Hercules Louis Dousman I, born in 1800, was the oldest of six children of Michael Dousman and Jane Catherine Dousman. Hercules Dousman I moved to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, in 1826 to work as an agent of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. Dousman eventually amassed a fortune through his involvement in varied business interests including trading, sawmills, railroad promotion and land speculation. In 1843 he built a mansion, named Villa Louis, on the site of Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien. Dousman married Jane Fisher Rollette, widow of Joseph Rollette, Dousman's partner at the American Fur Trading Company, in 1844. They had one son, Hercules Louis Dousman II. Hercules Dousman I died in 1868. Jane Dousman died in 1882.
Hercules Louis Dousman II was born April 3, 1848, in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. He was educated at Racine College and the University of Wisconsin. Hercules Dousman II moved to St. Paul, Minnesota where he met and married Nina Linn Sturgis, daughter of General Samuel D. Sturgis, in 1873. One year later the couple moved to St. Louis where they became well known in the city's social circles for their patronage of the arts. Upon the death of his mother, Jane Dousman, in 1882, Hercules Dousman II and his wife moved back to Villa Louis where he took up horse breeding. Hercules and Nina had five children; Violet, Virginia, Nina II (who died in a fire at age 14), Louis, and Judith. Hercules Dousman II died in 1885.
Upon the death of her husband, Hercules Dousman II, Nina Sturgis Dousman took over the management of his estate and undertook a remodeling of Villa Louis. Nina married again, in 1888, to R.H. McBride and moved to the New York/New Jersey area. Nina and McBride had one daughter, Florence McBride, who died as an infant. Upon her divorce from R.H. McBride in 1891, Nina returned to Villa Louis a year later where she lived until about 1912. Nina Sturgis Dousman died in 1930.
In 1935 Villa Louis was restored and has since been maintained by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as a historic site.
