My Genealogy Hound

CAPT. FREDERICK L. GRISARD, Sr., was born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, August 14, 1808, and was the son of Frederick and Mary A. Grisard. When he was ten years of age, he and his parents left their native land and set sail for the United States. After a voyage of forty-four days from Havre de Grace they arrived in New York. Remaining one month in Philadelphia, they then went to Pittsburgh, the next stage of their westward journey. From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh Frederick and his mother were weighed as merchandise, and made the journey under those novel conditions. From Pittsburgh they worked their way down the Ohio, River in small boats and arrived at Vevay, Ind., December 15, 1818; about four years after the town was laid out. Here they built a log-cabin in the woods, and the father worked at blacksmithing, and cleared some land in the vicinity of his home. Amid such surroundings, and under such circumstances, Mr. Grisard spent his boyhood, sharing in the vicissitudes incidental to pioneer life, educating himself as best he could. In 1825 he was apprenticed to learn the blacksmith trade in Cincinnati, and served three years. He worked at his trade in Vevay until 1845, first in connection with his father, and after the death of his father, in 1838, remained alone until 1845. He then went into the general hardware business on the site of his son’s present store-room, in the city of Vevay. While engaged at his trade he also made agricultural implements, manufactured the first steel plow ever used in Switzerland County, and assisted in building the first steam engine ever used in Vevay. He was always successful in his business, which was large and flourishing. In the days of flat-boat trading on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, he was very active and accumulated a comfortable fortune. His name was identified with every enterprise for the improvement of the city of Vevay, and he was never backward in furthering anything that commended itself to his deliberate judgment. He was elected first treasurer of the county, under the new organization in 1840, and also acted as school trustee for several years. He was a director in the First National Bank of Vevay, from its organization up to his death. He also served several years as president of the Vevay, Mount Sterling & Versailles Turnpike Company. Almost from his boyhood Mr. Grisard was captain of an artillery company organized at Vevay, and when the civil war broke out, he was appointed by Gov. Oliver P. Morton captain of a company of artillery mounting three pieces. This connection was the immediate cause of his losing heavily. His large warehouse and store-rooms, supposed to contain Government supplies (but containing only private property), were burned to the ground by Confederates or Confederate sympathizers, involving a loss to him of about $14,000. He was a Democrat all through life, but a strong Union man, never a bitter partisan, or an aspirant for political honors. April 24, 1828, Capt. Grisard married Miss Zella C. Simon, a native of Ligniere, of Neuchatel, Switzerland, a lady of rare accomplishments; she was born December 7, 1807. By this union seven children were-born: Lucilla, born December 7, 1828, now Mrs. Jagers, resides with her mother; Perret J., born December 8, 1830, died March 22, 1839; Rudolph F., born October 18, 1832, lost his life March 7, 1878, while saving a little girl from a runaway horse; Louise Zelie, born May 26, 1835, now Mrs. F. L. Dubach of Hanibal, Mo.; Zella C., born August 17, 1837, now Mrs. A. P. Dufour, Vevay, Ind.; Fred L., born February 26, 1840; James S., born June 28, 1842. Mrs. Grisard survives after a happy married life of more than half a century. Her father was a college professor, and left Switzerland to join the Swiss colony on the Red River, South, but by an unfortunate mistake, the party were taken to the Red River, North, and landed near Hudson Bay, at Lord Selkirk’s settlement, thousands of miles from their destination. During the long and tedious voyage they were several times ice-bound, spending weeks at a time fastened to icebergs, occasionally visited by Polar bears and the native Esquimaux. The trials and vicissitudes of the long journey from that region to southern Indiana will never be forgotten by the family of Mrs. Grisard. She and her mother were the first white women who ever traversed the wild waste of country between the British settlements and the United States, and they had many hair-breadth escapes and numerous adventures among the Indians. They were obliged to subsist for weeks together upon what the hunters of the party provided for them. They arrived in Switzerland County in August, 1823. Mrs. Grissard joined the Presbyterian Church in 1847. She has been an active worker in all the societies of the church, and was one of the ladies who took an active part in building the present church. She was an only child, and was taken with her father, and owes her success in life to him. After his death she supported herself and mother. Capt. Grisard was a self-made, self-educated man. No one in Switzerland County sustained a better reputation for sterling worth, and no one was more faithful and energetic in business. His religion was to do good unto others. He belonged to Indiana Lodge No. 126, I. O. O. F.