Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/81

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY 51 Prance, published in 1744. the following brief description of this island is translated: "On going above the lake (Pepin) one comes to Isle Pelee, so named because it has not a single tree, but is a very beautiful prairie. The French of Canada have often made it the center of their trade in these western districts, and many have also wintered there, because all this country is excel- lent for hunting." There have been found on Prairie Island in modern times such articles as iron axes of very ancitnl make, "strike-a-light" flint- lock guns, pistols, etc., indicating an early occupation by whites long previous to the settlement in 1837-53. The next occupancy of this county by Europeans was in 1727, when Fort Beauharnois was erected. Rev. Neill says: "In June, 1727, an expedition left Montreal under Rene Boucher, Sieur de la Perriere, to establish a post on Lake Pepin. His party, arriving there on September 17 follow- ing, built a post, according to Father Guignas, upon the western shore of Lake Pepin, about the middle of the north side, on a low point where the soil is excellent. We are here on the parallel of 43 degrees and 41 minutes." Again Xeill says: "Frontenac, in Goodhue county, occupied the site of this old fort, and recently a four and a six-pound cannon ball were found at the railway sta- tion five feet below the surface. It is noteworthy that Sieur La Perriere Boucher, the officer in command of the Indians who sur- prised Haverhill. Mass.. killed the minister of the town, scalped his wife and broke the skull of his child against a rock, and shot one Samuel Sibley, said to be a relative of Hon. H. H. Sibley, of St. Paul, was the person who established this post at Point au Sable of Lake Pepin. A connection of the leader of the expedi- tion was the wife of a person named Pepin (Jean Pepin), and this may account for the name of the lake. The post was located at the Sandy Point, which extends into Lake Pepin opposite Maiden's Rock. Boucher built a stockade of pickets twelve feet high, forming a square of 100 feet, with two bastions, and called the post Fort Beauharnois. in compliment to the governor of Canada. On April 15, 1728. the water in the lake was unusually high and overflowed the point, so that the log buildings within the enclosure were full of water and it was necessary, for two weeks, to dwell upon higher ground. The principal trader at the post ;it this time was the Sieur de Mont Brun Boucher, a In-other of the commandant: and the armorer and blacksmith was Francis Campau, a brother of him who settled at Detroit.' and whose descendants are so numerous in Michigan. "Owing to the hostility of the Renards, or Fox Indians, early in October, 1728, the post was left in charge of a young man, the Sieur Dutrost Jemeraye. and a few voyagers, while the rest placed