough to avoid flooding.

After Jasper and Eliza married, Eliza's parents must have died. They must have been slave-owning, as by 1850, Jasper found himself owning slaves and a plantation. Valucia would leave MS in 1851 after marrying Mr. Reynolds. Amanda would leave involuntarily that year, by dying in a cholera-plagued year for Claiborne County.

Both Valucia and her brother had names no one could spell easily. As a young person, she clearly tried different combinations of her names. For example, in the 1850 Census, at her uncle Jasper's plantation in Claiborne County, Miss., she reversed the sequence and went by "Ann J. V. French".

HER BIRTH. Noted later as born Mar. 29, 1825, putting her age closer to her husband's, she was first listed, in 1850, as born 1830-1831, as of an age closer to her brother's. Thus, the 1850 Census showed "Ann J V French", age 19, living on her uncle Jasper Richmond's plantation, the larger town nearby of Port Gibson to be held by the Yankees in the Civil War, thus, not as besieged as Natchez to the north.

Port Gibson, with mansions sprinkled in, was on the Mississippi River, a place for normal business, farming and lumber. It had a school for training teachers. Natchez, northward, had been larger, a key slave-trading place with a more sizeable cotton gin business.

Jasper's inherited plantation was maybe eight miles inland, near the Pisgah church, now gone. Only the Pisgah cemetery remains, with her mother Amanda buried there, its nearest inland village later to be a rail town called Hermanville.

Once far away, by the 1860 Census, Valucia and spouse Joseph Reynolds would be innkeepers in Shakopee, Scott County, Minnesota, boarders present, no note made of which person answered the census-taker's questions. At age 34 then, so born 1825-26, she was misnamed as "Martha J. V. Reynolds", b. Ohio, that naming perhaps confusing her with pupil/employee Martha/Mattie Williams, whose listing is missing. (They were seen together later.)

HER PARENTS, from "Painesville Telegraph",

Parents' marriage:

1823 FRENCH WARREN MARRIED AMANDA RICHMOND, 1823 PG 3 COL 2

Father's death:

1848 FRENCH WARREN, 1848 PG 3 COL 6

Mother's death:

1852 FRENCH MRS AMANDA, 1852 PG 3 COL 3

Source: "Painesville Telegraph", Painesville, Ohio, excerpts transcribed by Judy Stebbins, indexed at grins.freeservers.com/fg-fz.htm

HER OWN MARRIAGE,

Reported in Claiborne County, Miss, mis-spelled as Valencia:

Mar 3, 1851, "French, Valencia J. A." to "Reynolds, Joseph" Source: formerly reported at Claiborne.MSghn.org, site by 2023 disconnected

SIOUX UPRISING OF 1862.

Valucia and her husband were teachers on the Minnesota frontier who ran a combination inn and boarding school. They were helped in escaping by Sioux to whom they had been kind. Her husband's obituary said they'd had two children, but that was maybe an error, or they died in infancy, backed by censuses with no children present. Several young women who were employees, treated more like daughters, had been staying with them, when all tried to escape. Mr. Reynolds left (using a wagon?) and Valucia took a buggy. A young hired man left on his own. The three teen-aged girls helping Valucia shared a wagon with two men, boarders at the inn. The second wagon was attacked, the men killed and a young Swedish girl wounded while trying to escape, dying not much later. Valucia, mis-identified in reports as Valencia, had been helping the Swedish girl prepare a wardrobe for the girl's wedding. The other guest/employee/companion was Mattie Williams, described as the Reynolds' niece, research on her difficult to complete. She may have been a Martha Williams. Alternatively, she may have been the cousin listed as Matilda Williams in Oratus Seba French's estate papers. At any rate, Mattie Williams would later nurse Valucia when the latter lived at her brother's house in Fremont, Ohio. After Valucia died, Mattie would then be housekeeper for the brother, who often went by "O. S.", which helped stop people from mis-spelling his name.

Valucia's brother Oratus, addressed as "Rat" by someone on the French side of his cousins called "Put" (real name Warren A. French, named for his uncle, Valucia's father), said in his papers that Valucia had had the family bible with his birth date, but it was lost in the uproar, so he was never quite sure of his birth year.

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Copyright by Julia Brown (JBrown), Austin, TX, Aug., 2015. Revised Oct., 2015, Mar., 2016, May, 2021, April, 2023, Nov. & Feb., 2023. Permission given to Findagrave for use at this page.