Alexander the Great

Continuing on with our forefathers, today I want to focus on my great grandfather on my mother's side, Alexander Brossoit.  Alexander was born in Montreal, Canada.  He was one of seven children, five brothers and two sisters.  I have been able to follow the Brossoit line all the way back to Jean-Joseph Bossua/Bourguignon, born about 1700 in France.  Somewhere in the following generation, they immigrated to Canada and in 1761 Michel Brossoit/Brouchois was born in Quebec. But I digress, back to Alexander.

Alexander homesteaded in the Argyle area in 1879.  In a history book of Argyle it is written, "No one can be certain who the first white person was who came to the Argyle area. He may have been a hunter, trapper, trader, land speculator, surveyor, or someone passing through from one settled area to another. It is interesting to speculate that it might even have been the blue-eyed Indian known as "Falcon", who hunted and trapped in northwest Minnesota and Canada and took his pelts to Alexander Henry's trading post at Pembina. Falcon's real name was John Tanner. He was a white boy stolen as a child for a grieving Indian mother who had lost her son. Much of his adult life was spent in the Lake ot the Woods and Pembina area.
Whoever the first white man was, his name is lost to history. But it is generally accepted that Peter Jarvis (Gervais) was the first person to settle in the village of Argyle. His homestead claim to the SW1/4 of Section 10, Middle River Township, was filed in 1878. Like many other settlers, he did not stay long. Six years later, he had already gone west and had given his wife power of attorney to dispose of any holdings in his name in Marshall County.... the village was incorporated on December 12, 1883, as Argyle."
 Needless to say, Alexander was a pioneer of his day, homesteading in an area not yet settled.  Alexander and his bride, Sophie Trepanier had 9 children, seven who survived into adulthood, Wilfred, Virginia, Caroline, George, Orel, Armand and the youngest Omer, my grandfather.