| Summary: | Born in the year 1831 at the Red River Settlement (Winnipeg). His wife's name was Fran- cious Paranteau whose parents lived in Winnipeg. They had no children of their own, but did adopt two. One, a boy by the name of Hyacinthe Villeneuve, who related his exciting life's story in the March 23, 1930 edition of the Grand Forks Herald entitled "Pioneer Depicts Days of Indian Wars"; and a girl adopted at the age of five years named Elsie LaFromboise, born in 1863 in St. Joseph (Walhalla). She married Albert Villeneuve in 1878. They were the parents of the large family that grew up in Neche's early years. Charles was a brother of the very famous Scout and Frontiersman, Pierre Bottineau, who were descendants of the Charles Bottineau, so well documented in Alexander Henry's Journal at Pembina in the year 1803, and a Pierre Bottineau, registered in the Minnesota Territorial census taken in 1861, as a resident of St. Joseph (Walhalla) when he was 90 years of age. During his lifetime Charles was a trader and merchant in Elk River and Minneapolis, and later in Walhalla and Neche; finally becoming a very large grain and livestock farmer four miles west of Neche. When the Bottineau-Grant partnership ended, his share became the Kittson Trading Post in Walhalla that both had purchased in 1859. He continued to operate the Trading Post for a number of years while concentrating on his extensive farm operations. Before the year 1870, he had about a 100 acres of grain under production, besides raising all kinds of livestock. One of the log buildings was 100 feet in length, located on John Cook land and recently purchased by Garnet Horsley. In the early 1870's, he owned 520 acres around the home site. It is said he was assisted in building up his farm stocks by steamship and railroad magnate Jim Hill, whom he had befriended earlier. He raised his first crops to feed his own large household of Metis servants, and his livestock. He soon began selling wheat and mutton to the Selkirkers at Winnipeg, delivering it by bobsled and oxcart. He supplied Kittson with oxen for the Red River Cartways, and in later years he provided military expeditions and railroad crews with horses and beef. At Bottineau's farm, the wheat yielded forty bushels to the acre many years. This grain was harvested with cradle scythes and threshed with flails. Later a horse-powered threshing machine was used. Around his farm, he wore buckskins. At Saint Paul, he would dress in frockcoat and silk hat, and he loaned money to a friend of his by the name of James J. Hill. It is said the first farmer in Red River Land would occasionally show off by lighting a cigar with a $10 bank note. Charles Bottineau made several trips to Washington, D.C., representing and interpreting for Chiefs of Indian tribes of the Turtle Mountain and Pembina regions in the Treaty deliberations with the Federal Government. He was also a County Commissioner for Pembina County, Dakota Territory in the early 1870's. Charles Bottineau's land was sold in 1892, and he left Neche for Washington D.C. in 1893 to spend his remaining years with his nephew, John. He died in 1904 or 1905 and is buried in Mount Olivet cemetery, D.C. POINT MICHAEL — BETTER KNOWN AS GRANT'S HOUSE — GRANT'S PLACE This large building site was located in what is now the SE1/4-SE1/4 Sec. 30, Felson Township, just a little southeast of the Hyde Park cemetery. In 1859 Chas Grant and Charles Bottineau purchased the former Kittson Trading Post at Walhalla from Charles Cavalier. Also built was a log building to act as a residence outpost for Indian fur trading at Point Michael, later known as the Grant House. This post was constructed at a strategic trading crossroads on the main prairie supply trail between Pembina and Walhalla. From this point, one trail forked off northeast to the Red River Settlement (Winnipeg). Another Indian trail branched off to the northwest. Chas Grant made many of his fur trading trips far into Canada from this point. A few years later the Grant-Bottineau partnership broke up. Bottineau kept the Kittson Trading post in Walhalla and Grant, the Point Michael post. About this time, the fur trade had already begun to diminish along with the buffalo, and the early settlers had begun to trickle in. Grant shifted with the changing times. He built more and larger buildings. His possessions and trading stock included many ponies, cattle, hogs and chickens. This was the beginning of the first livestock farm in the area. He also supplied living quarters for many of the early settlers in the Hyde Park-Neche area until they got their own homes erected. This was attested to by writings of Mrs. Dumas, Nielsens, Noices, Hughes, Mickels and others. The first religious services in the vicinity were conducted there by Missionary Rev. Goldie. It was also used as a place for entertainment. Howard Vaughn, early Customs inspector in Pembina, describes a journey made to Grant's House with his wife and Judson LaMoure Sr. and his wife. The event was the wedding ceremony of the marriage of Mr. Grant's daughter to Pete StAmour, an early Neche settler, and the dining and dancing lasted for two days. There are other interesting incidents of record concerning the Grant House. In a diary kept by Hatch's Battalion stationed in Pembina and dated November 20, 1863, it tells of 100 men arriving at Grant's Place at 2:00 A.M. in the morning, when temperatures were about 40 degrees below zero. The men had left Pembina at sundown to go to Walhalla to prevent a Sioux uprising. The cold was so intense and the snow so Scanned with a Zeutschel Zeta book scanner at 300 dpi. Edited with Multi-Page TIFF Editor.
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