Baron Pierre Francois de Tubeuf
Pierre Francois de Tubeuf was
from the Ales coal basin in France and was “opening up new coalfields
in Normandy from 1770 until he set sail for Virginia in May of 1791.
One local study described him as “le premier grand mineur de notre
pays” or “the first grand miner of our country”. While he was
instrumental in the coal industry in France for many years he
accumulated many debts and after the French Revolution decided to
emigrate to the New World.
His plans were to set up a French Settlement on the
Clinch River in Russell County, Virginia which would include “ a number
of people with the appropriate talents and skills.” He had traded some
of his lands in France to Richard Smith for 55,000 acres in Southwest
Virginia. In May of 1791 he set sail with his eighteen year old son,
his niece, “eighteen maitres and twenty five servants, skilled and
unskilled workers”, a priest, the abbe Dubois, and his son’s former
mathematics professor”. He would call his settlement “Sainte Marie on
the Clinch”.
Before leaving Richmond for
his lands in Russell County some of his countrymen were lured away to
work for people in Richmond with tales of the hardships of the
frontier. “Relations with the local people proved to be little better
than with the inhabitants of Richmond. The Frenchmen had great
difficulty with the English language and experienced very bad treatment
at the hands of the backwoodsmen every time they had to trade or
bargain for goods. The “black tricks” the people played on them were
very disheartening”.(THE FRONTIER DREAMS OF PIERRE FRANCOIS TUBEUF
James William Hagy in Virginia Genealogy and Biography. Taken from
DeTubeuf to Colonel Harvie October 18, 1791)
Tubeuf spent his first days
residing at the Russell County Courthouse before removing to the
abandoned home of John English. English had built his home on
Sugar Hill where Guess’s
and the Clinch River come together, very near Fort Blackmore,
Castlewoods, and Stoney Creek Church. He had been attacked by Indians
at least once before and the last attack left his wife and children
dead.
Tubeuf and his family were
constantly harassed by the local “inhabitants” who he followed up to
“the ridge” on at least one occasion. One of the “black tricks”
used on them was to keep Tubeuf from surveying his lands, the
“inhabitants” would get Tubeuf and his men to follow them through the
woods for hours, ending up back at his cabin. Jonathon Schoepf
mentioned in 1782 the local “Indians” in Northern Virginia embraced the
rattlesnake “almost lovingly”. Tubeuf’s employees would recall
snake handling and “displays of dead snakes as among the “black tricks”
played by the local inhabitants.”
“ Two hunters, associated
briefly with Tubeuf's enterprise established temporary camp along the
north bank of the Clinch, on what Tubeuf thought clearly was part of
his land patent. Over the next two weeks, as the hunters searched for
deer and other commodities, they were visited by men who "resembled
Indians by their coloring" and who appeared almost daily in small
groups of two or three to talk in English with the hunters in a
friendly fashion about the scarcity of game. but when the hunters began
to load their accumulated deerskins and other pelts to leave the site,
the "same men" reappeared with reinforcements, all dressed now in
"Indian" regalia, and gently but firmly prevented the hunters
from leaving with their kill. The skins had to stay with the
"true owners, not your or your foolish lord who bloodied our good roads
with his evil." (Darlen Wilson-Journal of Appalachian Studies-
Multicultural Mayhem and Murder in Virginia's Backcountry: The Case of
Pierre-Francois Tubeuf, 1792-1795
The Chickamaugans and
Shawnees made regular visits in the county to harass the settlers and
many, including Tubeuf, spent the winters in the forts for
protection. Tubeuf had a road built from the courthouse to his home and
no doubt many of these men working for Tubeuf attended the Stoney Creek
Church. In a deposition given in 1859 Jonathon Osborne said he had
worked for Tubeuf in the early 1790s. Jonathon was said to be son
of Stephen and Comfort Osborn whose name is found in the Stoney Creek
Church records.
While the facts are not
clear, Tubeuf’s son, Alexander gave the story that his father was
killed on election day in 1791. His deposition reads;
“Two men passing by the name
of Brown and Barrow, came to the house of this deponents father, and
after being invited and partaking of dinner and after staying some time
and loitering about, taking the opportunity as the father of said
deponent turned his face from them one of the said men [which was
Brown] gave him a stroke with a gun that he had in his hand, and the
cock of the lock sunk appearingly through his scull which sunk him
motionless, and in a short time expired– the foresaid not suffering
their fury, with an attempt they further proceeded to murder the whole
family and fell upon the said deponent with a club, and after receiving
several wounds, made his escape out of the house, and Miss Drushane at
the same time dangerously woudned. A servant maid attempting from the
alarm to cross the river got drownded, and also the house being robbed
and the trunks broke open and plundered, and this deponent further
saith not. May 3, 1796"
Although his depositions do
not mention “dark skinned” or “Indians” there is a death record in the
family papers in France that describe them as “red skins”, years
later in a deposition the niece would also recall them as “red skins”.
There were said to be as many
as twelve men involved in the conspiracy although only three were tried
for their part. James Best, Aaron Roberts, and Obediah Paine were
held for over a year in jail while Richard Barrow and John Brown aka
Bonds were arrested in New Design, Illinois they mangaged to escape.
Despite a 500.00 reward they were never found nor brought to justice.
John Bond was found on the 1790 Voters List in Hawkins County.
While the community was
enraged over the murder and demanded justice it seems the were split by
the three conspirators being held in jail for over a year. The two sons
returned to France in 1803 but the other French colonist have not been
accounted for to my knowledge. The niece made a deposition many years
later and apparently was still in the area.
While this is one very
logical explanation how the fairly common French word
"malengin" was introduced into the Southwest Virginia it is still
just a theory, but a good one.