Gilpin observer., 1916-01-13
NOT FRENCH DAUPHIN
CLAIM OF ELEAZAR WILLIAMS
HAS BEEN DIsPRovED.
Romantic Story That for Time Had
Many Believers Is Now Almost
Universally Acknowledged
to Be Fiction,

Full of romance though the history
of Wisconsin is, it contains no story
more strange or fanciful than that of
Eleazar Williams, the mysterious mis-
sionary of the Green Bay Indians. who,
some threescore years ago startled
Americans by his claim to being the
lost dauphin CT France. To Green
Bay, the historic fur-trade center,
once the seat of the French regime in
Wisconsin. this tale adds new touch
of color and picturesqueness
The one event of the French Reign
of Terror" that created the profound
est impression upon the popular mind
of the time was the execution of the
Bourbon monarch, Louis XVI, and his
unhappy queen, Marie Antoinette. The
son of the royal pair, the dauphin OF
France, then a lad of eight, was
spared the guillotine, but was held for
two years a lonely prisoner in the
tower of the Temple. In 1875, accord
ing to history, he died there, the re-
suit of ill treatment and neglect on
the part of inhuman jailers. Even at
the time of his death, however, rumors
were current that he had escaped Ad-
herents OF the Bourbons, it was said,
had spirited the young prince away,
and had substituted in his place
child of humble origin, which had suf-
fered martyrdom in silence until re-
lieved by death.
In 1S49 Eleazar Williams, then a
man of over sixty years of age, an
nounced from the wilds of northern
Wisconsin that he was the lost dau-
phin, that he was Louis XVII, that he
was the hereditary king of the French.
The story that he told was marvel
GUS one. The friends who had rescued
him from the Temple had carried him
to North America, where they had left
him in charge of a worthy Indian fam
lily of the st. Regis tribe of Canada.
At first his mind had been a blank,
the result of i'll usage, but later he
had happily recovered his faculties.
In 1S41, Prince de Joinville, son of the
reigning French king, Louis Philippe,
while on trip through the new world,
had secretly visited him, and attempt
ed TO bribe him, with a promise of a
splendid establishment, to abdicate
the crown of France. This he had
scornfully rejected, for though in
poverty and in exile, he would not
sacrifice his honor"
Williams story, published broad
cast in the United States and France,
was believed by thousands. Sympa-
thetic journalists in all parts of North
America took it up, and several we'll
known volumes were written with it
as background. More critical stu
dents. however, denounced the entire
tale as fiction.
Williams actual life, though in
reality romantic enough, was far
from identifying him with the royal
throne of France. He was of mixed
white and Indian blood, his grand
mother having been carried captive
as child from the famous Deerfield,
Massachusetts,. massacre, to Canada,
where she had later married among
her captors. Her grandson, the sub
ject of our sketch, had served the
Americans as spy during the war of
1872, and afterward lived among his
tribesmen. first as Catholic, then as
Congregationalist, and later as an
Episcopalian missionary Coming to
Wisconsin in 1921, he was instru-
mental in bringing to the region about
Green Bay. from New York. numbers
of Oneida, Stockbridge. Brothartown
and Munsee Indians. He apparently
dreamed of establishing in the North
west new Christianized confederacy,
with himself as its dictator. He was
an intelligent and ambitious charac-
ter, but eccentric, untruthful and self.
centered. Above all. he was an in.
veterate poseur
When. in 1S4S, this interesting in
dividual set up his claim to the throne
Of France, his circumstantial story,
his physical resemblance to the Bour-
bon family, and the scars and birth
marks which he exhibited upon his
body convinced many of his sincerity.
Those who knew him BEST however,
either laughed him to scorn or indig-
nantly repudiated him. Even his In.
dian mother. whom he denied, de.
nounced him as a bad and untruthful
man. Needless to say, he never as
cended the French throne. and In 1858,
died in poverty and neglect. Many
Of his sermons and papers are pre-.
served in the collections Of the Wis.