Charles de Langlade

Charles de Langlade #ProjectWI www.projectwisconsin.com

THE STORY:

George Washington may be the”Father of our Country,” but do you know who the “Father of Wisconsin” is? It’s only fitting that the man recognized as the “Father of Wisconsin,” was born the son of a fur trader and an Ottawa woman.

Our state’s “Father,” Charles de Langlade, was born in 1729 at Fort Michilimackinac, New France to Augustin Langlade, a French-Canadian fur trader, and Domitilde, a sister of the Ottawa war chief Nissowaquet, and daughter of another Ottawa chief. As a child, Langlade identified with his mother’s culture more and grew up with Ottawa as his first language. He was also taught French by Jesuit missionaries at the fort. At the age of 16, along with his father, he established an important trading post at present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Langlade went on to become a major force to be reckoned with in the Great Lakes region. During the French and Indian War, he led many Ottawa and French raids against the British. After the French were defeated in North America, Langlade became allied with the British, who had taken control of the French fur trade. During the American Revolutionary War, he led Great Lakes Indians for the British against rebel colonists and their Indian allies. After the war, Charles de Langlade retired to his home and trading post in present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he began being referred to as the “Father of Wisconsin.”

THE ARTIST:

Kristen Brenner – Madison, WI

“Being a fur trader and war chief, Charles Michel de Langlade was one pretty cool, eclectic Ouisconsin dude. I chose to depict a handful of Langlade-related things such as a map from back in the day, a painting of one of his battles, and a modernized version of his letter seal featuring a crown, lions, and a starry sky.”

 
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43 thoughts on “Charles de Langlade”

  1. I am a decendant through my great grandmother Odele brunette she married my moms grandfather Louis Dionne in duck creek Wisconsin . Louis is a defendant of Antoine Dionne so I feel this was a marriage of two very prominent families in northAmerican history. I have a question about my family tree it states that a Louise o na we po was a Mohawk women of general Charles Cornwallis’s decent and that she married my fith great grandfather. My question is how was she a descendent (loose) of Cornwallis’s when history states he had no children was she a bastard child ? If someone could explain this I would appreciate it , sincerely the son of Donna Dionne Zdanowicz.

  2. I am the Gr…Gr…Gr…Grandson of Charles Langlade, I would like to know the name of the battle and where I could get a print of such a painting. I’ve been all over Ontario, Michigan and Wisconson looking at items that belonged to my familys background, even a print of your version of his seal would be great. Any info would be greatly recieved. Thank you

    1. Wow, that’s super cool. I personally don’t have prints for this, but here’s the email of Kristen Brenner who created it… kristen.b.designs (at) gmail.com. She might be able to help you out.

    2. Who are you!!! you need to back your story and prove it to me!!!!!!!!! you say your the Gr…Gr…Gr… grandson of Charles de Langlade then why haven’t I ever heard of you before your history is so well put together!!! I am wondering how you can possibly even fit in our bloodline its just not adding up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      1. This is for Sara:
        Doesn’t add up , lets start adding……Charles Micheal Langlade…..marrys a Ottawa woman……has a son Charles……he marrys Angelique…..has a son Charles also……..marrys Ahquahdah…….has a son Didlier…..he marrys Loise Cadieux……has my Gr.Grandmother ..Philomene…….she has a son my Grandfather….Walter……he has a son my Dad…Melvin……in turn has me. Remember Charles marrys Bourassa but only has girls. Most of the Langlade names and bloodlines are in Canada and we consider ourselfs as Metis. Enough proof if not get my e-mail off of this site and drop me a line. Question are you related? I have met some relations in Michigan from the Grignon side and Bourassa side, been to Wisconson too. Brief history…….Langlades lived in Mackinaw …..Drummond Is before the USA kicked them to Penetanguishene Ontario and from there we moved up north close to the US border. In Canada we a recognized as Aboriginals just like First Nations.So drop me a line. Thanks

        1. I think my wife is also related to you. Her family is Grignon and I have traced her family back Charles De Langlade. Please shoot me a email so I can tell you more.

          1. Hi there. I have also traced my ancestry to Charles De Langlade. He is my 6th great grand father. Apparently, there are a lot of cousins on this thread. Drop me a line and lets share some histories. Charles.

        2. I am a direct bloodline to Charles de langelade. There is a family tree in wisconsin and my dad went to visit and signed the tree. From elgin illinois, on fox river.

        3. Hello Bryon, I know I’m about 7 years late to the conversation, but I have hit a bit of a wall in my genealogy- however I thought you may know something… Charles Langlade the third, father of Didlier, also had a daughter by the name of Angelique. There is a narrative about her travels to Penetanguishene from Drummond Island. Would you happen to know anything about her? Did she have any children?

        4. Hi Byron, you are my third cousin, 2x removed. My 4th great GGP are Charles Michel Longlade (1785-1857) and Angelique Gendron (1746-1846) but her date seems off… Any thoughts are appreciated! We are Metis.

  3. According to my dad. His father’s real last name is de Langlade, but was adopted by the nelson family. My dad also said that he’s related to Charles de Langlade. So I guess we are cousin, to some degree.

    1. Don’t ask me how, but, according to an aunt, Eleanor Johnson-Hanold, PhD, who did the family geneology, we’re related to Charles de Langlade, as well. I’m not here to claim relation, but in case you haven’t read the book, Bravest of the Brave, by Pubilius Lawson, here is a link to the archived book (free to read in its’ entirety).
      https://archive.org/details/bravestofbraveca00lawsiala

  4. I am also related to the Langlade family. My grandmother was a Langlade, her father was Francois, then Charles, Louis, Charles III, Charles II, Charles I. It is a family with quite a history. Some of the family is buried in St. Annes Graveyard in Penetanguishene. The original name of the family was Mouet, from France.

  5. My ancestory also traces to Charles Delanglaide. Have any of you done the DNA test and had Native American show up or is that line too far back to show up?

    1. My mother did a test and a small percentage of indian dna shows up. Charles is her 5th great grandfather, through the Grignon line. She also has Carron and Maccabee which are Indian also. We did it through ancestry.com and match as cousins to someone with the common ancestor Louise Domitelle DeLanglade, Charles daughter that married JB Grignon. I can share what that DNA link shows.

      1. Hello Liz! My name is Lisa Matuszak Madison, and if my research is correct, I believe I am also a direct descendent of Charles DeLanglade. You mentioned you’ve submitted your DNA to AncestryDNA. I have done AncestryDNA and 23 and Me. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind checking your account to see if we share some DNA. Thanks 😊

    2. My aunts have slight Indian heritage in their dna profile and we trace back to delanglade through delanglades daughter who married pierre grignon. Delanglade would be my aunts great x 5 grandfather and the percent Indian shows up as .2 and .6.

  6. Hello. I was always enthralled as I sat listening to my grandmother recount the tales of Charles de Langlade. She said he would have been my great, great,…I always forget… something like 4 or 5 greats… grandfather… thru the Grignon family line. She was Christine Marie Dederich (altho she always went by Marie, which was a bit confusing as there was a cousin in Bear Valley named Marie Dederich, whom we used to go visit when I took my grandma out to various places, including Loretto where she went to school (which when I went back for my 45th class reunion this last summer, I was unable to see anything other than the Church & graveyard…I remember there used to be a school house my grandma would always point to, but I did not see it any longer) & Trempeleau, where she was born, to see some relatives out there on a farm.
    As I looked at your list of names I did not see the Dederich name. Somewhere’s in my boxes of various items lies a picture of I believe Antonin Grignon? I remember his face but don’t remember if it was he or another Grignon. His name was handwritten on the back w a date. I just remember my grandma telling me from early on that we were part Ottawa, Winnebago & Sioux. She said that in her closet was the title to Quebec, which I presume had something to do w our illustrious ancestor. Unfortunately when she passed away it was an aunt & uncle who went thru the house & nothing was ever given to any of the grandchildren or even my mom, who took care of my grandma more than the others until she passed. Isn’t that the way it always goes?
    Every now & then I would do ancestry search thru the Wisconsin State Historical Society’s (WSHS) website. Unfortunately it appears that you can no longer do that, at least the way I used to. At least the last time I was able to trace the roots of the Winnebago & Sioux lines. Unfortunately, being blessed w/ADHD has its… challenges, & at 63 it still gets the best of me. I am not sure where I put all those papers! Just like I for the life of me wished I would have kept better track of the family genealogy my grandma did for me when I was a freshman at West HS in Madison for a biology class project. She had it all the way back to Charles.
    A number of years ago as I was re-reading Augustin Grignon’s “Recollections” it dawned on me that when my grandma used to share the stories with us kids (I am not sure if any of the others listened but I was always taken into her visionary tales), she was sharing the old oral tradition way, as she had learned. I wished I had understood this better when I was younger. I know she always appreciated my listening, asking her questions, etc. When I was married & my 2 sons were younger, I used to check out “Bravest of the Brave” from the WSHS & read it to my sons once a year while they were young.
    Anyways, I was told by another cousin to check out your website & try to do some research re: family genealogy. Please let me know what else you would need to help me along those lines. Thank you.
    I also wanted to say I was saddened by the little bit of challenging re: whether someone was a relative or not, & how that got a bit heated & personal. Isn’t there enough strife going on, w/a bloodthirsty media out there that has long since lost it’s purpose of objectivity, & amongst politicians who have been in office way too long (oh that term limits were in place for congress, along w a number of other checks & balances) who care nothing about the truth or facts but rather getting themselves re-elected? Isn’t there enough division, hatred, spite, jealousy, etc amongst the peoples out there? Isn’t there a better way to address these matters within a family? I consider it neither a small thing to be considered part of this great legacy of the de Langlade family, nor such a boastful thing as to look down on others outside (I hope that makes sense. I can see it in my head but getting it out for others to see is often my challenge). I do not see myself as even being close to half the man Charles was. That would have been such a wonderful time to have been alive, seeing great areas of virgin land, unspoiled by “Modernization.” I often wondered what it would have been like to travel by canoe on the way to a battle, or even the preparation, such as when he built a long house with, as I remember reading it, a dog hanging at the door where he cut the heart out & took a bite to fire up his fellow warriors for yet another battle which, had it not been for the arrogance of the French, would not have been wasted as they had every opportunity to save the land. But c’est la vie, n’est-ce pas mes amis?
    Well, that is all I know & remember for now. I pray this finds all those in this family line doing well… and yes, those outside as well.
    God bless.
    Respectfully, doug jacobson

    PS. I’m hoping to post this bc the CAPTCHA thing below says “Please enter an answer in digits: 5 – one =” and i put 4, but after 3 times of getting that I entered the CAPTCHA wrong i am at wits end as to know what to do. I just reset the page so hopefully this goes thru w/a new CAPTCHA equation.

    1. Liz:
      I am related to Charles Langlade also, see past e-mails on this site. Getting back to Charles coat, the last time I was at the Neville Museum, a person from the Museum told me it was sent to the Smithsonian Museum in Wash.DC. please check it out and get back to me. Thanks

      Byron

  7. From Cindy Webb, Ontario Canada

    I have been working on my family tree and have learned that Captain Charles de Langlade is my 6th great grandfather through Charles Vasseur & Marguerite Langlade’ Their son Charles Vasseur Alfred Vasseur is my great great grandfather married to Octaive Michaud who had their daughter Joeshine Celilia Vassier who then had my father Larry Winston Webb. I would love to know where I could get a portrait of the seal? And the portrait. If you have any other information please pass it along.

    Thanks

    1. Hi Cindy, I don’t have any prints of this, but if you contact the artist of this piece listed above—Kristen Brenner—she might be able to help you out. Thanks for looking!

    2. Cindy:
      I’m Byron Goodchild, if you read a few of the posts before yours you’ll see we are related and as for the seal I copied it off the net brought it to a tattoo shop and I got a tattoo of it on my arm plus it’s on my beaded Metis vest. If you want the famous pic of our Grandfather in battle write to the Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin and they will get you one,I have a big pic of that battle scene on my wall. Proud to be a MNO Metis. Thanks

    3. Hello cousin. Charles Vassuer and Marguerite Langlade are my second Great Grand Parents too. I am a Metis originating from the Georgia Bay Metis Communities/ Family Lines and a MNO Citizen living in Elizabeth City, NC, USA. I would be interested in trading information with you. My trouble is linking from Marguerite Langlade to her grandfather Charles Michael De Langlade. She was cousin to the Charles Langlade Jr’s two girls on Drummond Island. The girl’s both names were Marguerite. The information came from the Voyager’s of Drummond Island. The information said she was near relative to the Charles Langlade. If she was a near relative that means he was her grandfather. I have not been able to prove it with documentation. Oh Why two Marguerites with the same dad and same name. They were accidentally given the same name at baptism on Drummond Island and they would not change the Names. The oldest one ended up a spinster the other married a Gordon. Also I am going to the Braddock Battlefield Historical Museum in Pittsburg, PA and could pick up that Picture your looking for. I would appreciate any help and I have a lot of documentation which we could exchange. sydhill44@yahoo.com or call me at 1-252-548-8552.

  8. I received my family connection to Charles Langlade though the Little Chute Historical Society in Wisconsin. My 2nd great-grandmother was Mary Elizabeth Mcgulpin-Metivier from the Mackinaw area in Northern Michigan. Mary’s Mother”s name was Mary Genevieve (Jeanne) Mcgulpin-Champayne. Jeanne’s Mother was Marguerite Otchpewa(TePimaquain).Marguerite’s mother was Marguerite Okeewah. Marguerite Okeewah’s mother was Nonnongonah. Nonnongonah was according to Little Chute records was the 2nd wife to Charles Langlade. My question is this…I cant find any info on Nonnongonah. there is marriage information on his wife ( Bourassa) and Agathe and Oolateh. Can some one clarify for me? Thank you very much,
    George Metivier jr.

  9. Charles deLanglade was my great grandfather x 6. From Charles to me it goes like this: Charles deLanglade, Louise deLanglade, Domitilde Grignon, Theotise Brunette, Theodocia Forsythe, George Zeutzius, Lorrayne Zeutzius, Donna Ritke and then me, Rhonda Gorden.

  10. Hello cousins. I am a Metis here in Sudbury Ontario. Yes Charles Michel de Langlade would also be my great Grandfather going way back. Anyone is wekcome to contact me and discuss anything family related. I’m also a citizen of the Metis Nation of Ontario.

  11. I too am related to Charles Langlade. My family had settled in Penetanguishene after leaving Drummond Island. I understand some of the family lived in Green Bay but visited back and forth.

  12. Byron I have a lot of information about him. My sister has also traveled to Canada to visit with the Canadian Descendants of Charles first wife from one of the native tribes in Canada

  13. Charles daughter had 14 children so there will be many many descendants . I am a descendant of the oldest child, a daughter also. Charles wife gave some of their land to build the first catholic church and cemetery in Green Bay. At the foot of the West Mason street bridge in Green Bay there is a large rock to mark the spot. His trading post stood on the bank of the fox river about a block north of the rock. Years ago the bus station stood on his property but has now been torn down and an office building is now on that spot. His daughter’s home was on Washington street where a bar is on the corner . (its next to but on the south side of the Quality Inn). These locations call all be found on the very early maps of Green Bay. Charles land at one time was almost the whole east side of the fox river but a wealthy land owner bought it for very little and broke it up to home sights. My side of that family moved farther and farther out on the west side of the fox, eventually to Packerland and Lombardi. My French Langlade side married French Belgian so my grandfather was Sampeau from his father(the French Belgian) and his mother was French through Charles oldest daughter (several generations)

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