The Diel family, originating from Normandy, France, played a notable role in the early settlement and fur trade of New France, particularly around La Prairie (La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine). They were among the families that transitioned from military service and farming to active participation in the voyageur networks, facilitating the exchange of goods and furs across the Great Lakes and beyond. Their involvement spanned multiple generations, with key members signing contracts as engagés (hired paddlers and traders) for voyages to outposts like Michilimackinac, Detroit, and the Outaouais region. These activities were documented in notary records, censuses, and judicial proceedings, reflecting the economic and exploratory dynamics of the era. Below, I outline the facts by generation, drawing on genealogical records, contracts, and historical contexts.
Generation One: Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton (1652–1702)
Born around 1652 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France, to Philippe Diel (1618–1676) and Marie Anquetin (Hanquetin) (ca. 1625–?), Charles arrived in New France in 1665 as a soldier in the La Fouille Company of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. This regiment was sent by King Louis XIV to defend against Iroquois raids and secure French interests. After his service, he became one of the earliest habitants (settlers) in La Prairie by 1673, where he farmed and engaged in the burgeoning fur trade.
He married Marie Anne Picard (1663–1697) on November 23, 1676, in La Prairie. She was the daughter of Hugues Jacques Picard dit La Fortune (1618–1707) and Anne Antoinette De Liercourt (1634–1707), both from France; her family had ties to Montreal's early merchant class. Charles and Marie Anne had several children, including Marie Marguerite (1678–1724), Pierre (1680–1742, who was kidnapped by Iroquois as a child but later returned), and Charles (1688–1734).
Charles's fur trade involvement began in earnest by the 1670s. In 1677, he transported supplies to Fort Frontenac (near present-day Kingston, Ontario) under Governor Louis de Buade de Frontenac, appearing in a census of the fort alongside other early explorers and traders like Lavigne, Bourbonnais, and Nicolas Bonhomme. This fort was a key hub for fur trade expeditions, including those linked to René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.
By 1684, at age 31, he secured a trade permit from merchant Leger Hebert of Cap de la Trinité and hired on with Pierre Lefebvre and Antoine Caille for a voyage to the Outaouais country (Ottawa River region), guided by Jean Lesieur dit La Calot toward Michilimackinac (a major fur trading post at the Straits of Mackinac). They borrowed 2,616 livres and six sols in merchandise from Hilarie Bourgine, promising repayment in furs by September 1685. Charles traded with Indigenous groups but returned home before winter, missing his daughter's burial in December 1684.
In 1688, he undertook a second voyage to the Outaouais with Lefebvre and André Danny, borrowing over 1,063 livres from Bourgine. On July 31, he committed to advancing a partnership with Caille, and additional loans followed. In 1692, he, Caille, and Lefebvre faced a judicial hearing in La Prairie over fur payments to Madame Perrot (wife of a prominent trader), involving pelts transported from Michilimackinac to Montreal.
Beyond trade, Charles managed land in St. Lambert (part of La Prairie), renting it to his son-in-law François Bory in 1704 and selling portions to Nicolas Varrin dit Lapistole in 1707 for 600 livres. He died in La Prairie on April 13, 1702, leaving a legacy as a pioneer settler and voyageur who helped establish La Prairie's role in the fur trade network.
Generation Two: Charles Diel (1688–1734)
Born August 5, 1688, in La Prairie to Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton and Marie Anne Picard, this Charles followed his father's path into the fur trade while maintaining family ties in the region. He married Jeanne Boyer (1694–1730) on February 3, 1716, in La Prairie; she was the daughter of Antoine Jacques Boyer dit Lafortune (1671–1747) and Marie Perras (1672–1736), from a family with deep fur trade roots. After Jeanne's death, he remarried Marguerite Robert (1683–1766) in 1732. He died on June 21, 1734, in Longueuil (near Chambly), Quebec.
Children with Jeanne included Charles (1722–1756), Marie Anne (ca. 1727–1760; note: some records approximate her birth as early as 1710, possibly a variant or error), and others. The family resided in La Prairie, balancing agriculture with seasonal voyages.
As a coureur de bois (independent woods runner) and engagé, Charles signed contracts for western expeditions. On October 1, 1713, he was hired by merchants Gilles Lecours (Le Court) and Charles Cusson to voyage to Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit (Detroit on Lake Erie), notarized by Antoine Adhémar. This post, established in 1701 by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, was a strategic fur trade center amid French-British rivalries and alliances with Indigenous nations like the Ottawa and Huron.
In 1718, on May 28, he contracted with Pierre Roy for another trip to Detroit, again via Adhémar. These voyages involved paddling birchbark canoes laden with trade goods (tools, cloth, firearms) and returning with beaver, otter, and other pelts, facing risks like rapids, portages, and conflicts. His activities contributed to La Prairie's economy, where about 20% of adult men participated in the trade as paddlers or provisioners.
Generation Three: Marie Anne Diel (ca. 1727–1760)
Born around 1727 (or possibly earlier, per some genealogies) in La Prairie to Charles Diel (1688–1734) and Jeanne Boyer, Marie Anne married François Moïse Dupuis (Dupuy) (1709–1764) on January 9, 1741, in La Prairie. François, son of Moïse Dupuis and Marie Anne Christian (from a Montreal settler family), was involved in local trade and farming. Marie Anne died on November 22, 1760, in Saint-Constant (near La Prairie), amid the transition from French to British rule after the 1759 Conquest.
Their children included Louis Dupuis (1744–1796) and Marie Anne Dupuis (1753–1807). While Marie Anne herself was not directly a voyageur (women typically supported the trade through processing pelts, managing households, or intermarrying with traders), her family's legacy connected her to the fur economy. Her brother Charles (1722–1756) continued the tradition: in 1747, he voyaged to the Wabash River (Indiana); in 1751 and 1755, to Michilimackinac. Her marriage to Dupuis linked the Diels to broader networks, as some Dupuis relatives engaged in trade. Post-1760, with British control via the Hudson's Bay Company and North West Company, descendants adapted, some migrating westward or into U.S. territories.
The Diel family's fur trade ties waned by this generation as geopolitical shifts (e.g., the Treaty of Paris in 1763) altered opportunities, but their early contributions helped map and sustain routes that fueled New France's expansion.
A Tale of Diel Family Adventures: Echoes of the Paddle
In the crisp dawn of 1677, Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton gripped the worn handle of his paddle, the birchbark canoe slicing through the mist-shrouded waters of the St. Lawrence toward Fort Frontenac. The air hummed with the rhythmic splash of oars from his companions—Lavigne, Bourbonnais, and the others—their breaths fogging in the chill as they hauled crates of provisions: iron axes, woolen blankets, and gleaming knives destined for trade. Charles, fresh from his soldier days fending off Iroquois ambushes, felt the pull of the wilds, the promise of beaver pelts thick as winter snow. The river's current tugged at the hull, whispering of dangers ahead—rapids that could splinter wood and bone alike, or wary Ottawa hunters guarding their territories. Yet, the scent of pine and distant smoke from Indigenous fires stirred his blood; this was no mere errand but a gateway to fortune in the vast, untamed lakes.
Years later, in 1684, Charles ventured deeper, his canoe heavy with borrowed goods from Hilarie Bourgine—2,616 livres' worth of beads, kettles, and brandy. With Pierre Lefebvre and Antoine Caille, guided by La Calot's steady hand, they pushed into the Outaouais, the forest canopy a green vault overhead, alive with the chatter of squirrels and the distant howl of wolves. At Michilimackinac, amid the clamor of bark lodges and the acrid tang of drying furs, they bartered with Anishinaabe trappers, exchanging European wares for stacks of glossy otter and marten skins. Winter's bite loomed, but Charles slipped back east in time, his heart heavy at missing his daughter's burial, the pelts' weight a bittersweet balm against grief. By 1688, another loan, another push westward, the partnerships fraying under disputes, culminating in that tense 1692 hearing in La Prairie's modest hall, where furs owed to Madame Perrot were weighed like justice itself.
His son Charles, born under La Prairie's thatched roofs in 1688, inherited the call of the paddle. In 1713, at 25, he signed on with Lecours and Cusson, the ink still fresh as he loaded his canoe for Detroit. The journey was grueling: portages over muddy trails, shoulders raw from hauling 90-pound packs, the Great Lakes' waves crashing like thunder. At Fort Pontchartrain, amid the smoke of council fires with Huron allies, he traded amid whispers of British encroachments, the air thick with gunpowder and roasted venison. Jeanne Boyer, his bride, waited back home, tending the farm and mending nets, her hands callused from scraping hides. In 1718, another contract with Pierre Roy sent him back, the canoe brigade a symphony of grunts and songs—chansons of lost loves and wild rivers—to sustain them through storms that lashed like whips.
By the 1740s, the echoes reached Marie Anne, now wed to François Dupuis in the shadow of La Prairie's church spire. Though she stayed rooted, processing pelts in the dim light of their cabin—the oily musk clinging to her skirts—she heard tales from her brother Charles's returns from Wabash and Michilimackinac: of feverish trades under starlit skies, narrow escapes from rival canoes, and the thrill of pelts piled high enough to buy land and legacy. As British shadows lengthened after Quebec's fall, the Diels' adventures faded into family lore, but the rivers remembered—their canoes' ripples spreading westward, carving paths for generations yet to come.
Above from a conversation between Grok xAI and Drifting Cowboy.
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