Pierre Grignon, John Lawe and Jacques Porlier were fur traders who settled in the Green Bay area during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Grignon and Porlier were French-Canadians by birth while Lawe was born in England.
Pierre Grignon Family
Pierre Grignon, a voyageur in the Lake Superior region, son of Sieur Pierre Grignon and Marguerite Chevalier, was born in Deschambault, Quebec, Canada on 16 November between 1735 and 1740. Around 1763 he settled in Green Bay. While living with a Menominee woman he fathered three children of whom only Perische (Perrish or Pierriche) survived. In 1776 Pierre Grignon married Louise Domitilde de Langlade, daughter of Charles de Langlade, a wealthy Green Bay landowner born in Quebec. They had nine children: Pierre Antoine; Charles; Augustin; Louis; Jean Baptiste; Domitilde; Marguerite; Hippolyte; and Amable. The children received some of their education in Green Bay and possibly some of them were educated in Montreal, Canada. In November 1795, Pierre Grignon died.
All the Grignon brothers, except Perische and Jean Baptiste, actively engaged in fur trading. Because of their early arrival in the Green Bay area, their role as traders, and the size of their financial and property holdings in the area, including the estate left the brothers by their maternal grandfather, Charles de Langlade, the Grignon brothers were prominent in Green Bay society. Of the daughters, little is known: Marguerite, born 23 March 1789, married Louis Corbeille in January 1803; Domitilde, born 21 March 1787, married Dominic Brunette possibly in 1806 and settled in Green Bay.
Pierre Grignon's sons engaged in a variety of activities upon reaching adulthood. Perische Grignon acted as interpreter during the War of 1812 and had a homestead on the Fox River in 1823. Later he moved to the Fox-Wisconsin River portage where he married the daughter of a Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) chief. Born on 21 October 1777, Pierre Antoine (also known as Fanfan) headed the family upon his father's death. He worked for the American Fur Company at the same time that John Lawe was in the firm's employ. He had at least two sons one of whom, Pierre Bernard, married John Lawe's daughter Rachel. Pierre Antoine died in Green Bay on 4 March 1823.
Charles, born 14 June 1779, worked for the Northwest Fur Company on Lake Superior until shortly before its merger with the Hudson Bay Company in 1821. He eventually returned to Green Bay and worked with his brothers. He died in January 1840.
Born on 27 June 1780, Augustin, a fur trader in the Green Bay area, operated his own farm and trading post and hauled goods and furs by team around the Kau-kau-lin rapids for voyageurs who piloted their empty boats through the treacherous waters. He married Nancy McCrea in 1804 or 1805 and had five children. They lived at Kaukauna and Buttes des Mort, the latter the site of
his interview by Lyman Draper in 1857. The transcript, “Seventy-two Years Recollection of Wisconsin” is printed in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, volume 3. Augustin died in 1860.
Louis, born 21 September 1783, was an early advocate of education and instrumental in the construction of the first school house in Green Bay. He served as justice of the peace and coroner, sat on the boards of other civil trusts, and became knowledgeable in English law and court procedures. His first wife, by common law, was Therese Rankin; they had two children. Around 23 July 1823, Louis married Catische Cardin. He had three children by that marriage. Louis died in 1839.
Born on 23 July 1785, Jean Baptiste, who was not a fur trader like his brothers, settled into farming in the Green Bay area where he was still residing as late as 1832. During the War of 1812 he was employed by the British as were many French-Canadians during that war.
Hippolyte (Paul or Pollitte), born 14 September 1790, was involved with the fur trade along with his brothers. After the death of Pierre Antoine in 1823, he acted as administrator for Pierre Antoine's estate. In 1825 he formed a partnership with his younger brother Amable and settled in what is now known as the Appleton area. His first wife was a Menominee woman by whom he had several daughters; later he married Lizette Chorette and had two sons and two daughters by that marriage.
Amable was born in December 1795, one month after the death of his father in 1795. During the War of 1812, he served as a corporal in the Green Bay detachment. In 1817 he traded with Duncan Graham and in 1818 worked for the Hudson Bay Company. With capital saved from this venture, he entered a partnership with Hippolyte and traded along the upper Wisconsin River. He married Judith Bourassa. They made their home in Grand Rapids and had two sons. Amable died in 1845.
John Lawe Family
John Lawe was born in York, England in 1779. His father was a captain in the English army and his mother was the sister of Jacob Franks, the first Jewish trader at Green Bay. Franks was a fur trader in Detroit and in 1792 Ogilivie, Gillespie and Company of Mackinaw gave him responsibility for their post in Green Bay. In 1797, Franks started an independent fur trade and hired Lawe to clerk for him. In 1807, John Lawe married Therese Rankin, who had separated from Louis Grignon. The couple had six daughters and two sons; both sons were active in the fur trade. During the War of 1812, Lawe was a lieutenant with the British Army in the Indian Department. He became a successful clerk and trader and eventually succeeded his uncle in 1813, when Franks returned to Montreal. One of the wealthiest men in Green Bay, Lawe held large tracts of land and extensive tenant farms. He served in many public capacities. On 1846 February 11 John Lawe died at Green Bay.
Jacques Porlier Family
Jacques Porlier, born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1765, was educated at a seminary with the intention of entering the priesthood but instead became a fur trader. He was in Mackinaw in 1783 and in 1791 settled in Green Bay where he was clerk and family tutor for Pierre Grignon. He married Marguerite Griesie in 1793 and in 1797 traded independently in northwest Wisconsin and Green Bay. Porlier's educational advantages gave him a place of prominence in the area. In 1815 he served as a militia captain for the British. He held several public positions under the Americans, which included his appointment in 1820 as Chief Justice of Brown County. He held this office until the organization of the Wisconsin Territory in 1836. In 1821 his trading operations were conducted under the firm name of Grignon, Lawe and Porlier acting as agents for the American Fur Company. He and Augustin Grignon started a trading company which had principal posts at Overton's Creek on the Fox River and Point Bass on the Wisconsin River. Porlier died at Green Bay on 1839 July 12.
Porlier had three sons. Joseph Jacques Porlier Jr., born in Green Bay about 1796, was educated at Montreal and fought in the War of 1812 as a lieutenant for the Michigan Fencibles. After the war, he returned to Green Bay and actively entered the fur trade. He married Agatha Grignon, daughter of Louis Grignon. They settled at Kaukauna where he died in 1839. Hippolyte Porlier, the second son, married Marguerite Chorette and lived at Green Bay with their three children. Louis Porlier, the third son, was born at Green Bay in 1815, and married Sophie Grignon, daughter of Augustin Grignon.
