Muskegon River Trading Posts

By: A.L. Spooner

The Muskegon River, one of Michigan's great waterways, was known under various names from the time of the earliest explorers of the region and must have been visited by numerous fur traders long before any recorded history.

Credit for operating the earliest permanent trading posts is usually given to Lewis B. Baddeau, who established his post on Muskegon Lake in 1834, and to Joseph Troutier, who entered the Indian trade in 1835. From all evidence such credit should be given to Etiene Lamarandier.

Just when Lamarandier established his post at the north of the Muskegon River is not known but it could have been before 1800.

There evidently was an association between Lamarandier and Joseph Bailly. It is a know fact that Bailly had a post on the Grand River, possibly as early as 1793. Lamarandier's name appears in the account books of Joseph Bailly as early as 1802.

Alexander Etiene Lamarandier, a son, was born at Muskegon Lake in 1810. The elder Lamarandier was French but had taken the oath of allegiance to England, which he considered binding even after the Revolutionary War had given the territory embraced in Michigan to the United States.

When the War of 1812 broke out the English enlisted as many Indians as they could to fight against the Americans. Jean Baptist Chadronet and J. Kinzie, who had been in the employ of the British Indian Department at Sandwich, Canada, switched allegiance from the British to the United States and they were sent to the western part of the state to check on the influence of the British. Both Chadronet and Kinzie were captured by the British and sent in irons to Amherstburg where Chadronet escaped and rejoined the Americans.

An uncle of Chadronet, Lieutenant J.P. Chadronet, of the British Army, was sent from Mackinaw to intercept him and upon approaching his camp on the St. Joseph River was fired upon and killed by his own nephew, Jean Baptiste.

Lamarandier and Joseph Bailly were then seized by Chardonet accompanied by Isaac Burnet as British spies and taken to Detroit. The charges were unfounded and they were released after three months.

Later, Alexander Lamarandier, the son, who had married a pure blooded Ottawa woman, established a trading post at Old Women's Bend, on the Muskegon River, two miles below the present village of Newaygo.

The Indians followed in numbers to this trading post and soon a village of 35 or 40 log cabins clustered around it on the flats on both sides of the river and Indian Town became an important village. Many bark teepees dotted the landscape and a log church was built in which regular monthly services were held.

With the coming of the lumbermen, the river had to be flooded to carry the logs over the more shallow places. These floods also flooded the flats where the village was located and it was necessary to move the cabins to higher ground. In due course of time they became dilapidated and most of them perished from exposure.

The log trading post had been protected with siding and remained in habitable condition until 1917 when it was torn down.

The name Lamarandier was hard to pronounce and so it was discarded and the middle name Etiene was corrupted into Aikan.

Tom Aiken, who died in 1931, together with his brothers, Jacob and Robert, the sons of Alex Lamarandier, are now all gone, but there are several descendants of Lamarandier still living in the vicinity of the old trading post. Mrs. Ernest Brown, the daughter of Tom Aiken and the granddaughter of Alexandier Lamarandier, was born in the old trading post and still lives on part of the original holdings.

Pierre Constandt and Madame LaPromeoise had trading posts at Muskegon Lake around 1817. Gurdon Hubbard and Jaques Dufrain also traded with the Indians along the Muskegon about this time.

Joseph Troutier, also known a s Trukee, is said to have been born at Mackinaw, August 9, 1812, and to have established his trading posts on Muskegon Lake in 1835, which he occupied until 1840, when he moved up stream to Maple Island.

Martin Ryerson, who later became a well known and wealthy lumberman, entered the employ of Troutier in 1836. In 1851, Ryerson married Louise M. Duvernay, a part Indian. She died a short time later and he married Mary Campau, daughter of Antoine Campau, who had a trading post on the Grand River.

Troutier became a well-known character and many amusing stories are told about him. The author's grandmother taught school at Maple Island in 1876, and knew Troutier well. Troutier also operated a ferry across the Muskegon River as well as his treading post and for equipment had a horse named George. He trained him to swim across the river with a passenger on his back and then when the passenger had dismounted, George swam back home again. Troutier died in 1860.

According to records at Mackinaw Island, Etiene Lamarandier had Trading Posts as follows:

Date Location Voyager

6/7/1807 Kalamazoo River Baptiste Dudoire

6/24/1807 Kalamazoo River Antionine Bissett

6/22/1811 Kalamazoo River Jeremi Clearmont

8/9/1811 Lake Michigan Augustin Roborn

7/13/1816 Kankakee River Jeremi Clearmont

8/1/1816 Chicago Antoine Leduc

8/16/1817 Kankakee River Augustin Dordoire

Etiene Lamarandier was a British subject who moved to Drummond Island after leaving Mackinaw Island but continued to have trading posts on American Territory. After 1817, he established a trading post at what is now Kilarney, Ontario on Georigian Bay. A town sprang up and some of his descendants are still in Kilarney.