John and Marguerite were married on April 14, 1852 in St. Saviour’s Parish church. At that time Jean was 28 and Marguerite was 26. Both had been born in that parish which was one of the ten church districts on the island of Guernsey in the English Channel. After the birth of their fourth child in five years of marriage, they left for America in 1857. Why they came to the USA is not recorded, but we can assume it was with the hope of a better life. One child, Rachel, had died before leaving and on the way across the Atlantic, three year old Johnny died three days out of Southampton and was buried at sea. What a mournful experience that must have been; not exactly a good omen for a new life.
Perhaps to be near friends, the young family who only spoke French at that time arrived in Racine, Wisconsin where in 1859 John Walter Breton was born. Two weeks later they moved to Milwaukee where they lived for thirteen years. Jean, by now called John, worked as a laborer in a shoe factory. During 1863 J.W.’s sister, Sarah Elizabeth was born and his sister, Mary Louise, age seven, was blinded for life by scarlet fever and measles. The family moved west to La Crosse, Wisconsin and then after a short period relocated to Sparta where John and Margaret “operated a laundry which did all the laundry work for all the sleeping cars of the Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway.”[1]
It was in Sparta that Margaret (Maggie), Mary, John Walter, and Sarah went to school. J.W. says he left high school to go to telegraph operator school around 1876 and in 1878 Maggie married Abram Thompson in Sparta. JW moved to Huron in the Dakota Territory in 1880 marrying Lizzie Sawyer in 1882. In 1885 John and Margaret’s eldest child, Maggie died in Madison, Dakota Territory. John and Margaret left Sparta in 1887 to help JW raise his two infant children, Edith and Walter, after Lizzie’s tragic death of Rocky Mountain fever. It’s not known how John and Margaret made a living at this stage but they were near their children, their daughter Sarah who’d married Lizzie’s brother, Uzell and their son John Walter with his second wife, Gertrude Ward. After Uzell, who was a train brakeman, lost his foot in a train accident,[2] Margaret traveled several times to be with her son-in-law to help in his recovery during a succession of amputations. Uzell and Sarah, along with John and Margaret moved to Florida in 1890 where his handicap and the climate allowed for a new career in the raising of fruit, probably oranges. They didn’t forget their family as the newspapers of the day reported several times that the Breton/Sawyers had sent boxes of fruits, plants, and flowers to the winter bound folks in the north. [3] It was a good thing that the folks were with Sarah because Uzell died in 1899. Once again John and Margaret stepped in to help raise their grandchildren: Clyde, age 12 and Marguerite, age 9.
By this time the others had had their fill of the Dakota weather and after losing his first wife, JW wrote “my wife (Gertrude) was in delicate health and doctors said a milder climate was absolutely necessary, we moved to Morgan Hill.”[4] Walter Breton records that “As a boy, I remember Grandfather Ward’s letter from California, written when he had contracted for his acreage, he quoted from the old Sunday School song ’This is the land I have long sought and mourned because I found it not.’ He named it Paradise Valley.”[5]
John and Margaret, perhaps helped by John Walter and Gertrude, purchased property near the Wards and a handsome two story house was erected which is still a lovely home for the present occupants. Walter reported that Mary “was the happiest member of the family and was taught to crochet and play the organ.” [6]
In Morgan Hill the Bretons and Wards were active in the orchard business growing walnuts and plums/prunes. In April of 1911 John and Margaret were honored with a party on their 59th wedding anniversary at which “a large number of neighbors and friends called upon them with kind remembrances and earnest wishes for continued health and happiness.“[7] At that time John was 87 years old and Margaret 85.
John died in December of that same year. He, Margaret, and Mary are buried in a family plot in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Morgan Hill. The modern marker was paid for by Lynn Breton and records that his father’s (Vivian Breton) and his grandmother, Gertrude Ward Breton’s ashes are buried at sea.
Mt. Hope Cemetery, Morgan Hill CA 2007
In this odyssey can be seen some of the archetypical American themes. Some of the biggest themes like immigration to a foreign land, menial immigrant labor, moving west for better lives, livelihoods based on the railroad, relocating and starting over, agricultural entrepreneurship, and family caring are all assets that we can be proud of. We owe our own present good fortune to the attitudes and examples of the pioneering spirit of John and Margaret Breton.
[1] (J. W. Breton p.3)
[2] (Sawyer p.1)
[3] (Daily Huronite p.4)
[4] (J. W. Breton p.4)
[5] (W. S. Breton p. 2)
[6] (W. S. Breton p. 2)
[7] (Their Wedding)
Daily Huronite 11 June 1891
Breton, John Walter. Memoirs. Morgan Hill, CA 1939 Preserved by Leland Edwards, Retyped by Mike Breton, 2010.
Breton, Walter S. "Bud". Letter to Mike Breton. San Jose, CA, 1971.
Sawyer, Clyde. "Memoirs." abt 1968.
"Their Wedding." Morgan Hill Times 21 April 1911.
