My great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Colonel Jean Jerome d’Cluis was decorated with this medal by Napoleon Bonaparte for his military service. The Chevalier of the Legion of Honor is the highest decoration bestowed in France. The Colonel carried this prized possession with him when he fled France for the U.S after Louis XVIII took the throne. 

After the defeat and exile of Napoleon, the high ranking officers of Bonaparte’s army feared for their lives. Seeking refuge, these men came to the U.S. In 1817, this group of French officers, including Colonel Jean Jerome d’Cluis, traveled from France to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and many then took a schooner to Mobile, Alabama.  They soon established Demopolis, Alabama, as the “City of the People” and began farming grapes and olives. However, they discovered that the land was not suitable for growing their crops and the colony eventually collapsed. Many left to settle in other areas of the state, including Mobile. 

Colonel d’Cluis married my great, great, great, great, great grandmother, a Frenchwoman, Louise Emilie de Mazières and they farmed, operated a tavern in Greensboro, and had two children. By the mid- 1820s, they had moved to Mobile, Alabama, where Jean Jerome died in 1834. 

His medal of the Legion of Honor has been in my family ever since and we treasure it as both a symbol of our French ancestry and our American citizenship. 

 

– Karleen Vincent Gardner

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more