The Pierre Menard Home is the finest example of French colonial architecture in the central Mississippi Valley. The elegant post-on-sill frame house was built during the period 1800 to 1802 for fur trader and entrepreneur Pierre Menard, who later rose to political prominence as Illinois' first lieutenant governor. Today the Menard Home, along with several nearby sites associated with Illinois' early history, are managed by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency. The Menard Home was sturdily built of hand-hewn timbers. The frame was secured with trunnels (wooden pegs) while nails were used to fasten shingles, apply woodwork and floors, and secure the exterior siding and trim. Constructed behind the home was a smokehouse (mistakenly believed for many years to be a slave quarters) that still stands. Menard entertained many notable politicians and businessmen at his grand home. He died at his home in 1844 at the age of 78, leaving a fortune in land and assets.
Pierre Menard
Pierre Menard was born October 7, 1766, at St. Antoine-sur-Richelieu, near Montreal, Canada, third in a family of ten children. His father was Jean Baptiste Menard, a French soldier in the regiment of Guyenne. After a short period of formal schooling in Montreal, Pierre, at about age fifteen, signed on with a trading expedition to the vast Illinois Country. By the early 1790s Menard had established a solid trading business of his own; his Kaskaskia business ledgers (which survive) begin in the spring of 1791. Granted a St. Clair County commercial license in 1793, Menard was, at the age of thirty, already a respected entrepreneur.
*****It is interesting indeed, that the God Mother of my Great Grandfather Pierre La Bruyere (Peter La Brier) was Alizard Menard. It would seem that in this small community everyone was family.
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