My third great grandfather’s name is
John Sayer.
I have talked about him before, he was a fur trader in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. He has an amazing history. He came from England. He married an Ojibwa woman and ran a post in Minnesota. He also wrote a journal. This journal has turned out to be quite famous. It is a written history of the day to day, life happenings at a fur trading post. Some people might mistakenly call a post “a fort”. But a fort was built to keep the Native Americans out. A post was all about interacting and doing business with them. The Ojibwa would trap the animals and bring the pelts to the post to trade them for goods. The journal is available for purchase. It is quite interesting to read. But not only that, John Sayer’s post is available to visit. It was and is located on the Snake River in Minnesota. And has been excavated and is a living history museum.
You can read about it here!
Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy
Hello joyfull_admin, I actually have to thank your 5th Great Grandfather, John Sayer, for leading me to my 5th Great Grandfather, Francois Bouche’ his interpreter from the Snake River Journal. My own ancestor, Peter Boucher, said he was born at Superior, WI in 1812 when he married his 2nd wife. By studying John Sayer and understanding he ran the North West Company Fort, at Fond du Lac, called Fort St. Louis, at that time what became Superior,WI. Helped me to understand how Peter would have been born there. Without the journal, it would be unlikely I would have found Peter’s father place in time. Peter Boucher has an elder sister, Frances Marie Boucher, and it was a mere 6 months after the conclusion of the journal that she is conceived. WE will never know if one of the women mentioned in the journal, that were collecting sap for repairing the canoe’s was Francois native wife, and my 5th great Native ancestor. I saw your FHF and I really liked it, and I mmic the sentiment. My own ancestors all decided to stay relatively close and I grew up in their shadow. I have been to Pine City many, many time throughout my lifetime and knew nothing of my family connection to the little fort. I just wanted to say hi and I enjoyed your posts and wanted to thank your ancestor for writting all this down for us to know, so many years later. I saw no way to send you an email directly, for more of the story, please feel free to respond to the post. I will mark your site in my favorites and check in from time to time. T.L.