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Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott
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Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Compendium of History and Biography
of Northern Minnesota
pub: Geo. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, Ill., 1902

              Page 144
              
              PIERRE BOTTINEAU (Deceased).
              
              July 26, 1895, there passed away from this life, near
            the town of Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, a man who in a
            peculiarly personal way linked the earlier part of the
            past century with the present, PIERRE BOTTINEAU, the
            last of the famous scouts, trappers and voyagers, whose
            lives were so intimately related to the progress, as
            well as the conquest of the west.
              Mr. BOTTINEAU died at the age of seventy-eight years,
            having been born January 1, 1817, near Pembina, in the
            Red river region, now a part of North Dakota. His
            ancestors were of the Huguenots, and his grandfather
            came to America to enjoy his religious belief and made
            his home in Boston. JOSEPH BOTTINEAU, father of PIERRE,
            went into the wilderness of the great Northwest in the
            early part of the century, and he there married a woman
            of the Chippewa race, known by the Indian name of "The
            Clear Sky woman." From his hardy and nomadic father and
            from his Indian mother our subject inherited the
            characteristics which made him one of the most noted
            scouts and voyagers of the past century. He was a man
            of noble proportions and physique, being over six feet
            in height and weighing two hundred and ten pounds. He
            was straight as the pathways he marked through the wild-
            erness, and had expressive black eyes, which were keen,
            but commonly held a kindly sense of humor and good
            fellowship, but in anger were cold, stern and penetrating.
            He commanded love, admiration and respect. His word was
            a bond never broken, and no task undertaken was ever
            left unfinished. The earlier years of his life he spent
            amid the influencers of the forest and trail. In 1830
            he was carrying messages for the Hudson Bay Fur Company
            on the overland route to the north of Lake Superior. He
            was interested in scouting and pathfinding work for the
            ill-fated Selkirk settlement of Manitoba. For years he
            was in the employ of General H. H. SIBLEY, as scout and
            messenger, when the latter was agent for the American
            Fur Company. In later years he was chief guide for the
            expeditioin into the Yellowstone Park region in the
            interest of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. He
            became, about the middle of the century, somewhat more
            interested in civil life and was one of the founders of
            St. Anthony, in 1853. When the Indian outbreak of 1863
            occurred in Minnesota he proved of great value to the
            government and state in aiding in the suppression of the
            Sioux. He was as familiar with the leading Indian 
            languages of the region as he was with the paths of the
            forest. The vast northwest lay like a map in his brain,
            and every trail he knew. The homestead which Mr. BOTTINEAU
            took in St. Paul in 1840 is in the heart of the city, as
            it now stands. He located on Red Lake river in 1876 and
            there engaged in farming until his death.
              It is doubtful if there is a human being who has passed
            through as many thrilling scenes and events of pioneer
            life in the past century as did PIERRE BOTTINEAU, the
            last of the voyagers.
            
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