Transcribed by Marsha King Grady, from The Monroe Journal, Supplemental Edition, Thursday, 1 May 1969, page 80Geandreau-Baas Family Left Rich Heritage in Alabama (no author noted)
"The stamina and will to survive among Alabama’s early settlers is sometimes embodied in the personage of a single member in a family history. With the Baas family, who pioneered a portion of Monroe County’s destiny, an example was the life of Mary Margaret Geandreau, wife of Joseph Waring Baas.
Her grandparents, Jean (John) and Marie Louis Geandreau, were among the French exiles who migrated to the settlement of Eagleville in Marengo County, holders of grants from the United States in a well-known effort in Alabama history, the Vine and Olive Colony.
After the fall of Napoleon at Waterloo and the famous leader was exiled, his loyal followers were compelled by the Bourbons to suffer many kinds of punishment. Many were obliged to sell their property and take up their abode in foreign lands.
A large number of these Bonapartists arrived in America at the end of 1817 and the beginning of 1818. They formed an association in Philadelphia to establish a colony. They decided a colony in the wilds of the West would be a refuge where they would be able to start life on a new basis. Their search was for a climate and soil similar to that in France. The belief was strong that the best place to settle was near the confluence of the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers in Alabama, where they were told the soil and climate were good for vineyards.On March 3, 1817, Congress passed an act granting land to the exiles who had agreed to the cultivation of Vine and Olive. This act did not allow complete individual ownershiop of the land. The exiles were assigned certain tracts of land, which they were to cultivate but were not allowed to hold deeds until complete payment had been made according to the terms of the act and contract.
Records in the State Department of Archives and History show Jean Geandreau was assigned 240 acres. The same Jean Geandreau, grandfather of Mary Margaret, is also listed in the register of “Les Combattants Francais De Le Guerre Americaine,”, 1778-1783, of a list of French participants in the Revolutionary War. He was among the French troops in the squadron of the Count de Ternay, who sailed to America aboard the French ship, “Le Neptune,” in February 1780, and June 1783. His final return to America was as a member of the French exiles.
Among the French immigrants in the Philadelphia group which peopled the Vine and Olive Colony in the area of what is Demopolis today, was a band of West Indies refugees. These French expatriates were living in Santo Domingo at the time of the Negro insurrection which drove the whites from the island. Many of the French were murdered, but a few escaping to the coast sailed for America and ultimately reached Philadelphia.
They were living there at the time the grant was made for the Vine and Olive Colony. Some of them were determined to cast their lots with the organization for the Colony, the Tombeckbee Association.
The association organized to cultivate the vine and olive had only a brief existence. The soil and climate were totally unsuited to such cultivation. As late as 1828, some of the grantees were trying to continue in the effort. Many of the exiles were allowed to return to France, where they again regained their places among the leaders in military and civil affairs. Among those who sought homes in Mobile were Jean and Marie Louisa Geandreau, who arrived there in 1817, after only a few months at the Vine and Olive Colony. Marie Louisa was born in Santo Domingo August 20, 1762. The couple had a son, also named Jean, or John, who was married to Margaret Lioni on Dec. 12, 1828.
Mary Margaret, born January 25, 1833, in Mobile, was the daughter of Jean and Margaret Lioni Geandreau. Baptized May 12, 1833, in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile, she was destined to become the ward of one of her sponsors, or godparents, Rowland Boullemet. Her parents died when she was a very small child, although no records have been found which reveal the cause of their deaths. Mary Margaret had two brothers, William, who was killed in service with the Confederate Army, and John, who moved to Texas. John married Elizabeth Griffith Dorgan. They had two children, John Griffith and Mary Louisa Geandreau. William Geandreau’s wife was named Euphenia L. They had one son, Rowland Phillips, who died in infancy.
She lived with her grandmother, Marie Louisa, until around the age of seven, when, upon her grandmother’s death at 83, Mary Margaret became a member of the family of Rowland Boullemet, also her legal guardian.
Records at the Visitation Convent academy, Mobile, list Mary Margaret Geandreau as a graduate of the first class of 1849. Little detail is available as to her life until her marriage to Joseph Waring Baas is recorded on May 9, 1853, in the Boullemet home by the Rev. J. H. Ingraham, Rector of St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mobile. Some rift seems apparent with her godparent, since she was married outside the Catholic Church. Records of St. John’s Episcopal Church indicate most of her children born in Mobile were baptized there.
Joseph Waring Baas was the son of Thomas Emanuel and Eliza Esther (Perry) Baas, who moved from Charleston, S.C., to Mobile in the late 1820’s. The father of Thomas Emanuel Baas, of English descent, came to South Carolina and settled in what was then Charles Town. His name, Thomas, is listed in Charleston records which show he was naturalized on May 27, 1788, and was married to Dorothea Horlbeck on June 4, 1792. Joseph Waring was around 16 years of age when his family moved to Mobile. Thomas Emanuel Baas was Captain of Company G of the First Alabama Regiment of Mobile Volunteers in the Confederate Army and is subsequently shown as Captain of Company 3 of the 4th Alabama Reserves. Joseph Waring is listed in the records as First Lieutenant in the Mobile Fire Brigade, Company G, Franklin Guards, a home guard group during the Civil War.
He later became engaged in the wholesale dry goods business in Mobile until 1868, when he moved his family by steamboat to Claiborned and then to a tract of land he had bought near Jones Mill, now Frisco City. The move was a result of ill health of Mr. Baas and he lived only a few years after arriving in Monroe County. Management of a large family was an awesome responsibility for Mary Margaret as they labored to provide a living from the land. Their stamina triumphed and today their descendants are prominent among residents throughout South Alabama and adjoining states.
Members of the Joseph W. Baas family were:
Florence Elizabeth, born June 19, 1856, and married to John Thomas Nicholas;
William Geandreau, born Nov. 8, 1857, and married to Alice L. Wiggins;
Walter Joseph, born March 16, 1859, and married, first to Susan Trice, and second to Maggie Bailey;
Joseph Waring, born Sept. 2, 1860, and died in Mobile June 2, 1862;
Eugene, born April, 1862, and died June 10, 1865, Mobile;
Harry, born March 28, 1864, and married first to Lucy Hanks, and second to Emma Coleman;
Annie B., born Jan. 25, 1866, and married to Robert P. Watts;
Edgar, born June 11, 1867, and married to Zebra Sawyer;
Mary Ella, born June 22, 1869, in Monroe County, and married to Will Lee, died Dec. 24, 1908;
James H., born Dec. 30, 1870, and married to Vida Sawyer March 30, 1919;
Josephine Waring, born July 19, 1872, and married to Will Coleman. Died Dec. 21 1925.
When Joseph Waring Baas died in 1872, he had designated property on his place for burial near Frisco City. His widow, Mary Margaret, was buried by his side after her death on Jan. 28, 1906. Their resting place is now the Baas Memorial Cemetery, first incorporated in the middle of this century by descendants, many of whom are now also buried there.(Transcribed by Marsha King Grady, 18 January 2001)