| Born at St.
Phillips in the territory of Illinois, Brigitte
was the daughter Captain Francois Saucier and
Angelique La Penseé, and granddaughter of Jean
Baptiste Saucier, once a French officer at Fort
Chartres, who, after the country was ceded to
Great Britain in 1763, established himself at
Cahokia. Brigitte
married Jean "Pierre" Chouteau on 14
Feb 1794, he the son of Pierre Laclède and his
common law wife, Madame Marie Therese Bourgeois.
Pierre had devoted a great deal of his younger
life to the Indian traide and had established a
trading post (Chouteau's Trading Post) at the
head water of the Osage river and he was held in
great esteem by the Osage Indians as well as the
Kansas and Pawnees. He was later appointed a
Major of the St. Louis battalion of militia and
was a Sub-Agent to the Osages in later years.
Prior to his
marriage to Brigitte, he had married Pelagie
Kiersereau on 26 Jul 1783 who died at the age of
twenty six leaving him with three sons and one
daughter. Major Chouteau survived his second wife
Brigitte over twenty years. He died July 10, 1849
at the age of ninety years and nine months.
This monument,
located in Section 2, Lot 17a, was erected in her
honor reads: "Erected to the Memory of
Brigite, wife of P. Chouteau, Senr. Born June 9,
1778, Died May 18, 1829 .. . And her son, Francis
Chouteau, Born Feb 17, 1797, Died Apl 18,
1838."
Note: Francois
Saucier and his brother Matthieu founded the
village of Portage des Sioux, in Missouri.
Brigite's younger sister Angelique, was married
to Pierre Menard (1766-1844) in Kaskaskia in
1806.
|
| The son "Pierre"
Chouteau and Brigite (Saucier), Francois
Gesseau Chouteau was born 07 Feb 1797 in
St. Louis and is known as the founder of
Kansas City. He set up a trading post in
1821 in the great bend of the Missouri
river. In 1827, he and other Chouteau
members joined the American Fur Company,
his trading poste and warehouse being the
headquarters for the company's western
trading routes. He married Bernice Menard,
who was born in Kaskaskia in 1801 and was
the daughter of Pierre and Therese
(Godin). The couple were married on 12
Jul 1819, their wedding journey said to
have been a boat trip up the Missouri
river in search of a site to build a
trading post. The father of nine
children, it is believe that Francois
died of a heart attack at the age of
forty-one on 18 Apr 1838, leaving his
widow who survived him by fifty years.
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