Marguerite-Magdelaine LaFramboise had a remarkable career in the fur trade, becoming one of the most successful traders of her generation at Mackinac. Born at Fort St. Joseph, Michigan to an Odawa mother, Marie Neskesh, and a French-Canadian father, Jean-Baptiste Marcot, she was baptized in 1786 at age 10. She married trader Joseph LaFramboise and, with him, worked in the fur trade in the Grand River valley. When Joseph was killed in 1806, Magdelaine took over the business, managing trading posts in the Grand River valley and throughout northern Michigan. She returned from the posts to Michilimackinac each summer to sell the furs she and her employees had collected and purchase more goods to trade at her posts. Her ability to speak several languages and to navigate both Native and European-American cutures, together with her position in both Odawa and French-Canadian kin and trade networks, helped her become extremely successful. Joseph and Magdelaine had two children, Joseph and Josette; Josette later married Benjamin Pierce, commandant of Fort Michilimackinac and brother of Franklin Pierce, who later became U.S. President.
Madame LaFramboise, as she was known, became a very prosperous independent trader. However, as competition with the growing American Fur Company became stiffer, she joined the company and continued to trade. She found success there, as well: records of the company show her earning $5000-$10,000 a year, when $1000 per year would have been a good income for a trader. She gave up her trading work in 1822. Deeply religious, she opened a Catholic school in her home on Mackinac Island, learning to write both French and English. She donated land for construction of Ste. Anne’s Church on Mackinac Island.
Madame LaFramboise was an important figure in Mackinac society. Among visitors to her home was the French writer Alexis de Tocqueville. She died in 1846. Her house, still standing, is today an inn.
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