Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, Sieur de Cadillac, established Detroit in 1701 as a French fort, Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. It served as a military stronghold and fur trade center. Detroit remained under French control until 1760 when it became a British territory. Following the American Revolution, the city became part of the United States in 1796.
As a French Canadian whose family first arrived in Quebec in the early 1600s and later settled in Detroit in the early 1700s, I feel a special connection to the city. If you’re also a French Canadian descendant of Detroit’s original French Canadian settlers, join me as I explore their stories and the roles they played in shaping its history.
Michel and Jacques Campeau
Michel Campeau and Jacques Campeau are among Detroit’s original French Canadian settlers. Jacques, one of the first French Canadians to visit Detroit, travelled there for the Compagnie de la Colonie in 1703 and 1704 and settled with his family on September 3, 1708. Michel was the first of the brothers to settle in Detroit, arriving on August 3, 1707.
Jacques Campau worked as a blacksmith in Detroit, crafting items like hinges and gun parts for the fort and residents. Michel Campeau was a farmer and immigrant recruiter for New France between August 29, 1718, and August 14, 1730.
In 1734, Jacques was granted a lot of four by 40 arpents east of Fort Detroit. By the 1740s, he had established an all-purpose merchant house alongside his blacksmithing trade, selling wheat, corn, bread and furs. While Jacques remained in Detroit, Michel eventually returned to Montreal.
Jacques Campeau is recognized as one of the Barons of Detroit, and so are two of his great-grandsons, Joseph Campau and Barnabas Campau. Joseph and Barnabas along with Louis Sr. and his son Louis Jr. Campeau were also influential fur traders. Joseph operated trading posts in Detroit and amassed wealth in real estate. Louis Jr. established posts in Saginaw and Grand Rapids, while other family members founded trading posts in areas that became towns across Michigan, including Muskegon, Manistee and Hastings.
Are you a descendant of the Campeau family? Check out Michel and Jacques Campeau – Two Founders of Detroit.
Jean-Baptiste Chapoton
Jean-Baptiste Chapoton arrived at Fort Pontchartrain in late 1719 to work as a surgeon. In July 1720, he married Marie Magdelene Esteve and had five children: Jean Baptiste Chapoton, Marie Charlotte Chapoton, Marie Madeleine Chapoton and Louisa Clotilda Chapoton.
Over the years, Chapoton expanded his role in the colony by providing medical care to the sick in the surrounding region. He also became a significant landowner. In 1734, Jean-Baptiste received a land grant but later sold it due to its distance from the fort and acquired another tract of land measuring four by 40 arpents. By 1750, he had cultivated about 50 acres. Chapoton was growing wheat and oats and raising livestock. In 1751, Chapoton’s land grant was doubled, and he also owned a residence within the fort.
In addition to his medical career, Jean-Baptiste supplied the Detroit authorities with grain, medicines, and construction materials. He retired around 1752, with his son-in-law, Gabriel-Christophe Legrand de Sintré, assuming his role. Jean-Baptiste continued to live in Detroit until he died in 1760.
Almost all Chapotons in the Detroit area trace their lineage to Jean-Baptiste. Many of his children married into other prominent local families, including the Réaumes, Tremblays and Campeaus.
Charles and Pierre Chesne
Pierre Chesne dit Saint-Onge was the first member of the Chesne family to come to Detroit. In 1707, he was granted a lot within Fort Pontchartrain. In 1711, Chesne played an instrumental role when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac faced land and resources disputes. He helped inventory Cadillac’s possessions, valued between 30,000 and 125,000 livres.
Pierre’s children – François, Marie, Charles and Pierre – also relocated from Montreal to Detroit. While François Chesne and Pierre Chesne dit La Butte arrived in the colony in 1707, Marie Chesne came to Detroit in 1719 following her marriage to Jacques Godfroy de Mauboeuf. Charles Chesne is recorded in the colony in 1722 when he married Marie Catherine Sauvage.
Pierre Chesne dit La Butte, in particular, played a pivotal role in the colony as an interpreter to the Odawa. He and his siblings, Marie and Charles, left a lasting impact, as their descendants married into prominent families in the area.
One notable descendant of the Chesne family is Isadore Chene. He served as an interpreter and emissary for the British, primarily working with the Chippewa, Odawa and Potawatomi nations. One of the most significant events Isidore participated in was the Siege of Boonesborough.
Jean Cicotte
Jean Cicotte, also spelled Chiquot, Cicao and Chicot, first arrived in Detroit in 1730 as a merchant. The Cicotte family owned one of the few collections of fine plates in the colony; however, this collection was eventually scattered due to raids by Indigenous groups, war and the family’s spending habits.
Jean’s son Zacharie Cicotte married Angelique Godefroy de Marboeuf in 1736, daughter of Jacques Godfroy de Mauboeuf and Marie St. Onge dit Chene, both descendants of Detroit’s original French Canadian settlers.
When Detroit fell to the British during the French and Indian War, Zacharie Cicotte attended a council with Chief Pontiac in 1763. Pontiac sought support from French Canadian settlers to expel the British as part of Pontiac’s War. While Zacharie shared Pontiac’s resentment, he declined to participate, citing the settlers’ responsibilities to their wives and children. However, he suggested that the 300 unmarried men at Fort Pontchartrain might join Pontiac. Despite his efforts, Pontiac’s siege of Detroit ultimately failed.
Cuillerier de Beaubien
Marie Catherine Trottier dit Desruisseaux and Jean Cuillerier are the ancestors of the Cullerier de Beaubien family in Detroit. Jean was a coureur de bois and the son of a well-known fur merchant from the Montreal area. After marrying Jean, Marie Catherine entered the fur trade business herself. Following Jean’s death in 1708, Marie Catherine took charge of his assets and fur trade routes, protecting them and expanding the business. In 1714, she married François Marie (Picotte) Picoté de Bellestre and moved with him to Fort Pontchartrain.
Two of Trottier’s children — Antoine Cuillerier and Jean Baptiste Cuillerier — also came to Detroit and played influential roles.
Antoine was particularly notable during Pontiac’s War with Pontiac regarding him as Detroit’s “true commandant” in the absence of his half-brother, François Marie Picoté de Belestre. Cuillerier’s home became a key meeting place during the rebellion, hosting Pontiac’s council, which brought together chiefs from various Indigenous nations and French traders.
Jean Baptiste Cuillerier played a significant role during the French and Indian War. He led a detachment in defeating Braddock and later led 100 militia to Fort Niagara, only to find it had already fallen to the British. Upon his return to Detroit in 1760, the British captured him.
Jean Baptiste Cuillerier’s grandson, Jean Baptiste Beaubien, is the family’s most prominent member. A successful trader, Beaubien established a trading house in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, conducting business there and in Mackinac. He later settled permanently in Chicago in 1811. Jean Baptiste earned the title of Colonel during the Black Hawk War. He led a group of white militia forces and was later commissioned as a Brigadier-General of the militia in the 1850s.
Jacob Marsac dit de l’Omtrou
Jacob Marsac dit de l’Omtrou was one of the officers who accompanied Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac to Detroit in 1701, making him one of Detroit’s Original French Canadian Settlers. The Marsac family reportedly held various titles, including Marcas de L’Obtrou, de Lommesprou and Desrochers. Following his arrival, Jacob was given a land grant in Detroit. After resigning as a sergeant in the French army, he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer.
Two of Jacob’s children, François Marsac and Jacques Marsac, married into families of other early settlers. François married Therese-Cecile Campeau, daughter of Jacques Campeau and Jeanne Cécile Catin, while Jacques married Ann Marie Chapoton, daughter of Jean Chapoton and Marie Magdelene Esteve et Stebre.
François’ children continued these connections by marrying into other prominent Detroit families. Jean Baptiste Marsac dit Panatchat married Geneveva Seguin dit Laderoute, daughter of Joseph Seguin dit Laderoute and Marie Therese Tremblay. Paul Marsac married Marie Anne Chene, daughter of Pierre Chesne and Marie Anne Cuillerier, while Marie Louise Marsac married Robert Navarre Jr., son of Robert Navarre and Marie Françoise Laudeman.
Through these marriages, the Marsac family became deeply integrated into Detroit’s French Canadian community.
Joseph Douaire de Bondy
Joseph Douaire de Bondy, an officer with the French Canadian military, was the first member of his family to settle in Detroit in 1730. He and his wife, Marie Cécile Campeau, had seven children there before returning to Montreal in 1748, where they had their two last children. They possibly left Detroit because the Seven Years’ War was coming.
Joseph’s eldest son, Joseph Douaire Bondy, was the only family member to stay in Detroit when the rest left for Montreal. He prospered in the colony and became a businessman. Joseph Jr. married Marie Josephe Gamelin and had 14 children, many of whom married into the families of Detroit’s original French Canadian settlers, such as the Campeaus, Beaubiens and Godfroys.
One of Joseph’s children, Laurent Bondy, was a captain who commanded a militia company in the 1st Essex Regiment during the War of 1812. He was mortally wounded in 1813 during the Battle of du Pied des Rapides de la Riviere des Miamis.
Joseph’s brother, Jean Baptiste Douaire Bondy, was the only sibling of his that returned to Detroit. Like Joseph, Jean Baptiste was a businessman and an officer in the French Canadian militia. He married Marie Élisabeth Coursol, a descendant of Jean Guyon du Buisson, who is considered one of Quebec’s founding families.
Do you want to learn more about the Douaire de Bondy family? Check out Thomas Douaire de Bondy – A Gentleman in King Louis XIV’s Court.
Pierre Godefroy de Roguetiliade
Pierre Godefroy de Roguetiliade came to Detroit in 1715 and shortly afterward his brother Jacques Godfroy de Mauboef followed. While Pierre married Marie Catherine Jean in 1724 in Detroit, Jacques married Marie St. Onge dit Chene, daughter of Pierre Chesne dit Saint-Onge and Louise Jeanne Bailly, in 1714. Both brothers were involved in the fur trade in Detroit.
Jacques’ son, Jacques Gabriel Godfroy, was also a fur trader who became an interpreter. Familiar with local Indigenous languages, he negotiated between the French and the Indigenous peoples. During Pontiac’s War, he and Dr. Chapoton tried to negotiate and persuade him to stop the attacks on British-held posts but were unsuccessful. Jacques and other French settlers were suspected of supporting Pontiac and were arrested and charged with treason by the British.
Jacques Gabriel Godfroy Jr., Jacque’s only son, followed in his footsteps and became involved in the fur trade. He extended trade by establishing trading posts from Monroe to Fort Vincennes. After America took possession of the colony, he was appointed sub-agent and deputy superintendent of Indian Affairs, a position he retained until he died in 1832.
Jacques Jr.’s son, Pierre Godfroy, was also a fur trader and co-founded the firm P. & J. Godfroy, which was likely involved in the fur trade or other enterprises. Sadly, Pierre was involved in the forced removal of Indigenous communities from Detroit to reservations in the West.
François Lothman de Barrois
François Lothman dit Barrois was the first of his family to settle in Detroit. He and his wife, Marie Anne Sauvage, arrived in the colony in 1717 and soon began raising their family there. They had nine children, and their daughters married into several prominent local families, including Navarre, Chesne, Cuillerier de Beaubien and Réaume. Lothman’s eldest daughter, Marie Françoise Laudeman, married Robert Navarre, the Deputy Intendant of Civil Affairs and Royal Notary.
Lothman de Barrois’ other daughters, Louise Lootman Barrois, Marie Anne Barrois, Catherine Lootman and Agatha Lootman also married well in the colony. Louise married Pierre Chesne dit Labutte, an interpreter who held office. Marie Anne Barrois married Jean Baptiste Cuillerier, who served as a military officer in Quebec, then Detroit and was active in the fur trade. Catherine Lootman married one of the earliest Justices of Peace, Pierre Laurent Cosme, and Agatha Lootman married Jean Baptiste Reaume, a French-Canadian fur trader and landowner.
Robert Navarre
The Navarre family arrived in Detroit in 1734 when Robert Navarre was sent to the fort as Sub-Intendant and Royal Notary. He married Marie Françoise Laudeman, who was related to one of Detroit’s Original French Canadian Settlers, François Lootman dit Barrois.
Several of Robert Navarre’s children married into other prominent families. Robert’s daughter Marie Françoise Navarre married George McDougall Sr., a British officer, and had two children. Then, she married James Campeau. His daughter Marie Anne Navarre married Jacques Baudry, who also went by the name of St. Martin. He was an interpreter for the Huron. Following his death, Marie Anne married Dr. George Christian Anthon, a German-American medical doctor who served in the British Army during the American Revolution.
Robert Navarre’s son Robert “Robishe” Navarre Jr., married Marie Louise Marsac, daughter of François Marsac and Therese-Cecile Campeau. He owned a significant amount of land in Detroit, which was granted to him by Pottawatomie chiefs and later confirmed by a British commander. Robert Jr.’s son Francois Navarre was also a landowner in Detroit and a Colonel during the War of 1812, serving under General Anthony Wayne, a key figure in the war, and General William Henry Harrison.
Pierre Pluyette Navarre, son of François-Marie Navarre dit Utreau, became an early settler of the Maumee Valley. During the War of 1812, Peter fought for the Americans under General William Hull and later worked as a scout for General Harrison. Peter Navarre played a key role in guiding soldiers to meet Oliver Hazard Perry in time for the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. Toledo declared September 9 as Peter Navarre Day in 1922 in recognition of his efforts.
Francois Pelletier
Jean François Pelletier was the first of the Pelletier family to settle in Detroit. In fact, he was one of the two coureurs des bois who greeted Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac upon his arrival in 1701. Jean François established his family in the colony. He married Marie Louise Robert in Detroit in 1718 and had two children.
Jacques Amable Pelletier, the grandson of Jean François, was a firsthand witness to Pontiac’s War. He shared his recollections with General Lewis Cass, who then documented them. Cass’s writings later served as a source for Francis Parkman, a well-known 19th-century historian, who used them in his book The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada.
Jacques married Marie Madeleine Levasseur and their children became deeply involved in Detroit’s military and political affairs through their marriages. Their daughter, Mary Anne Peltier, married John Cleves Symmes Jr., an American Army officer, trader, and lecturer best known for his 1818 Hollow Earth theory, which proposed that Earth is not solid but has a vast hollow interior.
His daughter, Felicite Peltier, married Captain Peter Tallman, who was killed in the War of 1812. Felicite and Peter’s daughter, Marguerite Tallman, married Captain Moyer of the British Army.
Another daughter of Jacques, Archange Pelletier, married Major John Whipple, an officer during the War of 1812, in 1800. Their son, Charles Whiley Whipple, was an American attorney and politician. He served as Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, and played a key role in Michigan’s constitutional conventions.
Robert Rheume
Robert Reaume, a voyageur and trader, was the first of his family to travel to Detroit. In 1701, he escorted the wives of Antoine Laumet de La Mothe-Cadillac and Alphonse de Tonty from Montreal to Detroit. He spent the winter there and helped transport the first shipment of furs and hides back to Montreal in 1702, returning the following winter. In 1715, he became the official trade associate at Fort Michilimackinac, working there intermittently until retiring in Montreal in 1719.
Robert’s descendants helped settle Quebec, Essex (Ontario), Detroit and Wyandotte (Michigan). In 1733, his son Hyacinthe Réaume moved to Detroit with his wife, Agathe Lacelle, and their children. A shoemaker and voyageur, he also worked in the fur trade. He was the first Réaume to receive a land grant in Petite Côte, now Windsor, Essex County, Ontario.
Hyacinthe’s daughter, Marie Julie Reaume, married Jehu (John) Hay, a British military officer and Indian agent. His son Joseph Réaume was a cabinet maker and a fur trader, who was instrumental in the fur trade with the Chippewa. He co-founded the Sandy Lake Trading Company, which expanded trading routes across present-day Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Hyacinthe Reaume’s brother, Pierre Reaume, also established himself in Detroit. His children formed key alliances in the colony, such as Marie Charlotte Réaume, who married a French officer, and Suzanne Reaume who married Jacques Duperon Baby, a descendant of a prominent Montreal family that settled in Detroit.
Are you related to the Reaume family? Check out Reaume Family: Pioneers of Detroit’s Settlement.
François Rivard dit Montendre
François Rivard dit Montendre, a fur trader in New France, was recorded as living in Detroit on May 19, 1708. The following year, he moved to Grondines, Quebec, and married Marie Josephe Hamelin there on February 27, 1710. François returned to Detroit in 1713, where he witnessed Francois Farfard dit Delmore and Barbe Loisel‘s marriage.
Jean-Baptiste Rivard, one of François’ cousins, also settled in Detroit. Rivard Street in Detroit was named after him. Jean-Baptiste and his wife, Marie Catherine Yax, were some of the first settlers in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and a few of their children were born there on Rivard Farm.
The Rivard family held several titles, including Rivard de Lavigne, De La Glanderie, Loranger de St. Mars, de Montendre and de Lacoursiere; however, there are no more details about whether or not the family is of noble origin.
Jean-Baptiste’s children married into other prominent Detroit families. Jean Baptiste Rivard married Marie Irene Beaufait, daughter of Louis Judge Beaufait and Marie Therese Marsac. François Rivard married Mary Isabella Chapoton, a descendant of Dr. Jean-Baptiste Chapoton.
The next generation of the Rivard family continued to marry into other well-known Detroit families like the Seguin de Laderoute, Chauvin and Plessis Bellair.
Jean Casse dit St. Aubin
The St. Aubin family, originally known as Casse, is among Detroit’s oldest families. Jean Casse dit St. Aubin arrived at Fort Pontchartrain in 1708 or 1710 with his wife Marie Louise Gaultier. He and his descendants farmed land along what is now St. Aubin Street. The family retained much of this land for generations, selling off parcels at various times, with the final piece being sold in the 1940s.
Jean Casse’s children married into other notable Detroit families, including the Campeau family. His daughter Agatha Casse married Nicolas Campeau and his other daughter Catherine Casse married Claude Campeau.
One of Jean’s great-grandchildren, François Casse dit St. Aubin, played a key role in documenting events related to the English conquest of Detroit. He learned this information firsthand from his father, Louis Casse Dit St. Aubin.
Many of François’ descendants also married into other prominent families in the colony, including the Chapoton, Moran, Beaubien, Grosebeck and Provencal.
Are you related to any of Detroit’s original French Canadian settlers? Let me know in the comments!
Do you want to know more about the earliest settlers of New France? Check out New France’s Founding Families and Their Fascinating Stories.
Hi,
I’m a descendant of Michel Campeau. I’m interested in life in Detroit at the fort (what was it like for families, how was the day-to-day life). Do you have any references about that? Books, Archives, others.