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DABNEY,

Rev. Robert Lewis

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Reverend Dr. Robert Louis Dabney of Virginia

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Robert Louis Dabney was one of the most influential Presbyterian theologians of this day and an admirer of John C. Calhoun. He was an archetype of the 19th century liberal, a God-fearing man, an ardent  advocate of small government and self rule, and a believer in a market and a polity defined by individual liberty. He was also a descendant of Cornelius Dabney of Virginia and a cousin of George Rockingham Gilmer, in short, a scan of the Virginia and Broad River families. Dabney harbored a profound and deeply antagonistic distrust of Yankees in the antebellum era and beyond. A major during the Civil War, he served as General Stonewall Jackson’s Chief of Staff. Another Broad River scion and possible kinsman, Major Robert Meriwether, was also attached to Jackson's outfit and later was a South Carolina advance aged to Brazil. The two men were friends and stayed in contact for many years after the latter’s permanent removal to São Paulo province. Though Dabney seriously considered leaving the United States after the war, he did not. Instead he moved to Austin, Texas, in the late 1800s and with Reverend Richmond Kelly Smoot laid the groundwork for founding the Austin School of Theology, (later the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary,) Dabney’ ruminations on immigrating are revealing.

In August 1865, he wrote to his brother, expressing his interest to go to Brazil, although he also laid out possibilities for immigration to other places. One scenario envisioned a quiet and cultured lifestyle,” if only a few are going, they are to go to some of the quieter towns of Holland, Protestant Germany, or Protestant Switzerland, such as Arnheim, Frankfort, Berne.” These locations would offer good government and climate, cultivated society, religious liberty, and a prevalence of Protestants, “living in decent moderation astonishingly  cheap and educational needs, with access to noble libraries, Galleries, etc., for a song.”. A second option was for locations in the Americas appropriate for a larger numbers of migrants,” If so many Confederates are going, that they will find their own community and a prevalent public opinion, ,so as to absorb socially, instead of being absorbed, then they ought to go to a new and wide country, offering feritle cheap lands, and a great deal of it.....they must have a leader, a Moses, to bargain for Homesteads, and chartered rights to religious liberty.....I have suggested General Breckenridge, and the region of Argentina's La Plata in the southern temperate zone.”

Dabney also considered Mexico, (An effort led by Matthew Fontaine Maury),, but by late January 1866, he had dismissed it.” I have no doubt at all, of the physical advantages of parts of Mexico recommended by General Price. But it is too near the Yankees, and unless Maximilian is to be backed up beyond a per adventure, by the strong powers, I shall have nothing to do with it.....unless they, the Yankees, are kept off of Mexico, by the European powers, they will be filibustering all over it before ten years.

In contrast, “the La Plata country deserves to be looked into. It is out of the Yankees beat.” But Dabney’s personal situation complicated matters, especially his mothers illness. Financially, Daphne was struggling but was not in dire straits. He was teaching at Union Theological Seminary in Hampden-Sydney, Virginia, and thanks to “aid extended by northern copperheads to the treasury of the seminary,” he had “almost a living salary” but otherwise was contending with his shattered financial barque.”. He worried about his family if something were to happen to him, his eldest son was only ten.

Dabney was also writing a biography of Stonewall Jackson that he believed could land him in jail if published. It was “undoubtedly contraband, with its outspoken, truthful narration of Yankee crimes, and assertion of free principles, and with its atmosphere and coloring of independent, indignant feeling.”. He considered publishing it in Halifax or London then smuggling it into the country, “To let it fate be the sign and test, whether I are to live in the U.S”. In fact, the book was published in New York in 1866 as Life and Campaign of Lieutenant General Thomas J Jackson.

Dabney concluded that “these things point this way, that whatever other Confederates stay, I must emmigrate.” But the viability and continuation of the Southern Presbyterian Church that was formed in 1861 gave him pause. Dabney believed that a secession word “about to take place in the Northern church,”  which he regarded as apostate, if so, “the churches in the Confederacy are the last sound rallying point for conservative Christianity.”  The recent demise of Reverend James Henley Thornwelll, a leading southern theologian, put Daphne in an even greater quandary. Dabney was then “looked to as the acknowledge leader of theological education in the south, and......it would be disastrous to be robbed of my labors in the lecture room, of my pen, and of my counsels.”Thornwell  was such a vocal Calhounite that he was known as the “Calhoun of the church.”

But Dabney wondered if his leadership was reason enough to overlook other considerations. “Of what avail is the pen, logic, science, and instruction, where there is no liberty of speech, and all these are chained. I should go hence, for the very purpose of wielding these for the truth. Continuing in the same vein, this descendent of Virginia Huguenots took his inspiration from that cultural legacy, “Confederate Christianity..... is the only salt of the land. What if this salt should lose it savour through the corrupting influence of despotism?  It is to my mind an open question, whether this salt can be saved for the good of mankind in any other way, then that in which the influence of the Huguenots was saved by emigration.

In early 1866, Dabney’s resolve to migrate was even firmer, and he anticipated many others would do likewise.” I have never for one moment been deluded into the dream that the country was not irreparably ruined.  I see every development making that fact more patent to other people’s eyes, (not to my own,) and watch, without any surprise, the steady and extensive leavening of the mind of our people, with the desire for emigration. Be assured, we shall have company enough, and that of the best: the folly and wickedness of the Yankees assure that.”

An important theme emerges in Dabney’ss writings: the quality of one's life was not so much a function of place as of the company of like society. Dabney attributed little value to where you lived. Location simply provided a setting for rte morel important pursuit of a particular lifestyle: “ All that is needed is proper selection of a refuge, and respectable headslips, to make the movement so general, as to aggregate in our new home, all that is desirable of the Confederacy..... could these hopes be realized, we should have nothing to regret, after the local ties were once surrendered, and the actual labours of removal gotten through: but might find ourselves in a better situation than we ever were before, even during our good days. Our chinquapin region of Virginia was a hard country at best: and nothing but a set of social circumstances acceptable to our feelings and habits made it a tolerable home. Now that these are gone, it seems to me, the only sensible view to take of it is..... to get away as soon as possible”.

Dabney envisioned large numbers of migrants, “My faith is still firm, and that when the Confederate colonies are started properly, they will speedily be, large enough to demand a large country, and to make an unsettled government settled. A hiatus in the brother’s correspondence between early 1866 and 1872  prevents our knowing exactly why Dabney ultimately rejected emigration. In 1872, he was in contact with Rev. Edward E. Lane one of two Southern Presbyterian missionaries who had taken up posts in Campinas, Sao Paulo, as of 1869. The other missionary was Rev. George Nash Morton of Charlotte Courthouse, Virginia, who had scouted out Brazil in 1868. Dabneyy had supported a motion at the denomination’s 1866 general assembly to send missionaries to Brazil, but the proposal was regarded as “premature” and was defeated.

Morton and Lane were not the first Presbyterian clergy from the United States to go to Brazil. James Cooley Fletcher arrived in Rio in 1851 as “a chaplain missionary of the American and foreign Christian union, and of the American Seamens Friend Society.”. Fletcher has been educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Brown university, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Although not technically a missionary, he saw himself as such in the years following Herndon and Gibbon’s exploration of the Amazon, which had led to tense relations between the Brazilian and U.S. governments. (Brazil feared the undertaking represented first step toward American domination of the region.)  Fletcher's goal was to convert Brazil to Protestantism. Between the mid-1850s and early 1860s, he traveled extensively as an agent of the American Sunday school union distributing Bibles. He also spent time ingratiating himself with leading Brazilian liberals in pursuit of his dream. This aspect of his activities knitted together the Brazilian and U.S .networks that facilitated southern immigration.

The first formal U.S. Presbyterian representative in Brazil was Reverend Ashbel Green Simonton of the Presbyterian Church in the USA, one of the two main northern branches. Named for Ashbel Green, a theologian, Chapman to Congress, and President of Princeton University, Ashbel Green Simonton arrived in Rio in 1859 and rented space above the warehouse occupied by Horace Many Lane., a young merchant from Maine, who became his traveling companion. Lane imported U.S. plows and kerosene, was a Freemason, and later was a founder and director of the Presbyterian affiliated McKenzie College in South Paulo. Judith McKenzie Jones cautioned her readers not to confuse Horace Manley Lane with the Horace Lane who was an associate of Dr. John H Blue. Other scholars assume they are one and the same for some compelling reasons. Horace Manley Lane returned to the United States after spending 1859-63 in Brazil, received a medical degree, and practice in a “small town” in Blue’s home state of Missouri. Two other Presbyterian missionaries arrived in Brazil soon after Simonton, his brother-in-law Reverend Alexander Latimer Blackford and Reverend George W Chamberlain.

Two Southern Presbyterian clergyman were in São Paulo before Morton and Lane’s 1869 arrival, Reverend James H Baird, of South Carolina, and Reverend William Curtis Emerson, a resident of Meridian, Mississippi. Emerson, who was born in the Broad River community of Abbeville, South Carolina, resided in Sumter county, Alabama, in 1845 at the time of his first marriage. He was also a planter and a college president. While in Mississippi in the 1850s, he came to know Ashbel Green Simonton and his brother James S. Simonton. Ashbel and James both graduated Princeton and 8052, then spent eighteen months in the south, where Ashbel taught at a boys academy in Starkville, Mississippi. Emerson and others encouraged Ashbel to choose the ministry as his profession, although he briefly studied law.  By 1855, though, he was immersed in theology at Princeton Seminary. As an 1857, his sights were set on missionary work, and he began learning Portuguese before departing for Brazil in 1859.

Reverend Blackford, a northerner, encouragement the southern chirch to send missionaries to Brazil. Both nations adopted the attitude that their work was to be defined by all of Brazil, not just the existing Presbyterian communities among ex-patriots, southern or otherwise. Morton and Lane were most cordially received by Blackbird and Chamberlain, and it was decided among them that the southerners who settled at Santa Barbara would be on Morton and Lane’s circuit, even though Simonton and his associates had established congregations in Rio in São Paulo provinces before the southerners arrival.

Blackford also met South Carolinan and fellow  Presbyterian Dr. James McFadden Gaston during the latter’s scouting trip to Brazil in late 1865 and the two became close friends. Of Blackford and his wife, Gaston remarked “there seems to be no political prejudice against the course pursued by the South,  on the part of either, and indeed Mr. Blackford had sympathized with us in the recent struggle to resist the encroachments upon our constitutional rights by the Federal Government. After Blackford was widowed, he married Gaston's daughter Nanny. Gaston and Simonton were probably very distant in-laws by way of various ancestors hailing from Antrim County, Ireland, where the Gastons appear to have been relocated Huguenots. These commonalities suggest that shared religious values and extended kinship may have provided the common ground on which social relationships in Brazil were founded among individuals who were on opposite sides during the war.

Although Dabney ultimately decided not to migrate to Brazil, he did not lose interest in that country. He maintained contact with Edward Lane who once forwarded a letter from Robert Meriwether that gave an account of his farming experiences in the Santa Barbara area where he recorded crop yields about four times those of similar acreage he had farmed in South Carolina and Georgia. Meriwether was heavily indebted at war’s end,, later moved from Santa Barbara to Botucatu( Sao Paulo province where he bought land and slaves, cultivated a hundred thousand coffee trees, built a sawmill, , and founded a Presbyterian Church. As late as 1872, Dabney was still wrestling with “the subject of suitable occupation for our farming people, to make their efforts more remunerative” and was considering “Cuban seed leaf tobacco”. Some Confederated around Santa Barbara were already raising that crop. Their homemade cigars were popular in Rio and enjoyed by the Emperor Dom Pedro II. Dabney’s ongoing interest in Brazil is also reflected in his nephew, John Watkins Daphne, who became a missionary there in the mid-1880s. By then, his uncle was in Austin working toward founding a new seminary. John's middle name of Watkins, (his mothers maiden name,) is another Broad River surname.

SOURCE:  A Confluence of Transatlantic Network   Pages 182-187

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See also Simonton and Blackford

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DANIEL,

Charles Davis

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Charles  Davis  Daniel as  born on  March 17,  1856, in  Ft.  Claiborne.

Monroe  County,  Alabama.   On November 11, 1885, he married Lena

Anne Kirk,  born in Gay Hill,  Washington County,  Texas on  July 22,

1865, in  Waco, Texas.  He died on September 12, 1929  in Waco , Mc-

lennan  County . Texas as did his wife,  who died on  March  17, 1944.

Lena was the daughter of James Leonard Kirk and Emily O. Goodlett.

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Charles D. Daniel  and  his  wife  were  appointed as  missionaries  of

FMB-SBC, on  May,14, 1885, to Brazil.  Here, they worked until  1892,

returning to the USA.

C. D. Daniel's parents were  Joseph Stephens Daniel and Anne Hazel

-tine Harrison.  Daniel,  along with  Camilla and  Drucilla  tried  to

emigrate  from the USA  to  Para,  after the Civil War, with  the agent,

Major · Lansford Warren Hastings. The steamship named 'Margaret”  that took them, with other passengers, had to return to the port of Moble, shortly after their departure on 25.03.1866, for having manifested smallpox on board. Eleven passengers died. (EJiJ. The.Confede rate Exodus to Latin America, by L. F. Hill, p. 33. Rare specimen at the National Library, Rio de Janeiro). On July 31, 1866, there was the entry into Rio de Janeiro of a "J. Daniel his brother, a son, 2 sisters and a brother-in-law", from New York.Ha 'o registr? leaving Rio de Janeiro for Santos, on 07.11.1866, of an "J. Daniel and his family". This information was found in the passenger lists published in the city's daily newspapers. In Santa Barbara, SP, there are three records of Purchase and Sale of a site, according to Book 12, p. 29 and 46; Book 15, p. 37 et seq. On December 11, 1866, Joseph Daniel buys it and on October 8, 1874 sells it, by demand. At the time of this sale, he and his family were already returning to the USA, as the date of the (Title) search was October 1,1872, in which it is said that he was temporarily withdrawing to the USA. . However, his name was not  on passenger lists leaving Rio de Janeiro. It is assumed that he and his family left the port of Santos directly for America, passing through Rio on October 26 or 27, 1872, as passengers in transit.

The parents above, Joseph and Anne, confirm the stay of the family of C. Daniel with the information that follows, concluding that he was in Santa Barbara from November 1866 to October. From 1872, more or less. '

After the Civil War, the father of C. D. Daniel emigrated to Brazil and settled in the Province of Sao Paulo. After 7 years he returned with his family to Navarro Co., Texas. USA. 1875, Charles's father passed away, leaving the responsibility of the family to his widowed mother and small brothers on this son's shoulders.

Charles's strongest religious impressions were those that were experienced during a storm on the trip to Brazil. At the time, he was a boy between 9 and 10 years old and the contrast of the calm confidence of the pious father with the that of the sailors, left him, certainly and well recorded, that God is the refuge.

_ At the time of his stay in Brazil, he had received education from his mother. He learned to speak Portuguese almost as fluently as his mother tongue, by living with the Brazilians while in Brazil.

At the age of 21, in the summer of 1877, Charles was converted and October 2.1877., Was baptized into the Bethesda Church, Richland Association, Corsicana, Navarro Coounty, Texas, by pastor E.R. Freeman. The desire to become a preacher of the Eangelho came into his heart, soon after. And also to return to Brazil. But his little preparation and lack of means and love the responsibility that · n.nha to take care of your family, in the absence of father, prevented him, immediately, to continue in his intent. But over time, he ended up enrolling at Waco University. While he was there  he  had the  opportunity to train himself  in preaching. On  November 4,.1883,  Charles Davis Daniel was con- secrated to the Ministry of the Word. He took over the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Dawson, Texas, which had, at the time, only 13 members. He also served part-time, at the Baptist Church in Lorraine, McLennan County Texas.

On June 13, 1988, he graduated from Waco University, and was appointed 'missionary to Brazil, by FMB-SBC.

Lena Kirk was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Kirk, Baptists. EJiJ. 1880, when she was at the University, she became a student of Anne Luther (Bagby) and it was from this contact that Lena felt her love for Missions.

For this summary, the information is contained from the following:

H. A. Tupper, A Decade of Foreign Missions 1880-1890, p. 85, 412, 413, 417-423, 425, 455, 477, 540, 630, 740, 741, and others, according to the contents of said book; also, MPRJ, p. 331, 368, 377.

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 SOURCE:  Loosely translated and paraphrased from the original Portuguese manuscript.

CENTELHA   EM  RE STOLHO  SECO

Uma  Contribuiao  para  a  Hist6ria dos Prim6rdios do Trabalho Batista no Brasil    1985

Betty  Antunes  de Oliveira

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DANIEL, CHARLES DAVIS (1856–1939).Charles Davis Daniel, Baptist missionary, was born in Monroe County, Alabama, on March 17, 1856. At the end of the Civil War his father took the family to Brazil. During their seven-year stay Daniel was educated by his mother and learned to speak Portuguese fluently. In 1872 he and his family moved to Navarro County, Texas. His father died three years later, and Daniel assumed responsibility as head of the household. In the summer of 1877 he joined the Bethesda Baptist Church of the Richland Association. He desired to teach but hesitated because of his lack of formal education and his responsibilities at home. He committed himself in 1880 to becoming a preacher and was licensed on July 31, 1881. In the fall of that year he entered Baylor University with the financial assistance of Baylor president R. C. Burleson. He studied Latin, Greek, and Spanish, in addition to the standard curriculum. While at Baylor Daniel met his future wife, Lena Kirk, and gained ministerial experience at the Dawson and Lorena Baptist churches. On November 4, 1883, he was ordained. He graduated from Baylor in June 1885 and was married in San Antonio in November.

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After graduating he was appointed by the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention as a missionary to Brazil. There he pastored several Baptist churches and edited the Brazilian Baptist, a newspaper. Two of his children were born during that time. He remained in Brazil until 1889, when his failing health necessitated his move back to the United States. For the next ten years he served churches in San Antonio and Mineola and did mission work among Mexican Americans. At the close of the Spanish-American War and the granting of Cuban independence by Spain in 1898, Daniel was appointed by the Home Mission Board to work as a missionary in Cuba. On the island he reorganized and revitalized Baptist work, which had deteriorated during the war. The four western provinces of Cuba were under his authority, including the city of Havana. Daniel remained in Cuba through 1905, when he returned to the United States due to ill health.

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From 1906 to 1922 he was active in mission work among Hispanics in Texas. He spent the first few of these years in Gonzales and El Paso and later traveled around the state. In 1925 he returned to his former pastorate in Lorena, where he remained pastor as long as his health allowed. He was an active Mason for more than fifty years. On September 12, 1939, Daniel died in Waco after a long illness. He was survived by his wife, five children, three brothers, and nine grandchildren.

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SOURCE:

Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists (4 vols., Nashville: Broadman, 1958–82).

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DANIEL,

William James

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The sons of William Robert Daniel and Margareth Elizabeth Thomas Daniel - Grandchildren of William James Daniel and Nancy Angeline Norrs Daniel - Great-grandchildren of William Hutchinson Norris and Mary Black Norris. Standing: Ruffus Edward Daniel (1902) Albert Downing Daniel (1899), Arlindo Allen Daniel (1890), Almeida Fredeick Daniel (1905) Seated: Robert Francis Daniel (1879), Luiz Guilherme Daniel (1886). This photo is missing John Thomas Daniel (* 08/03/03). Daniel Family Photo

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DANSEREAU,

Hercule Pierre

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A personal letter from P. Dansereau, living at Belle Vue in

Espirito Santo, to his brother-in-law, George Lanaux of New

Orleans, displayed the muted enthusiasm of a man under-taking

a new venture.5 This French family was very close-knit and it

had been a major step to separate and begin a new life. Dansereau

expressed his desire to have his wife's brother join him in

Brazil, but also warned that his wishes might be too strongly

expressed and that his urgings could lead to disastero Then the

letter included a more optimistic section:

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I am still under the same impression that he who has capa-cities

will find in the course of twelve to fifteen months a chance to

work with success and advantage. But what everyone doesn't

have, is the patience to await this chance; all those who come

here make a few visits in the neighbor-hood of Rio, stay from

one to three months, then go away satisfied that there's nothing

to be done in Brazil, It's true for those people, who want to go

American-style  (in a hurry;) let them not come here; it's the

biggest folly they could commit.

Dansereau believed that such individuals would fail in Brazil because they would never find what they sought, "the recovery of their fortune with all its gratifications Determination was the necessary attitude in order to succeed (and pecuniary assets were of considerable help).

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A "sugar man" from New Orleans, unidentified by Mr. Dansereau, had constructed a refining factory using a "sulfuerls" process, about which he had consulted George Lanauxo Although the sugar manufactured was of fine quality, it did not appeal to the Brazilians. Despite this temporary failure, the "sugar man" had purchased a fazienda* on the Machahe River there, at the time of Dansereau's letter, he was full of hope and "confident of successHis hopes encouraged Mr. Dansereau.

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George Lanaux -was assured that, should he decide to migrate to Brazil, his family would exert itself to insure his success. He was warned however, that with few exceptions the women (including his sister, Oneida Dansereau) were very difficult to satisfy and tended to nag their husbands.

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The settler then explained that his harvest of sugar cane was fine and that his sugar factory was under cons-truction. He thanked providence for having made him "sufficiently detest the Yankees to give him the courage to go away from them and to Brazil." Mr. Dansereau could see no hope for the United States. He felt there would always be taxes, which evidently bothered him greatly« He wrote:

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I don't glimpse any happiness and tranquilities for the United States^ The good time is past. If the Democrat^ return to power, it will be desireable to take away the right of suffrage from the Negroes, then race war, there will be committed abominations that will further ruin the country, it will be only in ten and probably twenty years that one will arrive at an organization or system of work.

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He predicted that such work as could be done at the end of a period of violence would be in the manner of the peasants of Europe working on tiny plots of sub-divided land.

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A final work requested that Lanaux send his aging mother to Brazil to be with her daughter in the late months of her pregnancy and to provide the old woman the opportunity to live in a happy land where she might "show her prayers to the little blacks" and be mocked by the parrot.

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During the same period, January I868, a letter was written to George Lanaux by his brother Adrian. Adrian charged George with the responsibility of family monies and commended him on success in some unstated new business „ He said that he was unable to find workers to help with his harvest, but that he was planning to deal with a Mr. Emlle Fredinl, who would provide workers, presumably Italians. If he was unable to obtain these helpers^ Adrian was in fear that he would be forced into the embarrassing position of hiring Negroes. He had threshed several barrels of rice for which he had no market» He was worried about repaying a man who had loaned him money for provisions and arranged with his brother to send money for sugar houses which he hoped to sell. Perhaps George had also helped to finance his brother's operations« From a postscript on the letter, information was revealed which indicated that George owned sections of land near his family and was in the market to sell them. A Mr,, Thompson and a Colonel Barrow were interested in buying half of some of his bottom land for growing rice.

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Again in the summer of I869,  Dansereau wrote his brother-in-law in New Orleans. The mood of the letter indicated a considerable change from that of the January 1868 epistle. During the intervening months, the Dansereau family had lost their fifteen months old daughter, Marie, the victim of a brain Infectlon. Oneida Dansereau's health had failed, but another baby had been born on the seventeenth of July and her husband hoped that the new little girl would help to dispel Oneida's grief and ill health. Mr, Dansereau himself had suffered long spells of fever and exhaustion. A happy note was the mention of the marriage of Dansereau's eldest son, Cevy, to a Miss Boudreau. Another son, Henri, had plans to return to the United States and then to Canada, to bring his sister to Brazil. Mr. Dansereau thought that Henri would visit Louisiana and perhaps Adrian, who evidently had returned to the South, would join the party again, accompanying the children on their journey to Brazil.

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Concerning this business, Mr„ Dansereau admitted that he had acquired a partner who was not dependable. Although Dansereau had many assets^ such as fine sugar cane and a large sugar house, he was unable to obtain credit because of the way the contract had been drawn by his Brazilian partner. He had found another man to take the place of his partner, but the partner refused to relinquish his position, thinking that Mr. Dansereau would be able to turn their association into a profitable venture. When creditors began to press, Mr. Dansereau was able to rid himself of  "a man, mean, miserly and ambitious as are generally the people of his race." This move meant abandoning all of his fazlendas, at a great loss. Later, Dansereau bought three faziendas, each of which had a sugar house, plus l80 slaves, 190 draft-oxen and crops ready to harvest. A new partner was acquired for the enterprise, a man named J. B. Rodocanache, who had businesses in New York and New Orleans.

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If less exuberant than in earlier months, Mr^ Dansereau still had faith in his future. He did seem most dis-couraged concerning the character of the Brazilian businessmen; "I don't yet know one single Brazilian who had helped an emigrant from the South of the United States^ although they admit that their methods are infinitely superior to those of the people of the country." Still, Dansereau found the country "beautiful and good," And again he repeated that the man who expects to succeed must have determination.

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He mentioned that a steamer, the Guerriere, transported duped Americans back to the United States a few days previous to the writing of his letter. He said that he had seen so many people disappointed that he could no longer encourage anyone to move to Brazil, but for himself, he was satisfied. Dansereau felt that general conditions in Brazil were more favorable for his family than they would have been In Louisiana.

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H. P Dansereau   -  Biography

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Dansereau, Hercules, M. D., of Thibodaux, Lafourche parish, is a retired practitioner, still retaining to a remarkable extent the exercise of his mental and physical faculties, at the patriarchal age of 82 years.  The blood of the pioneer French colonists of Canada which flows through his veins has endowed him with that sturdiness of constitution for which the early settlers were noted.  Peter Dansereau was the first of the name to come to America, from France, about the year 1700, locating near Montreal, Canada, where many of the family still reside.

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Hercules Dansereau was born in province of Quebec, May 2, 1832, the son of Joseph Dansereau, merchant, born at Vercheres, Canada, in 1797, died 1888; his wife, Rosalie (Chagnon) Dansereau, also a native of Vercheres (1800), died at Vercheres in 1875.  After receiving his primary and grammar school education at home, the subject of this sketch entered Montreal college, where he remained 7 years.  Next he studied for three years in the College of Physicians & Surgeons, of Montreal, now Laval university, and then, for one year, studied in the College of Medicine, Albany, N. Y., graduating in 1853.  During the latter year, Dr. Dansereau came to New Orleans, followed the clinics and lectures at the  Charity hospital for a few months, and went to the town of Pointe-a-la-Hache, in the parish of Plaquemines, where he practiced medicine until 1858, when he moved to Thibodaux.  The town was then in its infancy, in the midst of a sparsely-settled region, and surrounded by woods.  On account of the limited  population of Thibodaux, the doctor extended his practice to all parts of the surrounding country, sometimes traveling many miles in fair and in bad weather to hasten to the relief of his fellow-citizens. 

Dansereau believed that such individuals would fail in Brazil because they would never find what they sought, "the recovery of their fortune with all its gratifications Determination was the necessary attitude in order to succeed (and pecuniary assets were of considerable help).

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A "sugar man" from New Orleans, unidentified by Mr. Dansereau, had constructed a refining factory using a "sulfuerls" process, about which he had consulted George Lanauxo Although the sugar manufactured was of fine quality, it did not appeal to the Brazilians. Despite this temporary failure, the "sugar man" had purchased a fazienda* on the Machahe River there, at the time of Dansereau's letter, he was full of hope and "confident of successHis hopes encouraged Mr. Dansereau.

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George Lanaux -was assured that, should he decide to migrate to Brazil, his family would exert itself to insure his success. He was warned however, that with few exceptions the women (including his sister, Oneida Dansereau) were very difficult to satisfy and tended to nag their husbands.

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The settler then explained that his harvest of sugar cane was fine and that his sugar factory was under cons-truction. He thanked providence for having made him "sufficiently detest the Yankees to give him the courage to go away from them and to Brazil." Mr. Dansereau could see no hope for the United States. He felt there would always be taxes, which evidently bothered him greatly« He wrote:

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I don't glimpse any happiness and tranquilities for the United States^ The good time is past. If the Democrat^ return to power, it will be desireable to take away the right of suffrage from the Negroes, then race war, there will be committed abominations that will further ruin the country, it will be only in ten and probably twenty years that one will arrive at an organization or system of work.

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He predicted that such work as could be done at the end of a period of violence would be in the manner of the peasants of Europe working on tiny plots of sub-divided land.

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A final work requested that Lanaux send his aging mother to Brazil to be with her daughter in the late months of her pregnancy and to provide the old woman the opportunity to live in a happy land where she might "show her prayers to the little blacks" and be mocked by the parrot.

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During the same period, January I868, a letter was written to George Lanaux by his brother Adrian. Adrian charged George with the responsibility of family monies and commended him on success in some unstated new business „ He said that he was unable to find workers to help with his harvest, but that he was planning to deal with a Mr. Emlle Fredinl, who would provide workers, presumably Italians. If he was unable to obtain these helpers^ Adrian was in fear that he would be forced into the embarrassing position of hiring Negroes. He had threshed several barrels of rice for which he had no market» He was worried about repaying a man who had loaned him money for provisions and arranged with his brother to send money for sugar houses which he hoped to sell. Perhaps George had also helped to finance his brother's operations« From a postscript on the letter, information was revealed which indicated that George owned sections of land near his family and was in the market to sell them. A Mr,, Thompson and a Colonel Barrow were interested in buying half of some of his bottom land for growing rice.

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Again in the summer of I869,  Dansereau wrote his brother-in-law in New Orleans. The mood of the letter indicated a considerable change from that of the January 1868 epistle. During the intervening months, the Dansereau family had lost their fifteen months old daughter, Marie, the victim of a brain Infectlon. Oneida Dansereau's health had failed, but another baby had been born on the seventeenth of July and her husband hoped that the new little girl would help to dispel Oneida's grief and ill health. Mr, Dansereau himself had suffered long spells of fever and exhaustion. A happy note was the mention of the marriage of Dansereau's eldest son, Cevy, to a Miss Boudreau. Another son, Henri, had plans to return to the United States and then to Canada, to bring his sister to Brazil. Mr. Dansereau thought that Henri would visit Louisiana and perhaps Adrian, who evidently had returned to the South, would join the party again, accompanying the children on their journey to Brazil.

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Concerning this business, Mr„ Dansereau admitted that he had acquired a partner who was not dependable. Although Dansereau had many assets^ such as fine sugar cane and a large sugar house, he was unable to obtain credit because of the way the contract had been drawn by his Brazilian partner. He had found another man to take the place of his partner, but the partner refused to relinquish his position, thinking that Mr. Dansereau would be able to turn their association into a profitable venture. When creditors began to press, Mr. Dansereau was able to rid himself of  "a man, mean, miserly and ambitious as are generally the people of his race." This move meant abandoning all of his fazlendas, at a great loss. Later, Dansereau bought three faziendas, each of which had a sugar house, plus l80 slaves, 190 draft-oxen and crops ready to harvest. A new partner was acquired for the enterprise, a man named J. B. Rodocanache, who had businesses in New York and New Orleans.

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If less exuberant than in earlier months, Mr^ Dansereau still had faith in his future. He did seem most dis-couraged concerning the character of the Brazilian businessmen; "I don't yet know one single Brazilian who had helped an emigrant from the South of the United States^ although they admit that their methods are infinitely superior to those of the people of the country." Still, Dansereau found the country "beautiful and good," And again he repeated that the man who expects to succeed must have determination.

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He mentioned that a steamer, the Guerriere, transported duped Americans back to the United States a few days previous to the writing of his letter. He said that he had seen so many people disappointed that he could no longer encourage anyone to move to Brazil, but for himself, he was satisfied. Dansereau felt that general conditions in Brazil were more favorable for his family than they would have been In Louisiana.

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H. P Dansereau   -  Biography

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Dansereau, Hercules, M. D., of Thibodaux, Lafourche parish, is a retired practitioner, still retaining to a remarkable extent the exercise of his mental and physical faculties, at the patriarchal age of 82 years.  The blood of the pioneer French colonists of Canada which flows through his veins has endowed him with that sturdiness of constitution for which the early settlers were noted.  Peter Dansereau was the first of the name to come to America, from France, about the year 1700, locating near Montreal, Canada, where many of the family still reside.

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Hercules Dansereau was born in province of Quebec, May 2, 1832, the son of Joseph Dansereau, merchant, born at Vercheres, Canada, in 1797, died 1888; his wife, Rosalie (Chagnon) Dansereau, also a native of Vercheres (1800), died at Vercheres in 1875.  After receiving his primary and grammar school education at home, the subject of this sketch entered Montreal college, where he remained 7 years.  Next he studied for three years in the College of Physicians & Surgeons, of Montreal, now Laval university, and then, for one year, studied in the College of Medicine, Albany, N. Y., graduating in 1853.  During the latter year, Dr. Dansereau came to New Orleans, followed the clinics and lectures at the  Charity hospital for a few months, and went to the town of Pointe-a-la-Hache, in the parish of Plaquemines, where he practiced medicine until 1858, when he moved to Thibodaux.  The town was then in its infancy, in the midst of a sparsely-settled region, and surrounded by woods.  On account of the limited  population of Thibodaux, the doctor extended his practice to all parts of the surrounding country, sometimes traveling many miles in fair and in bad weather to hasten to the relief of his fellow-citizens. 

DAVIS,

David

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David Davis signed a Communiqué made by PIB / SB, sent to FMB, with a letter dated November 1, 1873. This fact led  put him in the list of members of the Church.  A portrait of a Davis family is published in the book SD, p. 114. and consists of the couple, a young man of about 15 years old and a girl of  7 years old. 

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In the diary of the young Jeru Keyes, p. 252, there is a  reference to a Davis who, together with a Mcintyre, left the colony of Charles G. Gunter, in Rio Doce, ES, and went to Santa Barbara, SP, in 1868. We can risk saying that it was David Davis, but without proof.

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On August 11, 1875, the Deed of Purchase and Sale, which is registered in Note Book No. 17, p. 48v, in the Notary's Office, in Santa Barbara, SP, it shows that David Davis and his wife Adeth Davis had acquired from Williaam H. Norris, a site called "Cinco Patentes", dividing with the property of this and Brazilians, in the term Campinas, with an address and some improvements. This property was probably part of the Fazenda Machadinho.

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 SOURCE:  Loosely translated and paraphrased from the original Portuguese manuscript.

CENTELHA   EM  RE STOLHO  SECO

Uma  Contribuiao  para  a  Hist6ria dos Prim6rdios do Trabalho Batista no Brasil    1985

Betty  Antunes  de Oliveira

DeBERRY,

W. J.

Return to Alabama – Dissatisfied Emigrants to Brazil

August 10, 1867

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There arrived at the Central Hotel last night a party of ladies and gentlemen who left Brazil last month, thoroughly, totally, heartily disgusted with their new homes among the hybrid masses in the overrated, well-flattered country of Brazil.  The party is composed entirely of Alabamians, among whom are MESSRS. JOHM M. HARRIS, W. J. DeBERRY, G. E. JONES, THOMAS McCANTS, T. A. McELROY, JOHN STANFIELD, D. W. BRAZIELL, and eighteen other gentlemen and their wives and children. They give affecting and pitiful accounts of the sufferings of many hundreds of deluded Southerners who were lured away from their friends by the tempting offers of the Brazilian Government, and the tales of wild and impulsive American adventurers.

They represent that there is no regularly organized Government in Brazil–there is no society–but little cultivation among the inhabitants–no laudable ambition–no ways of making money–the people scarcely know the meaning of the word “kindness”– the American citizens live about in huts, uncared for–there is general dissatisfaction among the emigrants, and the whole Brazil representation is a humbug and a farce. The American Consul is in receipt of numerous and constant applications from helpless American citizens to assist them in getting back to their true, rightful country. CAPT. JACK PHELAN, who is so well known and admired in Montgomery, has, we learn, left with a large number of other young men, to make California their home.  The advice of the gentlemen with whom we conversed is to dissipate the idea that Alabama is not still a great country – to cause dreaming over the unhappy past–say nothing that will assist to keep up political troubles, stay at home, but work, work, work, and Alabama will yet be, what she ought to be, and can be, a great and glorious country.

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The long-deferred abolition of slavery in Brazil is to be hastened. A recent law releases all slaves after two years, and they are to receive wages during this period.  Brazil is the last country laying claim to civilization that still maintains slavery.  It is not sixty years since slavery was abolished in the British colonies, and less than half that time since this country rid itself of the evil.

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SOURCES

New York Times, Aug. 15, 1867

Reprinted in the The South Alabamian, Jackson, Alabama, October 1, 1887

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DEMARET,

Martin Felix

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Martin Felix Demaret and his family never officially joined the McMullen colony even though made Mrs. Demaret and the children had sailed to Brazil on the same ship as the colonists all the way from Galveston. Demaret, a former resident of Louisiana, lived in Grimes County, Texas, for eleven years prior to his first trip to Brazil in 1866.  He traveled all over the empire from the Amazon river to São Paulo province and finally selected land near Santa Barbara, north west of the city of São Paulo. Convinced that he had made the correct decision in going to Brazil, Demaret proclaimed that he was now engaged in "selecting the best from the best". Demaret, his wife, and his children remained in Rio de Janeiro when the time came for their Texas friends to board ship for Iguape. George Barnsley had high praise for Demaret, describing him as a "fine gentleman, of the old, courteous, gallant type, and his family well educated and thoroughly refined in manner, which later merits were very much at discount among most of our American immigrants of that epoch."

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SOURCE:The Elusive Eden,  Page 88

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DILLARD,

Unknown

Dillard, . Dillard, whose first name is not mentioned in any of the extant records, sailed on the Derby to Rio de Janeiro. With another young Irish boy named O'Reilly who joined the McMullan party in New York City in search of adventure, Dillard enlisted in the Brazilian army during the war with Paraguay. Both Dillard and O'Reilly collected the large bonuses offered to enlistees, but once on the front lines, they deserted and joined the Paraguayans to collect another bounty. Afterwards, they were captured by the Brazilians, tried by court-martial, and shot.

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Source: Griggs Thesis

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DODSON,

Henry Hill

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Charles Dodson, Husband of Bertie Seawright, went to South America with a group of the Seawrights. When he got there he found that the climate was so much like South Carolina that he sent back home for cotton seeds. He became the first person to introduce cotton to Brazil.

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Drefus relates this story:

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Before WWI, two beautiful young sisters arrived in Donalds, SC., from Brazil, South America. They came to further their education in South Carolina's more modern system of higher learning. They were admired and welcomed by their many cousins whom they had never seen.

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The girls were the granddaughters of Ebenezer Wilson Seawright who moved to Brazil after the Civil War.

Katherine and Rosa Keese are the ladies I am thinking of. It didn't take long for them to fit right in with the young folks and be admired and praised by the older people. Customs here were very different from their homeland, but that didn't take the girls long to over come. The proms and lawn parties of that day made getting acquainted easy. Dating and college went hand in hand.

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Katherine was the first to go steady. The local young druggist and drug store owner was the lucky man. Robert D. Brownlee popped the question and Katherine accepted. We soon heard wedding bells echoing through-out the little town of Donalds.

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Two fine children were born to this family, one boy and one girl, William A. Brownlee and Dorothy Brownlee (Henry).

Rosa also had a sweetheart and they were very serious at that time.

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Rosa and Henry Dodson were engaged but their plans were very cloudy by the approach of WWI. Henry had been drafted and Uncle Sam had made his plans. So they postponed the wedding until a later date. Rosa hurriedly left for Brazil before the German U-boats cut off the shipping lanes to her home. The story does not end yet. Poor old Henry reluctantly marched off to war in Germany. Finally after two long years the war ended and Henry set foot on American soil again, but not for long. After visiting relatives he headed to Charleston, SC, and caught the first boat headed to Sao Paulo, Brazil. You guessed it, the wedding took place as planned. One fine boy was born to Henry and Rosa. They named him C.K. I suppose that stood for Charles Keese Dodson. Neither Henry nor Rosa ever returned to America.

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