with apologies to Thornton Wilder
I am a local history buff, intrigued with the ghosts that had formerly walked the forest trails, roads and streets where I have walked. Old people (aged 35-55, ha ha) told stories about events along State Highway 17—Merrill-Gleason-Rhinelander—but little was written. Old people oral histories describe a personal bottoms-up history—droughts of the 1930s, eastern European immigrants striving in Chicago, ex-lumberjacks farming marginal soils in Northern Wisconsin. Returning WWII soldiers described their war mostly in body language.
Documentation was sparse. I didn’t pursue their stories. The demands of the future took precedence—good grades in high school and college, military career, raising children, financial security. And while I was busy elsewhere, the storytellers died.
My children are raising grandchildren (and OMG, great-grandchildren). I have time. liarspath.com will contains my local––Gleason and Chevigny–– history notes. Chevigny is my hometown and Gleason is my hometown. I follow avidly FaceBook’s ‘You know you’re from Merrill when……..’ And “Merrill, Wisconsin Strolling Down Memory Lane.” We’ll see what happens comes out of all of this.
Our Town, Chevigny, Cote d’Or, France
We live in Celtic France a few miles from Alicia, where ’Gaul died and France was born.’ There, Julius Caesar’s besieged and destroyed Vercingetorix’s Gaullic tribes. The Gauls and the America’s pre-European peoples were tribal, transient for the most part, and wrote little. What we know about Gaul was Julius Caesar’s campaign reports to the Roman Senate (Commentarii de Bello Gallico). and archeology; What we know of pre-European America is French and English reports to their company or church, and archeology.
My translation of a local newspaper article(local equivalent of the Merrill Shopper’s Guide)
“The castle of Chevigny was of some importance. In 1116, Anséric de Montréal (a town in the Yonne not far from there) witnessed an act of renunciation that André de Montbard made with the canons of the priory of Saint-Maurice de Semur (monastery installed in the castle of Semur, which later became the priory of Saint-Jean l’Evangéliste), abandoning to them the right of feudalism on the tithes of Chevigny that he claimed.“
Chevigny-les-Millery (or Chevigny-les-Semur), dependent of the commune of Millery, is mentioned in the year 772 under the name of “Kavaniacus” which attests to its antiquity. With that of Charentois, it constituted a distinct fief which depended on the barony of Epoisses until 1699, date on which François de Choiseul, lord of the place, recognizes that, despite its erection into a county, “The land of Chevigny remains shifting from Epoisses”. The seigneury was owned, among others, by Thibaut du Plessis who, in 1479, married his daughter to Pierre, son of Pierre de Choiseul, lord of Aigremont and freed the inhabitants of Chevigny on August 24, 1489. Part of the seigneury also formerly belonged to the priory of Saint-Jean l’Evangéliste of Semur-en-Auxois.
In October 1227, Jean d’Epoisses, knight, lord of Chevigny-les-Semur, addresses Alix, duchess of Burgundy, to “Ask her to put her seal to an agreement that he made with the monks of Saint Jean de Semur, relating to certain rights in Chevigny”.
In November 1247, Gautier, lord of Montoillot, knight, “receives and takes in fief from the duke, all that he had in Chevigny in Auxois in men, lands, meadows, woods and for these things, he will have to keep the castle of Talant…>>.
It was in April 1282 after the death of Jean d’Epoisses, that Margueritte, lady of Villy-le-Maréchal, his wife, made a pledge and homage to the new lord of Epoisses << For her house of Chevigny that she held in dower from her late husband in the presence of her children, Béatrix lady of Vic, lady Agnès and sir Gui de Maligny ».
This old fortified house was undoubtedly built by Pierre d’Ostun in 1300. In 1360, around Saint George’s Day, a “Compaignie” plunged the country into distress. At the castle of Chevigny, the garrison commanded by Simon d’Aignay, was in rebellion because it had not been paid its wages and to survive, carried out requisitions in the neighboring villages, while fighting against the authority of the bailiff of Auxois. The provosts of Montreal and Avallon laid siege to the castle of Chevigny where, we are told: “The master of the engines of Moutiers Saint Jehan uncoupled the artillery to bring it in front of the place”. The rebels “Who were in the castle of Chevigny” were forced to surrender, being no match for the means developed.
Fortunately, horses were not only used in times of war. Outside of troubled times, tournaments and races were organized. It was necessary to have fun and amuse the people. Also, eight days before the famous “Ring Race” of Semur, the lord of Chevigny organized “the Glove Race” on a route going from this village to the neighboring city.
Abbot Courtépée, a historian of Burgundy, describes this race, which he may have witnessed one day in the 18th century: “On the Tuesday after Trinity Sunday, all owners of vineyards in the climate (1) of Mont-Libaut must, under penalty of a fine of 3 livres 5 sols, go to the castle of açon and its old hamlets, Bourbilly, Chevigny on horseback, booted, spurred, with a lance on their thigh. From there, after a due lunch, consisting of a slice of ham and several glasses of wine, with a peck of oats per horse, they lead the lord or his officers to the Chaume au Museaux (2) near the chapel of Saint Lazare de Semur. The clerk gives an act of appearance and default against the absentees. Then a horse race is held and the first to arrive receives a pair of gloves and the others ribbons, all at the lord’s expense.” Finally, the hospital which enjoys this leper colony of the muzzles, provides each rider with a small pie and two glasses of wine by means of which, the funds of the hospital located on the Chevigny border are exempt from the right of third parties and the owners of the vineyards of Mont-Libaut, subject to the ride, owe neither rents, nor tithes, nor other rights. The entire procession descending from the leper colony, presents itself at the gate of the suburb of Vaux on the Pont-Dieu (3) where it is stopped by the mayor and the aldermen, because it is claimed that if the officers of the lord of Chevigny entered the city, they could exercise justice there. And there was no question, of course, that the lord of Chevigny would do justice in the good city of Semur!
The “Glove Race” of 1746 remained etched in the memory of the inhabitants for a long time, because on May 23 of that year, it was ruined by a violent “Orvale” (4) which devastated all the vineyards, so numerous around Semur. There was enormous damage in eleven vineyards and the farmers were found responsible by the experts because “They had not maintained the ditches sufficiently”.
The Semur Ring Race being a municipal institution, it survived the Revolution. That of Chevigny, founded by the lord, disappeared in 1789. Of the castle of Chevigny, only a few buildings remain on the hillside, among which the old towers have succumbed to the repeated assault of bad weather and tenacious ivy…
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_de_Chevigny
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferme_fortifiée
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_de_Chevigny