Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XI (1888)

              v c ) narrative of andrew j vieau sr in an interview with the editor.1 my father was jacques vieail the first man to engage in the indian trade on the ground now occupied by the city of milwaukee.2 the family name was originally de veau but as that meant calf or veal other children would annoy my ancestors in their youth by bleating in their presence so the name was changed to vieau in self-defense my 1 upon the 13th and 14th of june 1837 the editor while at fort howard obtained from the lips of andrew jacques vieau sr this narrative of his recollections of early times in wisconsin the arrangement and language are largely the editor's but the statements are strictly those of mr vieau who though in the seventieth year of his age appeared at the time of tbe interview to be in full possession of his faculties mental and physical and enjoying the complete confidence of bis friends and neighbors un fortunately his father jacques vieau left the son no documents so that statements by the latter concerning jacques are based on oral family tra dition but as to their truth he is most positive claiming to have a distinct remembrance of what was told him by his parents who spent the later years of their life in his neighborhood it will be seen that mr vieau narrates many interesting events in his own career which are not men tioned in any of the published histories of the lake-shore counties because of this the editor has been at much pains to ascertain the soundness of the narrator's memory and is pleased to say that in cases where he has been en abled to gain outside evidence direct or presumptive on the point at issue it has been invariably in mr vieau's favor while a large number of ms letters addressed to the latter by john lawe solomon juneau and others together with commissions and miscellaneous documents presented to the society by mr vieau in november 1887 are also corroborative of his statements an oil portrait of the narrator painted in milwaukee in 1839 by geo p a healey can be seen in the society's portrait gallery — ed 2 an error there were off and on several traders at the mouth of the milwaukee riv^r previous to the arrival of jacques vieau chief among them alexander la framboise who commenced his trade in 1785 see buck's pioneer hist milwaukee i p 10 hist milwaukee co west hist co 1881 p 56 back's milwaukee under the charter iii appendix wis hist colls i pp 35 134 mag west hist pp 639 757 also ante p 210 where traders are mentioned as being at milwaukee in 1779 — ed