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Philip C. LaBerge

Coppell, TX
USA
  

1608: Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain.

1617:  Louis Hébert, wife Marie Rollet, son and two daughters arrive
in Québec on 15 July 1617.  They are the first family in Québec and the
first to farm the land.

1618: Arrival of Olivier Le Tardif who quickly learned the Montagnais, Algonkian and Huron languages and was the interpreter for Champlain.
His Huron Indian scout was Roch Manitouabéouich who would be a
life long friend.

1621: Louis Hébert's daughter Guillemette marries Guillaume Couillard
who joins the family farm business.  A statue at Parc Montmorency
in Québec commemorates the Hébert-Rollet-Couillard family.

1633:  Olivier Le Tardif promoted to head clerk of the Cents-Associés.

1637:  Olivier Le Tardif marries Louise Couillard, the daughter of
Guiillaume Couillard & Guillemette Hébert.  Sadly, Louise dies on 23
Nov 1641 giving birth.

1639: Martin Prévost, maternal uncle of Nicolas Durand, arrives in
Québec and establishes the seigneurie of Beauport.

1644: Martin Prévost marries Marie-Olivier Sylvestre Manitouabéouich.
Known as Marie-Olivier, she was a Huron Indian, the daughter of Roch
Manitouabéouich mentioned above and the adopted daughter of Olivier
Le Tardif.  She was schooled by the Ursuline Nuns of Québec.  Martin
Prévost was the first white to marry an Indian.

1645:  Louis Jolliet is born in a settlement near Québec City. His parents
were Jean Jolliet and Marie d'Abancourt.

1652: Thomas Touchet, Robert's step-brother, builds the Juchereau
home in Beauport.  He returns to France to find a wife.

1658:  Robert Laberge (de la Berge) arrives with Thomas Touchet
from Normandy.

1660:  Nicolas Durand receives a concession from Olivier Le Tardif.
On that land he builds a wood house with a stone chimney which
is the east side of Maison Laberge today.

1661:  Nicolas Durand marries Françoise Gosse at Notre-Dame de
Québec on 12 Sept 1661.

1662:  Marie-Ursule Durand is born on 06 June 1662 to Nicolas Durand
and Françoise Gosse.  Her godmother is Marie-Olivier.

1663:  Nicolas Durand dies on 01 April 1663.  His death is described:
"tué accidentellement dans son désert" which would mean he died in
an accident in the (his) wilderness.  Others have conjectured he might
have committed suicide because "désert" also means dreariness or
desolation.  We may never know the true cause.  Under French
inheritance law, half of Robert's possessions go to his wife and half to
his daughter. Fraçoise Gosse marries Robert Laberge on 28 May 1663.

1664:  Parish of L'Ange-Gardien founded and mass held at the home of
Jean Trudelle attended by 20 of the founding colonist including Robert
Laberge.  A monument to Jean Trudelle and the First Colonists is located
next to 5719 rue Dugal, L'Ange-Gardien directly across from the Suzuki
dealer on Boulevard Saint-Anne (Hwy 138).

1665:  Marie Olivier dies on 12 Sept 1665.  Her husband, Martin Prévost,
marries Marie d'Abancourt, mother of Louis Jolliet, on 08 Nov 1665.

1672:  Nicolas Laberge is born on 26 Feb 1672.

1673:  On 18 May 1673, Louis Jolliet and Jesuit Father Jacques Marquette depart St. Ignace, present day Michigan, and are the first Europeans to navigate and map the Mississippi.  They travelled to venture within 435
miles of the Gulf of Mexico before returning.

1674: Guillaume Laberge, Nicolas' brother is born 30 April 1674.  He would
later inherit half of the Laberge property and Maison Laberge.

1682: René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and his men canoed
down the Mississippi and reach the Gulf of Mexico.

1682:  The first European settlement in Texas is establish by
La Salle named Fort Saint Louis at Matagorda Bay at current day
Inez, TX.  He had intended to land at the mouth of the Mississippi
some 400 miles to the east.

1692: Nicolas Laberge marries Magdeline Quentin.  They have four
children:

1702: Nicolas Laberge joins Charles Juchereau de Saint-Denis and
26 men for a journey by canoe across the Great Lakes and down the
Mississippi to the junction of the Ohio to start a tannery.

1703: On October 12, 1703, Guillaume Laberge, Nicolas' brother, and
owner of Maison Laberge, contracted to go to Fort Pontchatrain du
Détroit as a farmer.  He decided to stay instead at Maison Laberge
instead.  Fort Détroit had been established in 1701 by Antoine Laumet
de la Mothe, sieur Cadillac. Between 1710 and 1716 Cadillac was
governor of Louisiana.

1703: On December 5, 1703, Charles Juchereau de Saint-Denis dies
from an epidemic at the tannery near present day Cairo, Illinois.

1705: Nicolas' arrival at Fort Louis de la Louisiane in Mobile.

The commander of Fort Louis was Charles' brother, Louis Juchereau
de Saint-Denis who was an extraordinary person.

Nicolas' name appears on the plan for Fort Louis near Saint-Denis'
and he surely knew St. Denis and the Juchereau family. 

1711: Nicolas appears in the Mobile census.

Saint-Deny functions as the first ambassador in the region because of
his friendship with the many Tejas indian tribes and his command of
their languages.

Father Francisco Hidalgo at Mission San Juan Bautista writes to the
French Governor of Louisiana asking for help establishing missions in
east Texas.

1713: Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur Cadillac appointed Governor of
Louisiana.  He dispatches Saint-Denis in response to Father Hidalgo's
letters as an attempt to establish trade between the French
and Spanish colonies and make Louisiana profitable for the French
investor Antoine Crozat.

Saint-Denis' founding of Natchitoches and his expedition across
Texas to mission San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande at present
day Guerrero, Mexico.  His imprisonment in Mexico City.

1716: Saint-Denis' marriage to Manuela Sánchez de Navarro who was
the granddaughter of Diego Ramon's wife.  Diego Ramon was the
commander of the Spanish mission San Juan Bautista.

Expedition by Diego Ramon and Saint-Denis to east Texas and the
establishment of five missions there.

1717:  Antoine Crozat surrenders his charter over Louisiana.  The
population of Louisiana is only 400 people.  John Law assumes
proprietorship of Louisiana, establishes the Company of the West
and starts an advertising campaign which begins a mass migration.

1719:  The Company of the West is merged with the East Indies
Company which had exclusive trading privileges with India and
Africa.  The population of Louisiana grows to over 7,000.

1740: The arrival of Athanase de Mezieres in Natchitoches where he
became close friends with Saint-Denis and married his daughter,
Marie Petronille Feliciane de Saint-Denis.

1744: Saint-Denis dies in Natchitoches.

1759: The English attack Québec City and Maison Laberge is burned.

1762: France cedes Louisiana to Spain.

1769: Athanase de Mezieres made lieutenant governor of Natchitoches
despite being a French officer.

1778: De Mezieres was the first European to explore the area which
would later become Dallas/Fort Worth.

1779: De Mezieres appointed Governor of Texas by the Spanish, but
dies from an injury before assuming the office.

1803:  Louisiana Purchase.  France controlled the vast area of
La Louisiane from 1699 until 1762, the year it gave the territory to its ally
Spain.  Under Napoleon Bonaparte, France took back the territory in 1800
but then sold it due to an impending war with Britain.

1804-1806: Lewis and Clark Expedition, or Corps of Discovery Expedition
commissioned by Thomas Jefferson after the Louisiana Purchase.

1808:  Joseph Marie LaBarge arrived in St. Louis, Missouri by canoe from
L'Assomption, QC near Montreal.

1815:  Captain Joseph Marie LaBarge is born on 01 Oct 1815 in St. Louis,
Missouri.

1838:  Jean Baptiste Laberge, the patriot, took part in the 1838 uprising
against the English, sentenced to death, but sent to Australia instead.
He was later pardoned and returned to Québec in 1844.

1859: In August, 1859, Captain LaBarge's most famous passenger on
his steamboat was Abarham Lincoln who he had taught how to navigate
a steamboat.  Lincoln gave a speech at Council Bluffs which he chose
as the location of the intersection of the Union and Pacific Railroads
crossing the country.

1866:  Michel Laberge was the first French Canadian explorer of the Yukon
while working for Western Union to build a telegraph line across the
Bering Straits to Russia and connect with Europe.

1962:  Dr. Walter B. LaBerge managed the construction of NASA
Houston Mission Control Center built for communications during the
Gemini and Apollo program and missions to the moon.  Among colleagues
were Niel Armstrong, Mike Collins, Wally Schirra, Jim Lovell, Kris Kraft,
and many others.