Editor’s note: On Dec. 11, 1816, Indiana became the 19th state in the Union. On Jan. 28, 1836, Porter County was created. A year later, on Jan. 18, Lake County became independent. As the state celebrates its bicentennial, the Post-Tribune will be taking a regular look back at the history of Northwest Indiana.
When Richard Maroc was about 9 years old, he traveled with his parents to visit Ste. Anne de Beaupre, about 20 miles northeast of Quebec.
His grandparents hailed from Quebec but immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s and settled in Hammond. Maroc said the trip to Ste. Anne de Beaupre stays with him. Even as a child, he was so struck by its beauty, he asked his mother if the family could move there, he said.
Decades later, he’s retired from the bench, a former Lake Superior Court judge who still practices law and has a strong interest in history. One of his pet historical interests is the story of the Bailly family. Its patriarch, Joseph Bailly, spent much of his youth in the area near Ste Anne de Beaupre, then made a life for his family and descendants in Northwest Indiana.
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“I got into this seven or eight years ago,” said Maroc. “My brother sent me a book, ‘Wolves Against the Moon.’ “
Maroc said though the book is mainly historical fiction, it hooked him on the Bailly family history. “I find Joseph Bailly a fascinating character,” he said.
Maroc said he is also interested in the history of the Bailly family because Joseph Bailly de Messein was born in 1774 in Vercheres, Quebec. The Bailly family worked in the fur trade business.
“Fur trading then was like the oil business now,” said Maroc.
Bailly was one of the most successful — perhaps the most successful — fur traders on the Great Lakes. Bailly eventually made his way to Northwest Indiana, where he built a trading post and settled the Bailly Homestead in about 1822 in Porter County. The home is a historical landmark in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
“The fact the Joseph Bailly family was so successful and so prominent makes them an automatic legend,” said Serena Sutliff, curator for the Westchester Historical Museum. “When you have people of wealth in your local history, (there is always) town gossip and stories that are passed down generation to generation. He was wealthy, successful. Everything I read said his personality was gregarious. His family and wealth makes him an important part of his local history. They had the first permanent house. They established Catholicism (in the area), and they were influential in the Catholic Church. That inspires interest.”
But much of the information about the Bailly family is conjecture, according to Sutliff.
“We kind of have to draw conclusions based on what does exist,” said Sutliff.
Carolee Bailly Nyborg, of Spokane Valley, Wash., and her husband, Jim, have been on the hunt for Bailly clues since the early 1960s, when they first learned about the existence of the Bailly Homestead and the rich history of Joseph Bailly. Carolee Nyborg, 83, is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Joseph Bailly, but growing up, she was unaware of his influence in Indiana.
“My father (Clinton Bailly) always said, ‘Anybody with the name of Bailly is related to him.’ We found out that wasn’t exactly true, but it was a good place to start,” said Nyborg, who was born in North Dakota and grew up in Washington State.
Nyborg said she has acquired many books and papers related to the Bailly history, including letters written by her great-great-grandfather Alexis C. Bailly, Joseph Bailly’s son. Alexis Bailly lived in Porter for a short time as he helped his father build the Bailly Homestead before he went on to become the patriarch of a family that flourished across the continent.
According to Sutliff, historians theorize that Joseph Bailly may have been married three times. His first wife would have been Ann Bye; his second wife, Angelique McGulpin; and his third wife, Marie Le Fevre de la Vigne. Though it is known that Alexis Bailly and his siblings, Francis and Sophie, were not the children of Le Fevre de la Vigne, there’s not enough information to determine whether their mother was Bye or McGulpin.
Le Fevre de la Vigne also had a husband prior to her marriage to Joseph Bailly. That union produced two daughters, Agatha and Therese. Bailly adopted those daughters.
One of the better-known legends of the Bailly family relates to the story of the brothers Alexis and Francis, before the family made its way to Porter. Their father was determined to have his boys educated in Montreal, but “Francis did not want to go,” Sutliff said. “He jumped out of the canoe and swam back to shore to stay with his mother’s tribe.”
“Francis jumped ship,” Maroc said. “Alexis went to Montreal to become educated. In 1821, he came to Porter County with his father, Joseph. Alexis helped his father build the Bailly Homestead. Alexis went to Hastings, Minn. He was a fur trader. He married there and had eight children.”
Alexis Phillip, Carolee Nyborg’s great-grandfather, was among those eight children.
“My father (Clinton Bailly) was one of six children, and his father (Alexis Francis Bailly) was one of 18,” Nyborg said. “It has been a monumental job to track all of these people.”
The quest for Bailly history created an intersection for Maroc and Nyborg, and they have talked on the phone.
The Nyborgs have had the opportunity to meet Nan Bailly, owner of the Alexis Bailly Vineyard in Hastings, Minn. They also have traveled to Terre Haute to visit St. Mary of the Woods, where Eleanor Bailly served as Mother Mary Cecilia, the second superior general of the Order of Sisters of Providence. Mother Mary Cecilia was the daughter of Joseph and Marie Bailly.
“The nuns knew that Carolee was related to the mother superior,” Jim Nyborg said. “They were impressed that the descendant of the mother superior had come to visit. They even opened a display case and there was a diary from the mother superior. They took it out for her to look at.”
In 1996, from their home in Spokane Valley, the Nyborgs organized the Bailly BASH (Become Acquainted and Share Histories) that took place at the Bailly Homestead.
“There were over 200 people at this reunion, and Carolee knew about 50 of those people,” Jim Nyborg said. “We were just amazed at the people who came.”
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Nancy Coltun Webster is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.