Note I-73 — Chapter I · ITINERARY: ST. LOUIS TO ST. PAUL, AUGUST 9TH-SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1805.

Jean Baptiste Faribault, b. Berthier, Lower Canada, 1774, d. Faribault, Minn., Aug. 20th, 1860, being at the time the oldest white resident of the present State. Jean Baptiste was the youngest one of 10 children of Bartholomew (who was b. in Paris and came to Canada in 1754); he was in business in Quebec 1790-97, at the latter date entered the employ of J. J. Astor as an agent of the N. W. Co., and was engaged in the Indian trade at various points in the Mississippi region for about 50 years, for the most part on his own account. One of the posts he established was at the mouth of the Minnesota r., where Pike found him. In 1814 he married a half-breed daughter of Major Hause (then Superintendent of Indian Affairs), by whom he had eight children. His Indian name was Chahpahsintay, meaning Beaver Tail. His eldest son, Alexander, founded the present town of Faribault, Minn. Mr. J. B. Faribault "espoused the cause of the U. S. during the war of 1812, and lost many thousand dollars thereby, as well as narrowly escaping with his life on several occasions. He labored all his life to benefit the red man, teach him agriculture and the arts of industry, and protect his interests. He had an unbounded influence over them; his advice was never disregarded. He was prominent at all treaties, and rendered the U. S. many valuable services," says J. F. Williams, Minn. Hist. Coll., I. 2d ed. 1872, p. 377: see also ibid., p. 468. An extended memoir of Faribault, by General H. H. Sibley, occupies pp. 168-79 of III. of the Minn. Hist. Coll., 1874.