Fur Traders

Fur Traders. Where The Rivers Meet. The large Native American population at the Flat River made this area important to fur traders. French and American traders came to this area to trade in the winter, returning to Mackinac Island and Detroit in the summers., The LaFramboise Post was the earliest known post near the Flat River. Joseph LaFramboise traded on the Grand River as early as 1783. He established a post here in 1796, the same year that he married Magdelaine Marcotte, a French-Indian woman. After Joseph was killed in 1806, his wife (known as Madame LaFramboise) continued his business, becoming Michigan's first businesswoman. She worked as an independent trader until 1818, when she became an agent for the powerful Mackinac based American Fur Company owned by John Jacob Astor. The Company records show her to have earned as much as $10,000 a year. The precise location of this post is unknown. In 1821, Madame LaFramboise retired to her house on Mackinac Island., Seventeen year old Daniel arrived in 1829 to begin trading. In 1831, he built a log trading post which he operated until 1846. John Hooker purchased and continued to operate the Marsac Post from 1846 until the Indians relocated to Oceana County in 1857. Hooker was also an Indian Enumerator. His job was to take a census of the Indians each year so that the annual treaty payments paid out in Grand Rapids were fair to all., Timeline , 1783 , Joseph LaFramboise begins trading in Grand River Valley , 1796 , LaFramboise built trading post near Lowell , 1806 , LaFramboise killed, his wife Magdelaine takes over business , 1821 , Madame LaFramboise retires to Mackinac Island , 1822 , Rix Robinson takes over in Grand River area for the John Jacob Astor Fur Company , 1829 , Daniel Marsac begins trading in Lowell , 1831 , Marsac builds a permanent trading post in Lowell, married Jenute an Odawa woman , 1847 , Marsac leaves Lowell, John Hooker takes over post , 1857 , Odawa leave Lowell, Hooker closes trading post, Madame Magdelaine LaFramboise ran the first fur trading post in Lowell following her husband's death. She was just 26 years old when she became the first woman trader in Michigan. She knew Odawa, Ojibwa, French and English. She had boatmen, bookkeepers and even a personal servant in her employ. She spent winters here trading for furs and summers at her Mackinac Island home, pictured above. She had two children, Josette and Joseph. Both children studied in Montreal. Josette married Captain Benjamin Pierce, brother of President Franklin Pierce. The above portrait of Madame LaFramboise was painted from descriptions of her image., John Hooker bridged the era of Indians and settlers. He could speak Odawa fluently because his playmates were Odawa. He helped his father build the settlement of Lowell. At 16, he took over Marsac's fur trading post, and later he became an Indian enumerator to make sure each Indian was given his fair share of treaty payments each year. He remained a true friend of the Indian as well as the settler., Beaver furs were turned into fashionable hats., Rix Robinson took over in Grand River area for the John Jacob Astor Fur Company., Daniel Marsac, the founder of Lowell, 1831 , Daniel de Marsac built a log cabin trading post at the junction of the Flat and Grand Rivers in 1831 and settled here. First he married the Indian maiden, Jenute. They had a child, Marie, who he took to Detroit to be educated (age 4) She soon took sick and died. Marsac then married a French lady and had 10 children. He gave up trading, platted 80 acres as “Dansville”, and opened a log tavern before leaving town to become a farmer.