Jo Daviess Co IL
De Massuir was born in Italy on October 14, 1783 according to the obituary published in the Galena Gazette following his death. But despite his birthplace he was French and received a French education. He served in the Napoleonic wars as a member of Napoleons guard, and after years when he had come to Galena, he delighted in telling stories of those days. His father was a commissioned officer in Napoleon's guard and had been decorated for bravery in action. The crash of Napoleons empire left him a wanderer and he traveled extensively in Africa, Spain and Germany, seeking a home. Finally in 1827 he came to this country, settling in Galena.
He was 39 years old by this time and already a little eccentric. He had been a wanderer for so long that the social value which other people esteem, he had forgotten. And he had a fanatic devotion to Napoleon's cause. Those two things along were enough to make people consider him odd. The privations of his long exile had made him penurious too. But the mining community of those days provided a haven for many other strange wanderers, he probably was not considered so odd at first.
Sometime in his travels DeMassuir had learned to be a baker so he set up a bake shop in Galena and was the mining communities first baker. He had a store in connection with the bake shop and a grog shop where he sold liquor. One of the accounts which he filed against the estate of an early settler is preserved in the files of the Jo Daviess county court house, written in French in the copper plate handwriting of old France. In 1831 the county commissioners granted him a license to vend good, wares and merchandise and in 1835 he was granted a tavern license.
He was loyal to his adopted country and in 1832 he served in H.H. Gear's company during the Black Hawk War. His last name was too hard to pronounce and everyone called him Leopold so on the rolls of the comapny he was listed as Leopold, M. Old Leopold came and went on the streets of Galena, associating intimately with no one, wearing always, the same shabby, dirty clothes, saving his money so scrupulously that he was called a miser.
He delighted so much in telling the stories of his Napoleon campaigns that people used to laugh at him. The little boys would jeer at him "Napoleons Cook".. and he would chase after them, driving them into hiding in the doorways and alleys. So he was driven more and more into his own society and became more and more eccentric as the years went by. He hoarded his pennies with increasing care and gave less and less attention to his appearance.
He developed strange hallucinations too. One was that he saw his name written in fiery letters across the sky. Whenever the townspeople saw him stop suddenly and gaze at the sky he knew he was reading his name there in scarlett letters. Dearest to his heart after the lost cause of Napoleon was the Catholic Church. There he was open handed with his money and was one of the chief supporters of the church.
Two cats where his nearest companions. They shared his bed and his food and he had owned them since they were kittens and had reared them strictly. They observed all the fasts and days of abstinance of the church even to not eating fish on Fridays. Old Leopold without other close friends, and with no relatives sat down to make his will in the spring of 1841 and thought first to the church of which he was devoted. Since he had no close friends he appointed as executors The Rev. Mr. Massuchelli (Fr. Samuel Mazzuchelli the famous architect priest), Rev. Mr. Lauress (Bishop Loras), bishop of the parish of Dubuque and the Rev. Mr. Rosetty of the parish of St. Louis them and all their successors in the said respective parishes forever.
His real estate which consisted of two lots on Main Street with a store on each one he divided jointly between his executors, one fourth to Bishop Loras, one fourth to Fr. Mazzuchelli and one half to Bishop Rosati and he enjoined father Mazzuchelli whom he pictured as the active administrator of the property to "act and do as I might do myself were I personally present." His directions for the use of the property were most explicit. The said Rev. Mazzuchelli shall also collect the said rent due me monthly on my houses, buildings and to give a receipt thereof to each of my tennants of the monies so received of them and that the said money to be applied to the benefit of the poor, distressed and afflicted and needy by the said executors.. and also a part thereof to the Catholic Church if so required. And futher qualified to this gift.. I wish to recomment that no distinction be made in regard to religion whether truth or untruth as God has made no distinction in his Ten Commandments I wish none to be practiced so that alms or charity will be equally divided in order that truth must prevail in spite of all its enemies. He directed Mr. Mazzuchelli to keep up the insurance on the buildings from year ot year and to immediately collect the insurance if the buildings should be destroyed by fire and to apply the same to rebuild with a basement story under each. He ordered Fr. Mazzuchelli to rent the buildings to the best advantage but I recommend within the strictest terms to never rent either of my houses to a grog or else a trippling house as I wish to honor the house of our Lord and of our God and that they should remain idle first forever. This last despite the fact that DeMassiur himself kept a tippling house.
De Massiur himself kept in good health for many years after the writing of this long will. He gave to St. Michaels Church of which Fr. Mazzuchelli was pastor, a beautiful stained glass window. Then Fr. Mazzuchelli was sent to other parts of the west as a missionary. Old Leopold did not get along so well with one of Mazzuchelli's successors. The old frenchman liked to sing in church although his voice was cracked and unmelodious, he could make it carry above all the voices of the choir. The priest spoke to him about it, "It is not customary for the parishioners to sing along with the choir". But Leopold refused to take the hint. Finally the priest forbade him to sing the hymns. DeMassiur lost his temper and stalked up to the German Catholic Church, St. Mary's where the priest let him shout out the hymns as loudly as he wanted with never a rebuke.
He gave to the church a painting "The Assumption of the Virgin Mary" which he had specially painted in Switzerland for the church at a cost of $600 in gold and he gave to the church two stained glass windows. He had been thrifty in his living during all these years and he had saved $10,000. In 1868 he made a new will, not revoking the earlier one in which he left his estate to St. Michaels church, the bishop of St. Louis and the bishop of Dubuque, but one which operate as a codicil to that bill and left his cash, notes and bonds outright to St. Mary's. He died quite suddenly in 1875 at his lodgings in the Mississippi House at the age of 86.
Although he had been the butt of the towns jokes for years the church was packed for his funeral and a long procession followed his body to St. Mary's cemetery. Chief in the procession was a band of school children on foot and St. Joseph's society in full regala. Now although he's been dead for more than 50 years he is still remembered for his gifts to these two churches.
From the Journal Standard 15 August 1939 by Jeanne LeBron