Mr.Israel Foubert is a descendant of Elizabeth Bourbon (daughter of King Louis XVI (16) who fled from France During the Revolution of 1789.In due time her descendants emigrated to America and sailed down the ST. Lawrence River to Montreal and became a back woodsmen there. MR. Foubert remember his mother tolling about Elizabeth Bourbon having a gold cross which belonged to the King and was very valuable, but it was stolen. She went to a fortune teller and she told her to go to a certain house and look in a kettle of ashes in the chimmey and she would find it again.   Isreal Foubert was born near Montreal, Canada on June 22, 1849. About 1858, the priest in the church15 miles from the Foubert home where they attended church, received a letter from Franceasking him to try to locate the decendants of Louis 16. His mother wasn't at church that Sundaybut an aunt of Isreal's heard about it and went to see the priest. He was just getting ready to take a trip to France and said he would see her when he came back. She never went to see him and they nevergot any of the gold which they was entitled to, and it reverted back to the state. Years before that when they tried to trace them, they were still so terrified with what had happened when they fled that they wouldn't let it be know where they was located. The priest had said there was so much gold that two horses couldn't pull it. MR.Foubert parents could not read or write. They lived on a wooded farm about thirty miles south of Montreal, in lower Canada. They had about 100 acres cleared and raised barley,buckwheat, and some wheat. Theyraised more peas than anything, which they had to cut  and thresh by hand. Sometimes they would have 200 bushels. MR. Foubert always had to work  hard when he was a child and never had a chance to go to school. He went one winter when he was about 12 years old.He can neather read or write and now when he is old, it is hard to know what to do to pass the time. MR.Foubert was married to Sarah LaVeirre when he was 20 year old. They lived in Montreal until about 1872, when they  went to Springfield, Massachusetts for about 2 years,then back to Montreal. In November1879, MR. Foubert with his wife and 7 children and his father Pasqel, left Montreal for the Dakotas. They traveled by train and it took them about a week until they reached their destinations, which was Grand Forks. MR. Foubertthought they would have to take a boat from Fisher's Landing but found out at Crookston they could get through on the train as far as the river, then cross on a Ferry at  the point. After arriving in Crookston in the evening, they had to sleep in the depot all night and in the morning they boarded a work train for Grand Forks,ND. arriving there November 15, 1879. They stayed with MR. Foubert brother John who had came to Grand Forks in the spring and had built a log house on the Minnesota side. The house was right at the end of what is now the Point Bridge.  He also stayed part of the time with his brother in law Austin Fish,who lived in a rented building on South 3rd street, until he got his shanty built. Their trunks were held up at the Canadian line untill May 1880. During the 1st winter, 1880 they crossed the river on the ice. They were just hauling the timber to build the Great Northern railroad bridge when the Foubert arrived. MR. Foubert got work on the bridge. He help drive the piles and laid the 1st piece of steel on the Dakota side and also handed Jim Hill the golden spike which he (Jim Hill) pounded down hinself. The first of course on the Dakota side. In the spring about March 1880 when the bridge was finished he watched the 1ST  train cross to the Dakota side. That same spring in March there was a bad snow storm and a train got stalled on the other side of Fisher's Landing and they called for a crew of 50 men from Grand Forks to go there and shovel out the train and tracks.It keptdrifting every day sothey couldn't get much done. MR.Foubert said it would be nice and clear and still in the morning and they would work for a couple of hours then it would start to drift and they would have to go backto the depot and wait. In a week's time they had gone only 1and  1/2 miles. They were there two weeks and there was no place to sleep but on the depot floor. They would take a piece of wood for a pillow and lie down cover up with their coats as well as they could. They finally got the train as far as Fisher's Landing. One evening they started to Grand Forks with a small snow ahead of the engine. There were 2 Norwegians on the track who were returning to Grand Forks  by foot. They had been to Crookston to file on land. About midway between Fish's Landing and Mallory they was struck by the train. One was thrown into the ditch and the train ran over the other one cutting him in half. The snow olow hid the light and they couldn't see it comming. After that they were not allowed to go to Grand Forks in the evening. (until the bad weather was over). MR.Foubert had only 75 dollar when he reachedGrand Forks and had to build a shanty with that amount. He build it on South 3rd street by the river near the railroad bridge and it was the 1st home  in Dakota Territory. He lived there the spring of 1880 it being a very convenient location whilw he work on the railroad bridge. It was hard to be living so near the railroad and the river in the spring. A friend Louie Bohljeck had 2 lots on cottonwood and 1st. avenue South and told MR.Foubert that he could move his shanty there and leave it there as long as he wanted  to while he owned the lots. MR. Foubert got a job as the foreman and had tomove into the section house which was near what is now Washington Street. In 1881, Mr Foubert, his brother Zeb, and two section hand took Jim Hill and an engineer, who was inspecting the bridges, to Fargo on a hand car. Mr. Foubert helped build the railroad to Ojeta, then on to Devils Lake, about 1883. They lived in the Section house two years, then moved back to the shanty on Cottonwood for one year. About 1881, a temporary bridge on across the river. It wasn't much of a bridge,just stong enough so that people could cross.Word was sent ahead so it was known just about the time a boat was coming and then  Fontson was swung around by block and tackle so the boats could pass. About 1882, Mr. Foubert filed on a claim ten miles Niagara in Elkmount Township.He built a tar paper shanty and a sod chicken coop and barn. There were wild.