The Trials of Joe Jefferson, Eight-Year-Old Runaway

        

To escape a brutal stepfather, an eight-year-old boy named Joseph Geoffrion in 1835 crossed the border from Canada into the United States, giving up any chance of an education and remaining illiterate all of his life.  In front of him lay a boyhood eking out a living far from home, Civil War service, and the premature deaths of a wife and five young children.  Renaming himself “Joseph Jefferson,”  the runaway persevered, building a liquor business that provided his surviving children with a comfortable home and the benefits of the education he had been denied.  His photo here hints of his trials.

Born in Varennes, Quebec, in February 1827, Joe was the fourth of five sons born to Julie (Girard) and Pierre Geoffrion.  When his father died three years later, his mother quickly remarried.  The stepfather provided harsh and, according to family lore, the boy left home rather than endure his abuse. Speaking little English he settled in Plattsburgh, New York.  Originally part of a settlement known as New France, Plattsburgh had many French Canadian residents, some of whom may have taken the runaway boy under their wing.

Over the following decade the record is silent on Jefferson until October 1845 when he married Adeline Venette in Plattsburgh.  Joe was 18 and Adeline, known as “Appoline,” was 16 at the time of their nuptials.  Their first son, Joseph H., was born two years later and would live into maturity.  Of their next six children, three would die before the age of 15, one in infancy.  Each death was a painful loss. 

Sometime after 1858 the family moved to Chicopee, Massachusetts where Joe and Adeline, opened a boarding house, welcoming eight boarders.  This occupation apparently did not prove suitable and in 1864 the Jeffersons moved  to Springfield, Massachusetts where Joseph enlisted in the Union Army.  He held the rank of private in the 30th Massachusetts Unattached Heavy Artillery Regiment. 

 The unit encamped on Gallops Island in Boston Harbor, shown here, for basic training and subsequently was sent to Washington, D.C. for the duration of the war. Private Jefferson saw no combat but worked in a government arsenal as a “moulder,” a foundry worker making guns and ammunition for the Union cause.  After the war Jefferson returned to Springfield with $190.66 service pay, according to Army records.  

Two years later Adeline died. Joseph mourned her passing

but needing a mother for his children, remarried in 1869.  His new wife was Euphemia, known as “Phoebe,” Woods, born in Quebec in 1839.  She had come to the U.S. as a teenager, working as a skilled weaver in the clothing mills of Massachusetts.  Thirty-years-old, twelve years younger than Joseph, and not previously married, Euphemia was accounted a diligent mother and good homemaker.  The couple would have four children but death once again would take two prematurely. A joint gravestone reveals the sad story of five Jefferson children's premature deaths.

The formal portrait taken circa 1885 shows members of the surviving family.  Standing from left is Albert, Charles and Marie Louise.  Seated from left is Euphemia, Louis, Anna, and Joseph Jefferson.  The sedate formal setting belies the sorrows the family had experienced.

In an effort to provide for his growing family, Jefferson opened a saloon at 45 Railroad Street in Springfield and proved be a success as proprietor.  By 1880 he had opened a larger drinking establishment at 189 Main Street, adding a retail liquor store.  On the second floor Euphemia was running a boarding house. They called it “Jefferson House,” an indication that the runaway boy at last had arrived.

With the success of those enterprises, by 1890 the Jeffersons had moved to 67 Water Street.  Joe was advertising prominently in Springfield city directories, featuring yet a third business called Jefferson & Son, as his wholesale liquor business. Charles, a son from his first marriage, had joined him in business.   By 1894 the Jefferson House and Jefferson & Son had moved once again to 10 - 12 Bridge Street.  Ads from that period offer liquor, cigars, tobacco, billiards and pool at the now renamed Jefferson & Son Restaurant and Saloon.

Having shut down their boarding facilities, for the first time in their married life Euphemia and Joe were able to live separately from their business.  Joseph bought a spacious three story home at 37 Palmer Avenue in Springfield where he also was able to house his wife and family and two married daughters and their families. It is shown here as it looks today.

With the advent of the 20th Century,  Joseph, now in his seventies, retreated from his prosperous enterprises, closing his saloon and pool parlor and turning his liquor house over to son Charles.  The latter, taking John J. Deeley as a partner, renamed the business “Jefferson & Deeley, Wholesale Liquor Dealers,” and moved to 192 Worthington Street.  The firm took as its flagship whiskey, “Worthington Rye,” issuing advertising shot glasses to preferred customers. This company continued in business until at least 1916.

By this time, Joe Jefferson, age 86, had died in April 1913, following a five week illness.  After a funeral in his parish church, he was buried in Springfield’s St. Benedict’s Cemetery.  A large granite stone identifies his grave site and commemorates his Civil War service.  Lying near him are both Adeline and Euphemia, the latter having died in 1917.  

Deprived of an education and throughout his life unable to read or write, Jefferson had persevered, overcoming the hardships and sorrows that had befallen him.  A photograph taken during his old age shows Joseph at ease outside his home with a granddaughter at his shoulders. The scene is instructive. The eight-year-old runaway, a man who grew up without the comforts of a family, in the end had achieved a warm home, surrounded by a wife, children and grandchildren.

Notes:  A principal source for this post was an unattributed biography provided with the Joseph Jefferson memorial on the Internet “Find a Grave” site.  It also was the source of the photo of Jefferson that opens the vignette and of the grave monument.  The family portrait, again from the Internet, is attributed to “i_nolan” 2010.