Content Objectives
My students will begin this unit researching the migration of the French language from France in the 1500’s to countries and dependent entities around the world. They are familiar with some areas where French is spoken. But this work will open their eyes to just how vast the francophone world became in the last 400+ years.
The French language spread to several countries neighboring France, such as Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg. In the early 1600’s, the French overseas empire was being formed. This colonization brought the French culture and language to parts of nearby countries like England and Italy, as well as across the Atlantic Ocean to Canada, several Caribbean Islands and French Guiana in South America. From Canada, more specifically, Acadia, (Nova Scotia and Québec), the French speakers were forced out, and many ended up in Louisiana in the United States. Also in this period, the French built and sustained a slave trade in the Caribbean and in French Guiana, as well as Gorée Island off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. The French also established colonies in Réunion off the coast of southeast Africa, in parts of India, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Saint Barthélemy and Egypt.
In the early to mid-1700’s, the French language became very well respected throughout many European countries. A popular term was the “universality of the French language”. However, in the latter part of the century, the English language would become the supreme language in the world.
In 1794, the initial stages of “Assimilation” began. This was the concept based on the idea of expanding French culture to the colonies outside of France in the 19th and 20th centuries.4 Natives of these colonies were considered French citizens as long as the culture and customs were adopted. It became the ideological basis of French colonial policy. The French colonized islands in the south Pacific, China, southeast Asia, such as Cambodia, Korea, Japan, Laos and Vietnam. Africa became a popular target for colonization for France, in such countries as Algeria and Tunisia in the north, Djibouti in the east, as well as several countries in West and Central Africa and Madagascar. In France at this time, it was believed that their language was “superior” to “primitive languages”. Jules Ferry, a leader in French colonial expansion, was clear that there was a great difference in races, also, stating, “..the superior races have…the duty to civilize the inferior races.”5
Through continued colonization, the French language continued to be spoken in more African countries in the 1900’s as well as Vanuatu in the Pacific, Syria and Lebanon in the Middle East. France has even “staked out” small sections of Antarctica for research.
Back in North America, French explorer Jacques Cartier travelled the Saint Lawrence River in Canada in the 1530’s and 1540’s. Many of the early French settlements were trading posts. Jean Ribaut was sent from France in 1562 to establish a colony in Florida for French Huguenots. He did establishments there and in South Carolina, but they only lasted a short time. In 1608 Samuel de Champlain established the first permanent French settlement in Quebec.6 Those who left were mostly explorers, traders or Jesuit missionaries. The French spread out to the Midwest to the Great Lakes area and the Mississippi River Basin. They started French bases in Detroit and St. Louis. Robert Cavelier de la Salle founded Louisiana in 1682 after traveling the length of the Mississippi River. Jean-Baptiste Bienville formed a successful French colony in New Orleans in 1717.
Many of the French that came to Canada, emigrated for religious purposes. During the Reformation, many protested against some of the doctrines and corrupt practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Thousands of these Huguenots left France for North America beginning around 1538, but many came after 1685, when the Protestant religion was outlawed in France. Huguenots settled in areas such as New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, South Carolina, and Massachusetts.
Some French came to the United States as refugees during the French Revolution of the late 1780’s. A large wave of French immigration began after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815 and lasted until the 1860’s. A record number of French immigrants, 30,000, came during the California Gold Rush of 1849-1851. According to the article “French Americans,” by Laurie Collier Hillstrom, many French immigrants came to the United States as individuals or families seeking change or economic opportunity.7 Between 30,000 and 40,000 French came before 1820, and 77,000 during the 1840’s.8
In the area of present-day California, a significant population of French was being established. Some came via Québec, Canada, and were mainly trappers. Canadians settled in the town of French Camp, in California’s central valley, just south of Stockton. French whalers arrived in the Carmel area before 1848, when the land was part of Mexico. Many French families settled in the area in the 1850’s when gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill. Thousands of French arrived during this time. 20,000 came in 1851 alone. Most did not get rich from gold. However, a number of them ended up settling in the Santa Clara Valley, in what is now San Jose.
The French Canadians were very attracted to California gold, and usually paid a great price: depravation, curse, famine, “mains tachées de sang pour protéger son ‘or maudit’...”9 Following a similar theme is a popular Québécois song:
“Écoutez, je vais vous chanter
Une chanson de vérité,
En vous parlant de Californie
Triste de pays. Ah! De l’ennui!
Ah! Faut-il donc our de l’argent
Quitter sa femme et ses enfants!
Pour une si courte vie
Hélas! Quelle folie
Quand l’heure de la messe arrive
Dans les saloons nous les voyons
Au jeu de cartes, à boire, à rire,
Ah! Faut-il donc pour de l’argent
Quitter sa femme et ses enfants!
Pour une si courte vie
Hélas! Quelle folie.10
Several Frenchmen arrived in the San Jose area at this time and eventually made a name for themselves, including Pierre Sainsevain (1844 - miller, wine, carpenter), Pierre Vignes (1844 – winemaking), Antoine Delmas (1849 - winemaking), François Lallemand (1849), Louis Prévost (1849 – nurseryman), Pedro de Saisset (1849 - business), Pierre Pellier (1852 - fruit, wine), Etienne Thee (1850 - wine), Charles Lefranc (1850 - winemaking), Edward Auzerais (1850 - hotel), John Auzerais (1852 - hotel), Paul Masson (1878 - wine) and Pierre Mirassou (@1880 - wine) However, probably the most popular name of them all is Louis Pellier (1850), the “Prune King,” as people often refer to him. Most of unit will focus on this man, his family, and what he and his brother, Pierre, accomplished.
Louis was born in 1817 in Saint Hippolyte, France, in the Charente-Maritime region. He was in Valparaiso, Chile, when he heard the news of the discovery of gold in California. He boarded a ship and headed for San Francisco in search of gold. He and his partner, Joachin Yocco, arrived in 1849, found a little gold, but decided to settle in the Santa Clara Valley and work the fertile land.11
Pellier arrived in San Jose in 1850 and started a nursery, called City Gardens, at a property where St. James St and San Pedro St intersect today. Louis would pay the local children a penny for each seed from a fruit tree that they collected for him.12 His brother Pierre, who had arrived in search of gold in 1849, left the goldfields and joined him in 1852. In 1853, Louis paid for Pierre’s return to France in order for him to bring back seeds and tree cuttings from France. Pierre did exactly that, returning in 1854. On his voyage back to California, the story goes that he put the tree cuttings in potatoes to keep them moist. And it worked.
Pierre arrived back in San Jose with two large trunks filled with seeds and scions of the very popular “petite prune d’Agen,” a brand of plum grown in the southwest of France. Louis grafted these scions with the local wild prune tree to develop what would become the California plum tree. Pellier had great success with this variety. He also brought with him from France the knowledge of drying the plums, “prune” in French, to make prunes, “pruneau” in French. Pellier did not live to see how wildly successful this plum / prune would come to be. It became the number one crop in the valley for nearly 100 years. Within thirteen years, these prunes from the San Jose area were exhibited at the California State Fair. Commercial orchards began in 1870, (by many different groups, not just French settlers), and by 1900, 130,000,000 pounds of prunes were produced from 85 dried plum packing plants from all over California.13
Louis was quite involved in the San Jose area in the 1850’s. He was at the first meeting of the county horticulture organization in 1853. He played an active role in the agricultural society. State fair committees were impressed by his work at his City Gardens, saying that there was “careful, skillful, and successful cultivation.” In September 1861, Louis’s City Gardens won many awards at the San Francisco Bay District Agricultural Society Fair, including awards for peaches, pears and apples, as well as peach brandy, pear brandy, and peach-pit liqueur. In 1868, Louis was a judge in the fruit competition. There was not a category for prunes. Louis entered none of his products. 14.
Getting back to Louis and his family, his brother Pierre returned to France a second time in 1857 and arrived in 1858 with his new bride named Henriette Renaud. Their first-born, Louis P., was born in 1859 and their first daughter, Henriette, was born in 1860.
Everything was not so wonderful for Louis Pellier and his brother. Shortly after Pierre returned for the second time, there seems to have been quite a disagreement between the brothers. Pierre ended up moving about 10 miles away in present-day Freemont, which is where he was in 1860 according to the census. It was about 1865 when Pierre moved to the Evergreen area of San Jose to take over Louis’ 100-acre parcel.15
Brother Louis got married in 1861 to Constance Baube. It was a rough marriage right from the start. He would later call her a “Lucretia Borgia”16, (a woman from 1500 who was rumored to poison and murder people). The marriage caused him emotional problems. Louis eventually died in 1872, in Stockton, California, in an insane asylum. It appears that this poor marriage was directly or indirectly the major cause of his death. It is said that the only thing they had in common was that they were born in France.
Pierre soon began to grow grapes and produce wine from the Evergreen property. Pierre and Henriette’s daughter, Henriette, got married in 1880 to a Frenchman named Peter Mirassou. Peter carried on the winemaking business. The family business has continued to this day (2015). It is currently the oldest family winery in the United States.
What is left of this thriving Pellier/Mirassou vineyard and winery in the Evergreen area? Besides a few streets named after some of the family members, the only physical reminder that I could find is a piece of artwork on the median of Aborn Rd., a long metal structure depicting grapes, vineyards, barrels, vintners, etc. The area is filled with houses and shops.
The history of the city’s sporadic efforts to memorialize the history of Louis Pellier and his farming legacy suggests the complicated nature of public history. In the 1940’s an official historic marker was placed near present day San Pedro Square, to commemorate the location of Pellier’s City Nursery. However, a truck swerved off the road, destroying the historic marker. The marker was never replaced.17 Some call it “The Pellier Jinx,” as later on, the headstone, newly placed in the cemetery in 2011, was run over by a disoriented driver several months later.
At the 200th anniversary of the city of San Jose, in 1977, some historians, (Jim Arbuckle and Leonard McKay), wanted to create a park dedicated to Louis Pellier for his work introducing the prune to California. There was a big push to raise funds to create a nice park in honor of Louis Pellier in the part of San Jose where he and his family lived and worked, on St. James St.
Pellier Park, a small park on 1/3 of an acre at Terraine and St. James Streets, was dedicated on November 29, 1977. It was only opened for a short time for the city didn’t maintain it. In 1989, a drought prompted the city to cancel all plating. In 2002, The Fallon Statue was put on the corner of the park, which had dilapidated into a few barren prune trees on the small triangular lot with not a blade of grass. There were some faded plaques and abandoned shovels, with a heavy rusted iron gate that kept people from entering.
In 2005, Barry Swenson Builder was about to completely tear it down in order to put up a high rise next door. There was a Memorandum written that year from the Director of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services to the Mayor and City Council of San Jose which states that Barry Swenson Builder will “dedicate approximately 1,768 square feet of land to expand Pellier Park and to complete approximately $1.2 million worth of improvements to renovate Pellier Park to satisfy the parkland dedication obligation.”18 Swenson was to complete the park renovation by 2007. The builders were promising the city that they would restore the park after they tear it down for their high-rise building project next door.
Leonard McKay wrote in 2006 that a “tiny park was dedicated to the memory of Louis Pellier and his pivotal role in local history in 1977. He writes that it is now being expanded and completed by developer Barry Swenson as part of his adjacent building project, and the park will finally open next year.19
It was all torn down when a high rise was put up next to it. It is currently, in 2015, just a triangular plot of grass with a sign about Louis Pellier, and a monument of someone else, Thomas Fallon. Perhaps students can show their concern by writing letters or contacting city officials to see if they can do anything to get the park project moving again.
The students will research what has been done to memorialize the pioneer work of Louis and Pierre Pellier: the park, tombstones, signs, pictures, etc. The students will research the story of the tombstones, how they went missing, how they were found, reunited and placed again in a cemetery. We will take a trip one day during the 2nd or 3rd week to visit the California Room in the San Jose State University King Library. This Room specializes in local history. There should also be some primary sources available to study. The “field trip” will also take us to “Pellier Park”, the Santa Clara University Library Archives to see the de Saisset papers, and the Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
As students research this material through the internet, they will come across a 27-minute video that was made in 1947 about the Pellier brothers called: “A Fortune in Two Old Trunks”. (There is also an 11-minute condensed version on vimeo.)20 This short film, produced by the Sunsweet Company, shows the history of Louis Pellier and the prune industry in California. We also learn about the growing, drying and packing industry around 1950 in the Santa Clara Valley. We will discuss this film in class after some considerable research has already been done. Which facts about the life of Louis Pellier is fact? Was he really a failure at finding gold? Did Pierre really make just one trip or two trips back to France? How does this film portray Louis? Does he really deserve all that is credited to him? Are there other facts or details that should not have been left out? What are the aims of this short, Hollywood film?
As the students work on this project of local history, they should be critically reflecting on the whole process of displaying objects from the past. Some questions that they should ask themselves and the historians that they meet are: what should be preserved from history and why? How important was it to restore the Pellier gravestones? Is a sign about Louis Pellier at Pellier Park enough, or should there be a nice park with some prune trees? How do historians decide what to display in a museum, like the de Saisset in Santa Clara, or at the Sourisseau Academy in the King Library?
When considering displaying history, two different in situ, (in the original place), arts are used with objects of ethnography: metonymy and mimesis. The former is the art that accepts the fragmentary nature of the object and shows it in all its partiality, enhancing the aura of its “realness.”21 The latter places objects, or replicas, in situ, such as a re-creative display.22
The other approach of displaying objects is the “in context” approach. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett explains: “In context approaches to installation establish a theoretical frame of reference for the viewer, offer explanations, provide historical background, make comparisons, pose questions…”23 Examples of this are long labels, charts, diagrams, commentary delivered via earphones…booklets, catalogues…”24
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