(Also see note about David Ruesel's brother Alfred Ruesel)

He was Born in France, grew up in a wealthy family, and use to cut through the courtyards of the neighboring homes on his way home from school. The province was Lorient. His family members were of the Huguenot Religion or faith. Even though the family was wealthy they didn't care for the way those who had wealth treated the poor. Peter always stood up for human rights. Poor children were seen walking the streets in their bare feet in the cold of winter while the monks of the Catholic Church were extremely well fed and had all the drink that they wanted and a warm place to live in the winter.

Peter was vary much against this extreme. He would tell of the times, while walking from school, when he would pass the Monastery's. And a shaft of light would shine across the snow from the low windows in the Monastery's and he would look in and see the monks eating abundant amounts of food. He would feel sad remembering the poor striving to survive. It wasn't just the monks that were in the position to better help the poor. This was going on in other ways and in other parts of the country but this was the story Peter told of his own personal experience as a child. He never forgot what seemed so unjust.

Marbihan Gate, Lorient, France

Peter's father was in the French Army and was killed in what Peter's Grandfather felt was a senseless and unjust political war. With the pain of the loss of a son, Peter's Grandfather made plans to save his Grandson from what could havebeen a dismal future and almost certain death. Peter, at age 13 was old enough to be recruited into the army. Peter's Grandfather took him from the wealthy environment that he grew up in and together made sail in one of his Grandfather's import/export ships. The wealth in the family came from his successful shipping business. They left the winding staircase and chandeliers and all the wealth behind as they started their adventuresome trip into the future.

Merchant harbor, Lorient, France

Peter spoke of the trade wind areas as a time when their vessel would sit in calm waters and for days on end wouldn't move. Also, there were the rough seas and the times he had to be tied to the mast to be kept from being swept overboard. Sometimes they had to eat sparsely due to the food consumed during the times they were in the trade winds. They ate hardtack, which was a vary hard and dense cake made from seeds and grains. It was nourishing but wasn't the best tasting food in the world as they didn't have refrigeration to preserve it. 

They traveled to Australia. He talked of when he saw the natives eat red ants off the trees. They traveled to other ports around the world until coming to Canada where he met the woman he would wed. He eventually ended up in New York City and worked as a tailor. His wife didn't have much education but was one who was compassionate to others needs. He either married her in Canada and moved to New York or moved first and went back to Canada to marry her and then brought her to New York. He loved her with all his heart and always for as long as they lived he treated her with respect. Even when smoking his choice of tobacco he would step out on the back porch and only smoked inside in the winter. She didn't mind him smoking in the house yet this was one way he could show his respect for her. He always found ways to make her laugh. Even when he was 65 he would chase her around the house finding ways to get a giggle out of her. On a sleepy Saturday afternoon after a weeks work he would smoke his pipe and walk up to his pet cannery whom he had named Petie-dink and clean the cage. And when his wife thought he was in a certain spot in the house he would hide behind a door and when she walked buy he would jump out and scare her. And they would chase each other around the house laughing and carrying on with all sorts of jokes on each other.

He became a socialist in this country and always worked for the betterment of mankind. He moved to Rochester, New York and both worked for George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak Company. He worked in the shipping department at Kodak and every day when George Eastman walked through the department to his office he would stop and pay particular attention to Peter. They had become friends and Mr. Eastman as with everyone else in the company thought highly of Peter.

Peter's wife Sophie became a part-time cook in George Eastman's home located on Eastman Ave. and has since become known as the The George Eastman House and The International Museum of Photography. She use to tell stories of how the organ would have to be played every morning at breakfast and how the silverware would have to be perfectly placed on the table. He wanted things in order. He was vary methodical and wanted everything perfect.

Sophie was brought up in a poor family in Wales and had the same respect as many of those who are poor have for those who have wealth. Wealth always seemed to put the poor in awe. Peter had a chest that he brought to the United States. And it was filled with things that he had collected from all over the world. While living in New York City it was stolen and he never was able to share the collection with his offspring. I surmise that we all envisioned what the truck must have looked like after so many time of being splashed with salt water. I say we... I was an only child but Peter's other grand children like me only had the radio as a distraction to family stories. We didn't have television...only radio. And his children, like my mother didn't have even the radio. So, entertainment much of the time came in the form of family history and books. Peter was the kindest man... bald headed... smoked Prince Albert tobacco... and would sit at a golden oak table and play Dominos with his son-in-law, my father Ralph Warren Coon.

Peter was a great one for sticking up for the down and out poor people. He was not wealthy. Even though his family had a lot of wealth that was left back in France. He would go to the political rally at Convention Hall in Rochester and sometimes speak to the crowds about helping the poor and the audience would cheer his words. He spoke with passion. My Grandfather David Peter Ruesel died at about the age of 82 of pernicious anemia. My Grandmother Sophie Ruesel died a few years later. I don't know what she died of.

Note: As mentioned above:

Peter's father was in the French Army and was killed in what Peter's Grandfather felt was a senseless and unjust political war. With the pain of the loss of a son, Peter's Grandfather made plans to save his Grandson from what could have been a dismal future and almost certain death. Peter, at age 13 was old enough to be recruited into the army. Peter's Grandfather took him from the wealthy environment that he grew up in and together made sail in one of his Grandfather's import/export ships. The wealth in the family came from his successful shipping business. They left the winding staircase and chandeliers and all the wealth behind as they started their adventuresome trip into the future.

They traveled to Australia. What was not mentioned was the fact that David Peter Ruesel had a brother by the name of Alfred Ruesel who also traveled on that ship. Alfred debarked in Melbourne, Australia.

Chances are the Ruesels traveled on board ship during a regular schedule of the import/export route. And, most likely followed the blue route from France around Africa to Melbourne, Australia and continued around South America and up to Canada before the Grandfather continued on back to France. COOK, JAMES James Cook (October 27, 1728- February 14, 1779) was a British explorer and astronomer who went on many expeditions to the Pacific Ocean, Antarctic, Arctic, and around the world.

This map shows various trips James Cook traveled almost 100 years prior to the Ruesel trip.

 

The last information found relating to David Ruesel's brother Alfred Ruesel was found on the internet at: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~hdharris/missingpeople.html

The Following Recounts History of the country and most likely effected Alfred Ruesel and became part the remainder of his life. We do not know at this time if he married or had any offspring to carry on the Ruesel blood line.

Aboriginal History

Ancient Aboriginal history is recorded orally by the stories and ceremonies of the numerous clan groups of Cape York Peninsula. These tell of hunting, gathering and nurturing the land, sea and resources of the region. While conflict was certainly part of traditional Aboriginal life, land conquest was not.

The oral history also records momentous events, such as rising sea levels, cyclones, droughts, fires and the coming of the Europeans.

Aboriginal history is also recorded in the distribution and populations of contemporary Aboriginal communities, which exist not only as the result of Aboriginal culture, society and traditional tenure, but as a result of European settlement with its attendant resource exploitation and occupation.

Many of the existing Aboriginal communities owe their survival to the establishment of missions from 1867. These missions enabled Aboriginal people to take refuge in the face of European occupation. They also provided education and health services, which were otherwise, not provided. Aboriginal culture and spirituality was challenged by Christianity, which was presented in the context of Western cultural attitudes. The most enlightened missionaries encouraged the maintenance of Aboriginal cultural practices, enabling Christian teaching to be inculturated within the indigenous religious and social customs. On some missions this cultural challenge was very dominant and in some cases attempts were made to extinguish Aboriginal cultural expression.

The earliest recorded contact between Aboriginal people of Cape York Peninsula and the European explorers occurred in 1606 when William Janz visited the Wik people at Cape Keer-weer. The Aboriginal inhabitants were defeated on several frontiers of European occupation, which expanded through Cape York Peninsula.

The first of these was the sea frontier, which though it did not directly dispossess Aboriginal people of their lands, severely disrupted social and economic life for coastal groups, especially on the eastern and northern coasts of Cape York Peninsula.

The need for Aboriginal labour on the bêche-de-mer, trochus, and pearling boats working the waters of the inner Barrier Reef and the Torres Strait in the nineteenth century involved abduction of able-bodied Aboriginal people and thus severely depleted the Aboriginal population on the east coast. Because the Gulf waters did not contain the vast quantities of maritime resources being exploited at that time on the east coast, there was no need for a similar labour force to be obtained on the west coast.

Accordingly, the Aboriginal population of the west coast communities (at Napranum, Aurukun, Pormpuraaw and Kowanyama) remains larger than that of the east coast. Although by current standards it has culturally inappropriate drawbacks, Queensland's Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 enabled many Aborigines to survive the consequences of European occupation. This Act refers to the fact that: ... great and widespread injury is being caused to the aboriginal and half-caste and other inhabitants of the Colony by the consumption of opium.

From the latter part of the nineteenth century, many Aboriginal people moved to missions, with some of them moving hundreds of kilometres from their homelands and subsequently living on land belonging to other clan groups who spoke different languages. These moves were at variance with Aboriginal custom and caused hitherto unknown conflict over land use. While some of this migration was voluntary as a direct consequence of European occupation, in many cases it was at the orders of "Protectors of Aboriginals" - orders that were not subject to redress.

The most recent relocation occurred in 1963 when the Aboriginal residents of Mapoon on the west coast were forcibly moved to a new place near Bamaga, which was called New Mapoon. Also in the mid 1960s, an opportunity was given to the people resident at Lockhart River Mission to move to the Northern Peninsula Area and a small number of people voluntarily established the new community of Umagico.

In 1970 the Queensland Government built a new village adjacent to Iron Range aerodrome, and the people of Lockhart River moved from the old mission site. The pastoral and mining frontiers also brought major and irrevocable change to Aboriginal land use on Cape York Peninsula.

The pastoral industry physically displaced traditional owners from their homelands, a process which was often assisted by the use of military-style punitive actions against Aboriginal groups that resisted the takeover of their lands. Although no longer in control of their own country, many Aboriginal clans were able to maintain contact with their territory through being employed and accommodated by graziers on cattle stations.

The mining frontier was also characterised by conflict but, unlike the pastoral industry, mining tended to produce less long term benefits for Aboriginal people. Until recently, there was little incentive for the mining industry to negotiate agreements with Aboriginal people over the use of their traditional country. On the west coast at Weipa, a large area of land which had been set aside as an Aboriginal Reserve was converted to a mining lease following the discovery in 1955 of deposits of bauxite (aluminium ore). The 350,000-hectare Aboriginal Reserve was reduced to 124 hectares in 1959. The operator of the bauxite mine based on some of these deposits, Comalco, was required to surrender land from the Special Bauxite Mining Lease No 1 to the Queensland Government by 1997. This lease was reduced from 616,420 hectares to 259,000 hectares. While the surrendered land was not re-gazetted as Aboriginal Reserve, most of it was later incorporated by the Queensland Government into land holdings at Aurukun, Napranum and Mapoon communities.

In 1988 a Deed of Grant in Trust was issued to the Weipa Aboriginal Council (now called the Napranum Aboriginal Community Council). Over the last two decades, relations between mining companies and Aboriginal peoples have improved, as evidenced by royalty, compensation, employment and enterprise packages which have been negotiated at mines on Cape York Peninsula and in particular at the major mines at Weipa and Cape Flattery.

Despite a history of conflict, there have been some positive aspects of interaction between indigenous and non-indigenous cultures and there has been, at times, involvement in the enterprises introduced by settlers and their descendants over the last one hundred and fifty years. These enterprises include the pastoral, mining, maritime, tourism and service industries.

Recent changes in Aboriginal and Islander land tenure legislation and recognition of native title have given indigenous people a stronger position relating to land use on Cape York Peninsula.

In summary, the history of Aboriginal land use has involved:

• A period of some 50,000 years of subsistence during which land was managed and used in accordance with a complex set of cultural practices involving some ecological modification (principally by fire) and resource management which included a degree of replenishment. Over this period, climatic and topographic changes had significant influences over the land.
• A period of almost 400 years since the coming of the first European explorers and later colonists, during which the Aboriginal people were largely dispossessed of their land and their culture was greatly modified. During this time, the community structure has undergone significant change and the Aboriginal population declined. Over recent years this population has started to increase.
• Periodic involvement in mainstream European land use, particularly in the pastoral, mining, tourism and service industries.

• three waves of settlement beginning in the 1860s with pastoralists and miners, followed by wartime use by American and Australian service personnel and culminating in a third wave of visitors seeking a wilderness experience
• the waxing and waning of the size of resident communities as mining ventures upon which they depended underwent periods of prosperity and decline
• fluctuations in the area's pastoral industry through heavy dependence on external prices
• short lived agricultural experiments in sugar and rice production in the 1880s and more recent involvement in broadacre legume pastures and other agricultural development.

Torres Strait Island Influences

The CYPLUS study area includes the continental islands of the Muralug Archipelago (Prince of Wales Group) north of Cape York Peninsula. A history of the study area therefore includes some of the history of the people of the Torres Strait and their contact with European explorers, sailors, fishermen and settlers since the 1600s. This contact has had both peaceful and violent aspects.

The Muralug Archipelago is the home of the Kaurareg people who identify as an Aboriginal tribe. Their traditional country included the islands and the surrounding sea. Frequent visits were made to this area by people from other continental islands to the north including Badu, Nagir and Moa as well as Aboriginal people from the mainland. In 1921 the Kaurareg people who were then living on Kiriri (Hammond Island) were forcibly moved to Moa Island to the north. Some Kaurareg continued to inhabit Ngarupai (Horn Island) and plans to remove them to Moa Island in the 1930s were resisted.

The main Kaurareg settlements presently in the region are Kubin Village on Moa Island and Wasaga Village on Ngarupai. Following the Second World War, many of the indigenous people of Saibai (a low swampy island near the Papuan coast at the northern-most part of Queensland) voluntarily relocated to the mainland, and a settlement was established at Bamaga near Cape York.

Some Saibai Islanders chose to live on the coast and established the village of Seisia near where a wharf had been built during the War. Although these settlements are physically located on the traditional country of mainland Aboriginal people, they are administratively regarded as being part of the Torres Strait. The residents of Seisia and Bamaga retain strong links with the people and culture of Saibai Island.

In summary, the history of Torres Strait Islander land use has involved:

• A period of more than one thousand years of subsistence based on the islands and waters of the Torres Strait. Torres Strait Islanders managed and used the resources of the area in accordance with a complex set of cultural practices. Resource management included fishing, hunting, food gathering and agriculture.
• A period of at least 390 years since the first contact with European explorers. From the early nineteenth century sporadic and continuing contact was made by passing European ships. Crews of these ships traded with Torres Stait Islanders for water and food.
• Recent (post World War II) establishment of Torres Strait Islander communities on northern Cape York Peninsula.
• Extensive involvement in the maritime industry including commercial fishing, pearl and trochus shelling and gathering of bêche-de-mer.