Medard Benjamin "Madore" Beaubien

Beaubien, Madore Benjamin (1809-1883) first name variously spelled Medare, Medard, Medart; son of Jean Baptiste and his second Ottawa wife, Mahnobunoqua, and best known of his fathers 19 children; born on the Grand River [Michigan]; came to Chicago in 1811, but his family removed to Milwaukee shortly before the 1812 massacre, returning in 1818 for permanent residency; though from a Catholic family, he attended the Baptist Carey Mission [Niles, MI] in 1823 and 1824, and between 1825 and 1828 attended Hamilton College in New York. Madore was regarded as "the handsomest man in Chicago" and a great charmer; voted in the Aug. 2, 1830, election (also serving as clerk); was listed among "500 Chicagoans" on the census which Commissioner Thomas J.V. Owen took prior to the incorporation of Chicago as a town in early August, and on the 10th was elected to the first Chicago Town Board of Trustees; received $300 and $440 in payments for claims at the Chicago Treaty in September. On Dec. 14, 1834, he married Maria, daughter of his business partner, John K. Boyer, Reverend J. Porter officiating; in December 1835, he was a member of the fire engine company No.1 [see firefighting entry for petition to the village board of Dec. 16, 1835]. His wife abandoned him in 1838 with their three children, Emma Elizabeth [Sawyer], George (baptized by Father St. Cyr on March 6, 1836) and Susan, and would file for divorce in 1843; his business enterprise, a store he had built in 1831 at the SW corner of Dearborn and South Water streets [1839 City Directory: merchant, South Water Street] in shambles, he left Chicago for good in 1840, joining the Potawatomi at Council Bluffs, IA, and later removed with them to their reserve in Kansas. He was married to an Indian woman, Keez-ko-quah [meaning "day-woman"], and in 1854, married his cousin, Therese LaFramboise; altogether, Madore fathered 10 children; died on Dec. 26, 1883. [13, 42, 43, 226, 319, 429, 456b, 535] [12] cite: http://www.earlychicago.com/encyclopedia.php?letter=bhttp://www.ear...