Hypolite Dupuis
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Hypolite Dupuis | |
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| Born | October 1804 La Prairie de la Madeleine (near Montreal, Canada) |
| Died | July 1879 (aged 74) Mendota, Minnesota |
| Spouse | Angelique Agathe Renville Dupuis (1815–1890) |
Hypolite Dupuis (October 16, 1804 – July 1879) was known as a "veritable old settler" in the Minnesota River Valley when it was largely inhabited by Native Americans.[1] He was a French Canadian fur trader who eventually settled in Mendota, Minnesota, opened the first general store there,[2] and served as the first treasurer of Dakota County.
During the early part of his life, Dupuis worked as fur trader with the American Fur Company. He was born in La Prairie de la Madeleine, near present-day Montreal in lower Canada.
By 1831, he had moved to what was then Michigan Territory, but would later become Wisconsin Territory and Minnesota Territory, to work at Joseph Renville’s Lac qui Parle trading post.[3] He married Angelique Agathe Renville, eldest daughter of Joseph Renville and Mary Tokanne (a Dakota noblewoman and early Christian convert). Hypolite and Angelique's wedding at Lac qui Parle in 1838 was attended by missionary Stephen Return Riggs,[4] and was later recorded as a Protestant marriage by Monsignor Augustin Ravoux.
They had eight children,[3] and also raised a Métis orphan, Louise Allard.[3][5]
Business relationship with Henry Sibley
Hypolite Dupuis moved to Mendota, Minnesota around 1840 and lived with his family in a small cabin on the property of Henry Hastings Sibley.
Dupuis worked as a bookkeeper and then a business partner of Sibley, who later became the first governor of the state of Minnesota.[6]
In 1848, Dupuis naturalized as an American citizen around the time that Henry Sibley was elected as the at-large Congressional district representative for the Wisconsin Territory.
The fur trade had largely died out by the 1850s, and Sibley and Dupuis liquidated their fur trade interests in 1853.
In 1854, Dupuis built a two-story home made of Wisconsin brick, and operated the first general store and grocery in Mendota from the main floor.[3] He closed the store during the Panic of 1857. The house is now part of the Sibley House Historic Site.