- Peter Vieau Dead
Was Closely Associated with Early History Of Milwaukee
Milwaukee, Wis., Sept. 14-Peter Vieau, the oldest native Milwaukeean and brother-in-law of Solomon Juneau, died last night at seven o'clock at his home at Muskego Center aged eighty-six years. He suffered a paralytic stroke several days ago, and his extreme old age made it impossible for him to rally. The end came peacefully. He wa unconscious all of yesterday and passed away without regaining the control of his faculties. His sons Paul and Wilford, were at his bedside. They had been about him since it became evident that he would not recover. His only other living relatives are two grandchildren, the children of his son, Paul.
The funeral will be held Saturday morning at eleven o'clock from the residence to the Franklin Roman Catholic church and interment will be made in the Franklin cemetery. Members of the Old Settlers' club and of other societies composed of pioneers of Milwaukee will attend the services at the church.
Peter Vieau was born in the old trading post which stood at the foot of the "lime ridge," in the addition to Mitchell park, Jan. 10, 1820. Mr. Vieau's father was Jacques Vieau, an Indian trader, who was born in Montreal, May 5, 1757, and who died at Fort Howard, July 1, 1852, being then 95 years of age. Jacques Vieau married Angeline, daughter of Joseph Le Roy, a trader of Green Bay, in the year 1786, and from the union sprang a family of twelve children, six of whom were born at the trading post of Mr. Vieau. Peter was the sixth child to be born there, the others making their appearance in the following order: Joseph, Amable, Charles and Nicholas. The mother of this large family lived to the extraordinary age of 105 years 11 months and 5 days, and died at Green Bay. She was by descent three-fourths French and one-fourth Indian, and so on his mother's side the subject of the sketch had a strain of Indian blood in his veins of one-eighth, which was more marked in the contour of his face than in his complexion, which was fair.
Jacques Vieau, Sr., settled in Milwaukee as a trader in the year 1795, and was here and elsewhere alternately until 1836, when he returned to Green Bay and made it his home, he being seventy-nine years of age. At the age of five years Peter was taught to read and write by one Michael Pellieur, a clerk of his father, and at the age of nine years he could read and write with facility. It was at this time that his father took him and his brother Andrew to Green Bay, where they were placed in charge of Rev. Mr. Cadle, who had in that day a missionary school at that place known as Shantytown. Here Peter remained two years under the tutelage of Rev. Mr. Cadle and John V. Suydam, who was head teacher and who established the Green Bay Intelligencer, said to be the first newspaper published in Wisconsin, about sixty years ago. It is not fair to say that Mr. Vieau was an illiterate person, since he was well versed in the English and French language and used them both to converse and define the meanings of words in the dialects of the Pottawattomies, the Menomoinees, the Winnebagoes and the Ojibways. Mrs. Suydam having engaged in the printing business, Peter Vieau went with him to learn the trade and soon became quite profient in setting and distributing type . He helped to get out the first issue of The Intelligencer on Dec. 11, 1833. He remained in this printing office for two years, when he left the printing business and began merchantile life in the employ of AJ. Erwin of Green Bay. In 1839 he was in the employ of Robert M. Elberts of Navarino.
In the fall of he latter year he came to Milwaukee, the place of his birth, and became the clerk for his brother-in-law, Solomon Juneau, and after a time was engaged in the same capacity by Monroe & Page, another mercantile establishment. He clerked for various firms, some of them Indian traders in Milwaukee and Green Bay, until 1849 when he became captan on a freighting boat carrying cordwood and lumber from Duck Creek to Green Bay. He returned to Juneau's employ for a few years, being his favorite brother-in-law, and when the ladder died of pneumonia at the Shawano payground in November 1856, he helped to administer his estate.
Peter Vieau then settled at Muskego and in 1857 was appointed deputy sheriff of Waukesha county, an office he held uninterruptedly unil 1870. From 1858 to 1860 he was clerk of his town and constable.
In the fall of 1858 he was united in marriage to Miss Julia Cecilia McNulty of Scotch-Irish descent. Nine children were born, one of whom Wilfred Vieau, is a violin virtuoso of much promise. The couple lived together at Muskego for forty-four years, until Mrs. Vieau's death in 1902. She was a relative of the Kinzies, early Indian traders of Chicago and Milwaukee. In 1880 he was chosen justice of the peace of Muskego town, and held the posito for twelve or fifteen years. His decisions were guided by common sense and were rarely reversed or appealed.
Mr. Vieau was probably the last member of the old fur-trading famillies of Wisconsin, who himself actually engaged in the trade. From earliest youth he was familiar with forest life and the forest trade all the way between Chicago and Lake Superior. He had a wide and intimate acquaintance with early traders and Indians. Possessing a retentive memory, he was well versed in the Indian traditions of the state.
Fifteen years ago, when he was 70 years of age, a group of four Milwaukee members of the Old Settlers' club paid him a visit at Muskego on his birthday annivrsary and took with them a purse of $110 raised for him by his friends in Milwaukee who belonged to the Old Settlers' club and Pioneer association. Three years later he was given a dinner at Milwaukee, at whch a few of his most intimate friends were present.
The Oshkosh Northwestern
Thu, Sep 14, 1905 ·Page 7
|
Jindra and Chaloupka Families
1820 - 1905 (85 years)
