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Foreword

     The following poem was taken from a booklet owned by Henny Evans. The author is Frank Preston Linsley. Frank Preston Linsley was born in 1879 in Lena, Illinois to Albert and Louisa Preston Linsley. His mother died at his birth and he was brought to Gallia County to be raised by his grandparents, James and Elizabeth Preston. By 1920 he was living with an aunt and uncle, John and Mary Preston, and in 1930 he was living alone.
     Frank died in 1946 and his body was returned to Illinois where he was buried beside his mother. Frank was a gardener and a poet. At the time of his death his address was Chillicothe Road, Gallipolis. He graduated from the local high school and was valedictorian of his class. According to his obituary, “He was a man of literary attainments but his primary interest was the soil. He became the gardener extraordinary; a worker by day when conditions were favorable, a student by night and when inclement weather kept him indoors.
     “In his attire and his demeanor he resembled the proverbial Quaker and no finer character, in this writer’s opinion, ever trod the streets of Gallipolis.”
     The booklet was copyrighted in 1942 and we would like to give full credit to Mr. Linsley for such a delightful read. In the introduction he thanks Mr. Sibley for writing The French Five Hundred and for thus giving him his inspiration to write the booklet. Sibley’s book is an historical novel and some of the ideas of Sibley were incorporated into this poem.
     William Playfair has been designated by others as the true scoundrel who took the money collected in Paris and disappeared but others also blame Joel Barlow and even question the Scioto Company in that they never actually owned the land they sold. The description of the promised land when they arrived came at least in part from the Prospectus in which the land was indeed described as near perfection. This was the tool they used to entice the Frenchmen to buy in America. Obviously on their arrival the French must have been horrified by what they found as it was nothing like what they had been promised. Being for the most part artisans, educators, doctors, attorneys, shopkeepers, dance masters and so on, they did not know how to farm and hunt. They were indeed grateful that some of those who built the cabins stayed on and helped them learn. They, also, when the river was not frozen over, obtained many supplies from passing boats and even began to export their own crafts to New Orleans. Meat and furs were often exchanged in the local port.
     It is written in one old diary that within ten years or so of their arrival, only about two hundred French were left in Gallipolis. Some died, some moved elsewhere but many stayed. And Gallipolis remains proud of its French heritage. Each year some of those French settlers are honored by those who join First Families of Gallia County. Many others had started to come as well from England, Wales, Germany and other colonies such as Virginia, Massachusetts, New York and the Carolinas so that Gallia County soon became a melting pot of many different nationalities.

Booklet transcribed by Henny Evans

Trek of the French Five Hundred

By Frank P. Linsley
Copyright, 1942

To the memory of W.G. Sibley, whose book, “The French Five Hundred” put Gallipolis on the literary map, this poem is dedicated in grateful appreciation of the help it’s contents afforded me and permission to use.
                                                                                                                              F.P.L.

Trek of the French Five Hundred

                              The Lure

In the grim terrorist days,
         In Paris, the heart of the Frenchland,
Clothed in an impeccant pose,
         Stalked Playfair, the villainous Briton,
Weaving his wiles diabolic
         To hoodwink innocent victims,
Brewing up tales seductive
         About the wild lands in Ohio,
Whither his wiley intent was
         To lure them away for his profit,
Suave in manner he was,
         Adept in the art of deception---
Practiced in senturies gone,
         Just as it is in the present.
He pictured a Paradise,
         Perfect in climate and setting,
Carefree, untouched, idyllic,
         Awaiting the advent of settlers.
Birds of beautiful plumage
         Filled the vast woodlands with music;
Flowers of the rarest hues
         Scented the parks with their perfume,
While all the lakes, ponds and branches
         Were teeming with frogs, eels and fishes.
Pure was the water that gushed
         From the springs on the hillsides, and sparkling,
Quenching the thurst of the young,
         A fountain of youth to the aged;
Seldom did thunderstorms mar
         The days of its glorious Summer,
Nor often did frosts occur
         To spoil the delights of the Winters.
Fruited with apples and pears,
         And peaches luscious and blushing;
Plums and cherries galore,
         And berries in superabundance.
Cucumbers borne on trees,
         And apples of custard, delicious;
Grapes whose natural wine
         Ran off in the rills to the rivers;
Readymade candles that grew
         On plants that flourished in marshes;
And sugar yielded by trees
         Of the forest, abounded in number.
Nuts of various kinds,
         Hickory, butter and walnut;
Soap in the form of a stone,
         Soft and efficient, existed;
Bees filled the hollow of trees
         And caves to o’er flowing with honey;
Game in the woods in great herds
         Awaited the hand of the hunter,
Buffalo, rabbit and deer,
         Raccoon, fox, and grinning opossum;
Dozens of furbearing breeds
         Roamed the forest unbroken, primaeval;
Wildfowl darkened the sky
         As they rose from the foot of the hunter,
Pheasants and turkeys and geese,
         Ducks and the quail, swift and whirring;
Pigeons in number so great
         They broke down the trees where they roosted;
Indians gentle and sweet,
         Hospitable, helpful and kindly,
Offered a welcome to all
         Who came to share their dominions.

                              The Fall

Lures resistless were these,
         Tickling ears tuned, eager to listen,
Because of the turmoil and terror
         In France, under Louis the XVI,
For pestilence, war, persecution
         Ravaged the land and her people
After the fall of the Bastile,
         In the greatest of world revolutions.
Hook and sinker and line---
         And almost the pole did they swallow---
Like fishes hungry and keen
         For bait that is new and enticing;
Townlots and outlots he sold them,
         Like battercakes hot from a griddle,
On land that was rich and unbroken,
         At prices—cash—and enormous
With no caveat emptor, or told them
         The titles conveyed were quite worthless
His clients were of the elite,
         Well born and of fine education,
And jewellers, artists, shopkeepers,
         Hotel men, coach makers and millers,
Confectioners, clerks, peruke makers,
         Cabinet makers, scientists,
Dance masters, doctors, and gilders,
         Milliners, coach and boat builders;
Of laborers, common, a dozen,
         Of rogues and of rascals none,
Of Ladies and Gentlemen, many,
         Of religionists, only one,
Whose priestly vows were recanted
         At the urgent insistence of Cupid.
Such was the motley mélange
         He gathered to found a new Paris,
Unfitted, untutored, inapt
         For wilderness life and its trials.

                              Preparation

Soon as the suckers were caught
         In the net of his evil contrivance,
Signed, sealed, relieved of their money,
         Word he sent over the ocean
To his employers, * on this side,
         Preparations to make
For their transport,
         And also to house them,
Forty frontiersmen were hired
         To go from young Marietta
To clear a fit place in the forest
         Of lands he had trickily sold them.
Stalwart and husky, they went
         To the task down the river awaiting,
Bearing the tools of their craft,
         Axes and saws, mauls and wedges;
Robert Safford among them,
         Looking far into the future,
Jumped ashore ere the boats landed
         And felled the first tree of the clearing,
Deeming it rightly, an honor,
         To do what would long be remembered---
And treasured unto this day
         Is the ax that he used, prophetic.
Theirs was the task for the Summer
         Falling trees, and of them build houses
In number sufficient and ample
         To house the new émigrés coming
Leaving them thus employed,
         In efficient and diligent manner,
Let us follow the French
         From now till their later arrival,
Voyaging over the ocean—
         To this, the final denoument.

* ---his employers---The Scioto Co. every one as guilty as he, but he personified the Co., they quite naturally heaped their imprecations upon him.

                              The Voyage

Six hundred innocents sailed
         O’er the sea, oft becalmed, often stormy,
In six old ships, poorly manned,
         Malodorous, vermin infested,
Crowded together below
         The decks in sweltering weather,
Subsisting on coarsest of fare,
         Confined to their cabins like cattle.
Rough was the voyage and long,
         Fully three months in the doldrums;
Mal-de-mer harassed them all,
         Till existence was almost unwelcome
Every day spent at sea
         Is like one lost out of life,
So let us pass over these,
         Nor vainly seek to recall them,
For what a horror to them
         Could certainly give us no pleasure.

                              The Awakening

The end of the voyage hard
         Was finally reached in Virginia,
At old Alexandria, welcome
         Was given in cordial manner
By folks of grateful remembrance
         For help sons of France had oft given
To them in their struggle for freedom
         When Washington fathered his country
There they learned of the guile
         Of Playfair, the forked tongued Briton;
They learned their Garden of Eden
         Was a wilderness, wild, unattractive,
Peopled by savages fierce,
         Craving the scalps of their victims;
Learned of its long Winters cold,
         Of its Summers whose heat was oppressive,
Of insects and reptiles and ills
         Which would take awful toll of their number.
Came then a torrent of words,
         violent verbal explosion,
Such as our land ne’er heard
         Since the day of its primal creation;
Wrath from the depth of their souls
         Stirred wild and irate execration,
And a sentence to Hell was proclaimed
         Fitting Playfair, the Son of Perdition;
Flaying and boiling in oil
         Would be only just retribution;
Stretched on the rack and drawn
         Would have been greatest pleasure to see him;
While gestures, Gallic, emphatic,
         Attended their words vitriolic.
Echoes resounded for years
         This wordy and just execution
They would have meted to him---
         Had they been able to catch him.
Some of their number returned
         To France, by the very same vessels,
Those who had not squandered all
         Resources in this wild adventure.
Others remained in Virginia
         To try to better their fortunes,
But nearly five hundred resolved
         To stick to their plans and intentions.
Calmness followed the storm
         Of anger their fate had engendered,
Knowing rage could never heal
         The wound by the viper inflicted.
Faint not of heart were the men,
         Nor of their more gentle companions,
So onward once more they essayed
         To forge to the end of their journey.
In wagons they floundered o’er vales,
         Climbed mountain so rough and forbidding
That oft it seemed hopeless to struggle
         Against all the woes that beset them.
Heavy the wagons, and ox-drawn,
         A pair (called a yoke,) to each wagon,
Which on the hills were doubled,
         And aided by men pushing, also.
In the heat of the day travel slacked
         Because the beasts couldn’t endure it,
With tongues hanging out of their mouths,
         They bellowed and panted for water;
The ox drivers cursed them and goaded,
         Twisted tails, and whipped with keen lashes,
Then tarried for rest on the hill tops,
         And watered and fed for their comfort,
Camping at night in the open,
         With cook fires all brightly gleaming,
They ate and slept and rested,
         With sentinels watching, outposted,
Guarding against the attacks
         Of Indians, silently roaming….
So Pittsburgh at last was reached,
         Attached by strenuous effort.

                              Down the River

Here flatboats awaited the band
         To bear them down stream to their haven,
The people and all their belongings,
         Including their flutes and their fiddles.
Day after day as they floated
         Adown the forest walled river,
They put their clothing in order
         Against the event of their landing.
Willow grown islands were passed,
         Also the mouth of rivers,
Smaller ones emptying into
The larger majestic Ohio,
         Affording them glimpses inward
Into the heart of the country.
         Also they rested full well
From the bouts of the overland journey.
         From helping along with wagons,
Or jostled and bruised while within them.
         Easier now the safari,
As toward its end they proceeded,
         Afloat on the Beautiful River,
Its current wafting them onward
         By daylight and moonlight and starlight,
Riding the waves of the river.
         Warm was the weather and pleasant,
During the day, but already
         The nights were hinting of frost,
Preceding the Winter portending.
         Places well covered with earth
On the flatboats of the flotilla
         Served for the building of fires
On which to cook all their victuals,
         And at the same time afforded
Agreeable warmth in the evenings.
         Resplendent the Autumn scene
Stretched out behind and before them,
         Painted in colors intense
Were the trees in their brilliant foliage---
         The Work of the Artist Supreme,
Than Whom no mortal could equal.

                              End of the Trek

A Sabbath day in October,
         The Seventeenth, 1790,
Finally ended the voyage
         At Gallipolis, Ohio---
The name which, interpreted means---
         The City of the French,
Travel, worn, weary, nonchalant;
         Light hearted still, as are Frenchmen,
Up the steep bank they clambered,
         Bearing their flutes and their fiddles.
Now from their dreams they awakened
         At the sight of the vista before them,
Standing awestruck for a time,
         Silent, in contemplation
Of these the homes they had reached,
         So different from what they expected.
But after all they’d endured,
         On sea, land and river, it booted
Them nothing more to complain,
         For any port beat no harbor.
Cabins, eighty, of logs,
         In four rows stretched out in the clearing,
Standing empty and rough,
         But finished, and waiting their coming;
Roofed were they all with clapboards,
         Rived from the oaks in the bottoms,
Straight grained, even in thickness
         From one end quite to the other;
Doors swung on hinges of wood,
         With pegs in the jambs to support them;
Glass was to the windows unknown,
         But paper, translucent, provided
Entrance within of some light, but
         Kept out the wind and the weather;
Chinked were the cracks and daubed
         With clay, excluding the elements.
Chimneys of mud made tile,
         To carry the smoke from their hearthfires;
Huge fireplaces of stone,
         Gaping and hungry for fuel
Stood in the end of each cabin,
         Awaiting a family to gather.
At the four village corners
         Stood blockhouses, havens of refuge.
From savage attacks of the natives
         Who welcomed not the invasion.
But “never say die” was the motto
         That stiffened the lips of the Frenchmen,
For the die was cast, and their courage
         Was steadfast and strong and enduring.
Now they made careful inspection---
         To see just how bad was their bargain,
Reconciled, joking and laughing,
         At the primitive quarters provided,
Contrasting the rough habitations
         With those they had left far behind them,
Knowing they would not recover
         Their cash, nor return to the homeland.
Then they unloaded the baggage
         From the flatboats moored in the river,
And carried into the cabins
         The articles first to be needed,
Cooking utensils and clothing,
         And bedding, along with provisions.

                              The Ball

Soon was the cabin selected
         For the purpose they now contemplated,
Of larger dimensions and suited
         The better for large congregations.
To celebrate fitly and gaily,
         Invited were now all and sundry
To the first semi-weekly Grand Ball,
         And rejected were no invitations.
Unwaxed was the floor for the dancing,
         Nor smooth like the planks of French ballrooms,
For this was a floor made of puncheons,
         Laid closey and adzed with expertness,
While all the others had only
         The floors of the earth that upheld them;
Not effulgent the lights nor surroundings,
         Not tapestried walls, nor impanelled,
But torches and lanterns illumined
         The rude log walls that imbounded.
Soon after the first dinner eaten
         In this, their new home in the forest,
(A meal that was meager and differed
         In much from a banquet delective),
They donned their elegant costumes---
         Imported direct from the makers---
Peruked, pomaded and powdered,
         Perfumed with the scents from gay Paris,
They paid Terpsichorean tribute
         With feet light as the hearts were within them.
The flutes and the fiddles made merry
         With music anew to the forest,
In waltzes of statliest measures,
         Quadrilles, minuets and the others.
Forgotten a while were the hardships
         Attending their tiresome migration,
Put by for the nonce the dejection,
         O’er looked the dire disappointment
That struck like a dagger sharp pointed
         The hopes their enlightenment brought them.
Strange was the sound of the music
         Out through the forests dells wafted,
Borne to the ears of the natives,
         In darkness lurking and distant,
But sweet to the ears of the dancers,
         Inspiring, joyful, life giving,
To those who long were deprived
         Of a pleasure lifelong and ecstatic.
Till late in the night did they revel,
         Nor take undue thot of the morrow,
Of the future that still lay unfathomed
         They worried no whit, so we leave them…
To dance thru the years at their pleasure,
         Keeping step to the flutes and the fiddles.

Feb. 1940 Frank P. Linsley

Frank P. Linsley obituary

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