History
There are conflicting sources as to Pierre Parrant's exact history before settling in the Minnesota Territory. However, most sources indicate that he was of French Canadian origin and born near Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, in or around 1777. For most of his adult life Parrant made his living as a fur trapper while working for a company called McKenzie and Chouteau. During his days as a fur trapper "Pig's Eye" Parrant, so called because he was blind in one eye, would start to gain a somewhat dubious reputation with law enforcement. This is most likely due to his dabbling as a part-time bootlegger. With the onset of age and the decline in the fur trade Pierre Parrant began seeking new endeavors to earn a living. His search for new opportunities would bring him to a fledgling new settlement near a military outpost called Fort Snelling in the Minnesota Territory.
Read more about this topic: Pierre Parrant
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It’s not the sentiments of men which make history but their actions.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“The greatest horrors in the history of mankind are not due to the ambition of the Napoleons or the vengeance of the Agamemnons, but to the doctrinaire philosophers. The theories of the sentimentalist Rousseau inspired the integrity of the passionless Robespierre. The cold-blooded calculations of Karl Marx led to the judicial and business-like operations of the Cheka.”
—Aleister Crowley (1875–1947)