Early Bourbonnais

The Village of Bourbonnais is named after François Bourbonnais, Sr., an American Fur Company agent who arrived in the region in the early 1800s. Soon after, Noël Le Vasseur from Quebec established a trading post in “Bourbonnais Grove.” St. Viateur College (later subsumed by Olivet Nazarene University) was chartered in 1868 and the Village of Bourbonnais was incorporated in 1875.

French-Canadian music

According to the editor of The Ballads of Bourbonnais, as late as 1904 the Village was still very much a French-Canadian community. Three of the songs found in this translated collection, including “De cirque at Ol’ Ste. Anne,” first appeared in The Century Magazine, a popular monthly.

The song “Aux Illinois” originated in the Gaspé Peninsula but was based on a French army marching song. It also migrated to Louisiana, where it referred to the countryside near Lafayette. In both versions, a very pretty girl selects one suitor, to the dismay of another. The French-Canadian folk-rock group Garolou popularized “Aux Illinois” in the late 1970s.