3 (page [page 3]).—-Robert Stuart, born in Scotland in 1784, was educated in Paris; coming to America when twenty-two years of age, he went at once to Montreal, connecting himself with the Northwest Fur Company. In 1810, in connection with his uncle, David Stuart, he joined forces with John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, and was one of the party which went from New York by sea to found Astoria, on the Pacific coast. In 1812, in company with Ramsay Crooks, he was sent overland to New York with important despatches for the company—a hazardous expedition, which consumed nearly a year in its accomplishment. He arrived at Mackinac in 1819, a partner with Astor in the American Fur Company, and manager of its affairs throughout the wide expanse of country which was then served from this entrepôt. After fifteen years upon the island, where he was the leading resident, Stuart went to Detroit in 1834, upon the closing out of the company’s affairs. At that place he took prominent part in business and public affairs. In 1887 we find him local director of the poor; in 1839, moderator of the school district; in 1840-41, state treasurer of Michigan, and from 1841-45, United States Indian agent for that state. Stuart also took active part in church work, was insistent on discountenancing the rum traffic, which always went hand in hand with the fur trade, and bore a high reputation for personal probity. Dying suddenly in Chicago, in 1848, his body was taken in a sailing-vessel around by the lakes to Detroit; at Mackinac Island, en route, it lay in state for several hours.
4 (page [page 6]).—Rev. William Montague Ferry organized the Presbyterian church at Mackinac in 1822; it later developed into a mission school. After suffering many trials and disappointments he was released from service August 6, 1834, at once settling at Grand Haven, Mich., his being the first white family at that place. He died December 30, 1867. Williams’s The Old Mission Church of Mackinac Island (Detroit, 1895) gives a history of this enterprise.
5 (page [page 6]).—Upon the downfall of New France (1763), the fur trade of the Northwest fell into the hands of citizens of Great Britain. In 1766, a few Scotch merchants reopened the trade, with headquarters at Mackinac, employing French-Canadians as agents, clerks, and voyageurs. In 1783-87, the Northwest Company was organized, also with Mackinac as a center of distribution, as the chief rival of the Hudson Bay Company and of the old Mackinaw Company. In 1809, John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company. Two years later he secured a half interest in the Mackinaw Company, which he renamed the Southwest Company. In the war of 1812-15, Astor lost his Pacific post of Astoria, which fell into the possession of the Northwest Company, and the trade of the Southwest Company was shattered. In 1816, Congress decreed that foreign fur-traders were not to be admitted to do business within the United States. Under this protection Astor reorganized the American Fur Company, which flourished until his retirement from business, in 1834.
6 (page [page 8]).—Large bateaux, about thirty feet long, used by fur-traders in the transportation of their cargoes upon the lakes and rivers of the Northwest. The cargo was placed in the center, both ends being sharp and high above the water. The crew generally consisted of seven men (voyageurs), of whom six rowed and one served as steersman; in addition, each boat was commanded by a clerk of the fur company, who was called the bourgeois (master). During rainstorms the cargo was protected by snug-fitting tarpaulins, fastened down and over the sides of the boat.
7 (page [page 9]).—Madame Joseph Laframboise, a half-breed, was the daughter of Jean Baptiste Marcotte, who died while she was an infant; her mother was the daughter of Kewaniquot (Returning Cloud), a prominent chief of the Ottawas. Joseph Laframboise, a devout man, of great force of character, conducted a considerable trade with the Indians. In 1809, while kneeling at prayer in his tent near Grand River, on the east shore of Lake Michigan, he was shot dead by an Indian to whom he had refused to give liquor.
His wife, who had generally accompanied him on his expeditions, continued the business without interruption, and obtained a wide reputation throughout the Mackinac district as a woman of rare business talents, and capable of managing the natives with astuteness. Her contemporaries among Americans described her as speaking a remarkably fine French, and being a graceful and refined person, despite her limited education. She invariably wore the costume of an Indian squaw. Her children were placed at school in Montreal. One of her daughters, Josette, was married at Mackinac to Captain Benjamin K. Pierce, commandant of the fort, and brother of President Pierce. Madame Laframboise closed her business with the American Fur Company in 1821, and thereafter lived upon the island, where she lies buried.
8 (page [page 10]).—Samuel Abbott was one of the officials of the American Fur Company, and a notary and justice of the peace, for many years being the only functionary on Mackinac Island vested with power to perform marriage ceremonies.
Edward Biddle was a brother of Nicholas Biddle, president of the United States Bank during Andrew Jackson’s administration. Edward went to Mackinac about 1818, and married a pretty, full-blooded Indian girl, step-daughter of a French fur-trade clerk named Joseph Bailly. The Biddies lived on the island for fifty years, and were buried there. Their eldest daughter, Sophia, was carefully educated in Philadelphia by Nicholas Biddle’s family, but finally died on the island, of consumption. She was, like her mother, a Catholic; but the other children, also well educated, became Protestants.
9 (page [page 10]).—For a character sketch of Mrs. David Mitchell, see Mrs. Baird’s “Early Days on Mackinac Island,” Wisconsin Historical Collections, vol. xiv, pp. 35-58.