M. 5 Oct 1744 in Detroit, New France
Wife: Marie-Louise Bouron
D. about Jan 1793 in (probably) Northwest Territory
The life of Louis Clermond Dubord survives in fragments from 18th century fur trading outpost contracts and records. By piecing together the known facts, we can get somewhat of a picture of who he was: a man who supported his family by shuttling goods between remote places.
Louis was born in about 1715 to Charles Dubord dit Clermond and Marie Ripault; some sources give his birthplace as Île-Aux-Castors, New France. He was baptized at Sorel on March 17th, which was the closest town to Île-Aux-Castors. The family seems to have moved to Grondines within a couple of years, and Louis had several younger siblings born there.
Nothing is known of Louis’ early years until he was about 24-years-old, agreeing to a contract to go out west. The document was dated August 27, 1739, signed in Montreal, and was a fairly standard agreement for a one-year fur trading expedition. Louis’ was to become a voyageur, helping to paddle a canoe of merchandise all the way to Poste des Ouabache, an early name for the trading post known as Vincennes (Ouabache = Wabash). Upon his return to Montreal with a load of pelts, he would be paid 400 livres. It isn’t known if this was his first trip, but he made another similar journey in 1740, this time to the outpost at Green Bay.
With at least two fur trading expeditions under his belt, on May 30, 1741, Louis was hired by the company of Louis Damour de Clignancourt to go to Fort Miami, an outpost at the present-day site of Fort Wayne. De Clignancourt ran a prosperous fur trading business out of Montreal. It was said that during the 1740s, de Clignancourt hired about 180 men to transport supplies to outposts in the Great Lakes area and Illinois country, and Louis was one of the men. The outposts were easy targets for invasion, and they depended on food, gunpowder and other necessities for their survival, so it was an important job. This time his contract was for three years, and his payment would be 900 livres.
18th-century outposts of the French fur trade.
Louis next turned up in records at his wedding: on October 5, 1744, he married Marie-Louise Bouron at Fort Detroit. He may have been living there at the time, but this isn’t clear from records. Louis and his wife produced a large family, and because most of the records for their children’s baptisms are missing, the list of them has to be pieced together from a variety of information found elsewhere. Some records of the children are confusing because their first names are inconsistent from record to record, in particular daughter Veronique who was also called Louise, and daughter Elisabeth who was also called Ursule. To further complicate things, there are other daughters also named Louise and Ursule. (The list presented below is a best attempt at identifying them.)
At some point after Louis was married, he had the job of “aide-major to the militia;” he was noted that way on his son’s Detroit baptism on April 21, 1760, and he likely served in this function for several years. The role of an aide-major was to do administrative work for the commander of the militia, and for Louis, this meant handling the supply deliveries. For a time in about 1749 and 1750, Louis was based at Fort Miami; whether or not his family was with him isn’t known. He was recorded on several invoices as having furnished supplies at the fort. Louis was also mentioned in a letter written by the Fort Miami commander on April 9, 1750: “I sent off the second of this month the man named Clermont, who is domiciled at this post, to go to Ouiatenon and to Terre Haute to buy the provisions which you ordered me to lay in by your letter of the fourth of August last. I have given him a detachment of ten men of this garrison to escort him.”
The 1750s were a time of war on the French-Canadian frontier, with British forces ultimately taking over New France. By 1762, Fort Detroit had fallen and a census was made to identify the French population. Louis was listed as living on the south shore, and having four sons and four daughters, with a description that his family was “poor.” With the departure of the French military, and with the colony of New France ceasing to exist, Louis no longer had an income as aide-major. It’s likely that he was still living at Detroit the following year during Pontiac’s Rebellion, an attempt by Indians to drive out the English that ultimately failed. After that, the British took firm control of Detroit.
1763 Siege of Fort Detroit.
Within a couple of years, Louis and his family relocated to Post Vincennes. His wife Louise was godmother to a child in Vincennes on November 23, 1765, placing them there by that date; several other church records mention family members, with Louis himself serving as a godfather on November 28, 1766. By then, he was 50-years-old, and likely became a part of the Creole community in Vincennes, but it’s not certain that he stayed there permanently since he doesn't seem to be among the French men who signed the 1778 Oath of Allegiance to the Americans.
Researchers have said that Louis died in January 1793 at an unnamed place that may have been Vincennes or another former outpost in the area. His wife Louise outlived him, and died in about 1808. That year, the heirs of three of his daughters formed a petition regarding their mother’s estate, which was described as 400 acres of land near Vincennes. This helps to identify some of Louis’ children and also suggests he was recipient of one of the land grants awarded to men who were heads of households in Vincennes at the end of the American Revolution.
Children:
1. Marie-Louise Clermond Dubord — B. about Sep 1745, Detroit, New France; D. about 1793; M. Joseph Bordeau (1730-1789), 14 Apr 1760, Detroit, New France
2. Joseph Clermond Dubord — B. about May 1747, Detroit, New France
3. Veronique [Louise] Clermond Dubord — B. about 8 Mar 1749, New France; M. Guillaume Dapron (~1750-~1787), 16 Jun 1768, Sandwich, Quebec
4. Ursule Clermond Dubord — B. 7 Apr 1751, Detroit, New France; D. 10 Dec 1790, Vincennes, Northwest Territory; M. Joseph Chabot (1744-1791, 18 Jan 1773, Post Vincennes, Illinois Territory
5. Charles-Amable Clermond Dubord — B. 11 Feb 1753, Detroit, New France
6. Elisabeth [Ursule] Clermond Dubord — B. 1 Dec 1754, Detroit, New France; D. before 1808, (probably) Vincennes, Indiana Territory; M. Charles Diel (1746-1813), about 1773
7. Bonaventure Clermond Dubord — B. 3 Dec 1756, Detroit, New France
8. Michel Clermond Dubord — B. 21 Apr 1760, Detroit, New France
9. Marguerite Clermond Dubord — B. 18 May 1762, Detroit, New France; D. 11 Dec 1810, Ste. Genevieve, Missouri Territory; M. Pierre Ranger (~1750-1828)
10. Pierre Clermond Dubbed — B. 5 Apr 1764, Detroit, Quebec
11. Jean-François Clermond Dubord — M. Ursule Cherou
Sources:
Quebec Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979, FamilySearch.org
Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region, 1701-1936, Christian Dennison, 1987
Online Database of Voyageur Contracts
Illinois on the eve of the Seven Years’ War, 1747-1755, Theodore Calvin Pease, 1940
“Fall 1762 Census of Detroit — Part 4 — Land of the Hurons to Riviére au Canard,” Diane Wolfe Sheppard and Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, Michigan’s Habitant Heritage Journal, 2015
“Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901
Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (website)
Siege of Fort Detroit (Wikipedia article)
Online Database of Voyageur Contracts
Illinois on the eve of the Seven Years’ War, 1747-1755, Theodore Calvin Pease, 1940
“Fall 1762 Census of Detroit — Part 4 — Land of the Hurons to Riviére au Canard,” Diane Wolfe Sheppard and Gail Moreau-DesHarnais, Michigan’s Habitant Heritage Journal, 2015
“Records of the Parish of St. Francis Xavier,” Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia, Vol. 12, 1901
Wabash Valley Visions & Voices (website)
Siege of Fort Detroit (Wikipedia article)
