Xavier Vautrin

(by Jill Edwards and Laurel Katernick)

 (First a note to explain that we are third cousins who met online researching Xavier Vautrin.  We both descend from his daughter Amelie Vautrin; Jill descends from her first marriage and Laurel from her second marriage.  We met in person for the first time in Victoria in October 2000 to do some family research together.  We decided to combine our updated entries.)

He was born Francois Xavier Vautrin on May 10, 1815, in the Parish of St. Philippe, in Quebec.  His parents were Pierre Vautrin dit Bienvenue and Agathe Baudin (or Baubin).  His paternal grandfather was Charles Vautrin dit Bienvenue who was born in Lorraine, France and came over to New France with the Royal Rousillon Regiment in the 1750s.  His mother, Agathe, was part Miami Indian from the Detroit River Region.  We have been in contact with descendants of several of Xavier's siblings and at least one cousin, who have generously shared genealogy records, in one case dating back 14 generations from our own.

Xavier was recruited from the Parish of St. Edouard, Quebec and entered the HBC service in 1834, at about the same time as his brother Jean Baptiste Vautrin (born February 1, 1813.)  Xavier and Jean Baptiste had at least nine siblings.  As far as we know, these two brothers were the only family members who joined the Company.

According to a descendant of Jean Baptiste who searched through hundreds of hours of microfilm from the HBC archives, the brothers arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1834.  Per records received from Bruce Watson, Xavier worked at Fort Vancouver as a middleman until 1835 at which time he was assigned to the Columbia Department.  In 1837 he was sent to Fort Langley where he worked for the next fifteen years.  In 1852 he went to Victoria where he joined his brother.

Jean Baptiste had gone from Fort Vancouver to New Caledonia and worked at various locations over the years until 1851 when he was assigned to Fort Victoria.  Both brothers retired from the HBC around 1852 though they periodically carried on transactions with the company for some time after that.

While at Fort Langley Xavier took up, in the custom of the country, with a Quantlen woman.  The earliest record we've found so far is reflected above, wherein a daughter Florence (about 3) was baptized by Modeste Demers on September 4, 1841.  She is described as the illegitimate daughter of Francis Vautrin and Emilie, Kwoithe (probably a variation of Kwantlen/Quantlen).  However, when he moved with his family to Victoria and had his relationship formalized in 1852 (apparently in a double wedding with his brother Jean Baptiste and his Songhee bride Elizabeth), his wife was referred to as Marie Quantlen.  Together they acknowledged their children Emilie, age 11 years, Helene, age 6 years, and Catherine, age 3 years.

We don't know if Florence (about 14 by then) had married or possibly died.  Nor do we know what happened to "Emilie, Kwoithe."  Since the next eldest daughter also bears the same name Emilie (or Amelie), perhaps it is possible that "Emilie, Kwoithe" and Marie were the same woman, or were related.  Another daughter, Rosalie, was born to Xavier and Marie after their move to Victoria in 1852, but she only lived 2 years.  They also had a son Francois Xavier who may have died in 1857.

Xavier and Marie's daughters Helene and Catherine were both early pupils of the Sisters of St. Ann's at their two room convent school in Victoria.  They enrolled there in November of 1858, about six months after the Sisters started the school.

We have found later records pertaining to Helene/Ellen Vautrin.  She married Moise Plamondon, a son of Simon Plamondon, another HBC employee who had worked at Fort Langley.  She died and was buried in Victoria in October 1864 at eighteen years of age.

As yet, we don't know what happened to Catherine Vautrin.

After the brothers left active service of the HBC, they settled on land in the Mill Bay area of southern Vancouver Island that they had apparently been visiting since the late 1830s according to oral history.  In various local histories they are credited with being "the first white men" to settle in the Cowichan Valley.  They eventually pre-empted the properties after the surveying had taken place.  The south side of Xavier's 100 acres went approximately along what is today Kilmalu Road across the road from the St. Francis Xavier Church that still stands and the Island Highway now cuts across the west side.  Jean Baptiste pre-empted a 100 acres that was southwest of Xavier's and hence the story is that they "settled next door to each other" and took up farming.  Both brothers also worked for some time at a nearby mill.

We don't know for sure the fate of Francois Xavier Vautrin though we believe he died on the Island.  We have read that local oral history says his remains are in a grave near the waterfront north of Mill Bay.  There is a road near Section 6, Range 9 (near his pre-empted land) that is named Voutrait, one of the many variant spellings of the name.  It is possible he rests near there.

Jean Baptiste Vautrin's wife Elizabeth of the Songhees died in 1857.  In 1860 he married Marie Anne Brule, the widow of Joseph Brule.  In the late 1880s it appears that Jean Baptiste and Marie Anne moved to the Grande Ronde area of Oregon, near where Marie Anne was from.  Church records indicate that a man named Jean Baptiste Vautrin died there on February 18, 1893.

We do have quite a bit of information on Jean Baptiste Vautrin and are in contact with direct descendants of his who have significantly more.  Should any of his other descendants read this, we would be happy to direct you toward same.

We do have extensive information on most of the above mentioned individuals.  This includes ancestors as well as descendants for the most part. Should any of the surnames be related to research you are conducting please be sure to check out our website at http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/k/a/t/Laurel-Katernick/index.html

Acknowledgements:

We wish to express our sincere gratitude and appreciation to Jean Barman, Bruce Watson and our newly found cousins who have been most generous in sharing information with us.  We also must extend our thanks to the kind people at the Sooke Region Museum, the Saanich Pioneer Museum, and the St. Francis Xavier Church in Mill Bay. (Note:  Any errors in the narrative are ours, and we would appreciate having them pointed out to us.)