OUR EARLIEST LA PRAIRIE ANCESTORS — LIVED IN AN IROQUOIS LONGHOUSE

1680, French mission to the Iroquois at Sault-Saint-Louis (now Caughnawaga)

It's been a few years since I first found and read Linda Breuer Gray's doctoral thesis titled, “Narratives and Identities in the Saint Lawrence Valley, 1667-1720”(1)

While rereading it I found the following excerpt on page 146:

"La Prairie was settled in 1667 on the site of former hunting and fishing grounds of the Iroquois and Abenaki. 

Originally settled as a mission to attract native converts, St. François-Xavier-des-Près [or St.-François-Xavier-des-Praiz] as the mission was known, hosted French settlers by the early 1670s, and was fortified with a wooden palisade in the 1680s. 

Early settlers, Jesuits, Oneidas and French alike, shared one "cabane" or makeshift shelter."

When I first encountered the aforementioned sentence my mind read cabin. But, then I thought... how could the Jesuits, Oneidas and French alike share one cabin?

THEN IT HIT ME — HOLY SMOKES — our earliest La Prairie ancestors were not only Coureurs des Bois, but they actually lived with the Iroquois in a Longhouse!

Narratives continues…

“They worshipped together in one church. A rapidly growing native population of Oneidas, Mohawks, Onondagas. Abenakis, "Panis" and Hurons soon began to govern themselves, appointing leaders for religious affairs and leaders for warfare. 

For a variety of reasons, including depletion of soil, depletion of firewood, and the sale of liquor to natives by the French settlers, the mission site moved upstream in 1676. This was the first of several moves, the last being in 1716, to the present site of Kahnawake (in English sources, Caughnawaga), about fifteen kilometers upstream from La Prairie.

These moves were not uncontested; for instance, the mission took the parish name, chalices, and the bones of a revered native woman who was the founder of the settlement, over the protest of the residents of La Prairie? The two communities stayed in close contact throughout the period under study, exchanging priests, herbal remedies, trading arrangements, liquor, and information. 

In addition, many "panis" from Kahnawake were taken in by La Prairie families, families from both settlements adopted babies from the other, and individuals from the two communities intermarried. 

One of the most famous stories of the interaction of these two communities involves Kateri Tekahkwitha and Claude Caron (2). Kateri, the "Lily of the Mohawks" was considered a model of piety in her own time (see Chapter Six), and Claude Caron was a pillar of the La Prairie parish. Several years after Kateri died, Claude fell deathly ill. A surgeon (possibly Antoine Barrois) tried to cure him, but decided that Claude was going to die. Claude made a vow to visit Kateri's grave, and was miraculously cured the next day, in an event that was considered to be a miracle.

These two communities -- prosperous, populated and vibrant -- were peopled by persons of many different backgrounds. At one time, the residents spoke over twenty languages." Kahnawake's population rivaled the other two large settlements in Canada, Montreal and Québec. 

La Prairie had an estimated population of 99 in 1673; by 1697 the population had tripled to 321. Population growth of the European settlement was moderate during these first dangerous decades. 

The two settlements, handily located at one end of the portage between the St. Lawrence and the Richelieu [rivers], occupied the effective northern reach of the Iroquoian and Abenaki cultures. La Prairie and Kahnawake became arenas of contact between cultures, contact facilitated by a shared interest in trade and survival.

Indian Chiefs (Réserve indienne de Caughnawaga), by Cornelius Krieghoff

Our earliest Ancestors included:

Marin Deneau dit Destaillis (Deniau) (1621-1678) 8th great-grandfather
Son of Clement Deneau (1590-1624) and Julienne Roualt (1596-1656)

BIRTH 1621 • DeLuche Pringe, Du Mans, Maine, France

DEATH 29 OCT 1678 • Laprairie, Quebec, Canada
Marriage 24 Nov 1659 • Montréal to Louise Therese LeBreuil (1636-1726)

Andre Robidou dit Lespagnol (1643-1678) (9th great-grandfather)

son of Manuel Robidou (1620-1667) and Catherine Alve (1618-1667)

BIRTH 1643 • Galice, Burgos, Castilla-Leon, Spain

DEATH 1 APR 1678 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada

Marriage 1667 to Jeanne Denote (1647-1701)

François Pinsonneau dit Lafleur (1646-1731) (7th great-grandfather)

parents unknown

Birth 1646 • Saintogne, Charente-Maritime, Poitou-Charentes, France

Death 26 JAN 1731 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada

Marriage 1673 to Anne LeBer (Leper) (1647-1732) (a King's Daughter - filles du roi)

• 1665, arrived in New France as a soldier in the Carignan-Salières Regiment.

Charles Boyer (1631-1698) (9th great-grandfather)

son of Pierre Boyer (1610-1660) and Denise Refence (1610-1666)

Birth 1631 • Vançais, Deux-Sevres, Poitou-Charentes, France

Death 16 FEB 1698 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Married 1666 to Marguerite Ténard (1645-1678)

Pierre Poupart (1653-1699) (8th great-grandfather)

son of Jean Poupart (1625-1682) and Marguerite Frichet (1625-1682)

Birth ABT 1653 • Bobigny, Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Death 7 JUN 1699 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Marriage 1682 to Marguerite Perras dit La Fontaine (1665-1708)

Francois Dupuis (Dupays) (Dupuy) (1634–1681) 8th great-grandfather

Son of Francois Dupuis (1610–1712) and Marguerite Resneau (1609–1640)

BIRTH 1634 • Gorre, Haute-Vienne, Limousin, France

DEATH Aft. 1681 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

MARRIAGE 6 Oct 1670 • Québec, Quebec, Canada to Georgette Richer (1647–1700)

Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton (1652-1702) (8th great-grandfather)

son of Philippe Diel (1618-1676) and Marie Anquetin (Hanquetin) (1630-_)

Birth BEFORE 1652 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France

Death 13 APR 1702 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Marriage 1676 to Marie Anne Picard (1663-1697)

• 1665, arrived in New France as a soldier in the Carignan-Salières Regiment.

Jacques Deneau (Deniau) (Deno???) dit Destaillis (1660-1720) (7th great-grandfather)

son of Marin Deneau dit Destaillis (1621-1678) and Louise Therese LeBreuil (1634-1727)

Birth 2 NOV 1660 • Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Death 29 JUN 1720 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Marriage 1690 to Marie Rivet (1673-1705)

Francois Bourassa (1659-1708) (7th great-grandfather)

son of Francois Bourassa (1630-1684) and Marguerite Dugas (1635-1698)

Birth 1659 • Luçon, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France

Death 9 MAY 1708 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada

Marriage 1668 to Marie Le Ber (1666-1756)

Francois Bourassa and his three sons: Rene Bourassa dit LaRonde (1688-1778), Francois Joachim Bourassa (1698-1775), and Antoine Bourassa (1705-1780), were known as "the fathers of the fur trade."

Francois Leber (Lebert) (1626-1694) (8th great-grandfather)

son of Robert LeBer (1601-1625) and Colette Cavelier (1605-1694)

Birth 1626 • Rouen, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France

Death 19 MAY 1694 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec, Canada

Marriage (1) to BEF 1656 to Marguerite Leseur (1628-1662) (2) 1662 to Jeanne Testard

Pierre Peras (Perras) dit La Fontaine (1616-1684) (9th great-grandfather)

son of Pierre Perras (1590-1660) and Jeanne Lanier (1595-1660)

Birth 21 AUGUST 1616 • Rouen, de la Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France

Death 30 APR 1684 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada

Marriage 1660 to Denise Lemaitre (1635-1691)

Pierre Gagné (Gagnier) (Gagnon) (1645-1726) (8th great-grandfather)

son of Pierre Gagne (Gasnier) (1610-1656) and Marguerite Roset (Rouzee) (1615-1685)

Birth 24 FEB 1645 • Le Mans, Sarthe, Pays de la Loire, France

Death 26 MAR 1726 • La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Canada
1st Marriage in La Prairie-de-la-Madeleine, 1670, to Catherine Daubigeon (1653-1712)

1764, Map of the Montreal area

STUDYING THE FUR TRADE IN CANADA -- IS AND HAS BEEN -- AN EXCITING ADVENTURE THAT SEEMS TO GROW A LITTLE EVERYDAY.

Footnotes:

(1)

“Narratives and identities in the Saint Lawrence Valley, 1667-1720”, by Linda Breuer Gray, 1999

Abstract: Using the techniques of microhistory, this thesis explores questions of construction of identity, and the relationship of narrative to identity. 

The thesis follows the lives of several residents of the St. Lawrence valley as they learn about the residents of New York and New England through business, marriage, adoption and trade in furs. 

Using case studies of seventeenth-century native and European individuals, as well as information from folklore, parish registers, letters and legal documents, movement in the border region between settled colonies is examined. 

A nominal index describes the origins of, and provides capsule biographies for, 694 residents of New France whose roots were neither in France nor in the native communities. An examination of these cases allows a comparison between personal choice and social constraint in a colonial context.

(2)
Claude Caron (1641-1708) is our 10th great-uncle.