Rodolfe Tellier (abt. 1750)

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Henry Chadwick [send private message]

Biography

Rudolph Tillier was commissioned “as Factor or Agent for the U.S. Factory, established at St. Louis” on May 24, 1805, when he was a resident in New York. As Fort Bellefontaine was intended at its founding in 1806 to be a center for trade with the Indians, the Spanish Pond property would have been conveniently located for Tillier. He was a generation older than St. Vrain, married to the former Sarah Biddle, whose sister was the wife of General James Wilkinson. Sarah Tillier had been married first to James Penrose and had a son, Clement Biddle Penrose, born 1771. Penrose was one of the three members of the Board of Commissioners appointed by Thomas Jefferson in 1805 to settle land claims in the territory. This relationship no doubt facilitated the confirmation of Tillier’s claim.

Tillier died in 1810, leaving a curious will witnessed by Vincent Carrico and John Lard, both landowners in the Spanish Lake area, and leaving his livestock and furniture to members of the Patterson family. Although not mentioned by name in the will, Clement B. Penrose was appointed executor, and he and his uncle Clement Biddle were coheirs to Tillier’s real estate. Houck reported that Penrose “was a man of considerable property when he came to St. Louis and invested his means in town lots and lands, but these investments proving unprofitable he gradually became … reduced in circumstances.” Among these financial setbacks was the loss of his one half undivided interest in the 400 arpents of Survey 155, sold by the sheriff in 1820 for $925 to satisfy creditors.

The purchaser, Philip Millaudon, had to go to the circuit court to obtain a partition of the tract between himself and Clement Biddle. The case was brought in the August 1821 session, and the commissioners appointed made their report in 1822. They granted 160 acres to Millaudon and 225 acres to Biddle. This total of 385 acres corresponds to 481 arpents rather than the 400 arpents said to be contained in the original grant, but perhaps this reflects accurate surveying.

That same month, August 1847, O’Fallon acquired the remainder of Survey 155 from the heirs of Clement Biddle, who lived in Philadelphia and New York. For their 225 acres he paid $2700. Within the next few months, he acquired additional property nearby: from Daniel Matilda Lard 107 acres in Survey 209, including the northwest shore of the pond; from William and Levi Piggott and Lucy Delaney, the three children of Lydia Lard, Jr., 25 arpents (20 acres) in Survey 209; and from Daniel Quick 70 acres in Survey 398, bringing his total in the area to over 600 acres. In spite of these purchases, O’Fallon continued to make his home at his estate on Bellefontaine Road 7 miles closer to town, encompassing the present O’Fallon Park and the south half of Bellefontaine Cemetery.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.spanishlakemo.org/history_hamil