Jean Baptiste Côté

Other Names: Gilbert Cote

Comments: Jean-Baptiste Côté, born in 1839 in St-Césaire, Rouville County, Quebec Provence, Canada, left the home of his father to enlist in the Army of the North in the United States. He served as a Yankee in the Civil War from 1861 to 1864 and was paid $1000 for this service. With this money, he moved back to Canada in the region of Weedon, Wolfe County. He bought land in the 1st range where he built a log home. He married Marie Charron and from this union were born four children. Seven years later, Marie Charron died. Meanwhile, Joseph Jean-Baptiste Côté became warden, commissioner of schools, and choirmaster of the parish of St-Janvier de Weedon. As commissioner, he hired a young 16 year old girl named Rosalie Bouffard whom he married after a year of teaching; they had 11 children. The farm could no longer support all these people, so they left Canada and settled in Plainfield, Windham County, Connecticut, USA where the children could work. Jean-Baptiste died in 1907 in Moosup, Windham, Connecticut and is buried in All Hallows cemetery. Rosalie Côté died in Plainfield in 1911 and is interned in the same cemetery, but in a different plot. The rustic concrete gravestones were made by their son Emeril and grandson Roger. Jean Baptiste was known to his family by the name "Gilbert".