Page 20 - 2015_Cabin Days curriculum booklet

First People to Live in St. Joseph County: Pierre Navarre

Pierre Navarre was the first European to permanently settle in St. Joseph County. In
1820 he came to the South Bend area as a fur trader for John Jacob Astor’s American
Fur Company (as an interesting side note, Astor’s great-grandson would die on the
Titanic). Mr. Navarre was said to have been a kind, honest man and a lover of nature.
He married Angelique Kechouechouay, a woman of mixed blood, who was part
Potawatomi. Together they set up a fur trading post on the north bank of the St. Joseph
River. They built a small log cabin that served as home for their ten children as well as
the trading post. They raised their children in the Catholic tradition and sent them to
Indian schools.

There were no large Indian villages near the trading post, but it was located along
trails that Indians traveled and traded every spring and fall. They passed through in
great numbers with large quantities of furs, maple sugar and baskets.

In 1824 Alexis Coquillard bought Navarre’s interest in the fur company. Navarre
stayed on in the cabin with his family and provided for them by fishing, trapping and
farming. Angelique died in 1836. Then by 1840, the U.S. government had purchased
the Potawatomi lands and forced them to move west. Navarre, though not required to
go, moved west with the tribe. He later returned to South Bend to live with his daughter
until he died in 1864. He is buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery at the University of Notre
Dame.