.-c^ 
 
 /Jf^..^ J 
 
 t&k'-j{ 
 
The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031775012 
 
THE FAMILY 
 
 MRS. LOUISE E. BETTENS 
 
 BORN ROCHAT 
 
 AND OF 
 
 ALEXANDER BETTENS 
 
New York, February 27 1918 
 
 Dr. CharIvES W. Ei<iot 
 Cambridge 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Dear Mr. Ei<iot 
 
 To obtain some information of the Rochat who 
 settled in Virginia about the year 1800, or prior 
 thereto, a pamphlet has been printed to be sent 
 to some of my Rochat relatives, and to others. 
 A copy is enclosed. A few corrections in, and 
 additions to, the letter dated February 7 1918 
 written by me to you, have been made in the copy 
 of that letter as printed. 
 
 Sincerely 
 
 Edward D. Bettens 
 
Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 S February 1918. 
 
 Dear Mr, Bettens: 
 
 I thank you for another very beautiful book* 
 in commemoration of your mother. It is an 
 interesting collection of characteristic letters put 
 into printed form in a manner which is likely to 
 preserve them for the benefit of future genera- 
 tions. 
 
 The name Rochat suggests a French strain in 
 your family. To what race or stock did Alex- 
 ander Bettens belong? In our country it is 
 always interesting to know the family or racial 
 stock of remarkable persons, particularly in cases 
 of apparent admixture of different stocks. 
 
 I am, with many thanks, 
 
 Sincerely yours 
 
 Charles W, Eliot 
 
 Edward D, Bettens, Esq, 
 
 *The book '%ouise E. Bettens", published in 1918 for private 
 distribution. 
 
New York, February 7, 1918. 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, 
 
 Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 Dear Mr. Eliot: 
 
 Your letter of 5th instant received. 
 
 THE ROCHATS 
 
 My mother's grandfather Rochat (perhaps it 
 was her great grandfather) came from Paris, 
 France about 100 or more years ago and settled 
 in Virginia. His wife Ernestine Guineaud was 
 born in the Pays de Vaud, Switzerland. Their 
 son Jacob Rochat (or was it their grandson?) 
 settled on a farm near Ghent, Kentucky and 
 married Nancy Furness. Nancy Furness was 
 born in Kentucky, but her parents came from 
 Northumberland, England, and, at first, settled 
 in Virginia. One of the children of Jacob and 
 Nancy Furness Rochat was Louise Emeline 
 Rochat, my mother, born January 7, 1827, on 
 her father's farm, near Ghent, Kentucky. She 
 died in New York City March 23, 1914. 
 
 THE BETTENS 
 
 In the year 1801 my grandfather, Philip 
 Bettens, came to this country from the Canton 
 de Berne, Switzerland and settled on a farm in 
 Vevay, Indiana. I do not know the family name 
 or nationality of his wife Rose. One of their 
 
children was Alexander Bettens, born April 10th, 
 1811, in Vevay, Indiana, where he died August 
 11, 1870. Louise E. Rochat and Alexander 
 Bettens intermarried, in Vevay, January 31, 
 1843. Their children, all born in Vevay, were 
 as follows: 
 
 ' FRANK. BORN JANUARY 14. 1844 
 
 DIED IN CINCINNATI, OHIO. MARCH lO, 1864 
 
 ROSE. BORN MAY 10, 1846 
 
 DIED IN VEVAY, JUNE 23. 1849 
 
 THOMAS SIMMS. BORN MARCH 6, 1851 
 
 DIED IN BAR HARBOR. MAINE. JULY 2. 1907 
 
 EDWARD DETRAZ (MYSELF) BORN APRIL II. 1848. 
 
 VEVAY, INDIANA 
 
 Vevay, Indiana was named after Vevai, 
 Switzerland. In the year 1801 seven Swiss 
 families (one of them Philip Bettens and his 
 family) came together from Switzerland and 
 settled in Vevay, Indiana, where they began the 
 cultivation of grapes. 
 
 When I was about seven years old I left Vevay 
 and have never revisited it. 
 
 Edward Eggleston, the author of the "Hoosier 
 Schoolmaster," and his brother George, an edi- 
 torial writer on New York papers, as boys lived 
 in Vevay, Indiana, when Louise E. Rochat was 
 a girl there. ; 
 
 Some years ago George Eggleston visited 
 Vevay, Indiana and wrote a description of it. 
 That description is in a quarto volume of inlaid 
 letters and illustrations, entitled "Louise E. 
 Bettens", now on deposit, with other books, in 
 
a case in the Treasure Room of the Widener 
 Library, Harvard College. A single star on the 
 back of this volume is its distinguishing mark, 
 but that volume can be considered as the Family 
 Book as it contains some family incidents. 
 
 Another quarto volume of inlaid letters and 
 illustrations, in that case, entitled "Louise E. 
 Bettens", marked on its back with two stars, can 
 be called the Pupils Book, as it contains letters 
 from pupils of my brother Thomas Simms 
 Bettens. 
 
 A third quarto volume of inlaid letters and 
 illustrations, in that case, entitled "Louise E. 
 Bettens", marked on its back with three stars, 
 can be called the Harvard Book, as it contains 
 letters from Harvard men, and Harvard 
 memorabilia. 
 
 A fourth quarto volume of inlaid letters and 
 illustrations, in that case, entitled "Louise E. 
 Bettens", has no star on its back. It contains 
 copies of letters to intimate friends written dur- 
 ing my mother's last sickness. 
 
 There is a fifth quarto volume of inlaid letters 
 and illustrations, entitled "Louise E. Bettens", 
 bound in full red crushed levant, tooled, with 
 doublure and silk fly leaves. It contains some 
 incidents of my mother's life. That fifth volume 
 is in a case, in the Louise E. Bettens Room in 
 the Phillips Brooks House, Harvard College. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Edward D. Bettens. 
 
Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 8 February 1918. 
 
 Dear Mr. Bettens: 
 
 Your letter of February 7th giving me the 
 details about the nationality of your forebears 
 interests me very much. The French strain in 
 you is strong. Could you riot add to the state- 
 ment you have already ijiade about your mother's 
 origin whatever information you have concern- 
 ing the religion of her French ancestors ? Were 
 they Catholics or Protestants ? 
 
 I should think that you would feel a strong 
 inclination to see with your own eyes Vevay, 
 Indiana, the town you left at the age of seven 
 and have never revisited. I should think it would 
 be interesting to get a good photograph of the 
 house in which your father and mother lived in 
 that town. Would it not be possible also for you 
 to ascertain where the Rochats settled in Vir- 
 ginia, and what kind of a life they lived there ? 
 These several inquiries might show whether your 
 mother was a eugenic product or a "sport" in 
 the natural history sense. You know there is 
 great interest now — an interest likely to increase 
 in the future — in all questions of this nature. 
 See the present talk about Lincoln in connection 
 with the Barnard statue of him. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 Edward D. Bettens, Esq. 
 
 S 
 
New York, February 9th, 1918. 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts.: , 
 
 Dear Mr. Eliot: 
 
 The little information that I have as to my 
 ancestors came to me from my Mother in Bar 
 Harbor a few years before she died. I asked for 
 it, because on the death of both of us, the Executor 
 of the will of the survivor would need it. But this 
 was for information as to heirs and next of kin. 
 
 Since her death I have had some correspond- 
 ence with cousins, on my mother's side, and also 
 on my father's side, with the same object in view. 
 
 I am now considering seeking for such in- 
 formation as your letter calls for. 
 
 Neither my Mother nor my Brother Thornas, 
 nor I, lived in the past. 
 
 During the whole of my life, from childhood, 
 it was the present and the future that was always 
 before me, and I believe always before my mother 
 and brother. I do not recall of ever being 
 curious, as to my ancestors, until recently. 
 
 The house in which I was born, long ago gave 
 way to another house. 
 
 The weeping willow tree at the gate on the 
 road skirting the Ohio river, the vineyard stretch- 
 ing from the road back on the farm, the five tall 
 pecan trees on the side of the house, and the 
 orchards reaching back to the hill, may or may 
 not be there now. Perhaps that homestead should 
 remain my Yarrow Unvisited. 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Edward D. Bettens. 
 
During the war of 1812, the English army 
 invaded Virginia, and destroyed most of the 
 official Virginia records. This makes it difficult 
 to get information, from the official records of 
 Virginia, of the Rochat, from France, and the 
 Furness, from England, who settled in Virginia, 
 prior to 1812. 
 
New York, February 13, 1918 
 
 Dr. Charles W. Euot, 
 
 Cambridge, Massachusetts. 
 
 Dear Mr. Eliot: 
 
 About 1908 I read, in the New York World, 
 a description of Vevay, Indiana, by Mr. George 
 Gary Eggleston. As it may interest you, I 
 enclose a copy. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Edward D. Bettens. 
 
VEVAY 
 INDIANA 
 
 I have made a discovery, I have found and 
 studied the very prettiest, happiest, and in its 
 unambitious way, the most prosperous small 
 town I ever saw. I have seen there an almost 
 ideal object lesson in the municipal ownership of 
 public utilities. 
 
 The town is Vevay, Indiana. It lies on the 
 Ohio River, about midway between Cincinnati 
 and Louisville. I was born there and I have 
 been revisiting the town after an absence of 
 forty-five years. 
 
 The county of which Vevay is the seat has not 
 one foot of railroad within its borders. The 
 town has no factories. And yet its people, less 
 than three thousand in number, are enviably well 
 to do. They have two banks and three pros- 
 perous weekly newspapers. Their homes are all 
 comfortable, and many of them luxurious. They 
 have a court house that would do credit, in its 
 architecture and its proportions, to a town twenty 
 times the size of Vevay. 
 
 Their main thoroughfare, leading down to the 
 river, and the broad wharf or levee, at its foot, 
 
 10 
 
are well paved with stone. All their other streets 
 are macadamized after the best modern methods, 
 and are kept in perfect order. So are all the main 
 country roads that lead out from the town into 
 the rich and highly cultivated farming regions 
 round about. 
 
 In all the residence streets there are perfectly 
 laid and perfectly kept sidewalks of artificial stone. 
 Everywhere the sidewalks are free even from 
 dust, and the streets clean enough to satisfy the 
 demands of a Waring. They are boarded on 
 either side with stately sycamores, tall elms and 
 broadly-spreading maples all zealously cared for 
 by the municipal authorities. In addition there 
 is' an adequate water-system supplying water in 
 lavish abundance for all uses. There is a tele- 
 phone system with astonishingly cheap rentals— 
 so cheap that almost every house of consequence 
 has an instrument in it. And there are long dis- 
 tance connections to Cincinnati, Louisville and 
 Indianapolis, and all towns between, at rates of 
 charges that would seem impossibly low to New 
 York. * * * Still further, there is an electric 
 light plant which furnishes light so cheaply that 
 no Gas Company can exist in the town. The 
 municipal tax rate of a people who enjoy all these 
 benefits * * * jg Q^jy q^^ pgj. cent, and the 
 growing profits of the municipality from the 
 
 11 
 
telephone and electric light plants promise, 
 within a year or two, to reduce even that tax by 
 one-half. 
 
 AH this is the result of the municipal owner- 
 ship of public utilities, under the vigilant 
 scrutiny of an alert public opinion, acting in per- 
 fect harmony for the public good. * * * 
 There is no such thing as pauperism in this well 
 ordered Community. * * * i^j^g town is 
 ve^y slightly more populous now than it was when 
 I knew it, half a century ago. But it has enjoyed 
 the immeasurably better growth in beauty, 
 comfort and social enjoyment. Now, as then, the 
 sole business of Vevay's people is to exchange the 
 goods that prosperous farmers need, for the 
 products they dig out of the soil, and to send the 
 latter to larger markets for sale. But there was 
 little of beauty in Vevay then, little comfort and 
 some rather squalid poverty. * * * 
 
 George Gary Eggleston. 
 
 12 
 
New York, February 10, 1918. 
 
 Dr. Charles M. Green, 
 78 Marlborough Street, 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
 Dear Doctor : 
 
 Your affectionate letter of 8th inst. moves me greatly. 
 Tonight W. S. Beaman H, 72 and S. B. Clarke H 74 
 dine with me. It is my intention to read to them your 
 letter, and to discuss with them two letters, received 
 by me last week, from Dr. Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 Dr. Eliot is deeply interested in the ancestors of my 
 Mother — the Rochats. Your letter touches on the "life 
 eternal". Dr. Eliot and you arouse my thoughts. 
 
 My life has been in this world (and particularly the 
 world around me). As an infant and a very young child, 
 food, comfort and affection, probably satisfied me. As 
 I grew older, and my mind developed, I, to some extent, 
 took an interest in others, and had some concern for 
 them. 
 
 Soon it began to dawn on me that this life meant 
 effort on my part, a struggle with and against others. 
 I learned to love work, whatever it was, whether at 
 home, in the school, in games, or out in the world earn- 
 ing some money. This love for work, for its own sake, 
 and because the object in view, was to help my Mother, 
 made my mind — not exactly a blank — but unconcerned 
 about my ancestors and about the "life eternal." But 
 Dr. Eliot's letters have aroused my curiosity as to who 
 was the Rochat who came from Paris, France about the 
 year 1800 and settled in Virginia, and whose son (or 
 grandson) was Jacob, the father of my mother. 
 
 So your letter takes me back, not to the time of the 
 French Revolution, but to the entrance to the World of 
 Spirits, and there I stand with head bowed and silent. 
 
 Very sincerely, 
 
 Edward D. Bettens. 
 
 13 
 
New York, February 25, 1918. 
 
 Miss Eleanor C. O'Connell, 
 Woodward High School, 
 Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 Dear Miss O'Connell: 
 
 Your letter of 23 rd inst. gives me unalloyed 
 pleasure, for you are using the books,* given by 
 me to Woodward High School, as I want them 
 to be used. The character of my mother and 
 brother should be brought to the attention of 
 the pupils, and t^e pupils, at the same time, can 
 learn something of the art of bookmaking in the 
 United States. 
 
 A few years ago, a gentleman connected with 
 the publishers, Charles Scribners' Sons, lectured, 
 in different cities in this country, on books and 
 book making. He carried with him the book 
 Thomas Simms Bettens, a copy of which is in the 
 Graduates Room of Woodward High School, and 
 used it, in his lectures, as a fine example of the 
 art of book making in this country. 
 
 Sincerely, • 
 
 Edward D. Bettens. 
 
 ♦The books 
 
 Thomas Simms Bettens 
 Mrs. Louise E. Bettens 
 Louise £. Bettens 
 
 14 
 
OLD SOUTH PARSONAGE 
 BOYLSTON ST.. BOSTON 
 
 February 
 nineteenth 
 1918 
 Dear Mr. BejttiJns :— 
 
 * Your touching and beautiful memorial volume 
 to your mother interests me deeply. Surely she 
 was worthy of this high praise and noble com- 
 memoration. 
 
 Your volume is an expression of true piety, in 
 the old Roman sense of the word, and your desire 
 to extend the precious influence of your mother in 
 this world is not only a happiness to you, but a 
 blessing to us all. 
 
 All that taste and skill and reverend, grateful 
 memory could do they have done in this exalted 
 and lovely tribute to your mother. 
 
 With grateful regard and true respect, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 GeiorgiC a. GoRDON.f 
 
 Edward D. B^TTi^NS, Esq. 
 130 West 87th St. 
 New York City 
 
 *The book Louise E. Bettens. 
 
 tPresident of the Harvard Alumni Association. 
 
 IS 
 
Cornell University Library 
 arW38552 
 
 3 1924 031 775 012 
 olin.anx 
 

 ', -rf^ •*>'^'"'y'' 
 
 
 .V«^ «r 
 
 f-fV* 
 
 i -^l^n 
 
 .t. 7 m