M. 7 Oct 1737 in Quebec City, New France
Wife: Marguerite Couillard
D. 27 Oct 1642 in Sillery, New France
Though he was a French-Canadian, the name Jean Nicolet might be more famous in Wisconsin. Every school child knows the name of the first European to land in their state. And his expedition during the 1630s makes for a colorful story.
Jean Nicolet was born in Cherbourg, France in 1598 to Thomas Nicolet and Marguerite de la Mar. Thomas Nicolet was a postal courier between Cherbourg, which is a port in Normandy, and Paris. It is known that Jean had at least four brothers.
Cherbourg was a center of trade and when Jean came of age he signed on with a company of merchants who sent him to New France in 1618. Samuel de Champlain had been looking for young men to send into the wilderness as clerks and interpreters, and Jean was seen to be a strong candidate. It was said that “his disposition and his excellent memory led one to expect worthwhile things of him.” Soon after arriving, he was sent to live among the Huron tribe on Allumette Island. He spent two years there picking up the language and gathering knowledge on tribes even further inland. He learned to hunt for food and guide a canoe. In 1620, he returned to the settlement in Quebec.
Huron people as illustrated by a French artist in the 17th century.
Jean next went to Lake Nipissing, deep into what is now Ontario. For the next nine years, he lived amongst the Indians. He kept a journal that was lost, but Jesuit priests took down some of his anecdotes of the times. Here it was said that "he passed for one of the nation, taking part in the very frequent councils of these tribes, having his own separate cabin and household, and fishing and trading for himself." In 1624, Jean served as an interpreter for a peace settlement between the French and Iroquois regarding a conflict near Lake Ontario.
By 1628, Jean lived with a woman of the Nipissing tribe as his wife. Some records name her as Elisabeth Manitoukoue une Sauvagesse de Nipissing. They had a daughter named Madeleine-Euphrosine Nicolet. While it's not known what became of Jean's Indigenous wife, Madeleine-Euphrosine later came to live at an Indigenous community outside Quebec City called Sillery.
In 1629, Champlain's settlement was taken over by an Englishman named David Kirke. The French settlers were mostly transported back to Europe, but Jean stayed on in the wilderness with the natives. He worked to foil attempts by the English to do trade there, and he was later viewed as a hero for it. When Champlain returned in 1633 to take charge of the colony again, he recalled Jean to Quebec City and gave him the job of clerk and interpreter for the Company of New France. It was an important position because they had "a royal monopoly" on fur trade, and Jean was set up in a newly built post at Trois-Rivières.
Champlain had Jean in mind for another appointment — to find a Northwest Passage to the Pacific. This had been a mission of many fur traders and none had been successful, but Champlain had an idea that the vast waters just beyond Ontario might be the way to China. So in 1634, he sent Jean out to explore the area.
Some dispute Jean's exact route, but he definitely ventured further west than anyone had before.
Jean was to make contact with a tribe called the Winnebagos. They lived in what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin and were said to be uncooperative with other tribes wanting to barter in French goods. Were these people really on the outskirts of Asia? Jean prepared his expedition for that possibility, packing "a robe of damask silk, embroidered with birds and flowers of many colors, of the sort that Chinese Mandarins were known to wear." He was guided by several Hurons; they made their way along the north shore of Lake Huron, then it's believed they followed the Mackinac Straits into Lake Michigan. Upon landing at Green Bay, Jean donned his colorful robe, and to make even more of an impression, took a pistol in each hand and fired them into the air.
Several hundred people of the Winnebago tribe were there to greet him and they treated him well. Jean offered gifts and they gave him feasts over the next few days. He was able to get information from them as to what lied to the west; it was clear he was nowhere near the Pacific. Nonetheless, he ventured further up a waterway and it's said that he narrowly missed discovering the Mississippi River by turning back to the east a little too soon.
This painting was created many years later and is probably more fantasy than reality.
Jean spent the winter among the Huron tribe, then returned to Quebec City in 1635, now part of a growing colony. Jean married a French woman named Marguerite Couillard on October 7, 1637, and they had a son and a daughter. The death of Champlain in December 1635 halted any further effort in finding a Northwest Passage, so Jean’s career as an explorer was over. But he still was useful in dealings with the Indigenous in and around New France. In October 1642, Jean was sent on a mission to negotiate the release of an Iroquois prisoner being held by the Hurons. Unfortunately, the boat he was in, a shallop, overturned, and Jean drowned along with his brother Etienne.
Jean left a huge legacy as a noted explorer in North America. He has been honored with paintings of his landing amongst the Winnebago Indians, as well as a large statue at a place close to where the event occurred, in what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. A town in Quebec is named Nicolet and at least two high schools and a community college. And his story is taught to children in most schools in the Great Lakes area.
Statue of Jean at Wequiock Falls County Park, Wisconsin. (source: Skiba, Justin M., CC BY-SA 4.0)
Children by Marguerite Couillard:
1. Ignace Nicolet — B. 4 Dec 1640; D. young
2. Marguerite Nicolet — B. 21 Apr 1642, Trois-Rivières, New France; D. 21 Jan 1722, Montreal, New France; M. Jean-Baptiste Legardeur (?-1709), 9 Jul 1656, Quebec City, New France
Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)
Wikipedia article on Jean Nicolet
A point in history… and a few acres of snow (website), Marjorie Lizotte, 2009
