Joseph CRELIE

   Other names for Joseph were Joseph CREELIE, Joseph CRELEE, Joseph CRELY, Joseph CRÉLY and Joseph CREOLE.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Census: Prairie du Chien, 1820, Wisconsin Territory. 10 Crealy, Joseph
white males 16-18....1
white males 19-25....1
white males 26-44....2
white males 45 & over.....1
foreigners not naturalized.....2
persons engaged in agriculture.....2


[http://members.tripod.com/~tfred/1820craw.html]

• Court: Petition for a Tavern in Prairie du Chien, 1826, Crawford County, WI. We the undersigned Citizens of Prairie du Chien in the County of Crawford and Territory of Michigan being personally acquainted with Jean Brunet for several years past do hereby certify that we know him to be of good moral character (,) that he has kept a tavern in this village of Prairie du Chien in said County for several years to the general satisfaction of our community and we do know him to be provided with all the requisites necessary for a Tavern and we further certify that a Tavern is necessary in the House of said Brunet for the accommodations of travelers.

Prairie du Chien
May 4, 1826

Jos. Brisbois [1799-1849 - son of Michel]

J.H. Lockwood [James H. - 1793-1857]

Jos. Rolette [1781-1842]

Edward Pizanne [1784-1836]

Oliviet Cheriet [Olivier Cherrier, clearly spelled by someone who was trying to reproduce the French pronunciation - ca. 1787-1849]

Piere Lessar [Pierre Lessard - 1787-1834]

Jos. Crelis [Joseph Crelie - 1773-1866]

Piere Larivere [Pierre Lariviere - ca. 1762-1841]

Julien Larivere [Lariviere - ca. 1804- ca. 1872 - son of Pierre]

George Fisher [ca. 1806-1846]

M. Brisbois [Michel Brisbois - 1760-1837]

N. Boilbin [Nicholas Boilvin - 1761-1827]

• Census: Caledonia, 1860, Columbia County, WI. page 239, line 29

2069 1786 Moses Parquett 31
Adeline " 26
George Brasbos 8
Kate " 5
Mary Mantang 48 MO
Theresa " 69 MO
Joseph Crelee 145 MI [see Biography on age]
P N Brisbo 20

[page 15 of 24
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7667&iid=WIM653_1401-0113]

• Biography. Term: Crelie, Joseph 1773 - 1866
Definition:
Prairie du Chien pioneer and Wisconsin's "oldest man"; Crelie (sometimes found as "Crely") was born in Kaskaskia, Ill., on Sept. 7, 1773, and became one of the early settlers in Prairie du Chien in 1792. He engaged in the fur trade for the next three decades, traveling widely through the region, and defending Prairie du Chien during the War of 1812. He moved to Portage after 1820 and when the U.S. Post Office established its first service in Wisconsin in 1826, he was one of two carriers who transported mail along the Fox-Wisconsin waterway. During the Black Hawk War of 1832 he carried express messages for the American troops and narrowly escaped being killed. After decades spent largely outdoors, Crelie became quite elderly in his appearance and about 1850 began to exaggerate his age. He gained some notoriety as the "oldest man in the world" during the following 16 years, a time when people of remarkable age were exhibited in Barnum's circus and Green Bay's Eleazar Williams claimed to be heir to the French throne. In 1850 Crelie listed his age in the U.S. census as 110 years, and in in 1860 as 145 years. He was exhibited at Wood's Museum in Chicago in 1864 as an ancient curiosity, when Juliette Kinzie wrote this description of him. Though he capitalized on the celebrity of his supposed long life, family members later claimed that he "doubtless innocently fell into the habit, common enough with old men in his station of life, of claiming an age that he had never reached." Crelie died on Jan. 27, 1866, actually aged 92 years, 4 months, and 20 days.

[Source: Hansen, James. Unpublished ms. "Ancestry of Joseph Crelie of Prairie du Chien and Portage"; Wis. Historical Collections XII: 400-401
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=14603&search_term=crelie]

• Reference: Wisconsin State Journal, 2007, WI. WED., DEC 5, 2007 - 11:29 AM

Odd Wisconsin: Man who claimed to be 145 was exaggerating

Early in 1864, Wood 's Museum in Chicago displayed "the most remarkable instance of longevity on record " the venerable Joseph Crelie, who was said to be 139 years old.

Crelie had come to Wisconsin in 1792 and worked in the fur trade for three decades. In the 1820s he moved to Portage, and when the Postal Service started service in Wisconsin in 1826, he carried the mail between Galena, in what is now northwestern Illinois, and Green Bay.

After half a century of working outdoors, Crelie began to look pretty ancient and sometime during the 1840s discovered he could gain notoriety for his age. In the 1850 census he said he was 110, and, since most of his contemporaries had long since vanished, there was no one to contradict him.

Time accelerated rapidly for old Crelie after that.

In 1857 he told a reporter he was 117, but he miraculously turned 145 only three years later, when the 1860 census was taken. In 1863, Crelie was featured at fundraisers for Union soldiers, and soon afterward agreed to become a live exhibit in Chicago. He claimed he was born in 1726, and would only tell visitors, "Je ne puis rappeler rien -- je suis vieux, vieux" ( "I can recall nothing -- I am old, old ").

He finally died in Caledonia in 1866. Church and court records later proved that Crelie was actually born in 1773, and that he was a mere 92 years, 4 months, and 20 days old at the time of his death.

-- Wisconsin Historical Society

[http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/260447]

• Reference: Narrative By Louis B. Porlier. In An Interview With The Editor.: WI. [p. 440]
About 1826, the federal government had established a mail route between Forts Winnebago (Portage) and Howard, the trail crossing the Wolf near our trading post, where the company kept a scow for the transportation of the carrier and such other equestrians as passed that way; the charges were 25 cents for ferrying a man and horse, in the summer season, and 50 cents when ice had to be broken; 12½ cents were charged for a gallon of oats for the horse, and 25 cents for a like quantity of corn, while the man was fed for 50 cents per meal. Pierre Paquette was the mail-contractor; but Joseph Crelie1 and Antoine Courcielle, two relatives of his, were the actual carriers, taking the trips alternately. In those days the marshes opposite Butte des Morts were capable of bearing up a horse and rider, and, coming up the Fox valley from the southwest, travellers along the trail rode to the very edge of the Wolf River, within easy hailing distance of our post.

[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:2000.03.0133&query=page%3D%23468]

• Reference: Wau-bun By Juliette Augusta Magill Kinzie. Appendix II. [page 387]

It seems appropriate to notice in this place the subsequent appearance before the public of one of the personages casually mentioned in the foregoing narrative.

In the autumn of 1864 we saw advertised for exhibition at Wood's Museum, Chicago, "The most remarkable instance of longevity on record-the venerable Joseph Crély, born on the 13th of September, 1726, and having consequently reached, at this date, the age of ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE YEARS!" Sundry particulars followed of his life and history, and, above all, of his recollections.

"Well done for old Crély!" said my husband, when he had gone through the long array. "Come, let us go over to Wood's Museum and renew our acquaintance with the venerable gentleman."

I did not need a second invitation, for I was curious to witness the wonders which the whirligig of time had wrought with our old employé.

We chose an early hour for our visit, that we might pay our respects to both him and the granddaughter who had him in charge, unembarrassed by the presence of strangers.

In a large room on the second floor of the building, among cages of birds and animals, some stuffed, others still living, we perceived, seated by a window, a figure clad in bright cashmere dressing-gown and gay tasselled cap, tranquilly smoking a tah-nee-hoo-rah, or long Indian pipe. His form was upright, his face florid, and less changed than might have been expected by the thirty-one years that had elapsed since we had last seen him. He was alone, and my husband addressed him at first in English:-

"Good-morning, M. Crély. Do you remember me?"

He shook his head emphatically. "Je ne comprends pas. Je ne me ressouviens de rien-je suis vieux, vieux-le treize Septembre, mil sept cent vingt-six, je suis né. Non, non," with a few gentle shakes of the head, "je ne puis rappeler rien-je suis vieux, vieux."[61]

My husband changed his inquiries to the patois which Crély could not feign not to comprehend.

"Where is your granddaughter? I am acquainted with her, and would like to speak with her."

The old man sprang up with the greatest alacrity, and, running to a door in the wooden partition which cut off a corner of the room and thus furnished an apartment for the ancient phenomenon, he rapped vigorously, and called, in accents quite unlike his former feeble, drawling tones,-

"Thérèse, Thérèse-il y a icite un monsieur qui voudrait vous voir."[62]

The granddaughter presently made her appearance. She looked shyly at my husband from under her brows.

"Do you know me, Thérèse?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. It is Mr. Kinzie."

"And do you know me also?" I said, approaching. She looked at me and shook her head.

"No, I do not," she replied.

"What, Thérèse! Have you forgotten Madame John, who taught you to read-you and all the little girls at the Portage?"

"Oh, my heavens, Mrs. Kinzie!-but you have changed so!"

"Yes, Thérèse, I have grown old in all these years; but I have not grown old quite so fast as your grandpapa here."

There was a flash in her eye that told she felt my meaning. She hung her head without speaking, while the color deepened over her countenance.

"Now," said I, in French, to the grandfather, "you remember me-"

He interrupted me with a protest, "Non, non-je ne puis rappeler rien-je suis vieux, vieux-le treize Septembre, mil sept cent vingt-six, je suis né à Detroit."

"And you recollect," I went on, not heeding his formula, "how I came to the Portage a bride, and lived in the old cabins that the soldiers had occupied-"

"Eh b'an! oui-oui-"

"And how you helped make the garden for me-and how Plante and Manaigre finished the new house so nicely while Monsieur John was away for the silver-and how there was a feast after it was completed-"

"Ah! oui, oui-pour le sûr."

"And where are all our people now?" I asked, turning to Thérèse. "Louis Frum dit Manaigre-is he living?"

"Oh, Madame Kinzie! You remember that-Manaigre having two names?"

"Yes, Thérèse-I remember everything connected with those old times at the Portage. Who among our people there are living?"

"Only Manaigre is left," she said.

"Mais, mais, Thérèse," interposed the old man, "Manaigre's daughter Geneviève is living." It was a comfort to find our visit of such miraculous benefit to his memory.

"And the Puans-are any of them left?" I asked.

"Not more than ten or twelve, I think-" Again her grandfather promptly contradicted her:-

"Mais, mais, je compte b'an qu'il y en a quinze ou seize, Thérèse;" and he went quite glibly over the names of such of his red friends as still hovered around their old home in that vicinity.

He was in the full tide of gay reminiscence, touching upon experiences and adventures of long ago, and recalling Indian and half-breed acquaintances of former days, when footsteps approached, and the entrance of eager, curious visitors suddenly reminded him of his appointed rôle. It was marvellous how instantaneously he subsided into the superannuated driveller who was to bear away the bell from Old Parr and all the Emperor Alexander's far-sought fossils.

"Je suis vieux, vieux-l'an mil sept cent vingt-six-le treize Septembre, à Detroit-- je ne puis rappeler rien."

Not another phrase could "all the King's armies, or all the King's men," have extorted from him.

So we left him to the admiring comments of the new-comers. I think it should be added, in extenuation of what would otherwise seem a gross imposture, that his granddaughter was really ignorant of Crély's exact age-that he, being ever a gasconading fellow, was quite ready to personate that certain Joseph Crély whose name appears on the baptismal records of the Church in Detroit of the year 1726. He was, moreover, pleased with the idea of being gaily dressed and going on a tour to see the world, and doubtless rejoiced, also, in the prospect of relieving his poor granddaughter of a part of the burden of his maintenance. He was probably at this time about ninety-five years of age. There are those that knew him from 1830, who maintain that his age was a few years less; but I take the estimate of Mr. Kinzie and H.L. Dousman, of Prairie du Chien, who set him down, in 1864, at about the age I have assigned to him.



[http://www.authorama.com/wau-bun-41.html
http://www.webroots.org/library/usahist/wbeditn7.html]

• Reference: History of the Lupient Family. The Crely family, known as Cresly in France, came from Besancon, Burgundy, France. There have been many different spellings of the Crely name over time: Cresly, Crely, Creely, Crelie, Crelis, and probably more. The earliest known Crely ancestor to emigrate from France to the United States was Jean Baptiste Cresly (b. Apr 10, 1697), the son of Pierre Francois Cresly (b. circa 1650) and Georgine Chevalier (b. Dec 17, 1654). He arrived in New Orleans Parish, French Colony of Louisiana, circa 1720s. In New Orleans, he married Marie Francoise Ayette (b. 1697 in Quimperle, France) on Oct 27, 1727, daughter of Francois Ayette and Jeanne Paulet. Jean Baptiste and Marie were living in the Kaskaskia Illinois area by the early 1730s. Theodore Lupien's wife, Therese Josephine Crely was the great-granddaughter of Jean Baptiste Cresly.

[http://wvls.lib.wi.us/ClarkCounty/images/f_pix/Lupient/LUPIENT_1.htm]

Joseph married Francoise PELLETIER dit ANTAYA. (Francoise PELLETIER dit ANTAYA was born in 1785.)