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Pierre Navarre: The First Settler, Without a Fortune
The record: Pierre Frieschutz Navarre (1787–1864), the American Fur Company agent who built his cabin at the bend in 1820 and is the city's first settler of the European record, stands in this section as its documented negative. No estate, probate account, or dollar valuation for him was found in any source consulted. Howard's judgment on the man is the nearest thing to a balance sheet: "a man of literary tastes, of a kind and genial nature, earnest and honest in his dealings, though not remarkable for business ability." He sold his agency to Coquillard after about a year and returned to live quietly in South Bend. What land money touched the family came through his wife: Angelique Kechoueckquay Navarre received a section of St. Joseph County land under the treaties of 1828 and 1832, and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago paid Pierre Navarre $100 on claims presented, and $100 to his child (the treaty figures as carried in Willard's 1997 account of the family). He went west with the removed Potawatomi in 1840, returned, and died at a daughter's home on 27 December 1864. The poverty and pension details that circulate under this surname — an $8-a-month pension by special act of Congress, a "scanty income" in old age, a death in 1874 — belong to Peter Navarre, the War of 1812 scout of Toledo, a different man, and are not printed here as South Bend's.
Sources:
- Howard, A History of St. Joseph County, Vol. I (1907), pp. 130–132 — Navarre's life, the 1864 death, the business-ability judgment.
- Shirley Willard, "The Navarres," Rochester Sentinel, 17 September 1997 — the treaty section to Angelique; the 1833 payments of $100 and $100.
- Peter Navarre: War of 1812 Scout (2002) — the separation of the three Peter Navarres; the pension and 1874 death assigned to the Toledo scout.