Monthly Bulletin - Vol. IV. N^o 5 - May 2024

Cover illustration:

From top to bottom, left to right: Auguste Chouteau, Pierre Laclède, Jean-Baptiste Pointe du Sable, Jean-Baptiste Beaubien, Noël Le Vasseur, his wife Watseka (Josette) Bergeron, Julien Dubuque and his wife Potesa, Joseph LaFramboise Sr., his wife Magdelaine LaFramboise, Daniel Marsac, Solomon Juneau, Jean Brunet, Antoine LeClaire, Joseph Nicollet, Alexandre Faribault, Joseph Renville, Joseph Robidoux IV, Laurent Bernard, Logan Fontenelle, Jean-Baptiste Didier, Louis Vieux, Antoine Barraque, Jean-Pierre Emmanuel Prudhomme, Pierre Menard, François Navarre, Alexis Coquillard, Pierre Navarre.

Last month we sailed in the Pacific Ocean, from Alaska to California, and from Hawai'i to present-day American Samoa. We are thankful for all the warm messages received. If this great navigator is a national celebrity of sorts in France, there are quite a few other French land explorers, pioneers and settlers, who are mostly forgotten on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet, in many ways, they contributed to building this great nation of ours and left their mark that can still be felt today.

In our March Bulletin "French Explorers of the West (Part 1, 1634-1804)" we narrated the 1634 expedition of Jean Nicolet and the 1659 expedition of Radisson and Groseillers to Wisconsin, the travels of Sieur Du Luth to Minnesota in 1678, the 1719 exploration of Kansas by Claude du Tisne, the 1722 exploration of Arkansas by Bernard de la Harpe, the 1742 Verendrye brothers expedition to South Dakota, as well as the stories of several French members of the Lewis & Clarke expedition of 1804.

We continue with this second of a series, this time paying tribute to "French pioneers and settlers of the American Frontier". Before the Far West, the West started in Saint Louis in Missouri. It is hard to imagine today that there was also an "Illinois Frontier", and that settlers were far and few between beyond this frontier, throughout the vast plains of the Midwest.

Are you familiar with any of the names on the cover illustration? Most likely not, and yet these men ventured to these lands and became early settlers, many years before the US Cavalry opened up forts further West, before the Native Indians populations were forced to relocate in new reservations, and waves of Europeans immigrants crossed these regions in covered wagons.

They all had French surnames, coming from France or Canada, and several were Metis, commercing and intermarrying with the Natives Indians for generations. All left a profound legacy. Their descendants all over these States are rightly proud of their great deeds and heritage.

We will continue our series in future months with other very colorful characters in the French Explorers of the Far West (1840-1890) and finally the French in Early California (1850-1920), which will surprise you.

At Le Souvenir Français, we travel across the oceans, the fruited plains, the mountains, and centuries as well. We pay tribute to all those whose deeds profoundly contributed to the joint history of France and the United States.

Our series honoring members of the Lafayette Flying Corps continues.

This month, we are paying tribute to Lt. James Alexander Bayne, who “Died for France” and whose remains rest at the Lafayette Escadrille Memorial in Marnes-la-Coquette just outside Paris.

We are about to embark on a period filled with numerous significant celebrations. Make sure to mark your calendar! The 80th Anniversary of D-Day holds a special place in our hearts, as we express our heartfelt gratitude to the brave survivors of that historic battle for freedom and democracy. In addition to this milestone, there are several other noteworthy events that deserve your attention and support, all of which are detailed in the latter part of this Bulletin. The Lafayette Bicentennial is currently in its final stages of preparation! We encourage you to stay updated on all the exciting events taking place across 24 States by visiting www.Lafayette200.org. The festivities will kick off on August 16th in New York, so be sure to join us in celebrating this momentous occasion.

Top: Illustration of early scene of the French settlement of Ste. Genevieve in its original location on the banks of the Mississippi River. Cropped from a mural painted in 1924 that is located in the Missouri State Capitol building in Jefferson City, MO. Artist: Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874–1952).

Bottom: Border Gateways, by Oscar E. Berninghaus (1937) depicting immigrants arriving in Kansas territory following the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Mural is located on the second floor of the Fort Scott, Kansas Federal Courthouse, By Oscar E. Berninghaus (1874-1952) - original painting is a work of the United States Department of the Treasury., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27766773

• Trying to narrate what happened in the years following the American Independence is difficult. History is not linear. Attempting to stick to a geographical combined with a chronological coherence is challenging. So much happened in a couple of generations! Many who were born French were subjected to Spanish governors after the French Bourbon monarchy temporarily gave Louisiana to the Spanish branch (The Sun King's Louis XIV second grandson Philippe became King Philip V of Spain, which explains this "family pact"). Many rebelled against the new authority and some even were executed. Then the French Republic took back Louisiana, only to sell it three years later to the United States in 1803 (Napoléon Bonaparte was First Consul of the French Republic, not yet crowned Emperor Napoléon I).

• The use of French language declined greatly after the turn of the 20th Century. By 1960, only a few hundred would still speak the "Missouri French" or "Illinois Country French" patois that is nearly extinct today.

Above:

Left: Portrait of Auguste Chouteau, one of the founders of St. Louis. The portrait is a copy taken from a miniature in a private collection that was painted in the late 1700s by an unidentified artist. Missouri History Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=61630770

Right: A portrait of Pierre Laclède, one of the founders of St. Louis, Missouri. Oil on canvas, by Harriet Hardaway (St. Louis, 1904-1994). This portrait is after a painting done in France in 1772. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3520678

• René-Auguste Chouteau Jr. (September 7, 1749, or September 26, 1750 – February 24, 1829), also known as Auguste Chouteau, established the city of St. Louis, Missouri, excelled as a fur trader, and engaged in politics. Together with his business associate Pierre Laclede, he held a dominant position in the fur trade with the prominent Osage tribe along the Missouri River for an extended period. His commercial ventures in St. Louis were diverse, and he maintained strong relationships with the ruling authorities of French, Spanish, and American descent.

• His extensive family became a powerful actor in settling the entire American West throughout the 19th Century.

• Marker, « Auguste Chouteau, Father of St Louis"

GPS: 38.655783, -90.303617

• Inscription:

“Born René Auguste Chouteau in New Orleans, he was raised by his stepfather, Pierre Laclède, and his mother, Marie Therèse Chouteau. As Laclede's clerk and Lieutenant, the 14-year-old Chouteau led the workers who began building St. Louis on February 15, 1764. He prospered as the village grew into a commercial hub, adapting to Spanish rule in 1770 and U.S. control in 1804. Diversifying into banking and real estate as the fur trade declined, Chouteau, the town's business and social leader, was the first board of trustees chairman upon its incorporation in 1809. As an early historian of the city wrote, "Laclede founded, and Auguste Chouteau built, St. Louis.”

Erected 1993 by St. Louis Walk of Fame. 

• Pierre Laclède Liguest or Pierre Laclède (1729 – 1778) was a French fur trader who, with his young assistant and stepson Auguste Chouteau, founded St. Louis in 1764, in what was then Spanish Upper Louisiana, in present-day Missouri. 

• He became quickly adept at trading with Indians and was sent with his young stepson Auguste Chouteau, aged 14, and a few companions by Gilbert Antoine de Saint-Maxent in 1763 to construct a trading post near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Since it was too marshy, he founded a trading post 18 miles south, and legend has it that St. Louis was founded on Saint Valentine's Day of 1764. 

• The St. Louis downtown riverfront area is named Laclede's Landing in his honor. He is also the namesake of Laclede County, Missouri. There is also a town, Laclede, Missouri, the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, to name a few sites and institutions honoring this great French settler.

• Marker, « Pierre Laclede », Founder of St Louis

GPS: 38.6353025,-90.3150808

• Inscription of marker:

Pierre Laclede and companions in the year 1764”

Erected 1923 by Saint Louis General Assembly

• Sidewalk marker,  Pierre Laclède 

GPS: 38.655883, -90.303317

• Inscription:

Erected 1993 by St. Louis Walk of Fame."

Above: Plate V: Old Chouteau Mansion, St. Louis. Mo approx. 21 x 28 cm. published by the artist and printed by Chambers and Knapp By John Caspar Wild - The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated in a Series of Views, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=113451481

Above:

Left: Cenotaph, Photo by OBXr Memorial ID 234084427

Right: Statue of Timothy Demonbreun, WPLN News . “Sculptor Alain Lequire. Plaque donated in memory of Dr. Truman Weldon Demonbrun, president of the Timothy Demonbreun Heritage Society 1977-1996”

• Jacques-Timothée Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun (1747 – 1826), anglicized as Timothy Demonbreun, was a French-Canadian fur trader, a Lieutenant in the American Revolution, and Lieutenant-Governor of the Illinois Territory.

• He is known as the "first citizen" of Nashville, Tennessee.

• Born in Québec, Demonbreun traveled extensively, became a successful trader with many employees, and managed two careers and two families. He fulfilled his duties as lieutenant governor of the Illinois Territory and maintained a family in Kaskaskia, Illinois. Demonbreun had five children by his wife, Therese Archange Gibault, in Illinois. During his time in Nashville, he took a mistress named Elizabeth Bennett and had three children by her.

• Marquis de Lafayette visited Nashville on May 4, 1825, during his farewell tour of the United States. Andrew Jackson presided over a banquet in his honor at the Nashville Inn. Jacques-Timothée, by then very elderly, conversed with the Marquis in their native French. When he died in 1826, Demonbreun divided his substantial fortune among his children.

• Nashville's monument to Jacques Timothe Boucher, Sieur de Montbrun (Timothy Demonbreun) was sculpted by Alan Lequire.

• Statue “Timothy Demonbreun“

GPS: 36.166433, -86.776433

• Inscription:

• Marker, “Timothy Demonbreun“

GPS: 36.161800, -86.776200

• Inscription

“Jacques-Timothé De Montbrun, born on Mar. 23, 1741, in Boucherville, Quebec, was the first white man to live in the Nashville area. Beginning in 1769, he spent several winters here trading for furs. He served as Lieut. Gov. of Illinois Country, 1783-86. He became permanent resident of Nashville in 1790, operating store & tavern. Died at home on this site, Oct. 30, 1826.”

“Erected 1971 by The Historical Commission of Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County”

• Plaque, “Jacques-Timothée Demonbreun”

GPS: 36.169817, -86.787400

• Inscription:

• Marker, “Demonbreun’s cave“ 

GPS: 36.161750, -86.773367

• Inscription:

Erected by Tennessee Historical Commission”

• Cenotaph, “Timothy Demonbreun“

GPS: 36.240827, -87.000594

• Inscription:

(Back):

• Plaque:

• It is impossible to refrain from including this portrayal of Timothée de Montbrun, similar to all the remarkable individuals who settled in the American Frontier during that era:

“Timothy Demonbreun lived many lives, held many offices, and accumulated much wealth in the standards of that era. He had dealings with important men like Colonel George Rogers Clark, James Robertson, and Andrew Jackson. He slept in comfortable beds in his house as a governor and also made the earth his bed during uncountable nights during the hunting seasons. He dealt with Spanish governors, frontier governors, and Indian leaders. He had a noble Catholic wife and a frontier mistress that some thought was half-Indian. He brushed death many times, but the nobleman of New France died without fanfare in a place that he had helped raise from an Indian hunting ground to a growing city in a new state. His name is synonymous with courage, honor, and self-sacrifice that is the hallmark of the pioneers that settled the Cumberland.”

Excerpts from "Timothy Demonbreun - the history and legacy" by Bunny Simmons, https://timothydemonbreun.com/Timothys_Story.html

Above: A group of Osage, illustration National Park Service, Public Domain

• The Osage people refer to themselves in their indigenous language as 𐓏𐓘𐓻𐓘𐓻𐓟 (Wazhazhe), or "Mid-waters" and are deeply connected to their spiritual beliefs.

• The French called them "nation des eaux sages", pronounced "o- sāj" which can be roughly translated as "calm water".

• Their religious practices revolve around the concept of Wah-kon-tah, the great mystery spirit or power. According to Osage oral traditions, the People of the Sky (Tzi-sho) and the People of the Earth (Hun-Kah) came together to form a unified tribe known as the Children of the Middle Waters (Nee Oh-kah-shkahn).

• The ancestral Osage were renowned for their hunting skills and were a formidable nation. Initially, they resided in villages along the Osage River. However, they also traversed the vast land between three significant rivers: the Missouri to the north, the Mississippi to the east, and the Arkansas to the south. Expanding their territory, they ventured into the windswept plains where they skillfully hunted buffalo.

GPS: 39.032350, -94.592383

• Inscription (side in English):

”A Frenchman, Pierre Esprit Radisson, wrote in 1659 of a nation "of extraordinary height and bigness” (the Osage) living up the Missouri River. Marquette and Joliet’s 1674 maps show the village of the Osage, and some of La Salle’s entourage wrote of the Osage in 1687. In 1724, Louis XV’s emissary, Sieur de Bourgmont, left Fort Orleans (at present Brunswick, Missouri) for the west with many Osage, and negotiated a Comanche treaty to open the trail to Santa Fe. In 1755, the Little Osage went east with the French to help defeat British General Braddock (and George Washington and Daniel Boone). Later, Osage Chief Pawhuska showed Lt. Zebulon Pike a scarlet coat and blond scalp taken in that battle. The French said the Osage had much “amour propre” (i.e. pride). The Osage grew more and more obstreperous, culminating in the “Osage War” of 1793 which stifled trade on the Missouri. In 1794, Spanish Governor Carondelet ordered the St. Louis Chouteaus to build a fort among the Osage, in southwest Missouri, cut off their trade, and eradicate them. But the Osage were their best customers – and in-laws! So the Chouteaus secretly diverted trade goods to them and the Osage boasted that Fort Carondelet was built at their request and that they owned it. It soon closed, however, and the U.S. took little to Louisiana in 1803. After Fort Osage was built on the Missouri near Kansas City in 1808, the Little Osage moved there en masse for two years, and the Big Osage visited periodically, inhibiting the Osage business of the French until it closed in 1822. Ferry owner Peter Roi improved what became Wornall Road to the south. Eventually it reached to the French-speaking entrepots of Pappinville and Trading Post on the Marais des Cygnes (march of the Swans) River in Osage county far to the South. The French traders said the Osage liked “pantoufles sauvage” (i.e. savage slippers – moccasins). The Osage called the future Kansas City “Sho-To-To-Wan” – Chouteau’s Town. “Big Oil” was found on the Osages’ later Oklahoma tribal land, and they drove the most expensive Cadillacs and Pierce Arrows – amour proper still!” - Erected by the Chouteau Society"

• Relationships with the French are still strong today. There is an interesting story related in Osage News of August 2, 2013:

"William Least Heat-Moon, author of the book, “An Osage Journey to Europe, 1827-1830: Three French Accounts,” gave a history of the relationship to the crowd at the dedication. He said in 1826, the Osage and French were becoming intertwined as they traded and intermarried in Missouri. A voyage to France was to take place in 1827 and 12 Osages were invited to go. These 12 Osages, along with three Americans and a French guide, traveled to the East Coast to set sail. Along the way six Osages turned back after one of their rafts overturned in the Neosho River. In 1827 six Osages set sail for France, four men and two women. After three months at sea, they arrived in Le Havre, France on July 27, 1827.

“In France the Osages found themselves lionized as ‘noble savages.’ They went to the theater, rode in a hot-air balloon, and even had an audience with the king of France,” according to an excerpt from Least Heat-Moon’s book. “Many Europeans ogled them as if they were exhibits in a freak show. As the entourage moved through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, interest in the Osages declined. Soon they were reduced to begging in the suburbs of Paris, without the means to return home. It was during this time that one of the Osage women gave birth to twin girls. A Belgian, according to Least Heat-Moon, adopted one of the girls. The group made their way to southern France and ended up in Montauban. Starving and begging, they were taken in by Bishop Dubourg. Dubourg and the people of the town restored the Osages to health and arranged safe passage back to the Americas. On the journey, two Osage men died of smallpox." https://osagenews.org/osages-honor-historical-french-connection-with-monument/

• Marker, “Friendship Between the Osage and the Occitan of Montauban”

GPS: 36.667683, -96.339767

• Inscription: 

“In November 1829, three Osages arrived in Montauban, the Occitan Region of France. Little Chief, Big Soldier and Hawk Woman crossed the Old Bridge, received help from Bishop Dubourg, and with the generosity of the people of Montauban they were able to return to the Osage.

Erected 2013.

Above: François Chouteau & Native American Heritage Monument

GPS: 39.165460, -94.533349

Left: https://kcparks.org/places/francois-chouteau-native-american-heritage-monument/

Right: By Smuckola - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138445425

• François Gesseau Chouteau, nephew of Auguste Chouteau, (born in Saint Louis on February 7, 1797 - died in West Port - Kansas City on April 18, 1838) was a prominent figure in American history as a pioneer fur trader, entrepreneur, and influential community leader recognized as the "Father of Kansas City". He established the initial fur trading post in the untamed wilderness of western Missouri. His first spouse belonged to the Osage Nation and gave birth to a son, while his second wife, Bérénice, was the mother of nine children.

• There are numerous bilingual French & English markers in Kansas City that narrate the birth and development of this "gateway" to the American West.

• Marker «The Old Chouteau Trading Post /

GPS: 39.109287, -94.581105

• Inscription:

“In 1821, Francois and Berenice Chouteau arrived from St. Louis to establish Kansas City's first commercial emporium, the "Chouteau Trading Post", and in effect to found Kansas City. Francois was the grandson of Pierre Laclede, founder of St. Louis, and his wife Berenice was the daughter of Pierre Menard, a prominent man of French descent. French traders and soldiers had gone upriver as far as the Platte, starting as early as 1680. In its earliest years, the location of the Post was called "Chez les Canses" -- meaning "at the village of the Kansa" -- and later it was referred to simply as "Chouteau's." The first Chouteau personnel, including Francois' assistant, Louis (GrandLouis) Bertholet, who arrived in 1820, located on the North bank of the Missouri River. Some remained there after the Post was erected on the South bank.

Erected by The Chouteau Society and The City of Kansas City

• Marker «The French Bottoms - Early Day Kansas City”

GPS: 39.093550, -94.605117

• Inscription (excerpts):

“One of America’s oldest and most prestigious livestock expositions, the American Royal, is situated in the very spot where Kansas City, the gateway to the agricultural West, had its beginnings. This little French-speaking enclave below the imposing bluffs, still today sometimes called the French Bottoms, was settled in the very early 1800’s by French-Indians who came down from the Northern Missouri River with their Blackfoot wives. They were part of the genesis of the vast cornucopia of riches of food and fiber which was to become the American West”...  

...” These country French had week “bals” where the tasty pot de boullion and friendly cup of wine went around and the chansons and fiddles and laughter rang out. But after the great flood of 1844, all was washed away, and the village priest said that all one could hear wafting up from the little French clearings were the songs of the birds and the chattering of the squirrels”... Erected by  Chouteau Society & the Mildred Lane Kemper Fund

• Marker « Kansas City's Old Square / Le Vieux Carré de Kansas City”

GPS: 39.109287, -94.581105

• Inscription:

“Like New Orleans' "Vieux Carre," Kansas City's old market square and its surrounding Old Town streets in River Quay are oriented on the bias to the river in the Old World fashion, rather than on the strict east-west Yankee survey. That is because when Francois Chouteau, the French-speaking founder of what is now Kansas City, first laid out his trading post and adjoining trails in 1821, the Missouri river was his superhighway to St. Louis and to the Northwest hinterland. The scattered French settlers who first permanently occupied Kansas City, around 1799, together with those who came with the Chouteaus in the early 1800s, maintained fields extending from the west (on Quality Hill) and up the hill from their cabins located eastward down along the Missouri. These tracts backed up to this open area, which formed a sort of "common fields." Unlike St. Louis, it was not fenced, and was not formally maintained.

All this open area and adjacent land (114 acres) was claimed by an enterprising French grocer, farmer and tavern owner, Gabriel Prudhomme (from whom a number of Kansas Citians are descended) and he was given a patent to the land. Prudhomme, who showed much promise, was not destined to develop Kansas City, however. In 1831 he was "shot in a free fight by some fellow Canadians. It was a fierce brawl. When the fight was over there were many wounds and much blood spilt, and Prudhomme lay on the ground, still and dead." Thus it was that on the widow Prudhomme's land the "Town of Kansas" was platted in 1846 and, since the old residents, both French and American, probably had some informal community claim to the general area where the Market Square now stands, it is not surprising that it was dedicated as the square or village green of the new town.”

Erected by The Chouteau Society and The Francis Families Foundation."

• Marker « Old French Kansas City”

GPS: 39.098883, -94.586733

• Inscription:

“A short distance northwest of this marker was the center of the village which in the early 1800's the St. Louis Chouteau called "Chez Lez Canses"" meaning "at the home of the Kansas." Others called it "Chouteau's." The Chouteaus founded Kansas City in 1821 to trade for beaver furs with the French-speaking Kansa. French traders started coming up the Missouri as early as 1680 and traded on the River thereafter; some located here temporarily in 1799, and a few Canadian French farmers arrived here about 1803 to 1813. To the west was the Church of St. Francis Regis, built of logs by the French-speaking parishioners in 1835, with its cemetery behind. Down over the West Bluffs were little arpent strip farms of the French, and their songs and the music of their fiddles could be heard in the area which is now Quality Hill. To the North along the Missouri river were their open fields which became Kansas City's old square. North of Ft. Leavenworth was the abandoned site of Fort Cavagnal (1744-1764) at the second old Kansas Grand Village. East past Prudhumme’s farm which downtown Kansas City was platted, was Francois and Berenice Chouteau's trading post near the present Chouteau Bridge. Further east near Brunswick, Mo., was the former home of Ft. Orleans established at the Missouri Village in 1723, for trade with Taos and Santa Fe, by Etienne Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont, protege of Louis XIV and the Regent. French mountain men-turned trail guides visited Westport to the South, probably including Sacajawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, former "Chouteau's" resident. Out WornallRoad, the Old French trail led to Pappinville, abandoned Ft. Carondelet and Chouteau's Trading Post, South among the Osage.” 

Erected by Chouteau Society Francis Families Foundation.

Left: United States Post Office Stamp, Public Domain

Middle: Photo, Twitter, Rep. Kam Buckner

Right: sketch of Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. There are no known portraits of Point du Sable made during his lifetime. This depiction is taken from A.T. Andreas 1884 book History of Chicago. By Copyrighted to Moses Engineering Company, New York - Public Domain

• The name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de la Salle around 1679 in a memoir. The first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was trader Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African descent, most likely born in the French colony of Saint-Domingue (Haiti), and established the settlement in the 1780s. He is commonly known as the "Founder of Chicago”.

• In October 2010, the Michigan Avenue bridge in the heart of Chicago was renamed DuSable Bridge.

• Point du Sable married a Potawatomi woman named Kitihawa (Christianized to Catherine) on 27 October 1788, in a Catholic ceremony in Cahokia in the Illinois Country, a longtime French colonial settlement on the east side of the Mississippi River. They had a son named Jean and a daughter named Susanne.

• Bust & Plaque

GPS: 41.889217, -87.623833

• Inscription:

Erected 2009 by The City of Chicago.”

• Marker «The DuSable House”

GPS: 38.787300, -90.479667

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Upon this property resided Jean Baptiste Point DuSable (1740's-1818) Monsieur DuSable, an African American, is considered to be the "founding father" of Chicago. In 1800 he moved to St. Charles and worked as a fur trader until his death"[...]

Erected 2017 by Rollin Jackson, Jr. (Eagle Scout Project - Troop 72).”

• Marker, « Catherine and Jean-Baptiste Point du Sable”

GPS: 41.889217, -87.623833

• Inscription:

“Considered the founders of Chicago, Catherine (1756 - 1809) and Jean Baptiste (1745 - 1818) Point du Sable established a fur trading post on this site in the 1770s or early 1780s, approximately a half century before Chicago was incorporated. This commercial enterprise helped shape the American government's vision of the potential of this area and therefore its decision to build the first Fort Dearborn in 1803 across the river, at what is now the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.”

Top Left: Plaque, former home site of Jean Baptiste Beaubien. 

By Victorgrigas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21658823

Top Right: Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Beaubien, by Unknown author - History of Chicago by A. T. Andreas (1884), p. 266, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=122686109

Bottom Left: Noël Le Vasseur

Bottom Right: His wife Watch-e-kee, also known at Watseka, who later took the name of Josette or Zozette when she got baptized. By Unknown author Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=110017780

• Jean-Baptiste Beaubien (born in Detroit, Michigan on September 5, 1787, and died in Naperville, Illinois, on January 5, 1864) became an early resident of what is now Chicago, Illinois and is also often referred to as the Founder of Chicago. Jean Baptiste Beaubien came from a prominent local French-Canadian family. His parents were Joseph Cuillerier Beaubien and Marie-Josephette Douaire De Bondy.

• He played a significant role in the early development of the town. Beaubien hosted both the first town election in 1825 and the first general election in 1826. Moreover, he, along with his brothers and sons, was among the 500 citizens who incorporated the City of Chicago in 1833, proudly bearing the name "Chicagoans.”

• Plaque, “Jean Baptiste Beaubien”

GPS: 41.884183, -87.624683

• Inscription:

"On this site, then the lake shore, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, Chicago's second civilian, in 1817, built a “mansion” to which he brought his bride, Josette LaFramboise. It remained their home until 1845.

Erected 1937 by Chicago's Charter Jubilee."

• Noël Le Vasseur (December 25, 1798 – December 12, 1879) was a French Canadian fur trader who became the first permanent non-Native American settler of the area and is known as “The Father of Kankakee County”. He married a Potawatomi Indian, named Watch-e-kee, who exerted great influence in the region.  The last sentence of his  obituary in the Watseka Republican, December 25, 1879, page six reads in French: "Aveclui disparait l'un des plus courageux pionniers de l'Ouest" (With him will disappear one of the most courageous pioneers of the West).”

• Marker, « Noël Le Vasseur (1799-1879)»

GPS: 41.154950, -87.878533

• Inscription:

Erected 1979 by Bourbonnais Grove Historical Society; and residents and friends of the Village of Bourbonnais.”

• Watseka or Watchekee Bergeron (c. 1810–1878) was an indigenous Potawatomi woman who was born in Illinois and named after the protagonist of a Potawatomi legend. Her uncle, Tamin, served as the chief of the Kankakee Potawatomi Indians. Additionally, she was also known by the names Josette or Zozette Bergeron.

• At the age of 10 or 11, Watseka became engaged to Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, and they married when she was fourteen or fifteen. However, their marriage was dissolved in the same year. Later, at the age of eighteen, Watseka married Noel Le Vasseur. Described as "beautiful, intelligent, and petite," she had three children with Le Vasseur, who learned to speak the Potawatomi language.

• In 1836, Watseka relocated to Council Bluffs, Iowa, along with her tribe, as they had been removed from their ancestral lands in 1832 following the Treaty of Camp Tippecanoe. In 1840, she married Francis Xavier Bergeron, a French-Canadian.

• Her biography per the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Cultural Heritage Center states: "French-Canadian Francis Xavier Bergeron arrived in the Great Lakes region as a young man where he met Watseka on one of her trips back to the region. In 1840, she received the Christian name Josette or Zozetta upon her baptism. She had four children: Jean Batiste, Catherine (Kate), Matilda and Charlie. She died in Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

• Watseka, a city in East Central Illinois, was named after her. The Iroquois County Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was also named in her honor. Catherine (Kate), the daughter of Watseka and Bergeron, married Joseph L. Melott, a Frenchman. Together, they played a significant role in founding the community of Mission Hill, which is now called Wanette, Oklahoma.

Top: Photo: An artist's 1907 conception of Julien Dubuque and his wife Potosa

Bottom left: Julien Dubuque Monument, National Park Service, Public Domain

Bottom Right: Aerial view of Dubuque and surrounding area

By U.S. Department of Agriculture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=59020010

• Julien Dubuque (January 1762 – 24 March 1810) was a French Canadian of Norman descent. He obtained permission from the Meskwaki people to mine lead and was granted land by the Spanish in 1796. Dubuque remained in the area for the rest of his life and formed a friendship with the local Meskwaki chief Peosta. There is speculation that Dubuque married Peosta's daughter, Potosa, although this is debated. Following his death, the Meskwaki constructed a log crypt for Dubuque, which was later replaced by a stone monument. The name "Potosa" is often associated with the origin of Potosi, Wisconsin, a town founded as a lead-mining settlement.

• This area is important historically in the Indian-French fur trading culture and the first record of lead mining by a French trader, Nicolas Perrot, in 1690. In 1788 Julien Dubuque was granted rights by the Mesquakie Indians to mine their land for lead. Dubuque settled close to the village of Kettle Chief just south of where the Julien Dubuque Monument now stands. It was here that Dubuque founded the first Euro-American settlement in what is now Iowa.

• Julien Dubuque’s Mine, Mines of Spain, is a National Historic Landmark located along the southern edge of Dubuque, IA, with access via Highway 52 South, at the intersection of Route 61. In 1796, the Spanish Governor of New Spain, Francisco Luis Hector, barónde Carondelet, officially granted a 189 square-mile area to Julien Dubuque for his mining operation. In recognition of the grant, Dubuque named his mines in Spain’s honor. 

• When Julien Dubuque died in 18010, the Mesquakie people buried him with tribal honors beneath a log mausoleum at the site of the current monument. The Julien Dubuque monument was built in 1897 and sits high above the Mississippi River. It overlooks the Mines of Spain property in the town that would eventually bear his name.

• Marker, “Julien Dubuque & The Mines of Spain”

GPS: 42.468883, -90.646617

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Julien Dubuque was born on January 10, 1762 at Trois Rivières near Quebec, Canada. In 1788, he established a trading post and lead mining smelter at the mouth of Catfish Creek. He was active in fur trading and lead mining with the Mesquakie (Sac & Fox) tribe who lived nearby. According to the legend, Dubuque married Potosa, daughter of Chief Peosta. Julien Dubuque died on March 24, 1810 and was buried by the Mesquakie (or Meskwaki) with tribal honors overlooking Catfish Creek and the Mines of Spain. In 1897, the Old Settlers Association erected the 25 foot tall limestone monument that exists today known as the Julien Dubuque Monument.”...[...]

• Marker, “Dubuque’s Mines of Spain – Historic Dubuque”

GPS: 42.459317, -90.664367

• Inscription (excerpts):

Historic Dubuque -- the Key City of Iowa -- formed a part of what became French Louisiana when Joliet and Marquette paddled by in 1673. Perrot taught the Miami Indians how to mine lead here in 1690. France ceded Louisiana west of the Mississippi to Spain in 1762, placing this area under Spain. Frenchmen mined lead here during the American Revolution. The Fox Indians granted Julien Dubuque the right to work the lead mines in 1788 and this right was confirmed by a Spanish Land Grant in 1796. Dubuque, the first permanent settler in Iowa, died in 1810. His tomb is on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi below Dubuque. Sturdy lead miners drew up the Miner’s Compact (the first code of laws in Iowa) on this site in 1830. Permanent white settlement began here in 1833 following the withdrawal of the Fox Indians. The first survey of the city limits was made that fall. Dubuque is a city of many firsts -- the first church and the first murder and public hanging (1834), the first newspaper and the first bank (1836). The town was incorporated in 1836. Dubuque, city and county, had 31,164 inhabitants in 1860.”Erected 1967 by State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa State Highway Commision.”

• The Julien Dubuque Monument is located on the edge of the bluff above Catfish Creek in the Mines of Spain Recreation Area.

• Monument and grave site, Julien Dubuque

GPS: 42.468686, -90.648251

• Inscription:

• There is also a Plaque on the sidewalk in Shenandoah, Iowa:

GPS: 40.766033, -95.372183

• Inscription:

(Marker is part of Shenandoah's Iowa Walk of Fame)

Top Left: Joseph LaFramboise (1765-1806)

Top Right: his wife Magdelaine Laframboise 

Bottom Left: House of Magdelaine La Framboise, Mackinac Island

Photo: By Unknown photographer - rootsweb.com Gentner Family History page URL https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8571321

Bottom Right: Daguerreotype of Daniel de Marsac

• In 1795, Joseph La Framboise and his French-Indian wife, Magdelaine, established a trading post on the Grand River, marking the inception of the first enduring commercial structure in western Michigan. Impressively, at the age of 15, Magdelaine possessed fluency in Odawa, French, English, and Ojibwe. Both Joseph and Magdelaine were devoted Catholics. Tragically, Joseph was assassinated in 1806. However, Madame La Framboise persevered and diligently managed the trading post. Her impeccable reputation among the local tribes allowed her to maintain a consistent trading route to and from Mackinac Island.

• Marker “Joseph and Magdelaine LaFramboise”

GPS: 42.929533, -85.371583

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Joseph LaFramboise Sr. (1765-1806)”

• Marker “Joseph and Magdelaine LaFramboise”

GPS: 42.929533, -85.371583

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Magdelaine LaFramboise (1780-1846)”

Erected by Lowell Area Historical Museum.”

• Daniel Marsac came to the area in 1828 and had a camp on the

• Lowell was first settled in the 1840's by Daniel Marsac who built a trading post there and called it Dansville. In 1851 it was renamed Lowell, after the township, when the railroad went through.

• Throughout the initial years of his trading post, Marsac resided alongside Wabiwindego, the popular leader of the Odawa community residing along the Grand River.

• Daniel Marsac went back to Detroit, and married another woman named Colette. He believed that his previous union with Jenute held no significance as it was not officially recorded.

• As a result of the government's land agreement in 1836, Daniel pursued a career as a farmer in the vicinity, as individuals with indigenous offspring were eligible for land allocation. After the 1855 Treaty of Washington, indigenous people were provided with the chance to select a piece of land on a reservation. Although many moved, they faced difficulties due to the lack of natural resources and employment opportunities, which eventually led to them selling their land back to the government.

• Marker “Fur Traders - Where The Rivers Meet”

GPS: 42.929533, -85.371583

• Inscription:

[...] “The LaFramboise Post was the earliest known post near the Flat River. Joseph LaFramboisetraded on the Grand River as early as 1783. He established a post here in 1796, the same year that he married Magdelaine Marcotte, a French-Indian woman. After Joseph was killed in 1806, his wife (known as Madame LaFramboise) continued his business, becoming Michigan's first businesswoman. She worked as an independent trader until 1818, when she became an agent for the powerful Mackinac based American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor. The Company records show her to have earned as much as $10,000 a year. The precise location of this post is unknown. In 1821, Madame LaFramboise retired to her house on Mackinac Island.”[...]

“ Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise ran the first fur trading post in Lowell following her husband's death. She was just 26 years old when she became the first woman trader in Michigan. She knew Odawa, Ojibwa, French and English. She had boatmen, bookkeepers and even a personal servant in her employ. She spent winters here trading for furs and summers at her Mackinac Island home, pictured above. She had two children, Josette and Joseph. Both children studied in Montreal. Josette married Captain Benjamin Pierce, brother of President Franklin Pierce”.[...]

Fur traders like Charles Langlade traveled through this area during the mid-1700's but the first permanent trading post was built here by Joseph LaFramboise about 1796 and used by Madame LaFramboise until 1821. Louis Campau built a post here in 1826, using it until 1831. Daniel Marsac began trading in 1829 and built a cabin in 1831. 1831 is the date we say Lowell began because Marsac lived here all year long. Lewis Robinson and Philander Tracy built a fur warehouse in 1836. John Hooker used the Marsac post until 1854 when the Odawa left Lowell for the reservation in Oceana County”.[…]

Erected by Lowell Area Historical Museum.”

Left: Painted portrait of Wisconsin politician Solomon Juneau (1793–1856) by Samuel Marsden Brookes (1816–1892) Public Domain,

Right: “Juneau Monument”, Juneau Park, 900 N Prospect Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53202

GPS: 43.042805, -87.898268

• Solomon Laurent Juneau, also known as Laurent-Salomon Juneau, (Born Repentigny, Québec  August 9, 1793 – died Keshena, WI on November 14, 1856) was a French Canadian fur trader and politician who founded Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

• In 1816, Juneau arrived at Fort Michilimackinac and began working as a clerk in the fur trade. He eventually became an agent for the American Fur Company. In 1820, Juneau married Josette Vieau, who was of Métis and French-Menominee Indian descent.

• In 1831, Juneau learnt English and got naturalized. By 1835, he constructed the first store and inn in Milwaukee.

• In 1837, he established the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper.

• From 1846 to 1847, he became Milwaukee's first mayor and first Postmaster. 

• With Josette, Juneau also founded the village of Theresa. She passed away in 1855, and Juneau followed a year later. At his funeral, six Menominee chiefs served as pallbearers. 

• Juneau's cousin, Joseph Juneau, was the founder of Juneau, Alaska.

• The Juneau Monument is a public artwork by American artist Richard Henry Park located on the grounds of Juneau Park, which is in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The base of the statue is made of limestone. On top of the base is a bronze statue of Solomon Juneau. On each side of the base are bronze reliefs. The statue is 5 feet (1.5 m) wide by 15 feet (4.6 m) high.

• Juneau Monument

GPS: 43.042805, -87.898268

• Inscription:

• Marker, “Historic Milwaukee”

GPS: 43.038767, -87.908667

• Inscription (excerpts):

“In the early 1800s, a young French Canadian named Solomon Juneau came to work in Milwaukee and met and married his boss’s daughter, Josette Vieau, who was of French and Menominee ancestry. The couple built a cabin for their family on the northwest corner of Water Street and Wisconsin Avenue. At least 13 of their children survived infancy.

On January 31, 1846, more than two years before Wisconsin became a state, Milwaukee was incorporated as a city. Solomon Juneau was elected as its first mayor.” [...]

• Marker, “Solomon Juneau House”

GPS: 43.516583, -88.451183

• Inscription:

«Born in 1793, Solomon Juneau, a French Canadian agent for the American Fur Company and founder of the City of Milwaukee, established one of his outlying trading posts in this vicinity along the east branch of the Rock River in the early 1830s. He named it “Theresa” in honor of his mother. In 1847, after helping to develop Milwaukee and serving as mayor, Juneau turned his attention to the pretty spot near the Rock River where he had a trading post and constructed this Greek Revival house, which he and his wife Josette called their “summer retreat.” In 1848, Juneau platted the Village of Theresa, opened a general store and soon constructed a dam for his grist and sawmill. In 1852, the Juneau family moved permanently to Theresa. Josette died in 1855 and Solomon Juneau died a year later. The Juneau House is the last remaining home of Solomon Juneau. It was moved 200 feet from its original location and is maintained by the Theresa Historical Society as a house museum.”

Erected 1997 by Wisconsin State Historical Society. (Marker Number 345.)”

Above:

Top Left: Statue of Michel Cadotte: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cadotte-25

Top Right: Book Cover "A Fur Trade Family on Lake Superior", Wisconsin Historical Society Press; 1st edition (May 29, 2020)

Top Left: Plaque, Old French Cemetery, Prairie du Chien, WI https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/267799/frenchtown-cemetery

Top Right: Daguerreotype of Jean Brunet

• La Pointe was originally the site of a fortified French trading post from 1693 to 1698 and from 1718 to 1759. The current city began to develop in the late 18th century under the leadership of Michel Cadotte.

• Michel Cadotte was born July 22, 1764, as the second son to a French father and an Anishinaabe mother in present-day Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.

His father Jean Baptiste Cadotte, Sr. was a fur trader. Michel's paternal grandfather was a Frenchman named Cadeau, and he had come to Lake Superior in the late 17th century on a French exploratory mission. Michel's mother was a member of the powerful Owaazsii (Bullhead) clan of the Anishinaabeg. She is frequently described in historic records as having high status in the region and as being an exceptionally kind person. She was a Roman Catholic convert whose French name was likely Marianne or Anastasia. His parents sent Michel and his brother Jean Baptiste Jr. to Montreal for their education in French Catholic schools. 

• The town of Cadott, Wisconsin, in Chippewa County, Wisconsin, was named for him.

• Marker “Michel Cadotte”

GPS: 46.754250, -90.783367

• Inscription:

“Erected 1926 by Rachael Brock Woods.”

• Statue of Michel Cadotte

GPS: 44.953583, -91.146933

• Inscription:

“In 1787, Michel Cadotte, famous Madeline Island fur trader, had a trading post nearby on the Yellow River. Here Michel Jr. was born, and another son, Jean Baptiste, is said to be buried on the river's bank. Robert Marriner built a dam at "Cadotte Falls" in 1865 and later named the village Cadott to honor the French-Indian fur traders. Erected 1975. (Marker Number 121.)”

• Jean Brunet was born in Gascony, France in 1791, allegedly of nobility, and came to America in 1818 and first settled in St. Louis. Called a man of “considerable note,” he served as an officer in the U.S. Army and participated in the building of Fort Crawford.

• Later he moved to Prairie Du Chien and then, in 1828, to present-day Chippewa Falls. Jean Brunet's pioneering spirit was reignited as time went on, prompting him to venture even further north along the Chippewa River. This area had previously been untouched and largely unexplored.

Brunet eventually halted his journey at a falls located 30 miles upstream on the river. It was here that he constructed a log building, which not only served as his residence but also functioned as a trading post, supply depot, and a favored gathering spot for travelers in the region.  

• In 1837 and 1838 Jean Brunet served on the Wisconsin Territory legislature. Shortly thereafter Brunet moved 25 miles (40 km) upriver where he settled permanently. He engaged in trade with native people and ran a popular inn He also served as the first judge in the Chippewa Falls area. The town of Cornell was originally named Brunet Falls and a State Park, Brunet Island State Park is named in his honor.

• Marker, “Jean Brunet”

GPS: 45.166083, -91.155400

• Inscription:

“Jean Brunet is one of the most noteworthy pioneers of the Chippewa Valley. Born in France in 1791, Brunet immigrated to this country in 1818 and moved to Chippewa Falls in 1828. He built the first dams on the Chippewa River at Chippewa Falls and Brunet Falls which is now the City of Cornell. He was our first Judge and member of the legislature for Chippewa County when it met at what is called Burlington, Iowa. Brunet piloted the first raft of lumber from the Falls to Prairie du Chien and piloted the first steamboat up the river. He operated the first stopping place and portage at Cornell where he operated his business as a dealer in boats, oxen and logging supplies. Along the banks of the Chippewa River, he traded with the Indians and taught them to work iron and wood, and to worship God. As the great peace maker between the Indians and whites, he was loved and respected by the Indians as no other man before or since. Brunet's trading post was located on the west bank of the river just below the existing dam where he was often visited by Ezra Cornell who is credited as the founder of Cornell. Some of the remnants of the foundation may still be found. Brunet Falls, although not visible is located just north of the bridge. Brunet died in 1877 and is buried at Chippewa Falls. His wife is buried in the Estella cemetery southeast of Cornell.

Erected by the Chippewa County Historical Society. (Marker Number 41.)”

• Alexis Laframboise, in 1785, coming from Michilimackinac (now in Michigan) settled a trading post; and is considered the first resident of European descent in the Milwaukee region.

Above:

Left: Antoine LeClaire House in Davenport, IA (built 1855), by Ctjf83 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10705790

Right: Portrait of Antoine LeClaire by unknown author - Northern Illinois University; Stevens, Frank E. The Black Hawk War. Chicago: Frank E. Stevens, 1903, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6517115

• Antoine Le Claire (also "LeClaire"; December 15, 1797 – September 25, 1861) was a US Army interpreter, landowner, businessman, philanthropist and principal founder of Davenport, Iowa. His father, François Le Claire, came to the Americas with Lafayette. His mother was a Native American from the Pottawatomie tribe.

• Le Claire spoke English, French, Spanish and a dozen Native American dialects!

• He worked on the Black Hawk Treaty by which the US government purchased land from the Natives, and for this Chief Keokuk gave a generous portion of land to Antoine Le Claire's wife, Marguerite, the granddaughter of a Sauk chief.

• Le Claire built their home on the exact spot where the agreement was signed, as stipulated by Keokuk, or he would have forfeited the land. 

• Le Claire founded Davenport on May 14, 1836, naming it for his friend Colonel George Davenport, who was stationed at Fort Armstrong during the war.

• The nearby city of LeClaire is also named for him.

• Marker “Historic Davenport”

GPS: 41.597367, -90.479833

• Inscription (excerpts):

“...In 1836, George Davenport and Antoine LeClaire, together with six associates [...] acquire and lay out a 36-block townsite along the Mississippi...The purchase price for much of the heart of present-day Davenport was $2,000. The town was incorporated by the Legislative Assembly in 1839”...” William F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody was born on a farm not far from this overlook in 1846, the same year Iowa was admitted as a State.” Erected 1966 by State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa State Highway Commission

• Plaque, “The First House on the East Side of Milwaukee”

GPS: 43.038967, -87.909833

• Inscription:

«The first house on the east side of Milwaukee was built on this site in the year 1800 by Antoine LeClaire as a trading post, the log house shown on the left of this view:

The log cabin, stockade and store on the right were erected by Solomon Juneau in 1825

Top Left: Portrait of Joseph Nicolas Nicollet

By uncredited - Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume 7 1893, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11840744

Top Right: Nicollet Tower, photo by LaMenta3 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18522080/

Bottom: detail of a Nicollet map, "Hydrographical basin of the upper Mississippi River from astronomical and barometrical observations, surveys, and information. By J. N. Nicollet, in the years 1836, 37, 38, 39, and 40; assisted in 1838, 39 & 40, by Lieut. J. C. Fremont, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers under the superintendence of the Bureau of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and authorized by the War Department - U. S. Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9463226

• Joseph Nicolas Nicollet (July 24, 1786 – September 11, 1843) was a French geographer, astronomer, and mathematician, Nicollet was known for mapping the Upper Mississippi River basin in the 1830s. He led three expeditions in the region between the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, primarily in Minnesota and the Dakotas.

• His seminal work, Map of the Hydrographical Basin of the Upper Mississippi, was published in 1843 and covered a region half the size of Europe. Nicollet's maps were considered some of the most accurate of the time, correcting the errors made by Zebulon Pike, and they provided the basis for all subsequent maps of the American interior. They were also the only maps to use regional Native American placenames and among the first ones in the world to show elevation with a technique called “hachuring” . Nicollet Tower, constructed in 1991 and located in Sisseton, South Dakota, is a monument to Nicollet and his work.

• He is buried at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington D.C.

• Marker, “The Nicollet Expedition” 

GPS: 44.015633, -96.321017

• Inscription:

“After exploring this rock ledge, he recorded, "This admirable hill awaits the poet and the painter, who should visit it when the last rays of the setting sun are falling upon it.”

• Marker, “Joseph N. Nicollet”

GPS: 44.985483, -93.260683

• Inscription:

Erected by the St. Anthony Falls Heritage Board.

• Marker,  “Exploring the River Valley”

GPS: 44.354567, -93.952367

• Inscription:

"Although European traders reached this area in 1695, it was not systematically mapped until the late 1830s. The mapmaker was Joseph Nicollet, a French astronomer and cartographer who led two government-sponsored expeditions into what is now Minnesota and North and South Dakota in 1838 and 1839. His guide was Joseph Laframboise, a Métis (mixed-blood) fur trader. Laframboise was married to a daughter of Ish-Tak-Ha-Ba (Sleepy Eye), leader of the Swan Lake band of the Sisseton Dakota. Nicollet spent considerable time in the Swan Lake area and wrote about the Dakota in his journal.

Erected by  the Minnesota Historical Society.”

• “The Nicollet Tower"

GPS: 45.659288, -97.133602

• In 1991, the Joseph N. Nicollet Tower and Interpretive Center was erected in Sisseton, South Dakota, along the route that Nicollet had taken during his final expedition from Devil's Lake to Fort Snelling. A local banker and resident of Sisseton developed a keen interest in Nicollet's story and accomplishments after reading Joseph N. Nicollet on the Plains and Prairies, a translated version of Nicollet's journals. The banker successfully raised $335,000 from seven local donors to construct the monument. The tower, standing at 80 feet tall and comprising 96 steps, was primarily constructed using Douglas-fir sourced from Idaho, reinforced with concrete pillars and steel bolts. The tower offers a panoramic view of six counties spanning three states, including the Laurentian Divide, the Coteau des Prairies, and the ancient glacial valley that Nicollet had mapped. The Interpretive Center, which encompasses 2,400 square feet of classroom space and exhibits, features Nicollet's map and a mural depicting his encounter with Wanata, the chief of the Yankton Dakota.

Above:

Top: Illustration, "Two sleighs on a County Road", by unknown author (1835-1848) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56277867

Middle Left: Alexander Faribault, By Unknown author - Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43818264

Middle Right: Faribault House historic home, photo by McGhiever

Bottom Left: Portrait of Joseph Renville by Thomas L. McKenney - History of the Indian Tribes of North America, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104543331

Bottom Right: Lac qui Parle Mission, Chippewa County, Minnesota, USA. 1942 reconstruction by the Works Progress Administration of an 1835 mission, photo by McGhiever - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21776620

• Louis Provencalle aka Leblanc was born about 1773 in Québec, the son of Pierre Carbonneau dit Provencalle Sr. and a woman of a Chippewa Indian tribe. Louis was a voyager and trader in the Northwest Territory. He worked for many of the early trading companies including the American Fur Company at Traverse des Sioux on the St. Peter's (now the Minnesota) river. He died in 1851 in Saint Peter, Nicollet County, Minnesota.

• Marker,  “Fur Trader Louis Provencalle”

GPS: 44.352683, -93.951500

• Inscription:

“Provencalle was good at arithmetic but could not read or write. He kept track of his credits and debits with a system of pictograms. Each person or type of trade good had a specific mark or figure. According to the missionary Samuel Pond, "This mode of keeping accounts had one advantage over the others, in that the Indians could easily learn to read this picture writing and see for themselves how their accounts stood." For example, the curved-horn figure on the bottom of this page from one of Provencalle's credit books stands for a decorated powder horn.”

Erected by the Minnesota Historical Society”

• Alexander "Alex" Faribault (born June 22, 1806 in Prairie du Chien, Michigan Territory – died November 28, 1882 in Faribault, MN) was a  territorial legislator who founded the town of Faribault. His father Jean-Baptiste Faribault was a fur trader and his mother was a Dakota Indian. His wife Mary was also from a prominent French-Dakota family.

• Marker, & House “Alexander Faribault“

GPS: 44.291317, -93.268500

• Inscription:

• Joseph Renville (1779–1846) was an interpreter and expedition guide. He contributed to the translation of Christian religious texts into the Dakota language.  Joseph Renville's father, Joseph Rainville (also known as De Rainville) (1753–1806), was a French Canadian fur trader, and his mother, Miniyuhe (Miniyuhewiŋ), was a kinswoman of the Mdewakanton Dakota chief Little Crow family. Renville's bicultural formative years probably included instruction by a Roman Catholic priest in Eastern Canada.

• Marker, “Fort Renville”, “Lac qui Parle Mission“

GPS: 45.032417, -95.878017

• Inscription:

“Fort Renville, the headquarters of the fur trade in this area during the 1820s and 1830s, was located at the bottom of this hill. Joseph Renville, son of a French trader and a Dakota woman, began trading for furs at Lac qui Parle in 1826. One of the founders of the American Fur Company, which dominated trade in the upper Midwest, Renville wielded great influence in the Lac qui Parle area and played an essential role in establishing the mission here.”

Erected by Minnesota Historical Society.”

Above:

Top Left: Halftone Copy Photograph of Joseph Robidoux IV

https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50406246

Top Right: Cover illustration, “Robidoux Chronicles: Ethnohistory of the French-American Fur Trade”

Middle: St. Joseph, Missouri, at about the time of Robidoux’s death in 1868. Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, 73693489. Originally published by Merchants Lithographing Co., Chicago, 1868.] Public Domain, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Joseph,_Missouri

Bottom: Photo of Robidoux Pass taken from the East  By Naundorf - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=109339665

• Joseph Robidoux IV (1783–1868), was a fur trader credited as the founder of St. Joseph, Missouri.  Robidoux was the oldest of the six sons (his brother Antoine became famous later in Colorado). In 1799, at the age of 16, Joseph began accompanying fur traders to the upper Missouri River, where they traded with a variety of Native American tribes.  In 1803, Robidoux was sent by his father to organize a trading post at Fort Dearborn, the site of present-day Chicago.

• Marker, “Joseph Robidoux, City Founder 1783-1868”

Missouri riverfront park, accessed via Francis Street, St Joseph, MO 64501

GPS: 39.766317, -94.860867

• Inscription:

“Near this site the French fur trader Joseph Robidoux established a trading post in 1826 while it was still Indian territory. Robidoux and his family oversaw a far-ranging fur trading empire.

• Marker, “Saint Joseph”

GPS: 39.756300, -94.848983

• Inscription (excerpts):

Erected 1953 by State Historical Society of Missouri and State Highway Commission.”

• Marker, “Joseph Robidoux at Roy's Branch”

GPS: 39.756300, -94.848983

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Joseph Robidoux, founder of St. Joseph, was the leader of a French-Canadian fur trading family which sent men out to trade with the Indians along the Missouri River and as far west as today's Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico. From his first trip up the Missouri River in 1799 at age 16 to his death in 1868, Robidoux witnessed many changes in this area. He was the first permanent settler in Blacksnake Hills and later encouraged other settlers to come to his newly established town of St. Joseph. Before he died he saw his town grow to a population of about 19,000 citizens. The small creek which cuts through the bluffs and empties into the Missouri River near here is known as Roy's Branch. It was named for fur trader and trapper Jean Baptist Roy. Members of the French-Canadian Roy family had settled along the Mississippi River near St. Louis in the mid-1700s and were involved in the fur trade business along the Missouri River. Jean Baptist Roy was still trading in this area in the 1830s. [...]

Erected byNational Park Service, Missouri Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission, City of St. Joseph, and St. Joseph CVB.”

• The area was named for members of the Robidoux family, who in the 1840s maintained a trading post east of the gap and later one at Scottsbluff. It contained blacksmith and grog shops, as well as other goods.

• Marker, “Robidoux Pass”

GPS: 41.814767, -103.853333

• Inscription (excerpts):

Erected 1994 by Oregon-California Trails Association”

• Marker, “Robidoux Trading Post”

GPS: 41.802717, -103.827350

• Inscription (excerpts):

 Erected 1994 by Oregon-California Trails Association.”

• Marker, “Robidoux Trading Post”

GPS: 41.765950, -103.810417

• Inscription (excerpts):

Erected 1993 by Gering Tourism Committee, the City of Gering and the Oregon Trail Community Foundation.”

Above:

Top Left: Poster from the Pony Express, advertising fast mail delivery to San Francisco. Actual author unknown (Pony Express) - Smithsonian National Postal Museum,Public Domain,

Top Right: Logan Fontenelle, original painting at Josyln Art Museum, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=452031

Middle Left: Photo of Jean-Baptiste Didier, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44942971/jean-baptiste-didier

Middle Right: Didier's log cabin where he lived for 63 years! https://www.brownvillehistoricalsociety.org/didier-cabin

Bottom Left: The Louis Vieux Elm Tree Park near the Vermillon Creek Crossing of the Oregon Trail. Nearby are soldier burials, the Louis Vieux Family Cemetery and Cholera Cemetery. 

Photo by Bhall87 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7155490

Bottom Right: Louis Vieux, studio photo circa 1869

His gravesite is the tallest monument in the cemetery, and his epitaph reads: “To the memory of Louis Vieux. Died May 3, 1872. Aged 62yrs. 5 mos. 3 Ds. His worthy deeds within our hearts Shall live beyond the tomb. Requiescat in pace, Amen.”

• Several French and French Canadien settlers also opened as relay posts to start servicing the waves of European immigrants on their way to the Far West.

• "Guittard Station"

GPS: 39.911567, -96.426467

• Inscription (excerpts):

"George Guittard: George Guittard, a former French magistrate, came to America in 1833. He journeyed west in 1857 with his family of five, traveling by rail to St. Louis, by river steamer to St. Joseph, and by ox team to Kansas. Their ranch on Vermillion Creek (Robidoux) became the first permanent settlement in northeast Marshall County. Son Xavier served as postmaster for 42 years. He distributed mail through pigeon holes inside the west entrance of Guittard Station. In 1859 George Guittard built a 12-room, two story lodge to accommodate the needs of more and more people passing through by wagon, coach, and horseback. Guittard Station served as an inn to refresh travelers, sell supplies and water, graze and shelter animals, and aid in repairing wagons and coaches.[...] A fresh horse, water, and food made Guittard Station a welcome stop after a fast ride across the rolling green prairie.

Pony Express In 1845 it took six months to get a message from the East Coast to California. [...] Something had to be done to deliver mail faster! Enter the Pony Express - formed on January 27, 1860. Pony Express riders galloped from one relay station to another, carrying mail and telegrams between Missouri and California in only 10 days. [...] No remnants of the station exist."

• Pony Express Trail

Erected by National Park Service and National 

• Jean Pierre Cabanne, born in Pau, Bearn, France on October 18, 1773 – died in St. Louis, MO on June 27, 1841, was a French merchant and trader. After acquiring a solid education and training in the merchandise industry, he emigrated to America. Initially involved in the sugar trade in Charleston, SC, he later moved to New Orleans, then St. Louis, MO, where he ventured into the fur trade business. By 1801, he was actively engaged in trading with the Kanza Indians, and by 1805, he had acquired licenses to conduct official trade with tribes as far north as Sioux country along the Missouri River. He dedicated part of each year to exploring the wilderness. Jean Pierre Cabannecollaborated with renowned fur traders such as Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and in 1822, he established Cabanne’s Trading Post on the Missouri River between Omaha and Fort Atkinson, which later transformed into Fort Robidoux in North Omaha, NE. He was a partner in the Pratt, Chouteau & Co. for several years before merging into the American Fur Company in 1826, during which time he accumulated a substantial fortune. In 1830, he briefly participated in the Santa Fe trade, and in 1840, he co-founded an opposition company named Pratte and Cabanne with Bernard Pratte. Additionally, Jean Pierre Cabanne played a pivotal role in establishing the Bank of Missouri, and among the first incorporators of the city of St. Louis. His legacy continues through many of his descendants who still reside in the city.

• Marker, “John Pierre Cabanne”

GPS: 41.373350, -95.953617

• Inscription:

Erected 1927 by Mary Katharine Goddard Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).”

• Louis-Baptiste Chartran (b. 1795,- 1854) was a Metis fur trader and is the namesake for the town of Chadron, Nebraska. He was the eldest son of Jean Baptiste Chartran and Marguerite Desrosiers dit Dutremble. Louis married Therese Compagnot at Cahokia (Western Illinois) and had a son, also Louis, born in Cahokia. The Chartran family had left Montreal in the mid-1800s to move to the Cahokia area. He was killed near Fort Laramie in 1854, his body was laid in state in BullTail’s teepee. He was an accomplished trader, and interpreter. All who knew him described him as “a very good man.”

• Marker, “Chadron Creek Trading Post”

GPS: 42.748300, -103.006400

• Inscription:

“Employees of Lancaster P. Lupton built a trading post on the creek near here in 1841 to trade with the Sioux Indians. From 1842 until at least 1845 this post was managed by Louis B. Chartran, first for Sibille and Adams and later for Pratte & Cabanne. These companies were successively headquartered at Fort Platte about eighty-five miles southwest of here and competed aggressively with Pierre Chouteau Jr. & Co., which owned Fort Laramie. As a result of this competition, fur traders were very active in this region during the 1840's, bringing liquor, blankets, guns, ammunition and other trade goods to exchange for fine Indian-tanned buffalo robes. This creek is shown on the earlier maps of the area as "Chartran's Creek" in tribute to the trader Louis Chartran. The French settlers of Missouri Pronounced it "Shattron," and from this the modern name of "Chadron" evolved. Today this creek is Chadron Creek, and from the creek the city of Chadron received its name.”

“Erected by The Museum of the Fur and Trade Nebraska State Historical Society”

• Marker, “French Settlement of Julian”

GPS: 40.521817, -95.868517

• Inscription:

“The first French people in this area were trappers and traders along the Missouri River. Permanent French settlers began to arrive during the 1850s. Among the early settlers were Julien Bahuaud and the Laurent Bernard, Jean Bize, and Jean Lavigne families. Eventually about 40 French families settled in this area, along with settlers of other ethnicities. 

Erected 2019 by Julian Preservation Committee; and Nebraska State Historical Society”

• Logan Fontenelle (May 6, 1825 – July 16, 1855), also known as Shon-ga-ska (White Horse), was a trader who served for years as an interpreter during the United States negotiations with Omaha leaders in 1853–1854 about ceding land to the United States prior to settlement on a reservation. His mother was a daughter of Big Elk, the principal chief, and his father Lucien Fontenelle from New Orleans was a respected French-American fur trader. In 1855 a band of Sioux killed and scalped Fontenelle and five of his party, who were part of the Omaha summer buffalo hunt, along Beaver Creek.

• The town of Fontanelle, Nebraska is named after him, (originally misspelled) as are several avenues, parks, and schools in Nebraska.

• Marker, “Logan Fontenelle - July 1855”

GPS: 41.855833, -98.083867

• Inscription:

Erected 1955 by Petersburg Commercial Club.”

• When one reads the following, one can only imagine how eventful his life (as well as all his fellow immigrants to the United States) must have been... And to think that he lived until 1918, one cannot refrain from wondering, if only extensive interviews had been collected then, as we do now with Veterans!...

"John B. Didier, one of the oldest pioneers of the state, died Thursday morning [September 26, 1918, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. August Last, in Barada township, aged 91 years and 6 months..." So reports the Falls City News edition of Oct 1, 1918, p.2, c,3...

• Marker, “1854 Didier Log Cabin”

GPS: 40.397283, -95.657467

• Inscription (excerpts):

Log Cabin History: The original cabin was erected by John B. Didier in 1854 in what is now Richardson County, Nebraska, ten and one-half miles south of Brownville. The cabin was located in Section 3, Township 3, north of range 16. Records indicate he was the second white settler in this area.

Erected by Brownville Historical Society."

• Louis Vieux (11/30/1809- 5/3/1872) was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Louis Vieux was the son of noted trader Jacques Vieau and his Potawatomi wife, Angelique Roy. He held a reputation as a keen businessman and Potawatomi leader in the 1800s. He ran a successful ferry along the Vermillion River on the Potawatomi reservation in Kansas where he charged Oregon Trail travelers $1 per outfit to cross, sometimes making upward of $300 per day.

• Marker, « Vieux Cemetery »

GPS: 39.255283, -96.246383

• Inscription:

“Of Pottawatomie Indian and French ancestry, Louis Vieux was an early resident of this area. Probably born near Lake Michigan, Vieux, with a portion of the Pottawatomies, moved to Iowa and later Indianola, Kan., near Topeka. In 1847 or 1848, Vieux moved to this area of what became Pottawatomie county, located on the Oregon Trail near the Vermillion river crossing. This Vieux family, with its seven children, lived in a log cabin and Vieux built and operated a toll bridge over the river. He charged Oregon Trail travelers one dollar per outfit and it was estimated that he earned as much as $300 per day during the peak season of wagon travel. In 1861, Vieux was one of the signers of a treaty allowing the Pottawatomie to hold lands in common or establish individual claims of 80 acres per person or more, depending on their position in the tribe. Vieux served as a business agent and interpreter and occasionally represented the tribe in Washington, D.C. Near here is the Vieux cemetery where members of the Vieux family and other early settlers were buried.”Erected by Pottawatomie County Highway Department. (Marker Number 107.)

• Marker, «The Vieux Crossing »

Intersection of Camp Creek Road and U.S. 24, Belvue KS 66407

GPS: 39.255283, -96.246383

• Inscription (excerpts):

The crossing was named for Louis Vieux, a Potawatomi leader of French and Native American lineage who established a toll bridge there in the 1850s. Charging a dollar per outfit, he is said to have made as much as $300 per day during busy times. In addition, he supplied emigrants with hay and grain.

Erected by Kansas State Historical Society and Kansas Department of Transportation. (Marker Number 19.)

Above:

Top Left: Daguerreotype of Antoine Barraque, Museum of American History, Cabot Public Schools, https://www.explorepinebluff.com/post/merci-antoine-barraque

Top Right: Portrait of Emmanuel Prudhomme, Coll. Sandra Prud’homme Haynie. In 1822, during a trip to Paris to buy furniture for their new home, Jean Pierre Emmanuel Prud'homme and his wife Catherine Lambre had their portrait painted. A plantation owner in Louisiana, he is shown holding cotton in his hand to symbolize his success in growing this plant.

Bottom Left: Marker honoring Auguste Le Noir de Serville

Bottom Right: Looking down Main Street in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, USA with the Jefferson County Courthouse in the background, photo by Roland Klose - Main Street, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8551239

• Antoine Barraque was born on April 15, 1773, in southwestern France. Educated in Paris, he served in the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte, fighting at the battles of Marengo, Austerlitz, Jena, Lodi, and Moscow.

• Following the end of Napoleon's empire, Antoine Barraque relocated to Arkansas, arriving in 1816 at the age of 43. The following year, Barraque married Maria Therese Dardenne, the daughter of his friend, Joseph Dardenne, another French immigrant, and a Quapaw woman. 

• Antoine Barraque then established the settlement he called New Gascony on November 29, 1832, and named for the Gascony region of France. It is an unincorporated community in Bogy township in Jefferson county in Arkansas, 13 miles (21 km) west of Pine Bluff, the county seat.

• He died on December 30, 1828 in Richland Township, Jefferson County, Arkansas.

• Marker, « Barraque Street»

GPS: 34.229550, -92.004417

• Inscription:

“This street was named for Antoine Barraque (1773-1858), native of France, soldier of Napoleon, and one of this area's earliest settlers. Founder of New Gascony in this county, he was a man of property and Indian sub-agent. Trusted and liked by the Quapaw nation, he led that tribe to their new home pursuant to the Treaty of 1824. A distinguished citizen of early Jefferson County, Antoine Barraque has descendants still living in Pine Bluff.”

“Erected by Jefferson County History Commission.”

• Jean-Pierre Emmanuel Prudhomme (1762-1845) born & died in Natchitoches, LA, was a plantation owner Revolutionary War Patriot, who served in the Galvez expedition. His grand-father Jean-Philippe Pierre Prudhomme, as soldier in the French Army, was stationed in Louisiana, stayed there and is the founder of a large dynasty.

• “...Emmanuel had a long and interesting life. He was born January 2, 1762 in Natchitoches, LA to Dr. Jean Baptiste and Marie Josephine Prudhomme. He was one of 8 children and father to 8 children...[...] Emmanuel was a planter. His first crops were tobacco and indigo and sold the indigo to France to use as dye for French soldiersuniforms [...] In the early 1800’s many inhabitants had developed close relationships with the native Indians. Emmanuel had an undiagnosed ailment that caused him considerable pain. It was perhaps arthritis. The Natchitoches Indians, who were friendly with Emmanuel told him of a place of “healing waters” and offered to take him there. In 1807, Emmanuel accepted their offer and with a servant and necessary provisions, headed for the springs now known as Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was one of the first white men ever to visit these ‘healing waters’. He built a modest home there and visited frequently for a few years.” 

• Marker, “Hot Springs' First White Settler”

GPS: 34.517983, -93.055217

• Inscription:

"The first White man to settle near the hot springs was Emmanuel Prudhomme of Louisiana, who came in 1807 for reasons of his health. He bathed in the springs and lived in the temporary primitive cabins that had been built prior to his arrival.”

Erected by City of Hot Springs.”

• Joseph Bonne who was born in 1793 and was baptized by a visiting priest at Arkansas Post. Records dating back to 1801 show that “fifty miles up the Arkansas River on the Bonne Reserve lived Joseph Bonne, Michael Bonne and other taxpayers named Bonne.”

• Joseph Bonne was interpreter for the United States government at the signing of the Quapaw Cession at St. Louis, Missouri, August 21, 1818. Due to a great flood in 1819, Bonne and his wife, Mary Imbeau, moved five miles upstream to the place later named Pine Bluff.  Bonne built a log cabin with a lean-to which served as his home…as well as a tavern with lodging accommodations for travelers.

• The settlement was officially named “The Town of Pine Bluff” by the county court on October 16, 1832. At the time the town had 50 residents. Today’s population is 55,000.

• Marker, « Joseph Bonne Cabin»

GPS: 34.229533, -92.005250

• Inscription:

“In 1818 a French trapper, Joseph Bonne landed on the south bank of the Arkansas River with his dog and gun near the location of the original Jefferson County Courthouse. Driven to this high bluff after flood waters had threatened his homesite at Arkansas Post, Bonne and his family erected a cabin and became one of the first white settlers in the region which has become Pine Bluff. The Bonne hand-constructed log cabin became the first seat of government, and history reports that Joseph Bonne operated the first tavern in the area.”

Erected 1976 by Jefferson County History Commission.”

• To the area now known as Redfield came Auguste le Noir de Serville, who was a soldier in the French Army, served under the count of Rochambeau in the American Revolutionary War and was wounded at Yorktown on October 14, 1781. Killed by a falling tree in 1828, De Serville was buried with full military honors, and his funeral was attended by political and military notables. Unfortunately the exact location of his grave is unknown.

• Marker, « Auguste La noir de Serville» (sic)

GPS: 34.229533, -92.003667

• Inscription:

Erected 1929 by Pine Bluff Chapter, D.A.R”

Above:

Top Left: Pierre Menard's home, built in 1802, photo by Kbh3rd - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20378137

Top Right: Pierre Menard by Mason, Edward G. (Edward Gay), 1839-1898 - "Early Chicago and Illinois" Newberry Digital Exhibitions 2019-05-10, Public Domain

Middle Left: François Navarre cabin by Lossing https://www.mlloyd.org/gen/navarre/links/francois.htm#pnav

Middle Right : François Navarre portrait by Lossing

Bottom Left: Pierre Navarre, circa 1850

Bottom Right: Alexis Coquillard, by History of St. Joseph County, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=125800443

Pierre Menard

• Pierre Menard (7 October 1766 – 13 June 1844) was a fur trader and U.S. political figure. Pierre Menard was born at St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu, near Montreal. His father was Jean Baptiste Ménard, a French soldier in the regiment of Guyenne.

• Marker, “Manard Settlement”

GPS: 35.799583, -95.104500

• Inscriptions (excerpts):

“Site of Manard Settlement on Bayou Menard. Named for Pierre Menard (1766-1844). Menard, an early day fur trader, merchant and member of the Chouteau family. Served as the first territorial governor of Illinois. Springs at Manard identified as a Cherokee council ground prior to 1828. Trading post est. by Bartholet & Heald in 1832. Cherokee agency est. by Montfort Stokes in 1837. Burial place of HT Martin (1822-1868), first postmaster of Cherokee Nation West. Site of Civil War skirmish on July 27, 1862, involving US Maj. WM A Phillips and Indian Home Guards who encountered and routed Watie's Confederates under Lt Col Thos Fox Taylor. Stage stop and site of holdup of US Mail by Cook Gang on July 14, 1894, and shooting of Joseph Glad by outlaw Jim French in 1894.

Erected 2000 by Oklahoma Historical Society.”

• Pierre Fréchettte Navarre (1787-1874)  is credited as the first white settler in present-day St. Joseph County. A grandson of a French officer who was stationed in the area in 1745, Pierre married a Potawatomi woman named Keshewaquay and had ten children. He built a log home, the first in the county. • Pierre was well respected by and fiercely loyal to the Potawatomi tribe. In fact, when they were forcibly removed from the Michiana area he traveled west with the tribe but afterwards returned home. Navarre’s original cabin has been preserved and can be visited at the Botanical Gardens of Toledo.

• Marker, « Peter Navarre”

GPS: 41.634250, -83.510683

• Inscription (excerpts):

“Peter Navarre, 1790-1874. Considered the first citizen of the East Side, Peter Navarre, along with his brother Robert, first settled the land east of the Maumee River in 1807. A fur trader by profession, Navarre was experienced in wilderness survival and had a deep understanding of Native American life. He died on March 20, 1874, and was buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery across the river from his beloved East Toledo.

Peter Navarre, War of 1812. During the War of 1812, Peter Navarre acted as a scout for the American army and provided intelligence about enemy strength and locations. [...] His skill and resourcefulness to pass through enemy territory aided the United States in retaining this area during the war.”

Erected 2007 by East Toledo Historical Society, The Ohio Historical Society. 

(Marker Number 50–48.)”

• Stele, « Peter Navarre 1787-1874”

GPS: 41.687733, -83.544850

• Inscription :

“Famous Scout

• François (Francis) Navarre, born in Assumption Parish in Sandwich, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, Michigan, was a significant figure in the early history of the region. His parents were Robert Navarre and Marie Louise Marsac. On 9 Nov 1790, in Detroit, Michigan, Francois married Mary Suzor, the daughter of Louis Francis Suzor and Mary Joseph LeBeau.

• He played a pivotal role as the first permanent white settler in the River Raisin area. He arrived in the region around 1780 and established the town of Frenchtown. His attracted nearly 100 settlers who followed suit, constructing log cabins and coexisting harmoniously with the local Native American tribes for an extended period.

• He implemented a civil government and court system in the area, earning him the title of the "Father of Monroe". He also served as a Captain and later a Colonel in the militia of the River Raisin. During the War of 1812, he faced capture by the British on two occasions but managed to escape both times. 

• Marker, “Colonel Francis Navarre”

GPS: 41.915183, -83.392883

• Inscription:

“First Indian

GPS: 41.915901, -83.379890

• From National Park Service (https://www.nps.gov/places/frenchtown.htm) :

• “The first Non-Native settler was a French settler, twenty-one-year-old François (Francis) Navarre. His family had lived in Detroit for many years and were highly regarded in government and business. Navarre took up residence at River Raisin in 1785 and persuaded a number of friends and relatives to join him. Navarre was an undisputed community, business and church leader when first the British, and then the Americans, controlled the River Raisin Settlement. He served as a ranking officer in River Raisin’s militia, opposing the British in the Battles of the River Raisin. Sometimes called “the Father of Monroe”, François Navarre died in 1826 and is buried in Monroe’s Old Burial Ground. ”

• Alexis Coquillard, a French Canadian fur trader, explorer, and the founder of South Bend, Indiana, was born in Detroit on September 28, 1795, and passed away on January 8, 1855. His parents, Alexis Cerat (Serat) dit Coquillard and Cecile Tremblay, as well as his paternal grandparents, Jean-Baptiste Cerat dit Coquillard (1716–1771) and Marie-Madeleine Jourdain (1719–1791), were all natives of Montreal.

• After serving in the War of 1812 against the British, Coquillard relocated to the St. Joseph River valley in 1823. He played a significant role in the treaties with the Tippecanoe and Chicago following the peace agreement in 1814.

• Coquillard was a close associate of Father Edward Sorin and played a key role in the establishment of the University of Notre Dame in 1842. His nephew, Alexis T. Coquillard, was among the initial students of the university.

• In 1839, Coquillard constructed the first mill in South Bend. He later built a second flour mill known as the Merchant's Mill and established the Kankakee Race.

• Coquillard married Frances C. Comparet of Detroit, with whom he had a son named Alexis T.

• Coquillard died of a head injury sustained from a falling beam during a fire at his mill on January 6, 1855. He breathed his last on January 8, 1855, at the age of 59 and was laid to rest at Cedar Grove Cemetery on the Notre Dame campus.

• Marker, "On This Site South Bend Was Founded "

GPS: 41.679217, -86.250217

• Michel Brouillette (born in Québec c. 1745 – died 1797) served as a Virginia soldier with General George Rogers Clark of Revolutionary War fame.

• Marker, “Brouillette Trading Post”

GPS: 39.601433, -87.417650

• Inscription:

Erected 2016 by Vincennes Historical and Antiquarian Society.”

• Michel Brouillet (also spelled  Brouillette), Jr. was born in Vincennes on August 14, 1774. Brouillette's father, Michel Brouillet, Sr. had served in the Vincennes militia as an officer. Brouillet, Jr. served as a scout for William Henry Harrison during the Tippecanoe campaign. He had a Native American wife and a son who became a Pottawatomie chief.

• Marker, “Old French House”

GPS: 38.683317, -87.527850

• Inscription:

Erected 1995 by Indiana Historical Bureau and Old Northwest Corporation. (Marker Number 42.1995.1.)”

Above:

Top Left: Photos: Nicollet Historical Society

Bottom Left: https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/42675/pine-street-cemetery

Right: Church of the Holy Family log church built in 1799 inCahokia, Illinois, in French "Église de la Sainte-Famille" de Cahokia (note the French Fleur-de-Lys royal Flag hanging above the main entrance) -

Photo By Kbh3rd https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16366732

Le Souvenir Français was originally founded in France to maintain the tombs of all French soldiers who died in combat. Our Society's prime mission here in America is to honor the memory of French soldiers, sailors or aviators who are buried in the United States. Our second mission is to honor Frenchmen who did great deeds in the United States. We include French Canadians as well as French-Indian or French-African (creole) metis individuals who left a mark. It is therefore fitting that we conclude this Bulletin with a few selected sites of eternal rest. Much can be learnt from these sites, and we hope to be able in the future to encourage further academic historical research on these families.

• Stele, «  Founders of Saint Louis, Missouri”

GPS: 38.701817, -90.230850

• Inscription :

Erected 2009 by Gamache Family and the Archdiocese of St. Louis.”

• Marker, “L'ancien Cimetière Francais”

GPS: 43.070583, -91.151467

• Inscription:

“L'ancien Cimetiere Francais"

“Present Markers - Mr. & Mrs. Alexander Gardipi 1845 • Jean Joseph Rolette 1842 • Elizabeth Rolette 1843 • Mary Gaffney 1860 • Alice Shoemaker 1862

“Unmarked Graves with burial dates where known include: du Grand La Jour 1817 • Jean Amiote1817 • Catherine Antaya 1817 • Josete Antaya 1818 • Charles Bazin • Marie Blondeau 1827 • Lieut. Charles Brisbois 1847 • Benjamin Cadotte 1829 • Jn. Baptiste Cardinal 1823 • Marianne SoulignieCardinal 1824 • Caya 1819 • Francois Chenviere • Denis Courtois 1827 • Augustine Courville 1828 • Josette Crely 1829 • Joseph Duplese 1819 • Capt. Henry Monroe Fisher 1827 • Claude Gagnier 1836 • Francis Regis Gagnier 1827 • Dan Gallerneau • Pier Gauselin 1824 • Basil Giard 1817 • MeringuerHermeranger • Joe Kapi • Archange La Batte 1829 • J. Bte. Lemerie • Joe Leqree • Depier Lessard 1823 • Augustin Mason 1824 • Josdefe Marie Mercie 1819 • Claude Menard • J. Bte. Ouillemette 1828 • Jean Baptiste Paquette 1818 • Zavier Paquette 1818 • Michel Perian 1825 • Victoir Pizanne 1823 • Strange Poze Powers • John Prince • Jacques Reed • Thomas Rivard • Charles Rivaux • • Angelique Rolette 1825 • Laurent Rolette 1849 • Margaret Du Bois Rolette 1817 • Virginia Rolette 1839 • HyacientSt. Cyr • Abraham Trepagnier 1823 • Victorie Urtubise 1825 • Francois Vertefeuille”

GPS: 42.895267, -89.502400

• Inscription:

Erected 1967 by the Dane County Historical Society. (Marker Number 9.)”

• Inscription (excerpts):

• Marker,  “The Old French Cemetery”

GPS: 44.354200, -93.955650

• Inscription:

• Marker, « In Memory of our Soldiers and Patriots»

GPS: 38.569500, -90.188450

• The parish was founded in 1699, when two priests from Québec came here to establish a mission. This continued until 1768. The present church was built in 1786, just after the arrival of Father Paul Saint-Pierre, and consecrated in 1799. This list of mostly French-born Patriots who fought for American Independence deserves additional research into their life story.

• Inscription :

Erected by Cahokia Mound Chapter National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)."

• Marker, « In Memoriam”

GPS: 38.815912, -82.199698

• The Pine Street Cemetery was established around 1790. The most interesting monuments are those of the original French 500 settlers. The cemetery currently houses a collection of gravestones that date back to 1815. Some of these older headstones carry cautionary epitaphs, delivering powerful and lasting messages. These understated symbols of communication required less space than written words

• Inscription:

Long before the celebrated Lewis & Clark expedition, several French explorers had ventured far into the West, trying to find this direct route to China, claiming land for the King of France. Although they are duly recognized at many sites (some of them rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th Century) with markers, statues and monuments, they are mostly forgotten or barely mentioned in school textbooks, in the United States and in France as well.

They had lived for generations with the local Indian tribes, trading with them, mixing blood lines. That was before the "Conquest of the West " and the forced relocation of so many native tribes. These French pioneers of the American Frontier founded many cities.

In Part Three of our series we will pay tribute to these French-Americans of the Far West, The Rockies and Texas, who were before or among the very first cohorts of immigrants, and in Part Four we will reach the Pacific along these early French immigrants to California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawai'i.

Tribute to Lt. James Alexander Bayne

https://conta.cc/3Qz0Xjl (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3QCRqYM (version en français)

This month, we pay hommage to Lt. James Alexander Bayne, who "Died for France" while serving in World War One.

Page from Lt. Bayne's "Livret Militaire" with citation "Mort Pour la France" ("Died for France") https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/ark:/40699/m005239d7e2c81db/5242bc167e1b7

James Alexander Bayne was one of 269 Americans who served in the LaFayette Flying Corps in France during World War 1. He was born on November 19, 1890, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Lt. James Alexander Bayne is buried at the Escadrille Lafayette Monument, at Marnes-la-Coquette on the outskirts of Paris.

Our Hermione Fund raising appeal continues!

• This past November, our Society helped launch the US Fund raising campaign to help Save the Hermione and have it sail back in time for the United States Semiquicentennial. This is an ongoing campaign and all donations are tax-deductible.

• Save the Date! On Saturday August 17, throughout the morning, an ongoing presentation on the history of the frigate Hermione followed by Q&A's from the general public will take place on board of the three-mast Wavertree at South Street Seaport in downtown Manhattan, as part of the kickoff celebrations of the Lafayette Farewell Tour Bicentennial.

• Our November 2022 Bulletin narrated the incredible story and ongoing legacy of the "Train de la Reconnaissance Française", affectionately called "The Merci Train" (November 2022: "The Merci Train, 49 boxcars of French gifts"

https://conta.cc/3OLtgJ3 (original version in English)

https://conta.cc/3VpKzRP (version en français)

• 2024 is the 75th anniversary of the "Merci Train", a gesture of friendship and gratitude from the French people to Americans who gave 49 boxcars full of gifts for each State in 1949.

• The Merci Train, the 40&8 National Box Car Association and many other local organizations, custodians of the various "Merci train" boxcars in several States are planning celebrations throughout the year. We are honored to help get the word out.

• The Historic Museum of Holly Hill is planning with our Society, represented by Brigitte van den Hove-Smith, Déléguée Générale Adjointe, South East USA a special commemoration in Holly Hill, Daytona Beach, FL at the Florida boxcar on November 11 at 11:00AM, with the French General Consulate in Miami. Stay tuned for more details!

• Another "Save the Date": February 2, 2025 for the re-dedication of the Hawai'i boxcar, currently being restored thanks to Mr. Jeff Livingston, Historian, 40 & 8 Project Manager, Hawaiian Railway Society, and volunteers, as well as the enthusiastic support of the Aloha Chapter, NSDAR, of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Laura Ingenluyff, State Vice-Regent, Hawai'i NSDAR. See the photos below that we just received, showing the incredible efforts that are being deployed to save this historical artifact.

Above: Photo by Michael Pannellof Utah's Merci train Boxcar loaded on a truck

Below: Photo by Laura Ingenluyff, State Vice Regent D.A.R., of Hawai'i Merci Boxcar in the middle of restoration.

We are pleased and honored to relay a recent post from David J. Knutson, who coordinates tirelessly the FaceBook Group of the 40 & 8 National Boxcar Association: https://www.facebook.com/groups/natlboxcarassn

A short ad: The American Legion is still selling commemorative challenge coins to raise additional funds. Only $20! Also, the 75th Anniversary Patch are available. A limited number available at $10 each or three for $25. Payment can be made by check, VENMO, Cash App or Credit Card. at djk3002@yahoo.com. Please contact David J. Knutson via email for more details at: djk3002@yahoo.com

Above:

GPS: 40.104526, -75.437874 (Chapel)

• We are honored to attend every first Sunday of May a most special celebration service at the George Washington Memorial Chapel.

As we do every year, we placed alongside the tricolor standard a wreath with the ribbon of our association The American Society of Le Souvenir Français.

Another wreath was placed by the Washington Memorial Heritage, organizer of the annual celebration.

• According tho the instructions of General George Washington, every year, on the first Sunday in May, Washington Memorial Chapel at Valley Forge commemorates the Treaty and its celebration at the Valley Forge encampment on May 6, 1778 with a mass to thank France and King Louis XVI. The Treaty of Alliance, Friendship and Commerce between France and the United States, signed in Paris in February 1778, turned the tide of America's struggle for independence during the American Revolution.

• This year the address was made by Lt. Commander Serge Djeangoury, French Navy, assigned to the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) in Washington, D.C.

• We thank Rev Father Tommy Thompson, Rector, president David Lauhoff, past president Gardiner Pearson, new executive Director Mark Thompsson, and salute all the other dignitaries present, as well as all the re-enactors for their most gracious welcome and friendship.

• The Chapel is both a place of worship and a memorial to George Washington, the Founders and Patriots, and the Continental Army. It seeks to ensure that the ideals and principles of the American Revolution are understood and kept alive by contemporary and future Americans. The mission of Washington Memorial Heritage, a 501 (c ) 3, is to preserve the Chapel and support its secular mission. For more information, contact: Board@wrmheritage.org

Above:

Top right: COL. Arnault Rouger, French Army, Military Advisor, French Mission To The United Nations, Thierry Chaunu, Paul Garabedian, Alain Dupuis, Mr. Damien Laban, acting Consul General of France in NY, Premier maître Franck Le Bris, French Navy, Assistant du représentant militaire et de défense auprès des Nations Unies

Mr. Damien Laban, acting Consul General of France in NY, laid a wreath, escorted by COL Arnault Rouger, Military Advisor, French Mission To The United Nations and Alain Dupuis, president of the Federation of French War Veterans, and 2nd Vice-President, Deputy General Delegate of our Society.

The Battle of Rhode Island Association Lecture Series sponsored by the Rhode Island Senate Legislature and the General Society of Colonial Wars continue as we partner with the Portsmouth Historical Society and the Varnum House Museum to bring a series of lectures from historian Dr. Robert A. Selig in Portsmouth and East Greenwich.

(Photos above posted on Facebook by Friends of Griffin's Tavern - a Not for Profit 501c3 preservation group - https://www.facebook.com/ColJacobGriffin)

Photos: courtesy Delta airlines, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, TheFrenchWillNeverForget.org, laflammedelaliberte.com

• You may remember that 3 years ago we also supported premiere in New York

the incredibly moving documentary "The Girl Who Wore Freedom", by filmmaker Christian Taylor.

This is the perfect time to view it again, or for the first time! It is now widely available on several platforms such as AppleTV or Amazon Prime Video. For a complete list, visit: https://thegirlwhoworefreedom.com/

• As part of the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the "Flamme de la Nation " which has been burning since November 11, 1923, on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the Arc de Triomphe, was collected on May 8, 2024, following the daily rekindling of the flame. It will then be physically transported to the United States.

• 12 young French students will accompany the flame. They reached Cherbourg in a convoy of vintage 1944 military vehicles along the "Voie de la Liberté" from the village of Saint Symphorien-le-Château. They crossed the Channel for a stopover at Southwick House, near Portsmouth, England, which served as the departure point for the Allied armada. At the time of this writing they are crossing the Atlantic on board the Queen Mary 2, and will disembark at the pier in Brooklyn on November 23, and will board a chartered bus to reach Arlington, VA. where the flamme will be presented at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on May 24th at 2:00PM.

• This gesture is a testimony of France's gratitude to its allies, as their commitment was crucial in regaining its freedom.

• This project is placed under the High Patronage of Mr. Emmanuel Macron, president of the French Republic.

Above:

Top Left: German-French-American partnership in St Paul Trois Chateaux, in the Drôme department in southeastern France with Eltmann, Germany and 3rd Infantry Division.

Top Right: At the Lycee du Golfe de St Tropez, the high school of St Tropez and neighboring communities. We gave a presentation on Operation Dragoon, our second time since 2018.

Bottom: Taking the Salute to the 3ID Monument during the 466th Bravade de St Tropez, a great honor!

Monika Stoy, President, Outpost International, Society of the 3rd Infantry Division shared with us several photos of their trip to Provence attending several V-E Day ceremonies, and presenting lectures to French high schools in Aix-en-Provence and Saint Tropez, in advance of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Provence in August 1944. The 3rd Infantry Division also distinguished itself during WW1, hence their motto: "Rock of the Marne!

Below is an invitation for one of their upcoming events on July 15, 2024 at the Tomb of the Unknown, Arlington National Cemetery.

• We are proud to announce that our First Vice-President, Patrick du Tertre, who is also co-Founder of TheFrenchWillNeverForget.org, along with Paul Bensabat, Jean-Pierre Heim, and Christian Millet (in memoriam), are planning a momentous celebration in Paris, with 1,944 schoolchildren waving American and French flags at the foot of the replica of the Statue of Liberty, Pont de Grenelle, with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

This commemoration organized by The French Will Never Forget has recently obtained from the French Government the prestigious label "Mission Liberation” and has the full support of local leaders (town halls) and the largest patriotic associations in France, as well as the American Legion Post1 in Paris. It also has the official support of Le Souvenir Francais in France.