back then The First Lady of Mackinac Island How one UP woman became the forerunner in fur trading Story by Larry Chabot
Sketches by Mike McKinney
M
ackinac Island – a magic isle in the Straits of Mackinac just off St. Ignace, famed for its fudge and banning of nonessential motor vehicles. And so rich in history, it seems that something memorable happened every few feet.
The island was a major center of the North American fur trade, where Native American canoes full of pelts pulled up to tempt buyers looking for deals. Amidst the piles of pelts and trading goods were rough and raucous men… and a single, solitary female who was the equal of any man there. She was the widow Madeline La Frambois, who ran furs in Michigan Territory (Michigan was not yet a state). Although her work took her up and down eastern Lake Michigan, her “office” and
32
Marquette Monthly
September 2021
home were on Mackinac Island. Known as “The First Lady of Mackinac,” she thrived in a traditionally male occupation, which required hard work and constant travel against fierce competitors. Because of her success in a man’s world, a Grand Rapids newspaper called her “Michigan’s most successful female pioneer.” Sadly, both her husband and father were murdered, leaving her a single mother coping with a fur trading business. And she pulled it off.
She had been born Marguerite-Magdelaine Marcot (but answered to Madeline) on Mackinac Island in 1780 to fur company agent Jean Baptiste Marcot and his wife Marie, daughter of a Native American chief. (Some claim she was born in Niles). While the family was living on the island and Madeline was only three, her father was killed in Wisconsin in 1783. At the tender age of 14, she married 29-year-old fur-trader Joseph La Framboise in a Native American
