River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-02-27
MsDoRe JENNETTE.


OF western Druniuiers.
Iwonder how many of the great army
Of valiant and chivalrous commercial
travellers who make the State of Illinois
their battlefield of trade and racket
could give a correct answer If asked who
was historically the first drummer of
their peculiar order to operate in this
Commonwealth? The question would
doubtless be poser to all of them,
therefore / will answer it for their edifi-
cation.
During the sixteenth and the chief
portion of the seventeenth centuries the
Indians and the French had it all their
own way in what was then known as the
Illinois country. The Indians were
famous hunters and the French were
sharp traders, and the latter bought up
ali the furs and hides the former had to
sell, exchanging for them dazzling
trinkets, cheap clothing, firearms, am
munition, bad whisky and such-like
commodities. The traders made a
good thing out of the operation,
but the Indians apparently en-
joyed being cheated and imposed upon.
In time sharp competition sprung up
between two rival trading interests.
both composed of Frenchmen, one hav-
ing his headquarters at Peoria and the
other at St. Louis, the former shipping
its furs to Montreal for market and
the latter to New Orleans Two enter
prising brothers named Chouteau were
the heads of the principal fur-trading
firm at ST. Louis, who had thriven and
grown rich in the Upper Mississippi and
Missouri Indian traffic, and in ira de-
termined to extend their operations into
''the Illinois country" They had in
their employ shrewd, energetic young
man named Medore Jennette who was as
glib with the lingo of the Indian tribe
as he was with his native French.
They dispatched this young man to the
Indian settlements of Southern Illinois
and in the Illinois River Valley to
work up the trade"-and he did il
with degree OF alacrity and
success that fairly made the
heads of the old-established
Peoria rivals of the Chouteaus swim.
lie traversed the country almost con-
stantly for several years, visiting and
making himself agreeable to all the
Letting their trade and obtaining it.
He became a great favorite among the
Indians, and by and by, when he got
tired of his rowing life, fell in love with
the prettiest and brightest maiden of
the Pottawatomies, married her like a
little man." and settled down and went
into the fur-trading business on his own
hook in a Pottawatomie village located
at the point opposite whore the Fox
river empties into the Illinois, near
where the City of Ottawa now lies. He
died a rich man, and left large family
of children. His st. Louis employers
gave him the credit of having contrib
uted largely to their trade and their
wealth, but their Peoria rivals never
would forgive him for the serious en-
croachments he made upon their trad
ing monopoly in the Illinois River VAL
ley. One of Medore Jennette's sons
half Frenchman, half Indian-still
lives. residing on farm in what is
known as the american Bottom" in
Southeastern Illinois. lie is nearly one
hundred years old. and is surrounded by
sons and daughters, grandsons and
granddaughter veritable patriarch.
His hair, once black as a ravens feath-
ers, is now as white as snow.
Medore Jennette was the original pio-
neer of the Illinois commercial trav-
elers, now so numerous and festive, and
IL his grave is discoverable (he was
buried near Ottawa) his successors
should rear over it a monument in
honor of one who in his business life
was marked illustration of the old
Casarian saying, "Veni ridi ricii"-Gov-
ernor Andrew Shuman, in Chicago
Tribune.