| East Dubuque Local Area History Project | |
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Nicholas Perrot was born in France 1644. He came to New France (Canada) and worked with the Jesuit Missionaries. Perrot traded furs. He was very good at learning Indian languages, which made him a successful trader. The Indians called him “Little Indian Corn” to his special freinds the Fox. He was probably a member of the first French trading party with the Indians around Green Bay, Wisconsin. |
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| The New France Government appointed Perrot commandant of the area around Green Bay in 1685. He built Fort St. Nicholas at the mouth of the Wisconsin River. He built another fort, St. Antoine, on Lake Pepin for trading. On May 8, 1689, Perrot claimed the upper Mississippi for France. | |
| In 1690 he met some Miami Indians who wanted Perrot to trade with them. They gave him a piece of lead, which really interested him. Perrot thought he was going to be rich. He built another trading post 20 days after he talked to the Miami Indians. | |
| He went looking for the source of lead. Perrot’s establishment was probably at East Dubuque or a little below, for the establishment was “opposite the lead mines.” The rivulet referred to by the Miami chief, along whose banks they obtained the lead, was evidently Catfish Creek, the location of the earliest mines at Dubuque. We know that Perrot built a fort on a hill in what is now East Dubuque. That area is now Gramercy Park. | |
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Bibliography Dubuque Folklore-A Contribution from American Trust and Savings Bank to Dubuqueland in Celebration of Our Nation’s Bicentennial, American Trust and Savings Bank, Town Clock Plaza, Dubuque, Iowa: American Trust and Savings Bank, 1975. Wilke, William. Dubuque on the Mississippi 1788-1988. Dubuque, Iowa: Union Hoermann Press, 1987. |
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