A One-Name Study for the BARNUM/BARNHAM Surname
Lambert Pierre McAbee was born about 1800 in Detroit, Michigan and died in 1850. He was buried in Allouez Cemetery in Green Bay, Brown, Wisconsin. He is said to have been a volunteer in the Michigan Fencibles during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). The Michigan Fencibles was a militia company quartered during 1813-15 at Fort Michilimakinac (Mackinac). The unit was raised in the summer of 1813, most of the enlisted men being trappers, traders and ex-militiamen of the Canadian Volunteers. The first return for the Michigan Fencibles, in the fall of 1813, showed 1 Lieutenant and 50 Rank and File. On March 5, 1814 William McKay of the 5th Battalion, Canadian Embodied Militia, became the Captain of the unit. They were disbanded in May 1815.
Notes from A Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Brown, Kewaunee and Door, Wisconsin, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and Many of the Early Settled Families Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1895: Lambert McAbee was born about 1818 in Detroit, Michigan, of French and Scotch extraction, and was a member of one of the early families of this section of Michigan. [Note: this source is mistaken about both his birth year and the nationality of his ancestors, who were French and Native American]. In an early day he came to Green Bay, Wisconsin to trade with the Indians, with whose language he was quite familiar and this business, in which he was very successful, was his principal vocation. In about 1840 he married in Green Bay, Miss Sophia La Vigne, who was born in that city in 1820, daughter of John La Vigne, a native of Canada, of French extraction. John La Vigne came to Green Bay in early manhood, and there he married Elizabeth Huldrick, who was born in Fort Howard, daughter of Perter Huldrick, a native of Germany, who came to the United States about the beginning of the present century [that is, around 1800], arriving at Fort Howard with the first English troops that ever landed there.
To Lambert and Sophia McAbee were born five children, namely: John L.; Catherine, Mrs. Augustus Gerarden, of Outagamie County, Wisconsin; Mary, unmarried, of Lawrence township; Angeline, deceased; and Josephine, unmarried, of Lawrence township. In the spring of 1850 the father of this family died, and was buried in Allouez cemetery, and the widow was thus left with five small children, our subject, the eldest, being not yet eight years of age.
The family at that time were living on a small piece of land along the Fox river, which Mr. McAbee had purchased of the Government; but they were defrauded of this and the only home left to them was an old sugar house on Section 22, Lawrence township, where Mr. McAbee had operated a sugar camp. Never having been intended for a dwelling house, it was but a rude construction, without even a floor; but with the assistance of willing and kind-hearted neighbors it was improved and made habitable, and here they lived until 1861, when a substantial log house was erected, which is yet standing. They squatted eighty acres of land, which they subsequently purchased from the Fox River Land Company at $1.25 per acre, selling the only horse they had to pay for it. But one path led to or from their location, and that was a "winter road" leading to the Fox River, at a point one mile from Little Kaukauna. The first space cleared on the land was planted to corn and potatoes, and each year, as the land improved, and the children grew old enough to help, the farm became more and more productive, till it yielded them a comfortable support.
Lambert Pierre McAbee was married (1st) to Marguerite Lavigne. He was married (2nd) to Sophia Lavigne (daughter of John Lavigne and Elizabeth Huldrick) on 29 Aug 1841 in Green Bay, Brown, Wisconsin. She was born on 15 Sep 1814 in Green Bay, Brown, Wisconsin and died on 22 Jul 1877 in Wrightstown, Brown, Wisconsin, at the age of 62 years, 10 months, 7 days. She was half French and half German.
He was buried in Allouez Cemetery.
A Research Guide to the Genealogy of the Barnum/Barnam/Barnham Family Worldwide
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