Wisconsin Historical Collections, Volume XI (1888)

              antoine le clair's statement fragmentary notes taken by lyman c draper.1 francis le clair son of antoine le clair was born at st josephs michigan in 1795 — his brother antoine le clair late of davenport iowa was two years younger.2 antoine le clair sr.3 was a native of montreal he first located as a trader at a crossing place just above the old fort called para vache,3 or cattle yard cowpens about thirty miles above the mouth of the st josephs river — and near there a little above was the pottawattomie village la terre coupee he there married into a prominent in dian family about 1792 the elder antoine le olair was a blacksmith by trade but did not work at the business ex cept for a few years before his death at portage des sioux missouri — where he died about 1821 some fifty-five years of age he was somewhat less than six feet in height — well-built and a successful trader in 1800 antoine le clair sr removed to milwaukee isto traders were then located there there probably had been such however who would remain during the winter and then return to mackinaw le clair took his family and 1 in my trip to missouri kansas illinois and indiana in may june and july 1868 i was not able to transcribe all the notes i took in rough pen cil form — hurrying as i had to do from place to place and had time to copy only a part as i took them these fragmentary statements by le clair whom i met at portage des sioux mo may 27 1868 i now transcribe in the order in which i took them there is no attempt at a connected nar rative form — l cd 2 antoine le clair jr was united states interpreter at the sac and fox indian agency at rock island in 1833 in august of that year he served as interpreter between black hawk and j b patterson when the latter secured black hawk's autobiography — ed 8 at para vache the roads from chicago forked — one leading to fort wayne the other to detroit l c d