9.0-R boots with undesirable utf

[Chuck Bacon]

MoBo:  ASUS M4A785TD-M EVO

uname -a:
FreeBSD tomato.local 9.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE #0: Tue Jan  3
07:46:30 UTC 2012    
root at farrell.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64

Boots up with an ungainly utf which presents 4-digit stuff where a single
is wanted.  Aging admin needs appropriate setenv '?' ISO-8859-1.
(Next question will be about jabber with re0 :-)