Fort Mackinac on Mackinac
Island. Great day for a battle.
Reenactors taking the battlefield. George Boisineau, leading the native
reenactors
From left to right: Dolores (Bussineau) Pinder genealogist, John
Bussineau webmaster and genealogist, George Boisineau (reenactor
extrodinaire with Spirits of the North), Delphine Goodwin genealogist,
and Johann (Pinder) Dupuis genealogist.
Very very brief synopsis
of the battle:
(British) "Colonel McDouall took some 140 soldiers and volunteers,
an artillery battery, and about 350 Natives - out to meet the invaders.
A small band of Menominee Indians under Chief Tomash stayed in their position
on the left flank of the British. They were hidden behind rocks and boulders
and trees which they had felled to form breastworks. Tomash's men completely
stopped the attempted flanking movement, killing Holmes (American), severely
wounding the second in command, Capt Desha, and inflicting other casualties.
Leaderless the Americans fell back in confusion."
American Fur Company - Market
Street Mackinac Island (photo below)
"During the peak of the fur trade this street on Mackinac Island
bustled with activity. Each July and August Natives, traders, and trappers
by the thousands came here with furs from throughout the Northwest. In
1817 John Jacob Astor's American Fur Co. located its headquarters here.
Furs valued at $3,000,000 went through the Market Street offices in 1822.
After 1834 the trade moved westward."
Joseph Charles Boissonneau, Joseph Boissonneau Jr. and Magloire were all part of this trade. It is very probable that they traded in this very building 200 years ago. Located on the webite are scanned in copies of parts of their ledgers from the American Fur Co. Our family has direct ties to the great island. Joseph's ledgers. Magloire's ledgers.
