Barbeau, Peter

Peter B. Barbeau was a prominent merchant and community leader in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, during the nineteenth century. He was born June 29, 1800, in LaPrairie, Quebec, and died in the Sault on October 17, 1882.

Barbeau reputedly arrived in the Sault in 1817. He was initially employed by the Hudson's Bay Company, but eventually entered the service of John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company. After a tenure of company service in Baraboo, Wisconsin, he re-settled in Sault Ste. Marie in 1834. In the same year he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen at Mackinac, and indentured as a clerk under Gabriel Franchere (factor of the American Fur Company).

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