In accordance with common practice of the time, Lefevre, who was a French-Canadian fur trader, married a Native American woman- Marie’s mother. Marie’s father was a skilled trapper and trader by the name of Lefevre of Gascon. They brought with them many of their French traditions, including devout Catholicism. Many French-Canadians had moved to Detroit in decades past, and now they were beginning to disperse. ![]() He was a prominent early settler to Frenchtown. Marie Lefevre was born around 1783 at a small fur-trading settlement known to outsiders as Frenchtown along the River Raisin just east of Detroit, Michigan. To better understand Marie’s world, regional events that would have affected her life are also included. The book’s historical accuracy is scrutinized because of Frances’ obvious embellishments however, for their traces of truth and to better illustrate Marie’s life, select stories from Frances are included. Frances wrote her book in 1907, over four decades after her grandmother Marie’s death. Frances lived with her grandmother and mother Rose for over a decade at the Bailly Homestead. Much of her life’s story is anecdotal, gleaned from her granddaughter, Frances Howe, in her book, The Story of a French Homestead in the Old Northwest. In fact, because of her ancestry, she was omitted from federal censuses. She resolutely oversaw the family and homestead on the Little Calumet River for more than 30 years after the death of her husband, raising their children and grandchildren in an ever-foreign world. ![]() ![]() Part Odawa and part French, the highly respected and traditionally skilled Marie “Mo-nee” Bailly lived through rapidly changing times she experienced shifting control over the Northwest Territory and the detrimental effects of manifest destiny on Indigenous American peoples.
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