Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2022

Genevieve Perreault was born Sept. 3, 1850, at Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon, Berthier, Quebec, Canada, one of nine children of Pierre and Louisa Perreault.

Genevieve’s father was Pierre Peter Perreault, who was born May 13, 1818, in Lavaltrie, Quebec, Canada, the son of Pierre Perreault and Marguerite Latour-DuFour. Pierre was the third great grandson of Nicholas Perrot, famed fur trader, French explorer and interpreter of Natives in the Great Lakes Region. Nicholas had migrated from France to New France (Quebec) in the company of Jesuit priests at age 16 in 1660. Nicholas eventually returned to Quebec where many generations of the Perrot/Perreault family lived until his third great grandson Pierre migrated to Minnesota with his family.

Genevieve’s mother was Louisa Elise Marguerite Tellier-LaFortune, also known as Marie Elizabeth. She was born Sept. 9, 1815, in St. Sulpice Assumption, Quebec, Canada, daughter of Joseph Tellier-LaFortune and Marie-Louise Valliant. Her parents married on Nov. 25, 1839.

Pierre and Marie left for Minnesota with six of their children, including Genevieve, in 1857. These children, besides Genevieve, were Elisabeth, Marguerite, Melina, Joseph, and George. Three children had passed away prior – daughters Felonise, age 1, in April 1845; Eloise, age 1, in July 1849, and a son Pierre, Jr., who died at age 8 in April 1854.

In the 1857 census Pierre is listed as Peter Paro with his wife Lisette, township 11, range 26 in Nicollet County, north of St. Peter, Minnesota. He is listed as a stone mason. After the 1858 Treaty of Traverse des Sioux, they moved as settler-colonists to Native land. It is believed the three families, Pierre Perreault, Clement Cardinal, and Eusibi Picard (husband of Pierre’s daughter Elisabeth) bought the property as a whole then chose their plot of land. According to historical descriptions, Pierre chose to build his cabin half mile up the coolie from what would later become known as the Birch Coolie Battlefield. Nearby were their neighbors, the two Clausen families and the Witts. The cabin site was on the Birch Coolie Creek then known as the LaCroix which flows into the Minnesota River. The LaCroix was and still is lined on both sides by trees as it flows through the ravine (coolie). It was a beautiful peaceful area just below the vast open prairie.

The side Pierre had chosen to build, though flat and even, had a gentle slope down to the creek. An ideal place sheltered from the harsh winds of the open prairie just beyond the trees, yet close enough to the creek to access water and at the top away from any spring flooding. The area was cleared, and in 1859 the last child was born to Pierre and Marie-Elizabeth, Philomene, according to an account written by Colleen Harson-Harvey.

Their farms were just across the Minnesota River from the Lower Sioux Agency which was an administrative center established by the federal government to distribute annuities to pay the Dakota for the land they were forced to relinquish for the new white settlements. The Dakota no longer were allowed on their lands to hunt on. The Dakota were reliant on these funds to buy supplies to feed their families. Payments were late. The Natives grew hungry and the food languished in the warehouses of the traders.

On Aug. 16 a keg with $17 thousand worth of gold coins reached St. Paul. The next day the keg was sent on its way to Fort Ridgely for distribution to the Dakota natives. Fort Ridgley was 13 miles from the family farms. It arrived a few hours too late to prevent an unprecedented outbreak of violence.

Genevieve was about 12 years old when the Picard and Perreault homesteads at Birch Coulee were attacked during the U.S.- Dakota War of 1862. On the morning of Aug. 18, 1862, a bright sunny day after several days of rain, Pierre had just brought in a cartload of hay pulled by the oxen. According to daughter Genevieve, the Dakota advanced wearing war paint. They attacked Pierre. After a struggle he lay dead at the base of a haystack with an arrow through his chest and run through with his own pitchfork. They then set the haystack on fire and killed the oxen. Pierre is likely buried in an unmarked grave on the homestead by the soldiers who were sent two weeks later to bury the dead.

Besides Genevieve’s father, Pierre, her brother-in-law, Eusebi Picard, was killed.

Marie-Elizabeth and her younger children, Genevieve 12, Melina 10, Joseph 8, George 6 and Philomene, age 3, likely fled by foot. They probably followed LaCroix Creek through the safety of the trees to the Minnesota River and on to Fort Ridgley. The terrain along the Minnesota is very difficult to traverse with gullies, ridges, and fallen trees. With small children, travel would be slow and difficult at best. They would have likely spent the night with the massive oaks blocking out any moon light. It was terrifying in the least, with the night sounds around them. Many refugees arrived at the fort the next day.

The surviving members of the Perreault, Picard, and Cardinal families lived at the fort for two months. After their stay at the fort the families sailed to St. Paul Landing, then went on to stay the winter in Shakopee. After the spring thaw, the family, except for Genevieve, age 12, moved to Centerville where there was a large French-Canadian population. Being the oldest of Pierre and Marie-Elizabeth’s unmarried daughters, she may have stayed behind to work for a family. After two years being separated from her family she married Theolon Luce on April 19, 1865, in St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Shakopee. Geneivieve was 14 years old.

Theolon Luce was born Jan. 7, 1844, in Paris, Paris, Île-de-France, France. His parents were Constantine Luce (1812-1870) and Mary Constant (1815-1879). An only child, Theolon and his parents came to America in 1852 and were settler-colonists in Jackson Township near Sha K Pay, Minnesota Territory.

Genevieve and Theolon had 13 children they raised on the original farm outside Shakopee.

Theolon died May 1, 1922 from carcinoma of the liver. According to an article in the Shakopee-Argus Tribune on May 22, 1922, Theolon had been ill all winter but was able to be up and around the house and had been confined to his bed only one week before death claimed him.

Genevieve passed away Nov. 12, 1939. The headline of Genevieve’s obituary in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on Nov. 13, 1939, was “Genevieve Luce, 92, Indian Fight Survivor Dies.” Geneivieve was buried near her husband at Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul.