Great Woman: Madeline Laframboise of Mackinac Island

As we've seen from earlier posts, the Ottawa were known even before contact with Europeans as traders and middlemen for various products.  A mixed-race Ottawa woman, Madeline Laframboise (1780-1846) carried on that tradition in 19th century Michigan, long before women of any race routinely made it in the business world.

Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot was born at Fort St. Joseph, a French outpost taken over by the British during the Seven Year's War and located near present-day Niles, Michigan.  Her father was a French fur trader who was killed when Madeline was quite young.  Her mother was Ottawa, the daughter of a local leader, Kewiniquot.  Madeline was baptized Catholic in their teens, after the British had abandoned Fort St. Joseph and Madeline fled with her mother and sisters to Mackinac Island.  At some point in her childhood, Madeline spent time in an Ojibwe village.  She became fluent in English, French, Ojibwe and Ottawa.  She and her two sisters married traders and all became quite wealthy and influential women in their own right.

In 1794, when she was about fourteen, Madeline married Joseph La Framboise.  Many girls in that era, both Native and White, married in their mid-teens, so the fact that she was a young bride wasn't unusual.  Their marriage was solemnized according to Ottawa custom and later confirmed by a Catholic ceremony in 1804.  They had two children, Josette and Joseph.  The couple moved between Mackinac Island and the Grand River in Michigan (nothing to do with Joseph Brant's Grand River in Ontario).  They established several trading posts along the Grand River.  Throughout the winter, they would trade their goods for furs, which they would bring back in the spring to Mackinac and repeat the process.  Tragedy struck when Joseh, Sr., was murdered in 1806, leaving Madeline a widow.  Not to be outdone, she continued the pattern, picking up trade goods in Mackinac and visiting their various points of call on the Grand River.  The population of Mackinac Island at this time was predominantly Metis and French, so Madeline and her sisters fitted in there along with their families.  Madeline was able to send her children to Montreal to be educated. 

However, a larger fur company was slowly taking over independent traders in Michigan, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company.  Her children raised and a comfortable nest egg accumulated for herself, Madeline sold out to him in 1822.  She retired to a large home on Mackinac Island that still stands today and became active in her local church community.  Her foremost project was a school for Native American children.  She was also a catechism teacher in the local Catholic church, keeping the congregation together when they did not have a resident priest.  When the church decided to move to better quarters, she donated the land next to her home, asking only to be buried beneath the altar of the church.  This was an often-made request on behalf of pious donors throughout the ages.  Her daughter Josette (called Josephine), married a brother of future President Franklin Pierce.  Her son carried on the family business in Minnesota, marrying a woman who was mixed-race Sioux.  Madeline remained in Mackinac, her home become a stopping point for prominent characters such as French writer Alexis de Tocqueville, who was impressed by her ladylike manners and ability to speak French and specifically noted that she wore Native dress and quite beautifully so. 

Madeline died on April 4, 1846, and was buried beneath the alter of St. Anne's Church in Mackinac.  Later when the church was renovated in the 1960's, her body and those of some family members were interred in a new crypt beneath the altar.  Her home is now the Harbor View Inn.