Information Sheet

 

 

R         Ribeau family.

101                  Collection, 1870-1982 (bulk 1870-1946).

                                    Five folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection consists of correspondence, tax receipts, and miscellaneous material of an Af­rican-American family in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.  They lived in a historic poteaux-en-terre house built in 1778.

 

Most of the letters are addressed to Jane Ribeau and three of her children, Alonzo, Levi, and Anna.  The correspondence generally concerns family news and makes no reference to the fam­ily's ethnic background.

 

The most informative letters were written by Alonzo B. Ribeau during his military service in World War I.  A draftee, Ribeau was sent to the training base at Camp Funston, Kansas, which in­cluded segregated facilities for white and black soldiers.  Ribeau’s letters include comments on his training, which he did not find as burdensome as did many others.  However, he was irritated by the continual inoculations and vaccinations by army physicians.  The black soldiers at Camp Funston were organized into the 805th Pioneer Infantry, and were ordered overseas for service in France.  The regiment crossed the United States by train, meeting a “large crowd of color” which greeted them at Kansas City.  They sailed for Europe via Camp Upton, New York.  The outfit ar­rived in France in September 1918.  Ribeau’s letters from the front mention an inspection by Gen. Pershing, and coming under enemy fire in the Argonne Forest.

 

The remainder of the Ribeau family’s papers include correspondence, tax receipts, and legal papers.  Copies of Levi P. Ribeau’s appointment in 1920 to the Missouri Negro In­dustrial Com­mission by Gov. Frederick Gardner can be found in Folder 2.

 

Biographical material on the Ribeau family, collected by Alyssa M. Fallert of Ste. Ge­nevieve, can be found in Folder 5.  Fallert was particularly interested in the house in which the family lived.  Built in 1778 by Jean Baptiste Bequette, the house is one of only three remaining exam­ples in Ste. Genevieve of the poteaux-en-terre style of construction which utilized logs placed vertically, rather than the more common horizontal arrangement.

 

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