The Cajun life of Victor Vautrot: Vautrot Family History in The North and South

VAUTROTS IN THE North and the South

The following information is taken from the historical information cited from the 1921 book published “The History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Ohio, Volume 2”

The Vautrot family is of old Huguenot stock, and was founded in America on July 09, 1834 by Francois Vautrot when he arrived in New York City aboard the ship Libertas from Havre de Grace, France with his wife Marie Moyeaux and their five children: Francois Joseph Vautrot, Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sophie Catherine Vautrot, Gustave Emile Stanislaus Vautrot, and Pierre Alphonse Vautrot.

“Upon reaching America, he went to the French settlement at Mead's Corners in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, where he bought land and established his home and followed farming. Two of his sons had come to the US prior to his arrival, one (Francois Joseph Vautrot) going to Opelousas, LA, where he married a southern woman (Amelia Burleigh Johnson), became a large slave holder and ardently espoused the cause of the South when war was declared in April 1861. The other son settled at Mobile, Alabama, where he became editor of the Mobile Advertiser and Register, which is still being published. This American ancestor of the Vautrot family lived the remainder of this active days in Crawford County, PA, and then moved to Warren, Ohio where he died and is buried (he married Rosalie Gaudilott).”

“Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sr., son of Francois Vautrot and the father of Joseph Jules, Jr. of Warren, Ohio, was born at Nancy, France in 1819, and was a boy thirteen years of age when the family came to America. He learned the Silversmith trade at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and after working at it in that city for a time, he and with six other young men voyaged down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in a scow, drifting with the currents, to New Orleans, Louisiana, from which city Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sr. went to Opelousas, Louisiana, and there he spent the next six years, working at his trade, also manufacturing by hand gold rings, scarf pins and other articles of jewelry. Returning to the North, he worked for a time at Meadville, Pennsylvania, and then, in 1847, he came to Warren, Ohio, and went to work for Ashbel King, the pioneer jeweler of this city. He was about 28 years old. At Mead’s Corners in Pennsylvania, he married Rosalie Gaudilott, who was born in Lorraine, France and came to America when young with her parents and eleven other children of the family, settling on their large farm at Mead’s Corners, Pennsylvania.”

The elder Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sr. made the trip from Pennsylvania to Warren, Ohio, with his family in a wagon, as was quite customary in those days. In 1849 he engaged in business on his own account in a small frame building on Market Street, a few doors west of the present store of his son, Joseph Jules Vautrot Jr. He met with success and soon built up a good business, and continued in active charge of it for many years, gradually, as he grew older, however, relinquishing the store to the management of his son, Jules, Jr. In 1890, he permanently retired from active business, and he died in 1902. His wife died in 1856, however.”

“Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sr. was an uncompromising member of the Republican Party from its organization, and during the War Between the States (US Civil War), although two of his brothers were in the South and strong sympathizers with its cause, he was just as strong in his support of the North (Union), and an Abolitionist, and what is more he had the courage of his convictions and the disposition to air his opinions. Many prominent men of Warren were his friends and well remember him!”

Joseph Jules Vautrot SR, son of Francis and Marie, was born in France October 17, 1819, and with his parents came to this country in 1834, the family settling near Meadville, Pennsylvania. When sixteen he commenced an apprenticeship at the jewelers' trade in Pittsburg, and afterwards worked in Louisville, Kentucky, two years. In 1849 he came to Warren, Ohio, and for nearly two years was in the employ of Walter King. He then engaged in business for himself and is still engaged in the same, having had partners at various times. The firm is now Vautrot & Hull. He was married in November, 1844, to Miss Rosella Gaudilott, who was born in France in 1825, and has one son and one daughter, Jules Jr. and Julia. Mrs. Vautrot died in 1856. Mr. Vautrot was formerly a director in the Trumbull National bank, of Warren, and is now con-
nected with the Second National.

His son Joseph Jules Vautrot, Jr was a member of the Eighty-Fourth (84^th) Ohio volunteer infantry in the War of the Rebellion, and was at the battle of Cumberland in 1862. In 1864 he was in the one hundred day service, being a corporal in the One Hundred and Seventy-first (171^st) Ohio national guards, and was taken prisoner with his regiment at Cynthiana, Kentucky.

“Joseph Jules Vautrot, Jr. was born at Mead’s Corners Pennsylvania on September 21, 1845, and he was two years old when he was brought to Warren County, Ohio by his parents. His sister, Miss Julie, who is his junior by 16 months, is still living and makes her home in the family residence on Mahoning Avenue. He was educated in the public schools of Warren, which he left in 1862 to enlist in the 84^th Ohio Volunteer Infantry for 3 months of service, but pursued a service extending over four months and twenty days, mostly in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. He was 17 years-old while fighting Confederates in the Civil War. After receiving his honorable discharge he returned to Warren, Ohio and to school in 1863. His father needing his assistance in the store; so, the young soldier once more left school and took up an apprenticeship at watch repairing. Soon, however, he became salesman and then buyer, and following his father’s death he succeeded to the business; and, he took partners his son Phil Vautrot (grandson of Joseph Jules Vautrot, Sr.; great grandson of Francois Vautrot)and Charles Myers, under the firm name of Vautrot & Myers Company, which was incorporated in 1910 with Mr. Joseph Jules Vautrot Jr. as President and his son Phil R. Vautrot as Secretary and Treasurer. Mr. Jules Vautrot Jr. now confines his business activities to being the financial main of the company. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Western Reserve bank; vice president of the Peoples Ice and Cold Storage Company; vice president of the Warren & Niles Telephone company, and for the last 20 years has been vice president of Oakwood Cemetery Company.”

“Mr. Joseph Jules Vautrot Jr. is a member of Old Erie Lodge No. 3 of the Free and Accepted Masons; Warren Chapter and Commandery; Lake Erie Consistory, and Al Koran Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and was the first candidate initiated by Warren Lodge, Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, after the latter lodge had obtained its charter. He is also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and belongs to the Warren Board of Trade. Mr. Vautrot served as director of safety for Warren, and during his incumbency of that office was active in installing the motor equipment of the fire and police departments.”

“The maiden name of Mrs. Vautrot was Frances Richards, and she is the daughter of William Richards, who built the first blast furnace at Brier Hill, where Mrs. Vautrot was born on April 13, 1851 (she died May 20, 1928). William Richards (her father) was from Wales, England, where he was born in 1819. Mr. Jules Vautrot, Jr. married Frances Richards on November 19^th, 1873. She is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Trumbull County, Ohio. The following children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Vautrot:

Grace, who married Fred Byard, a druggist of Warren, and they have 2 children: Mary Frances and Julie;

Phil R., who is Secretary and Treasurer of the Vautrot & Myers Company, who is unmarried;

and Louis R., who is an electrical engineer with a large concern in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, married Mae Chryst, a daughter of Solomon R. Chryst of Warren.”

That concludes all of the historical information cited from the 1921 book published “The History of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley, Ohio, Volume 2”