M. 1628 in France
Wife: Marguerite Charlot
D. about 10 Jun 1653 in (probably) Cap-Rouge, New France
When the French began to colonize the St. Lawrence River, their towns were often attacked by Iroquois living to the south, and many settlers were killed in random acts of violence. Pierre Gareman was one of their victims.
Pierre was born in 1603 in Bagneux, Picardy, France, a town roughly halfway between Paris and the Belgian border. In 1628, he married Marguerite Charlot; they had two daughters before the family migrated to Quebec sometime in the 1630s. In 1639, they had a third daughter, born in the colony.
In 1640, Pierre was a tenant farmer working for Jacques Le Neuf de la Poterie in Portneuf, a new settlement on the river between Trois-Rivieres and Quebec City. The settlers were threatened by the presence of Iroquois warriors, and in 1642 had to take refuge in Sillery, near Quebec City. Pierre was in Trois-Rivieres in 1643, where his fourth child, a son Charles, was baptized. In 1646, Pierre signed a contract to work for Le Neuf again at Portneuf, but two years later, was again run off by Iroquois when they burned several settlers' homes.
Cap-Rouge as it looked when Pierre lived there.
Pierre was granted his own land by the Compagnie des Cent-Associes in 1652 in Cap-Rouge. Typical of land grants in New France, it was a narrow tract that bordered the St. Lawrence River by 4 arpents and extended deep inland. It was here that tragedy struck. On June 10, 1653, Pierre and 10 year-old Charles were attacked and captured by Iroquois who also shot and killed one of his neighbors while working in the fields. Another man named Hugues Couturier was captured with Pierre. By this time, Pierre's wife had already died and his three daughters were married. It is known that Iroquois didn't keep men as prisoners and it is assumed that they tortured Pierre before killing him.
The boy Charles was not killed by his captors; instead he was taken into the tribe for three years, then sold to the Jesuits in 1655. As an adult in 1677, he married an Oneida woman and lived with her in an Indian village upstream from Quebec. Pierre was an ancestor of Alex Trebek.
Children:
1. Florence Gareman — B. about 1628, (probably) Bagneux, Picardy, France; D. before Nov 1689, Cap-Rouge, New France; M. François Boucher (1617-1672), 3 Sep 1641, Quebec City, New France
2. Nicole Gareman — B. about 1630, Bagneux, Picardy, France; M. René Mezeray dit Nopces (~1615-1695), 30 Oct 1645, New France
3. Marguerite Gareman — B. 10 Dec 1639, Quebec City, New France; M. Mathurin Trut (~1625-?), 29 Jan 1652, Quebec City, New France
4. Charles Gareman — B. about 1643, Trois-Rivières, New France; M. Marie Gonnentenne, 1676, New France
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Une paroisse historique de la Nouvelle-France, Henry Arthur Scott, 1902
One Hundred French-Canadian Families, Phillip Moore, 1994
