User:Your friend, Clay/Jean LeRoque

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Jean LeRoque was an illustrious fur trader who was born in Quebec in 1766. When he was just nine years old, LeRoque played a key role in the Battle of Quebec, running resupplies of musketballs to revolutionary soldiers.^[1]

It's largely unknown where LeRoque spent his 20s, but family records show that in 1799 LeRoque bought the Hotel Le Champs in St. Louis. He sold it at a loss two years later, and moved upriver to St. Charles where he became a crucial go-between for the rough and tumble trappers and the well-healed merchants of St. Louis and Chicago.

He had no less than three wives, not in succession but at the same time. It's unclear whether LeRoque was a bigamyst or a polygamist, but one thing is for certain: he didn't play favorites and expressed love to each wife equally.^[2]

As he grew more prosperous, LeRoque bought and cleared enormous swaths of land. He never developed these areas, and never intended to, which created resentment in St. Charles. ^[3]

LeRoque's wives bore him eleven children.