Note 103 — Front matter (continued 6)

(page page 323).—Charles Gratiot, the father of Henry, was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1753, the child of refugee Huguenots from La Rochelle, France. Trained to mercantile life in London, he came to America when not yet of age, and opened a trading-post at Mackinac, visiting Green Bay and Prairie du Chien as early as 1770. He was a wide traveler by canoe through the heart of the continent. In 1774 he opened establishments at Cahokia and Kaskaskia, and very materially aided General George Rogers Clark with influence and fortune, in the latter’s celebrated expeditions for the capture of the Northwest. One of his four sons was Henry, to whom our author refers. Henry became a leader in the development of the Wisconsin-Illinois lead mines, and was for many years Indian agent in that district, doing good service as such in the Red Bird (1827) and Black Hawk (1832) uprisings. He died in Baltimore, Md., April 27, 1836.