Louis Juchereau de St. Denis

Louis Juchereau De St. Denis

Louis Antoine Juchereau de St. Denis (September 17, 1676 – June 11, 1744) was a French-Canadian soldier and explorer most known for his exploration and development of the Louisiana and Texas regions. He was born in Beauport, New France (Quebec, Canada) to Nicolas Juchereau and Marie Thérèse Giffard, the eleventh of twelve children. He was the grandson of Robert Giffard de Moncel, a surgeon who became a nobleman of New France.

His parents apparently were able to send St. Denis to France to further his education. In late 1699, St. Denis sailed from La Rochelle with the second expedition of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville (a relative by marriage), arriving in Louisiana. St. Denis commanded a fort on the Mississippi River and another at Biloxi Bay. He also explored to the west of the bay and upstream, where he journeyed to the lower Red River. These expeditions brought St. Denis into contact with the Karankawa and Caddo tribes and taught him invaluable wilderness skills specific to the area.

Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, sent St. Denis and a company of men from Mobile in September 1713 to travel up the Red River and establish a French outpost. St. Denis arrived in Natchitoches later that year and built a fort. He traded with the Indians and freely sold them guns. The French learned many hunting and trapping skills from the Indians.

Soon after founding Natchitoches, St. Denis traveled to the lands of the Hasinai Confederacy and from there to Spanish outposts on the Rio Grande. At San Juan Bautista, Coahuila, Commander Diego Ramón placed St. Denis under house arrest and confiscated his goods while awaiting instructions from Mexico City on what to do with the foreigner charged with violating Spanish trade restrictions. In the meantime, St. Denis courted and won the promise of marriage from Ramón's beautiful step-granddaughter, Manuela Sanchez. St. Denis was ordered to Mexico City and defended himself well enough to be appointed the commissary officer of the Ramón expedition charged with founding Spanish missions in East Texas.

St. Denis returned to San Juan Bautista and married Manuela in early 1716. In the years 1716-1717 he traveled to East Texas to participate in the founding of six missions and a presidio. He returned to San Juan Bautista in April 1717, but with the death of Louis XIV and the conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession, French-Spanish cooperation had ended. St. Denis was then sent to Mexico City for a second time but escaped before being hauled to Spain as a prisoner. St. Denis made his way to Natchitoches by February 1719. Spanish officials permitted Manuela to join him in 1721 and the couple spent their remaining years there at the French outpost, Le Poste des Cadodaquious, on the Red River.