My Genealogy Hound

LUKE GENDRON, whose real name is John Baptiste Gendron, is a representative of one of the oldest families in the oldest settlement in the great west. His father’s name, Luke, was given to him at first as a nickname, but afterward became the name by which he is now generally known. His father dying when our subject was but twelve years old, he had to help his mother run the farm, and consequently his education was almost entirely neglected. His paternal grandfather, John Baptiste Gendron, was born in Kaskaskia in a very early day, his father having come here from Canada, whither he had previously emigrated from France. The mother of our subject was Odeille Tullier, also a representative of one of the earliest families. Her death occurred some time in the early ‘50s.

Our subject was born October 16, 1824, in Old Kaskaskia, at a time when it was the western metropolis, a city of some fifteen thousand souls. Here he made his home until some years after attaining his majority, when he moved to the rich farming lands near the town and began the life of an agriculturist, which has been his occupation ever since. In the year 1846 he married Mary Rayome, who died of cholera in the fall of 1849, when that dread scourge was raging in the valley. Of this marriage two children were born, both of whom are deceased.

The second marriage of Mr. Gendron united him with Mrs. Sophie (Buatte) Roach, whose former husband died about the time of Mrs. Gendron’s death. Of this union were born eighteen children, of whom seven are now living. Mrs. Sophie Gendron departed this life January 30,1877, and her body was interred in the old Kaskia church yard; it was later moved to the new cemetery established by the state on the hills across the river, on the site of old Ft. Gage. Our subject was a third time married February 16, 1878, his wife being Louise Derousse, a daughter of Peter K. Derousse, a member of one of the oldest families of Kaskaskia. Of this marriage have been born four children, all boys. The three surviving are, John, Allie and Edmond.

Mr. Gendron’s home is an old fashioned house, pleasantly situated on a tract of one hundred and sixty acres of as fine farming land as may be found in the state. After two hundred years’ cultivation no perceptible diminution can be discerned in its fertility, and that without fertilization of any kind. Like all of the old French on the Island, Mr. Gendron and his family are members of the Roman Catholic Church. When a boy of fourteen he carried the molds used in making the bricks of which the old church was constructed, and which are now being incorporated into the walls of the new edifice; it is being erected some three miles south of the old town, which will soon have been swept into the stream of the “Father of Waters.”

Since casting his first vote our subject has been a stanch Democrat, as are most of the dwellers on the Island. He served as School Trustee for six years, when, tiring of the office, he resigned. Many are the interesting recollections of Mr. Gendron of the early times, when Kaskaskia was the center of western civilization and furnished many of the noted men of pioneer days.