Simon-Amable Drouillard

From Drouillard

Simon Amable DROUILLARD (Jean Baptiste, Simon Argentcour, Jean) was born on 4 Mar 1733/1734 in Montreal, Quebec, CANADA. He died on 26 Jul 1805 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA.

Simon married Marguerite MARTIN, daughter of Jean MARTIN and Theresa ENAUD, on 29 Aug 1757 in Soulanges. Marguerite was born in 1739. She died on 18 Nov 1803 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan, USA.

Simon and Marguerite had the following child:
+ 5 M i. Jean Baptiste DROUILLARD was born on 28 Aug 1773 and died on 11 Nov 1819.

From Yelnam @ Tripod

Simon Amable Drouillard was the son of Jean Baptiste Drouillard and Elizabeth Rapin. Simon was born on March 3rd 1734 and was the second of eleven children. Simon was baptized on March 4th in the church of Saint Francis de Sales on the Ile Jesus. Like most boys in New France Simon had to grow up quick in the French settlement of Lachine, located just below Montreal.

Life back then was not easy in this harsh climate and untamed wilderness. Amazingly at the age of seven the family was on the move to even more dangerous territory as Simon’s father entered the military service under Joseph Marin de la Malgue, enlisting in the War with the Foxes in Wisconsin and Illinois. Simon with his family, during this period, moved from one trading post (or fort) to another.

At the age of ten Simon’s father left the military and began managing canoe trains from Montreal to Detroit. This had Jean Baptiste gone for long periods of time, but after a few years his father finally settled down a bit and in July 1749 the family of father, mother, five sons and 3 daughters moved to the settlement in Detroit on 3 arpents of farm land situated on the south side of the Detroit River.

Simon like his father worked as a young man as a voyageur and a trapper. The family built a homestead, but in 1755 father John Baptiste went back into the service and left the farm to defend Fort Duquesne with another 100 Frenchmen and several hundred Indians. Simon’s father would not return.

In April 1757 Simon and his brother Francois entered into a Voyageur Engagement in Montreal. to take goods to Detroit. In that same year Simon would marry Margaret Martin dit St. Jean, (born 1739, the daughter of John Martin dit St. Jean and Teresa Henault dit Canada). Simon and Margaret had twelve children. They were known to be faithful members of Assumption Parish.

On 21 Feb 1759 Simon Amable Drouillard was godfather to two Indian children who were born at the Sault St Louis. Both children were named Simon after their godfather.

In 1780 a petition was granted to the inhabitants of Petite Cote for a watermill to be built, owned and operated by Simon Drouillard. Simon would run this mill for eleven years. Simon sided with England in the Great War and his name is on tax roll in 1802, stating that he remained a British subject at close of revolutionary war.

Margaret would die in 1803 and at age of seventy Simon re-married May 14, 1804 to his second wife, sixty year old Mary Meny daughter of Anthony Meny and Jane Seguin dit Laderout. Simon would die a year later in 1805. 72 years of a life with purpose.