John Goetsels

Origin

Paris, France

Sources

Santerre, Foster, Sandell

Notes

no occupation listed

Biography

John Goetsels


Name
  Canonical: John Goetsels
  French: Jean Goetsels
  Also: Goetsell, Goetseel, Goetseels (Sandell); "Goodseels" (Savardan,
    as transcribed); Goetseels on the 1859 tax roll

Birth: Louvain (Leuven), Belgium; date unknown
Death: date unknown; after his death the family moved to Dallas
Burial: unknown

Origin: a rich merchant of Louvain. Santerre's list gives "Paris, France"
  and no trade; Cordillot and Sandell both say Louvain -- conflict noted,
  Louvain the better attested.

Family
  Wife: Lucine Goetsels (Cordillot's appendix)
  Son: Philippe (Philip) Goetsels, already in Texas; Santerre calls him a
    banker
  Three daughters came with the parents

Company role: a convinced Fourierist who had invested about 30,000 francs
  in the SCEAT -- one of the larger individual subscriptions

Ship / arrival: reached Texas early in 1856 with his wife and three
  daughters to join his son and take part in Reunion.

Colony role
  - Joined his son not at Reunion but at Mountain Creek, which he
    promptly bought from Sauzeau -- Savardan's "Louvain" (TIMELINE
    1855.~10: Goodseels demands reimbursement and founds Louvain at
    Montagne Creek, January 1856)
  - Sought reimbursement of his shares; Duthoya partly consented; the
    irregularities in the transaction went to arbitration, and despite
    "overwritings and erasures" the accounts seemed correct
  - Savardan, who disliked him, says he did all he could to divert the
    trade of Reunion to Mountain Creek

Post-colony
  - Sandell: Louvain drew most of the Belgian settlers as Reunion failed,
    then failed itself, and he moved to Dallas; 1862, "Goetsell moves
    Mountain Creek to Dallas with several Belgians" (Sandell ch. III)

Land
  1859 tax roll: Goetseels 86 acres; L. Goetseels 86 acres.

Sources
  Cordillot, "Goetsels Jean," Au Texas (2003)
  Savardan, Un naufrage au Texas (1858)
  Sandell, colonist directory; ch. III
  Santerre, White Cliffs of Dallas (1955), colonist list
  deeds.py: 1859 tax roll
  TIMELINE.md: 1855.~10

Notes
  Goetsels is the counter-colony: a major shareholder who took his
  reimbursement in kind under article 48 and set up a rival Belgian
  settlement six months into the experiment. The Uriel's five Louvain
  artisans (src/findings.md) were his townsmen. The Mutuelle of the
  expelled "anarchists" and Goetsels's Louvain are two different
  secessions and should not be merged.

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