A Sugar-Sweet Family Reunion

Stuff We Love

Aug. 31, 2024

Family reunions are lots of work, but the payoff is lots of fun and new information about our common ancestry. Still, how many of us can trace our relatives back more than 130 years…and bring dozens of them together today? Frenchman Emile Brysselbout and his brother-in-law Henry Vallez were pioneers in the development of the sugar industry in America in the late 1800s. Among other roles in the industry, Brysselbout helmed Michigan Sugar Company (aka Big Chief or Pioneer Sugar), a massive sugarbeet operation headquartered in Bay City. This August, well over 100 descendents of Brysselbout and Vallez gathered in Traverse City. They came from across the country to celebrate first at a cousin’s property on Cedar Lake, then at Mission Table, followed by Jazz at Sunset at Chateau Chantal on the Old Mission Peninsula, and finally, in Williamsburg at Gather. How sweet it is!