Théophile Bruguier
Encyclopedia
American Fur Company
The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...
. Bruguier is credited as being the first white settler of what would become Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City, Iowa
Sioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
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Biography
Bruguier was born near MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and was educated as an attorney
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
. Soon after he began to practice law, Bruguier became engaged. However, when his fiancee died from cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
, the grieving Bruguier left Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
to embark on a rugged life in the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
country as a fur trader/interpreter with the American Fur Company. He was sent from the company's headquarters in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to Fort Pierre, Dakota Territory
Dakota Territory
The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North and South Dakota.The Dakota Territory consisted of...
, arriving there January 1, 1836. Bruguier spoke French and English, and quickly learned the Dakota language
Dakota language
Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...
of the Sioux Indians. He met and worked with the Yankton Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
Chief War Eagle
Chief War Eagle
War Eagle was born in Minnesota or Wisconsin in around 1785. His Dakota name was . He had left his own tribe, the Santee, to avoid bloodshed in a fight as to who would be chief. As a young man, War Eagle spent considerable time working among the white Americans...
at that time. In the late 1840s, Bruguier established a farm and trading post at the confluence of the Big Sioux River
Big Sioux River
The Big Sioux River is a tributary of the Missouri River, long, in eastern South Dakota and northwestern Iowa in the United States. The United States Board on Geographic Names settled on "Big Sioux River" as the stream's name in 1961....
and Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
, along with War Eagle and the chief's two daughters, to whom Bruguier was married. His original homestead claim extended from the Big Sioux to the Floyd River
Floyd River
The Floyd River is a tributary of the Missouri River, long, in northwestern Iowa in the United States. It enters the Missouri at Sioux City, and is named for Charles Floyd, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.-Course:...
, land that became the original downtown, riverfront and residential area of the nascent Sioux City over the next two decades. After the death of War Eagle in 1851, Bruguier continued in the trade business, acting as an Indian commissioner and a wagon freighter. He was one of 17 people who cast their votes in the first election in Woodbury County
Woodbury County, Iowa
-2010 census:The 2010 census recorded a population of 102,172 in the county, with a population density of . There were 41,454 housing units, of which 39,052 were occupied.-2000 census:...
in August, 1853.http://www.siouxcityhistory.org/people/mored935.html?id=41_0_2_0_M Following the deaths of his wives in the late 1850s, Bruguier married Victoria Turnott, a widow from St. Louis. In the 1860s, they settled on a 500 acres (2 km²) farm in the Salix, Iowa
Salix, Iowa
Salix is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, United States. It is part of the Sioux City, IA–NE–SD Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 370 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Salix is located at ....
area. Bruguier died from pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...
on February 18, 1896, and was interred at the Catholic cemetery near Salix. In 1926, he was re-buried near the grave of War Eagle
Chief War Eagle
War Eagle was born in Minnesota or Wisconsin in around 1785. His Dakota name was . He had left his own tribe, the Santee, to avoid bloodshed in a fight as to who would be chief. As a young man, War Eagle spent considerable time working among the white Americans...
.