| Notes |
- Jean Baptiste Ortes, grandfather of our Joseph Philibert, was born in the province of Bearne, France, near the Pyrenees. He came to Louisana with Pierre Laclede in 1755 as a boy and learned the carpenter trade. He was one of the 30 tradesmen that was with Laclede at the founding of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1765. He married Elizabeth Barada in St. Louis and lived there until he died in 1814. Elizabeth Barada was born in Vincennes, 1762, and brought to St. Louis by her parents in 1768. She died there at the age of 104 years.
JEAN BAPTISTE ORTES AND ELAZABETH BARADA
The following is an excerpt from a series of articles depicting the early days of St. Louis, Missouri published in the Missouri Historical Society Bulletin, Vol. 4 Part I, pages 15 and 16:
Two joiners or carpenters, early associated in business - Jean Baptiste Ortes and Jean B. Cambas - who were granted a double lot as partners - "Mensuisiers Associes" (carpenters partners) in 1767 on which they built a frame house together. Ortes, the better known of the two, was born in the province of Bearn, France and came to St. Louis in 1765. In 1768 he contracted to build a "poteaux en terre" (post into land) house, 18'x22' on La Grande Rue Royals for Francois Cottin, Royal Crier, Ortes to furnish all the work and materials except one thousand shingles, part of the posts and planks, hardware for the doors and windows and the plastering, the whole to be completed in three months. The year 1771 was busy one for Ortes. On April 30, 1771 the Archives show that he contracted to build a house for Joseph Robidoux, a shoemaker recently arrived from Montreal, for 500 "livres" (pounds) in beaver or deerskins and three pairs of shoes. This house was to have 3 rooms and to be built of horizontal logs "en piece sur piece" (Piece upon piece) of cottonwood, ash or walnut. Late in the fall he prepared to build a barn, part of which he was to use for his workshop. At the end of the year he contracted to complete the roof on Louis Vige's house for 165 "livres" in skins, Vige to furnish all materials and two unskilled helpers, this job he completed but Vige left town without payment and Ortes had to fall back on a mechanic's lien. In 1772 Ortes sold his half of the house built in partnership with Cambas, reserving the right to live in it until the following July. He in the meantime was to keep the roof from leaking, to build in two corner cupboards and improve the barn. Nothing more appears in the records concerning Ortes' work except that in 1799 he made an inspection of the buildings at Fort San Carlos for the Governor. His name is frequently found as a landowner, as a witness to documents and in other connections such as his purchase at a sale in 1779 of a pair of crimson velvet breeches and two tin flower pots. In 1780 he was a member of the local militia. In 1782 he married Elizabeth Barada, born in the old French post of Vincennes. Ortes died in 1814 but his widow survived him to reach the remarkable age of 104 years. Of all the local craftsmen, Ortes alone has an example of his work known to remain. It is a fine walnut "Armoire" (cupboard) in the collection of the Missouri Historical Society, a simply, well made piece, thoroughly French in character.
Walter B. Stevens tells about the founding of St. Louis by the first 30 men who were mechanics of all trades and how they dragged their boat up the Mississippi and began building St. Louis in the middle of February.
John Baptiste Ortes was born in the province of Bearne, France near the Pyrenees. When Pierre Laclede came to Louisiana in 1755, Jean Baptiste Ortes, a boy of eighteen, accompanied him. Ortes was with Laclede at the founding of St. Louis in 1765. He had learned the trade of a carpenter. He married in St. Louis and lived there until 1814. His wife who was Elizabeth Barada, born in Vincennes lived in St. Louis until 1868, dying at the age of 104 years. She was brought by her parents in 1768. Ortes did not leave his name to posterity - his children were daughters.
St. Louis, the 4th City…W.B. Stevens
|
1738 - Abt 1814 (76 years)
