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familyimages  > connect with the past > families of white earth, leech lake, fond du lac, and more > Goodwins, Porters, LaPrairies
Before their removal to White Earth, Fond du Lac, and other reservations in Minnesota and Wisconsin, the Goodwin, Porter, and LaPrairie families all lived as an extended family group at and near what would become Pine County, Minnesota.

For more information about the families featured in these images, see http://forefolk.homestead.com/AliceFrancesSheppard.html. To search for images by keyword, look here http://familyimages.smugmug.com/keyword.
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familyimages > The LaPrairies all descend from a man with a long history in the fur trade - Joseph Duchene LaPrairie. From Bruce White's THE FUR TRADE IN MINNESOTA: AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO MANUSCRIPT SOURCES, p. 4-5: "[William H. C. Folsom] referred to an old trader of the Snake River area whose son was named Joseph 'Le Prairie.' This trader, Folsom recalled, had been in the Indian country as early as the 1770s and continued in the trade until the 1830s. He had become blind in his old age, and the Indians had supposedly named him 'Mushk-de-winini,' which Folsom translated as 'old blind...Prairie man.''' From MY FIRST YEARS IN THE FUR TRADE, THE JOURNALS OF 1802 - 1804 GEORGE NELSON, p. 610: Joseph Duchene LaPrairie was "[l]isted as clerk in John Sayer and Co., 1795-96; [and] built and occupied his Fort Folle Avoine on the Yellow River in the fall of 1802. He spent the next years in the St. Croix valley and was still trading, despite having lost his sight, in 1836 at Lake Pokegama. He died sometime after 1860 . . . . His wife, mentioned by Nelson, has been identified as Pimegeeshigoqua, an Ojibwa . . . . [Nelson] remembered La Prairie as 'a good & well meaning man' . . . . He was also said to be 'expert in the use of roots' and plant medicines . . . ."
familyimages > Folle Avoine

From the Fort Folle Avoine site:  In 1802, two different trading companies arrived at the same place on the banks of the Yellow River, just above Yellow Lake. Both companies had sent men to establish wintering posts and they would build less then 100 feet apart. This was the only place on the continent where competing fur trading companies were such close neighbors.  The North West Company arrived first in 1802. Its men built a trading post, a cabin and a stockade. In November of that year the, XY Company traders pulled their canoe onto the grassy bank of the river. Soon those men had cut trees and built a single structure combining trading post and living quarters. That winter, the XY traders moved inside the North West stockade fearing attack from members of the Dakota tribe, enemies of the Ojibwe.  Both companies traded actively that winter. In the spring canoes were loaded with furs for the journey by water to Grand Portage on the north shore of Lake Superior. Traders came to Grand Portage from hundreds of miles in every direction eager for the summer rendezvous. Furs were carried to Montreal and then to Europe.  These trading posts on the Yellow River were used again during the winters of 1803 and 1804. The North West Company added a third cabin to its compound and the XY Company rebuilt theirs. After another season of trading in 1805 with the local Ojibwe they loaded their canoes and pushed off into the Yellow River and never returned. The forts were abandoned and at some unknown time the structures were burned and stayed hidden for 165 years.
familyimages > The North West Company

From Wikipedia:  The North West Company:  a fur trading business headquartered in the city of Montreal in British North America from 1779 to 1821. The "Nor'Westers" competed, with increasing success, with the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become the Canadian West. Tensions between the companies increased to the point where several minor skirmishes broke out and threatened to grow worse. The solution was a forced merger of the two companies.  Although there are historical references to a North West Company as early as 1770, the first recorded involvement was a 16-share organization formed in 1779 that, for the next four years, was little more than a loose association of a few Montreal merchants who discussed how they might break the stranglehold the Hudson's Bay Company held on the North American fur trade. In 1783, the North West Company was officially created, with its corporate offices on Vaudreuil Street in Montreal and led by businessmen Benjamin Frobisher, his brother Joseph, and Simon McTavish, along with investor-partners who included Robert Grant, Nicholas Montour, Patrick Small, William Holmes and George McBeath.
familyimages > The XY Company

From Wikipedia:  Dissidents of the North West Company formed their own company, known unofficially as the "XY Company" because of the mark they used on their bales of furs. In 1799 this rival group started to trade in some of the same areas as the North West Company. The XY Company was greatly strengthened when Alexander Mackenzie joined it in 1801.
familyimages > From Curot's Journal:  Friday, Saturday 30, 31 [December, 1803].  Smith, Boisvert, and Connor left to go to the Lodges before they break up.  They arrived today with six sides and eight legs of venison, three lynx Skins, and one muskrat.  The Mother in law Of La prairie died yesterday at 8 oClock in the morning, buried at 4 today.
familyimages > 1818-19 American Fur Company Employees

When engaged;
Name; Time; Capacity; Where engaged; Wages; Where employed; Remarks

July 21, 1818;
Duchene, Jos. Jr.; 1 yr; Boatman; Mackinac; 1,500; Folleavoine; Folleavoine;

July 24, 1818;
Duchene, Jos. Sr.; 1 yr; Interpreter; Mackinac; 2,400; Folleavoine; Folleavoine

(1 of 2)
familyimages > 1818-19 American Fur Company Employees

When engaged;
Name; Time; Capacity; Where engaged; Wages; Where employed; Remarks

July 21, 1818;
Duchene, Jos. Jr.; 1 yr; Boatman; Mackinac; 1,500; Folleavoine; Folleavoine;

July 24, 1818;
Duchene, Jos. Sr.; 1 yr; Interpreter; Mackinac; 2,400; Folleavoine; Folleavoine

(2 of 2)
familyimages > In the year 1818, the Astor Fur company first commenced their operations on Lake Superior.  They confined themselves, however, during the years 1816 and 1817, to trading posts at Sault Ste. Marie, Grand Island, and Ance-ke-we-naw. . . . In 1818, the company sent outfits to cover the whole Ojibway country, within the limits of the United States. . . . For the Lac Coutereille department, the company outfitted John Baptiste Corbin, as a trader on salary, with goods to the amount of $5328.  For the St. Croix district, Duchene acted as trader, on salary, for the company in 1818.  Capital $3876.  In 1822, the capital of the Lac Coutereille and St. Croix departments amounted to $19,353, in charge of Duchene as trader.

From Wikipedia: The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The early operations of the company were often in competition with the great Canadian and British fur trading companies: the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. During the War of 1812 many of the American Fur Company's trading posts were lost to the British. For a time it seemed that the company had been destroyed, but following the war the United States passed a law excluding foreign traders from operating on U.S. territory. This freed the American Fur Company from its competition with the Canadian and British companies, and ensured a monopoly for the American Fur Company in the Great Lakes region and the Midwest.
familyimages > Whitehall, New York, local history sketches:  "In 1818...Nelson Porter, a rising young doctor of Fort Ann, was made assistant surgeon.  Dr. Porter afterwards became a resident of Whitehall and one of the most prominent physicians in the state."
The LaPrairies all descend from a man with a long history in the fur trade - Joseph Duchene LaPrairie. From Bruce White's THE FUR TRADE IN MINNESOTA: AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO MANUSCRIPT SOURCES, p. 4-5: "[William H. C. Folsom] referred to an old trader of the Snake River area whose son was named Joseph 'Le Prairie.' This trader, Folsom recalled, had been in the Indian country as early as the 1770s and continued in the trade until the 1830s. He had become blind in his old age, and the Indians had supposedly named him 'Mushk-de-winini,' which Folsom translated as 'old blind...Prairie man.''' From MY FIRST YEARS IN THE FUR TRADE, THE JOURNALS OF 1802 - 1804 GEORGE NELSON, p. 610: Joseph Duchene LaPrairie was "[l]isted as clerk in John Sayer and Co., 1795-96; [and] built and occupied his Fort Folle Avoine on the Yellow River in the fall of 1802. He spent the next years in the St. Croix valley and was still trading, despite having lost his sight, in 1836 at Lake Pokegama. He died sometime after 1860 . . . . His wife, mentioned by Nelson, has been identified as Pimegeeshigoqua, an Ojibwa . . . . [Nelson] remembered La Prairie as 'a good & well meaning man' . . . . He was also said to be 'expert in the use of roots' and plant medicines . . . ."
 > The LaPrairies all descend from a man with a long history in the fur trade - Joseph Duchene LaPrairie. From Bruce White's THE FUR TRADE IN MINNESOTA: AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO MANUSCRIPT SOURCES, p. 4-5: "[William H. C. Folsom] referred to an old trader of the Snake River area whose son was named Joseph 'Le Prairie.' This trader, Folsom recalled, had been in the Indian country as early as the 1770s and continued in the trade until the 1830s. He had become blind in his old age, and the Indians had supposedly named him 'Mushk-de-winini,' which Folsom translated as 'old blind...Prairie man.''' From MY FIRST YEARS IN THE FUR TRADE, THE JOURNALS OF 1802 - 1804 GEORGE NELSON, p. 610: Joseph Duchene LaPrairie was "[l]isted as clerk in John Sayer and Co., 1795-96; [and] built and occupied his Fort Folle Avoine on the Yellow River in the fall of 1802. He spent the next years in the St. Croix valley and was still trading, despite having lost his sight, in 1836 at Lake Pokegama. He died sometime after 1860 . . . . His wife, mentioned by Nelson, has been identified as Pimegeeshigoqua, an Ojibwa . . . . [Nelson] remembered La Prairie as 'a good & well meaning man' . . . . He was also said to be 'expert in the use of roots' and plant medicines . . . ."
The LaPrairies all descend from a man with a long history in the fur trade - Joseph Duchene LaPrairie. From Bruce White's THE FUR TRADE IN MINNESOTA: AN INTRODUCTORY GUIDE TO MANUSCRIPT SOURCES, p. 4-5: "[William H. C. Folsom] referred to an old trader of the Snake River area whose son was named Joseph 'Le Prairie.' This trader, Folsom recalled, had been in the Indian country as early as the 1770s and continued in the trade until the 1830s. He had become blind in his old age, and the Indians had supposedly named him 'Mushk-de-winini,' which Folsom translated as 'old blind...Prairie man.''' From MY FIRST YEARS IN THE FUR TRADE, THE JOURNALS OF 1802 - 1804 GEORGE NELSON, p. 610: Joseph Duchene LaPrairie was "[l]isted as clerk in John Sayer and Co., 1795-96; [and] built and occupied his Fort Folle Avoine on the Yellow River in the fall of 1802. He spent the next years in the St. Croix valley and was still trading, despite having lost his sight, in 1836 at Lake Pokegama. He died sometime after 1860 . . . . His wife, mentioned by Nelson, has been identified as Pimegeeshigoqua, an Ojibwa . . . . [Nelson] remembered La Prairie as 'a good & well meaning man' . . . . He was also said to be 'expert in the use of roots' and plant medicines . . . ."
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Keywords: folle avoine north west company xy company
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