Pg. VIII

John Peter Romaine Bureau was born at Beton Bazoche, France, Province of Brie, March 21st, 1770. He embarked for this country February 19th, 1790, and arriving at Gallipolis, cast his lot with the French emigrants, the victims of the Scioto Company. He was unable to find employment, and went back to Marietta the following spring. The Indian war of 1791 had broken out, and the inhabitants were compelled to retire to their garrisons. Edward W. Tupper (about the age of young Bureau), sympathizing in the misfortunes of the young emigrant, invited him to his father’s house, in Campus Martius, to stay until he could find something to do.

Horace Nye, esquire, an intimate friend from boyhood, writes of him, that in December, 1792, Mr. Bureau returned to Gallipolis and was comissary [sic] of troops there. After the close of the war, a little trade along the river and among the few scattered settlers around the village, was all that offered inducement to any other enterprise than cultivating the soil and hunting. His ill health unfitting him for the former, and having no taste for the latter, his natural talent soon caused him to be singled out for other and more responsible positions. He early obtained and ever afterward retained the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens, and very few men had so many offices conferred upon them, who have filled them with so much credit to themselves and satisfaction to their constituents. He was postmaster, justice of the peace, clerk of the supreme and common pleas courts, member of the legislature and also held other responsible positions. He was elected member of the House of the Sixth General Assembly (the first in which Gallia county had a representation), in 1807; re-elected in 1808; member of the Senate in 1809; re-elected to the Senate in 1810 and 1811; re-elected member of the House in the Fourteenth General Assembly, 1815, and again of the Thirty-Third in 1834. He was a member of the first board of trustees, and appraiser of houses, in Gallipolis township, in 1802, and for many years his name appears in the old records of the township in connection with positions of honor and trust.

The latter part of his life, for thirty years, he devoted to successful mercantile pursuits, until advanced years, and the death of his only son, rendered the task too arduous. Mr. Bureau had some knowledge of law, and his advice was his business extended over a large extent of territory in this section of the State and in West Virginia. He always rode in a side-saddle, because of injuries he had received and a lameness in one knee.

February 19th, 1799, he was married to Madelaine Francoise Charlotte Marret. At that time there was no justice of the peace in this part of Ohio, and they were obliged to obtain one from Point Pleasant, Virginia, and the ceremony was performed in a boat on the river, in order to be in the jurisdiction of Virginia. Mad. Bureau was the third daughter of Peter and Madelaine Marret, of the early French emigrants. She was but of seven years of age when her father emigrated, and sixteen when she married. She was noted as a woman of great spirit, vivacity and wit, a fine swimmer and an excellent housekeeper. She died June 22, 1834, aged 51 years.

The children of this marriage were as follows: Madelaine Romaine, born November 20, 1799, died 1873; Romaine Madelaine, born 1802, died 1831; Mary, born 1820, died in infancy; Charles Louis Valcoulon, born August 25, 1812, died March 20, 1848. Madelaine Romaine married Dr. Le Moyne, of Washington, Pennsylvania, a gentleman of distinction, education and wealth, the first candidate for Vice-President on the abolition ticket, and the founder of Le Moyne University, at Nashville, Tennessee, for the education of colored youth. Romaine Madelaine married Hon. Samuel F. Vinton, of Gallipolis, a member of Congress. She was a talented lady and a leader in society, and her early death was much lamented. Only one child survived her, Sarah, who married D. Converse Goddard, esquire, of Zanesville, and sometime after his death she was united to the late Admiral Dahlgren, U. S. N.

Hon. J. P. R. Bureau did more probably to build up the interests of the town and county, and is more closely identified with them than any one else. He died at his home in Gallipolis, December 31, 1851, at the advanced age of 81 years and 7 months, and in the cemetery stands a monument to the memory of himself and family.