Mrs. Caroline C. Benton, wife of Colonel Z. H. Benton, formerly of Antwerp, who died at Richfield Springs some years ago, was a natural-born niece of Napoleon I., she being the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. Though so near a descendant of a family that helped so greatly to make history, she seldom made an allusion, save to her intimate friends, to the fact that she was the only descendant in America of that distinguished house. It may not be altogether unbecoming for an historian to make mention of some well-known facts concerning people who have passed away, for sometimes such allusions may help to "point a moral or adorn a tale." In such a light we present a few remarks:
When Joseph Bonaparte, who had been King of Spain when his great brother had thrones and crowns to give away, took up his residence in Bordentown, N.J., he met and loved a beautiful Quaker girl. Her family were eminently respectable, and it was a great blow to their just pride to see their daughter contract a mesalliance with an acknowledged French roué like Joseph Bonaparte, then an old, corpulent man. Outside of her won friends and acquaintances, no one knew the family name of the fair Quakeress, nor do we here give it, although well known to the author of this History. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both daughters. The younger died in infancy, and the other was she who married Colonel Benton. Her mother came to Watertown in the thirties, under the name of Madam de la Folie, and resided for a long time on Arsenal street, in the brick double-house later owned by the DeLongs, and demolished to make room for the Opera House. There Mrs. Benton grew to woman-hood, and there she was married to Col. Benton early in the thirties, there ceremony being performed early in the old Trinity Church on Court street, destroyed in the great fire of 1849. Shortly before the year of this marriage, Joseph Bonaparte spent a large part of his time in this northern country, having 240,000 acres of land in Northern Jefferson and Southern St. Lawrence, the Natural Bridge being his headquarters, and there he erected quite a pretentious dwelling. He also built a hunting lodge on the high rocky hill that forms the eastern shore of Bonaparte Lake, but only the foundations walls are now traceable. It is a lonely, bleak place, the trees all cut down, and the naked rocks adding to the desolation. During his residence in this northern section, he chose to be called the Count de Survilliers. He finally disposed of his lands to the Antwerp Company, we believe, though not positive. In the fall of 1830, having heard of the French Revolution of the previous July, he departed for France.
Mrs. Benton received a pension of $1,200 a year from France up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war. After that she taught French for a living. She was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in no way ever violated the rules of conventionalism. She left several children; one of her sons is a summer resident upon the shore of Bonaparte Lake, where he has a fine cottage. In 1879 Mrs. Benton wrote an interesting book about France and the French people. She visited Paris, and is said to have been received by Napoleon III., but we have no authority for the statement that she was acknowledged as a legitimate Bonaparte. She is represented as having been a splendid girl, with beautiful eyes, and a manner that was charming. Her residence in this remote section is not so remarkable, when we consider that the very first efforts at a settlement of the Black River country were made by émigrés from France, driven out by the Revolution of 1793, as the Bonapartes were in turn driven out by the returning Bourbons, after Waterloo--they too, seeking this northern section for a home. At Cape Vincent there were Frenchmen who entered Moscow with Napoleon I., and survived the awful horrors of that campaign. They even hoped to see "L'Emprere" himself among them at Cape Vincent, after he should have escaped from St. Helena. Vain hope! His restless ambition left him, as it should have done, to die a prisoner upon a lonely island in a distant sea.
When Joseph Bonaparte, who had been King of Spain when his great brother had thrones and crowns to give away, took up his residence in Bordentown, N.J., he met and loved a beautiful Quaker girl. Her family were eminently respectable, and it was a great blow to their just pride to see their daughter contract a mesalliance with an acknowledged French roué like Joseph Bonaparte, then an old, corpulent man. Outside of her won friends and acquaintances, no one knew the family name of the fair Quakeress, nor do we here give it, although well known to the author of this History. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both daughters. The younger died in infancy, and the other was she who married Colonel Benton. Her mother came to Watertown in the thirties, under the name of Madam de la Folie, and resided for a long time on Arsenal street, in the brick double-house later owned by the DeLongs, and demolished to make room for the Opera House. There Mrs. Benton grew to woman-hood, and there she was married to Col. Benton early in the thirties, there ceremony being performed early in the old Trinity Church on Court street, destroyed in the great fire of 1849. Shortly before the year of this marriage, Joseph Bonaparte spent a large part of his time in this northern country, having 240,000 acres of land in Northern Jefferson and Southern St. Lawrence, the Natural Bridge being his headquarters, and there he erected quite a pretentious dwelling. He also built a hunting lodge on the high rocky hill that forms the eastern shore of Bonaparte Lake, but only the foundations walls are now traceable. It is a lonely, bleak place, the trees all cut down, and the naked rocks adding to the desolation. During his residence in this northern section, he chose to be called the Count de Survilliers. He finally disposed of his lands to the Antwerp Company, we believe, though not positive. In the fall of 1830, having heard of the French Revolution of the previous July, he departed for France.
Mrs. Benton received a pension of $1,200 a year from France up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war. After that she taught French for a living. She was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in no way ever violated the rules of conventionalism. She left several children; one of her sons is a summer resident upon the shore of Bonaparte Lake, where he has a fine cottage. In 1879 Mrs. Benton wrote an interesting book about France and the French people. She visited Paris, and is said to have been received by Napoleon III., but we have no authority for the statement that she was acknowledged as a legitimate Bonaparte. She is represented as having been a splendid girl, with beautiful eyes, and a manner that was charming. Her residence in this remote section is not so remarkable, when we consider that the very first efforts at a settlement of the Black River country were made by émigrés from France, driven out by the Revolution of 1793, as the Bonapartes were in turn driven out by the returning Bourbons, after Waterloo--they too, seeking this northern section for a home. At Cape Vincent there were Frenchmen who entered Moscow with Napoleon I., and survived the awful horrors of that campaign. They even hoped to see "L'Emprere" himself among them at Cape Vincent, after he should have escaped from St. Helena. Vain hope! His restless ambition left him, as it should have done, to die a prisoner upon a lonely island in a distant sea.
Mrs. Caroline C. Benton, wife of Colonel Z. H. Benton, formerly of Antwerp, who died at Richfield Springs some years ago, was a natural-born niece of Napoleon I., she being the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain. Though so near a descendant of a family that helped so greatly to make history, she seldom made an allusion, save to her intimate friends, to the fact that she was the only descendant in America of that distinguished house. It may not be altogether unbecoming for an historian to make mention of some well-known facts concerning people who have passed away, for sometimes such allusions may help to "point a moral or adorn a tale." In such a light we present a few remarks:
When Joseph Bonaparte, who had been King of Spain when his great brother had thrones and crowns to give away, took up his residence in Bordentown, N.J., he met and loved a beautiful Quaker girl. Her family were eminently respectable, and it was a great blow to their just pride to see their daughter contract a mesalliance with an acknowledged French roué like Joseph Bonaparte, then an old, corpulent man. Outside of her won friends and acquaintances, no one knew the family name of the fair Quakeress, nor do we here give it, although well known to the author of this History. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both daughters. The younger died in infancy, and the other was she who married Colonel Benton. Her mother came to Watertown in the thirties, under the name of Madam de la Folie, and resided for a long time on Arsenal street, in the brick double-house later owned by the DeLongs, and demolished to make room for the Opera House. There Mrs. Benton grew to woman-hood, and there she was married to Col. Benton early in the thirties, there ceremony being performed early in the old Trinity Church on Court street, destroyed in the great fire of 1849. Shortly before the year of this marriage, Joseph Bonaparte spent a large part of his time in this northern country, having 240,000 acres of land in Northern Jefferson and Southern St. Lawrence, the Natural Bridge being his headquarters, and there he erected quite a pretentious dwelling. He also built a hunting lodge on the high rocky hill that forms the eastern shore of Bonaparte Lake, but only the foundations walls are now traceable. It is a lonely, bleak place, the trees all cut down, and the naked rocks adding to the desolation. During his residence in this northern section, he chose to be called the Count de Survilliers. He finally disposed of his lands to the Antwerp Company, we believe, though not positive. In the fall of 1830, having heard of the French Revolution of the previous July, he departed for France.
Mrs. Benton received a pension of $1,200 a year from France up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war. After that she taught French for a living. She was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in no way ever violated the rules of conventionalism. She left several children; one of her sons is a summer resident upon the shore of Bonaparte Lake, where he has a fine cottage. In 1879 Mrs. Benton wrote an interesting book about France and the French people. She visited Paris, and is said to have been received by Napoleon III., but we have no authority for the statement that she was acknowledged as a legitimate Bonaparte. She is represented as having been a splendid girl, with beautiful eyes, and a manner that was charming. Her residence in this remote section is not so remarkable, when we consider that the very first efforts at a settlement of the Black River country were made by émigrés from France, driven out by the Revolution of 1793, as the Bonapartes were in turn driven out by the returning Bourbons, after Waterloo--they too, seeking this northern section for a home. At Cape Vincent there were Frenchmen who entered Moscow with Napoleon I., and survived the awful horrors of that campaign. They even hoped to see "L'Emprere" himself among them at Cape Vincent, after he should have escaped from St. Helena. Vain hope! His restless ambition left him, as it should have done, to die a prisoner upon a lonely island in a distant sea.
When Joseph Bonaparte, who had been King of Spain when his great brother had thrones and crowns to give away, took up his residence in Bordentown, N.J., he met and loved a beautiful Quaker girl. Her family were eminently respectable, and it was a great blow to their just pride to see their daughter contract a mesalliance with an acknowledged French roué like Joseph Bonaparte, then an old, corpulent man. Outside of her won friends and acquaintances, no one knew the family name of the fair Quakeress, nor do we here give it, although well known to the author of this History. This union resulted in the birth of two children, both daughters. The younger died in infancy, and the other was she who married Colonel Benton. Her mother came to Watertown in the thirties, under the name of Madam de la Folie, and resided for a long time on Arsenal street, in the brick double-house later owned by the DeLongs, and demolished to make room for the Opera House. There Mrs. Benton grew to woman-hood, and there she was married to Col. Benton early in the thirties, there ceremony being performed early in the old Trinity Church on Court street, destroyed in the great fire of 1849. Shortly before the year of this marriage, Joseph Bonaparte spent a large part of his time in this northern country, having 240,000 acres of land in Northern Jefferson and Southern St. Lawrence, the Natural Bridge being his headquarters, and there he erected quite a pretentious dwelling. He also built a hunting lodge on the high rocky hill that forms the eastern shore of Bonaparte Lake, but only the foundations walls are now traceable. It is a lonely, bleak place, the trees all cut down, and the naked rocks adding to the desolation. During his residence in this northern section, he chose to be called the Count de Survilliers. He finally disposed of his lands to the Antwerp Company, we believe, though not positive. In the fall of 1830, having heard of the French Revolution of the previous July, he departed for France.
Mrs. Benton received a pension of $1,200 a year from France up to the time of the Franco-Prussian war. After that she taught French for a living. She was a beautiful and accomplished lady, and in no way ever violated the rules of conventionalism. She left several children; one of her sons is a summer resident upon the shore of Bonaparte Lake, where he has a fine cottage. In 1879 Mrs. Benton wrote an interesting book about France and the French people. She visited Paris, and is said to have been received by Napoleon III., but we have no authority for the statement that she was acknowledged as a legitimate Bonaparte. She is represented as having been a splendid girl, with beautiful eyes, and a manner that was charming. Her residence in this remote section is not so remarkable, when we consider that the very first efforts at a settlement of the Black River country were made by émigrés from France, driven out by the Revolution of 1793, as the Bonapartes were in turn driven out by the returning Bourbons, after Waterloo--they too, seeking this northern section for a home. At Cape Vincent there were Frenchmen who entered Moscow with Napoleon I., and survived the awful horrors of that campaign. They even hoped to see "L'Emprere" himself among them at Cape Vincent, after he should have escaped from St. Helena. Vain hope! His restless ambition left him, as it should have done, to die a prisoner upon a lonely island in a distant sea.
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