Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-07
ELEAZAR WILLIAMS.
The D%auphin of France, the Son of tht
Unfortunate Marie AntOinette.

ABOUT 1Orty years ago very cOnSldera-
BILE interest was manifested in this coun-
try over the claim to the French throne
| put forth in behalf of an Episcopalian
missionary among the Stockbridge Indi-
ans i'll Wisconsin, named EleaZar Will
lians. Louis XVI, the last of the French
Bourbon kings, was, it will be remem-
T; bcred, guillotined at Paris by his revolu-
I tionary subjects in 1893. Louis's first
son, the dauphin, had died in 1889. so
that at the time of the Kings execution
his second son, Louis, the Duke de Nor
mandie, was the dauphin, being then
eight years of age. Young Louis, styled
XVII by the royalists and foreign pow
ers, was imprisoned in the Temple, but
was officially reported to have died in
1795-presumably from the harsh treat
ment of his %jailers. Either honestly be-
lieving so or else imbued with sinister
motives Ill attempting to resuscitate an
heir OF straw around whose standard they
could flock, many of the courtiers of
Louis XVI claimed that Louis XVII
had not passed away in the temple, but
that he had been spirited off by his
friends to a place Of safety, and that the
outwitted ~jailers pretended he had died
in order to satisfy public vengeance and
relieve themselves from accusations of
negligence. The persistence with which
the claim was presented has made this
one of the mOoted questions of his
tory, almost ranking with the query as to
the individuality of the man in the iron
mask,
After the failure of several attempts
by foreign impOstors to establish their
claims, a party Of French noblemen,
about forty years ago, suddenly turned
up in Wisconsin and pretended to have
discovered the yeritaAe lost dauphin in
the person Of the ~Epfscopalian mission
AIRY, Williams. Williams was then sta
toned on the lower Fox river, in the
humble condition of most Indian mis-
sionaries. He was i'll middle life, was
married to a squaw, and was modestly
bringing up n family of half breeds III
the backwoods of what was then a State
on the vcriest limits of Western civiliza.
ton. His memory only went back to {
boyhood home among the Indians OF
Canada, who claimed to lave stolen hin
from the States. Gaining some edu.
cation in a theological seminary, he be
came a missionary among the people whC
had adopted him, and, upon being com
missiOned by the American government
to superintend the removal of the Tel
Nations of New Yord to the S~tockbridg,
and Brothertown reservation, east o
Lake Winnebago and the little Fox river
= in Wisconsin, had remained in the re
ligious charge of these aboriginal immi
, grants. The French cavaliers pretended
: to thoroughly trace Williams histor.
. and, armed with an array OF affidavits
signed by the Canadian Indians who hat
> reared him, and others-whether tn,
afhdavits were genuine and disinterestet
h or not, has never been established-set u
i the claim that the dauphin had beef
reduced by his cruelty in the Temple t
a state of temporary imbecility; that Al
- humble friend had stolen him from tn
: prison and transported him to the Cana
: dian wilds, far from possibility of discov
. cry, and had placed him in charge of tn
Indians, who nursed the lad back to vigo
= and reared him in ignorance of his origi
= and that Eleazar Williams was the yer
liable individual.
! This country was astir with the sensa
- ton the newspapers and magazines G
the time teemed with the subject, severa
. books were issued about it, and 9TH
= American Bourbon became a celebrity
7 William does not appear to have chez
ished this rude intrusion amid his quie
II pastoral labors, and resented the al
y vances of the enthusiastic F~renchmel
- whose cavalier ways he could not under
stand, and his notions of liberty an
4 equality were shocked at the bowe
- knees of his pretended devotees, 1t
certain, however, that after awhile tn
- worm of ambition began to work, and h
died almost, if not quite, convinced tbs
he was the lost Bourbon, after all. Tn
~ excitement, however, died out, on til
Il troubles then existent in France beiu
u settled by the quiet rule of Louis Phi
of llppe, and the Wisconsin Bourbon passe
II away quite unnoticed, among his hal
~ breed children and his simple Stocl
W bridge friends. The French Bourbon
have never since paid any attention
the matter,
The memory of the old story is revive
at this time, because on Saturday last h
~ only sou, John l.. Williams, died at T
II gerton, on the lower Fox. John h;
made and lost q fortune in land speculi
ton, and died as a hand in alumbcr-mil
w The wife OF Eleazar still lives ut Kauk;
na-or did a few years since-a fine spec
linen of the pure-blooded aboriginal
~. the Pocahontas order, her advance
> years resting lightly ON her dusky shou
ders: advancement of civilization and C,
lebrity never caused her to doff her rich
nj embroidered blanket, and, when clad
ii her barbaric splondor of silver media
and gold beads, she was a very pictur
esque individual. Her step, her demeai
or, were those of a woman who well al
4. preciated that she once came very ne;
at being the Queen of the Franks VI
is rORSin State journal.