Louis Dace Letellier was born in the Parish of Beaumont, Bellechasse County near Quebec, in 1827. In 1845 after some schooling, an apprenticeship to a cabinet maker which ended when a fire destroyed the shop, and a few months at a shipyard, he set out for the American territories. After working two years in Chicago, he went to St. Louis. From St. Louis in 1850, he hired on to the Pierre Chouteau Fur Company, to work a year at Fort Pierre as a carpenter where he made such things as houses, Mackinaw boats, skiffs, and flatboats. He stayed at Fort Pierre for two years, then moved to the same fur traders' Fort Union Trading Post. From here he went to Fort Benton in a barge loaded with merchandise and pulled up the river by twenty-five men in harnesses, to trade with the Black Feet. He goes on to stay at every fort that the company owned, having many adventures with the Indians and the white traders. In one, two men were drowned crossing the Missouri and it was mistakenly reported to Letellier's parents that he was one of the drowned men. So when he gets tired of the country and goes back to Quebec for a visit in 1854, his parents are shocked but overjoyed to see him. After staying here three weeks, he was off again to the United States where, in St. Louis, he outfitted himself and a partner to go on a hunting expedition on their own. In 1854 and 1855 he bought land in what is now Sioux City. In January 1857 he returned to Canada for another visit, from which he returned with a bride. From Sioux City he goes on trading expeditions, having many more adventures. After the Spirit Lake incident he enlisted for ten months in a company to protect the frontier. In later years he owned a hotel in Sioux City, known for its hospitality to French Canadians. There is a clipping included here, a piece which quotes Louis La Plant, another early trader, who brings up the fact that Leterrlier had an Indian wife and daughter and that he had abducted this child in the dead of night, something Letellier had not mentioned in these memoirs. In later interviews, Letellier admits that this is true. Also included are letters relating to a misunderstanding around the publication of this manuscripts, involving C.R. Marks, Doane Robinson, and F.H. Garver. Acquired with Enrich Iowa funds. 14 folders