Michel Branamour Menard (1805–1856) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

-born trader and merchant, first active on the upper Mississippi River and later in Texas. He co-founded

Galveston, Texas Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. He represented

Galveston County Galveston County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located along the Gulf Coast adjacent to Galveston Bay. As of the 2020 census, the population was 350,682. The county was founded in 1838. The county seat is the City of Galveston, ...

in the Congress of the Republic of Texas. His Galveston home is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Early life

Michel Branamour Menard was born on December 5, 1805 at

La Prairie, Quebec La Prairie is an off-island suburb ( south shore) of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Jacques River and the Saint Lawrence River in the Regional County Municipality of Roussillon. The population as of the ...

, Canada to Michel B. and Marguerite (de Noyer) Ménard. He was already working at a young age as an

engagé Engagés in Canada From the 18th century, an engagé (; also spelled '' engagee'') was a French-Canadian man employed to canoe in the fur trade as an indentured servant. He was expected to handle all transportation aspects of frontier river a ...

, working through the

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

post of the

American Fur Trading Company The American Fur Company (AFC) was founded in 1808, by John Jacob Astor, a German immigrant to the United States. During the 18th century, furs had become a major commodity in Europe, and North America became a major supplier. Several British c ...

. He spent most of two years conducting business in

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. An uncle, Pierre Menard, recruited him to trade furs at

Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were one of the indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in t ...

starting in 1822. The young Menard received a francophone education. Later he learned English, but spoke with his native French accent throughout his life. Still working for his uncle, he moved to the Ste. Genevieve area, where he traded and lived with a local band of Shawnee. He followed the Shawnee south to the White River, and in 1828, crossed with them into

Mexican Texas Mexican Texas is the historiographical name used to refer to the era of Texan history between 1821 and 1836, when it was part of Mexico. Mexico gained independence in 1821 after winning its war against Spain, which began in 1810. Initially ...

along the Red River.

Career

Trading in Mexican Texas

Menard applied for Mexican citizenship on December 1, 1829 at

Nacogdoches Nacogdoches ( ) is a small city in East Texas and the county seat of Nacogdoches County, Texas, United States. The 2020 U.S. census recorded the city's population at 32,147. Nacogdoches is a sister city of the smaller, similarly named Natchitoch ...

, where he established a base for his fur trading operations. He opened a sawmill in 1833, and by 1834, he had accumulated various tracts of land along the Trinity and Red Rivers amounting to about . His trading reached as far south as

Saltillo Saltillo () is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Coahuila and is also the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. Mexico City, Monterrey, and Saltillo are all connected by a major railroad and highwa ...

, Mexico, and he continued to send goods north on the rivers to the American Fur Company.

Founding of Galveston

Menard founded the city of

after a series of events between 1833 and 1838. In 1833, Menard represented

Juan Seguin ''Juan'' is a given name, the Spanish and Manx versions of ''John''. It is very common in Spain and in other Spanish-speaking communities around the world and in the Philippines, and also (pronounced differently) in the Isle of Man. In Spanish, t ...

, securing for him a Mexican

headright A headright refers to a legal grant of land given to settlers during the period of European colonization in the Americas. Headrights are most notable for their role in the expansion of the Thirteen Colonies; the Virginia Company gave headrights to s ...

. Seguin received a grant from the Monclova government amounting to about 4,605 acres of land at the east end of Galveston Island. On October 3, 1836, after

Texas Independence Texas secession movements, also known as the Texas independence movement or Texit, refers to both the secession of Texas during the American Civil War as well as activities of modern organizations supporting such efforts to secede from the Unite ...

, Menard sold the land to Thomas F. McKinney on behalf of Seguin. Then, in order to settle the legality of Seguin's original ownership of the land, Menard led a group of ten men who were petitioning the Texas Government to recognize the 1833 conveyance of the Galveston Island land from Mexico to Seguin. On December 9, 1836, the Republic of Texas agreed to confirm the conveyance in exchange for $50,000 in cash or merchandise. The next day, McKinney sold the land to Menard. David White acted as an agent to receive payments from Menard on behalf of the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

. White claimed that Menard made the payments, but it is not clear about the form of the payments and how much, if any, was forwarded to the Republic of Texas. John D. Groesbeck completed his orthogonal plan for Galveston in 1838. He named the eastwest streets according to letters from the alphabet, and used ordinal numbers for northsouth streets, though many of these streets were renamed. Menard helped to organize the Galveston City Company, which began selling lots on April 20, 1838. Seven hundred lots sold in the first year, populated by over one hundred buildings and sixty families.

Politics

Menard was a delegate to the Texas Convention of 1836 and signed the

Texas Declaration of Independence The Texas Declaration of Independence was the formal declaration of independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico in the Texas Revolution. It was adopted at the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos on March 2, 1836, and was formal ...

from Mexico. In 1840, he served Galveston County in the lower house of the legislature of the Republic of Texas.

Personal life

Menard was married briefly after 1832 to Marie Diana Leclerc of Ste Genevieve, who died of cholera on May 14, 1833. Late in 1837 he married again, this time to Adeline Catherine Maxwell. She died in Galveston in July 1838, probably of yellow fever. He wedded two more times, first to Mary Jane Riddle in 1843, and she died in 1847. His fourth and final marriage was to Rebecca Mary Bass. They had one son, and he also adopted her two children from a previous union.

Death

Menard died at his home in Galveston on September 2, 1856. He is buried at the Catholic Cemetery in Galveston. He is the namesake of

Menard County, Texas Menard County is a County (United States), county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, its population was 1,962. The county seat is Menard, Texas, Menard. The county was cr ...

1838 Michel B. Menard House

Home of Michael Branamour Menard, Galveston

Menard commissioned the construction of a two-story, Greek Revival house, then broken down and shipped as parts from Maine. The Michel B. Menard House still stands at 1605 Thirty-Third Street in Galveston. The building is on the

. As of 2018, this is the oldest house still standing in Galveston.