Magdelaine LaFramboise Illustration, Lowell Area Trailway ~ Lowell, Michigan
No images exist of Magdelaine. The painting to the left is a depiction of her by an artist using descriptions. The building in the background was her house (above) on Mackinac Island which is Harbor View Inn today.
Magdelaine LaFramboise
1780-1846
Magdelaine (Magdelene< Madelene) was born in 1780 to Jean Baptiste Marcot (te) & Marie Neskesh, daughter of Odawa Chief Returning Cloud (Kewinaquot).
Marcotte was a Northwest Company Factor or Chief Agent. He helped to move the mainland Fort Michilimackinac buildings to Mackinac Island (1780). Jean Baptiste Marcotte had seven children. Before his death he sent his older children to Montreal to be educated. Madelaine was not sent because her father died when she was just three years old. She moved with her mother & sisters from Fort St. Joseph to Mackinac when the British abandoned that Fort to the United States. Later, they returned to live in the Odawa village at the mouth of the Grand River.
Magdelaine married French fur trader Joseph LaFramboise in 1794. The couple had two children, daughter Josette (1795) & son Joseph Jr. (1805). Madame LaFramboise was Michigan's first recorded businesswoman. After Joseph was killed in 1806, Madame obtained a trader's license & took over as the fur trader. She visited her posts & supported her clerks & engages. It was said "there was at that time no better fur trader than she."
After the War of 1812, she began doing business with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. The American Fur Company records in 1818 show that she earned between $5,000 & $10,000 per year. A good trader of the time was happy to earn $1,000 per year.
Madame was deeply religious & energetic. She taught catechism to local children, ran a boarding house for Odawa children so they could go to school, helped the poor, paid the salaries of the Mackinac priests, & finally gave a tract of land for St. Anne's Church. Her only request was that she & her daughter be buried under the high altar of that church. Madame Laframboise died in 1846 , at the age of sixty-six.
Magdelaine LaFramboise Illustration, Lowell Area Trailway ~ Lowell, Michigan
No images exist of Magdelaine. The painting to the left is a depiction of her by an artist using descriptions. The building in the background was her house (above) on Mackinac Island which is Harbor View Inn today.
Magdelaine LaFramboise
1780-1846
Magdelaine (Magdelene< Madelene) was born in 1780 to Jean Baptiste Marcot (te) & Marie Neskesh, daughter of Odawa Chief Returning Cloud (Kewinaquot).
Marcotte was a Northwest Company Factor or Chief Agent. He helped to move the mainland Fort Michilimackinac buildings to Mackinac Island (1780). Jean Baptiste Marcotte had seven children. Before his death he sent his older children to Montreal to be educated. Madelaine was not sent because her father died when she was just three years old. She moved with her mother & sisters from Fort St. Joseph to Mackinac when the British abandoned that Fort to the United States. Later, they returned to live in the Odawa village at the mouth of the Grand River.
Magdelaine married French fur trader Joseph LaFramboise in 1794. The couple had two children, daughter Josette (1795) & son Joseph Jr. (1805). Madame LaFramboise was Michigan's first recorded businesswoman. After Joseph was killed in 1806, Madame obtained a trader's license & took over as the fur trader. She visited her posts & supported her clerks & engages. It was said "there was at that time no better fur trader than she."
After the War of 1812, she began doing business with John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. The American Fur Company records in 1818 show that she earned between $5,000 & $10,000 per year. A good trader of the time was happy to earn $1,000 per year.
Madame was deeply religious & energetic. She taught catechism to local children, ran a boarding house for Odawa children so they could go to school, helped the poor, paid the salaries of the Mackinac priests, & finally gave a tract of land for St. Anne's Church. Her only request was that she & her daughter be buried under the high altar of that church. Madame Laframboise died in 1846 , at the age of sixty-six.