Page 21 - 2015_Cabin Days curriculum booklet

First People to Live in St. Joseph County: Alexis Coquillard

Alexis Coquillard is considered to be one of the founders of the city of South Bend.
He was born in Detroit, Michigan, on September 28, 1795. At the age of 17 he served
under William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812. After the war he became a fur trader
and an agent for John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company.

In 1823 Coquillard came to South Bend and established a trading post on the west
bank of the St. Joseph River. He was a big man, over six feet tall and weighed around
250 pounds. Though he could neither read nor write, he spoke French and English as
well as the Potawatomi language. He was so loved and respected by the Indians that at
one time the Potawatomi wanted to make him their chief. Coquillard was a man of
daring and bravery. In his early life, while trading with the Indians, he welcomed thrilling
adventures other men might have avoided.

In 1824 he married Frances Comparet, the sister of his business partner. Alexis and
his young bride were the first to make a home in the wilderness. They built a frame
house near the fur trading post. Their only child, Theodore, was born here in 1846.
Later Coquillard built a larger log store and home near what is now the corner of LaSalle
and North Michigan Streets. Soon afterward, the first ferry on the St. Joseph River was
started here.

Coquillard built one sawmill and two flourmills. The Kankakee Customs Mills was
built in 1837. It was located on an outlet of a canal he dug near Marion Street. After a
dam was built on the St. Joseph River in 1844, he built a modern flourmill on the
northeast corner of the present Colfax Avenue. Unfortunately, it was here he met his
death. He was inspecting the building after a fire had swept through the mill. He fell
from a partly burned timber and died soon after as a result of these injuries.