Josephine Desy Loupret 1839 - 1927

DESY, LOUPRET

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/11/2016 at 13:03:26

Sioux City Journal
18 May 1927

Resident Here 73 Years Dies

Mrs. Josephine Desy Loupret Passes Away at Age of 88

Mrs. Josephine Desy Loupret, who had the distinction of having lived in Sioux City 73 years-longer than any other Sioux City pioneer—died Tuesday at the home of her son, C.A. Desy, 113 West Seventeenth Street.

Mrs. Loupret died of infirmities brought on by advanced age following a lingering illness. She was 88 years old. Since 1854, when Mrs. Loupret first came to Sioux City, she had made her home here.

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, February 17, 1839, Mrs. Loupret lived there several years, when she came to Iowa with her parents and settled on a farm near Sidney, Iowa.

In the early 50’s the Sioux City pioneer, then a young girl named Josephine Jiggar, lived with her parents on a farm near Sidney. It was one of the early day French homes and the family was popular with the neighbors for miles around. To this home came a young French trapper named Louis H. Desy. He met Josephine, a pretty girl only 15 years of age, and the two fell in love with each other.

The wedding of young Josephine and her lover was celebrated according to the fashion of the times, and the following autumn they moved to Sioux City, traveling across country with their household effects loaded on a wagon drawn by two teams of horses in real emigrant style.

Built Store Here

Mr. Desy was a fur trader with a desire to advance in the world and he had decided that Sioux City incorporated a few years before, would become a good trading “post.” He located in a log house on Leech Street and started a general store, which proved popular with the settlers and Indians who lived within trading radius. Five children were born to this couple and grew up in the cozy Leech Street home.

The lives of Josephine and her husband were very busy, yet they found time for some merriment and pioneer parties. Both enjoyed riding horse-back and competed with each other in racing horses. Josephine, who was a daring rider, usually won the races, which were gay, good humored contests, adding to the pleasures of those days. Mr. Desy was a veteran of the Indian War of 1865. He died 50 years ago. About 13 years after her first husband’s death the widow married Dona Loupret, also of French descent. Death claimed the second husband in less than two years and since the Mrs. Loupret had made her home with her children.

73 Descendants

A census taken of Mrs. Loupret’s descendants gives 5 children, 22 grandchildren, 45 great grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

The five children are: C.A. Desy, of Sioux City and J.S. Desy of Denver, Colo., and three daughters, Mrs. L.A. Tillotson of Sioux City, Mrs. Josephine Quinn of Burbank, S.D. and Mrs. Emma Dickson of Rupert, Idaho.

The body is at the Desy residence pending funeral arrangements, which are in charge of Kidd’s undertaking establishment.