FRENCH SETTLERS
Dr. Nancy McCahren, © 1988

While the first residents along the Missouri River in southeast South Dakota of whom we have historical evidence were the Yankton Sioux, the eighteenth century brought French trappers and fur traders to the region because of the abundance of game. The French had laid claim to the territory in the seventeenth century, but ceded it to the Spanish in 1792. In 1801 Napoleon reacquired the land from Spain and sold it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

In 1804 President Thomas Jefferson sent Meriweather Lewis and William Clark into the new territory, and in the years following their expedition American fur traders, many of whom were French frequented this area. In fact, Charles LeRaye, a French fur trader, had visited this area more than two years earlier than Lewis and Clark.

Along the course of the Missouri River, many smaller rivers empty into the mainstream. One of these is the Big Sioux River, which separates Union County, South Dakota, from its neighbor to the east, Woodbury County, Iowa. Many similarities exist between these counties; in fact, they are separated only by the River and the imaginary line which divided Iowa from Dakota Territory. One of the most obvious similarities was rich farm lands along with the abundance of game along the river valleys. From Salix, south of Sioux City in Woodbury County, to Vermillion, north of Sioux City in Clay County fur trading posts and farm lands attracted French settlers.

The first white settlement within the present limits of the state of Iowa was made by Julien Dubuque and a small band of fellow French Canadians on the west bank of the Mississippi River. These early Canadians worked the lead mines and traded goods with the Indians, shipping lead and fur back to St. Louis on the Mississippi River. Fifty-one years later, in 1839, about one hundred trappers and explorers left St. Louis on the steamer "Antelope" for the regions along the upper Missouri River, where they were engaged with the American Fur Company. Some of the men of this original expedition settled in Woodbury County, near Sioux City. Among those who chose to stay in this "new country" were Joseph Leonais, Albert Pelletier, Paul Paquette, John LaPlante, George L. Tackett, Gustave Pecaut, and a M. LeBlanc.

During the month of May, 1849, Theophile Bruguier, a native of Canada, but of French origin, settled at the mouth of the Big Sioux River, about two miles north of Sioux City where he established an independent trading post. Bruguier was born in the parish of L'Assumpcion, near Montreal, August 31, 1813. His father gave him an excellent education, intending that he should take up the profession of law. However, the young man, after the death of his sweetheart, left Canada to bury himself in the heart of Indian Country. Having had the training of a hunter, trapper, and woodsman, and endowed with that spirit of adventure which seemed to dominate in the French Canadians, he left home at the age of twenty-two and arrived in St. Louis several weeks later. Bruguier entered the employ of the American Fur Company and left for Indian Country, November 19, 1835. The party followed the Missouri River along most of their route from St. Louis to the upper country, and in passing along the bluffs on the Nebraska side of the River, Bruguier noticed the fine bottom lands on the Iowa side of the River. He passed along those bluffs thirty-five times, and in 1839, along with the other French settlers, he camped on the farm he later owned in Lakeport Township, Woodbury County, Iowa. It was on this farm, near the town of Salix, where he spent the last years of his life.

Theophile Bruguier, considered the first settler of Sioux City, was one of many French Canadians to come to northwest Iowa. In 1889 there were eighty-four French families in the Riverside Township of Sioux City, and they formed L'Union Franaise. The Church of St. Jean Baptiste was formed, and a French priest came to serve these people, among whom were the families Menard, Rouleauz, LaFleur, Letellier, Leonnais, Paquette, Rivon, Bedard, Rondeau, Carier...to name only a few.

Theophile Bruguier had two Indian wives, daughters of the famous Chief War Eagle. Theophile and Blazing Cloud had seven children; his wife Dawn had six more children, and the descendants of Theophile Bruguier are many; some of his children came to South Dakota and lived among the Indians. It was after the deaths of his Indian wives that he settled on his land south of Sioux City. He married a French woman, Victoria Tournot from St. Louis, who lived with him on his Salix farm until his death in February, 1896.

Bruguier's influence along the Missouri River was tremendous. Not only did his legacy spread through his own children, but he also assisted the families of countless early French pioneers as they settled in the new land. Upstream and downstream from Sioux City, appear many French Canadians in early history. Salix, Iowa, appeared to be a resettlement of part of the province of Quebec! Richard and Francis La Croix came first from Quebec in 1868; Francis Hubert and family arrived in 1869 and purchased eighty acres of land. They were followed by Pierre and Toussaint Lamoureux and their wives in 1872, after these two families spent three years on the Nebraska side of the River. Louis Gibeau, under the protection of Theophile Bruguier, came in 1870 and purchased a farm in Lakeport Township.

Maxime Duchaine arrived from Montreal in the spring of 1876 and built a blacksmith shop. Alfred Pepin came in the summer of 1877, he was a carpenter. Napoleon Devin arrived from St. Camille in 1879 and worked on farms until he opened a mercantile store in partnership with N. I. Duhaime. Between 1869 and 1879 came the following: Conzague Lamoureux, Pierre Chabot, Pierre LaCroix, L. G. Derome, Joseph Choquette, George Gadbois, Napoleon Hubert, Paul and Narcisse Cabanna, Narcisse St. Onge, Clement Allard. Then came William Gregoire and Charles LaDoux in 1880, Louis Beaubien (1883), Telles LaPierre (1884), Edward Dunhaime (1887). Other names appearing before 1900 were LeFevre; Gaudet; Marcil; Deslauriers; Loiselle; LaDoux; Lamoureux, Bernard; Desjarlais; Bertrand; Crevier; Trudeau; Villieux...

Many of these early settlers moved from one area to another. They lived along the Iowa and Nebraska shores of the Missouri River south of Sioux City, and along the River in Clay and Union counties, South Dakota. It was not unusual for a family to live on one farm for several years, then move to another. As one early French settler, Leo LaFerrier wrote, "When my parents moved to Jefferson, South Dakota, from Salix, Iowa, they drove the cattle right down Pierce Street (the main thoroughfare in Sioux City) and out to South Dakota!"

Those French who crossed the Missouri River and came to South Dakota first settled in southern Union and Clay Counties. Among the early settlers in Jefferson, Elk Point, and Civil Bend Townships, all in Union County, were the families of Albert LaBrune, Alexander Duhaime, Marc Chicoine, David Remillard, R. J. Authier, Charles LaBreche, Philippe Beauchemin, Joseph Yerter, Clement Guillaume, Abraham Chaussee, Charles LeMoges, and the LeMeres. All were farmers; Charles LaBreche owned 1,100 acres, and was cited by one early biographer as "probably the most prominent French-American citizen living in Union County." In the fall of 1862, the same year Mr. LaBreche and seven other French Canadian families settled in Union County, the Indians became restless and hostile, and settlers were compelled to get away from the locality or suffer the consequences. While Mr. LaBreche and his party were passing over Brule Creek near Richland on their way to Sioux Falls with government supplies, the Indians were seen to attack a Mr. LaMoure and Tom Watson. Although they had no firearms with them, nor weapons, Mr. LaBreche, Joseph Yerter, Francis Bertrand and Vincent LaBelle started to rescue their unfortunate neighbors. Watson had been wounded, and it was Charles LaBreche who found Mr. LaMoure's body and carried it to a nearby house before he continued his safe journey to Sioux Falls.

In addition to owning farmland, R. J. Authier was also a storekeeper in Jefferson. It was Joseph Yerter who built the first school house on his land in Jefferson, and Charles LeMoge who gave part of his land for the first Catholic Church in Jefferson. The town of Jefferson is located on part of LeMoge's original claim. With the exception of Clement Guillaume, who came to the United States from Switzerland, all of the others mentioned came from the province of Quebec in Canada. Several had lived in other parts of the United States before coming to South Dakota; the areas most common were the eastern states of New York, Vermont, and Connecticut; and the river cities of LaCrosse and Dubuque.

These aforementioned pioneers came into Union County between the years of 1860 and 1880; other families followed in the last decade of the nineteenth century, including Roch Benjamin, Jules Quintal, and Peter Brusseau. William DuPont of the Delaware DuPonts bought land in 1891 from Josiah Talcott; his farm is now part of the town of Elk Point. William DuPont did not live on the farm, however; his wife did, when she came to South Dakota to establish residency in order to receive a divorce from Mr. DuPont.

Among the first French settlers in Clay County were John and Julius Bruyer who were born in France in 1843 and 1853. Their parents, August and Josephine Bruyer emigrated to this country in the year after Julius's birth. After spending several years in Chicago and Dubuque, they moved to Fairview Township, Clay County, in 1859.

It was August Bruyer who donated the land at Fairview on which a log church was constructed in 1860, the first Catholic Church to be built in Dakota Territory. The church cemetery is still prominent on the north side of Highway 50 four miles east of Vermillion in Fairview Township. Across the road stood the church, and the ravine nearby along the south side of Highway 50 is still referred to by many as Bruyer's Ravine.

In addition to the Bruyer family, the Chaussees were also among the first homesteaders in Union and Clay Counties. Abraham Chaussee was born in Canada in 1843 and moved with his parents, Michael and Alice Chaussee to a claim in Union County in the early 1860's. Abraham was the second of twelve children, and in 1866, he married Rosa Bruyer, daughter of August and Joseph Bruyer. Abraham and Rosa later moved to Clay County. Charles and Zoway Chaussee homesteaded in Clay County, settling on their farm in Fairview Township in 1861. Their son Charles, who was born in 1845 in Montreal and moved to Dakota Territory with his parents, became one of the most prominent citizens of Fairview Township.

As I mentioned earlier, many of the families who had originally settled in Woodbury County, Iowa, near Salix, later moved into South Dakota. Some moved back and forth among the counties of Clay, Union, and Woodbury. Among those who moved to Clay County in the early years of the twentieth century were the Millettes, Gregoires, Huberts, and Deslauriers. In the obituary noting the death of Louis Millette, which appeared in the Jefferson paper in 1937, it is noted, "He was a retired farmer and owner of two large farms near Vermillion. Mr. Millette was born June 4, 1854, at St. Hyacinth, Canada. When he was seventeen years old, he came to Iowa to work for Theophile Bruguier. He often told of occasions when Indians on the bluffs northeast of what is now Riverview Park (Sioux City) shot at Bruguier and himself while they were plowing down under." Mr. Millette and his wife (ne Agnes Gregoire) had seventeen children. Large families were very common among these early French settlers; oftentimes there were ten or more children in each family. The family of Louis Millette recently had a reunion of all descendants of Louis and Agnes Millette, and over 580 names appear in his family history! Perhaps the size of the families is one reason that so many of the descendants are still prominent among the names found in both Union and Clay Counties. Some of the children and grandchildren of these pioneers are still tilling the land settled by their ancestors over one hundred years ago.

The family of William Gregoire followed the Millettes to Clay County. William Gregoire had also lived in Salix, where he worked as a blacksmith for Mr. Bruguier. His sister Agnes was married to Louis Millette, and his wife was Ana Maria Pulcherie Hubert, born in Montreal; her family had originally settled on a farm near Salix in 1871.

William Gregoire left Salix in 1908 ahead of his family, to farm land north of Vermillion. In the unpublished journal of his daughter Clerce Gregoire Knudsen who is a resident of the Southeastern Dakota Nursing Home in Vermillion, are the following reminiscences about her move to South Dakota. "And when we got to this town, the depot being on the bottom, as it is called, dad was there with the team and the two-seated buggy and it was all the poor horses could do to pull us up the long hill...the main street was worse yet, mud, ankle-deep."

"Many of the farmers of Iowa had beat us to this town, or should I say country, so we felt right at home..., there were the Deslauriers, who were later to become in-laws...the Lamberts...they had been our school mates in St. Joseph's school in Salix...the Huberts, Mellettes, and others...and we soon found that in order to have friends, one must be one."

"After four years on the Collins farm (north of Vermillion) it had gotten around that farm-owners could do lots worse than hiring what was called Dumb' Frenchmen...and we had no trouble getting another farm to work." This time, the family moved southeast, to a farm of 520 acres bordered by the Missouri River, and as Clerce remembers, "Many kinds of berries grew in that wooded part of the farm, and we would pick and either can or make jellies with them...of course we were acquainted with gooseberries, choke berries and wild plums, but had never before seen what was called Buffalo berries."

At ninety-eight years of age, Clerce Gregoire Knudsen is as spunky as I am sure she must have been as a young school girl at St. Joseph's school, Salix, at the turn of the century. She is proud of her French heritage and her family. As she expressed in her journal, "Dad rigged up a cart so that the three older ones could go to school in town; that was the convent school taught by Sisters who had been brought over from France. Because most of the pioneers were French speaking people, it was a good idea to have their school...for after all, the sacrifices made, to raise the needed money to build the temple of learning' came from their hard work, and it was only right that they should have their off-spring learn that language...and we all did, but how very few left who can even talk it, let alone read or write it...I thank the good Lord that I have not let the knowledge of that wonderful language escape me, only it is hard to keep it up, when no one around shares your wanting' to."

I, too, thank the Good Lord that Clerce has not let the knowledge of her French heritage or that "wonderful language" escape her, for when I go to the nursing home to see my own mother, Clerce and I always spend a few special moments together, speaking French. She, and many like her, remind us of the adventuresome spirit of the French and French Canadians who settled this part of South Dakota over one hundred years ago. It is appropriate to honor them as we begin our Centennial year of Statehood.

Chicoine, Fern. "Sioux Point, Stevens, McCook, The Gateway to Southeastern South Dakota." Paper, 19th Annual Dakota History Conference (Apr. 1987), Dec. 30, 1987.

Duchaine, Louis N. Salix, Woodbury County, Iowa: History in Two Parts. 2 vols. N.p.: Louis N. Duchaine, n.d.

Fate, W. H. H., ed. Historical Glimpse of the Early Settlement of Union County, South Dakota. Sioux City, IA: Perkins Brothers, 1924.

Knudsen, Clerce Gregoire. Journal, ms.

Memorial and Biographical Record for Turner, Lincoln, Union, and Clay Counties, South Dakota. Chicago: George A. Ogle & Co., 1897.

Millette, Louis. Genealogy of the Family of Louis Millette, ms.

Quasquicentennial: Elk Point, South Dakota, 1859-1984. Elk Point: Elk Graphics, n.d.

Sterling, Everett W. Vermillion Story. N.p.: n.p.,1959.

Woodbury County Genealogical Society and National ShareGraphics, Inc. History of Woodbury County, Iowa, 1984. Vol. I. N.p.: n.p., 1984.

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