GIDEON DESROCHER, market gardener and florist, is the eldest of a family of six children of Francis and Victoire (Lafortune) Desrocher. His parents were born, reared and married in Canada, where he was also born on the 20th of April, 1829. His father was born in 1801, and died in Jackson County, Ill., in 1862. The mother died ten years later in Canada. Gideon was educated in his native place, and while young learned the cabinet, trade. In 1856, he went to Chicago, Ill., where for three years he was foreman in a cabinet manufactory. From Chicago he removed to Jackson County, Ill., where he undertook the task of clearing a tract of land, which he developed into a valuable fruit farm. The result of this labor he lost in an unfortunate business partnership in Murphysboro, Ill. In 1872, he came to Cairo and established a gardening business, which is fully noticed elsewhere. In 1851, he was married in Canada to Miss Harmenia Beauchamp. She was born in Canada in 1836, and died in 1869 in Jackson County, Ill., leaving four children — Arthur, Oscar, Henry and Josephine Desrocher. The oldest son, Arthur, married Miss Thompson, and has two children, named Oscar and Francis Gideon. The second son, Oscar, married Miss Mary Scott, and has one daughter— Emma Desrochcr. Mr. Desrocher was married to his present wife, Eliza Tippet, in 1872. She was born in England in 1847. Frank Desrocher is the only child by the second marriage.
Extracted 31 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from 1883 History of Alexander, Union, and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part V, pages 13-14.
| Cape Girardeau MO |
Union | |
 |
Pulaski | |
| Scott MO | Mississippi MO | Ballard KY |
