Jean-Baptiste Drouillard dit Argentcourt

Jean-Baptiste Drouillard was a known as an adventurous voyageur who traveled from Québec to Détroit.   He was born February 14, 1707 at Île Jésus, Québec in the back of a canoe.  He grew up to be a fur trader among the Native Americans.  At the age of 26 in 1731, Jean-Baptiste Drouillard married Isabelle Rapin in Lachine, Québec.  At about 1741 Jean-Baptiste was in the military under the order of Joseph Marin de la Malgue, a French officer involved with the "War with the Foxes" in Wisconsin and Illinois.  At this time, Jean and his family moved from one trading post to the next.   In 1744, Jean-Baptiste left the military and began managing cone trains from Montréal to Détroit.

Jean-Baptiste liked the Détroit settlement and moved his wife and children there.  They had 3 arpents of land on the south end of the Rivière Détroit.  He tried his hand at farming which didn't prove to be successful, so he rejoined the military as a Major in the French militia.  Jean-Baptiste Drouillard and about 100 other French men and hundreds of Natives left Fort Pontchartrain in 1755 under Beaujeu to reinforce the garrison at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania).  This war was known as the French and Indian War.  He was killed by the British, led by first President and General George Washington.